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

A swarm of glittering flies billowed, spreading in every direction and descending upon every wasp within a quarter-mile radius. At the center of it was Elijah, spinning and leaping as he fell into the rhythm of battle. Every now and again, lightning arced out, finishing off or stunning any vespirans or drachnids who got too close. He was a whirlwind of a natural disaster, taking out his instinctual anger on any enemy within range.

The other dragons and their allies – which ranged from dragon-like creatures like Dolo to humanoids – steered clear. Elijah might not have belonged on the same field as some of the creatures he’d seen upon his initial entry into the Primal Realm, but he was more than capable of dominating the current battlefield.

In the distance, Elijah saw dragons the size of houses swoop in and subject the adversary to their breath attacks. At the same time, armored humanoids leaped free of their backs, hitting the survivors with the force of gravity and ethera-driven skills.

Elijah paid them very little heed as he swept across the battlefield, though he had trouble ignoring the explosive sounds of spells, breath attacks, and the earth-shaking impact of those spear-wielding humanoids. Time lost meaning, and he was forced to tap into False Grove as well as Grove Conduit, though he didn’t pull against the latter as hard as he could. Instead, he tried to lean on his own regeneration, augmented as it was by his advanced mind cultivation.

With those factors working for him, he could keep going almost indefinitely.

Idly, he recognized that the alien landscape wasn’t entirely natural. From time to time, he saw the remains of buildings jutting from one rock formation or another. Most were only identifiable by being a bit too straight to be natural. The obvious conclusion was that he was fighting among the long-dead remnants of a lost civilization.

Not that it mattered.

Because Elijah had wasps to kill.

Once he was satisfied that he’d infected most of the enemy with Eternal Plague, he cut it off, then descended among them in the Shape of the Scourge. He moved like lightning, darting in and out of battle like a flickering shadow. His sharp talons ripped weaker wasps apart, killing them instantly. The stronger among them took the blows with a little more fortitude, but that only earned them the opportunity to deal with the resulting afflictions.

And judging by their screeches, Ethereal Sepsis and Spreading Blight were quite painful. Not surprising, given that together, they were capable of liquifying a creature’s innards.

Most weren’t subjected to that fate. If they could stand up to Elijah’s talons, they were more than able to endure the afflictions for at least a few minutes. It did slow them down, weakening them considerably. Elijah finished them off without mercy, often by biting their heads off.

That always came with a note of satisfaction, even if the human part of his personality rebelled at the brutality of it.

He never stopped moving – not until he found himself facing a particularly large vespiran. The creature reminded Elijah of the one he’d fought to gain entry into the Primal Realm. But in this case, the thing was armored in shifting metal that shimmered with every twitching movement.

When Elijah attacked, his claws raked across that near-liquid armor, sending out an unholy screech of protest. It did no lasting damage, though.

The vespiran tried to say something, but Elijah had no interest in listening to his enemy’s last words. Instead, he’d already begun his transformation. Because he was tired of rushing around like a skirmisher, he chose the Shape of Thorn.

He grew, shifting into the much-larger form, and as soon as the transformation completed, he activated Domain of Vines. Odd-looking, purple roots erupted from the rocky ground, wrapping around the vespiran. He tried to resist, hacking into the growing flora with his spear. But even though each attack was met with success, there were always more vines to replace it.

It was only a matter of moments before it was entirely encased.

That was when Elijah wrapped his arms around the cocoon of vegetation and began to squeeze. As he did so, the vines writhed and mimicked his actions. Soon enough, silvery liquid seeped through the cracks, even as the sound of rupturing carapace and muffled screams filled Elijah’s ears.

The thing died after only a few more seconds.

But Domain of Vines still had quite a while before it dissipated. And using some of the control he’d sharpened while building his latest dolmen, Elijah directed those vines to attack his enemies. They spread through the rocky ground, exploding from the earth with unmatched speed and peerless fury. They wrapped around wasps, vespirans, and drachnids.

For most, the roots only pinned them in place – which, on a battlefield, was tantamount to surrender. Elijah’s allies fell upon them with the same kind of battle-crazed hatred he felt in his own heart. There were plenty that required no more attention, though. Elijah’s vines were more than enough to slaughter hundreds.

Meanwhile, Elijah himself used Bestial Charge to sprint across the battlefield, destroying anything in his way. His tail darted out, impaling anything that came close while he let out Debilitating Roar, sending the weaker-minded foes scattering directly into his allies’ blades.

When Domain of Vines ended, Elijah abandoned the Shape of Thorn in favor of the Shape of the Master. Some of the more opportunistic wasps thought his smaller size meant he was more vulnerable. Elijah showed them the error of such thoughts. He moved with liquid speed, a blur to their senses. Wherever he went, insectile limbs and ichor exploded into the air.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

No attack came close to hitting him, and he quickly built a hundred charges of Heart of Fire. Thus armed, he dashed to the thickest concentration of enemies, then let loose with Incinerate.

Thousands burned to ashes in an instant, and even more were injured on the outskirts of the ability’s expression. When the smoke faded, a huge swath of the army had been destroyed.

But Elijah wasn’t finished. He threw himself into the air, transforming into the Shape of the Sky. Letting out a challenging screech, he activated Tempest Swarm. A hundred lightning flies manifested all around him, empowering him as well as disorienting his enemies.

Once, Elijah might’ve struggled to fight in the Shape of the Sky. It still wasn’t optimal. But in the years since he’d attained the transformative spell, he’d learned a lot about airborne combat. And at the end of the day, he was still an enormous flying reptile with sharp teeth, huge talons, and enough hatred to use both of those characteristics to full effect.

And there were plenty of targets, too.

He went wild.

It was a relief, finally letting loose after so long. He’d killed a lot of wasps in the Painted Wastes, and even more trolls in the Hollow Depths. But he’d not allowed himself to use his full suite of abilities. In the former’s case, he’d mostly just used Eternal Plague. It was perfectly suited to clearing out large numbers of comparatively weak enemies, so it was the right tool for the job. And against the trolls, he’d needed to hold back so that others could keep up.

But right now?

He could finally allow himself to show his full potential. He moved through the sky like he was born to it, slicing through swarms of wasps and ripping them to pieces along the way. It didn’t matter if they fell to his talons or his sharp teeth. None could stand up to him.

And oh, how they tried. Fortunately, Elijah’s powerful body cultivation and high attributes served him in good stead. He didn’t avoid injury altogether, but his hide – even in his most vulnerable shape – was thick. Where it didn’t stymie his enemy’s attacks, he simply used Wild Resurgence to mend the damage.

He was a true terror of the skies.

Then, he landed, transforming into his human form and repeating the cycle. Eternal Plague once again billowed out from him. His ethera had refilled, and so, he could pump as much energy into the spell as the job required.

As it turned out, that was the straw that broke their backs. His allies gained an advantage over the weakened swarm, surrounding them on all sides. That was when the execution truly began.

Or extermination, given their insectile nature.

The vespirans and drachnids fought back, and with newfound ferocity. But they just weren’t strong enough to halt their own demise. The dragons and their allies – including Elijah – finished them off, one by one, until silence reigned across the battlefield.

Every now and again, a deep thump echoed across terrain. It was evidence that the higher-level fight was still ongoing. Elijah wanted nothing more than to go help, but he was brought up short by a familiar face.

“Don’t,” said Dolo, his meaty arms crossing his chests. He bore a few wounds on his shoulders, and a wasp stinger still protruded from his back. But he seemed not to care.

“What?” Elijah asked.

“That battle is not for the likes of us,” the dragon-man stated. “The elders will win. Do not doubt. For now, we rest.”

Elijah didn’t much care for that explanation. “Why are we here? What is this place?”

Dolo looked at him like he’d gone insane. “How do you not…oh…you are one of the mercenaries,” he said. “You should have been briefed.”

“I wasn’t.”

Dolo let out a deep sigh, shaking his head. He muttered something about people cutting corners, but then explained the situation as succinctly as he could. The gist of it was that they had been sent by their kingdom – which pointedly was not the Empire of Scale – into the abyss to harvest a Worldseed. Their task was to find and gather it.

“But the Hive clearly got the same intelligence we were given,” Dolo spat. “I doubt they even know what to do with a Worldseed, the stupid bugs. But they want it, as much to oppose us as to gain a potent natural treasure.”

The second Dolo had finished his explanation, Elijah received a belated notification from the system:

You have entered the The Broken Crown. To conquer this Primal Realm, you must find and obtain the Worldseed of the excised planet.

He shook his head at that. The notification told him exactly what Dolo had. The real question plaguing Elijah’s mind was whether or not his draconic heritage had anything to do with which side he’d joined. His instincts told him that the dragons – and their allies – would not have been nearly as accepting if he’d not been one of them. But he couldn’t be sure if that meant others would join the Vespirans.

If that was the case, then he knew he needed to guard this Primal Realm as closely as possible. He didn’t like the idea of others gaining experience fighting dragons, after all.

Over the next few minutes, Dolo answered Elijah’s many questions. Perhaps that was his role within the Primal Realm. Or maybe he was just a nice guy. Probably both. Whatever the case, Elijah found the dragon-man to be a valuable font of information.

For instance, Dolo was not a dragon-man. He was a tetradrak, and he traced his lineage back to a draconic beast. He seemed quite proud that his race had somehow climbed their way to sapience and were considered an official race by the system.

In addition to other tetradraks, the army was composed of mostly terrestrial dragons. Most weren’t advanced enough to fly. The ones that were had been paired with dragoons – humanoid allies who’d formed some sort of bond with the dragons – and attacked with long spears. When Elijah asked if the dragons found that arrangement demeaning, Dolo looked at him like he’d gone crazy.

So, he dropped that line of questioning.

The army itself was composed of two major parts. The higher-level dragons were meant to fight against the higher-level members of the Hive, while the lower-levels battled against one another. Apparently, that was a normal arrangement for what Dolo referred to as “civilized combat”. But the more powerful wasps wouldn’t hesitate to attack the weaker dragons if they weren’t opposed by a like-powered force.

So maybe it was less about civilized combat and more about countering forces.

Whatever the case, Elijah soon found himself in a haphazard camp that clearly hadn’t been fully deployed. The dragons had been attacked before they’d had the chance.

And now, they didn’t have time to finish the job. Instead, everyone started packing up so they could move as soon as possible. Because while they had defeated one army, there were always more to come.

“That’s the problem with the Hive. Their numbers are endless. We’ll be dealing with them until we finish our mission,” Dolo said. Then, he slapped Elijah on the shoulder with surprising strength and let out a chuckle. “Hope you like killing wasps, because you’ll get plenty of opportunity before this is all said and done!”

“The only good bug is a dead bug,” Elijah muttered.

“That’s the spirit!”