Path of Dragons-Chapter 70Book 9: : Updraft

sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-pointer-lock allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"

style="width: 300px; height: 250px; display: flex; margin: 0 auto; border: none"

scrolling="no">

The tower was broken.

From afar, that wasn’t entirely apparent, but as the group drew closer, Elijah saw the jagged gaps between the silvery sections. At first, he found himself wondering how the various pieces remained aloft, unconnected to the ground as they were, but it only took him a few seconds to come to the obvious answer.

Magic.

Or more appropriately, air-attuned ethera. The force was invisible and difficult to sense – far more subtle than fire or water – but it was there nonetheless. It bound everything together and prevented the seemingly weightless tower from drifting away into the Elemental Maelstrom.

For Elijah’s part, he was more concerned with the winds, which far exceeded those associated with Earth-bound weather. He’d been through hurricanes. He’d experienced tornadoes. He’d even been caught in a waterspout. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel-com

And that wasn’t even counting what he’d been through after the world had changed.

Still, the winds he and the pack were forced to endure on their approach to the tower far exceeded anything he could have expected. It felt like being hit with a jet-powered sandblaster, and it was anything but pleasant.

Even so, he didn’t deploy his mantle of authority. Instead, Elijah constantly healed himself and his companions until, at last, they made it to the base of the tower. That decision was based on two factors. First, using the mantle left the dogs discomfited to the point that when he had it deployed, they avoided him entirely. Second – and perhaps more importantly – using it continuously put a strain on his soul. He could endure it, but not without incurring significant weariness that he expected would eventually turn to pain. The combination meant that he kept the branches of his soul to himself – at least for now.

The tower stood upon a tiered platform of white metal, into which a series of intricate runes had been carved. From afar, it made the otherwise smooth surface look oddly textured, but up close, Elijah recognized the carvings for what they were – enchantments. Probably against erosion, though he couldn’t be certain.

In any case, when they climbed the first step, Elijah felt a sudden calm wash over him. The wind ceased, and his thoughts became sluggish. Only when he felt a rustle of ethera did he recognize the in-progress ambush.

The creature was invisible, reminding him of the manta rays, but it was far larger. According to Soul of the Wild, it was built like a tornado, but with a multitude of arms that whipped around like a weed-whacker. When they hit him, Elijah was once again flayed to the bone.

Fortunately, he was more than up to enduring such an attack.

If it had targeted the dogs – especially the more vulnerable Ray or Maymay – things would have gotten very bloody, very quickly. By comparison, Elijah was uniquely suited to taking whatever damage it could dish out.

His hand snapped out, plunging through the creature’s invisible body of wind. He closed his fingers around something solid, then yanked. It resisted his pull, stubbornly clinging to its position. All the while, those limbs continued to pelt him. His arm was torn down to almost nothing. Blood splattered in every direction, and stinging pain shot through every nerve below his shoulder.

But Elijah wasn’t one to give up just because of a little pain.

He pulled, and with every ounce of strength he could muster. With a sound like breaking glass, he yanked his prize free. The living tornado went wild, spasming and tilting even as it went far off course. After only a few seconds, it crashed to the steps, skipped across the surface for a few more feet, then went limp.

That’s when it became fully visible.

The thing looked like it was made of clear glass. Delicate and thin, it reminded Elijah of a stick bug, though the connection was more about the long, slender limbs than any real similarities. Elijah studied it dispassionately as he cast awareness over his own body and inspected his wounds. It looked like he’d stuck his entire arm into a garbage disposal, though with every passing second, his healing spells mended his flesh.

With his arm itching, Elijah knelt beside the fallen creature. Using the other hand, he ran his fingers along the surface of its spindly limbs. The glassy substance was incredibly smooth, like it had been eroded to a glassy sheen.

“Are you okay?” asked Oscar.

Neither he nor the dogs had responded, largely because the fight – at least inasmuch as it was one – had only lasted for a second or two. By the time they’d sprung into action, the thing was dead.

“’tis but a flesh wound,” Elijah answered, shaking his arm. Already, the flesh had grown back together, but it still looked like an old chew toy.

Escobar bounded forward and licked it.

“Stop. That tickles.”

That only served to encourage the other animals, and they all surrounded him and added their own efforts to the mix. In that moment, it was easy to forget that they were in a serious situation with what promised to be quite a lot of pain in their immediate future. Such was the power of canine companionship.

There was a reason Elijah had always been a dog person, after all.

In any case, it wasn’t long before he pushed the pack away and rose to his feet. After running his hand along the surface of his scalp – and lamenting the stubbly growth – he said, “It’s an air challenge. Any thoughts?”

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Oscar shook his head.

“None of the other dogs can fly, right?” Elijah asked. “Just Escobar.”

“Escobar can’t fly. He can briefly run through the air, but he will fall after a few minutes.”

“Oh,” Elijah remarked. He hadn’t realized that, but in retrospect, it seemed accurate. Escobar almost always kept his airborne stints to a short duration, and now Elijah knew why. “If somebody falls, I’ll go after them in Shape of the Sky. The transformation isn’t instantaneous, but it’s a lot faster now that I’ve upgraded my soul cultivation. If we’re more than a hundred or so feet up – which seems likely – I should be able to swing it.”

“That fall won’t kill anyone,” Oscar reminded him. Indeed, with the level of their constitution attributes, it would be very difficult to die from a simple freefall. There was still a chance that the trial would add some sort of penalty to the mix, though. Plus, Elijah didn’t want to be separated.

After Elijah explained his reasoning – and Oscar accepted it – they continued up the steps. As it turned out, they were assaulted three more times by tornado monsters.

“They’re called glass dervishes,” Oscar informed him when they finally reached the entrance to the tower.

“Oh,” said Elijah as he inspected the doorway. It was open, giving him a good view inside. However, he was disappointed to see that it was entirely hollow. There were no steps. No ladders. Just an empty space. He turned to Oscar and asked, “What do you think? I can ferry everyone to the top. Probably.”

“Maybe it won’t be necessary. Do you feel it?”

Elijah focused on Soul of the Wild, and after only a moment, he sensed it. “Updrafts,” he said. “They’re strong, too.”

Oscar nodded.

Once he’d sensed them, Elijah knew what was expected. Still, he settled down to study the situation so he wouldn’t be surprised. Finally, he said, “There’s a sequence. You feel the closest one? That’s the first we’ll need to ride. Then that one a few feet away. We’ll need to jump from one to the next.”

“Why not just go to the far one?” asked Oscar, pointing to the other side of the tower. It was more than a hundred feet away, which suggested that the man’s senses were far more powerful than Elijah had originally expected. It shouldn’t have been surprising. Oscar was in every conceivable way a unique talent. If it wasn’t for Elijah – with all his advantages, like the dragon core and the grove – the other man would have been at the very top when it came to relative power on Earth.

“Look up.”

Oscar did, and as the updrafts activated – all in quick succession – he said, “Oh.”

He saw – or sensed – exactly what Elijah had. Upon activation of each updraft, a nearly solid wall of air remained suspended above them. All but one, at least. The air passed through them easily enough, but Elijah felt certain that neither he nor the pack would be quite so fortunate. He didn’t enjoy the idea of being splattered against the underside of a plane of air.

He would survive. So would the dogs. In fact, he suspected it wouldn’t really injure anyone there. But the problem remained – they couldn’t simply ride the most powerful updraft to the top. Instead, they needed to hop from one to the other with the proper timing. His original plan of using Shape of the Sky might have been valid, but if one of those updrafts caught his wings, he would be thrown far off course. Carrying a burden – even ones as comparatively light as the dogs – would make it worse. It wasn’t difficult to imagine a situation where he ended up being smashed against the tower’s walls, over and over again until he was broken and battered.

Thankfully, with his multi-faceted mind, Elijah didn’t think that would be necessary, and he easily discerned the necessary pattern. People who hadn’t advanced their mind cultivation would assuredly find it much more difficult.

So, he took the lead, saying, “Just follow my moves. Don’t go off script.”

He stared at Escobar, who barked excitedly, then turned a quick circle before leaping into the air. He landed a second later, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

“You heard me,” Elijah said. “Or do you want me to carry you like one of those accessory dogs?”

Escobar looked away, refusing to acknowledge the question.

“Don’t tease him.”

Elijah opened his mouth to respond, but then he thought better of it. There was no winning an argument like that. So, he just said, “Sorry. Is everyone ready?”

The rest of the pack barked. Escobar gave a small yip, and Oscar nodded.

With that, Elijah stepped inside the tower. He was immediately buffeted by a powerful wind that threatened to toss him across the floor. He hadn’t anticipated that, but he could easily see how it could throw him off. He forged ahead, already adjusting his plan.

When he hit the first updraft, he was ready.

It shot him upward almost a hundred feet before suddenly disappearing. But by that point, he’d already used his momentum to slightly alter his trajectory, and when he fell, he did so at a slight angle that put him perfectly in line with the next column of air. It threw him upward even faster than before, and he was forced to use the same technique to avoid getting smashed against a plane of air. He managed it, then rode a third updraft even higher.

For the next thousand or so feet, everything went off without a hitch. However, that was where his plan ran its course. From the ground, he’d been incapable of sensing that high, so he was forced to establish a plan mid-air. Fortunately, Elijah was well-versed in adaptation, so he managed it without much issue.

Up and up he went, and if the stakes weren’t so high, he might’ve found himself enjoying the ride.

Clearly, the pack didn’t bear the same weight on their own shoulders, because as they followed, they filled the wind-strewn air with joyous barks. Thankfully, they didn’t grow so distracted that they let themselves stray from Elijah’s established path.

Eventually, Elijah established a vague pattern. He didn’t really understand it on a conscious level, but rather, he instinctively predicted which way things would go. Part of it came from his ability to sense the flows of ethera, but it was also a question of rhythm.

Soon enough, he passed the first crack. It was at least ten feet high and cut jaggedly around the entire tower. When he looked through it, Elijah saw that he’d reached a height of at least a few thousand feet. What was even more distressing was the gust of wind that very nearly threw him off course. He barely managed to catch the appropriate updraft, and he shouted back for Oscar – who was next in line – to watch out.

After that, the updrafts came even faster, and within a thousand more feet, he’d reached a truly astounding speed. If he was going slower than a racecar, he would have been incredibly surprised.

Every time he passed into a new section, he was buffeted by strong winds, but so long as he was ready for it, he managed to mitigate the issues. However, it was also clear that if he let those winds take him by surprise, it wouldn’t take much to send him through the cracks and out into the open air.

Along the way, he felt the ethera grow denser with every passing foot, and it wasn’t long before it had reached a level similar to what he’d felt in the deepest parts Crucible of Fire or the Drowning Depths.

That was the first indication that his flight was coming to an end, but even then, it took him by surprise when he burst through the top of the tower and into a vast, blue expanse. He hung suspended in the air for a split second, though he had plenty of time to take in his surroundings.

Fluffy white clouds were the first thing he noticed, but it only took a moment for him to see the arching bridges of silver that stretched for miles in every direction.

Then, his stomach jumped into his throat as he started to fall.