Path of Dragons

Book 7: Chapter 64: The Head of the Snake

Book 7: Chapter 64: The Head of the Snake

A carpet of charred bodies stretched out before Elijah’s eyes, extending more than fifty yards from his position. He didn’t know how many zombies and other undead he’d killed with Lightning Domain, but he suspected the number was close to five digits. Perhaps it had even exceeded that, given how eager the monsters had been to pile onto him. That he could inflict so much damage with a single spell was both humbling and awe-inspiring. He wasn’t even a caster, and he could do that. What, then, could someone dedicated to spell-casting accomplish?

Not that he had any time to consider it. As many of the undead as he’d managed to slay, there were still tens of thousands left. And he had their undivided attention, as evidenced by their steady sprint in his direction.

Elijah reapplied Soothe to take care of any lingering damage from the zombies’ assault, then shifted into Shape of the Master. Immediately upon finishing the transformation, the zombies – and other undead – seemed to slow. Meanwhile, Elijah darted among them, using his improved reflexes and enhanced attributes to avoid their grasping hands.

They closed in on him, and he knew that if he stopped moving – even for a moment – they would pile onto him and rip him to pieces. The worst were the remaining demons. He’d gotten the vast majority of them in his previous attack, but there were still a couple left. Avoiding them was a pain.

However, Elijah had a significant advantage in Heart of Fire. The zombies were comparatively slow and clumsy, which allowed him to easily dodge their attempted attacks. That, in turn, quickly built charges of Heart of Fire, and it wasn’t long before it was burning with significant potency.

With that, Elijah found an empty stretch of trampled snow, turned, and faced his pursuers. As he did, he kept his eye on the slower-moving hulks, which lagged more than a little behind the swifter zombies. Not by a lot, but over time, Elijah had altered his path to enhance his lead.

The result was that they had slowly clumped into a group, completely unaware that they were playing into his strategy.

At the same time, the leader had finally emerged from his tent, flanked by a host of succubi. He’d donned thick, black armor, and, in addition to his wicked axe, he wielded an enormous slab of metal in the rough shape of a tower shield. It had clearly been crafted by a less-than-talented Blacksmith. The succubi, by contrast, looked fast and sleek, each one gripping a blade in each hand. Elijah couldn’t help but notice that they were naked and quite well-formed, though despite their nudity, the most prevalent thought in his mind was that they must have been cold.

Whatever the case, his path had taken him nearly a mile away, which meant that it would be a little while before he had to worry about them.

Instead, he focused the bulk of his attention on the pursuing zombies. He dodged a few more attacks, then let loose with Incinerate. This time, he cast as wide a flame as possible, and the potent attack washed over hundreds of zombies all at once. That diluted its power, but due to the zombies’ relative lack of strength, they had no defense against it. Hundreds were burned to a crisp, and vaguely, Elijah felt himself tick over to level one-forty.

He couldn’t give it the attention it required, though, so he ignored the notification and raced through the smoking aftermath of his ability. He’d finally made a noticeable dent in the numbers of the undead, but he knew it would take days of continuous effort to kill them all.

Still, he endeavored to repeat his feat, using the same tactic until he unleashed Incinerate once again. However, he couldn’t ignore a simple issue – the ability didn’t have a cooldown, but like many of his other spells, its cost increased exponentially when used in quick succession. A quick calculation of his remaining ethera told him that he could only use it one more time before he’d start to dip into his reserves, which he liked to leave untouched just in case he needed a potent burst of healing.

So, he abandoned the idea that he could just remain on the same track and slowly reduce the zombie army to ashes.

But that was fine. That had never been his primary plan.

A quick glance at the pursuing hulks told Elijah that it was time to finally move on to the last phase. So, he dashed toward the enormous, waddling monsters, slowing just out of range of their hooks. There were at least two dozen of the huge and disgusting monsters in the group, and then four or five of them that weren’t quite fast enough to keep up. Those stragglers stretched out for a hundred yards, though they were just as single-minded in following Elijah’s path.

Not ideal, but workable.

Elijah turned his attention to the rear, and through Brand of the Stalker, he saw that the leader had finally begun his approach. Flanked by his succubi, he’d used some sort of ability to take control of the nearby zombies. They moved stiffly under his direction, but they were obviously more disciplined.

Also not a perfect situation, but Elijah figured he could work with it.

So, he slowly led the hulks forward, shifting into his human form and casting Storm’s Fury. The spell was far more potent than it had been before his ascension and core evolution, but it was still one of his lowest-level spells. As such, it barely harmed the hulks. However, it was flashy and probably painful – if the things could even feel – which was the entire point. All Elijah wanted was to keep their attention, and in that endeavor, Storm’s Fury was more than up to the task.

Thankfully, it didn’t last long, even if it felt like an eternity of agony.

In any case, he was thrown across the battlefield, and when he hit the ground, his momentum didn’t stop until he rammed head-first into the wall. For a few moments, he simply lay there as his bones painfully shifted back into place and his head cleared from the obvious concussion he’d just experienced.

By the time Unchecked Growth extinguished itself, Elijah was back to normal. However, phantom pains still echoed throughout his body. After a few more moments, he picked himself up with a groan, then surveyed the scene of battle.

Thousands of zombies had been completely obliterated. Tens of thousands, perhaps. It was difficult to tell, because the blast had destroyed them entirely. There were pieces here and there, but trying to track what went where was an impossible task. The only reason Elijah could make any estimate at all was because of the noticeably missing chunk of the zombie army. Their numbers had been halved.

The site of the explosion had been reduced to a smoking crater coated in acidic, green goo. The hulks were all gone. So were the demons. The few giant skeletons that had been in range were dead as well, though they had remained mostly intact. That was a testament to just how durable they were.

However, one thing was certain – Elijah’s plan had been a success, which, if he was honest, kind of surprised him. He’d made a lot of assumptions and taken a lot of chances. That everything had worked out was a testament to good fortune. With the echoes of immense pain coursing through him, he didn’t feel lucky, though.

He stepped forward, his gait little more than a stumble. Perhaps he hadn’t recovered as well as he thought. So, he shifted back into his human form, then cast Soothe and Nature’s Bloom. That helped, though Elijah wasn’t certain if that was due to the spells actually healing damage that Unchecked Growth had missed, or if it was just in his mind. Regardless, he relaxed a little with those two heals coursing through him.

Surprisingly, when he reached the crater, he saw a single body at the center. There were bits and pieces of others. Elijah thought he saw the torso of a succubus that remained intact. A couple of arms and legs. But otherwise, it was empty, save for the demonic leader.

Most of his equipment had melted onto his body, but his shield seemed entirely unfazed by the enormous impact. The same could not be said for the demon himself. The caustic substance had eaten through most of his body, exposing bones and rendering him unrecognizable. The only reason Elijah knew his identity was because he felt his life force. It was weak, but Elijah could feel that it was already beginning to recover.

What attributes did this demon possess that he’d survived that blast? Without Unchecked Growth, Elijah would not have. Even Shape of Thorn, which was far and away his most durable form, wasn’t up to the task of surviving that much damage.

With a sigh, Elijah descended the slope of the crater, already casting Swarm, then Nature’s Rebuke. To his surprise, the latter only did its normal damage, meaning that the demon was a perfectly natural creature.

Once Swarm had manifested its icy insects, Elijah shifted into Shape of Venom. The demon was alive but insensate, so there were no barriers to Elijah adopting stealth via Guise of the Unseen. Once he was undetectable, he used Envenom and Predator Strike before sinking his fangs into the demon.

He didn’t even flinch.

But Elijah could feel the potent venom coursing through the leader’s broken body. There was some resistance, but Envenom – especially empowered by Predator Strike – was his most potent available attack. Incinerate was better, so long as he had a chance to build up charges of Heart of Fire, but with no enemies nearby, it was unusable. In any case, Envenom was up to the task, especially when Elijah bit the demon a few more times.

The combination of the damage the demon had already taken, plus the afflictions of Swarm and Envenom, overwhelmed his Constitution and slowly finished him off.

Once the creature was dead, Elijah once again used Guise of the Unseen, then climbed out of the crater. The zombies weren’t all dead, but they no longer possessed the same power that had once coursed through them. Clearly, killing the leader – as well as the other demons – had ceased their empowerment.

Still, at the moment, he wasn’t in any mood to slaughter the rest of them. So, he slowly made his way back to the group so he could inform them of his success.

He also had reached a spell level, and he was eager to get somewhere safe so he could explore it properly.