Path of Dragons

Book 3: Chapter 38: Man or Monster

“What are you humming?” asked Bryce, who was perched on Elijah’s shoulder as he made his way through the swamp. Because of her gangly height, she kept digging her knee into his neck, which was both annoying and awkward. So, he’d distracted himself by dipping into the facet of his Quartz Mind dedicated to monitoring his Domain. There was something altogether comforting about focusing almost entirely on his island, about knowing where everything was and where it was supposed to be.

With every other facet of his mind, he concentrated on his surroundings. After all, the swamp was still a dangerous place, and he didn’t want to be caught unawares by a powerful beast with a grudge.

And apparently, he’d lapsed into humming.

“Under Pressure,” he said. “By Queen.”

“God. How old are you?”

“What? I’m not…oh…oh, no…”

“What?!” she hissed, digging her fingers into his scales. Or trying to, at least. As she did, she whipped her head around, presumably searching for some attacker.

“I just realized that I’m over thirty,” he groaned. In his lamellar ape form, it came out as a growl. In the Shape of the Guardian, everything did, really. “It’s official. I’m ancient. It’s all downhill from here.”

Indeed, at some point during his tenure on the island, he’d left his twenties behind. He wasn’t precisely sure exactly what date it was, but judging by the seasons, he’d reached the ripe old age of thirty-two. That number had once seemed incredibly high. In a lot of ways, it still did.

“You scared me to death. Don’t do that,” the girl said, slapping him on the side of the head. There wasn’t much force behind it, but Elijah wasn’t sure if that was because she was incapable of hitting him harder or if she had intended it playfully. Regardless, it was annoying, which was a good description of his every interaction with Bryce.

“I wonder if I was as annoying as you when I was a teenager. I don’t think so. But I’m sure you don’t think of yourself like that, either,” he said.

“I’m not annoying!”

“You really are.”

“You’re the one growling something by the queen.”

He let out a low, rumbling sigh. “Not the queen. Just Queen. You know, Freddie Mercury? The best rock band to have ever existed? Bohemian Rhapsody. We Will Rock You. Under Pressure. You know, Queen?”

“Ugh. A dad band.”

“They’re not a…you know what, never mind,” he muttered. “They’re too good for your ears anyway. You probably like some vapid Disney singer or something.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” she argued. “I’m not like –”

“Shh.”

“Don’t shh me!”

“I said shut up!” he hissed, forcefully lowering his voice. “The hydra is up ahead. About a hundred yards away.”

“Oh,” Bryce responded in a whisper. “So, what’s the plan?”

“I was thinking of throwing you at it like a baseball.”

“What…”

“I’m kidding. Shut up.”

“Don’t tell me to –”

“In fact, here,” Elijah said, grabbing the girl around the waist and shoving her onto a nearby branch. He looked up at her, saying, “Don’t move. Unless I die horribly. I mean, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but who does, right? If I get slaughtered by the mythical monster over there, you can move all you like. Probably in the other direction would be my suggestion, but that’ll be up to you.”

With that, Elijah turned back to the hydra in the distance. It didn’t look like it was in a hurry, which was a good thing. If it had been, it would’ve probably already reached the house. As it was, the thing was still almost a mile off – at least as far as Elijah could figure. Distance and direction were, at times, difficult to gauge in the swamp, so there was every chance that his estimate was a little off.

Regardless, he had his target in sight, and he had a couple of ideas about how to kill it. So, he shifted into his human form and waded forward as quietly as possible. He regretted it instantly. There was something altogether grotesque about the way the mud and muck squished between his toes that was so much worse when he wasn’t covered in scales. On top of that, his clothes and equipment immediately soaked through.

At least he didn’t have to deal with the leeches, though. Using One with Nature, he felt a few nearby, but they didn’t seem interested in him. Odd, but he wasn’t going to argue with it.

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Slowly, Elijah waded closer until he was only a dozen yards away. Then, he adroitly climbed one of the nearby cypress trees. And once he was nestled safely among the branches, he used Swarm.

The murky water roiled as a thousand leeches manifested and immediately went for the hydra. Even as they latched onto the curious amalgamation of snake and crocodile, Elijah raised his hand and cast Calamity.

Clouds formed overhead, and the wind quickly whipped into a frenzy. Meanwhile, as the ground shook, the hydra – who was already under assault by the leeches – sank into the mud. Waves of murky water crashed into the monster as it struggled to dislodge itself from the mire. At the same time, it aimed its ire at the comparatively tiny leeches latching onto its limbs. Each strike destroyed one of the leeches, but there were so many that the overall Swarm was barely impacted.

Elijah cast Shape of the Predator, shifting into his draconid form. It was ill-suited to swimming, but it was perfectly at home among the tree branches. So, after using Guise of the Unseen – the hydra still had no idea he was even there – he dashed across the limb where he’d been perched and leaped to another. His feet hit without even a whisper of sound, and he continued to race along the canopy until he was directly above the hydra.

Then, he used Venom Strike and Predator strike before descending upon its bulky body. The moment he landed, he snapped out, wrapping his jaws around one of the monster’s necks, then squeezing with biting force that would turn a real alligator green with envy.

And it was just as effective as he’d hoped. He didn’t just tear a chunk out of the thick and sinuous trunk of a neck. Instead, he snapped it into two, sending that head flopping into the water.

Elijah didn’t stick around to watch, though. Instead, even as the hydra bucked and twisted, sending its remaining two heads to attack him, he retreated along its spine, scratching and biting the whole way. Even the tiniest nicks in the monster’s thick scales was enough to inflict an instance of Contagion, which Elijah hoped would add a significant burden on the creature’s Regeneration.

When he found the monster’s tail, he marshalled his Strength and leaped, sailing high into the air until he latched onto another tree limb. The hydra, who’d whipped around to follow him, slammed into the tree’s trunk a second later. Despite Elijah’s high Dexterity, the sudden motion combined with his unsure footing to shake him free of the branch. He plummeted toward the murky water – or more importantly, the increasingly enraged hydra.

Knowing he didn’t have much choice, Elijah shifted into his guardian form. The transformation didn’t complete until after he’d splashed into the murky water, but only a second later, with the hydra bearing down on him, Elijah erupted from the mire and hit the monster in a thunderous tackle that smashed it into the nearby tree trunk.

The cypress cracked under the herculean impact, but Elijah didn’t see it fall. Instead, he was wholly focused on fending off the remaining two heads. As they had in their first fight, the necks wrapped around him like the largest anacondas in existence. In only a second, he was being squeezed with enough force to crush a boulder. However, Elijah was much sturdier than any large rock, so he bore the pressure with stoic resolve.

Yet, he knew it wouldn’t last.

As strong as he was, and even with his massive Constitution, he had limits. And the hydra was capable of pushing him past them. On top of that, the fanged heads had already returned to their tried-and-true strategy of trying to fill him with holes.

What’s more, Elijah was horrified to see that the stump of the head he’d severed had already sprouted two more heads. Earth’s mythology had somehow gotten it right. For every head he removed, two more would take its place. On top of that, its clearly superior regeneration had already worked to counteract the tidal wave of afflictions that had come via Contagion, the Claws of Gluttony, and the army of leeches that had descended upon it.

Elijah once again activated Rage, which had just come off cooldown. And thankfully, that sudden surge of Strength gave him just enough power to gain a little room from the constricting necks. He used that to lash out with his jaws, repeatedly ripping chunks away until the monster finally relented. Even as it reeled, Elijah burst free, grabbed it by the neck, and, with a mighty heave, started to spin.

At first, the enormous monster refused to move. However, Elijah had spent more than a week toting multi-ton stones, and the hydra, as big as it was, didn’t compare to those hunks of rock. So, after only a little struggle, he was successful.

He spun. The hydra hissed and spit and bit. Elijah had used Iron Scales, so the monster’s fangs mostly skipped off his hide as he pivoted, dragging the creature through the water by its neck.

The first revolution was slow. The second picked up some speed. And by the third, Elijah was moving fast enough to make himself dizzy. He kept going for three more revolutions until, at last, he released the hydra. It skipped across the water before slamming into a tree. Even from dozens of yards away, Elijah could hear bones cracking from the impact.

Or perhaps that was the cypress tree, because only a second later, it tipped over to fall atop the fallen monster.

Elijah loped in that direction, fully intending to rip the monster to pieces. Sure, its Regeneration was insane. It had proven that. And it could regrow its heads. But Elijah was willing to bet on his own power in a match with the hydra’s regenerative abilities. So, he cut across the intervening distance, hellbent on finishing it off.

However, just before he reached it, three serious problems presented themselves. First, the tree into which he’d thrown the hydra just happened to be where he’d left Bryce. She’d tumbled free when it had fallen, and she seemed to have made it through okay. Except that she was distressingly close to one of the monster’s heads, which had snaked out from beneath the tree, clearly intent on claiming a victim.

The second issue was the venom coursing through his body, burning its way through his muscles and veins. His own Regeneration was not up to the task of dealing with that much damage, and he knew he was only minutes away from death. His body would degenerate beyond his control well before that, though. Already, he could feel his muscles liquifying beneath the weight of so much venom.

And finally, the third problem was that there was a new arrival to the battle that presented itself by erupting from the mud and muck to clamp a giant, oversized claw around his waist. Elijah had no idea why the fiddler crab had chosen that very moment to act, but it was the worst possible time.

Even as the crab tried to snip him into two pieces, the hydra’s head snapped out, intent on ending Bryce’s life.

She screamed.

Elijah roared.

And the hydra hissed in what sounded like glee.

Yet, there was nothing Elijah could do.