Elijah dreamed of happiness, homecoming, and falling asleep in Sadie’s arms.
And then, it all shattered. A sound like rolling thunder, followed by cracking glass echoed through the abyss as a fissure exploded across the green crystal encasing Elijah’s draconic body. His eyes fluttered open as wave after wave of dense vitality misted into the atmosphere.
A...
2025-11-29 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAt one point, Elijah considered body cultivation to be the least complicated of the four categories, and for good reason. That wasn’t to say that it was easy. Breaking down and rebuilding one’s body came with incredible agony, to the point where he’d allowed himself to believe that pain tolerance was the primary hurdle he’d need to clear.
So far, that had been tr...
2025-11-28 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostElijah felt it long before he laid eyes on it.
The spire jutted from the ground, rising dozens of miles before disappearing into the darkness of the abyss. It was visible even from hundreds of miles away, glinting in the violet light cast by the tendrils of illumination slithering through the sky.
Situated in a giant crater, it was surrounded by nothing. The ground...
2025-11-27 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostBenedict stood atop the low wall making the boundary of Dravkein and watched Elijah walk away. He knew he should be going with him. His sense of responsibility demanded it. And yet, his feet remained rooted in place. He couldn’t force himself to take a single step, much less to embark on such a long journey across the desolate world. He stood there for nearly an ...
2025-11-26 16:10:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Vhalor, the Emerald Tyrant is the unquestioned leader,” said Zek. Elijah’s understanding of the language had progressed well over the previous couple of months, but he still needed to concentrate to understand everything.
By anyone’s reckoning, learning a language – even to mild fluency – in only eight or nine weeks was a great achievement. But Elijah still ...
2025-11-26 16:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostElijah sat in the center of the field, surrounded by foreign vegetation. With his senses fully extended, he could feel every single plant in his vicinity. And they all felt hollow, as if they were missing some vital part of their very identities. Like the very air within Dravkein’s influence, the crops felt artificial. Sterile. Almost antiseptic.
Yet,...
2025-11-25 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostTheir traversal of the city came with more than a little attention. And it wasn’t difficult to see why, either. For all that seeing mutated people was shocking to Elijah and Benedict, so too was their unblemished appearance a surprise to the natives.
For his part, Elijah had already familiarized himself with the layout and the residents of Dravkein, but there was a mar...
2025-11-24 16:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you certain they’re peaceful?” asked Benedict, his eyes flicking back and forth between the city in the distance and the terrain they’d just covered. Elijah was familiar enough with his companion that he could predict his thoughts. And he was obviously wondering if it was better to simply forego making contact with the natives.
Elijah had already walked similar gr...
2025-11-23 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostElijah stared at the wall, unsure if he was meant to take the next step. After two days of observation, he’d already exhausted his capacity to learn more about the natives. In that time, he’d watched their work cycle, and against all odds, he’d even picked up a few words of their language. It was much easier than he’d expected, largely because he effectively had eighty...
2025-11-23 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostElijah crept closer, his body low to the ground. Despite his confidence in Guise of the Stalker, he kept to the shadowy crevices cutting through the valley. Hopefully, the combination of his skill and the terrain would suffice to keep him hidden.
He had chosen to leave Benedict behind, much to the other man’s chagrin. He didn’t regret it, and he knew it was the...
2025-11-22 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostFor the next few weeks, Elijah struggled to ignore the call of evolution. As much as he wanted to honor his instincts – and he did – the draw of more power was a potent one. He knew that using the corrupted Branch would be a mistake. He felt it down to the core of his identity that nothing good would come of it.
But it still pulled at his mind.
At his desire fo...
2025-11-21 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe structure rose hundreds of feet into the sky, its base planted in the center of a wide plaza of pure white stone. Despite the howling wind and the obvious age, no debris or dust stuck to those pavers. Even the erosion, evident everywhere else Elijah had been, failed to destroy their surfaces.
That left the glyphs carved into them entirely exposed.
Elijah knelt ...
2025-11-20 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“I want to go.”
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
Elijah sighed, shoving a bit of monster meat into his mouth. He immediately chased it with a gulp of water, washing it down. The taste lingered, but not nearly so strongly as if he’d bothered to chew. Thankfully, his stomach was strong enough to break it down for whatever nutrients it could provide.
An...
2025-11-19 16:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostElijah banked right, the tip of his wing skating only a few inches above the ground as he changed direction. Reoriented, he flapped his wings and pushed himself to top speed. Below and behind him, hundreds of monsters followed. None could catch him, and for the first time in the months since he’d arrived on the excised planet, he felt free. He felt powerful. He f...
2025-11-19 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostI just wanted to let everyone know that Protector of the Grove (Path of Dragons 1) is now on sale for $0.99 (running from yesterday until November 23). So, if you haven't gotten your copy yet, now's a great time! Check it out at:
The monsters were difficult to describe.
One part spider, another part octopus, and a third part wholly terrifying eldritch creature with a multitude of mouths, screaming, simian faces, and enough tentacles to make a man o’ war jealous.
Elijah met them in the Shape of Spores, fighting tentacles with fungal tendrils born from Throne of Spores. The tendrils lost. R...
2025-11-18 16:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostThe potion vial glittered in the faint light, the liquid inside trembling as if it was alive. Elijah could feel the energy trapped within – like a bomb waiting to go off – but he had nowhere to direct it. With the failure of his dolmen, he was well and truly stuck in the mud.
But he strongly believed that the Riftsteed potion was the key. A shortcut to power he shoul...
2025-11-17 16:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostElijah awoke to a cascade of pain.
But a quick inspection told him that he wasn’t dead. Nor had his body been corrupted. In fact, he’d managed to maintain his Mantle of Authority, even without his direct input. However, because it spread out entirely uncontrolled, he felt even worse than when he’d passed out.
With an effort of willpower, he retracted the mant...
2025-11-16 16:10:02 +0000 UTC View Post“This is newer,” Elijah said, kneeling next to a wall. It only rose a few feet above the ground, and it ended after a length of ten feet. The surface had been worn smooth by the elements, though there was enough scoring to hint that it had once been highly decorative. There were also a couple of depleted crystals embedded into the stone. “It seems curved to me.”<...
2025-11-16 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“This is humiliating,” said Benedict.
Elijah ignored the man’s oft-repeated complaint, mostly because there was no other choice in the matter. But also, because he was too focused on everything else.
“Did you hear me?”
“I heard you,” Elijah sighed, continuing to put one foot in front of the other. The terrain was steep, and he’d been at it long enou...
2025-11-15 16:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostCorruption pressed in on all sides, searching for cracks in Elijah’s Mantle of Authority. So far, it had found none, but it was only a matter of time before it began to fray at the edges. And he had no idea what he would do when that happened, because it was the only thing keeping him alive.
He suspected that he could survive without it for a few hours. Maybe a day or ...
2025-11-14 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostElijah landed with a bone-breaking thud, kicking up a cloud of rock and dust upon impact. The resultant crater was only a few feet deep, though not because of a lack of force. Instead, the ground was far more durable than expected.
Nearby, there was a second impact a second later.
But Elijah was far more concerned with the abyssal corruption eating at him. It...
2025-11-13 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAnd so, we arrive at book 13 of Path of Dragons, which I'm tentatively calling The Forgotten. I'm aware that I ended the last book on a cliffhanger, but that's been planned for more than a year now. I hope everyone enjoys this book, because not only has it been planned since the very beginning, but it also represents a huge shift in Elijah's journey. And in a lot of ways, he's ge...
2025-11-12 16:10:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Rage mingled with frustration and pain, and so thoroughly that Greffyn Cornelius didn’t know where one ended and the others began. In the back of his mind, he could catalogue the events well enough. The ranged attacker had caught him unaware, but he’d quickly adjusted to the situation. The moment the attack landed, he’d known that he couldn’t afford to leave that threa...
2025-11-12 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostMiguel was surrounded by bodies.
Corpses in various states of dismemberment littered the bloody ground. A few had managed to survive, but that wouldn’t last for long. Even with their outsized durability and regeneration, they were already too far gone for recovery.
Most of them were Healers. Men and women who’d dedicated themselves to mending others’ injuries...
2025-11-11 16:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostA clang echoed through the forest, bouncing off the mountains and startling the wildlife. Birds took to the skies as animals darted away, uncertain of the sound’s origin. And perched atop one of those peaks, Gunnar’s face bore a tight smile.
It was the best shot he’d ever taken.
Almost nine miles from his target, which was only a few inches across. Even...
2025-11-10 16:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostAs he stared into the crystal orb, Greffyn Cornelius clenched his fists in frustration. It was a trivial piece of artifice attached to a pendant worn by one of his scouts, but despite how common it was, it had proven to be very useful. In this case, it gave him an unrestricted view of the ongoing siege.
The scout must have been perched high in a tree, and the perspective let h...
2025-11-09 16:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostFor a fraction of a second, the emergent bolt of lightning froze in space and time as the force of its own momentum warred with the gravitational pull of the imploding ethereal star. Even as that roiling ball of disparate energies collapsed in on itself, Elijah flooded Lightning Rush with ethera.
It was not enough.
By the time it reached the halfway point of its duration...
2025-11-09 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe undead abomination rammed the wall, sending rippling shockwaves of ethera arcing up and down its length. Defenders aimed a barrage of ranged attacks – both physical and spellwrought – at the hulking creature, but its thick, blubbery flesh protected it like a suit of macabre armor. Every movement sent undulations through the sewn-together fat, eliciting a wave of nausea in an...
2025-11-08 16:00:25 +0000 UTC View PostEthereal viscera splattered across the silver disc, staining it deep indigo. Before the blood had a chance to pool, it coalesced into an arm that latched onto the ground. Like it was pulling itself from a well, the reforming djinn crawled out of the ground, only to use its newfound existence to rejoin the attack.
Elijah had seen it play out hundreds of times over the past few ...
2025-11-07 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post