Path of Dragons

Book 1: Chapter 57: Pack Hunters

As Elijah padded down the corridor, a chill ran up his spine, raising his hackles. Cloaked in Guise of the Unseen, he was safe from observation, but he still felt like something was watching him. Over the past few days, an eerie ambiance had blanketed the labyrinth, setting him on edge even if nothing had outwardly changed. When he looked around, the same moss-covered walls and endlessly twisting turns greeted him.

And yet, he felt like he’d been enveloped by a formless and persistent fear.

Since finding that first body – or hunk of flesh, fur, and bone, really – he had come across a half-dozen more, all in various states of decay. The lack of scavenging insects pushed him even closer to the edge, and he knew it wouldn’t take much to shove him over.

Still, the only way out was through, he kept telling himself. But increasingly, he’d done so with fatalistic despair rather than the stoic determination that had once accompanied the mantra.

He reached out with one paw, scratching a second line next to the one he’d left in his first passing. Then, he chose the other direction, keeping to his pattern. With how much time had passed, he suspected that he was getting closer to his destination. He only had to keep going – even if it felt increasingly futile.

Perhaps the labyrinth was endless.

Maybe he had missed some key detail that would have seen him completing the level without issue.

Elijah’s greatest fear was that it was all just an elaborate death trap.

But still, he continued on, and the days continued to pass. Eventually, he grew accustomed to the fear, and he barely even hesitated when he saw new bodies. The only thing that kept him going was a single-minded refusal to quit.

And it almost got him killed when he turned a corner and very nearly walked into the center of a recently concluded hunt. The most intact simian body he’d yet seen within the maze lay in the middle of the corridor, surrounded by the creatures who’d obviously killed it.

At first, Elijah thought they were terrestrial birds, though that impression was based more on the way they moved than how they looked. It was only when he looked a little closer that he realized that they were four-foot-tall reptiles that stood on two legs.

In real life, raptors had not been the devastating predators portrayed in popular media. Instead, they were much smaller than how they were usually depicted, and they were primarily scavengers. However, these creatures very much resembled the fearsome dinosaurs he’d seen in movies and on television, though they differed in a one major way – they looked like they’d been made of twisted roots, with thorns for teeth and tufts of moss in place of feathers. Still, there were six of the creatures huddled around and tearing chunks of flesh from the carcass.

Elijah backed away, praying that his Guise of the Unseen was enough to keep him hidden. And to his surprise, he made it back around the corner without gaining their attention. When he did, he let out a feline sigh, then sank to his haunches.

He had a choice to make. Either he could backtrack and try to find another way through the maze; there were still plenty of untapped routes. Conversely, he could follow the root raptors. Guise of the Unseen seemed to be up to the task of keeping him hidden, but it would only take a single misstep to ruin the effect.

And then he’d have to deal with an entire pack of the creatures.

The first option was safer, but no matter how he looked at it, Elijah felt it was the wrong move. He’d been trekking through the maze for so long, and he’d barely seen anything break up the monotony. And given that the environment was a manufactured level of the tower, it suggested that there would be no coincidences. If something changed, it was meaningful.

So, it stood to reason that the root raptors were important. Following them was the right choice, even if it was more dangerous than the alternative.

With that in mind, Elijah ensured that his enhancements and Guise of the Unseen were active, then stepped around the corner where he settled down to wait.

The raptors never noticed him, due in no small part to their grisly feast. They tore the simian corpse apart, seemingly reveling in the dismantling as much as they enjoyed the meal. Or perhaps Elijah was anthropomorphizing them. Either way, he forced himself to watch the ghastly scene, and soon enough, one of the creatures let out a piercing cry. The others stopped, whipping around to the leader, and when it took off at a run, they followed.

And just like that, Elijah was alone.

He was tempted to run after them, but that was a good way to get detected. So, he approached the corpse, took a few nips from the leftover meat, then sniffed around. Beneath the overwhelming smell of blood was a wet, musty scent that he instinctively knew belonged to the raptors. After finding that scent, it was easy enough to follow their trail.

As he did, Elijah continued to mark each turn, but he had a sneaking suspicion that if he continued to track the root raptors, he would find his way to his destination.

So it went for the next few hours until he found the scene of another massacre. This time, there were two of the simians, but to Elijah’s surprise, there were also a pair raptor bodies.

And one of them was still alive.

So, once Elijah ensured that there were no other root raptors around, he approached the survivor. It had been pierced through by four arrows, and its labored breathing was shallow. Sap-like blood stained the ground, telling Elijah that the creature was on the verge of death. He had no issues with speeding it along on its way to whatever afterlife awaited the tower’s denizens.

He stepped forward, reared back one forepaw, then activated Predator Strike. He swept his claws forward, ripping through it with a combination of his considerable Strength and the augmentation provided by his ability.

It never even knew what killed it.

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Elijah’s attack destroyed its elongated head, shattering it into a thousand splintered and sap-covered pieces.

He received some kill energy, but it wasn’t enough to send him to the next level. So, after ensuring that there was nothing useful around the corpses, he continued to follow the trail.

Over the next few hours, he came across three more scenes of slaughter, each with two or more simian corpses. However, there weren’t any other dead or dying raptors. Seeing that, he didn’t spend much time investigating them.

As he went, though, the eerie ambiance of the labyrinth continued to grow more and more palpable until every third or fourth step was punctuated by a glance to his rear. He didn’t see anything, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following, that some monster was stalking him.

He strained his senses, but he came up empty.

Until, at last, he caught a whiff of something familiar.

It was just a stray scent, but the moment it wafted beneath his nose, he recognized it. Without hesitation, Elijah leaped to the side, and he was just in time to avoid a descending, thorn-like claw. He skidded to a stop, then used the wall to reverse directions. His claws flashed with Venom Strike before he collided with his attacker. He barreled into it, his claws digging deep and delivering their poisonous payload before he bounded away.

He slid to a stop, then reversed course. Crouching low, he saw the creature pick itself up. The thing was clearly a raptor, but instead of only being four feet tall, it was at least half again that height, with wicked claws and gnashing teeth.

More distressingly, as the thing rose, the remaining pack of root raptors appeared from around the corner. They didn’t stop when they reached the larger monster, instead tearing across the ground with clearly murderous intent.

Elijah knew he couldn’t stand up to so many, so he wasted no time before turning tail and running away. At first, the creatures kept pace, but the moment the System deemed that he’d left combat, his Essence of the Wolf took effect, and he left them behind.

But that wasn’t enough.

Elijah knew it.

These monsters would have to die if he was going to complete the Primordial Maze. It was no different than when he’d had to kill the guardian in the Sea of Sorrows. The only question was how he was going to do it.

Had they always known he was there? Were they simply leading him along so that their alpha could kill him off? Had he walked into a trap? Or was there some other explanation? He didn’t know.

But what Elijah did know was that he had an opportunity. If he could kill a few of the smaller raptors off, he might have a chance to kill the larger one.

To that end, Elijah poured on the speed, hoping to separate the pack. He was certain that the neurotoxin from Venom Strike wouldn’t kill the alpha. His claws had barely even nicked it, suggesting that its Constitution – if monsters even had such attributes – was extremely high. However, the poison would slow it down, he was sure. He hoped that would prevent it from keeping pace, giving him the opportunity he needed to thin the pack.

Once he’d been running for a few minutes, he rounded a corner, then leaped onto the wall. His claws dug into the vines, and he pulled himself up. Immediately, his weight increased, but he didn’t have to go far. Just a few extra feet, and then Elijah once again embraced Guise of the Unseen.

The muscles in his paws strained under his increased weight, but he pushed through it long enough for the raptors to come tearing past him. They kept going, with a couple lagging a little behind.

When the last one passed beneath him, he pounced, falling upon it with Predator Strike. His descending claw ripped through its spine, flattening it against the ground. Then, he snapped out, his jaws closing around the nape of its neck. Then, he squeezed, and the base of its skull shattered.

But Elijah wasn’t finished.

He leaped, bounding off the wall, and attacking the next closest creature. This time, it didn’t go quite as well, but he wasn’t aiming to take it out all at once. Instead, he used Venom Strike, and even though he only managed a glancing blow on the quick monster, he accomplished his goal of infecting it with the ability’s neurotoxin.

He got one more attack in on a third creature, but by that point, he’d started to push his luck. So, having done what he’d intended to do, he turned and took off back in the direction he’d come. However, he turned down one of the two-stripe routes, taking a different path and putting more distance between himself and the pursuing pack of root-raptors.

A few minutes later – well after the effect of Essence of the Wolf returned to speed him along his way – Elijah received a pulse of kill energy as one of the monsters died. A couple of minutes after that, yet another went down.

That left only a few more.

However, when he tried to repeat his tactic, he was distressed to find that the raptors were ready for him. He barely escaped alive, but even so, he sustained a couple of wounds from their vicious claws. Clearly, his Constitution was too low to stand up to them in a stand-up fight. Taking them head-on was a good way to get ripped to pieces.

Fortunately, Elijah was slightly faster, an advantage that was further enhanced when Essence of the Wolf took effect. Still, the fact that they could learn was a disappointing discovery. That meant he couldn’t just keep doing the same thing over and over.

But Elijah’s class, if nothing else, was versatile.

If he couldn’t kill them in his panther form, then his caster form would pick up the slack.

So, once Elijah judged he was far enough ahead, he shifted back to human form, then adjusted his enhancements, exchanging the extra Dexterity of Essence of the Monkey for more Constitution via Essence of the Boar. Then, he cast Healing Rain and settled in to wait at the end of a long corridor.

The three remaining raptors appeared only a minute or so later, and he wasted no time before channeling Storm’s Fury through his Staff of Natural Harmony. Lightning tore across the intervening distance between them, hitting the first monster and knocking it back into the other members of its pack. They went down in a heap, and Elijah cast Snaring Roots, further entangling them. Finally, he brought another Storm’s Fury to bear, intending to keep casting until he finished them off.

The first monster died after the third cast. It took two more to kill the fifth, but by that point, the third and final root raptor had regained its feet and closed the distance. Elijah didn’t have enough Ethera to cast his spell again, so he reared back and swung his staff with every ounce of Strength he could muster. The monster wasn’t expecting the vicious attack, so it took the blow directly in its open mouth.

The impact cracked its lower jaw and the momentum of the attack sent it skidding across the ground. Elijah’s every instinct told him to leap upon it and use finish it off, but his rational mind screamed at him that doing so would be a terrible idea. The alpha couldn’t be that far behind, and even if it didn’t catch up anytime soon, the little raptor was more than capable of ripping him to fleshy ribbons.

So, once again, Elijah turned tail and ran.

It didn’t matter how long it took to kill the thing. Hit and run. That was his game. Standing and fighting was too dangerous.

His feet slapped against the ground as he sprinted to safety. The raptor recovered its feet before Elijah turned a corner, and to his distress, Essence of the Wolf didn’t kick in. Without that extra movement speed, he couldn’t outrun it. Not in human form, at least.

But he could still ambush the thing.

So, as he turned the corner, he reached out, grabbing one of the vines attached to the wall, and forced himself to a stop. Then, he hefted his staff and waited.

The raptor came screaming around the corner only to once again find itself on the wrong end of Elijah’s staff. This time, though, the attack carried with it a Venom Strike, infecting the monster with a neurotoxin that would eventually kill it. Having delivered that blow, Elijah once again sprinted away.

A minute later, Essence of the Wolf took effect, telling him that his strategy of slowing the monster down had been effective. A couple of minutes after that, he received another dose of kill energy.

Just like that, he’d finished the pack off.

Now, Elijah only needed to take out the alpha. Something told him that doing so would be much more difficult than killing the pack of smaller creatures.

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