Path of Dragons

Elijah certainly didn’t recognize his reflection in the mirror, which was probably understandable, given that it was an entirely new form. If he was forced to come up with a comparison, he would have likened it to a salamander, though one that walked on two feet and featured a pair of crests starting above his eyes, extending down his back and to his tail. The impression of the shape’s amphibious nature was also supported by the presence of moist skin as opposed to scales.

It was only after he saw the coloring – predominantly deep red, with black highlights – that he realized where he’d seen something similar. It had been a while since he’d experienced his vision of the first dragon, but the memory was still fresh in his mind. There was no chance he’d ever forget it – especially the last bit, when he’d gotten a glimpse of the creature he’d inhabited. There were differences, of course, but he could recognize a common ancestry with the ancestral fire salamander.

Most troubling, though, was that the form was no more than four-feet tall, which left Elijah feeling incredibly vulnerable. To assuage some of those feelings, he glanced at his status:

He had purposefully neglected his various buffs, and he’d left his equipment – aside from his staff – back in his treehouse. The reasoning behind that was so that he could get a good gauge of the form’s attribute bonuses. And he was unsurprised to find that they were significant.

The Feral Spire gave him a fifteen-point bonus to his physical attributes, so it didn’t take much arithmetic to determine that the Shape of the Master increased every attribute by forty points. It didn’t provide as many total points as Shape of Thorn, but it was still very respectable in that department, even if the points were split evenly between all of his attributes.

More interesting was the promise of increased reaction speeds.

At present, it didn’t feel like anything had changed, so he turned to Nerthus and said, “Do you want to tell them to attack? I’m not going to hurt anyone, am I?”

“They are only animate minions,” Nerthus said. “They feel nothing.”

“What about you? You’re not going to feel pain when I hit them, right?”

Nerthus confirmed that he wouldn’t, then sent the tree minions to attack. That was when Elijah saw the true effects of his increased reaction speeds. The creatures looked as if they were moving in slow-motion, and when the first one aimed a branch in his direction, Elijah felt like he had at least a couple of seconds to dodge. He slipped to the side, and as he did, he felt something catch fire within his chest. It was only a spark, but it was surprisingly similar to what he’d felt during his vision of the first dragon.

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A few attacks came soon after, and Elijah dodged those easily as well. As he’d previously noted, the minions were not powerful enough to truly challenge him. However, with every passing second, it felt almost like they were level one. He knew that wasn’t true, but that didn’t affect how easily he dodged their blows.

With each avoided attack, the spark in his chest grew in intensity until, after about fifty, it ignited into a blaze. Another fifteen, and that blaze became an inferno. And by the hundredth, he felt as if he were on the verge of bursting into flames. After that, it didn’t matter how many blows he managed to dodge – the Heart of Flame seemed entirely saturated.

“A hundred dodges,” he said, still easily avoiding the tree minions’ attacks. To Nerthus, he said, “You should probably stand back. I don’t know what this is going to do.”

Nerthus took his advice, slipping into an unseen root and reappearing a few hundred feet away. When he felt Nerthus was safe, Elijah repositioned himself to get the trees lined up in front of him. Then, facing the sea, he let loose with Incinerate.

Predictably, the fire came from his mouth, which he’d opened instinctively.

But unpredictably, it erupted with so much voluminous fire that it took almost three full seconds before the stream cut off. And when it did, he could only blink at the damage he’d wrought.

Everything within a ten-foot-wide strip in front of him – and extending into the ocean – was entirely destroyed. Of the tree minions, only ashes remained, and the rocky beach had been turned into a slurry of melted earth. Even the water had been set to boiling, and after a few seconds, it was still spewing mist.

Elijah could feel that everything in his line of fire was dead.

“Damn,” he muttered.

He stared at it for a long while before he felt Nerthus’ approach. “Impressive. Do you think you could control it better?” the tree spirit asked.

Elijah wasn’t certain of the answer to that question. So, over the next couple of hours, Nerthus provided a steady stream of minions for Elijah to spar. And over that time, he discovered a few things about his new spell.

First of all, the form itself could do plenty of damage on its own. Despite its small size, nearly two-hundred Strength could output some serious force. However, he found it strangely odd, using a staff instead of teeth or claws, which the Shape of the Master lacked. Its fingers were soft, and there weren’t even any teeth in its mouth. Still, he found that he could bite with some measure of force, though it wasn’t nearly on par with any of his other forms.

So, the staff made sense.

Fortunately, Elijah had a little experience with staff-fighting, so he could hold his own, especially with the effects of his increased reaction speeds. It did take a little adjustment to get used to losing nearly two feet and a hundred pounds in weight, but Elijah’s Dexterity helped a lot with that.

Even so, he knew he would need to spend quite some time training before he could hope to live up to the form’s name. Now, though, he had a good reason to truly dedicate himself to practicing fighting with his staff.

Secondly, Elijah discovered that he could regulate the expression of Incinerate’s flames. The default seemed to be the ten-foot-wide stream he’d used the first time, but he could also narrow it significantly, which resulted in a much hotter and denser flame. By contrast, he could also fan it out into a cone, widening the area of effect to nearly thirty feet. That weakened the flames, and they only went about fifteen feet before they petered out, but it was still strong enough to burn the tree minions to ash.

That probably wouldn’t be the case with anything Elijah’s level, but it was difficult to tell for sure without going out and picking a fight with a powerful monster. The extra control was nice, though, and he suspected that he would eventually gain more flexibility with the shape’s defining skill.

Finally, Elijah was able to estimate the level to which his reaction times had been improved, and from what he could tell, it was somewhere between forty and sixty percent. Narrowing it down any further would necessitate quite a bit more testing, but Elijah was happy with what he’d found.

Nerthus, however, definitely looked a little worse for wear.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Elijah asked.

Nerthus shook his head. “That required a lot of ethera. I will be fine after a little rest. If you will excuse me…”

After that, he ambled away, disappearing into the brush. Notably, he did not merge with the trees like normal, which Elijah took to mean that he was truly exhausted.

Once Nerthus was gone, Elijah decided to put his new form through its paces in a more thorough way. He didn’t focus on the give and take of Evasion and Incinerate, but instead, tried to get a handle on his attributes. As he’d expected, his physical abilities were much higher than they had been before, and even though he was barely four feet tall – if that – he had no issues lifting multi-ton rocks. The only thing holding him back from doing more was the awkwardness of the burdens.

In addition, he found that he had a limited ability to stick to surfaces, almost like a watered-down version of the similar characteristic native to Shape of Venom. He wouldn’t be walking up sheer walls or sticking to ceilings, but he could definitely climb very well.

The same was true of swimming, and when he dove into the water, he found himself cutting through the waves with ease. In a moment of inspiration, he removed the Ring of Aquatic Travel, and he found that the new form was indeed amphibious, meaning that he was just as at home in the water as he was on land. Indeed, he felt certain that he could hold his breath nearly indefinitely, which was reassuring, considering how often he found himself submerged. Sure, he always had his ring, but he’d envisioned many scenarios where it might stop working.

After all, he’d been ripped in half fairly recently, so it wasn’t difficult to imagine having his hand cut off. If that happened, he’d lose the ring and its effect. So, having a backup was nice, even if he didn’t really want to think about the situation that might make it necessary.

Regardless, Elijah found that the Shape of the Master was incredibly well-rounded, which was probably something he should have expected, given the name. Still, he suspected that what it was really meant for was single combat.

Shape of Thorn was intended for defense and control. Shape of Venom was nice for ambush and stealth. And Shape of Sky was really only useful as a travel tool. They could all do other things, but it seemed clear what niche each form was meant to fill. And now, Elijah had Shape of the Master to fight powerful, singular opponents.

But like all the others, it could stray outside its niche.

In short, Elijah was extremely happy with what he’d found, and he looked forward to trying it out against the sort of enemy it was meant to counter. He continued to test the form for a couple more hours before he found himself straying towards the cultivation cave. He could feel the dense ethera even from half a mile away, and as he slipped through the tunnel, he almost felt like he was swimming through something semi-solid.

Even though he didn’t need to breathe, the closer he got to the cave, the more he felt significant constriction in his narrow chest.

When he finally arrived at the cave, his eyes widened at the sight. The Leviathan’s Bones covered the entire floor in a thick bed of coralline structures. More importantly, the bed emitted dense pulses of vitality that were almost as strong as Nature’s Bounty had been when he’d first gained the spell.

No wonder it had been the reward for such a difficult task.

Importantly, Elijah felt sure that the cave was ready for what he had planned. However, he had a few other things he needed to do before he went down that road. It was an important first step, but it was one he needed to delay.

So, once he’d confirmed that it was ready, Elijah swam back the way he’d come, then headed inland. He didn’t bother shifting back to his human form, largely because he wanted to continue acclimating to the size of the Shape of the Master. His high Dexterity made that easier, but it would still be some time before he was completely comfortable in the new form.

When he did reach the grove, shifting back into his human form came with a brief wave of dizziness that came with the sudden decrease in his reaction times, but it wasn’t debilitating. Still, it was one more factor he needed to consider. Even a second’s distraction could be devastating in battle.

But for now, Elijah was more focused on other things. Chiefly, he needed to find Nerthus and continue to make plans for his cultivation blitz and, subsequently, the evolution of his class.

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