In the Shape of the Guardian, Elijah faced off against the hunter. He still didn’t know the Viking’s identity, so he grunted, “Who are you? Why did you attack me?”

“I am Thor Gunderson, the most powerful man in the world, and you are the fuel of my ascension,” the blonde giant spat. Suddenly, it made perfect sense why the fight had been so difficult. The last time Elijah had checked, he was number two on the power rankings.

In the past, Elijah had expected that his advanced progress along the path of cultivation would have given him an advantage against anyone near his level. However, that clearly wasn’t true. He could hold his own against Thor, and he might’ve even been a bit stronger in the form of the lamellar ape. But it was close enough that they might as well have been in a dead heat.

Clearly, Elijah’s class – and the versatility it offered – meant that he couldn’t stand toe-to-toe with other, more specialized combatants. It was only because of his cultivation that he’d even managed to stand on the same stage. Which was a little frustrating until he realized that it was also a strength.

After all, Thor might’ve been stronger in terms of pure attributes. But he couldn’t heal. And Elijah could bring all sorts of abilities to bear. Most importantly, he could heal himself.

Thor could not, aside from the potion he’d just imbibed. And those were limited, Elijah knew. If someone took more than one in close succession, each subsequent potion would be far less effective until, eventually, they wouldn’t work at all. After that, they would actively poison the user.

So, Thor had taken one potion already. Maybe more than that, given his ability to endure Elijah’s afflictions. Because of that, Elijah knew he had the upper hand. He merely had to take advantage of his unique abilities.

For now, though, that meant pummeling the man like an angry gorilla-lizard.

Without further conversation, Elijah threw himself forward in a loping, leaping sprint that let him cover the ground between him and his foe in an instant. Thor was ready for it, though, planting his recovered spear in the ground in an effort to impale Elijah like a charging boar. However, Elijah was no dumb beast, and he twisted at the last second, hitting the wall and using it to redirect himself.

With a leaping strike, he brought his hand down on Thor’s shoulder. The wound had healed, but not completely. As a result, the Viking was a little slow to respond. Elijah’s balled fist fell upon the man’s arm with bone-breaking force. Thor screamed in agony as his shoulder was wrenched out of socket.

But he was a veteran warrior, and he used his experience to great effect, ignoring his pain as he twisted away. Elijah stumbled past, and a second later, felt the bite of the hunter’s spear. It slipped into his flesh, parting his scales. However, it lacked the effect it had before, so it didn’t go much deeper than an inch or two.

A second later, Elijah felt an icy hand latch onto his leg. A second later, that frigid cold went up his limb to pervade his entire body. And with it came a weakness Elijah could not explain. It was as if he’d lost dozens of attribute points in the space of a moment. It was so shocking that he only narrowly managed to dodge the hunter’s next attack.

Though that might have been a mischaracterization of his actual response. He didn’t truly dodge. Instead, he flopped to the ground, struggling to move his own weight. Everything felt wrong. He wasn’t just weak. He was also uncoordinated. A brief look at his attributes told him that he’d lost nearly fifty Strength and Dexterity.

He scrambled away, unsure of what was happening. Clearly, the hunter had used some sort of ability. But Elijah had no idea how long it would last. He needed to stall for time. So, he shifted into his human form and flipped over to find a spear descending in his direction. Panicked, he knocked it aside just before it could stab him through the chest. Instead, it hit his shoulder, shaving a chunk of meat away before the blade cut into the metal floor.

Roaring, the hunter kicked Elijah in the ribs, sending him skidding away.

Thankfully, Elijah’s Constitution hadn’t been affected by the depowering skill. Otherwise, his chest would’ve been caved in. As it was, the impact broke a few ribs. Elijah cast Soothe on himself as he slid across the floor. Then, before Thor could follow, he used Snaring Roots, tripping the man up.

A quick pulse of Touch of Nature brought Elijah back to perfect health, but by that point, Thor was ripping free of the roots. So, Elijah cast Storm’s Fury. A bolt of lightning descended from the ceiling, striking his raised spear and sending his body into convulsions.

It was only temporary, Elijah knew.

But he just needed to buy time, which meant he quickly cast Snaring Roots once again. As he did, he backed away, summoning Healing Rain to accompany Soothe. Fortunately, he’d long since learned that the efficacy of his spells was based on perception. If he viewed someone as an enemy, then they would be unaffected by beneficial spells. The same could be said for allies and detrimental abilities.

Because he wanted to keep plenty of ethera in reserve for healing and transformations, Elijah chose not to use Swarm. After all, he’d used it once before, and it had been entirely ineffective. So, he didn’t want to waste his energy.

Instead, he continued to back away, peppering the Viking with Snaring Roots and Storm’s Fury. It slowed the man down, but it also infuriated him. And that, in turn, lent him strength. Certainly, it wasn’t quantified in attributes. Rather, it was the sort of power that came from raging adrenaline, and the hunter used it well, ripping free of the thorny vines almost the moment Elijah conjured them.

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It also made him reckless, though, which Elijah intended to use to his advantage.

So it went for a long couple of minutes, with Elijah frustrating the barbaric hunter as much as he could manage. Thor shouted insults, roared, and even threw his spear a few times. But Elijah had taken the man’s measure, so he was ready for whatever he could bring to the table.

The same wasn’t true of Thor, though Elijah was certain the hunter expected that to be the case.

Gradually, Elijah slowed his casting, wanting to give the impression that he was running low on ethera. That wasn’t so far from the truth, but his Quartz Mind was hard at work dragging plenty of energy back into his soul, then sending it into his core. As a result, he could keep going for some time.

But he needed Thor to think he had the upper hand. He wanted him to believe he could win.

Which he could.

But not if he reacted the way Elijah expected.

The man charged, and, with his back against a wall, Elijah smiled.

He shifted into his draconid form. It almost took him too long. But he managed it just before Thor reached him. He used Flicker Step, disappearing and reappearing behind the hunter. Thor smashed into the wall, embedding his spear up to the shaft in the metal bulkhead. Elijah used Venom Strike, then leaped upon Thor’s back. His claws latched onto the man’s shoulders, and his head darted forward.

Even as his jaws clamped onto Thor’s skull, the man went wild. But the weakness had already run its course, and Elijah’s Strength and Dexterity had returned to normal. He flexed his jaw, bringing tons of pressure to bear on the Viking’s skull. It resisted, but Elijah persisted. Meanwhile, his back claws raked against Thor’s flesh, ripping it to ribbons. The wounds were superficial, but every attack brought with it another instance of Contagion. He also continuously used Vencom Strike, stringing it together, one after another, inflicting even more afflictions upon the man.

In seconds, they had begun to pile up.

Yet, Thor was sturdy enough that he didn’t immediately give in. In fact, his skull remained stubbornly unbroken, and he recovered enough to throw himself backward into another wall, breaking a few of Elijah’s comparatively delicate bones. However, he was still under the effect of Soothe and Healing Rain, so while the damage wasn’t immediately mended, the worst of it was healed almost as soon as it was inflicted.

Meanwhile, Elijah continued to flex his jaws and rake his claws across the man’s increasingly vulnerable flesh. Thor reached back, trying to wrench Elijah loose, but his fingers had already begun to tremble, and his muscles had started to weaken. Black goo leaked from his ears and mouth, and his eyes had turned bloodshot.

Still, he fought on.

So did Elijah. Even after Soothe and Healing Rain had run their course, and his broken bones ceased to mend, he kept it up. He knew that he needed to finish the fight, or he would never get another chance.

The man would down a potion. Or use some other ability. Elijah had no idea what Thor could do, but it was safe to assume that the second-highest person on the power rankings had a few unplayed aces up his sleeve. Elijah refused to let him turn to those.

And after another few minutes, during which Elijah endured a dozen broken bones – many of which were in his back legs, preventing him from continuing that method of attack – Thor’s skull finally gave way. At first, it was only a small crack that presented as a slight give in the bone, but after only a second, it shattered completely.

Brain and bone gushed into Elijah’s mouth, but miraculously, Thor fought on for a second or two before his body realized that it no longer had an intact brain. Then, the man collapsed, and Elijah was flooded with experience.

Despite the notifications he received in the wake of that wave of kill energy, Elijah couldn’t focus on that. Instead, he arduously shifted to his human form, then spat out a mouthful of gore. He pulsed Touch of Nature, but he quickly found a serious issue.

His legs weren’t just broken.

They’d been shattered.

Normally, if the breaks weren’t too bad, a simple use of his spells, and they would set themselves. But it wasn’t unprecedented for him to have to set the bones. Now, though, the issue was that his femur had been broken in six places, with shards of the bone having erupted from the skin. And his ankle – with all those delicate bones – was in even worse condition. In that case, there was nothing to set. It was just a collection of pieces that he wasn’t certain he could ever piece back together.

It was an overwhelming task, and one that he knew would end up being one of the most agonizing experiences he’d ever endured. Yet, there was nothing for it but to do it. So, after pulling a bit of leather from his Ghoul-Hide Satchel, Elijah shoved it between his teeth, bit down, and got to work.

And it was worse than he could have imagined.

For the femur, it was a simple act of shifting the bones into the proper position, then healing them. However, because it was a compound fracture, with the bone exposed, that meant getting his hands bloody and jamming things back where they belonged. Once that was accomplished, Elijah used Touch of Nature to get the healing started.

Yet, he didn’t dare finish the task, lest the residual healing make the rest of it harder. The last thing he wanted was for the bones to heal out of place. If that happened, he’d have to break them again, then start the process back over. So, with tears in his eyes, Elijah continued to work.

And after a few agonizing minutes, he slumped against the wall, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He’d managed to complete the task with the femur, but it was still incredibly weak. He doubted it would even hold his weight. But for now, everything was where it was supposed to be.

Which meant that the real work was still ahead.

His ankle – and the attached foot – was a mess. But he remembered enough of anatomy that he knew where all those tiny bones were supposed to be. So, he used that knowledge – along with an incredible tolerance for torment – to slowly piece that portion of his lower leg back together.

To call it an arduous process would have been an understatement. And without ethera, Elijah knew the foot would’ve needed to be amputated. However, with his magical abilities bridging the gap, he saved the foot.

It took him an agonizing hour of torturous tedium, but he did it. And when he finally slumped against the wall and used Soothe as well as Healing Rain, he could force himself to remain conscious no longer. So, he slipped into that welcoming darkness, hopeful that nothing would attack him while his recovery commenced.

As luck would have it, he remained completely unmolested. Either there were no scavengers around, or they simply lacked a taste for half-dead Druid or slain hunter. Whatever the case, over the next three days, Elijah slowly recovered.

More than once, he had to reset his bones. The job he’d initially done was good enough, but it wasn’t perfect. So, to keep things from healing out of place, he was forced to adjust. And it hurt enough that he considered simply going through life with a limp. Yet, he persisted, and by the time the third night fell, he was as healthy as he’d been before the fight with the hunter.

Only then did he allow himself to check his notifications. And when he did, he couldn’t keep the smile from his face.