Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)-11-63. Shape of Spores
Elijah grew, bypassing the size he normally associated with the Shape of Thorn. It didn’t stop until he was staring Zhyratha eye-to-eye. Something hit his back, but he barely even felt it. Instead, his hand shot out, and his four fingers wrapped around the vespiran High Druid’s thin neck.
He squeezed.
She croaked something that sounded a bit like, “How?” but Elijah ignored her. Ethera flowed through her as he lifted her from her feet, and her dangling torso curled under her. The awkward position gave her free rein to bring her spear-like stinger into the equation. It darted out, a half-dozen times in the space of a couple of seconds. Each attack sent an injection of potent toxins to flow through his body.
Elijah ignored that too, knowing that he was uniquely capable of enduring whatever venom she could dish out. After all, virtual immunity to such afflictions was one of the key components of the Shape of Spores.
Shape of Spores
Archetype: Druid
Class: Primal Lord
Level: 230
Take on the form of a fungal sentinel, providing an incredible increase to Regeneration and Constitution attributes. Also provides a vast increase to Strength and a moderate increase to Dexterity. Spellcasting (save in specific circumstances) is suspended while Shape of Spores is active.
Fungal Body
Passively increase the effects of Regeneration, as it relates to vitality, by 200%.
Also absorbs up to 50% of incoming damage.
Grants functional immunity to most poisons, venoms, and other toxins.
Efficacy of all aspects dependent on relative Core Cultivation.
Fungal Spread
All attacks against the caster will cause a puff of spores, spreading a virile fungus that is deadly to weaker foes. Against stronger enemies, it will serve to hinder their physical attributes.
Shell
Create a passive and persistent shield that will completely block weaker attacks. Assaults from stronger foes will be partially blocked.
Shield is much thicker on your back.
Throne of Spores
Create a domain of rapidly growing fungi. When it is destroyed, it grows even more quickly, spreading spores that infect enemies. Radius of effect based on Core Cultivation. Duration dependent on Regeneration attribute. Current: 7.1 Minutes. Duration halved if user abandons Shape of Spores.
Mycelial Regrowth
Increases Regeneration by 1500%. While under the effect of this ability, user can regrow from the smallest remaining piece. Duration based on Constitution attribute. Current: 2.6 minutes. Cooldown dependent on Core Cultivation. Current: 22.1 hours.
Only usable while under the effects of Shape of Spores.
Elijah had no idea what the shape actually looked like, but his arms and hands were still scaled. That was comforting because, from the description, he’d half expected to end up as a mushroom man. That clearly was not the case.
Stolen novel; please .
Something else hit him in the back, and he felt his Shield flex. But pointedly, it did not break. As he squeezed the High Druid’s neck, he realized two things. First, his strength was much increased from the Shape of Thorn. He could feel that when he flexed his hand. Second, she was obviously not a combat Druid. Perhaps if he’d been a little lower-leveled or hadn’t had Shape of Spores on his side, he might’ve failed to overpower her. But as it stood, she couldn’t resist his strength.
That wasn’t to say that she didn’t fight back.
She certainly did. Her stinger continued to jab into him with panicked rapidity, and she clawed at his forearm, dragging deep grooves in his flesh. Each wound sent clouds of yellow spores misting into the air. Those, in turn, infected her. With every passing moment, she breathed more in, and as a result, her attempts to kill him grew ever weaker.
But she was still a demi-god, even if she was grossly out of her element. More, she was a Druid in the middle of her grove, which assuredly gave her some advantage. Only a few moments into the battle, Elijah discovered that she was not without power of her own.
A thousand larva burst free from the walls and descended upon him like a maggoty swarm. They bored through his Shell, and then into his flesh. However, they only got a couple of inches before they succumbed to the effects of Fungal Spread. What’s more, his body healed itself behind them. It only took a flex of his Mantle of Authority to destroy them entirely.
To prevent further casting, Elijah extended the boughs of his soul, enveloping Zhyratha.
She went insane, screeching as if someone was ripping her to pieces. The fury of her panicked defense reached an entirely new level, and somehow, she managed to tear through Elijah’s forearm down to the bone. She seized upon that weakness, then ripped his hand free of his arm.
Elijah cast Wild Resurgence and, miraculously, his hand started to grow back. Not quickly, but still with noticeable speed.
Zhyratha skittered backward, flapping her wings to get out of range of Elijah’s Mantle of Authority. The chamber was just large enough to allow it, especially when she used the vertical space. Buzzing overhead, she grasped one of the support beams and screamed something incoherent.
Elijah leaped, but a gust of wind slammed into him after he’d covered less than half the distance. It sent him smashing into a nearby wall, which came alive with vines that wrapped around him. A second later, a glob of resin hit him, though with his Mantle of Authority extended, the goo couldn’t turn solid.
Elijah ripped free of the vines, then plummeted to the ground just in time to see a flood of vespirans and wasps enter the chamber.
“Kill him!” the High Druid screeched – the first coherent thing she’d said since Elijah had transformed.
It looked like the entire nest had responded to her call because hundreds more larvae came from the walls as well. A localized storm manifested within the chamber, and lightning streaked toward the ground as Elijah met the coming horde.
Only one demi-god stood among them, so Elijah targeted that vespiran. The creature crashed into him, armed only with his claws and stinger. That was enough to tear through his flesh with ease. For all his improvements, Elijah had not progressed to the point where he could easily fend off a demi-god.
Especially when dozens of other vespirans, none of whom were low-level, fell upon him as well.
Thankfully, the Shape of Spores was perfectly suited for just such an occasion. Even as the winds whipped into a frenzy and lightning lanced from the ceiling, Elijah activated Throne of Spores. Tendrils of fungal flesh erupted from the ground in a mimicry of Domain of Vines, and when they wrapped around his enemies, they acted like thousands of pythons, constricting the large vespirans and pinning them into place.
They all attempted to break free, and in many cases, were successful. But each broken tendril erupted into a cloud of spores. Some of them were tamped down by the driving rain of the other Druid’s Calamity-like spell, but the wasp-men inhaled enough to make a difference.
Within seconds, they grew sluggish. Some of the bestial wasps died almost immediately as fungal growths exploded from their bodies. Elijah used Nature’s Claim at the same time, adding to the confusion as mushrooms erupted from his enemies’ backs.
But most of Elijah’s attention remained on the demi-god Warrior, who tore chunks of his body away with every sweep of his claw-like hands. And troublingly, the High Druid used her lofty position to safely heal her people, frustrating some of Elijah’s efforts. However, the fungal growths were not easily overcome.
Elijah fought back against the vespiran Warrior, though it quickly became obvious that he wasn’t strong enough to easily defeat him. In fact, the only reason he’d managed to survive as long as he had was because his flesh continuously regrew. His increased attributes stood him in good stead as well.
But it wasn’t enough.
Especially with the High Druid hovering far above and raining vitality down upon her fellow vespirans.
Elijah knew he needed to change the paradigm.
He also knew he couldn’t do it too soon. He needed to wait for the proper moment. So, he endured those attacks, and the Warrior gradually whittled him down. Elijah’s massive regeneration simply wasn’t enough to keep pace with the damage.
But he didn’t need it to.
Every landed assault sent more spores into the air. They weren’t enough to take down the pair of demi-gods, but they did plenty of damage against the ascendants. They perished in droves. In the meantime, Elijah landed a few good blows of his own. He even managed to rip the wings off the forgotten jailer, who kept flinging resin in his direction. Elijah countered it by keeping his Mantle of Authority constantly deployed.
That allowed him to weather the conjured storm as well, though he could feel the branches of his soul slowly beginning to fray. If he kept it going at that potency for much longer, he would risk permanent damage.
Still, he waited.
And then, he saw his opportunity when the High Druid swooped a little too close. Elijah activated Heart of the Tempest, and his body crackled with enhanced attributes. Then, he used Bestial Charge. He hit the Warrior like a runaway locomotive, then wrapped his arms around the creature’s humanoid torso. He squeezed.
Of course, the monstrous blend of man and wasp didn’t take that lying down. He peppered Elijah with stabs from his stinger, and for once, Fungal Body’s natural defense against the vespid venom began to fail.
Elijah countered with Mycelial Regrowth.
His hand finished regrowing in an instant, and the toxins flowing through his body were rendered inert only a moment later. What’s more, Elijah used Thunder Clap, then Bestial Roar, briefly stunning the creature with the combination.
Elijah planted his feet on the ground, spun around, and threw the massive vespiran toward the ceiling. The High Druid was so surprised that she didn’t even move before her champion crashed into her. In a tangle of limbs and wings, they fell, only to be swallowed by the last vestiges of Throne of Spores.
The fungal tendrils wrapped around them both. Elijah fell upon them as well. His claws slashed out, ripping into the much less durable High Druid. Her carapace cracked. Her flesh parted. And soon enough, her organs spilled across the ground. In the meantime, her face turned purple from lack of oxygen as two thick and rubbery tendrils choked her.
The Warrior tried to help, but he had everything he could handle with his own fight against the tendrils. Elijah added a few casts of Nature’s Claim against both.
Oddly, the Warrior died first.
It should not have been that surprising. He’d been fighting in the middle of a spore cloud the entire time. And without Zhyratha’s healing, he simply couldn’t endure any longer. Especially with one cluster of mushrooms after another erupting from his back.
By the time Mycelial Regrowth ran its course, Throne of Spores had dissipated as well. But by then, the damage had been done. Most of the High Druid’s underlings were dead, and the ones that had not succumbed to Elijah’s spores soon would. And for her part, she looked like she’d been through a blender. There wasn’t an inch of her chitin that hadn’t been fractured, her stinger had long since been ripped from her body, and her torso was covered in blue ichor.
Still, she was alive, if only just.
Elijah returned to his human form and stood over her. He took a moment to retrieve the Verdant Fang from where she’d dropped it. Then, he said, “It didn’t have to be this way.”
“Of course it did,” she countered. “You are a dragon, and I am vespiran. It was always going to end like this.”
Elijah shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
She seemed entirely ignorant of the fact that if she hadn’t tried to abduct him, he would have simply left them alone. Probably. The instinctive hate in his heart said otherwise, though. So, perhaps she was right.
In any case, the die had been cast. He raised the Verdant Fang, then brought it down, ending the battle with a single swipe of the scythe’s blade.
“I guess we’ll never know.”
11-63. Shape of Spores
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