Path of Dragons-Chapter 54Book 7: : Tensions

“It is abominable, don’t you think?” said Gideon, leaning against the railing and staring out at the gentle waves.

The ferry was incapable of moving quickly – only a couple of miles an hour – so the trip to the island where the Tin Hau Temple was located would take a little while. Elongating that journey was the fact that they were forced to make frequent stops so that Ke Ming, the ferryman, could use one of his abilities meant to dissuade the monsters of the deep from attacking.

Even then, he’d cautioned them that his abilities were not foolproof. If something powerful enough were to take interest in the ship, they would need to defend it. Elijah felt that was reasonable, but Gideon and Nico had both grumbled about wasting ethereum on a “dirty necromancer.”

It was then that Elijah recognized that the pair were allied. Looking more closely, it was so obvious that he started to question his interpretation of social cues. Sure, he’d spent a lot of time alone, and as such, his sense of personal relationships had atrophied. But he’d never thought he was quite that blind to social context.

What was even more troubling was that both Lin Tao and Zhang Ye were seemingly on their side as well. Or at the very least, they were neutral, trying to stay in everyone’s good graces. The only difference was that Sadie’s long absence and Dat’s situation as an outsider put them at a distinct disadvantage. If it wasn’t for Sadie’s position as Tianwei’s granddaughter, she probably would have been ignored entirely.

Even with her obvious power.

“Mr. Hart? Are you ignoring me?” asked Gideon.

“What? Oh. Sorry. Just thinking,” he answered. “What was the question?”

“The undead,” the man replied. “They have taken so much from us, and yet, people like this…ferryman…deign to associate with necromancy.” He turned away from the harbor, then leaned backward against the railing. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. The peasantry will always seek out easy power.”

“Peasantry? Pretty sure Hong Kong isn’t feudal.”

“Not in name, but certainly in practice,” Gideon stated. “We never should have let them take it back. Backward savages who undercut everything we tried to accomplish here. Even before all of this…the city was on the verge of falling into the same quagmire of authoritarianism that plagued the rest of the country. We had a responsibility to the people who lived here, and we failed to maintain the way of life we gave them.”

Clearly, he referred to the Handover of Hong Kong from the late nineties. That was a little before Elijah’s time – he wasn’t old enough back then to even notice it – but he had learned the basic history back in school. After a hundred and fifty years of colonial rule, the British had returned sovereignty over Hong Kong to China. It had been quite an economic detriment to the United Kingdom, but at the same time, a feather in China’s cap.

Gideon likely thought he was speaking from a position that looked out for the best interests of Hong Kong natives, but there was certainly a foundation of colonialist racism in there. As if the rest of the world had been a hotbed of savagery and they’d only civilized under the influence of the west.

The notion left a bad taste in Elijah’s mouth, and his first instinct was to throw Gideon overboard. Still, even though he was certain the man was in the wrong, he didn’t know enough about the socioeconomic or political climate of the region to speak intelligently on the subject and rebut the man’s miniature rant. He was a little offended that Gideon had assumed he’d be an ally, though.

Elijah didn’t get a chance to respond, because at that very moment, he felt something coming from below. “Brace!” he shouted.

A second later, an enormous tentacle burst from the waves and slammed down onto the ferry’s deck. The weight of the thing nearly capsized the boat, but fortunately, a swirl of ethera kept it steady. However, the impact still threw a passenger free. Elijah watched as Lin Tao – the Summoner who’d yet to summon anything – tumbled into the ocean. He prepared to leap in after her, but before he could even move, she disappeared into the maw of a giant, undead squid.

It wasn’t the same one Elijah had seen before. If it had been, the ship would have been torn to pieces. Instead, this was a much smaller version, but in the moment, that didn’t seem to matter very much. It was more than large enough – with its tentacles being at least five feet in diameter and hundreds of feet long – to sink the ferry.

Elijah acted, darting forward and shifting into the Shape of Venom. Partially, that was so he could keep his footing on the slick and rocking deck, but it was mostly because it seemed like the best way to kill the creature.

He leaped, landing on the rubbery and rotting tentacle a second later. He dug his claws into slimy stuff, shoving them even deeper when the surface layer of the thing’s flesh began to slough off.

He bit it.

And immediately, he regretted his actions. Elijah could feel the veritable cascade of bacteria entering his mouth, and they didn’t waste any time making him sick. The inside of his mouth started to rot, but he didn’t hesitate to bite again. And again after that.

Over and over, he bit the thing, and with each attack, another instance of Envenom raced up the creature’s tentacle and to its main body. However, he could only keep going for so long before he was forced to shift back into his human form, leap free, and start healing himself.

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In the space of only a few seconds, his jaw had very nearly rotted off, and it took all three of his healing spells – Blessing of the Grove, Soothe, and Nature’s Bloom – to reverse course. When the last spell bloomed, it tipped him over the edge, defeating the rot.

Meanwhile, the creature’s tentacle had begun to spasm, and Ke Ming used some sort of skill to repel the monster just enough to free the ship from its slimy clutches. Elijah felt the undead rowers push the ferry to greater speed, but he knew the squid wasn’t going to let it go so easily.

Thankfully, Sadie appeared, glowing sword in hand. She didn’t use any fancy attacks, skills, or spells as she joined the battle. Instead, she simply hacked into squid’s enormous tentacle. Normally, her sword likely would have simply bounced off the rubbery flesh, but with Elijah’s venom coursing through the creature and weakening it, it had no defense against her sharp blade.

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It bit deep, and the monster went wild. More tentacles erupted from the water, but the squid was intelligent enough not to commit too many of its tendrils to battle. It might’ve been powerful, but so were the ferry’s defenders. And it had most probably never been forced to feel significant pain, which made it hesitate.

Sadie used that hesitation to continue her fight against the monster. At the same time, Dat leveled his crossbow and fired. The bolt hit the squid in its mostly submerged body, and it started to convulse.

Elijah rejoined the battle after shifting into the Shape of Thorn. Like Sadie, he didn’t bother with any complex maneuvers. Instead, he lowered his shoulder and rammed into the partially severed tentacle. A squelching sound echoed in his ears as the tendril ripped free, and Sadie finally cut through the final bit.

“Throw it overboard!” shouted Ke Ming from his position at the helm.

Elijah wrapped his arms and roots around the giant tentacle and lifted. It wasn’t as heavy as some of the huge rocks he’d carried, but it was a far more awkward burden. That didn’t matter. All he needed to do was get enough of it off the deck, and then gravity would take over from there.

To his horror, though, the tentacle didn’t want to go without a fight. Even detached from its host, it bucked and twisted like an enraged snake, and what’s more, it began to emit a powerfully noxious gas that Elijah knew would have detrimental effects.

Fortunately, he had enough Strength to wrestle it into some semblance of submission, and with Sadie’s help, they managed to tip it over the edge. Even as it disappeared under the waves, the ferry surged forward, moving far more rapidly than before.

Elijah knew it wouldn’t be enough to outrun the squid, but to his surprise, the thing remained stationary, almost as if it was terrified of continuing the fight.

“It won’t last long, bro,” Dat called down, almost as if he could read Elijah’s mind. “Curse of Binding. Keeps it in place for around thirty seconds. It’ll come back at us as soon as the spell effect fades.”

“Shoot it again!” screamed Gideon, who hadn’t even participated in the fight.

“Cooldowns, bro.”

“Useless!”

Elijah shifted back into his human form, already healing. To his credit, Nico had already begun to heal as well, though he did so from the cover of the ferry’s cabin. It was likely the smart move – after all, if the Healer went down, the group usually followed – but after spending so much time with Ron, who never had any issue with rushing into danger, it smacked of cowardice.

Elijah knew it wasn’t fair, but there it was.

As the ferry sped away, Elijah focused on banishing the effects of the noxious gas. To his shock, it left behind an extremely stubborn effect that reduced his physical attributes by fifty points each. Fortunately, Elijah had Blessing of the Grove, which now featured the ability to banish negative ailments.

Even as the sunflower grew in the center of the ship, Elijah watched the still-stationary squid. When the flower bloomed, he felt it begin to work on the debuff, though it took the flower’s entire duration to cure it entirely.

By that point, Dat’s Curse of Binding had worn out.

Elijah glanced at the island, the shore of which was still a hundred yards away. “We’re not going to make it,” he muttered to himself. He leveled his staff at the quickly moving monster and cast Swarm. A thousand piranha manifested, and they immediately tore into the creature. Chunks of flesh flew in every direction, shocking Elijah with just how many more pests he’d managed to summon. What’s more, he sensed that the afflictions they inflicted were that much more powerful.

The squid faltered.

The ship surged forward, then slammed into the beach. Miraculously, the hull wasn’t ripped away, which Elijah figured came from some sort of ability from the ferryman. He didn’t have time to truly consider it, because the second they made landfall, he sensed hundreds of zombies rush into range of Soul of the Wild.

“Sadie! Defend front!” he shouted.

Such was the effect of a year’s worth of cooperation in the Trial that she immediately leaped from the ship. Her feet thudded into the sand, and she commanded, “Support me!”

To their credit, the others – including Gideon – followed her. And soon enough, the sprinting zombies hit an ethereal bulwark that Elijah suspected was a new ability. It didn’t last long, shattering a moment later, but that was enough to give Sadie and Gideon an opportunity to thin the herd. At the same time, Dat repeatedly fired arrows into the mass of undead.

Even though he sensed there was more to come, Elijah couldn’t afford the focus necessary to worry about them. Because the squid was only a few dozen yards away, and from what Elijah felt, it was not happy about what had happened.

He rushed forward, already shifting into Shape of the Master. The way he saw it, it was the only way he could both keep the thing’s attention while giving him a chance at finishing it off.

Wading into the water, he planted himself in the monster’s way. Then, he waited – but for only a half second – before another enormous tentacle erupted from the water and descended upon him. Elijah dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the massive limb. It kicked up a shower of sand and rock, but he escaped unscathed, sparking Heart of Fire.

Yet, he knew he couldn’t just dodge the thing’s attacks. If he didn’t keep its attention, it would climb ashore and assault his companions. They had everything they could handle with the zombie horde – which included a couple of abominations as well as plenty of ranged attackers – so if they were attacked from both sides, they would fall.

Elijah wasn’t going to let that happen.

So, he leaped forward, taking the offensive as he leveraged every point of his inflated Strength into a staff strike aimed directly at the monster’s fleshy body. It wasn’t built like a normal squid. Instead, it was more like someone had mashed together an insect, an octopus, and a crocodile to create something wholly alien and completely terrifying.

As horrific a creature as it was, its odd physiology offered one benefit to Elijah. It had clear weak sports in the hundreds of eyes peppering its head. He didn’t know much about the monster, but he knew enough that, when the opportunity presented itself, poking an enemy in the eye was always a good idea.

The Feral Spire slammed into the monster’s bulbous eye, and the gooey orb exploded upon impact, spraying Elijah with a bunch of caustic muck that immediately inflicted a host of afflictions meant to rot him to pieces. Fortunately, he’d cast Blessing of the Grove before shifting into Shape of the Master, so the curing effect was still ongoing.

The monster went wild, and a thousand smaller tentacles erupted from its back, spraying even more liquified rot in every direction. Thankfully, getting splattered didn’t count as getting hit, because his single charge of Heart of Fire didn’t dissipate.

And perhaps more importantly, the small tentacles screaming toward him represented a perfect opportunity to build more. Dodging the first few was easy enough, but before long, the air was full of the things. Not only would getting hit by one of the tentacles negate the rest of Elijah’s efforts, but because each tentacle was barbed, he knew they would rip him to shreds like a chainsaw.

He dipped and ducked, leaping into the air and spinning as he dodged or redirected every tendril. His charges of Heart of Fire built very quickly, and within ten seconds, he was already halfway to his maximum.

Elijah kept going, though, largely because he suspected that if he cut it short – even by a little – the thing would live. At least as much as an undead creature could.

Over the next fifteen seconds, Elijah was pushed to his limits as he avoided the tentacles. It was such a tall task that he was forced to use every facet of his mind – save for the ones dedicated to his Locus and Soul of the Wild – to assist him in the endeavor. It was as much a feat of endurance, speed, reaction, and technique as it was a mental struggle, but eventually, Elijah reached ninety-eight charges.

He ducked under a tentacle.

Ninety-nine.

He slapped another aside with his staff, but as expected, he didn’t gain another charge.

Then, he dove to the side, dodging another tentacle by less than an inch.

One hundred.

With that, Elijah opened his mouth and unleashed Incinerate.