Book 8: Chapter 74: The Forge of Adaptation |
The world shook.
Ethera surged all around, infusing the very air with dense energy. As he gripped what was left of the massive mechanical heart, Elijah looked around in confusion – and more than a little trepidation. Upon destroying the Prime Mechanique’s core, he had fully expected the battle to be over. Yet, he’d gotten no experience notifications. Nor had he received a message telling him he’d completed the Primal Realm.
The quake intensified, throwing Elijah from his feet. He slammed against the inner wall of the massive golem, and with enough force that the impact would have broken a normal human’s bones. It felt like being in a car accident without a seat belt, and every rumble sent Elijah bouncing off the walls. That continued until he finally shifted into the Shape of Venom, then latched onto a surface.
That didn’t really help.
Suddenly, he felt the ground lurch beneath him as the golem flipped and tumbled.
Elijah needed to get out, to see what was going on. Otherwise, he’d never be able to combat the situation. To that end, he slithered across the inner surface of the golem’s chest, then climbed through its neck. The whole trip twisted Elijah’s stomach into knots as the thing never stopped moving.
And then, he squeezed through the wound he’d ripped in its neck and leaped free. He hit the floor a second later only to see hundreds of golems – many of which he’d no doubt disabled once before – putting themselves back together. Even more frustratingly, they had no trouble maintaining their footing.
For his part, Elijah knew that if he shifted out of the Shape of Venom and lost its ability to stick to any surface, he would be thrown around like a ragdoll.
Because the entire building was moving, and not like an earthquake. The sound of tumbling earth and twisting metal filled Elijah’s ears as the forges erupted with billowing heat. Pistons pumped in the distance, slamming into pools of molten lava and filling the atmosphere with the sound reminiscent of a steam engine.
One thing was certain – whatever was going on, it had nothing to do with nature.
The giant golem tumbled across the forge floor, smashing through the smaller creatures of metal and rock, sending their parts scattering in every direction. Then, it hit the wall hundreds of yards away. Only then did it stop, creating a dent in the black iron surface.
Elijah couldn’t give it any more attention, though, because the golems had finally completed their reassembly. There were many more than before, and they had all homed in on Elijah as the obvious target. The first wave rushed forward with plodding gaits that inexplicably covered too much ground. The second line fired balls of molten metal at him.
Elijah dodged low, then used Flicker Step to completely bypass the front line and attack the ranged golems. He couldn’t be certain – Soul of the Wild gave him no feedback on the artificial monsters – but he reasoned that the ranged golems would be far less durable than their frontline counterparts.
It did not go as planned.
Elijah managed to get a bite in, and it worked well enough. He could feel the venom coursing through the creature. However, there were two major problems. First of all, it wasn’t nearly as effective as he would’ve expected, based on the creature’s apparent power. That could easily be explained by the fact that it was not an organic creature. That Envenom worked at all was only due to its basis as a magical attack. Undoubtedly, a mundane toxin would’ve had no effect at all. They were machines, which probably came with some degree of resistance.
The second issue was that the second he appeared on the monster’s back, the others pivoted and redirected their fiery balls of molten metal. Even as they hissed through the air, Elijah realized that the things had no mandate to avoid damaging one another. So long as he was in their line of sight, they would attack, and without any regard to the effect on their fellows.
Even as Elijah leaped away, he considered using that to his advantage, but he quickly discarded that plan as unviable. There were just too many. As he bounced from one monster to the next, he narrowly dodged those deadly projectiles, dipping low or leaping high above them. It was all he could do to avoid the barrage, much less use it as a weapon.
For a while, Elijah continued on, inflicting Envenom where he could even as the building continued to tilt and rumble. But opportunities to attack were few and far between, which necessitated a shift in tactics. Shape of the Master was out. Not only did he question whether Ignite would be an effective weapon against them, but stopping to breathe fire would likely see him buried under a barrage of molten metal.
Similarly, Shape of the Sky was a no-go as well. If he couldn’t avoid the fiery projectiles in Shape of Venom, then he definitely couldn’t in his flight form. Besides, the space wasn’t nearly vertical enough to accommodate free flight. It was too cluttered and claustrophobic for that.
So, by process of elimination, he shifted into the Shape of Thorn.
The second he lost the additional Dexterity that came with the Shape of Venom, he stumbled. That brief interruption made him a perfect target, and immediately, dozens of molten balls of metal hit him. He gritted his teeth as his scales hissed from the heat, but his Constitution was up to the task of keeping him alive – for now.
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So, as soon as he regained his balance, he went on the offensive. The golems might have been resistant to his venom, but they couldn’t say as much about his raking claws. He went wild, using his immense Strength to tear a path through the artificial monsters. And he wasn’t just limited to his arms, legs, or jaws, either. He used his other appendages as well, whipping his tail around and impaling the golems with its barbed tip while the vines on his arms and shoulders leaped into action.
To an outsider, they likely seemed like they moved independently, but in reality, Elijah had devoted an entire facet of his mind to controlling them. They leaped out, wrapping around golems and holding them in place. It was an invaluable element of control that he’d all but ignored for far too long.
The fight went on, with Elijah ripping through the golems at will. However, as easily as he could deal with them individually, their numbers seemed completely endless. Complicating matters was the fact that the building had never stopped moving. The golems easily maintained their footing, but Elijah had no such ability. So, he was often forced to adjust his attacks by riding the momentum of each shift.
And given that Shape of Thorn lacked any Dexterity bonuses, it was not built for such tactics.
He made do, largely because he didn’t have much choice in the matter.
Just as he’d ripped the arm from one golem to whip it around to attack another, the shaking finally stopped. Elijah wobbled in place, nearly missing his target as a mechanical voice sounded, “Adaptation complete. New directive: Destroy Vey’thaal.”
The ground violently lurched, and Elijah went tumbling through a mass of golems, skipping across the floor until he caromed off of a forge. He reached out, grabbing the black iron fuselage of the apparatus, but his claws skated off. He hit the wall a second later, and hard enough to split the seam between two panels.
There was another lurch in the opposite direction, but this time, Elijah managed to grab hold of the gap in the wall. It was barely wide enough to slip a single claw through, but that was sufficient to keep him from tumbling back the way he’d come.
A molten ball of fire hit the wall. Then another. The next few hit Elijah’s back. But he barely noticed them, because the crack between the panels had allowed a sliver of daylight to peek through.
With that spurring him forward, he activated Domain of Vines. Roots and vines slithered through the gap, then yanked the panels apart, revealing a sight Elijah had not expected.
The landscape with which he was familiar stretched into the distance, but what he had not anticipated was the fact that he was miles above the surface.
Elijah didn’t hesitate to shift into the Shape of the Sky, and as soon as the transformation had completed, he threw himself through the gap and soared through the air. The sweet taste of freedom was quickly sullied by two factors. The first was predictable – a massive swarm of harpies had blotted out the sun and was heading right for him. But the second took his breath away.
He wheeled around and beheld the building from which he’d just escaped, and though he’d felt it via Soul of the Wild, seeing it was something else altogether.
It was a massive golem, spewing fire and lava in every direction. Elijah’s impromptu exit was in its chest, and the factory that was his initial entrance sat atop its massive shoulders. Given the thing’s other proportions, it looked tiny.
What’s more, smaller golems and the more-familiar biological monsters swarmed all over its body, looking like swarms of ants.
For a long moment, Elijah hung in the air, just staring at the thing. It was massive beyond all comprehension, and it would have made most mountains look small in comparison. Yet, he knew he was supposed to stop it. He had no idea how. But if he wanted to survive – much less save Vey’thaal and conquer the Primal Realm, he needed to figure it out.
“Prime directive: Destroy Vey’thaal.”
The robotic voice echoed across the entire landscape.
Elijah had just enough time to see the massive lake glittering on the horizon before the swarm of harpies finally reached him. With their unnatural stench spurring him back to action, he dove, narrowly avoiding their venomous claws as he tucked his wings into a rapid descent. They followed, though for the first time, he realized that he was nimbler than them. That had not always been the case, but in the back of one facet of his mind, he reasoned that it was due to his recent and, more importantly, massive increases in attributes.
That left him with a distinct sense of accomplishment that only lasted as long as it took him to remember the dire circumstances of the Primal Realm.
With that in mind, he snapped his wings out and changed directions. The harpy horde attempted to mimic his maneuver, but he used Tempest Swarm before they had a chance, conjuring a thousand tiny pinpricks of light. They twinkled with arcing lightning as a howling wind ripped through the flock of harpies. Many of the winged monsters were too weak to endure, and as a result they plummeted to the ground miles away. However, Tempest Swarm wasn’t really meant to kill. Any damage it dealt was a mere side effect of its true purpose – obfuscation.
Perhaps just as importantly, Elijah felt a surge of speed and agility as the tempest flies created a miniature domain. He used that to his advantage, immediately banking into the flock and tearing through them with his talons. He didn’t dare stay and fight, though. Instead, he used hit-and-run methods meant to thin the swarm and give him space to think.
His talons ripped into the stunned harpies even as he used his long neck like a striking snake, plucking the monsters out of the air. Then, he was gone. The first pass had killed more than a dozen, and the second had claimed almost as many. However, he knew the Tempest Swarm wouldn’t remain forever. Already, he saw their lights winking out.
Elijah changed directions, then flew back toward the mountainous golem. He landed amidst hundreds of swarming flesh spiders and other mutated monsters, but he wasted no time before shifting into his human form and empowering his Lightning Domain.
They had no defense against it.
Whips of electricity arced out, slamming into everything in a wide radius. Only those closest to Elijah ended up dead from the initial salvo, but even those at the very edge of his range were stunned by the electrical current. And even as their muscles seized, they lost their grips on the golem’s surface and plummeted to their deaths.
Elijah felt a surge of experience with every arc of his lightning whips, confirming the strategy’s effectiveness. However, there were still too many to fight. He’d learned that fighting outside Vey’thaal. No matter how many he killed, there were always more monsters to replace them.
He needed to attack the source.
With that in mind, the moment Lightning Domain ceased, Elijah shifted into the Shape of Venom and used the brief respite to find a cranny that would allow him to adopt Guise of the Unseen.
The second he felt the comforting blanket of stealth settle onto his shoulders, he returned to the gap where he’d left the forge. In the chaos of the battle against the smaller golems, perhaps he had missed something important. Because one thing was clear – he could kill monsters and golems all day, and even if he was wildly successful in that endeavor, it would do nothing to save Vey’thaal.
Never was that clearer than when the mountainous golem took a step, covering miles with a single stride. Elijah’s stomach lurched right alongside his perch, but he ignored the twisting in his gut.
He had a job to do, and he intended to get it done. He stepped through the gap and returned to the forge, ready to kill a golem the size of a mountain.