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 me its own truth, I have learned to instead leverage that truth to my own advantage.

  When four elementals, each over 200 feet tall, appeared within view, I thought perhaps their size had become exaggerated to emphasize their importance, such as the Shadow Path is wont to do. This extreme and curious development is what imposed the impetus upon me to return to the material world. It was then that I discovered that there indeed existed some form of exaggeration, for these colossal elementals 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 movement, 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 elemental 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 me, my lent sword poised to strike.

  Ponderous, dimwitted, and incredibly oblivious and unyielding, the earth elemental 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 zweih?nder that had been my companion for over a decade, I can still put this generic greatsword that has been entrusted to me through its paces. I may not be physically in range to strike the oblivious oaf of an elemental, but my power far surpasses the reach of my blade, and its bite is far more than that of mere steel.

  I have always had an affinity for Shadow, an element of magic beyond the traditional and primitive four. The Shadow Path had helped me 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 comes in the wake of cowardice.

  I do not know if earth elementals have the mental 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 becomes more than sharp steel and shaped purpose. A blade is an embodiment and interpretation of violence, and the shadow its casts is that of death. Fully primed, I await the sparse moments that pass before I unleash my contempt.

  Finally, the moment comes as Master flies over the massive earth elemental. 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 name for a Skill! Perhaps it is meant 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 elemental’s body and siphoned its strength and mana into me.

  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 elemental 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 elemental remained standing, if staggered, albeit with its otherwise vapid expression somehow 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 momentum would seemingly allow, Master performed a vertical loop. While my world transitioned from right side up to upside down and back again in a blur of me repositioning to stand on Master’s shoulder, Master came to bear with his body in a standing position as he alighted on the elemental’s body. With his claws, he dug in to secure his position. With his wings, he enveloped the elemental’s arms so it could not effectively offer resistance. And with his mouth aimed down towards the elemental’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 detriment 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 elementals 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 elemental’s own power into me 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 elemental'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 times 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 merit. Verily, our magnanimous generosity to allow others to challenge themselves was all that restrained our hand.

  Besides, the elemental’s mana was so fundamentally corrupted and attuned to Earth that it would take some time 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 moment due to the aforementioned 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 time, ONE TIME!” Karlenstein growled mentally while they considered dropping the cheeky kobold clutched in their hand. They would never do it on account of the time and energy it would take to train up a replacement 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 refinement than what my peer has displayed.”

  “Oh, yes, Mommy!”

  It was moments like this when Karlenstein indulged in mental 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 lifetime, 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 elemental 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 elemental; 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-time, all of which can do very bad things to an air elemental 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 Mehczeczi (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 dimension. 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 elemental 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 detriment 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 elemental. With practiced disdain and indifference, Karlenstein spewed forth a breath of blood laced with all manner of biophages, alchemical concoctions, toxins, alkali metals, acids, and so forth. In short, the water elemental was about to become 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 elemental. 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 consumed 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 formed, killed, and reformed in waves that ran roughshod over the elemental’s body, the impact of it so severe to the concept of Water that made up the elemental’s body that the meaning of Water became diluted into something lesser and ambiguous.

  By the time Karlenstein lazily turned back around at the far end of the dungeon, all that remained of the water elemental was a bubbling and fuming pool of filth and misbegotten life that had served its purpose.

  After taking a moment 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 elemental 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 elemental. 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 time 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 something that a lesser being would need, and Karlenstein was no such being of inferior blood.

  Sand, gemstones, and precious metals all share an unfortunate trait when exposed to extreme heat: they melt. Bylo’selhi of The Equivalent Scales was not having a good time of it when it came to fighting an entity made of not just literal fire, but of Fire itself as a concept and element of magic.

  Ossimandias of The Bone Wardens fared no better, for bones break apart and melt at such extreme temperature. In fact, every physical element melts when hot enough. Investing enough raw mana into it changed little when the weight of the meaning behind it did not sufficiently combat Fire. Necromancy and Animancy were great for preparing the remains of the dead to become 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 elemental 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 document of the former out of the air, only to despair when he felt a proportionate sum of money drained from the pocket dimension where he stored his petty cash. Truly, Synsinac was a powerful and terrible foe on whose bad side none should ever find themselves!

  Somehow, the fire elemental burned those papers up just the same 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 elemental down, the pair of them launched a salvo of breath attacks. This time, they magically seemed to work, and the elemental 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 elemental 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 same four elementals returned, this time 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 same time or they will regenerate!”

  What followed was a great deal of weeping and gnashing of teeth as the rank and file found this new development to be an exclusive problem for their draconic betters.