Path of Dragons

Book 7: Chapter 81: The Whole Kit

More than half the horde chased Elijah away from the courtyard, but the bulk of his attention remained on the ascended, blade-wielding demon Dat had referred to as the Bladesinger. The demon was absolutely covered in weapons, ranging from large daggers hanging from his belt to smaller dirks secreted up his sleeves. There was even a brace of throwing knives hanging from a shoulder holster. It was so over-the-top that Elijah almost laughed.

Until one of those throwing knives almost clipped him, which reminded him that as ridiculous as the Bladesinger looked, his presence was no laughing matter.

Elijah followed the prescribed path, maintaining a pace that would keep him just ahead of the horde. More than once, he wished he could just race away and dip back into the Guise of the Unseen, but as effective as that strategy might be, it wasn’t conducive to him accomplishing his assigned task.

Instead, he was meant to lead the Bladesinger – and the horde – away, while the others dealt with the Healer. Separating them was the point, and he endeavored to fulfill his part of the plan.

To do so, he twisted through the corridors they’d just vacated, and along the way, he spared a thought for the former captives. They’d been sent to take shelter in the passage leading to the exit in the mountains. They would doubtless be safer there than in the middle of a battle they were not equipped to fight. If they found themselves facing off against someone like the Bladesinger, they would all die. No – it was better that they remain hidden away until Elijah and the others could escort them back to Hong Kong.

Pushing those thoughts out of mind, Elijah focused on the task at hand. Eventually, they left the courtyard far behind, and Elijah drew closer to the location he’d chosen for the showdown. He didn’t think he could kill the Bladesinger – not alone – but he did hope he could severely weaken him. The others had a much easier task in that they only needed to overcome the Healer’s spells, kill her, then join him to finish off the Bladesinger when he returned to the courtyard.

It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but it was the best they could come up with considering their limited resources.

Soon enough, Elijah entered a large chamber – it wasn’t so different from the dungeon, though there were no chains. Once there, he skittered to the side, climbed the wall, and slipped under Guise of the Unseen. It wasn’t long before the first elements of the horde barreled through the large door, but when they entered, they found no enemy awaiting them.

They spread out, searching the area, but pointedly, they never looked up. Whether that was a natural blind spot, or the creatures were just too stupid to think properly, Elijah wasn’t certain. However, he was very grateful for their inattention. After only a minute, the Bladesinger himself rushed in.

He could have bitten him a second time, but Elijah wasn’t willing to push his luck. Instead, he used Flicker Step, shifting through the shadows to land on a wight’s back. For good measure, he bit the hulking undead monster as well, then leaped away. Mid-air, he initiated the transformation into his human form, and the second his feet hit the ground, he cast four spells in quick succession.

First was Blessing of the Grove, which conjured a gentle rain as well as the sunflower that governed the other parts of the spell. It was just in time, too, because only a moment later, one of the zombies raked its claws across his back. The blow was stopped by a green shimmer of vital ethera before Elijah whipped his staff around and destroyed the thing’s skull.

Even as his staff whirled, Elijah continued casting. The second spell he used was Eternal Plague:

He’d never actually cast the spell before, but he immediately understood how it worked. As a channeled spell, it required a constant influx of ethera and focus. The drain of the first was a bit more than it normally would have been – after all, he’d just cast Lurking Swarm only a few minutes before, and it hadn’t reset yet – but it was still manageable. The focus was another story, and it required an entire facet of his mind to maintain. Elijah shifted it appropriately, and a swarm of stinging hornets manifested. They descended upon the horde of undead, stinging them with ruthless fury.

And a second later, the swarm grew. Through Soul of the Wild, Elijah sensed that the number of conjured insects grew by somewhere around twenty percent. However, the draw on his ethera increased by about half that. So, every second he continued to channel the spell would result in twenty percent more volume of afflictions, but at a cost of ten percent more ethera.

An acceptable exchange, but Elijah knew he couldn’t maintain the spell for more than ten or fifteen seconds. If he went further, the spell would drain the contents of his core well past the point of comfort. And he needed that ethera to continue the fight, because he wasn’t under the impression that a few hornet stings would defeat the horde.

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With that in mind, Elijah continued to fend off the undead creatures, using the lessons he’d learned in the Man Mo Temple. He was a whirlwind, dodging grasping claws and breaking undead bones with every passing moment.

He had more cards to play, though.

The third spell he cast was Brand of the Stalker. Normally, he used that spell without even thinking about it – almost like muscle memory – mostly because it increased his damage. This time, though, he wanted to keep track of the Bladesinger. The chamber was full of hulking undead wights and abominations, and as such, it was easy to lose sight of the smaller demon.

But with the awareness granted by Brand of the Stalker, he didn’t even have to focus on Soul of the Wild to know where the demon was. And Elijah used that to his advantage, constantly moving through the horde and keeping undead monsters between him and his foe.

After all, he wasn’t quite ready for a confrontation.

Finally, he used Nature’s Rebuke. Not once or twice, either. Over and over, he cast the spell. Even as the room was filled with the sound of buzzing hornets, he used the powerful Nature’s Rebuke on the unnatural monsters. Unsurprisingly, they were powerful enough to endure it, though when combined with Eternal Plague, the overall effect was deadly.

Elijah lost count of the number of times he cast the spell, but he did focus on the more powerful members of the horde. Wights, abominations, and giant skeletons were his primary targets, but he didn’t miss an opportunity to aim for elite zombies. By the time he cut Eternal Plague off, the number of hornets in the room had reached into the thousands, and each one had inflicted multiple instances of afflictions upon Elijah’s enemies.

The Bladesinger alone had taken hundreds of stings.

But Elijah wasn’t finished.

After recasting Blessing of the Grove, Elijah used Soothe on himself. Then, he planted himself in the center of the room and cast Lightning Domain. Dozens of lighnting whips erupted from his body, stretching all the way to the room’s walls. Every creature in the chamber felt the bite of Elijah’s lightning.

Some perished immediately, and many others were severely injured. None escaped unscathed, and even the most powerful among them were stunned. The Bladesinger used an ability, flashing forward and burying one of his swords in Elijah’s stomach.

Agony erupted at the point of entry, and Elijah felt some sort of affliction take hold. Fortunately, that was immediately cured by the secondary effect of Blessing of the Grove, and the damage of having a blade rammed into his torso soon started healing.

More importantly, it was exactly what Elijah had expected.

Even as he stared the demon eye-to-eye, he grinned. Then, he grabbed the suddenly panicked Bladesinger’s shoulders, preventing his escape. Finally, Elijah initiated another transformation – this time, taking on the Shape of Thorn. The change took almost two seconds to complete – which was longer than normal, suggesting that the demon was using an ability to hamper its expedience – but that was fine. If it took one second or two, Elijah still had the Bladesinger right where he wanted him.

The demon knew that too, and he tried to escape. Elijah’s grip was like iron, and he grew stronger by the second as he took on the form of the thorned sentry. The Bladesinger’s eyes widened as Elijah grew, both in size and Strength. He was even more shocked when Elijah’s vines wrapped around him, further hindering his movement.

That’s when Elijah used Domain of Vines. For good measure, he activated Unchecked Growth as well. It was great for healing, but it was also a potent buff for his vines. And surrounded by enemies – weakened though they were – he needed every advantage he could get.

Roots erupted from the ground, wrapping around undead monsters and squeezing them. Elijah wasn’t concerned with the Bladesinger himself. Rather, he wanted to use his brief advantage to finish off the horde.

And he did just that.

The demon eventually escaped his grasp, sacrificing a good bit of his flesh in the endeavor, but by that point, most of the monsters were broken and dying. Via Brand of the Stalker, Elijah felt the Bladesinger try to escape, but he directed his vines to block the door. The demon hacked at the vegetation, but it regrew almost as quickly as he could cull it. After a few seconds, he gave up.

By that point, the horde was almost entirely finished.

A few had managed to survive, but they were so tangled in roots and vines that they were incapable of affecting what would happen next.

The second Unchecked Growth ran its course, Elijah shifted back into his human form, refreshed his healing spells, then adopted Shape of the Master. The transformation completed just in time for him to see the Bladesinger racing toward him. He dodged the first thrust, then leaped over a sweeping kick before landing in a roll. Three more dodges, and he used Incinerate.

Not on the Bladesinger, but rather on the still-trapped undead. They burst into flames like fresh kindling, but Elijah didn’t bother watching them burn. Instead, he kept going, dodging the demon’s attacks and peppering the remaining horde with Incinerate.

It didn’t take long before fires flickered across the entire chamber. The horde died in flames.

That left only Elijah and the Bladesinger.

“What are you? A beast?” demanded the demon, his breath coming in ragged gasps. His black skin bore a spiderweb of white veins, and the smell of disease surrounded him in a cloud of sickness. But he was far from finished.

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters,” the Bladesinger spat. Then, before Elijah could answer, he launched himself at him in a whirlwind of blades.

Elijah dodged a few, but the storm of attacks was so furious that he was forced to block most of them. The barrage only lasted a few moments before the Bladesinger backed away, panting in exhaustion.

Instead of making another demand – as Elijah had expected – the demon disappeared in a swirl of ethera. Elijah dove forward, narrowly avoiding a horizontal slash that would have removed his head. When he found his feet, he looked around and saw no evidence of the Bladesinger.

Via Brand of the Stalker, he felt the demon easily enough, though. He recalled its description:

Normally, it was supposed to prevent all forms of stealth, but clearly, it had limitations. So, while the Bladesinger’s ability hadn’t been blocked, the ability compensated by keeping him apprised of the demon’s location. That, in turn, let him focus Soul of the Wild, giving him a clear picture of his foe’s location as well as orientation.

And as it turned out, he needed it.

The Bladesinger didn’t hesitate to throw himself forward with a series of deadly attacks. Elijah dodged them, slowly building stacks of Heart of Fire. Then, when it reached twenty-five, he let loose with Incinerate.

Clearly, the Bladesinger hadn’t expected it, and so, if he possessed any defenses, he never got the chance to erect them. Instead, he took the blast directly in the face. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as what he’d used against the Chainspeaker, but it was enough. Not to kill the demon. He lived through it. But it did put him down, allowing Elijah an opportunity to smash his skull in.

That took ten blows, but only the first few were contested. After that, the demon had lost consciousness, and it became an execution.

Elijah stood over the demon, panting from exertion as well as the lack of oxygen in the room. He’d learned his lesson about using Incinerate at full power, at least in an enclosed space. So, he’d managed to avoid being burned by his own ability. Or rather, the superheated air that resulted from it. Regardless, he’d survived, and he’d more than done his job. Now, he needed to get back to the courtyard and help with the Corrupted Healer.

Hopefully, his assistance wouldn’t be needed.