Path of Dragons

Book 1: Chapter 33: The Shape of the Predator

Elijah opened his spellbook and looked at the new additions:

Despite the lingering feelings of sadness, a sense of excitement washed over Elijah when he saw his new spells. Essence of the Boar and Essence of the Monkey were both impressive enough, but his eyes were immediately drawn to Shape of the Predator. Still, he forced himself to focus on what he considered the more mundane spells.

Essence of the Boar would increase his Constitution attribute by five points, while Essence of the Monkey would serve to do the same for his Dexterity attribute. The real question was whether he could keep them both active at the same time. Before, he’d been able to intuit that keeping One With Nature active was the limit of his current abilities, but now that he’d gained a class – or maybe it was because he’d gotten a couple of levels – he felt that those limits had been expanded. So, without further ado, he cast Essence of the Boar.

He immediately felt the effects as his fatigue washed away. Sure enough, when he opened his status, he saw that his attributes had increased according to the spell’s description. That success prompted him to cast Essence of the Monkey as well. However, that was when he got the first disappointment. He couldn’t keep One With Nature, Essence of the Boar, and Essence of the Monkey active at the same time. Two seemed to be the limit.

Which presented something of a conundrum. Both Essence of the Boar and Essence of the Monkey gave quantifiable increases, while One With Nature was a bit more nebulous. Still, just because it wasn’t reflected in his status didn’t mean that it didn’t come with benefits. One With Nature made him feel stronger, faster, and more durable, even if those gains weren’t represented in his status.

So, the way he saw it, the choice was whether or not he wanted an all-around increase from One With Nature coupled with the specific increase that came with either Essence of the Boar or Essence of the Monkey. Or he could just remove all mystery from the equation and use his two newest spells to gain quantifiable increases in his attributes.

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Elijah sat there for a long while as he considered the pros and cons of each combination. But in the end, he decided that he would always keep One With Nature active, largely because it didn’t just come with benefits to his physical abilities. Rather, it also came with a more esoteric connection to the natural world that he’d begun to take for granted. Without it, he knew he’d feel a little lost.

As for his second available enhancement slot, he chose to use Essence of the Boar as a default, then switch to Essence of the Monkey as needed. That would protect him from any surprises by increasing his durability while giving him the flexibility to respond to threats according to the situation.

Satisfied with that strategy, Elijah shifted his focus to his status. Or more importantly, to the free attribute points he’d yet to allocate. However, to his surprise, he only had four unspent points. Frustrated, he cycled through his various notifications until he saw one he’d somehow ignored after choosing his class:

“What the…”

Elijah trailed off as he realized what it meant. His days of being able to guide his attribute allocation were over. Instead, because of his class, he’d get a single point in every attribute each time he gained a level. While that made sense, he found that he was a little disappointed. After all, he didn’t like the idea of losing control over his own development.

Still, it only took him a few seconds to realize that that wasn’t necessarily the case. When he’d closed the minor dimensional rift, he’d been awarded three free attribute points. So, if he wanted to keep a handle on his own progression, he would need to continue to do those sorts of things.

Which was probably going to happen sooner rather than later, considering that the panther was now dead. Now, the island didn’t have any guardians left besides Elijah himself. He had no idea if the cat had been closing those rifts itself, but Elijah suspected that that was the case.

Suddenly, he started to realize that his progression had just become far more important than ever before. He needed levels as well as the attributes and additional spells that would come with them. Otherwise, he was going to be overrun by the Voxx, the invaders from across the strait, or both.

First, though, he needed to allocate his four free attribute points. To him, it felt like an easy decision. He had the means to augment his physical attributes, either directly via Essence of the Boar and Monkey or indirectly by keeping One With Nature active. And it stood to reason that, as he leveled, he’d gain more enhancement slots as well as the spells to increase his other attributes.

But so far, his limiting factor had been Ethera. There was an argument to be made that Regeneration was just as valuable, but Elijah found himself discounting that line of thinking. If it came down to a fight, there just wasn’t enough time for Regeneration to make much of a difference. However, being able to cast one more Storm’s Fury could end up being the difference between life and death. So, he chose to allocate all four points into Ethera, thus increasing the number of spells he could use before his core ran dry.

Looking at his status, Elijah felt a deep sense of pride. It felt like an eternity had passed since he’d washed ashore, and in that time, he’d been entirely remade. Certainly, he was still a long way from the superhuman levels that he’d imagined when he’d first accepted that magic was part of his new reality, but he was well on his way.

After letting a long sigh, he moved his focus to the most important item on his list. He opened the spell’s description:

“Wow,” Elijah breathed as he read the description. He would have been happy with the transformation alone, so he was ecstatic to find that another ability was included. He didn’t know if it was just a characteristic of being a Mist Panther or if it was awarded as part of his Animist class progression, but he figured that time would answer that question. For now, he was eager to finally use the spell that he expected to define his class going forward. So, without further ado, he stood, then dragged Ethera from his core while focusing on Shape of the Predator.

By that point, he’d recovered all of his Ethera, so his core was entirely full. However, the moment he cast the spell, that changed. His Ethera rushed out of him in a tidal wave, draining every last ounce of the energy and leaving it absolutely bare. However, Elijah barely noticed the headache that inevitably followed. Instead, he was entirely focused on the transformation that came soon after.

Unlike what he might’ve expected, it didn’t hurt. Nor was it pleasant. It was just odd, feeling his bones rearrange themselves. He fell to all fours as his body continued to change. His organs shifted, his muscles reformed, and midnight fur sprouted all over his body. And after about thirty seconds, the transformation finished.

The moment it did, Elijah was overwhelmed by his own senses. He could smell everything. The small animals who made their home in the glade. The nearby bushes of his garden. The tree itself. He even smelled an acrid scent that he immediately interpreted as belonging to his human body.

But it wasn’t just his sense of smell that had been enhanced. He also heard things he never knew were even there. The slight chitter of a squirrel that was at least a hundred yards away. The flap of a bird’s wings. The scurrying insects underground. It was everything Elijah could do not to lose himself amidst the cavalcade of sensory input.

His vision and sense of touch had been affected as well, though not to the degree that his sense of smell and hearing had been enhanced. He collapsed to his stomach, burying his face between his paws as he struggled to adapt.

If he hadn’t already experienced something similar when he’d cultivated his Neophyte soul, he never would have been able to endure it. However, because he’d done so, it only took him a few hours to come to terms with his new, much stronger senses. When he finally did, he couldn’t help but marvel at just how much he’d never noticed before.

For a while, he just lay there, his tail swaying back and forth as he took it all in.

Then, at last, he pushed himself to his feet and took his first steps as a Mist Panther. To his surprise, his body seemed to move of its own accord. Or rather, like he’d been a panther all his life. A good thing, too, because he had not relished the idea of learning how to walk on four legs. But now, he could focus on everything else.

Without further delay, Elijah took off across the glade, moving far more quickly than he’d ever moved in all his life. When he reached the tree line, he bounded forward, kicked off one of the sturdy trees, then hit the ground running. That’s when he noticed an enticing scent.

He followed it easily, and soon enough, it started getting stronger. With every step, the smell became more potent until, at last, he found the culprit. Without even thinking, Elijah pounced on the fat hare, clamping down on the back of its neck with his mighty jaws. Then, he shook it, breaking its neck.

Elijah didn’t even realize what he was doing until he’d already consumed half of that rabbit. But when his mind caught up to his wild instincts, he recoiled. A moment later, he mentally cancelled the spell.

His reversion to humanity took a lot longer than his transformation into a panther, and when it finally completed, the headache he’d felt coming when he’d first cast Shape of the Predator returned in force. When it did, he collapsed onto his rear and just sat there, burying his head in his hands until he’d regained enough Ethera to take the edge off.

Once he felt a little better, he looked around and realized that he’d traveled a lot further than he’d intended. As a Mist Panther, he’d moved so quickly, and his mind had focused in on stalking the rabbit so thoroughly that he had completely lost track of anything else. That would be a danger he’d have to mitigate in the future.

The same could be said about the instincts that came with his transformation. It was perfectly natural for a panther to kill and eat raw animals. But for a human being? That was something entirely different, and the memory of that rabbit’s raw flesh between his teeth twisted his stomach into knots.

Finally, the spell itself was incredibly Ethera hungry, draining every bit of the magical energy from his core. So, it was clear that he wouldn’t be rapidly transforming forms anytime soon. In fact, the next time he used Shape of the Predator, he intended to remain that way for a while, if just to get his proverbial money’s worth out of the spell.

All in all, though, Elijah was impressed with the ability. It had performed far better than he could have expected, and the sense of power he’d felt as a mist panther was overwhelming. Perhaps if the spell had been available when he’d stumbled upon the battle between the trio of invaders and the island’s guardian, then the panther might have survived.

Elijah sighed.

That wasn’t fair. He had no reason to feel guilty. He had done everything he could, and even if he’d had access to Shape of the Predator, it wouldn’t have made much difference. The invaders were simply too strong.

Or rather, he was too weak.

But that was going to have to change. So, he pushed himself to his feet and returned to the Grove. There, he gathered his staff and set off toward the stream so he could wash the taste of raw rabbit out of his mouth. After that, he would come up with a plan that would hopefully shore up some of his weaknesses.