Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO ON KINDLE SEPT. 2)

The city was a confusing maze of staircases and ramps. Clearly, it had never been built with practicality in mind, because trying to transport goods from one place to another would have been an absolute nightmare. The giants didn’t seem to mind, though.

What did bother them was being in close proximity with other giants.

Given his experiences outside the Primal Realm, that enmity between different types of giants was expected, though. What did surprise Elijah was that the four types of giants didn’t include the ones he’d seen outside. Sure, the fire giants resembled their molten cousins spilling into the real world, but there were enough differences that, even at a glance, Elijah had no trouble seeing them.

There were no ice giants, though.

Instead, Elijah saw three other sorts, each type representing one of the other elements. Earth giants had skin made of jagged stone, and they were far stockier than their counterparts from other elements. Air giants were the opposite, thin and almost elven in their features. Each was surrounded by their own cyclone. The winds weren’t strong enough to do damage, but they were noticeable all the same.

And then there were the water giants.

“They look miserable,” he muttered as their procession passed a group of the creatures. With teal skin and fins on their forearms and calves, they clearly weren’t adapted to a dry environment. That seemed especially pointed, given the fact that they always looked like they’d just climbed out of the ocean. Most even had bits of seaweed draped over their shoulders like cloaks.

No one responded to his comment, so the group – composed of Oscar and the pack, Elijah, and ten fire giants – proceeded in silence. The same could not be said about the inner core of the city, which seemed to be something like neutral territory and included an abundance of shops, eateries, and other mundane businesses.

Everything Elijah saw suggested that Stillstone was a fully functional city, though there was some evidence that it had not been built by the current occupants. For one, it was old. Very, very old. Elijah had no basis for context, but he could tell that much at the very least.

What’s more, it didn’t seem sized for giants.

Sure, they could fit just fine, but many of the doors were far larger than they needed to be. The ceilings were higher too. It all added up to the supposition that the city had been built to accommodate beings that were as much bigger than giants as the giants were to humans.

And that was a frightening prospect.

Along the way, Elijah resisted the urge to stop and taste the fare offered in the local restaurants. He certainly wanted to, but he knew that his escorts wouldn’t be too happy about that. Because he and Oscar had somewhere they needed to be.

In all, the journey took far longer than he could have expected given the distance, largely because they were forced by the city’s layout to take a circuitous route. However, the suns were still high in the sky when they finally reached their destination.

“That’s certainly a pit,” Elijah stated the obvious as he looked over the edge.

“It is the Ring of Elements, where you will be tested,” said the lead fire giant.

“You said that before. What does that mean, though?”

“It is a crucible through which you will prove your viability outside Stillstone’s walls. There is no suppression out there. No great system to enforce the peace. It is just you and the forces of the elements. Survival is only for the strong,” the giant stated.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t tell me what’s in there,” Elijah remarked. Jackson let out a bark of agreement. “See? The dogs agree that you’re not being very forthcoming.”

The giant ignored him. Instead, he raised his voice and said, “Go forth and prove yourselves, brave…warriors. To begin the trial, place your hand on the pillar at the center of the pit and channel a wisp of ethera.” He paused for a second, then in a quieter tone, added, “If you can manage that much.”

“No need to be a dick, man,” Elijah stated. Then, without further delay, he leaped into the pit. The fall was more than fifty feet, but even with his attributes having been suppressed, he had no issues absorbing the shock. He landed only a second before the dogs – then Oscar – followed. Thankfully, the restrictions on his attributes and abilities disappeared the second he touched down.

The bottom of the pit was covered in coarse black sand that probably would have cut into his feet if he’d been a vanilla human being. Luckily, Elijah had left those days far in the past, so it was only mildly irritating.

The dogs did not like it, though, and Maymay let out a little whine of annoyance. Only then did Elijah realize that the pit was also subject to intense flows of elemental ethera. He was mostly protected due to Aegis of the Elements, but the fact that he could feel it at all was a testament to the power at play.

“Gather around the pillar,” he said, pointing to the center of the pit nearly a hundred-and-fifty yards away. The ten-foot column itself was onyx, decorated with gold glyphs that ran along its entire surface. “I’ll activate it whenever we’re ready.”

Oscar nodded in agreement, and when they set out, the dogs followed.

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Elijah summoned his scythe as they covered the necessary ground, so when they arrived, he was ready for a fight. After Oscar told him the pack was ready, Elijah placed his hand on the surface of the pillar. He nearly jerked it away when he felt the dense currents of blistering ethera running through it. It wasn’t hot. Nor was it cold. But it still felt like it was burning his skin, though only through the sheer power of the magic at play.

Without further ado, he shoved some ethera into the onyx column. He knew it wasn’t the deftest of maneuvers – he could have been far more careful – but he was a little discomforted by the environment, so he rushed through it.

The pillar responded in kind, shifting both above and below its onyx surface. Before he could withdraw his hand or energy, the thing transformed, becoming a dense column of flame. His hand dipped just below the flame’s boundaries, but only for a moment before he yanked it back.

When he did, he saw that his leather gauntlet had been burned to a crisp. It flaked away, drifting down to the black sand. Elijah’s hand wasn’t much better off, either. Most of the skin had been burned off, which was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it had burned his nerve endings down to nothing, so he couldn’t even feel the injury. On the other – well, nobody wanted to see their hand cooked.

Thankfully, he reacted instinctively, already shoving ethera through his channels and activating Blessing of the Grove. A sunflower bloomed at his feet as soothing rain fell upon his injured hand. Wild Resurgence came next, adding to the vitality coursing through him, and soon enough, the skin started to regrow.

That was as far as it got before he became wary of a change in the distance.

He turned to see that four arches had appeared at equidistant points along the outer edge of the pit. Ethera coursed through them all, but one blazed – literally – brighter than any other.

An instant later, something stepped through.

“Is that a balrog?” Elijah wondered aloud.

“A what?” Oscar asked, already embracing a few abilities – likely meant to augment the pack’s attributes.

“You know, from Lord of the Rings.”

“I don’t know.”

Elijah sighed. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it.”

“Uh…I saw it a long time ago, but…I might have fallen asleep…”

“Blasphemy!” Elijah crowed. Then he stepped forward. “Though it doesn’t really look like a balrog. Not from the movie, at least. The corona of flames, sure. But I’m pretty sure it didn’t have six legs.”

“I would’ve remembered if it had.”

“Sure. Because you totally know what I’m talking about even though you slept through the best fantasy trilogy to have ever graced a movie screen,” Elijah remarked.

“Can we talk about this later?”

“Probably a good idea,” Elijah remarked. “Though I have to admit – this is probably the most you’ve talked since I’ve known you. So, I’m kind of digging it.”

As the creature paced back and forth, letting out subtle growls, Oscar drew his hatchets. “I’m not a talker.”

“Clearly.”

Elijah let the conversation stop there, because it was at that point that the monster decided to charge, leaving molten sand in its wake. Elijah added a Nature’s Bloom to the mix of healing spells, then activated Dragon’s Echo. At the same time, he used Nature’s Flame, enveloping his staff in green fire. Without him even thinking about it, the Antlers of the Wild Revenant appeared, and verdant flames flowed across his body.

Finally, he let loose with Storm’s Fury.

Lightning lanced out, taking the form of a dense bolt of crackling electricity, and slammed into the oncoming monster. It seized, tumbling onto its face and throwing up sharp sand as it skidded to a stop.

Elijah leaped forward, bringing the scythe down in a vicious chop that severed the creature’s head. Even as it tumbled free, Elijah was beset by dense flames that enveloped his entire body.

He should have been burned to a crisp.

A year before, he probably would have been. But with his advancement in levels, he’d picked up an enormous amount of attributes. On top of that, he had the benefit of a body of bronze. And finally, he had the combination of Aegis of the Elements as well as the Mantle of the Chimera protecting him.

So, while he was burned – and badly so – he knew the injuries were a long way from fatal. And with every passing second, his heals mended whatever damage had been inflicted upon him.

Because of that, by the time he looked up at the fire giant on the rim of the pit far above, he was already mostly back to normal. And what burns persisted were hidden by the green flames of his equipment.

He glanced back at Oscar, saying, “Well, that was anticlimactic.”

The other man just shook his head, but the dogs seemed to have enjoyed the show.

In truth, it wasn’t that impressive of a feat. Sure, the creature had been ascended, though only by a hair. Elijah could have killed it fifty levels ago, and he’d grown by leaps and bounds since that point.

“You want the next one?” Elijah asked, walking back toward the pillar where Oscar and the dogs waited. As he did, another of the arches lit up, though not with fire. Instead, this one blazed with cold fury. When the ethera within the arch solidified, it did so with a burst of cold and ice that looked like a localized blizzard.

“Sure.”

Oscar took a step past Elijah, setting his shoulders. Meanwhile, Elijah readied his healing spells. The unspoken agreement was that he’d give the other man – and his pack – the chance to prove their worth as well, but Elijah was ready to heal if necessary.

As it turned out, Oscar handled his opponent almost as easily as Elijah had.

The creature was an abomination of snow and ice, with its true form hidden behind a swirling blizzard. But Oscar and the dogs leaped into the fight without hesitation. As always, Jackson and Sophie led the way, with Ray and Maymay readying their hindering spells. Meanwhile, Freddy and Digby circled around, preparing to strike from the flank and rear, respectively.

Then there was Escobar, who blazed with flames as he leaped into the air. The little chihuahua was the most powerful of the dogs – even stronger than Oscar – and he ran through mid-air, leaving flaming pawprints behind as a truly massive swirl of ethera surrounded him.

Such a spell was entirely unnecessary, and Escobar never had a chance to finish his cast. Instead, when the dogs struck, they flashed with fire. The same was true of Oscar’s weapons, and they cut through the icy creature with an audible hiss of steam.

The battle itself took about thirty seconds, but it was over well before that. Oscar and his pack had the advantage from the first moment, and they never relinquished it. Still, they fought the same way they always did – with machine-like precision with each member of the pack perfectly playing their role.

Unfortunately, that didn’t leave much room for Escobar to let loose, and he allowed his spell to dissipate before the monster died. He was clearly intelligent enough to recognize when such a powerful spell – and it was; Elijah could feel that much – would be overkill.

When the ice monster was dead, Oscar and the pack rejoined Elijah at the column. As one of the other gates blazed with ethera, Elijah said, “Not bad. Work together on the next one?”

“May as well,” Oscar agreed as he faced the arch.

For a long time, Elijah had considered himself the most powerful person in the world. And in most ways, he was. However, even he had to admit that he wouldn’t want to face Oscar and his pack in battle.

Thankfully, they were on the same side.