Book 6: Chapter 43: Alone Again

Book 6: Chapter 43: Alone Again

Elijah floated only a few dozen feet below the surface, but his attention remained fixed on the scene below. As Lamar had described, there was a city down there, but it looked nothing like what he might have expected on the surface. Constructed of coral and decorated with various sea plants, it was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Adding to that impression were the denizens, which the former linebacker had described as mermaids.

In the most basic sense, they lived up to that label. They were clearly hybrids between the planet’s native ta’alaki and fish, which gave them a reptilian cast that more resembled eels with arms than what Elijah had been led to expect by popular movies. Each one carried a trident, and on more than one occasion, Elijah had seen – from afar via Eyes of the Eagle – the creatures tearing into one another. That they’d managed to build a city at all, given their obviously warlike nature, was quite a surprise.

That was part of the scenario, according to Lamar. The aquatic humanoids were known as alaken, and they considered themselves the true natives of Ka’arith. As was the case with Earth, the planet was predominantly covered in water, and in the sea, alaken were the undisputed masters. What’s more, they had been hit even harder by Ka’arith’s excisement from the World Tree, and the vast majority of their civilization had fallen. Only their most prominent city, led by the most powerful among them, had survived.

However, with the fall of their entire society came a regression in their mindset. They’d always been warlike, but after many of their leaders had been slain – or in some cases, fled before the excisement was finalized – they became even more aggressive. Now, they had become at least as savage as orcs, and the only reason they hadn’t spread was because they were confined to the sea.

It was yet another cautionary tale, and one that seemed to have been repeated throughout Ka’arith. Excisement from the World Tree hadn’t simply cut them off from the rest of the multi-verse and set them adrift in the Abyss. It had brought out the worst of their natures, sending them back to more primitive times.

Yet, even as those thoughts skittered through Elijah’s mind, he found himself wondering why, if the world had indeed been cursed to existence in the Abyss, they hadn’t found any Voxx. Sure, there was corruption here and there – like in the fallen grove where Elijah had been confronted by the whispers of his own failures – but he’d yet to see a single Voxx. That didn’t make much sense.

Still, in the Shape of Venom, he looked down on the city and wondered how much had changed after Lamar and his team had managed the first clear. He’d long suspected that the first time through a challenge would be far and away the most difficult, but he’d never had the opportunity to experience the difference himself.

And he was eager to do so.

With that in mind, Elijah cloaked himself in Guise of the Unseen, then swam downward. After a few hundred feet, he started to feel the pressure of the depths, but because of his Iron Body and his attributes, he had no difficulty enduring it. Perhaps he could visit the Mariana Trench when he returned to Earth.

If it still existed, which was far from guaranteed.

Once Elijah came within a half mile of the city – which stretched at least five miles in every direction – he received the notification he had expected:



You have reached the City of Toh. In order to conquer the Challenge of the Niflara, slay the King and Queen.

Reward: Drop of the Ocean



His heart fell. Lamar and his group had been a bit cagey about the reward they’d received, but after they’d grown a little more comfortable, Helen the Explorer had let slip that it was a powerful staff they’d given to their Sorcerer, Kent. Elijah had hoped to receive the same reward, but clearly, his suspicions about being the forerunner was true. Being first meant getting better rewards.

Elijah slithered away, grateful that the blight dragon was just as at home in the water as it was on land. Normally, he would have bitten the thing again, but he wanted to test his new ability and see how much weaker the creatures in the second clear would be. So, he focused on the mage, and he felt the thing attempt to cast a spell. However, the moment its ethera gathered, a shock tore through it, and the magical energy dissipated.

If it was possible in his blight dragon shape, Elijah would have grinned. And that expression would have widened when, only a second later, the thing started to convulse. Black veins pulsed beneath its grey-green skin as it was rocked by a powerful seizure. Even when the effects of Stormbind faded, the alaken couldn’t muster the strength to cast a spell. It died within five more seconds, practically dissolving beneath Elijah’s potent venom.

When it was all said and done, barely more than fifteen seconds had passed, and in that time, Elijah’s venom had eaten through the thing’s flesh to the point where it had become unrecognizable. That, he’d expected. Maybe not as quickly as it had happened, but he’d seen his venom at work often enough to know what it could do when augmented by Predator Strike. However, what he’d really wanted to test was Stormbind, and Elijah was more pleased than he’d expected to be concerning the ability’s performance. The mage had been entirely incapable of casting, which was precisely what the description had promised. Still, he’d been a bit skeptical about its viability, so he was very happy with the results.

After gathering the key – it looked like an ordinary key, though it was made from a seashell – Elijah headed to his next destination, where he decided to test Thunderclap. And he was just as happy with the results as he had been with Stormbind. When he activated the ability, dozens of lightning tendrils lashed out, burning the alaken fighter that was his second target. More importantly, the ability also stunned the creature long enough for Elijah to rip its arms off before tearing it in half.

Being on the other end of that kind of an attack felt surprisingly cathartic.

One word that could not be used to describe the fight was challenging, though. Against Lamar and his party, the guard in question had been the reason Derrick had ended up without one of his arms. But against Elijah in his guardian form? The thing was weaker than most of the hunters he’d encountered in the wild. That was just further confirmation that there was a sharp decline in difficulty that came with coming in second.

The third and fourth guard captains fell just as easily as the first two, and Elijah collected the keys. However, the fifth was the one he was really looking forward to tackling, largely because the captain had an entire squad accompanying it. So, Elijah chose to use the third ability that had come along with Stormborn.

He planted himself in the center of the room, dropped Shape of the Predator, and cast Lightning Domain. Whips of electricity exploded from his body, lashing all five opponents with potent magic. Immediately, Elijah understood that this ability had a different flavor than the others. Thunderclap and Stormbind were both powerful in their own right, but any damage they inflicted was a secondary effect. Instead, they were intended to help him control the battlefield, stunning and silencing opponents rather than killing them outright.

Lightning Domain had the opposite focus. Certainly, it stunned the guard captain and its retainers, but that was just a side effect. The primary impact was far deadlier, with each whip of lightning severely burning the alaken fighters. Two died on first contact, but the others managed to survive. However, all but the guard captain itself were so injured that they posed no more threat.

And the primary target?

It was wounded, but it still attempted to fight back. Elijah ended that with a furious burst of staff strikes that crushed its bones and sent even more lightning to lash its injured flesh.

When the slaughter concluded, it left Elijah feeling a bit like a bully. The alaken had stood no chance against him, and his new abilities were far too much for them to handle.

As he collected the final key, he could only hope that the King and Queen would prove more challenging. Otherwise, it would start to feel like pointless slaughter.