Path of Dragons

Book 1: Chapter 49: Guardian

Elijah was in mid-celebration when he felt something about the current change. No stranger to ambushes, he wheeled around, ready to defend himself. But when he did, he saw nothing but a gaping maw filled with jagged teeth. Panicked, he tried to dash away, but he only took a single step before the maw closed around him.

He let out a gurgling scream as the jaws clamped down on him, but he kept enough of his wits about him to grab hold of whatever he could and drag himself forward. The creature’s teeth ripped a ragged wound down his side and very nearly tore his leg off, and yet, he still managed to pull himself to safety. With terror and agony tearing through his mind, Elijah barely managed to slap a hand on his side and cast Touch of Nature before the creature’s bulbous, purple tongue shifted and forced him down its slimy throat.

Crushing pressure encapsulated him, breaking bones and making him feel like an overfilled balloon on the verge of bursting. Somewhere in the back of his mind where the terror, pain, and panic couldn’t reach him, Elijah recognized what was happening as the muscles in the creature’s throat slowly pushed him down its esophagus.

But he could barely think, much less acknowledge that seemingly useless information. Somehow, he managed to re-cast Touch of Nature. The healing spell wasn’t enough to keep up with the crushing damage, but it was barely capable of keeping him alive and conscious.

Pain, he would later acknowledge, was not something to which one could really grow accustomed. Elijah learned the truth of that as he was slowly but surely crushed as the creature swallowed him. Without his consistent use of Touch of Nature or the ability to breathe underwater that had been granted by the Ring of Aquatic Travel, he would have perished. The same could be said about his Constitution, which had been further enhanced by Essence of the Boar.

Still, Elijah couldn’t think straight enough to be grateful. In fact, if death would have closed in on him, he might have been thankful.

Yet, held at bay by his healing spell, death did not come, and eventually, Elijah broke free of the esophagus and fell into a pit of acid. Screaming while he recast Touch of Nature, Elijah dragged himself forward, crawling across the fleshy innards of the monster until, at last, the sting of the acid began to dissipate.

But just because the acid wasn’t eating through him at a visible rate, that didn’t mean it wasn’t still killing him. Away from the center of what must have been the monster’s stomach, the acid had been diluted by the water, but it was still there, slowly dissolving his flesh.

Through the pain, Elijah forced himself to focus just enough to take stock of his Ethera. It was dangerously low. And he knew he couldn’t keep using Touch of Nature. He’d run out of Ethera, and then, he’d die a slow and agonizing death. But with Healing Rain, there was a possibility that he could keep pace with the damage being wrought on his body.

Apparently, being underwater wasn’t enough to stop the spell from activating, and as the falling rain – Elijah didn’t question how that was possible – fell, he felt the healing magic begin to take hold.

But just because he was constantly regenerating didn’t mean that the pain had stopped. Indeed, it only meant that, so long as he could keep Healing Rain active, the damage was negated by the Regeneration.

Still, the cycle of damage and Regeneration still hurt. A lot. And as a result, Elijah started to go into shock. And that shock eventually ushered him into unconsciousness. When he awoke some indeterminate time later, his Healing Rain had run its course, and the acid had gained some ground. So, he recast the spell and tried to force himself to remain conscious long enough to utilize the Ethera that had regenerated while he’d been unconscious.

To that end, he cast Touch of Nature, marginally healing the wound in his side. It didn’t do much. In fact, the spell didn’t even completely close the wound. But it was progress, and in his situation, that was all he could really hope for.

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From that point on, Elijah’s world devolved into a cycle of hellish agony and healing. It was not pleasant. In fact, it was the worst experience of his life. And given that he’d gone through multiple rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, that was saying something. For a long time, he was incapable of rational thought. Instead, he focused the entirety of his consciousness on maintaining the cycle.

Heal. Regenerate. Heal some more. Cast Healing Rain. Keep healing. Regenerate. Hours must have passed. Perhaps days. Elijah had no means of keeping track. But gradually, he gained ground until, at last, the wound on his side had healed as much as it could when encased in a pool of diluted acid.

Then, he started on his leg.

The monster’s teeth had ripped a long, jagged wound that ran from mid-ankle all the way to his knee, exposing muscle, bone, and everything else skin was supposed to hide. Resting his hand on the injury, he began the cycle anew.

By the time he finished, weeks had to have passed, but it might as well have been an eternity. With the ubiquitous pain keeping him from resting, his mind had descended well past the dividing line between sanity and madness. The only thing that had kept him from plunging headlong into insanity was the focus he’d had to maintain. Otherwise, he would have long since succumbed.

But it still took its toll, and as he finally saw the wound in his leg heal, the only thought on his mind was vengeance against the monster who was responsible for shoving him into a pit of hell.

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And without the need to use all of his Ethera on healing, he had options available. The first thing he tried was Swarm, but his conjured piranha only lasted a quarter of their usual time before the acid did them in.

That was fine, though. He had other spells.

After renewing Healing Rain, Elijah cast Shape of the Predator. He still couldn’t swim, but what he had in mind only required him to stand still and attack. He could do that.

And so he did, ripping into the monster’s innards with his claws. But it wasn’t enough. The creature was tough, and even though he spent the entirety of Healing Rain’s duration furiously digging into the thing’s flesh, the only effect was a shallow divot.

Transforming back into his human form, Elijah renewed Healing Rain and forced himself to think. With the pain of his skin being constantly dissolved by the acid and rebuilt by Healing Rain, his thoughts were sluggish. Still, he could think just clearly enough to recognize that he was missing something incredibly important. Though, try as he might, he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Then, like a lightning bolt, it hit him.

Venom Strike. The ability he’d yet to use because he had no interest in getting close to monsters when he was in his human form. But now? He was already close. Too close, really. To focus his mind, he pulled up the ability’s description:

Double damage when in Predator form. That was all Elijah needed to set his path. Still, he couldn’t immediately take the first step down that road. Instead, he had to wait until he’d regenerated enough Ethera to fuel the transformation into his Predator form. Then, he needed to cast the spell directly after renewing Healing Rain. Otherwise, he would lose ground to the acid still steadily eating away at his skin.

So, he waited.

In agony.

Compared to the time he’d already spent in the creature’s stomach, it was nothing. But with the plan for his eventual escape taunting him, Elijah could barely stand it. It felt like an eternity. Still, in the back of his mind, buried beneath a mountain of pain, he knew that if he jumped the gun, he would only make things worse.

With that firmly entrenched in his mind, he continued to wait. And suffer.

Eventually, though, Elijah recovered enough Ethera to power his transformation into a mist panther. Still, he waited until he could renew Healing Rain before he initiated the spell. As usual, the transformation didn’t take long, and as soon as it was complete, he used Venom Strike.

Then, he attacked.

The effect was immediate, and the monster’s response nearly threw Elijah from his feet. He clung to the fleshy stomach lining with his claws and attacked once again. And again after that. He kept digging into the monster’s innards, with each swipe of his claws bearing with it a refreshed Venom Strike.

Each attack drained a bit of his stamina, and within thirty seconds, he could barely hold himself upright. So, he switched back to his human form to wait for the neurotoxin to take hold.

The moment he did, though, he realized his mistake. In the ubiquitous pain clouding his mind, Elijah hadn’t considered the fact that, as a human, he didn’t have any claws, and so, the moment he switched back, the monster’s convulsions sent him flying back into the dense acid in the center of the stomach.

If he’d been in agony before, there was no word capable of describing what he felt as he plunged into the more concentrated acid. He flailed, watching his skin melting away with every passing moment. Then, the most powerful shudder yet rocked the stomach, and suddenly, Elijah was flying forward. He hit the esophagus, and it opened. A second later, a powerful current pushed him into the fleshy hose until, at last, he passed the teeth that had ripped him to pieces.

And just like that, he was free.

Tumbling down through the water, he hit a stand of coral that scraped much of his melted skin from his shoulder, then settled into the silt where he lay, completely incapable of moving. Even as unconsciousness started to close in, Elijah managed to cast Healing Rain.

Then, darkness enveloped him.

It only lasted a few moments, and when he awoke, the blessed lack of acid was enough to jolt him back to reality. He still hurt, but it was the pain of more mundane injuries, rather than constant agony of being dissolved.

Opening his eyes, Elijah tried to sit up, but immediately wished he hadn’t. More agony lanced through his body as he collapsed onto the ground. Checking his Ethera, he saw that he had enough to fuel a few casts of Touch of Nature – maybe he’d been out longer than he thought. So, he flopped his arm over his stomach and cast the spell. A wave of healing magic swept through him, making him feel slightly better, but it was directionless and only resulted in a slightly better overall condition.

Still, it was better than nothing, especially when combined with the ongoing Regeneration from the still-active Healing Rain. And after his time being slowly digested within the monster’s stomach, the small relief the spell brought with it was more than welcome. He cast the spell three more times before his Ethera ran dry. Then, he lay back and waited for his core to regenerate. As he did so, he focused on the funnel of his mind, trying to force more and more ambient Ethera into his soul.

It was mildly successful, though the improvement over his normal meditative Regeneration was barely noticeable. It might’ve even been his imagination at work. Whatever the case, he resolved to keep it up on the off chance that he wasn’t imagining things.

Gradually, his core refilled until, at last, he could continue his efforts to heal his ravaged body. One cast of Touch of Nature after another, and after using two cores’ worth of Ethera, he felt well enough to sit up. His body protested as he levered himself upright and looked down at his arm.

It was a withered mass of flesh that looked like nothing so much as a melted candle.

Groaning, Elijah grabbed it and resumed his healing. With each cast of Touch of Nature, his arm looked a little better. More, he slowly regained feeling as the nerves and muscles rebuilt themselves. However, when he finally finished the healing process, his arm still bore significant scarring.

Fortunately, the rest of his body had escaped that fate, though his clothing and hair had long since dissolved.

His staff had survived, though, and once he picked himself up, he found it only a few feet away. So, naked as the day he was born – and even more hairless – Elijah started toward the creature that had fallen only a few dozen yards away.

The neurotoxin of Venom Strike had nearly killed the monster that had tried to eat him, but the job still wasn’t finished. With vengeance in his heart, Elijah aimed to change that.