Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Page 12

  My eyes widened when I saw it. “Watch out!”

  Her smirk became sinful. “Watch what I can do.”

  She placed her arm under her head as she lay on her side, so she could watch the water rising up her legs. It changed from red to clear and sat on top of her thigh as if deciding what to do next.

  “OK,” I said dumbly.

  “Matt, you in trouble?” Jo was on the link.

  “I’ll let you know,” I replied as my heartbeat skip-shifted right into top gear.

  “I see,” Jo said with humor in her voice as she logged off. I wasn’t trying to hide my teen horniness from her, so she likely felt some of it.

  Echo had wrangled the water into a long, thick rope about the width of her forearm. It fell backward off her thigh and I lost sight of it as she shifted her legs to create an opening. The water rope came through a triangular gap and slid along her exposed womanhood.

  “I spend a lot of time alone,” she cooed.

  My eyes were affixed to the rope but I sensed hers were on mine.

  The coil of water slid forward, constantly rubbing her, but the front continued up her stomach and blue-striped midriff.

  “Wow.” I said with my mouth hanging open just as wide as when I touched my first real-life boob.

  It was obviously sexual, but it also had another purpose. It sucked up the mud and dirt while dancing over her body. The dirt shuffled down the inside of the rope and went back into the stream. Wherever it touched, her skin was left with a clean, wet sheen. I was nearly panting when her magic rope rubbed dirt from one nipple.

  “I like your friends, Matt. I’m showing you this not to tempt you, but to open myself completely. I am now at my most vulnerable. I trust you with whatever comes next.”

  The water rope rubbed away the dirt from one breast, roved in her voluptuous striped cleavage for a short time, and then got to work on the second one. Her tits were large enough that they dipped while she leaned, but they were far from droopy. My magic really wanted to break free and touch them.

  My eyes drowned in her beauty, but I stood up to remove myself from the temptation. “You clean up. I’ll be right back.”

  “Why?” she asked. “Don’t you like what you see?” For some reason, even the hottest women seemed to doubt if I found them attractive. I’d have to figure that out someday.

  “I do. You are incredibly hot, but I have to get away before I do something we’d both regret. I’ve got to figure out a way to get you out of the water, and then we can get back to this discussion.”

  Her watery blue eyes looked sad, but she appeared to understand my need to leave.

  I was sad, too, but I practically ran to get away from her rope charms.

  ***

  Tex and Jo smiled as I approached.

  “You figure something out?” Jo asked.

  I shrugged. “I figured out I want to figure something out for her. She has an ability to control water.”

  “Hmm, is that why we felt your magic, uh, rise to the occasion?” Tex said with heavy sarcasm.

  “Yeah, that’s part of it, but you saw what the siren did. She controlled water and used it as a weapon. If we had her on our side, imagine what kind of advantage we’d have. I want to see if we can wrap her in a dragon skin uniform to keep her soaked.” I motioned for them to follow me to the dead players in the bushes close by.

  Jo spoke as she led the way to the first woman. “The siren did make that knight dance for her, but she wouldn’t be able to do much with this one. Raven made a mess of her.”

  There would have been almost no way to tell it was a woman except for the small breasts of the chainmail-like battle armor. The wolf had taken hold of her neck and bit through it with almost a clean cut. Her helmet-covered head sat in a weedy dip a few feet away.

  “Fuck, that cut is almost as clean as the others we found.” I said it over the mental link because I didn’t want Anton to know we were talking about him.

  I turned casually back to the general while I thought about my concern. He sat in the woods tending to Raven’s injury.

  “You don’t think they killed those three?” Tex asked as if doubting my hunch. “This kill has to be a coincidence. It isn’t nearly as clean a cut as the others.”

  I exhaled as I considered. “I don’t think he did it, either, but we can’t rule anything out. We’ll keep our eyes on him, OK?”

  They both nodded.

  “OK,” I said aloud, “the siren controlled the man in the knight’s suit back when we fought it. Maybe the water stayed inside the suit, or, who knows, perhaps she was able to manipulate the water inside the dude. Either way, this is what I want to look at, here.”

  I pointed to the dead woman’s suit. It was a one-piece garment with a long zipper up the back, a lot like a wetsuit. The small metal scales always made them seem like dragon skin to me, but this one was painted with a gold lion’s head on her breast.

  “But this one is too big for Echo.” She was short for a woman, even shorter than Jo. I guessed she wasn’t an inch over five foot tall. “But maybe it would fit one of you two?”

  We walked through some bushes to the second woman’s body. The same golden lion was emblazoned on her front side, and she still had her helmet, and head, attached. It took a little effort to find the bullet hole in her helmet’s visor.

  Unfortunately, she was almost as tall as her peer, which meant Tex could probably fit into one of them. Neither suit was suitable for Echo, and both were probably too tall for Jo, as well.

  I realized again the trade-offs I’d made when I signed up. Most women in the royale had some combat training or were at least large and fit, like bodybuilders. There weren’t many men willing to go to war with a shorter chick, like I did, but Clint said he needed Jo for his magic to work. That turned out to be false, but I’d come to love having the short gamer-girl around and her transformation into a witch badass only made me appreciate her more.

  Tex started off as more of a badass, but she’d willingly taken on the support role that came with her blending abilities. Still, the woman could hold her own, and I respected her choice to pick Staff Fighting.

  I needed us all in the best uniforms I could find, no matter how distasteful it felt.

  “I hate to ask this, but would you two be willing to pull off these suits and bring them over by Echo? I’ll do the same for the dude.”

  It was grim work when I got to the dead guy. I was pretty sure my bullets were the reason he died, but there were no external signs of trauma, which got me confused. I had to unzip him to learn the truth.

  My bullets didn’t penetrate his suit, but his entire left side was crushed in and bruised. It reminded me of research I did back in my roleplaying days. One way to kill a person in chainmail was to beat them with a hammer. Blunt force trumped the weaved chain armor designed to stop blade attacks.

  Anton smiled broadly when I came out of the undergrowth. “You said you’d listen to my story when we reached this side. I wish to retell the tale of this crossing.” He waved his arm out to the water.

  “Tell it to your wolf,” I said with a bit of attitude. I still wasn’t sure if he caused the fall that almost brought down Echo, or if he saved the whole crossing after she was already on the way down.

  The old man turned sour. “You don’t have much respect for your elders, do you son?”

  He caught me off guard. I tossed the body armor to the ground as I considered what he’d said, but I quickly decided there was no point in being an asshole.

  “I don’t mean anything by it. I’ve been on my own my whole life. My parents were gone when I was young, so I suffered through the foster system. Most adults I met either wanted to get rid of me or pretend I didn’t exist.”

  I flopped to the ground and laughed to lighten my mood, but Anton stayed serious.

  “Me and Raven brought many orphans into this world. I’m glad we were not responsible for the death of your parents.”

  “Couldn’t have been
you, unless you were fighting a war on an Ohio highway and caused my birth parents to wreck.”

  I was glad I explained myself to him, but my mood went into the toilet.

  ***

  Jo knew me the best, so it didn’t surprise me when she sat and took my hand in hers.

  “Heya,” she said. “You OK?”

  I smiled at her, glanced at Anton, then over to Echo.

  “My emotions are doing ups and downs as steep as that rollercoaster back at the park. I thought I fucked it all up when we crossed the river. Now, I’m coming down from the high of the battle.”

  Saying it out loud knocked some sense into me.

  “Sorry, general,” I said to him. “Thank you for helping get Raven across, and for taking out the last woman. I’ll try to be more patient with your stories, but I can’t make any promises.”

  Anton leaned against his tree and looked at me with his old smile. “Ah, good knight, I wonder how many more campaigns I might have won if I’d kept counsel with the fairer sex?”

  He winked at Jo. “I seldom talked to my females when they weren’t over a bed!”

  “It’s a wonder you won any battles at all with that attitude,” Tex said with dry wit.

  “I won my fair share of wars, Lady Tex, but not nearly as many as I wanted and not for as long as I wished. Eventually, even the best general succumbs to the greatest military force in history.” He faded off as if thinking about it.

  The three of us sat still for half a minute, not sure if we should carry on, or if he planned to say more.

  Just when I thought it was safe to talk, he finished his thought. “I’m talking about the field general named Time.”

  He patted Raven’s head. “It sure got us, didn’t it, old friend?”

  At some point he had taken out the arrow from the wolf’s coat. A few drops of blood smeared on his fur, but it was kind of hard to see with all the other dirt already there. Nonetheless, the animal seemed content.

  “That was a classic lay-in-wait ambush, my friends.” The general spoke with an authoritative tone. “They knew someone would eventually find the chest. We’re lucky they were too impatient to execute it properly. We almost brought all the contents right to them.”

  “Everyone underestimates us,” I replied.

  Anton smiled, but I couldn’t read his emotion while looking at his big green eyes.

  “OK, we have to experiment,” I said as I got up and turned away from the general. “You guys want to try these on?”

  “Not me,” Jo replied.

  “You don’t want more battle armor? I thought you witches lived for that?”

  She scowled at me. “First of all, I’ve been a witch for one day. I have no idea what they live for. Secondly, my armor plating seems to serve me pretty well.” Jo beat her breast plate with a clenched fist.

  I thought it over and decided it made total sense. “OK, I guess you wouldn’t look like the other witches, either. That could have hurt us down the road.”

  “The road won’t hurt me,” Anton interrupted. “I think it would help me, truth be told, because it would be far easier for me to walk. Now point me to it.”

  “It’s a figure of speech, general,” I replied without looking at him. “It means at some point in the future.”

  “Aye. We say ‘at the edge of the map,’ instead. As in, life will improve at the edge of the map.” He shifted on the ground with a loud grunt as if the simple act pained him intensely. “Back in the wars, we carried around little wood engravings showing all we knew of the enemy territory. Each time we reached the edge of a grid boundary we issued new ones. Soldiers often hoped the next one would be better.”

  “Geez, that’s harsh,” I answered.

  “War is harsh.” Anton grumbled and patted Raven some more. “But we await your orders, good knight!”

  He reminded me of something. “General, do you think you could just call me Matt? If you call me knight while in battle, the enemy will know I’m a player.”

  I was tempted to point out he’d done that exact thing not ten minutes ago.

  He flashed his gritty teeth in a warm grin. “Ah, yes. I keep forgetting you aren’t a Leftover. I will try to remember, Matt.”

  I turned back to Tex. She held the suit over her lap like it was a prom dress fresh from the store.

  “I think it would work better if you were in it,” I hinted.

  The redheaded woman swished her curly hair from one side to the other. “You think it will look alright on me?”

  I could tell she was being sarcastic by her playful tone of voice.

  “You want to go in the bushes and change?” I figured she’d want some protection from Anton’s male eyes.

  “Are you crazy? Anything could jump out and get me while my pants are down.” She held the outfit and got to her feet, then put me between her and Anton. “I’ll stand right here. Don’t move, OK?”

  She pulled off her tank top before I could react.

  “Don’t move!” she repeated as if I was thinking of moving.

  In moments, she had her tight shorts down and off, along with her cowgirl boots, leaving her with nothing on but her underwear.

  She looked me square in the nuts while bent over. “Not now, Matt. Tame that thing, will ya?”

  Echo was twenty feet away with nothing on but the waves. Jo never wore much for clothing. Now, Tex was modeling lingerie.

  “I’ll try,” I said in a serious voice.

  She giggled to herself, recognizing my white lie.

  “Those are very nice,” I said when I saw her frilly black panties. She’d taken them off in the darkness last night, so I wasn’t able to properly admire them. She put them on in a rush this morning, so they escaped me then, too.

  She stepped one foot into the dragon skin and started to pull the leg up.

  “You are going to wear underwear inside there. I assumed …”

  “I know what you assumed,” she chuckled. “But if there’s ever a time I need to take this off, I don’t want to be naked like I was when the witch arrived.”

  “I suppose …” I said with mock sadness.

  It took another minute for her to get her legs and arms into the suit. She didn’t bother with the gloves, which left her hands exposed.

  “Zip me up?” she said in a quiet, sultry voice as she exposed her back side to me.

  “Hell yeah,” I replied.

  I grabbed the zipper, which started at the topmost part of the crack of her ass. I ran my fingers along the other side of the teeth to keep the two sides close. It allowed me to touch her smooth skin all the way up her back.

  She shivered. “That tickles.”

  The zipper went to the top but I folded over an extra layer of armor, so it covered the zip. A lone cord hung off the top in case she needed to pull it down herself.

  “Done,” I said. “Let’s see it.”

  Tex took a step forward and then twirled on tip toes to let me see her.

  She was beautiful in the battle armor. The fierce lion seemed to roar in the sunlight and its golden paint contained many flakes of glitter. Her thin legs and wide hips were on full display for my endlessly probing eyes.

  “I can feel this getting your pulse running,” Tex said as I met her eyes. She cupped her breasts from below as she continued. “Does the armor make these look smaller?”

  “Not at all,” I replied with a racing heart.

  She pursed her lips and kind of smiled. “In all seriousness, I think the woman was smaller in the chest because this is kind of tight on me.”

  “You want to try the other one?” I asked her.

  “No, this was the taller one. I’ll be fine. It should push out as my girls jostle for position in here.” She pressed her boobs again.

  “Well, let’s try this, then.” I pulled out my phone and opened up the drawing program.

  I quickly sketched a bodysuit with a gold lion on the front. As always, my drawing was pretty much crap, but the idea came across i
f you knew what it was. I drew a line to where Tex’s tits would be and added a note: increase by one cup size.

  I figured if she needed more, I could edit the drawing. However, nothing happened when I hit save except I got a text message.

  ‘Level 3 base magic needed to edit low-tier magical items.’

  “It says I need one more level to modify your suit. What kind of lame-ass bullshit is this?”

  “That’s all it says?” Jo asked from nearby.

  “Yeah,” I said, still in disbelief.

  “Wait a minute,” Jo went on. “You mean to tell me you could add those huge guns to our cargo plane, but you can’t give her boobs an extra inch of freedom?”

  “I guess.” I didn’t tell her my suspicion that those guns could have been illusions designed to trick our attackers into staying away. It was probably why they weren’t visible in the wreckage.

  “Matt, can you make my boobs one inch smaller?” she whispered.

  “Why the fuck would I ever shrink your boobs?” I replied with shock.

  I’d considered what would happen if I used my magic to change features inside the bodies of my friends, like I’d briefly tried with Raven’s foot, but I wasn’t ready to go down that path. Besides, I’d never risk her boobs until I tested it on something harmless, like a few locks of hair.

  Jo and Tex snickered because they were playing with me again.

  I stayed on task. If I couldn’t shrink the other suit to fit Echo, there was no way she was getting off the beach to go with us.

  ***

  I made certain only Jo and Tex would hear me. “If we can’t make the dragon skin fit her, we have to think of something else.”

  “You think one of the other dead women we passed had suits that would fit her?” Jo asked.

  “Not sure. Echo is pretty short compared to the other players. I didn’t get the sense the dead women were especially short, did you?”

  They both shook their heads.

  “What we need is something we can wrap around her, like cling wrap to cover her skin. It would seal the water inside, like the wetsuit idea.” I was sure that was how we were going to figure this out.

  Tex glanced at Anton. “Maybe we could use some leather from his shirt? I bet there is one Echo’s-worth of material in that giant thing.” She laughed at herself.