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

“Okay, so I really didn’t think this through,” Elijah muttered to himself once he was out of sight of the guards. Not only was he still wearing his suit, which he’d worn in an effort to impress the guild leaders, but he also lacked the time to truly investigate the situation. Especially if it was as dangerous as the others seemed to think it was.

With that in mind, Elijah shifted into the Shape of the Scourge, as much to protect his clothes as to use its abilities. The transformation came with an influx of power, sending his attributes soaring to new heights, as well as the ability to use Guise of the Unseen. He let the stealth ability conceal him only a moment later.

Once he became invisible, he took a look at his surroundings, but, for the first time in a long time, chose not to indulge his curiosity. His meeting with the guild wasn’t for a few more hours, but he didn’t want to chance damaging his suit. It probably would have been fine – if it hadn’t been destroyed by what he’d done after the pirate invasion of the grove, it wouldn’t be harmed by the bestial residents of Central Park – but he thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

After all, he hadn’t brought any other fancy clothes with him.

So, without further hesitation, he ran back toward the wall, and in a single leap, cleared it. There was a slight shimmer of ethera that accompanied his passage, but nothing tried to stop him. In moments, he’d torn off across the street. At top speed, he could more than keep up with the city’s cars, so he had no issue weaving in out of traffic.

Idly, he wondered what the city’s residents would think if they could perceive his presence. Doubtless, the sight of a ten-foot-long raptor-dragon would incite quite a lot of panic.

It only took a few moments for those thoughts to take a backseat to a realization – someone was following him. Three someones in fact, all riding motorcycles powered by ethera. And from what Elijah could tell, they all seemed reasonably powerful. Ascended, though not by a lot.

He turned, leaping to a skyscraper and running along its side. The form didn’t feature the same ability to stick to any surface characterized by the Shape of Venom, but sheer momentum meant that sprinting along the vertical surface wasn’t difficult. After only a second, he reached the end of the building and leaped, covering more than two-hundred feet in a single bound. When he hit the sidewalk on a perpendicular street, he’d left the motorcycles behind.

However, he quickly discovered that his opponents were far from unintelligent, because they’d created an impromptu roadblock that stretched across the street.

That was when Elijah got a good look at the pursuers. They wore NYPD uniforms of deep blue, with their badges proudly displayed. However, instead of carrying pistols on their hips, most were armed with stout cudgels and what looked like riot shields.

Not wanting to immediately resort to violence – or maybe because he very much did – he slowed to a stop, then let Shape of the Scourge fall away.

Striding forward confidently, he called out, “I’m going to guess this is for me. Can I help you gentlemen?”

“Stop right there!” shouted one of the men, drawing his club and holding his shield before him.

As Elijah did just that, the motorcycle riders pulled in behind him. All three carried versions of the rifles he’d seen back in Seattle. Annoying. Even more frustratingly, they didn’t hesitate to point those weapons in his direction.

“You really want to think about this before you do something stupid,” Elijah said in as calm a voice as he could manage. He had no real interest in killing anyone, but if they attacked him, he was more than willing to make certain that they paid the price. And his weapon of choice would be the most horrifying spell he could cast: