Path of Dragons-Chapter 44Book 8: : Into the Storm

The tentacle screamed through the water, the bubbles of its passage eliminating all visibility. Elijah beat his mighty flippers, avoiding the hooked appendage. It skated across his shell, and though Elijah felt the attack, it was only barely. He very much felt what came next, though.

Blades of water erupted all around him, slicing into every part of his body. A bubbling growl escaped from his beaked mouth as he retracted his head as much as possible, hunkering down to weather the storm. That was one of the key differences between his Shape of the Sea and a normal sea turtle. The latter weren’t like land tortoises in that their shells had evolved for hydrodynamics rather than full protection. As a result, they couldn’t retract their limbs.

By comparison, Elijah could do just that, but only with his head. His flippers and tail remained fully exposed.

Thankfully, his opponent had aimed for the largest part of his body, so his defenses proved sufficient to weather the storm of water blades. It still hurt, though, and not just a little.

Elijah shifted, diving deeper into the submerged ravine. He could scarcely see in the darkness, but he could feel all the creepy, crawly, and slithery things clinging to the walls. He ignored them. They were too small and too weak to harm him. Instead, he focused on the enormous octopus chasing him.

The thing’s tentacles were at least two-hundred feet long. Probably longer, and just as thick as that length implied. Elijah hadn’t intended to get into a fight, but he’d finally paid the price of heeding the call of his curiosity to explore the depths. And it hadn’t been long before the octopus reminded him why that was a bad idea.

After all, there was a reason the Shape of the Sea was so huge and granted him so many attributes. Both were needed if he was supposed to keep up with the monsters of the deep.

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And the octopus was a monster. Despite its general similarity to a normal earth octopus, the thing felt as unnatural as any other monsters Elijah had ever encountered. It was powerful, too. Well past ascension, at the least. On land, and with all his abilities available, Elijah would have still questioned his ability to overcome its raw power. But hampered by the sea, he knew he was at a distinct disadvantage.

At first, he’d tried to flee.

And with the power of Shape of the Sea, he’d made a good run of it, too. However, there were two issues that ruined his flight. First, the storm above kept him from taking to the sky, which was his first plan. Second, once the octopus adjusted tactics from attack to pursuit, it was just as fast as him.

That left him with a couple of options.

Flee to clearer waters and follow his original plan, or stand and fight.

Elijah had chosen the latter, largely because his instincts were screaming at him to rid the world of such an unnatural creature. On top of that, he would have been completely oblivious if he hadn’t at least acknowledged that part of his reasoning came from a desire to work out some of his frustrations. Nothing was better for that than a good fight.

But now, ten minutes later, he’d begun to rethink his decision.

He wasn’t on the verge of losing the fight. Even if he did end up getting defeated, his immense Constitution and armored body would keep him alive for a long, long time. In all likelihood, a normal beast would have long since given up well before he was in any danger of dying. But this was a monster, driven to immense rage by the instinctual knowledge that it did not belong in its current environment.

Like a rabid animal, it needed to be put down.

Elijah continued his dive, pushing himself to maximum speed. The trench was dozens of miles deep, and with every foot of his descent, the pressure built and the darkness closed in. The native creatures grew larger and more unique, but as much as he wanted to stop and study them, the octopus’ pursuit never ended. If he slowed down for even a second, it would be on him.

That thought sparked an idea.

Elijah whipped around as fast as his enormous body could manage, but before his turn was even complete, he felt the sting of water blades slicing through his leathery shell. A second later, the octopus latched onto him. Even as the tentacles wrapped around his body, Elijah snapped out with his powerful jaws, ripping a chunk of its rubbery flesh away. Blood misted into the water even as chunks of octopus fell into the ravine.

His attack was potent, but the monster was so huge that even that massive bite wasn’t effective enough to make a difference in its overall power. As soon as its tentacles slithered around Elijah, they began to squeeze.

He bit again.

And again after that.

Two more times, even as the bones in his shell began to crack, Elijah attacked. And finally, he broke through, severing one of the tentacles. It fell away, twitching in the current until it disappeared into the darkness.

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The octopus went wild, squeezing and thrashing in an apparent seizure. Rather than release him, though, its pain-filled spasm only tightened its grip. Elijah tried to bite again, but the octopus had learned its lesson. It might only possessed rudimentary, animalistic intelligence, but octopi had ever been known as incredibly bright creatures. And it could easily put two and two together to establish that Elijah’s bite was his only real weapon.

It shifted one of its tentacles. Elijah withdrew his head, but unlike a land-bound tortoise, he couldn’t fully retract it into his shell. The best he could manage was about halfway, and even that was only enough to protect his neck.

The monster wrapped its tentacle around his skull and squeezed.

It only took a second before Elijah’s head started to pound. A second later, and sharp pains erupted from within. If the octopus was allowed to continue, it would crush his skull entirely.

But Elijah had the creature right where he wanted it.

He shifted into his human form, and immediately, two things happened. First, the immense pressure of being so deep beneath the sea pressed in on him. Without the increased Constitution and purpose-built form of the Shape of the Sea, he was defenseless against it.

But he was prepared for it. Even as bones were on the verge of being crushed to jelly, Elijah started to cast. First, he activated Nature’s Flame, and the Verdant Fang burst into emerald flames that cast the entire area in eerie green illumination. At the same time, he used Dragon’s Echo before casting his suite of heals. Soothe settled on him, then Nature’s Bloom, and finally, Blessing of the Grove. A floating flower appeared in his midst, glowing with the same green ethera that characterized Nature’s Flame.

And because of Dragon’s Echo, two instances of each spell appeared.

However, after testing, Elijah knew that the staff’s ability would only last for a few more seconds before it went on cooldown. And he intended to use it wisely, because the whole time, he’d been using other facets of his Jade Mind to cast other spells.

The first to complete was Lightning Domain.

Whips of electricity burst forth, searing their way through the giant octopus and preventing it from closing its tentacles on the much smaller target Elijah had become. Even as it seized, Elijah pushed the spell harder than he ever had before. Lightning enveloped and scorched the creature, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough to kill it.

That was why he’d been casting Nature’s Rebuke the whole time. One instance after another. And despite the spell being a little outdated, the fact that it was aimed at an unnatural creature – as many monsters were – meant that it did three times the damage it normally would.

Elijah stacked a dozen instances of the spell onto the creature before his final spell completed.

In his human form, Primal Swarm manifested as Eternal Plague, conjuring more and more pests the longer he fed ethera into the spell. In this case, those pests came in the form of tiny minnows with overly large mouths. At first, there were only a few hundred, but after only a couple of seconds, there were thousands. Elijah continued, and the swarm widened in scope. Thousands became hundreds of thousands, enveloping hundreds of yards in every direction. They all descended upon the octopus, ripping into it with reckless abandon. Each bite inflicted upon it an affliction until the thing became a many-limbed mass of disease.

That wasn’t enough to kill it, though.

Far from it. No matter how many afflictions he loaded onto something as powerful as that octopus, its Regeneration would keep it alive. Elijah couldn’t stomach that.

What’s more, he knew that if he kept it up for even a couple more seconds, he would need to recast his heals. In addition, Dragon’s Echo had already run its course – it only lasted a few seconds – which meant that it was time to once again resume the Shape of the Sea.

Only a handful of seconds had passed, but by the time Elijah once again took the form of the giant dragon turtle, the battle had shifted in his favor. And he didn’t intend to let up.

Without hesitation, he snapped out with his giant beak, ripping another car-sized chunk of flesh from the octopus. It screeched, the muffled sound carrying easily through the water. But Elijah didn’t care about its pain. The thing was a monster, and, after bottling his anger for longer than he cared to admit, he let loose.

And the Shape of the Sea, in its natural environment, was the perfect form to do just that. Even as the dying octopus raked its hooked tentacles across his shell, he ignored the resulting injuries for the flesh wounds they were. It targeted his flippers a few times, too, but they were too durable for the weakened creature to truly damage.

Meanwhile, he was free to tear the thing apart one chunk of rubbery flesh at a time.

Elijah was so lost in the battle that he barely even noticed when the monster died. By that point, it was all but limbless, and its body was so destroyed that it could scarcely even move.

It wasn’t until the scavengers descended that Elijah realized that his task was finished. A bubbling roar sent the smaller fish and crustaceans scurrying away before Elijah let the monster drift down into the seemingly bottomless ravine. He swam, pushing himself toward the surface. He still didn’t dare break through – the storm was still raging overhead, and in addition to the wind and waves, those enormous birds were up there as well.

No, after taking a few minutes to shift back into his human form and heal himself, he pushed ahead with his original plan. Now that he’d taken out his frustrations, he refused to get distracted again.

As he swam, he realized just how unhealthy bottling up his anger had been. He’d stupidly let it drive him into a situation which could have killed him. Sure, he was a good match-up for the giant octopus, but it didn’t take a keen imagination to imagine running into something that could easily defeat him. The ocean was an enormous place, and it played host to large and powerful creatures, after all.

Going forward, he needed to be more cognizant of his emotions – or rather, how they might affect his decision-making process. With that in mind, he continued on his path.

As it turned out, the storm was much larger than Elijah’s initial estimates had suggested. If it was smaller than a thousand miles across, he would have been incredibly surprised. It took him a few more hours until, at last, he felt the raging currents subside as he reached the center of the maelstrom.

He surfaced, looking around.

The sun shown bright in the blue sky, but he could see a wall of clouds, rain, and furious waves behind him. That the seas in the eye of the storm were so calm had to be a magical effect.

Elijah noticed two other things, though. First, as he’d expected, the density of the ethera had risen to levels approaching what he’d experienced upon his arrival in Hong Kong, which meant that there was almost assuredly a Primal Realm nearby. But Elijah was far more concerned with the rocky landmass in the distance.

He’d finally found the island where the crash survivors had washed ashore, and it was not an inviting place.