Path of Dragons

Book 5: Chapter 42: Frozen

Elijah swung his staff, connecting with the little creature and sending it flying across the room. After sailing through the air for almost twenty feet, it hit the wall with a dull thud before falling to the floor in a boneless heap. But Elijah didn’t have time to admire the results of his attack. Instead, the whole of his attention was required elsewhere – most presently, the fact that there were hundreds more of the monsters attacking his companions.

If it had only been one or two, it wouldn’t have been an issue. The creatures’ small size – they were only about three feet tall – was a good indicator of their relative level of power. However, there were just so many of them that their collective strength rivaled the most powerful yetis the group had encountered.

In terms of general shape, the four-armed humanoids resembled the others Elijah and the group had found, though they differed in more ways than just size. If Elijah was pressed, he would have compared them to goblins, though they were far more vicious than anyone he’d met from that race. Certainly, they were a long way from people like Ramik or any of the other goblins back in Ironshore.

Instead, they were feral monsters that slithered along on snake-like lower halves, swarming like piranha and tearing into any enemy in their path. Even their handlers – more of the larger naga-like creatures they’d begun to see three floors down from their current location – were wary of the small, bestial creatures.

Thankfully, when it came to combatting groups of small and relatively fragile threats, Elijah had a fantastic tool he could bring to bear. Shield of Brambles not only provided a small increase in his allies’ durability, but it also gave them a means of easy retaliation. That became apparent when one of the creatures bit into Elijah’s leg, only to be pierced through by a long, sharp thorn. It yelped in pain, but it wasn’t intelligent enough to recognize the cause and effect at play. So, it bit him again, getting another thorn through its belly for its trouble.

Four more rapid but ultimately shallow bites, and the creature started to weaken from blood loss. Elijah targeted the slowed monster with a golf swing that sent it sailing through the air to hit the joining of the wall and the ceiling. As was the case with the last monster he’d hit, the thing fell to the ground lifelessly.

But there were plenty more to take its place.

Sadie had already used Call of the Crusader, but it had long since run its course, and well before they’d made an appreciable dent in the swarm of monsters. Because of its cooldown, Sadie wouldn’t be able to use it again for a few more minutes. That meant that the swarm was completely uncontrolled, and each member of the group was forced to defend themselves from the threat.

For Elijah, that was fine. He had enough Constitution to keep the monsters – called noglyns, according to Dat – from doing too much damage. Dat was a little worse off, but his Dexterity gave him enough coordination to fend them off without incurring too many injuries. And with her armor as well as a Constitution attribute that exceeded even Elijah’s, Sadie was perfectly fine.

None of his attributes were particularly high. Instead, he relied on his abilities, preparation, and staying out of the line of fire to keep him safe. That just wasn’t possible now, and he found himself paying the price with every passing moment. The noglyns ripped into him, and though Kurik made a good showing with his hatchets, the realities of his class quickly became apparent.

Dwarven blood flowed from a hundred vicious bites, but Kurik continued to fight, courtesy of the bulk of Elijah’s healing attention. With Soothe, Nature’s Bloom, and Healing Rain on his side, he was barely able to keep up with the damage. But he knew that was only a temporary solution. If he tried to keep up that pace – even with his Quartz Mind rapidly refilling his Core – he would quickly run out of ethera.

When that happened, people would die. Starting with Kurik.

Sadie used Blade of the Avenger, slicing two of the monsters in half, but the spell was unsuited to the task. Instead, the mighty ability was better used against powerful singular opponents. The same was true of Dat’s abilities, which were mostly intended for scouting and slaying his targets. He was a hunter, after all, and as powerful as he was – being in the top twenty-five in the world meant that he could hold his own – his class was not ideal for fighting in a melee.

Fortunately, Elijah could pick up the slack. He only needed a few moments of peace before he could use the spells he knew would turn the tide of battle. However, the noglyns were not cooperative, and they just kept coming. It felt like no matter how many they killed, there was always another to take the place of the slain.

Finally, when Elijah’s stores of ethera dipped below the halfway mark, things changed. Sadie shouted a challenge as she released Call of the Crusader, and the noglyns responded as one, rushing toward her with single-minded ferocity. Elijah took that as an opportunity to turn the tide of battle, and even as the things swarmed over her, biting into Bulwark of the Faithful, he let loose with Swarm. Then, as the shield broke, he used Calamity.

Hundreds of tiny fleas, each one glittering with ethera, descended upon the horde of little monsters. At the same time, the swarm of noglyns were hit by hurricane-force winds that sent them flying into the walls. Lightning lanced down from the ceiling, and the earth all around them rumbled.

Elijah used the confusion to cast Nature’s Bloom on Sadie, who’d finally taken noticeable damage. Blood pooled beneath her feet, freely flowing from the seams in her armor. Meanwhile, Dat and Kurik leaped at the stunned noglyns. Their weapons descended upon the weakened monsters, cutting the creatures into pieces.

It was not an elegant strategy, and in the end, it descended into base slaughter. Yet, it was effective, and by the time the effects of Calamity faded, the monsters’ numbers had been cut down to nothing. From there, it was only a matter of a few more seconds before they finished the things off.

And then, everything went quiet.

“Damn,” Elijah muttered, still cycling through his spells to heal his companions. After bearing the full weight of the monsters’ attacks, Sadie was the worst off, but both Dat and Kurik had been grievously injured as well. “Those things were vicious.”

Looking at their corpses, they didn’t seem capable of doing the sort of damage they’d wrought. But Elijah’s comparison to piranha was apt. Ironically, if he’d been alone, he could have dealt with them a lot more easily. All it would have taken was for him to shift into his lamellar ape form, use Iron Scales, and wait for them to kill themselves on Shield of Brambles’ thorns. He’d employed a similar tactic in his second tower when a swarm of rats had attacked him, and he felt certain that it would have worked the same against the noglyns.

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But he wasn’t alone. He had others depending on him, and he knew he needed to move past constantly comparing his current situation with a fictitious one where he only needed to worry about himself. That wasn’t how the world worked, and the sooner he adapted his mindset to his present circumstances, the easier he would grow accustomed to the change in attitude required by it.

One thing was certain, though – he wasn’t meant to be pigeonholed into one role. In an ideal world, he would be the group’s wildcard, filling any gaps created by their enemies. If the group needed a second defender, then he could do that. Or an extra caster. Another scout. A flanker. He could play all of those roles, but with his responsibilities as the group’s only healer – Sadie could heal a bit, but her spells were wildly inefficient and inadequate to the task – he couldn’t afford to freelance.

Because if he made one wrong move, people would die.

That had been made abundantly clear over the course of the previous day-and-a-half, during which they’d ascended three more floors. Mostly, they’d fought against the naga-like residents that Dat had referred to as the Ka’alaki. According to him, the hunters some of the groups had encountered in the jungles were called Ta’alaki. There was a clear connection, and not just because, aside from the fact that the Ka’alaki had serpentine lower halves while the Ta’alaki had legs, of the similarity in names. They were different, but they also seemed to share enough characteristics that they were obviously related in some way.

Whatever the case, they were clearly hostile – likely because Elijah and his companions had invaded their home – and the group had spent quite some time battling against them. Like other sapient races, the Ka’alaki were equipped with a wide variety of classes, which made fighting them a pain. However, it hadn’t taken the group long to recognize and implement appropriate strategies. When a healer was present, that was the first target. Then the casters that could, if left to their own devices, bring devastating spells to bear. After that came the other damage dealers, and finally, the defenders.

Of course, those battles were complicated by the fact that the enemy was capable of devising similar strategies. But given that Elijah was their healer, and that he was incredibly hard to kill, he and his allies had so far come out on top.

Would that always be the case? Perhaps not. But Elijah was fine with being the enemies’ primary target, largely because it let him use his higher-than-normal durability to his advantage. It also made him feel like the lynchpin of his group’s success.

Which felt good and confining, both at the same time.

“Might as well see if the handler has anything on him,” said Dat, kneeling next to the fallen Ka’alaki.

“I think they’re agender,” Elijah pointed out. He’d done a thorough examination of a couple of their bodies, and he hadn’t found anything but androgyny.

Dat shrugged. “I think you’re right, bro.”

Sadie said, “They probably don’t have anything. None of the others did.”

After rifling through the Ka’alaki’s clothing, Dat confirmed that that was the case. Over the next half hour, the group recovered as well as they could, then moved on. Each time they’d ascended a level, the temperature had plummeted, and by that point, it had reached well below the lowest temperatures ever recorded on Earth. Without their enhanced Constitutions – or Ward of the Seasons – they would not have survived more than a few minutes. As it was, they were in no real danger of dying from exposure, but they certainly weren’t comfortable.

And it only got worse when they ascended to the next floor. Even Elijah, with the benefit of Temperate’s protection, began to feel the effects. Apparently, the Cloak of the Iron Bear had limitations, and he’d finally begun to approach that line.

Gradually, they progressed through that level, fighting against all the same foes along the way. The noglyns represented the largest individual danger, but now that Elijah knew how vulnerable they were to Swarm and Calamity, they knew the best strategy to dispatch them. The most difficult fights came when they were forced to battle mixed groups of Ka’alaki and noglyns, and on more than one occasion, the group was pushed to their absolute limits.

The aftermath of those victories saw them spending more and more time in recovery. To Elijah, it was clear that the party was approaching its limits in terms of what they could handle. If things kept going in the same manner, they’d soon be forced to retreat.

It wasn’t ideal. No one wanted to leave and come back when they were stronger. Yet, if the choice was between that or dying, it was an easy one to make.

Unfortunately, the choice was taken out of their hands when, after ascending to the sixth level, the door to the stairwell sealed shut behind them. And no matter what anyone did – and they tried everything, including Elijah shifting into his guardian form and hammering into it with his not inconsiderable Strength – it wouldn’t budge.

They had no way to go but forward.

Oddly, though, they didn’t encounter any more foes on that level. Nor did they see anyone on the seventh.

“This is very disconcerting,” remarked Elijah as they traversed the latest empty hall. The side rooms were just as deserted, even lacking furniture. But at least the temperature was no longer dropping.

It wasn’t until they reached the tenth floor that things changed, and in an unexpected way.

Elijah looked at the gate with his eyes narrowed in suspicion. There it was. The way out. All they needed to do was walk through that open gate, and they could return to the Nexus Town. Finally, they could once again be warm.

It was tempting.

“I want to go on,” he told the others.

Sadie nodded, and Dat added, “I don’t give up, bro.”

Kurik groaned. “S’pose I’m outnumbered, then. Let’s get to it. The sooner we finish this thing, the sooner we can get warm.”

With that, they turned away from the exit and headed deeper into the ice fortress. Soon enough, they recognized that they’d finally reached the castle proper, and with it came a few changes. For one, the architecture had taken on a bit more detail. It was still plainly utilitarian, but there were a few artistic flourishes that gave it a little more character. For another, they were once again surrounded by foes, which necessitated quite a lot of fighting.

At some point, Elijah passed the threshold to level ninety-four, putting him on the verge of getting a new spell. However, he wasn’t afforded the opportunity to dwell on the excitement that usually came with gaining another ability. Instead, it was everything he could do to keep everyone alive. Mostly, they fought more Ka’alaki, but there were plenty of noglyns as well. In addition, progressing into the upper levels of the fortress saw them once again facing off against the armored yetis. And when they found themselves fighting a mixed group of all three types of combatants, things became quite dire.

Each of those battles took perfect coordination, and even then, the members of the group were usually left with grievous wounds that took some time to mend. Like that, days passed, and there were only two good things to come of it. First, everyone’s progression reflected the difficulties they’d overcome, with Elijah getting ever closer to level ninety-five. The others experienced similar gains, though it had become abundantly clear that the days of gaining quick levels were a thing of the past. Even in an ideal situation where they were killing droves of powerful enemies, progression was glacial.

And Elijah suspected that it would only get worse as they reached new heights.

Finally, after nearly a week of fighting through the enormous complex, they found something novel.

“They’re so lifelike,” Sadie said, leaning closer to an ice sculpture depicting a man in a robe. “I can even see the pores.”

The sculpture was not the only one, either. There were nearly a hundred of them scattered throughout the enormous chamber. With no rhyme or reason to the layout, the setting looked both chaotic and beautiful, if only for the artistry it would have taken to carve such detailed sculptures.

“Bro.”

“What?” asked Sadie.

“Those aren’t sculptures,” Dat answered.

“What? Of course they are.”

“They’re people,” Elijah guessed. It had taken him a few moments to recognize the same thing Dat had found. “Or they used to be. It’s…the ice is the same stuff we saw with the crops and the trees, but weaponized. This…this is a very bad place. We need to go. Now.”

Just then, the doors through which they’d just come clanged shut, and the ambient ethera in the chamber began to stir.