Path of Dragons 9 - Chapter 29 - Remorseless

Grief and fury twisted in Elijah’s gut as he felt Nerthus reappear a little less than a mile away.  The spryggent was grievously injured, leaking sap-like blood everywhere.  He staggered, collapsing to the ground.  Elsewhere, Elijah felt the destruction the invaders had left in their wake. 

Slain animals.  Destroyed plants.  One of the deer was dead as well. 

They all screamed in silent pain and fury in a voice only Elijah could hear.  Tears dripped down his cheeks even as every muscle in his body quivered with rage.  Behind him, Biggle cowered inside the small hut he’d built next to the garden.  It was unlucky that he’d been there when the invaders had come.

A mile or so away, two ships stood with their keels embedded in the beach.  Dozens of crabs were dead, and every now and then, balls of ethera slammed into the beach, pockmarking the once-pristine expanse with deep craters. 

Elijah stared at the men responsible.

There were more than two hundred of them, all lower level than him but still strong enough that they had become a formidable force.  If he’d encountered them before his time in the Primal Realm, he might have blanched at the prospect of a fight.  But now, he saw them as the mere nuisances they were. 

However, he could scarcely feel them.  Someone in there had used some sort of skill meant to obscure their presence.  It wasn’t enough to overcome his locus, but it had made it difficult to pinpoint their location.  Further delaying him was the need to ensure the children’s safety.  Only a few had been in the grove, but Elijah had taken precious minutes to take them to the dock and send them on their way across the strait.  Now that he’d found the invaders, his entire mind screamed at him to finally make them pay for their transgression.  He knew exactly what to do.  He’d known from the second he felt that first crab explode.

Suddenly, something pricked his back.

Then another.

And another after that.

Five attacks, all in quick succession.  Elijah didn’t bother responding physically to the attacks.  Their blades couldn’t pierce his skin more than an inch.  Instead, he activated Lightning Domain.  Thick ropes of electricity erupted from his body, then swirled around and slammed into his unseen attackers.

He felt a tiny trickle of experience as they died.

He stepped forward, rage gripping his heart and mind.  Some people might have yelled or screamed.  They may have roared in fury.  Elijah was silent as he threw himself at his enemies. 

They never had a chance to react – at least not before eight heads rolled free.  But that was just the beginning.  They fought back.  Of course they did.  But they were gnats before a god, and Elijah was far too furious to hold back.  He didn’t use any of his shapes.  He didn’t need to. 

Less than a minute later, more than a hundred were dead.  Some – like the first ten – had been decapitated, but others had been bisected entirely.  Screams filled the air, echoing through the surrounding forest.  Elijah ignored their cries for mercy as half of them abandoned the fight altogether, fleeing into the surrounding wilderness.  They would find no solace there.  Meanwhile, the others attempted to mount a defense. 

One man – tall and thin, with an immaculately trimmed beard – glowed with ethera as he used one ability after another.  Elijah noticed the invaders’ increased power, but he knew it wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t nearly enough.

He ripped through them, sundering their defenses and slicing through their bodies without a moment’s hesitation.  It took less than a minute. 

But then, he turned his attention to the runners.

The first few hadn’t gotten far, and Elijah closed on them in the space of moments. 

“No….no, no, no…”

His scythe fell, silencing the loathsome creature.  He gave the next no more mercy, and the following few fell even more easily, though with no more dignity.  Elsewhere, he felt the stag destroy another few runners while the forest came alive to swallow many others. 

In that respect, Elijah was no different than the rest of his island’s fauna or flora.  He stalked through the forest, slaughtering men left and right until there was only one left. 

He was clearly the leader.

Elijah could feel the ethera wafting off of him as the man scrambled away, obviously trying to reach the beach and board his ship.  His frantic glances back the way he’d come were evidence of his terror.  He obviously knew that his people were dying.  He didn’t stay to help them.  He was wholly self-interested. 

Probably smart.

They were all dead the moment they’d set foot on his island, whether they knew it or not. 

Elijah caught up to the captain just as he reached the beach.  He swept in, swinging his scythe.  Not to kill.  Instead, he removed the man’s legs at the knee.  The Verdant Fang sliced through the limbs with ease, and the man tumbled forward with an agonized scream. 

“What…what are…w-what…”

Elijah ignored him, and his scythe descended once again.  This time, he took the man’s right arm at the shoulder.  There was another cry of pain that Elijah didn’t let himself hear.  A second later, he hacked through the man’s other shoulder. 

He cast Nature’s Bloom, stopping the bleeding.

He didn’t care about the man’s life, but he couldn’t stomach losing him before he had the chance to answer some questions.  Elijah reached down and grabbed the man’s bloody shirt and lifted what was left of his body high enough so that they could look one another in the face.

“Who are you, and who sent you to my island?”

“My…m-my name…oh, God…”

He was in shock.  Elijah recognized the signs.  But he didn’t have time to let him get over it.  So, he growled, “Tell me who sent you, and I will let you live.  I will regrow your limbs and send you on your way.”

“You…you can do that?”

“Do you doubt my power?”

Clearly, he did not.  And then, in a panicked voice, he stammered out an explanation.  Elijah catalogued the information, filing away names like Bloodrock Bay and Breeze.  But before he could get any other information, he felt something coming for him.  He looked up just in time to see a huge ball of roiling ethera rushing toward him.  He only had time to raise the limbless captive as a makeshift shield before the ball of energy slammed into him, pummeling him into the ground.

For a moment, Elijah only knew pain.

But that was nothing new for him.  He cast Wild Resurgence, Blessing of the Grove, and Nature’s Bloom before shifting into the Shape of Thorn.  Before his transformation could complete, another ethereal volley crashed into him, preventing him from regaining his footing.  He didn’t know how many there were.  A dozen at the very least.  Maybe more, and they didn’t stop, either.  He didn’t have time to recover before another volley hit him.  Then another.

With each instance, his Mantle of the Chimera – which he’d donned as soon as he’d arrived back at the grove – increased his Regeneration.  At the same time, it buffered him against the spell damage.  Meanwhile, even his most durable form failed in the task of enduring the barrage.

Fortunately, he had Unchecked Growth.

He activated it, increasing his regeneration by a thousand percent and rebuilding his ravaged body with every passing second.  When the barrage ended, he climbed from the crater, his body smoking but otherwise seemingly unharmed. 

He sprinted into the surf, already casting Shape of the Sea. 

In only a second, he’d become a giant leviathan, and he used his enormous flippers to propel him forward like a battering ram.  Unchecked Growth remained in effect, but he added another instance of Wild Resurgence as he made a beeline toward the other ship almost more than two miles away. 

The ship in question looked like someone had taken stealth technology and applied it to a futuristic naval vessel.  At around a hundred yards long, it was an imposing sight, bristling with cannons that blazed with stored ethera.  In short, it was clearly a modern military vessel, and it stood in stark contrast to the wooden ships beached on the shores of his island.

But he suspected it wouldn’t hold up very well to fifty feet of angry turtle-dragon. 

As he closed, bolts of ethera slammed into his shell, but to little effect.  Elijah heard screams and commands echoing across the ship, even from so far away.  He knew it would do no good. 

He didn’t have enough room to reach full speed, but when he hit the ship, he was going more than fast enough to cause catastrophic damage.  The sound of wrenching metal filled the air as Elijah briefly blacked out.  But because of the effects of Wild Resurgence and Unchecked Growth, he quickly recovered to complete health. 

The ship was not so lucky.

The impact created a massive dent, at the nadir of which the aluminum hull had split.  Water poured in as the screams of the crew echoed through the ship’s innards.  Elijah didn’t listen.  Instead, he shifted back into his human form and leaped from the water.  A second later, he’d climbed atop the deck, where he saw dozens of men and a few women waiting for him.

They all carried familiar weapons.

A man with military bearing shouted, “Stop right there, or –”

Elijah ignored him.  Instead, he raced forward, already using Shape of the Master.  The men and women fired their rifles, but Elijah was far too quick to hit.  Moreover, every miss fed his Heart of Fire. 

Not that he needed it.

The second he was among them, the sailors stood no chance.  Idly, he realized that they were wearing what looked like U.S. Navy uniforms, though at the moment, Elijah couldn’t be bothered to care.  He cut through them with ease. 

Screams and pleas for mercy filled the air, punctuated by the subtle thump of discharging ethera rifles.  But then, after less than a minute, there was only silence. 

And one man.

Elijah stepped forward, his chest heaving.  Not from exertion, but rather from a degree of fury that no amount of killing could douse. 

“Tell me everything,” Elijah growled.

“No.”

“Suit yourself.”

Elijah leaped, seeing the man’s attack before it even came.  The blade of a sword whipped through the air, and Elijah finally used Child of Fire.  Heart of Fire wasn’t full, but the surge of attributes was more than enough.  In the space of a single second, he swung nine times.

The captain fell apart, the pieces of his body slapping wetly against the deck.  But Elijah wasn’t finished.

Far from it. 

With immense attributes supporting the fury raging through him, he attacked the ship itself.  The first blow cut through the deck, ripping a gaping whole.  But he didn’t stop there.  He continued to attack it until he fell to the next level.  He kept going, killing anyone who crossed him until he cut the ship completely in half.

It fell apart, the two pieces sinking. 

But Elijah’s anger remained.

They had come to his island.  They had violated his home.  They had killed.  They had injured his friend…

Nerthus.

As soon as his friend’s name crossed his mind, he threw his attention back to his domain.  Nerthus remained where he’d fallen, sap leaking all over the forest floor.  Elijah snapped out of his rage-filled state and leaped free of the sinking ship.  He used Shape of the Sky, transforming and beating his wings as he returned to his island.

Suddenly, Nerthus’ situation felt a lot more urgent.  How he’d managed to forget him was no mystery, but he still felt shame at abandoning his friend.

He landed with a crash, tearing through the forest’s canopy and hitting the ground right next to Nerthus.  He had no clue about spryggent anatomy, but he didn’t really need much knowledge.  Even as he knelt in the sap-soaked turf, he let his instincts guide him as he cast his heals, one after another.  That seemed to help, though Nerthus was far higher level than most.  He had a lot of vitality, which meant that Elijah’s spells were too weak to heal the spryggent quickly.

Still, every bit helped.

Over and over, he healed his friend, images of all the friends he’d lost along the way filling his mind. 

But an entire facet continued to simmer with his rage.  Whether Nerthus lived or died, someone would pay for sending a bunch of pirates to invade his island.