Path of Dragons

Book 5: Chapter 34: The Consequences of Hubris

For Elijah, being underground was always a unique experience. He’d visited a few caves before the World Tree had connected with Earth, and he’d found that each time had filled him with a formless sense of unease. Mostly, his discomfort came from generalized claustrophobia, but it went a little deeper than that. More than once, Elijah had heard about people – usually divers – getting lost in caves and dying. Spelunking was a dangerous pastime, and one that Elijah had tried but never really latched onto.

Certainly, he’d given it a try with his cultivation cave back home, but that was because Roots of the World Tree gave him a way out. If he hadn’t had that teleportation spell at his disposal, he would have been far more cautious, and to the point where he likely wouldn’t have tried it at all.

There was more to it than simple fear of enclosed spaces, though. It was the isolation of it all. The echoing sounds. The alien nature of the wildlife that called any cave home. That all coalesced into a general sense of foreboding that, with every step that separated him from the others, sent a new tremor of unease racing down his spine.

Yet, he continued on, at least in part to prove to himself that he wasn’t afraid. He also wanted to show the others that he was more than capable of doing things on his own. He was no Healer that needed to be protected. He was the highest-level person on Earth, and he desperately wanted to remind himself that he was more than just his team.

That desire hadn’t come out of nowhere, either. He’d felt it building – alongside his frustration – as he played Healer. For a man who was accustomed to doing things on his own, being tied to a group and forced to pretend he was less capable than he was, pushed him into recklessness.

So, even though it probably made more tactical sense for him to stay behind and let the dedicated scouts – or rather, the less integral members of the party – do their job, he’d pushed to do it himself. Which was how Elijah had found himself trekking through an enormous cavern with no backup. He’d already gone a couple of miles, but he had no intention of returning until he had something vital to report, some direction to provide.

The caves beneath the tundra were even more frigid than the surface, but where it had been tantamount to a desert, the system of tunnels and caverns held a vibrant, if alien ecosystem that any biologist would find intriguing. Even Elijah, whose scientific curiosity was usually overcome by the apathy toward the minutiae associated with the profession, was incredibly interested.

With that at the forefront of his mind, he leaned close to a delicate, blue-petaled flower that had a series of ice crystals at its center. It smelled like wintergreen, though with a tingling bite to the odor that was far stronger than the artificial scents with which Elijah was accustomed. There were hundreds of the flowers dotting the cavern he’d only recently entered, and the trees – as well as giant mushrooms – were made primarily of ice. One with Nature told Elijah that they weren’t actually trees, as he knew them. Rather, they were a series of vines that had formed a symbiotic relationship with what he could only call living ice. Like that, they grew together to resemble the trees on the surface.

Elijah had no idea how it all worked. There was no chance of photosynthesis, so he knew it was a wholly unique situation that would probably take years to fully understand. But one thing that was immediately apparent was that the forest of ice was absolutely breathtaking, and in a way few sights ever could be.

The local beasts were odd, too. Most seemed to have formed similar relationships with the living ice, giving the creatures a crystalline armor that gave off an aura of absolute cold. If he hadn’t been wearing his Cloak of the Iron Bear, Elijah felt certain that he would have been driven to hypothermia, regardless of his high Constitution. So, perhaps it was best that the others hadn’t accompanied him on the scouting expedition.

Gradually, he traversed the cavern, stopping more than once to inspect some marvel or another more closely. He didn’t dare take too long, though. After all, he knew that the others were waiting on him. And if he didn’t return in a reasonable amount of time, they would either write him off or come looking for him. Either one would assuredly result in someone getting hurt.

Once he’d satisfied his own curiosity, Elijah moved on, and for the next few hours, he saw similar sights as he explored the series of caves. In his draconid shape and with Essence of the Wolf spurring him on, he moved incredibly quickly. Even so, it took quite some time before he finally reached what looked like civilization.

And he got his first look at the yeti.

The creatures were tall – averaging around nine feet, but ranging all the way up to fifteen – with long limbs and gangly bodies that reminded Elijah of people with extreme cases of Marfan syndrome. They were also covered in shaggy white fur, with faces somewhere between what one would expect of a bear and a monkey. Most carried large clubs and wore poorly made chainmail shirts, coupled with kilts of thick leather.

And they didn’t look comfortable with it, either.

But that might’ve been their task at play, which included guarding a massive gate barring the mouth of another tunnel. As they stood before those huge, stone doors, which were carved with fanciful designs Elijah didn’t recognize, the yetis fidgeted, scratched, and barked at one another. In short, they acted like easily distractible children who’d been given a job they neither wanted nor cared about.

The ones who came through that gate were far more troubling, though. They were the same species, though they held themselves with far more discipline. Their armor was higher quality, too, and it reminded Elijah of the ogre guards back in the Reaver’s Citadel. However, where the ogres’ equipment was made of lusterless black metal that looked like cast iron, the yetis wore silvery gear that shone with white light.

They carried no weapons, though.

Elijah followed the silver-armored yetis through the cavern abutting the gate, but he quickly surmised that they were tasked with patrolling the area, which was far more extensive than he could have guessed. The patrol eventually led Elijah to the most expansive cavern yet, and when he beheld it, he couldn’t help but let out a small gasp of awe.

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Fields stretched as far as he could see. He didn’t recognize the crops, but they followed the same theme he’d seen in the subterranean forests. Because of that, the fields glittered blue and white, and what’s more, the ambient ethera in the area was the densest he’d felt since leaving the grove.

The crops were natural treasures, each and every one of them. Not high-grade, to be sure. In fact, they were similar to his grove berries. However, Elijah would never mistake the way they made him feel. Yet, they still lacked some ineffable something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It was like they were natural treasures, and yet, they weren’t at the same time.

Regardless, the fields were an absolute gold mine, and one that, by its artificial nature, Elijah had no issues in stripping bare. He would leave naturally occurring treasures alone, save to cultivate in their presence. But these? They had clearly been planted, and so, he had no qualms with using them for his own purposes.

Complicating that resolution was the presence of dozens of armed and armored yetis, not including the patrol. So, he couldn’t do it alone. Nor would it be an easy project, even with the others. Still, it was a grand discovery, and one he was eager to exploit for his own gain.

So, it was a little difficult to tear himself away and return to what he was certain was the true goal of the challenge. The gate. Getting through there was the first task, he was sure. After that, who knew what the challenge would entail?

For a moment, Elijah considered going back and making a plan of attack. There were only four guards, and they weren’t the most intimidating sort. Sure, they were powerful enough. Elijah could see that much. But they could be manipulated and overcome. So, getting past them didn’t seem all that difficult.

Which meant that it was only a few seconds before Elijah decided that if it wasn’t that hard, then he should just do it himself. The more information he brought back to his allies, the better.

He crept closer, moving an inch at a time. Even though he trusted his draconid form’s camouflaging trait as well as Guise of the Unseen, he stayed low to the ground. Slithering ever closer, he strained his senses to keep track of the yetis. They didn’t even seem to be paying attention, but that didn’t mean they were entirely unaware. So, he took every caution as he positioned himself to dart through the gate the next time it opened.

He only had to wait about thirty more minutes until one of the patrols returned. Elijah had counted four that had left, but he couldn’t distinguish well enough between the yetis to recognize if it was one of the groups he’d seen or if it was one that had already been out and about. Regardless, their return represented a perfect chance to slip inside. So, once they passed him by, Elijah followed.

That was his first mistake, though he didn’t know it.

His second was forgetting a lesson he’d learned in the Reaver’s Citadel. Just because there were no defenses he could see didn’t mean they weren’t there.

And finally, he made the error of overconfidence.

All three mistakes coalesced into a single moment as he crossed the threshold of the gate and Guise of the Unseen was stripped away. More distressingly, the patrol reacted with what had to be a practiced maneuver, spreading out and surrounding him even as the gate clanged shut to Elijah’s rear.

He was trapped. Exposed. And staring at a half-dozen armored yetis.

Elijah reacted instantly, and in a way he hoped would surprise the patrol. He rushed forward, pushing himself to speeds he rarely reached. He was on the closest yeti in an instant, and after activating Venom Strike, he raked his claws across the creature’s exposed face. The attack landed, and even as his weight bore the yeti to the ground, he dashed past it.

Or at least he tried to.

The yetis had something to say about that, as evidenced by the enormous icicles that erupted from the ground and pierced Elijah through the stomach. He hissed in agony as it ripped through his organs, but if a little pain – or grievous injury – was enough to stop him, he’d have long since died.

He tore himself free, injuring himself further along the way, and sprinted down the spacious hall. Blood flowed freely as more icicles sprouted in his wake. But as surprised as they clearly were, the yetis were unprepared for his speed. He barreled down the hall, then, as he turned a corner, he slid across the floor and crashed into the wall. Quickly righting himself, he used his claws for traction as he continued to flee.

The yetis clambered after him, their footsteps heavy and the rattle of their armor echoing through the hall. Elijah paid it no heed as he continued to sprint away. He was losing a lot of blood, though. And he knew he was leaving a trail a child could follow. So, the first task on his to-do list was to find somewhere he shift into his human form and heal. After that, he could slip back into Guise of the Unseen and, hopefully, find a way to escape.

Plan in mind, he continued down the hall, barely seeing the plain, brutalist architecture. He turned at random, trusting his faceted mind to keep track of the area. But for the longest time, he found nothing. Just an endless labyrinth of identical halls. However, when he outpaced the yeti patrol, he took a moment to stop, shift back into his caster form, and mend the wounds he’d sustained.

Or at least stop the bleeding. Full healing would take a little more time than he could afford. For now, getting rid of the blood trail was the most important aspect.

Once that was done, he resumed his flight, sprinting down the halls until, at last, he felt Essence of the Wolf kick in. That told him that Guise of the Unseen was once again available, so he embraced it.

But nothing happened.

It was only the third time the ability had failed him, and it was a perfect example of just how much he didn’t know about the multi-verse. Clearly, some ability or enchantment was at play, though he had no idea which. Nor did he know how it must have worked. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was absolutely out of his depth.

Not for the first time, he came to realize just how dangerous hubris could be.

Such thoughts were not productive, though. He would remember them in the future, but for now, he needed to figure out how to survive his current situation. With that goal in mind, he came to the conclusion that he only had two options, neither of which were optimal.

First, he could try to find somewhere to hide. Eventually, the patrol would lose interest, and he’d be free to explore a little more freely. That came with the obvious issue that he’d have to do so without Guise of the Unseen to mask his presence.

Which led him to the second option – fighting his way free, then returning to the gate with his companions and mounting a full, frontal assault.

Because one thing was made clear by the notification he’d received the moment he’d crossed the threshold:

You have reached the The Frozen Fortress. To conquer the Challenge of Pruina, destroy the betrayer. Reward: Trunk of the Frozen Oak

Elijah glanced around, then shifted back into his human form before completing the healing process. After that, he rolled his shoulders and braced himself to meet the yeti patrol.