Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Read online

  DRAGON

  ROYALE 2

  DRAKE POWERS

  Copyright © 2018 Drake Powers

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  CONTENTS

  FOUND

  THE GENERAL

  SIREN

  RED RIVER

  WOLF PACK

  LETTING GO

  ECHO! ECHO!

  PLAYERS

  LEFTOVERS

  MERKUR

  SPLIT THE CHAOS

  TISSY

  THE CUBE

  LOOT AND SCOOT

  LEVEL RECAP

  THANK YOU

  FOUND

  “So, that’s what you meant when you wanted to bump boots with me,” I said in the afterglow of our coupling.

  It was easily the best lovemaking I’d ever been a part of, and the magic flowing between us helped me recover my spent ammo faster than I’d ever done in my past life.

  Tex’s body pressed against me as we lay sprawled on our grassy patch of moonlit forest. Our heaving chests rose and fell in symmetry after so much exertion, and the chirping of crickets and locusts provided pleasant background noise during our most recent recovery.

  “You just wanted my virginity to earn your mission,” she mused while playfully walking her fingers across my shoulder.

  “You were a virgin?” I blurted out.

  Tex laughed. “God, I know we face death from a hundred different directions, but teasing you like this really helps take the edge off.”

  I had no idea how long she and I rolled in the hay, but it could have been hours. The cartoon guys from the theme park evidently gave up their brief chase, and we were inside a magic bubble of sound proofing driven by Tex’s Blend ability. Neither of us were in a hurry to get up and get dressed, but her pillow talk kept me on my toes.

  “All right, slut, you know I didn’t want you just for my mission. I desired you way before Conflict put the stupid condition at me. However,” I said in my own teasing voice, “now that I’ve had you…”

  “Several times,” she interjected.

  “Several times,” I repeated with great pride. “I suppose we should look at the text message and see what mission has been given to us by the almighty dragon.”

  She slid off to my side as I searched for my phone in the pile of clothes next to us.

  Conflict dug her claws into the smartphone app I created to keep track of my magic and the skills of my girls. She intercepted information about the Dragon Royale game itself and put her own spin on the text. She’s the one who decreed the only way my app could tell me the mission was if I slept with Tex.

  I fought against her wishes and won a small victory by not telling Tex ahead of time what the dragon wanted, but there was an awkward moment when my phone rang the instant she took me inside her. I thought she’d be pissed, but Tex was overjoyed I didn’t proposition her for sex simply to get my mission. That’s why she teased me about it.

  “Seriously, though, will you let me see what the mission says from now on, no matter what?” Tex asked.

  “Yeah, as I said before, we’re in this thing up to our hips. I’ll try to be more open with you about what the game sends to my phone.”

  “Try?” she replied.

  “It scares me that Conflict could make us do anything through these missions. I’m afraid just thinking about it could tip her off to my biggest fears. Like doing a school report in front of the class while in my underwear.”

  “I’d enjoy that,” she said with humor.

  “Yeah, well, not me, unless it was only you,” I said with a chuckle. “In this game, she could require me to do terrible things in order to get fed the information we need to survive. I may not want you to see that shit right away.”

  “Fair enough. Conflict is a bitch. Got it. But I’m here for you, Drake. Just know that I’ll give you all I have, including my virginity.” She gently tugged at my earlobe.

  “Seriously? So you were?”

  “Read the message, Matt. We’ll talk about your gullibility later.”

  I pulled her toward me so I could spank her bare ass. “Bad Tex.”

  Her country-girl drawl really came out strong. “Oh, sweetie, you’ll have to do it harder than that.”

  We were in danger of falling into another round of lovemaking, but we had work to do, so I forced myself to press on with business. I finally found my phone.

  “In the spirit of sharing everything, let’s look at this together.” I turned on my screen and held it so we could both see.

  “Let me get into the Dragon Royale Girls app.” The game icon was on my home screen because it was now my most-used application. I tapped in and swiped until the mission text box came up.

  “OK. Here’s the mission it gave us: There has been a factory recall on Lord Bart’s staff. Please return it to the Wellspring Encampment for service. It comes with a map.”

  I scrolled down a bit so we could both study the attached map.

  “It doesn’t look far,” Tex said as she tapped the glass screen with one of her long, red fingernails.

  “Maybe.” I pinched and twisted the screen so our blinking blue dot was on the bottom, and the solid red pin sat right at the top. “But there are hills and lots of forest between here and there.”

  “At least we have a plan,” she said. “We can start the minute the sun comes up.”

  “We could leave now,” I said half-heartedly.

  The goal was to kill 99 enemy teams, each with a knight like me, and two female squires. We had thirty days to get it done, but we’d been on the run most of the previous day. I wouldn’t admit it to her, but I was tapped out.

  “I need some z’s,” she said like it was obvious. “You wrecked my body with both types of your magic. Sleep is what I need right now, or I’ll be a bleary-eyed bitch tomorrow.”

  “We can rest, for a while, I suppose,” I said in reply. The gamer in me wanted to get to the battle right away, but a new part of me was learning about adulting while on the run. Adults knew when to sleep.

  For a few minutes we simply listened to the symphony of the nighttime forest. Frogs and crickets tried to outdo each other’s songs in the woods around us, and an owl hooted in the distance. It wasn’t scary at all, but the last thing I felt was Tex pulling herself halfway onto my chest, as if to stay close.

  In what seemed like the next second, Banger surprised the shit out of me when he meowed right in my ear.

  “What the fuck?” I exclaimed. “Banger? Are we in danger?”

  Tex pushed herself up on my chest to look around. “Someone’s tracked us,” she whispered. She then rolled off and hopped to a crouch. I crept up and started for my gun sitting a couple of yards away.

  “I found you,” Jo replied from the edge of the clearing. “As I promised.”

  I froze with disbelief.

  “Jo?” I replied.

  The witch stepped out of the leaves and branches, letting me see her in the moonlight. Her green skin seemed to have a faint ambiance to it, so her camouflage shorts and bra-like top appeared to glow as well.

  “I felt you tug on me,” she said as she strode a few more feet. “And, I can’t explain how, I sensed the magic transfer between you two.”


  Dirt and grime plastered Jo’s skin like she’d been running for the several hours since we last saw her, and she spoke like she’d had one thing on her mind the whole time.

  “There is room here for you, too,” I said simply.

  “You have no idea how much I wanted you to come back, Jo,” Tex added. In our private moments between sessions of lovemaking, Tex confided she felt tons of guilt that Jo got taken, instead of her.

  “The witches aren’t as fun as you’d think. I learned what I needed to know, then got the hell out of there. Part of their mission is watching the airways above the trees, like when they found our plane, so I had to walk here to avoid being caught in the sky.” Her broom was tethered to her back as evidence she didn’t ride it here, but now she jerked it off and threw it to the ground.

  Jo continued. “After I saw you go into that black portal and not come out, I asked around what happened to you. The second I learned you were sent into these woods, I craved nothing more than getting back to you.” She yanked at a loose piece of cord hanging from her small armored halter top. The drab piece of clothing fell off with military efficiency and hit the dirt with a metallic crunch.

  Her bare green breasts glowed with the rest of her skin.

  She ripped off her pointy witches’ hat and tossed it absently onto a stringy bush. Her black hair brushed against her shoulders as she let it breathe.

  “And I needed you to come back to me,” I replied as I admired her nude upper half.

  “I really fucking wanted you to come back, too,” Tex said with relief in her voice.

  Jo’s camo shorts were the last thing she removed. It took her many seconds to loosen and unbuckle the numerous belts, straps, and ropes holding all her gear to her waist.

  It fell to the ground like the gunshot starting the Indianapolis 500.

  The three of us put Tex’s sound resistant magic to the test.

  ***

  With Jo included in our lovemaking, it felt like my team was running on all cylinders again. However, every last ounce of stamina drained out of me by the time I helped each of them reach their magical and physical summits. When I hit my own double-tap, I fell over into dreamland with the girls piled on top of me. I think we all had the best few hours of sleep in our lives.

  I woke up with a boner and a giant grin, amazed at my luck. It was the best night of my life, despite where it took place. Two women, one Matt. Hell yeah.

  Tex was on my left. Her red lasso glowed bright, and gave her the appearance of having a red bow around her waist. She was certainly a gift to me. If I really concentrated on her I was able to see her whole body was filled with the red magic, at least up to about her breasts. That meant she was somewhat near another level up.

  Jo was on my right. Her magical link glowed with a mystical violet hue that made her green skin seem even more alien than it already was. The magic inside her had consumed almost every inch of her body, and she was maybe one shotgun blast from leveling up. I’d seen her at almost the same point last night, which suggested it wasn’t possible to simply fuck them to the next level.

  “That sucks,” I mumbled to myself.

  I got dressed at first light, content for a few minutes to watch the sleeping beauties in the still morning air, but the peace didn’t last.

  “This is an outrage!” someone shouted from close by.

  My two women immediately woke up and struggled to get to their clothes and weapons, but I already had my gun over my shoulder, so I reached around and aimed it toward the voice.

  “Find cover!” I yelled. In my gaming experience, the first thing to do in any ambush is get something between you and the attacker. Unfortunately, she had the drop on me, so I was stuck out in the open.

  Banger hissed repeatedly from close by.

  “I know,” I replied to the cat. “We see her.”

  The new woman shouted in a raspy voice as she appeared near some small, leafy saplings. “A Changed with a knight and his squire. At the same time! What is this madness, witch?”

  I looked over to Jo as she scrambled for her broom and weapon. Her pert bottom was the last thing I saw as she hopped over a giant log and fell to the ground behind it.

  I tried to communicate on her purple magical link. “Jo, can you block the chat room thing between witches?”

  “What?” she asked aloud. Then, in my mind, she repeated “What?”

  “If witches like her communicate via a chat room,” I said, “then we have to cut her off from the others before she gives us away. Can you do that?”

  I had no idea if the witch was alone or with her clan, but I wanted to think ahead.

  “I’ll try,” Jo replied on our own private version of chat.

  I tried to pass instructions to Tex on the red link we shared. “Stay safe. Flank around her if you can.”

  “On it,” she replied mentally.

  “This is blasphemy,” the witch said as she waited at the edge of our happy little campsite. Her wooden broom hovered next to her in the branches, and a gun like Jo’s hung on a strap over her shoulder. The sling gave her the freedom to wield the rifle with one hand.

  Strangely, she pointed the weapon at Jo’s log rather than at me out in the open.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” I said with calm as I backed myself toward the trees. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

  “Aye, what appearance am I missing? A knight and two naked maidens in the forest? One need not be a member of Cupid’s guild to know where love’s arrows were shot this night. I can smell them both on you, foul knight.”

  “I can’t block the system, Matt, but I don’t think this one has reported in. There is no call to arms, at least.” Jo put on her clothes behind the log as she spoke. Her purple link was solid between us, like she was really using it.

  “You have to find a way. Put your elbow on the keyboard if you have to. Send gibberish to flood the line.” I sometimes did that when assholes played music through their microphones during online games.

  “I’ll try,” she shot back.

  We were at a standoff. I had my rifle at the ready, but I didn’t yet point it at the witch. Her gun remained focused on where Jo was getting dressed, and I didn’t want to provoke the witch until my girl was prepared. It also gave me added time to continue my way back toward some hard cover.

  “Just leave us alone,” I added. “This isn’t something gross. In fact, I care deeply for both of them.”

  “You demonstrated this care by wetting your staff in their lotus flowers?”

  “Aye,” I answered in her style of talk. Assuming she meant what I thought she did.

  The angry witch pretended to faint. “Oh, my ears. They burn. You cannot comingle with the Changed.” She spoke at almost a whisper, as if she wanted me to hear it, but not Jo. “It is unnatural, don’t you see?”

  “The only thing unnatural is how Conflict has Changed my friend. I see no distinction between the two women behind me. Both are warriors. Both are beautiful to me.”

  “Copulation muddies the male brain, as usual,” the woman replied. “And you are twice as bad.”

  She looked over to Jo. “I followed you out of the training room, curious why you never got on your broom. Then I was more curious where you were going. What is your name, witch, that I may report you? Mine is Ivona.”

  Jo finally stood up. She’d gotten on her top, and her ammo bag hugged her left hip, but she didn’t bother with the shorts.

  “You will not report me,” Jo declared.

  The witches’ uniforms seemed to be consistent. The canvas camouflage shorts and metal halter-tops looked like something Boba Fett’s girlfriend might wear. Of course, each of the witches flew with exposed midriffs because the battle gear hardly did more than cover their breasts.

  The main difference between their attire at that instant, besides the lack of Jo’s pants, was that Ivona had several red stripes painted onto her arm up near the shoulder. It looked like rank, or something similar.

&
nbsp; She was also many rungs down on the beauty ladder from Jo, which made her look more like a witch than a warrior.

  “Oh, really?” Ivona replied like it was a challenge. It almost appeared as if she tilted her head to speak in a radio.

  A few seconds later, she straightened and glared at Jo. “What are you doing, vile witch? Why can’t I report in for backup?”

  “I’ve got my elbow on the keys,” Jo said with a touch of gallows humor.

  “What is this madness? You three are cursed, surely?”

  If Sarah were around, she’d call her out on using the name Shirley, but I didn’t have the time.

  I raised my weapon fully intending to fire it. There were perhaps two seconds to wonder if I was in the right. Was Han Solo doing the right thing firing first at Greedo? Was it heading off trouble by taking the initiative? Surely the witch was going to bring a world of hurt on us.

  There’s Shirley again, I thought as other guns started firing.

  It turns out Jo was a lot faster than me. So was Ivona. The two witches pulled the triggers at the same time before I could even get my rifle trained on the intruder.

  Jo’s first shotgun blast hit Ivona’s breast plate, and tons of sparks flew up with the deflections.

  Ivona’s shots went the other way toward Jo, but I wasn’t able to look back and see if they’d found the target. I was busy finishing my aim and pulling on the trigger for the first time.

  I aimed for Ivona’s stomach, which was a big, green bulls eye with no armor. I sent off several rounds certain they would get close.

  The mad witch stepped to her left, and my bullets ricocheted off her breastplate, much like Jo’s shots had done.

  Ivona laughed. “You fools! I’m built for combat. Your gun skills are too weak to strike me in a vulnerability.” She ran to her right, toward the nearest tree at the edge of our clearing.

  I fired a few more rounds from my endless ammo gun, but they crunched the dirt as they chased her combat boots.