Path of Dragons

Book 7: Chapter 70: Tested

“Magic is weird,” Elijah mumbled to himself, looking around. He’d expected the next challenge to take place in a room similar to what he’d seen in the tests of might and cunning. However, what he saw before him couldn’t have been more different. Three sides of the room were almost identical to what had come before, but the fourth wall was missing, revealing a bridge spanning a vast chasm.

“This is the test of stealth,” came a voice that made Elijah flinch. He’d thought he was alone, but suddenly, there was someone standing beside him.

Or crouching, really. He glanced at the creature, seeing it squatting only a few feet away. It was thin to the point of emaciation and wrapped in grey strips of cloth. Over its head was a hood, and a featureless mask covered everything but its eyes. The creature looked vaguely human, with all the appropriate pieces, but there was something about its twitchy movement that told Elijah that it was something else entirely.

Not surprising.

It cocked its head, then gestured toward the bridge. “Proceed. Do not be seen, or you will be destroyed.”

That was within his expectations. It was a test of stealth, after all. Still, Elijah wanted more information before he started. “Is the exit on the other side of that bridge?” he asked.

There was no answer.

The creature had clearly given all the information it intended to give. So, Elijah sighed, then shifted into the Shape of Venom. When he looked back at the creature, it was gone. Or that was what his senses told him. The fact that he couldn’t adopt the Guise of the Unseen said that the monster was still looking his way.

That sent a chill up Elijah’s spine.

Or at least it had been before he reached the test of stealth.

“You need to stop looking at me, or I’m never going to be able to enter stealth,” Elijah pointed out in the hissing voice of Shape of Venom. There was no answer, but only a moment later, Elijah found himself relaxing as the sense of being watched disappeared. He immediately adopted Guise of the Unseen.

Once he’d removed himself from the visible spectrum, he took a step forward and proceeded onto the bridge. When he glanced back, the alcove had disappeared, replaced by a featureless black wall.

Elijah shook his head and took stock of the situation. The bridge itself looked mostly normal, though upon further inspection, he realized it was anything but ordinary. For one, it was only a few feet wide, and because it lacked any railings whatsoever, it would assuredly be quite treacherous to cross. For another, there were carvings covering the entirety of the top surface.

Finally, Elijah could feel creatures skittering back and forth. They were barely there in the sense granted by Soul of the Wild, but there were so many of them that he couldn’t even begin to ignore their presence. When one crept closer, Elijah recognized that it was a spider.

That brought to mind Elijah’s most recently evolved spell, Primal Swarm. Or more accurately, the ability it granted to his blight dragon form:

He wasn’t certain if he was dealing with phase spiders, but reading the description of his spell definitely left Elijah with a couple of questions. Nowhere did it say that he couldn’t use the ability while in stealth. Nor did it say that it would break Guise of the Unseen. Sure, the phase spiders would become visible when they attacked, but that didn’t affect him, did it?

Elijah wasn’t sure, but he wanted to find out.

It probably wasn’t the best idea. If there was even a chance that it would affect his stealth, he should have left the experimentation for later. However, there were two factors that spurred him on. First, the creatures on the bridge seemed numerous, and they weren’t particularly strong. To someone like Zhang Yue – or even Dat – they would be a deadly threat. But to Elijah, who could heal himself and cure any venom they might inflict, they were more like nuisances, only really dangerous because there were so many of them. He had the tools to deal with an enemy swarm, though, so he wasn’t particularly worried about the spiders.

The second reason he could even consider using Lurking Swarm was a little more ephemeral. Every new spell and ability came with some degree of instinct concerning its use. Those feelings weren’t always foolproof or complete, but they gave him a sense of what he was dealing with. And what he felt about Lurking Swarm suggested that it wouldn’t foul his stealth.

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There was a possibility that his instincts were influenced by his own desires, but he’d gotten as far as he had by trusting his gut. And he didn’t intend to stop now.

Then there was the sense of overwhelming curiosity fluttering through his mind. He’d yet to really use the evolution of Swarm – he didn’t want to reveal too much to people like Zhang Yue and Gideon, neither of whom he trusted – so the concealment of the testing ground gave him the perfect opportunity to let loose.

So, perhaps there were three reasons he wanted to use his new ability.

It didn’t take much for Elijah to convince himself to go ahead with it. So, without further hesitation, he used Lurking Swarm for the first time. The feeling of casting a spell in his blight dragon form was odd, mostly because it didn’t go through natural mechanisms like his fangs. Rather, it was similar to casting a spell in his human form, though with the added oddness of requiring a bit of stamina as well. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable. And he expected that subsequent casts would cost more and more until the soft cooldown reset. Spells that followed that mechanic didn’t quite double the cost with every cast, but it wasn’t far off from that characteristic.

Regardless, he wouldn’t be using the ability over and over in a single battle. Not without running himself dry of ethera and exhausting his body.

But one cast was barely noticeable.

Elijah felt the phase spiders manifest, and thankfully, they were already invisible. In fact, he suspected that if they weren’t his minions, he wouldn’t have been able to detect them at all. With a flick of thought, he directed the creatures forward. They skittered onto the bridge, and when they reached the first spiders, they pounced – one for each enemy.

Chittering screeches filled the air as two sets of spiders – the glassy, crystalline phase spiders and thicker, hairier versions that looked like wolf spiders – fought a localized battle. Lurking Swarm had summoned thirty minions, and they swept forward across the bridge with ruthless precision. Their first bites out of stealth were the most effective, and their victims died within seconds. However, even when they attacked from visibility, they could still do quite a lot of damage.

They just didn’t have any real durability to speak of.

The wolf spiders marshalled their defenses, leveraging their much sturdier forms to rip the first few phase spiders apart. After that, it was a massacre. Elijah felt a slight spike of pain each time one of his minions died, but it was no worse than being stung by a wasp. The wolf spiders’ victory was far from complete, though. For every phase spider they tore to pieces, they were afflicted with their enemies’ potent venom, and by the time the last of Elijah’s minions were destroyed, they had made a significant dent in the wolf spider population.

It was a very successful test, and not just because many of the enemy had been killed. In addition, the surge of phase spiders had cleared the first twenty feet of the bridge, which allowed Elijah to race forward, then climb down the side and scamper across the bottom surface.

There were far less spiders down there, and no runes at all. Given that Elijah suspected that those runes atop the bridge represented some sort of puzzle that he didn’t want to take the time to solve, he counted himself lucky that he was capable of bypassing them.

The rest of the journey across the bridge was easy enough. There were a few close encounters with wolf spiders, but the creatures were sparse enough that he had no issues attacking and killing any that ventured into his path. His own venom was potent enough that they never had an opportunity to call for help. They died in silence, falling into the chasm the moment their eight-legged bodies gave out.

Elijah considered waiting and using Lurking Swarm again – just to farm some extra experience – but he decided that he’d already taken too long with the tests. If he was delayed too much, the others might think that he hadn’t made it and move on. So, he quickly made his way across the underside of the bridge, climbing up when he reached the end.

That nearly got him killed, because there was a tarantula waiting on him that he hadn’t sensed at all. It was larger than all the rest – measuring at least five feet from one leg to another – and it was obviously higher leveled. It was also an ascended creature, which meant that killing it wouldn’t be quick or easy. And given that there were hundreds of other tarantulas that would inevitably join the fight, Elijah knew that trying to kill the thing was a bad idea.

Even if he won – which was no sure thing – it wouldn’t be quick or easy.

The only reason Elijah noticed the thing at all was because he felt a slight shift in the local ethera. By that point, he was within a foot of the monster, and he had to quickly leap to the side to avoid running into it. Fortunately, it didn’t sense him either, so he was free to move on.

At the end of the bridge was another three-sided alcove, the interior of which contained a portal that he hoped would lead him to the final challenge. He didn’t hesitate to move through, and unsurprisingly, he found himself facing another black cube of a chamber.

The center featured a single pedestal made of the same black stone, but Elijah’s attention was on the man standing next to it. He was human, and he was quite possibly the oldest person Elijah had ever seen. His beard was so long that it tickled the man’s bare toes, and his robe was tattered and torn, revealing an emaciated body.

But his blue eyes twinkled with recognition as he stared at Elijah, who was still in the Shape of Venom and cloaked in Guise of the Unseen.

“Ah, another visitor. I do hope you are kinder than your predecessor.”

Elijah didn’t see any reason to remain in his bestial form, so he let himself shift back to his natural shape. The old man didn’t seem surprised by the sudden change, but his eyes did sparkle a little more keenly. It was only then that Elijah recognized that it wasn’t just the result of torchlight reflecting off the man’s eyes. Instead, there was a glimmer of ethera there.

In fact, on further examination, Elijah realized that dense flows of ethera – thicker than anything he’d ever sensed – coursed through the old man’s whole body. He was at least an ascendent, and not on the lower end of that spectrum.

Elijah took a deep breath and said, “You aren’t like the others, are you? They’ve been demons or undead. What are you doing here?”

The old man sighed. “A story for another time. I am bound here, the same as any other, but I engineered these tests to help you bypass the wall and infiltrate the aptly named Citadel of Sorrow,” he admitted.

Elijah had been wondering about that. From his understanding, Primal Realms were supposed to be self-contained environments. Worlds unto themselves, they weren’t like towers, which were curated experiences with defined paths to victory. But the sudden appearance of the skeletal gate guardian had smacked of the latter.

“That was you?” he asked.

“My loyal minion,” the old man stated. “Now, are you ready to prove yourself worthy of another task? In my situation, I cannot offer much, but if you are the man I think you are, what I can give you will be more than worth it.”

“And what is that?” Elijah asked.

The man smiled. “I am a captive,” he said. “You cannot free me without defeating the Queen of Desolation. However, there are more like me, taken from your world and enslaved by the Chainspeaker. That is your reward. I will tell you where to find them and how to reach that location.”

Elijah frowned. He’d hoped for some powerful item, but after only a moment, he realized that what the old man offered – the chance to free a bunch of people taken from Hong Kong – was much more valuable than any trinkets.

“This puts you in danger, doesn’t it? I can’t imagine your captors would approve of what you’re doing.”

“Assuredly not.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because I want you to free my daughter.”

“Is she one of the captives?” Elijah asked.

The man smiled, though there was no happiness in the expression. Then, he shook his head. “No. You misunderstand. My daughter is the Queen of Desolation, and the only way to free her is to author her demise.”