Path of Dragons-Chapter 87Book 7: : Down, but Not Out

Elijah crested the lip of the platform to see two things. The first was Sadie taking a skeleton’s axe to the shoulder. It shattered her ethereal shield, cutting deep into her torso. Blood sprayed from the wound as she collapsed, and Elijah’s heart caught in his chest. But via Soul of the Wild, he felt something else that drew his attention.

Suddenly, Dat appeared out of nowhere. Positioned behind Avara, Queen of Desolation, he’d just rammed his sword into her chest. However, she reacted almost faster than Elijah could track, spinning around and grabbing the Witch Hunter by the neck. Her fingers closed, and even from so far away, Elijah could see that his friend was going to die.

But out of nowhere, ethera and faith surged around Dat. Avara released her hold on his neck, and he fell backward onto the throne. She stumbled in the other direction, barely capable of remaining on her feet. More importantly, every undead creature on the platform faltered, then collapsed, lifeless and unmoving.

Elijah felt Dat’s vitality dissipating by the passing second, and he reacted accordingly. He beat his wings as powerfully as he could manage, surging forward until he slammed into the ground in an awkward landing.

At the same time, Sadie screamed, “No! Heal him! Not me!”

Even as Elijah cast his healing spells – first, Blessing of the Grove, then Soothe, and finally Nature’s Bloom – he felt the source of Sadie’s distress. Nico had healed her wounds rather than targeting Dat. And she had a clear opinion about that choice.

“I’m spent,” Nico breathed, falling to his knees. “I can’t heal anymore.”

That sent Sadie into a panic, but Elijah focused more on his own task as he continued to heal Dat. However, it was like he was pouring water into a bucket that had a hole in it. No matter how much he healed his friend, his body refused to hold the vital energy. Instead, it all just seeped out, never actually taking hold.

Then, Sadie was there.

She used her most potent Miracle – the one that had once regrown Elijah’s lower half – and a torrent of potent ethera flooded out of her. But she encountered the same problems Elijah had, and all but a few dregs of that life-giving energy dissipated into the atmosphere.

Tears in her eyes, Sadie used her other healing spell. In the best of times, it was only enough to mend minor injuries, and Dat’s situation certainly didn’t qualify for that label. Elijah continued his own efforts, but even as he cast one instance of Nature’s Bloom after another, he knew it was futile.

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Never was that more obvious than when he looked at his friend’s waxy complexion. Elijah had seen plenty of dead bodies. He could recognize the lifeless eyes. The expressionless face. The absence of vital energy, save for what he and Sadie were pouring into the Witch Hunter.

“Sadie.”

She didn’t acknowledge him.

“Sadie!”

“Not now, Elijah. I need to concentrate,” she responded, urgency and a note of panic in her voice. “I’m almost there.”

He reached out, gripping her shoulder. Her pauldron had been destroyed by the skeleton’s axe, leaving the skin bare. Her flesh was cold and trembling. “He’s gone, Sadie.”

“What? No. He’s –”

“Gone. I’m sorry, but…”

Elijah had no idea how to complete that sentence. Even uttering it left him feeling empty, like the entire world had just fallen out beneath him and he was in freefall. Yet, he could feel that Sadie had taken it worse, and for valid reasons. Dat was her closest friend. A confidant on whom she had leaned since the very beginning. Their relationship stretched back well before Earth had felt the touch of the World Tree, and it had only grown stronger after the world’s transformation.

Relatively speaking, Elijah’s friendship with Dat was – or had been – a shallow and inconsequential thing. He almost felt guilty even comparing the two, even though he knew that grief wasn’t the sort of thing people should weigh against one another.

Sadie was saved the necessity of a response when movement nearby jerked her attention away from Dat’s body. Elijah felt it too, and he focused on the Queen of Desolation as she rose from the ground. Disoriented, she looked around at all the corpses. But then, she turned her attention to Dat.

And she smirked.

That tiny expression was all it took to break whatever control Sadie had managed to instill over her emotions. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she pushed herself to her feet and leveled her sword at the monster who’d killed her closest friend.

“Pitiful, little angel –”

Sadie didn’t let Avara get another word out before she threw herself at the demonic woman. As she sprinted across the intervening distance, she blazed with white light, and wings manifested from her back. They too were made of light, and they cast the entire platform in bright illumination.

Avara flinched away, but by the time Sadie reached her, the demon had recovered enough to meet the charge. Sadie’s sword cut a blazing arc through the air, but it was intercepted by Avara’s raised staff of twisted black bone. Sadie used the momentum of her charge to put a shoulder into the slimmer Queen of Desolation, knocking her backward a few feet.

That additional room gave Sadie enough space to deliver a vicious kick that should have broken the demon’s leg. It didn’t, proving that even having been so thoroughly weakened by Dat’s sacrifice, Avara was no easy opponent.

Elijah snapped out of his stupor.

Sadie didn’t need to fight alone. He recast Blessing of the Grove, then Soothe. Neither was currently necessary for the fight, but he wanted to be ready in case Sadie took a hit. He’d already lost one friend, and he certainly didn’t intend to let another one die.

Once those two spells were cast, Elijah shifted into Shape of Venom, then cast Lurking Swarm. As the phase spiders manifested and leaped at the Queen of Desolation, Elijah did the same. Before long, she was covered in the crystalline arachnids. Each one delivered a dose of venom before they were shattered into a million pieces that quickly dissipated into the atmosphere.

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Meanwhile, Elijah darted in, using Envenom as he nipped her legs. She tried to avoid his attacks, but with so much else going on, she couldn’t afford the attention necessary to dodge. At the same time, Sadie’s assault never ceased. Wings of light blazing with righteous fury, she attacked like a machine. Elijah had never seen her move so quickly or with such precision, and yet, the Queen of Desolation never faltered. She met every attack with her staff, slapping the blade of Sadie’s sword aside just enough to avoid being cut in two.

Eventually, Elijah had delivered as much venom as he could manage, and he shifted back into his human form to renew his heals. Sadie still hadn’t taken any damage, but he knew her ability wouldn’t last forever. Once it faded, she would need the healing.

After he’d finished that off, Elijah shifted into Shape of Thorn. Again, he cast that form’s version of Swarm, though after everything he’d done since the battle began, he was starting to feel the effects on his stamina.

But he knew he couldn’t afford to hold back. The Queen of Desolation wasn’t as overbearing as Yloa – not in comparison to their current power levels – but she was perhaps even more dangerous, largely because they didn’t have so much back-up. No Ron. No Lamar and his group. No more Dat. It was just Elijah and Sadie against an ascended being who outstripped them in every possible way.

The only reason they’d survived so far was because Dat had weakened her so significantly. Elijah didn’t know how long that would last, but he suspected it wouldn’t be forever. They needed to end the fight, and sooner rather than later, or his sacrifice would end up counting for nothing.

With that in mind, Elijah watched the mites conjured by Thornbound Legion descend upon Avara and burrow into her skin. She slowed noticeably as they exploded into splinters, but Elijah didn’t pay much attention to that. Instead, he shifted into Shape of the Master, and for the final time, cast Primal Swarm.

Fire beetles manifested from the local ethera, and the swarm of glowing insects didn’t waste a second before divebombing the Queen of Desolation. A series of explosions followed, doing minor damage, but more importantly, slowing the demon woman even more noticeably.

That gave Sadie a slight edge, and she used it to her advantage. Meanwhile, Elijah abandoned the Shape of the Master and prepared for Sadie’s ability to end. It did only a few seconds later, and the effect was immediate. The Queen of Desolation hit Sadie with a baseball-style swing that should have crushed the Crusader’s hip, and yet, with Elijah’s Blessing of the Grove – plus Sadie’s personal shield – it did nothing.

Sadie countered it by punching the demon woman in the face with enough force to dislodge her jaw. Finally, Sadie sagged as the effects of her ability faded entirely. Avara sensed her weakness and pounced.

Elijah met her staff to staff, but he was absolutely floored by the degree of Strength the demon put behind her blow. He skidded backward from the force of the impact, but he maintained his feet. A recovered Sadie used that opportunity to attack. She stabbed forward, but the demon’s sudden retreat meant that Avara only took a flesh wound.

She created a little more distance, allowing Sadie to complete her recovery from the loss of such a powerful buff.

“Your fate is inevitable. Surrender, and I will make your deaths quick,” Avara announced, though her voice quivered as she dealt with the sheer volume of afflictions eating through her. Burns covered large swaths of her body, and her wings had wilted under the effects of Elijah’s venom. Finally, discoloration progressively crept up her neck, evidence that it had not halted its spread.

She might not have been dying, but she definitely wasn’t at full strength.

By comparison, Sadie and Elijah were practically in pristine condition.

Side by side, they advanced, ignoring the demon’s offer. Elijah’s pool of ethera had dissipated to almost nothing, but he had enough to power a few heals – or a single transformation.

“No more heals,” he whispered after re-casting Blessing of the Grove. Hopefully, it would prove to be enough. Sadie nodded, and Elijah commenced a final shift into Shape of the Master.

He’d considered Shape of Thorn, but the form was too lumbering to be useful. And even with Unchecked Growth powering Domain of Vines, Avara was too strong to be held. But Shape of the Master was perfect for working with Sadie against a single opponent. In that form, he was small and quick. And if he could build a few instances of Heart of Fire, that ability was probably the only one in his repertoire strong enough to quickly finish the Queen of Desolation.

By the time the transformation completed, Elijah and Sadie had reached their foe. Hatred billowed off Sadie as she aimed one vicious blow after another at the demon. Meanwhile, Elijah used his enhanced reflexes to dart in and out, hammering his Feral Spire into Avara’s legs and hips. None of his attacks were strong enough to cause major damage, but his chosen task wasn’t to end the fight on his own. Rather, he wanted to distract and wear down the Queen of Desolation.

She didn’t take it lying down, though. Her own staff blurred faster than any weapon Elijah had ever seen before. Even the master of the Shrine of War couldn’t move so quickly, and more than once, Elijah had his plans to build instances of Heart of Fire fouled by her efforts. If he’d focused only on dodging, he might have managed it.

Maybe.

But in this fight, he was not the primary attacker. That role belonged to Sadie who fought with more aggression than Elijah had witnessed from her in any of their previous battles. She didn’t care about self-preservation. She simply threw herself into the fight without regard for her own safety.

That’s where Elijah stepped in.

He deflected blows that would have shattered Sadie’s bones, and on more than one occasion, took the hits himself. Due to the development of his combat style, he was mostly effective, though he did end up with a broken arm when he didn’t move quite fast enough to avoid the full weight of one of Avara’s blows.

Still, despite their best efforts, they fought at a stalemate.

The clacking of staff-on-staff, grunts of effort, and the sound of Sadie’s sword smashing into Avara’s weapon filled the air. Then, finally, Elijah saw an opening.

Or more of a tell, really.

It was nothing more than a slight discoloration of Avara’s knuckles as she gripped her staff a little more firmly, but it preceded every attack. Seeing that, Elijah waited until just before she aimed what could have been a debilitating blow at Sadie’s head. Elijah timed his own attack to hit just before Avara’s staff descended.

The Feral Spire smashed into her wrist, harnessing the full weight of his Strength as it broke the demon’s delicate bones. She tried to clutch her staff a little harder, but when Sadie raised her sword to block, the force of the two weapons’ collision was enough to dislodge the staff from her grip.

It fell away, skipping across the ground before it settled between two zombie corpses.

That was the beginning of the end.

After being disarmed, Avara made a good showing as she dodged more attacks than landed. But every blow took its toll, slowing her even more until Sadie managed to ram her sword through the demon’s chest. Elijah didn’t hesitate to smash his staff over her head, and the sound of cracking bone echoed across the platform.

Avara didn’t die, though.

That was the thing about Regeneration. Often, powerful people clung to life long after they were incapacitated. When that happened, one needed to practically hack them apart to finish them off.

So, that was what he and Sadie did.

It was a gruesome and gory process, but Sadie neither hesitated nor let her dedication to the act wane. Not even after they received a flood of experience announcing the demon’s death.

And a notification telling them that they had defeated the Primal Realm.

Neither of them cared, though. Once it was clear that the Queen of Desolation had finally succumbed to her many injuries, they both turned their attention to Dat. He lay where they’d left him, half draped on the throne.

In a stupor, Elijah and Sadie approached. Elijah fell to his knees, his hand on his friend’s lifeless chest. And he wept.

Sadie remained standing, her cheeks still wet. But no more tears came. Instead, she just stared at Dat, her face impassive but somehow conveying a sense of anguish that Elijah had rarely seen before.

Only once, in his own mirror after his parents had died.

He didn’t know how to deal with it then, and he certainly didn’t know now. So, without any notion of what else to do, he simply wept, letting his grief overcome his every other thought.