Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO ON KINDLE SEPT. 2)

Anger coursed through Elijah’s entire body, gripping his mind with implacable fury as he laid waste to the monsters clambering across his scaley body. They bit, and they clawed, and despite his high Constitution and the durable nature of his Shape of the Guardian, they left him in ruins.

Yet, Elijah was no stranger to pain.

He could endure whatever the ghouls dished out. Not so for his companions. Fortunately, with every passing moment, they drew closer to safety. He hoped. They’d passed out of his detection range, so he couldn’t be sure.

Elijah had lost track of how long it had been since that idiot Badu had ruined everything with his misguided attempt at heroics. But it had been at least an hour. Maybe much longer. In any case, he didn’t have much opportunity to focus on anything else, because the horde of ghouls just kept coming.

At first, he’d expected to finish the alpha off – which he had with no difficulty – and rejoin his party members. However, by the time he’d broken free, even more ghouls had arrived, and they stood between him and wherever the elves had taken shelter. He didn’t know if they were alive or dead.

In fact, all Elijah really knew was that he was furious.

With the ghouls. With the tower. With the system that had created it. But most of all, his fury was directed at Badu, who’d started the cascade of misfortune that had seen Elijah surrounded by hellish ghouls.

He channeled that anger into his attacks. In the lamellar ape form, he didn’t bother with fancy maneuvers. Most of the time, he simply bashed his enemies with his superior Strength and the leverage of his long arms. Sometimes, he ripped them to pieces. Other times, he used an unlucky ghoul as a temporary weapon, battering its fellows to death with a green-skinned cudgel.

But there was no grace to it.

Simple power and durability.

Still, he took plenty of damage. The monsters’ claws were sharp, and what’s more, they had some sort of ability that made them even more lethal. And finally, there was an unidentifiable affliction buried in each attack, and as it built up, Elijah found himself growing weaker.

He had Strength to spare, though. So, he continued his massacre. Even when alpha ghouls showed up, he barely slowed. They couldn’t stand up to his might.

Elijah knew he was on a timer, though. The affliction continuously built, sapping his Strength. Eventually, it would push past the point of no return and weaken him enough that the endless tide of ghouls overcame even his vaunted Constitution.

So, he slowly followed the path of his companions, hoping that they’d found somewhere to hole up. And to his surprise, Elijah found just that an hour or so later when he spied a mausoleum. It was made all of black marble decorated with sharp points that reminded Elijah of Gothic architecture. But it had a sturdy door protected by a shield of shimmering ethera. More importantly, when he drew closer, he could sense his companions inside. The elves were all prone, clearly injured, and surrounded by other people who seemed to be tending them.

By the time he reached the door, Elijah was on his last legs. The insidious affliction had sapped his Strength to almost nothing, and his hide hung from his body in tatters. He shouted, “Let me in!”

He heard Badu weakly mumble something about leaving him out there, but he was overruled by K’hana, who begged the other people to let him inside. They complied, and the shield of ethera flickered, then disappeared. After that, a group of people – humans, by the look – poured out, burying the ghouls in a series of spells.

They weren’t powerful, but each spell had an added effect of repelling the monsters. Elijah dashed past them, stumbling through the door. A moment later, the mausoleum’s defenders collapsed back through the entrance, restoring the shield. Then, they slammed the door, sealing the ghoulish horde outside.

Elijah dropped to his knees, his scales in tatters. Pain and weakness coursed through his entire body, drowning his mind in confusion. His vision began to darken, and he verged on losing consciousness. However, one facet of his Quartz Mind managed to maintain enough focus for him to use Guardian’s Renewal.

As the ability took hold, his body mended. But the weakness persisted. The ethera that drove the ability fought against it, going back and forth until, at last, it came through. The weakness disappeared and, as Elijah’s body finished its healing, he let out a sigh of relief. Then, he shifted back to his human form.

For a long moment, he remained on his hands and knees. His crook remained on the floor of the mausoleum as he tried to catch his breath. But he wasn’t focused on any of that. Instead, the whole of his attention was on the fact that Guardian’s Renewal had, for the very first time, struggled to heal him.

And that wasn’t supposed to happen.