Path of Dragons

Book 5: Chapter 25: The Protector

A wraith bounced off Sadie’s ethereal barrier, its forward momentum sending it skipping off the surface. It landed just past her, and though the gangly creature was dazed, Elijah and his other companions recognized the danger it still represented. So, they all focused their fire – Dat with his crossbow, Kurik leaping onto the thing with his hatchets, and Elijah with a hastily cast Storm’s Fury.

Miraculously, the durable monster survived that first volley of attacks, but a second later, Kurik ended the wraith’s life by hacking through its spindly neck. No one could afford to rest, though. Not with hundreds more only a few feet away, held back by the earthworks they’d built as well as Sadie’s efforts.

The monsters could have easily leaped over the mounds of dirt. Yet, they were single-minded creatures who only had eyes for the four companions. And they seemingly were incapable of considering any other route but the straightest line. That meant rushing at Sadie in a frontal assault.

It was a fortunate weakness, though one of which they were all aware. That was the key to their strategy, after all. For all that they were incredibly dangerous, the wraiths lacked even the most basic animalistic cunning. They only knew how to attack, and usually in the most obvious way. Elijah’s plan aimed to take advantage of that.

After leading them to the cenote, where the bulk of the wraiths were still clashing with the aviaks, he’d led the remainder into a series of traps. Hundreds had already died, but there were dozens who’d made it through – likely through sheer luck – which put Elijah and the others in quite a precarious position. The only solution was to fight it out, and though they’d done everything they could to tip the odds in their favor, the reality was that any fight, no matter how well-prepared the battlefield, could go wrong at a moment’s notice.

If Sadie made a mistake, they would likely fall. If Elijah failed to heal, they would die. If Dat and Kurik employed the wrong skills at the wrong time, the group would be overwhelmed.

And if there was one thing Elijah knew, it was that no one was perfect. Everyone made mistakes – a truism that was even more appropriate in battle. The only solution was to work together. When one member faltered, everyone else needed to pick up the slack. That was how being part of a team worked.

Which was why Elijah had always preferred being alone. Even going back to when he was choosing athletic activities as a child, he had picked boxing, largely because it didn’t force him to rely on other people. Perhaps there was a reason he’d fared so well after being stranded alone on the island. He’d gone a bit weird, but most people would have descended into madness. But Elijah, as a habitual loner in the first place, took to it quite well.

Regardless, the fact remained that he was not well-suited to fighting alongside others. With every passing moment, he wanted to shift into one of his forms and take the battle to the wraiths. His every instinct screamed at him to abandon their makeshift fortification and fight the way he’d always fought. He could use hit-and-run tactics, whittling them down until there was nothing left.

If he’d been alone, that was precisely what he would have done. And if things got a little too hairy? He’d just fly away. Sure, he’d take some damage from the eagles – and maybe from the wind spirits – but that wouldn’t last long. And besides, that was what healing was for, wasn’t it?

But he’d committed to working with the others, and as much as he would’ve preferred to fight alone, he wouldn’t abandon them. So, with that in mind, Elijah cast Soothe on Sadie, then focused on running interference on the other monsters. To that end, he conjured a Swarm of biting insects that descended upon the horde of wraiths, where they delivered their dangerous afflictions. Ever since upgrading his Core – and finishing the Staff of the First Dragon – the spell had truly taken a step forward in terms of potency. It wasn’t enough to down the wraiths on its own, but it definitely slowed them down.

He kept Calamity in his back pocket, though. The spell still took a load of ethera, and he wanted to keep it in reserve until it could make the most difference.

Besides, it didn’t seem necessary.

With Sadie blocking the narrow gap between the two earthen bulwarks, the situation was well in hand. Every now and again, one would slip past her, but Elijah and the two others reacted to any such incursion with no small degree of alacrity. Dat acquitted himself well, cycling between using his crossbow and his long daggers, while Kurik performed admirably, considering that his class was mostly meant to focus on trapping his foes. Still, he managed to employ his skills to good effect, even throwing a couple of grenades he’d built himself. They weren’t really intended to do damage, but rather, they exploded into a mass of stick webbing that held the wraiths in place. The monsters could tear free, given enough time, but for the situation, the grenades were a perfect addition to the dwarf’s arsenal.

For his part, Elijah focused on healing. Sadie was well-armored, and she was extremely skilled with her sword. However, the wraiths were so numerous that some injuries were inevitable. That’s where Elijah stepped in, making liberal use of Soothe and Healing Rain. Only when Sadie took grievous wounds did he use the much more powerful – and costly – Nature’s Bloom.

It was not a sprint, after all. The battle was a marathon, and he knew that even with most facets of his Mind focusing on regenerating his ethera as quickly as possible, his Core would quickly run dry if he wasn’t careful.

So, he measured his casts, only using the bare minimum to keep everyone upright. Meanwhile, he employed Storm’s Fury sparingly, and only when the others needed an extra second or two to respond. The same was true of Snaring Roots, which took more ethera, but delayed the wraiths for far longer.

Playing at being a pure caster was a balancing act, Elijah realized. He could flood the area with spells, draining his ethera in a couple of heartbeats. And in that time, he would do immense damage. Yet, once he was spent, everything would grind to a halt. So, knowing that the battle would be ongoing for quite some time, he elected a conservative approach.

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But all the while, he wished he could simply shift into his guardian form and lay waste to the detestable monsters. That would have been a mistake, though. Not only would it have put his allies in danger – after all, they were dependent on his healing, as well as the control he offered via Storm’s Fury and Snaring Roots – but it would have gotten him killed as well.

Because as much as he wanted to believe he could take them, he’d received enough reminders of his own fallibility that he knew how acting on his overconfidence would end up.

So, he healed while the others fought the wraiths, and he was a little surprised to see how well the strategy worked. Maybe there was a reason most people fought in groups.

Sadie laid about her with her greatsword, and periodically, pillars of light would erupt amidst the wraiths a dozen feet away, searing the monsters. Meanwhile, Elijah got a good look at a few of Dat’s abilities as well. His projectiles carried with them a distinct air of ethera, glowing slightly red in the process, but the most overt skill he used was an ability that multiplied each bolt he fired. When they hit, they did so with a localized explosion of ethera that dug huge craters in the monsters’ torsos.

Not to be outdone, Kurik’s attacks were equally devastating. When he used his bow, his arrows also exploded upon impact, but they didn’t tear holes in the creatures. Instead, they cast out a fine mist that made the monsters stumble, clearly weakening them. And when he hacked into the wraiths with his hatchets, the attacks cut far deeper than they should have.

Once everyone found a rhythm, the fight went like clockwork, and as it progressed, Elijah found that his efforts were less and less necessary. Still, he forced himself not to overreach by using too many offensive spells. Otherwise, he might not have enough ethera to respond to a shift in the battle.

But after an hour, the tide of wraiths showed no sign of stopping. They’d already killed far more than the hundred or so Elijah had anticipated. He’d underestimated the number of enemies, but because of his constant diligence with his ethera, he was still in good shape.

That was not the case with the others. Sadie seemed fine, but Elijah had difficulty reading her. For all he knew, she was on the verge of collapsing from ethera deprivation. But what he did know was that Kurik and Dat had both stopped using their abilities so much, instead relying on their naked weapons to do damage. It was markedly less effective, and because of that, the monsters started pushing them back – only a few inches at first, but soon enough, they’d been shoved backward more than a foot.

That was when Elijah stepped up. He wasn’t fresh, but compared to the others, he might as well have been. And even as Dat and Kurik struggled to empower even a single ability, Elijah let loose with Calamity. It drained a distressing amount of his ethera, but the conjured storm – or the confusion that came with the cutting winds and shaking earth – was enough to allow Sadie to push against the swell of monsters and recover her former position.

Elijah yelled, “Dat. Kurik. Rest and recover. Sadie and I will hold the line!”

The two scouts looked as if they wanted to argue, but with their shoulders lumped in exhaustion, they had little choice in the matter.

Elijah couldn’t afford to shift into one of his other forms, but that didn’t mean he was completely without fangs. He stepped forward, aimed his staff at the nearest monster, and let loose with Storm’s Fury. Lightning erupted from the Staff of the First Dragon, hitting one of the wraiths in the chest. The creatures were so closely packed together that the electrical current leaped from one to the next, losing only a little of its punch along the way. The spell did only marginal damage, but that was never the goal. Instead, he used it like a taser, stunning the creatures so that Sadie could bring her white-glowing sword to bear.

She sliced through the seizing monsters with a massive, horizontal strike that left the smell of cooked flesh in its wake. Normally, she wouldn’t have employed such a wide swing, largely because it would have left her open for reprisal. However, with the monsters having been stunned by Elijah’s Storm’s Fury, she needn’t fear dropping her guard.

Elijah aimed another instance of the spell, and when it hit, it did so with similar results. This one was less effective, which told Elijah something he’d suspected from the very beginning. The wraiths were unique in that they absorbed ethera, but he’d witnessed something else during his encounters with the creatures. They acclimated to any spells thrown their way, and eventually, with enough exposure, they would surely become immune. So far, it hadn’t been a problem, largely because no individual monster lasted long enough for it to matter. Yet, with Storm’s Fury lacking in the lethality department, the monsters were well equipped to resist its effects.

Which meant that he couldn’t just keep shocking them – not unless he was certain it would open them up for one of Sadie’s attacks. So, frustrated, he stepped forward, ready to use his attributes and his staff to fill in for the sidelined damage dealers.

It was an inelegant solution to the problem at hand, but as he brained one of the monsters that slipped past Sadie’s guard, he couldn’t argue with its effectiveness. Over the next half hour, he swung his staff like a club, only occasionally using spells like Storm’s Fury to supplement his damage. Meanwhile, he continued to heal – both Sadie and himself – as they incurred one injury after another.

But they held the line until, at last, Dat and Kurik had recovered enough to retake their own positions. That let Elijah take a step back and focus on healing. Pointedly, Sadie never stopped hacking and slashing, as she made copious use of her own abilities. They were meant mostly to protect her and others, and in that endeavor, they excelled. For offense, she relied on her glowing sword.

Elijah wasn’t certain if the illumination was the result of a spell or if the weapon itself was responsible, but whichever was the case, he couldn’t argue with its effectiveness.

So it went, and soon enough, minutes became hours, but still the monsters kept coming.

Until, at last, after nearly five hours of fighting, the last wraith fell.

The moment the threat had ended, Sadie looked around, panting and wild eyed. And once she was satisfied there were no more enemies, she collapsed into a heap.

Elijah rushed forward, casting Nature’s Bloom.

“She’s fine, bro” a panting Dat said. “She just pushed herself too far. Again. She’ll be okay in a few hours.”

No sooner had those words left the Witch Hunter’s mouth than the sound of a bird call swept across their defensive position. Then another came in answer, though the second was slightly different from the first.

“What was that, bro?” asked Dat, looking around, his eyes wide.

“I don’t know,” Kurik answered.

Before Elijah could say something similar, he felt something enter into range of One with Nature. It was only a few dozen feet away and coming fast. Then, a second something, even larger and more menacing, came from above. Elijah couldn’t react before an eagle – at least five times the size of any of the other monsters – burst through the trees, latched onto Sadie’s prone form, and launched itself back into the sky.

Elijah only took a moment to watch its path before he whipped around and said, “Hold the line. Something big is coming from that direction.”

After gesturing in the direction of the cenote, he initiated a transformation into Shape of the Sky, and as soon as his wings developed, he threw himself after Sadie.