Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

“Are you sure?”

Kaela looked him up and down. “It completes the look.”

Elijah glanced back at the mirror. For once, he hadn’t been forced to dress himself outside of Tura’s hut, which meant that he had plenty of mirrors to show him just how ridiculous he looked.

By most people’s reckoning, he cut an impressive figure. His flowing, ivory coat, which hung down to his knees, shimmered like it was made of pearlescent scales. If he moved one way or the other, the fabric shifted from off-white to an emerald green that matched his scales. The rest of the suit followed a similar pattern to the one he’d worn to the last banquet, making him look like he was cosplaying a particularly flashy Victorian gentleman.

There was even a top hat he’d refused to wear.

The suit itself was ivory, though it lacked the vine-like embroidery of his previous outfit. Instead, it sported an emerald shirt and a matching tie. But the coat was the real point of emphasis – a true statement piece that Kaela had commissioned for him.

Elijah summoned Thorn from his Arcane Loop.

The natural look of the spear stood in stark contrast to the refined quality of the suit. Kaela was right – it completed the outfit perfectly.

“Nobody’s going to be upset that I brought a weapon, right?” he asked, glancing back at her.

She smiled, stepping up to his side. “After what you’ve shown in the arena, most people will assume that you are the weapon.” She wove her arm under his, adding, “Besides, a potential misunderstanding is just the price of good fashion.”

“Unless it gets me killed by some twitchy deity.”

She laughed. “You are the favored son of Prosperity. No one would dare touch you.”

“You dared last night.”

She slapped his arm. “Different kind of touching. Obviously. Unless you want to spar again.”

“Is that what we’re calling it now?” he asked. It might’ve started as a fight, but it definitely hadn’t ended up that way.

The question earned him a glare. “Don’t make me truly beat you.”

Elijah raised his hands in surrender. “Shutting up now.”

Indeed, the few times she had visited Birk’s training ring, she’d thoroughly embarrassed him with her mastery of fighting technique. As she’d shown in her tournament bouts, she favored the whip as a weapon. And even with one made of leather instead of fire, she was an undisputed master.

As befit someone who’d been trained by some of the best instructors available, and almost from the moment she had achieved sapience.

To Elijah’s surprise, fighting a whip user was an exercise in frustration. Though it was a far from deadly implement, the tricky nature of the weapon made it a nightmare to predict. The moment Birk had seen Kaela in action, he’d insisted that she visit more often.

And as much as Elijah enjoyed her company, he’d come to dread her visits. At least until they were allowed some privacy. That was when he forgot all about the punishment she routinely inflicted upon him and focused on the other, far more enjoyable aspects of her presence.

“Why are you grinning?”

“Huh?” Elijah asked, coming back to himself. “I wasn’t.”

“You definitely were.”

“You’re seeing things.”

She just shook her head, then pushed her white tresses behind her ear. Her hair hung free, perfectly framing her flawless features. Her dress – if such a skimpy garment could be called as much – similarly displayed her body, highlighting the pattern of her pearlescent red scales and concealing little more than the bare minimum to preserve her modesty.

And yet, it didn’t look scandalous.

Rather, it was like a high-fashion take on a toga, though one without the pretention usually associated with the runway. In short, she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever beheld.

And he had seen transcendents.

“What?” she asked, running her hand along the silky material in a needless attempt to smooth the nonexistent wrinkles.

“Just thinking about how lucky I am.”

That comment brought an even broader smile.

But it also reminded Elijah of what was to come. “How are your parents going to react?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “They seemed to like you.”

“Liking me and being okay with us being together are two very different things.”

The party was meant to be their coming out as a couple, and with that came a plethora of anxiety. Elijah had no idea how they were going to be received, by her parents as well as draconic society as a whole. There was no telling if he was missing some important pieces when it came to dragon culture.

And that wasn’t even considering the physical realities of mating.

It was embarrassing to admit that he probably needed someone to give him the draconic version of the birds and the bees talk. So far, he and Kaela’s intimate time together had been characterized by their human forms, but Elijah had no idea if that was normal. For all he knew, the expectations would change, likely suddenly enough to throw him for a loop.

There was a reason that, until coming to the Empire of Scale, he’d avoided relationships with non-humans. And the realities of sex with people whose anatomy might differ from his was near the top of the list. Right along with differences in culture.

But he was no more capable of keeping his distance from Kaela as he could choose to stop breathing. So, he’d resolved to figure it out along the way. For better or worse.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Maybe he just needed to channel is inner Captain Kirk and stop worrying about that kind of thing.

He was prepared for the social fallout, though. Or so he hoped.

“They already know,” Kaela reminded him.

“Yeah. But meeting the parents is a big deal.”

“You met them before.”

“Not like this,” Elijah persisted.

“You’ll be fine,” she insisted.

“I hope so,” he sighed.

With that, they finished their preparations and left the room. It was located in one of the many towers that made up the Crown, so they only needed to walk for a few minutes before reaching their eventual destination. As had been the case the last time, the upcoming ball had drawn quite a lot of notice. It made him feel like a celebrity.

Which he technically was.

After all, the Tournament of the First Fang had been attended by millions of people, and many times that number had watched via the system set up by a team of specialized Illusionists and Ethereal Engineers that broadcast the event throughout the Empire of Scale. As it stood, Elijah was one of the most famous people in the entire empire, though he suspected his notoriety would be short-lived.

The moment the tournament ended, the participants would fade into obscurity – unless they did something else to gain the public’s attention. Opportunities to do that were few and far between.

Though if he won, Elijah knew that his fame would last a little longer.

He and Kaela approached the crowd, which parted under the orders of a powerful-looking drake. Still, as they passed through that gap, Elijah felt like a captive performer under the world’s brightest spotlight. People clamored for their attention, and some even reached out to brush their fingers against his person.

Then there were the Empire of Scale’s equivalent of Earth’s paparazzi. They had no cameras, instead relying on specific skills that let them capture moments they would later embed into crystals. Those would end up in the hands of other Illusionists who would broadcast those moments throughout the empire.

Like the dragon version of TMZ, and just as inexplicably popular. Possibly even more detestable, though, if such a thing was possible.

Elijah hated them the second he recognized their exploitive purpose for what it was.

But he couldn’t change a system that had been around since before humanity had even developed agriculture. Instead, he could only endure and judge. The latter was where he settled.

In any case, relief washed over him when he escorted Kaela into the tower and the respite it provided.

“Don’t be so tense,” she chided.

“I’ll get right on that,” was his biting retort. He sighed. “Sorry. I’m not annoyed with you. I just don’t like that out there.”

“No one who finds themselves afflicted with public scrutiny truly enjoys it.”

“That’s not entirely true,” he countered. There certainly were dragons, usually from the most prominent families, who very much played to those crowds. He even knew a few of them, unfortunately. Though he wouldn’t characterize any of those sorts as friends.

But he didn’t want to think about them.

Instead, he escorted Kaela through the tower, barely noticing the elaborate architecture. However, he couldn’t miss the hints at the party’s theme. Colorful birds flitted back and forth across the ceiling, dodging mist-wreathed columns.

So, when they arrived at a portal, its frame made of clouds, Elijah was unsurprised.

Still, when he and Kaela stepped through, he found himself incapable of containing an inadvertent gasp.

His feet nestled among fluffy, white clouds while the atmosphere above contained a raging thunderstorm. Lightning arced back and forth, while tiny pinpricks of light provided subtle illumination. After a moment’s study, he saw that they were glowing birds.

The rest of the venue followed the same theme.

Cold air suffused the atmosphere, while sapphire tables ringed a massive space clearly meant for mingling. Clumps of dragons and drakes congregated here and there, locked in polite conversation.

Even Kirlissa stood among them, the radiant center of everyone’s attention as she flowed from one gathering to the next.

There were other transcendents in attendance, as well. People who stood so far above everyone else that they seemed almost ethereal. At the same time, they were forces of nature that filled him with dread, awe, and outright fear, all in equal measure.

It took Elijah’s breath away and locked his feet to the cloud-like ground.

Kaela recognized the situation and just let him enjoy it. Finally, Elijah said, “It never fails to impress.”

“The only thing we love more than ceremony and tradition is showing off,” she acknowledged.

At that, Elijah chuckled. “I suppose it’s time to make the rounds.”

“Not looking for snacks this time?”

“Sara told you about that?”

“She’s told me a lot of things.”

“All good, obviously.”

“Coming from her? Almost entirely. She loves you very much,” Kaela said.

“The feeling is mutual,” Elijah admitted. It was an odd realization, especially considering that he’d only really known Sara for a year. Maybe a little more, not counting their first meeting, which he didn’t. Back then, she was a different person. In any case, in that short amount of time, he’d grown to love Sara like the little sister she technically was.

She was messy and chaotic, but in the best way possible.

“Come,” Kaela said. “The ceremony awaits.”

On the surface, the ceremony in question was meant to honor those who’d made it to the top sixteen participants in the Tournament of the First Fang. But in reality, it was something much more important – a social event that marked their arrival as potential elites among the wider empire. After all, some past winners of the tournament had gone on to be transcendents. And the expectations were high for the remaining fighters.

In any case, what followed Kaela’s invitation was one of the most frustrating stretches in Elijah’s life. He was well-acquainted with small talk, but the crowd of dragons pushed his tolerance to the limit. Most of them were well meaning, though he didn’t miss the digs at his heritage. They didn’t outright call him a half-scale. They weren’t so crass. Instead, they often tempered their compliments by acknowledging his “unfortunate circumstances.”

As if he was less of a dragon just because he hadn’t been born one.

Maybe he was. Sometimes, it certainly felt that way. After all, he’d begun his life as a human, and he still often thought of himself as one.

But he didn’t like the tone of superiority and the undercurrent of bigotry implied by their less-than-subtle insults.

He endured it, though. Partially because almost everyone there could end him in the space of a second, but mostly because he didn’t want to embarrass Kirlissa. An outburst would certainly do just that. As Tura had repeatedly hammered into him, his actions reflected on his adopted mother, whether he wanted them to or not.

So, he constrained his impulses and pretended he didn’t notice the slights.

Until they became more overt.

“Once, a half-scale would have never been allowed to compete in such an illustrious competition,” Elijah overheard. “Much less invited to a gathering like this.”

He didn’t turn to stare at the speaker. Instead, he focused on Soul of the Wild, and he was rewarded with a look at an obvious transcendent. The dragon blazed in his mind, not like a bonfire, but like a sun. The others in his particular gathering lacked his brightness of spirit, but they were deities nonetheless.

Unable to contain his anger, Elijah turned to say something. But Kaela, recognizing what was coming, dragged him away before he could utter a single word. The speaker – a white-scaled dragon in humanoid a humanoid form that featured only a little actual skin – fixed him with a haughty gaze. He smirked.

Elijah wanted nothing more than to punch him.

And he probably would have, had Kirlissa waited even a second more to arrive.

“My son,” she said, embracing him with both her aura and her slender arms. She kissed his cheek, and his anger faded away. “You do the family proud. You are a credit to the empire and to dragons as a race.”

The white-scaled dragon’s face became a thundercloud to rival the atmosphere above. Then, without a word, he turned and stormed away.

Kirlissa’s voice cut through Elijah’s thoughts as she whispered into his ear. “Pay no attention to him. He is unimportant.”

Elijah wanted to believe her. And perhaps, to her, the transcendent was unworthy of note. But Elijah expected that he hadn’t seen the last of the white-scaled dragon.

“Now, please introduce me to your friend,” Kirlissa said, pulling away. Her tone mimicked that of a doting and amused mother. “Kaelari es Ignara, yes?”

Kaela bowed deeply. “Prosperity. I am honored by your attention.”

“Nonsense,” Kirlissa said, weaving her arm under Kaela’s. “Let us speak. I am certain Elijah can fend for himself.”

With that, she dragged a stunned Kaela away.

Leaving Elijah to navigate the party alone.

He immediately looked for the snacks, finding them a few moments later. In seconds, he was striding across the room, craving sustenance as well as the social armor provided by a good buffet.