Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

Icicles hung from the ceiling, and thick frost coated every surface, but Elijah forced himself to ignore the biting cold as he raced through the corridor as quickly as he could manage. Behind him, two hulking ogres, both covered in icy spikes, followed with deceptive speed. Each stride of their long legs ate quite a bit of distance, and they had the Strength to propel their massive bodies forward with alarming alacrity. Still, Elijah narrowly outpaced them.

But he had no idea what to do next.

Two facets of his mind whirled with one idea after another as he searched for some way to salvage the situation, but there were no clever tricks to be found. Especially when he turned a corner and ran headlong into two more icy ogres that should not have been there.

He ducked, sliding across the icy-slick floor as he avoided a similarly coated axe as it descended on the spot he’d just vacated. It sent shards of ice flying, but by that point, Elijah was already leaping high into the air.

But not high enough.

Thinking quickly, he used Venom Strike before raking his claws across the face of yet another ice ogre. As it reeled back in pain, Elijah kicked off the creature’s shoulder, bounded off the wall, then hit the ground running. The whole thing had only taken little more than a second, but even that was enough to give the pursuing ogres the chance to catch up. Fortunately, they hadn’t expected to run into their fellows either, and as a result, one pair collided with another, resulting in a tangled scrum of hulking monsters.

That was the opportunity Elijah had been waiting for.

He dug his claws into the floor, grinding to a stop. The moment his momentum had been arrested, he whipped around, shifting back to his human form. Even as his body morphed, he threw out his staff and shoved Ethera into Calamity. He released it only a moment later, and the fury of nature descended upon the fallen ogres.

Lightning cracked. Thunder rolled. And the ground was rent asunder, ripping through the prone monsters without mercy. However, Elijah paid little attention to that. Instead, he was already casting a second spell. As he forced Ethera into Swarm, hundreds of crystalline rats formed from the ice on the walls, then scurried forward to fall on the reeling ogres.

Even then, Elijah wasn’t finished casting.

With the influx of levels as well as his advancement in cultivation, his core had grown quite a bit larger than it had been in the beginning. That translated into the ability to cast more spells before he ran dry. So, he had plenty of fuel to use in the attempt to salvage the situation his carelessness had foisted upon him.

So, he channeled Storm’s Fury through his staff, sending a thick bolt of lightning out to join the storm summoned by Calamity. It struck the closest ogre directly in the upturned face, sending a powerful electrical current arcing through the massive creature’s body.

But it didn’t stop there.

Because it was touching all the other ogres – who were conveniently clad in iron, which made for a great conductor – the electrical current flowed from one to the other, effectively extending the single cast to four targets.

So, seeing how effective it was, Elijah cast it again. Then, he went for a third cast, but by that point, he knew he was pushing his luck as well as his core’s capacity. So, he stepped forward, cocked his staff back, and used Venom Strike before hitting the closest ogre in the face. The staff took the creature in the jaw, and Elijah was rewarded by the sound of breaking bones – or cracking ice, perhaps. More importantly, he delivered the neurotoxin of Venom Strike.