From within the Shadow Path, I guard Master from threats that go unseen. The realm is a twisted reflection of the material world, one where noteworthy events and individuals are larger than life and all else is shrunken to the point of triviality. And while I can still see through to the material world, I do so through that warped perspective. At first, it had been disorienting and confusing, but after looking past my own expectations that I had leveraged upon the world and allowing the world to show its own truth, I have learned to instead leverage that truth to my own advantage.
When four elentals, each over 200 feet tall, appeared within view, I thought perhaps their size had beco exaggerated to emphasize their importance, such as the Shadow Path is wont to do. This extre and curious developnt is what imposed the impetus upon to return to the material world. It was then that I discovered that there indeed existed so form of exaggeration, for these colossal elentals were in actuality about a quarter again as big as I had seen them in the Shadow Path.
That is to say, they are fucking huge! If Master were to stretch out as straight as he could, from the tip of his tail to the tip of his snout, he would be slightly longer, but his form is… well, "gangly" would be impolite and inaccurate, as he is not lacking in grace. However, he is rather svelte of figure and lithe of movent, and given how his body stretches out in all manner of directions from his core, his presence is seemingly everywhere within his space, even if his body is not.
As his [Dragon Knight], it is my duty to protect him from nuisances that seek to harm his person, all so that he may focus on achieving his own goals. Right now, that involves him banking hard to the right to circle around for an approach on the elental of earth. However, I barely notice the sensation of radial velocity that would press most flat into his side, for gravity and that other one, er, its either "centripetal" or "centrifugal"... doesn't matter; such conventions of physics need to take a number and get in line! The center of my world is Master, and down is towards his draconic form. Even now, I stand on his belly with the ground being "up" for , my lended sword poised to strike.
Ponderous, dimwitted, and incredibly oblivious and unyielding, the earth elental slowly but inexorably waddles towards the high road while all manner of attacks both magical and physical harmlessly bounce off its form. It does have a vaguely humanoid shape, one complete with a noggin that has beady eyes on a face rather vacuous in nature. It has little need for caution, critical thinking, or clever ploys when it can shrug off blows that would destroy fortress walls.
I ready my stance, my body poised to strike. Though I miss my trusted zweihänder that had been my companion for over a decade, I can still put this generic greatsword that has been entrusted to through its paces. I may not be physically in range to strike the oblivious oaf of an elental, but my power far surpasses the reach of my blade, and its bite is far more than that of re steel.
I have always had an affinity for Shadow, an elent of magic beyond the traditional and primitive four. The Shadow Path had helped to hone and master my understanding of it far above and beyond what the material world could ever offer. Shadow is but a step away from Fear, and it serves as an excellent conduit for it and the destruction that cos in the wake of cowardice.
I do not know if earth elentals have the ntal capacity to understand fear. However, after it gets a taste of my fury, it will learn of it, even if only for an instant.
Shadows claw and clamber over my form, each seeking purpose and direction in their eagerness to envelop and smother. They are not just manifestations of the optical interpretations our minds perceive concerning the absence of light, but echoes of what had been. Where dragons soar, the land beneath their wings is shrouded in darkness that could precipitate destruction motivated by ire. Where my Master and Emperor deigns to take wing, so will I bring Shadow and ruin to those that offend him.
With Gulthar's apt approval, I command the shadows to coalesce on my blade, to envelop it utterly until it becos more than sharp steel and shaped purpose. A blade is an embodint and interpretation of violence, and the shadow its casts is that of death. Fully prid, I await the sparse monts that pass before I unleash my contempt.
Then, the mont cos as Master flies over the massive earth elental. My blade ascends (or maybe "descends" because I am upside down, but whatever), and the shadows obey.
[Dragon's Shadow - First Form: It Crept Down The Mountain As Light Faded]
Boy, that is a mouthful of a na for a Skill! And, maybe it is ant to be a bit sarcastic, for nothing about it suggests "creeping" or subtlety. While we had practiced it, nothing compares to the real deal. A monstrous and distorted dragon made of inky shadow leapt from my blade and rushed towards my foe. Its claws, eager to rend, found purchase and ripped away chunks of rock the size of boulders. Teeth like the curved needles found in the maws of deep-sea monsters bit deep as the accompanying head thrashed, drawing blood from a stone that should have been without such vitality. A miasma from the beat of its wings enveloped the elental's body and siphoned its strength and mana into .
All of this happened within the span of a heartbeat, for it occurred faster than most people can comprehend. And, as if not to be outdone, the elental was sent reeling when the tip of Master's tail whipped hard into the upper portion of its torso, shattering much of it.
Despite the abuse, the elental remained standing, if not staggered, albeit with its otherwise vapid expression sohow displaying abrupt surprise on what remained of its face. Already, the rocks that made up its body tried to reform, but they moved far too slowly to matter.
With agility and poise beyond what his body and montum would seemingly allow, Master perford a vertical loop. While my world transitioned from right side up to upside down and back again in a blur of repositioning to stand on Master's shoulder, Master ca to bear with his body in a standing position as he alighted on the elental's body. With his claws, he dug in to secure his position. With his wings, he enveloped the elental's arms so it could not effectively offer resistance. And with his mouth aid down towards the elental's cracked face, Master unleashed a devastating breath attack of the raw and destructive force of Arcane energy.
Master may have been forced to specialize in one form of breath attack to the detrint of all others, but he is still an Emperor and a powerful one at that. He had been building up this attack ever since these colossal elentals spawned, and so, his breath attack packed a degree of potency of apocalyptic proportions.
Not one to idly stand on the shoulder of giants, I harness the remnants of my shadows that yet linger upon my foe and command them to siphon even more of the elental's own power into so as to weaken its feeble attempts to protect itself. While matter cannot be simply created or destroyed, I bore witness to obliteration as the elental's body disintegrated from the inside out, so magic 1 and physics 0 as far as I am concerned.
While it would be unwise and crass to say that such an offensive depleted Master and I of our reserves of strength, we did tactically disengage from the situation to reassess the battlefield. We were more than capable of repeating such feats as many tis as needed to ensure victory, but it would have been unsportsmanlike and ostentatious of us to do so when others are so eager to prove their rit. Verily, our magnanimous generosity to allow others to challenge themselves was all that restrained our hand.
Besides, the elental's mana was so fundantally corrupted and attuned to Earth that it would take so ti to safely digest it and use it to replenish my own reserves. It would be a foolhardy and humiliating experience to fall prey to hubris, impatience, and any one of the dozen or so magical backlashes that can occur when attempting such a feat. Yes, we withdrew at that mont due to the aforentioned circumstances and niceties and for no other particular reason of note.
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"Crude, brutish, excessive, but ultimately effective."
"I could not agree more, Mommy Dommy."
"That was one ti, ONE TI!" Karlenstein growled ntally while they considered dropping the cheeky kobold clutched in their hand. They would never do it on account of the ti and energy it would take to train up a replacent if reincarnating said kobold ran into unforeseen complications. A light squeeze to show who is boss would normally work, but this particular degenerate would appreciate it far too much. So experience has taught, and so more creative forms of vengeance would be.
"Sorry, Mommy."
The kobold even had the gall to make his pupils dilate wide as his eyes watered in faux contrition. Let it not be said that Karlenstein's kobolds lacked courage or competency to commit to the bit, even if their antics and idiosyncrasies could be outlandish or potentially hazardous to their health given the dispositions of dragons in The Blood Keepers.
"We shall simply demonstrate that The Blood Keepers, and I, Karlenstein, as Emperor of the flight, are capable of that much and more, albeit with a fair degree more refinent than what my peer has displayed."
"Oh, yes Mommy!"
It was monts like this when Karlenstein indulged in ntal self-flagellation over skimping over certain telepathic Skills, hence the need for the kobold clutched in their clawed hand. If there is one thing that they have learned in their lifeti, it is that niche cases are inevitable and that contingencies must be in place to address such challenges and opportunities.
With the bulk of the earth elental being disintegrated and the remnants of it being-
"Wait, did he turn the rest of its body into blocks and pillars to make a small stone shrine? Now, that is just showing off!"
-transmogrified into an impromptu building, that only left three targets worthy of Karlenstein's attention. Ejnarri of The Star Harbingers would surely take on the air elental; that fight was all but written in stone. That flight is well known for its mastery of magic related to vacuums, gravity, and the manipulation of space-ti, all of which can do very bad things to an air elental that wants to retain a certain amount of pressure for the gasses that comprise its body.
Well, they certainly have Chronomancy and Spatial Manipulation as focuses, but what The Star Harbingers have as a Greater Focus remains a tightly guarded secret. So is Ejnarri's gender, appearance in mortal forms, or a long list of other personal information about the individual. And here Karlenstein mused that hczeczi (may he remain dead forever) of The Secret Stalkers had been a secretive and paranoid individual. Perhaps Ejnarri missed their calling in life, or perhaps prudence and survival demanded such secrecy. Or more likely, the bitch just liked to appear mysterious.
Even now, her draconic form is like a night sky on steroids. Stars, nebulae, black holes, and other such celestial features mark the otherwise black outline of their body, and when they move, those features glide and transition seamlessly so as to make it appear that their body is a window into another world or dinsion. Given their age, there may be more truth to be found than fiction concerning such a claim.
However, Karlenstein's true target was already a foregone conclusion without the need to deliberate or contest others of their choices. The water elental would find itself a poor match for the master of Alchemy and Biomancy. Water being the basis of life and most chemical and alchemical liquids of note, it would find its relative purity of form and purpose to be a detrint when its agency and supremacy of its own body would be contested beyond hope of victory.
With casual and unhurried grace, Karlenstein banked into a gentle roll that put their body on a direct path towards the water elental. With practiced disdain and indifference, Karlenstein spewed forth a breath of blood laced with all manner of biophages, alchemical concoctions, toxins, alkali tals, acids, and so forth. In short, the water elental was about to beco a petri dish and cesspool of everything but the kitchen sink.
For all its might, its size, power, and affinity for Water worked against the colossal elental. Its body boiled and froze as chemical reactions ran amuck within it. Lifeforms replicated within seconds as they grew exponentially, only to die and be consud by those that feasted upon their stagnant forerunners. Great tumors developed within it, only to burst and spew spores that grew such tumors again in other locations within its body. Life was ford, killed, and reford in waves that ran roughshod over the elental's body, the impact of it so severe to the concept of Water that made up the elental's body that the aning of Water beca diluted into sothing lesser and ambiguous.
By the ti Karlenstein lazily turned back around at the far end of the dungeon, all that remained of the water elental was a bubbling and fuming pool of filth and misbegotten life that had served its purpose.
After taking a mont to rightfully bask in their own glory and to see who bore witness to it while also displaying appropriate respect for such a demonstration, Karlenstein surveyed the field once more to idly gaze at how the fire elental fared. Bylo'selhi of The Equivalent Scales and Ossimandias of The Bone Wardens, the two youngest Emperors that had not yet tackled one of these newest and greatest inconveniences to the raid, had seen it prudent to cooperate in taking down the fire elental. Perhaps they have enough wisdom to know their own limitations, if not the dignity to avoid being seen as requiring assistance.
With the opportunity to witness a laughingstock before them, Karlenstein found it acceptable to take ti to bear witness to the spectacle. Forsooth, such a leisure was not a paltry attempt to mask a desire for respite after exerting oneself. No, that would be sothing that a lesser being would need, and Karlenstein was no such being of inferior blood.
Sand, gemstones, and precious tals all share an unfortunate trait when exposed to extre heat: they lt. Bylo'selhi of The Equivalent Scales was not having a good ti of it when it ca to fighting an entity made of not just literal fire, but of Fire itself as a concept and elent of magic.
Ossimandias of The Bone Wardens fared no better, for bones break apart and lt at such extre temperature. In fact, every physical elent lts when hot enough. Investing enough raw mana into it changed little when the weight of the aning behind it did not sufficiently combat Fire. Necromancy and Animancy were great for preparing the remains of the dead to beco puppets for war, but not so good at directly neutralizing raw Fire on such a scale.
Before things could go worse, Synsinac of The Pact Sealers, the third-youngest Emperor, soared past and blasted the fire elental with a breath of… confetti? No, not just that. Using his Lesser Focus of Appraisal, Bylo'selhi saw one was an unpaid parking ticket and another a summons for jury duty. Curious, he snatched an errant docunt of the forr out of the air, only to despair when he felt a proportionate sum of money drained from the pocket dinsion where he stored his petty cash. Truly, Synsinac was a powerful and terrible foe on whose bad side none should ever find themselves!
Sohow, the fire elental burned those papers up just the sa without appearing worse for the wear.
"My work here is done!" Synsinac announced.
"But you didn't do anything!" the other two Emperors announced in tandem.
With a heavy turn, Synsinac flapped and folded his wings dramatically as he turned into a short dive before ultimately ascending higher.
Desperate to slow the elental down, the pair of them launched a salvo of breath attacks. This ti, they magically seed to work, and the elental found itself swamped by slag that progressively sapped the heat from it and rooted it in place. What followed was each of them using every Skill, spell, and artifact at their disposal to blast the fire elental into oblivion.
Fatigued, but undaunted, the pair of them congratulated one another on a job well done amid shared laughter. Whatever feuds, grudges, slights, or other such divisive issues that may or may not have existed between them experienced cessation as they reveled in their victory.
Without waiting for the pair of them to finish patting each other on the back. Phase 3 began. The sa four elentals returned, this ti with incorporeal chains linking them to each other.
"Mother fucker!" Bylo'selhi bemoaned and cursed as his Appraisal assessed the situation. "We have to kill them all at the sa ti or they will regenerate!"
What followed was a great deal of weeping and gnashing of teeth as the rank and file found this new developnt to be an exclusive problem for their draconic betters.
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