Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Read online

“That’s all terrible,” Tex said in a comforting tone.

  I wasn’t feeling very charitable. “General, what did you think this was all about? You knew she was sending men like you into our armies. You gathered our soldiers where she wanted. It seems like you did a pretty damned good job at it, too.”

  “It is not a general’s place to know the mind of an emperor, or a dragon. I did my job as I’d done for a hundred campaigns before it. I thought we brought them together to fight each other one last time. Then the way would be clear…”

  Tex and I shared a look of concern.

  “Clear for what?” I asked.

  Anton didn’t hesitate. “For whatever came next. Look, Sir Matt, my life has been run in a certain order. Get the mission. Lead the mission. Finish the mission. Then wait for the next one...”

  He held up his hands.

  “Sure. I’ll grant you the runup to all this has been a little unorthodox, but we were in the perfect position to protect Conflict from any and all threats on the outside. How could there be an attack on her if we controlled all the armies? But after five seasons of preparation we got betrayed at the last moment by the very person I was sworn to follow.”

  “Maybe other generals refused the order, too?” I suggested.

  “No. That’s part of what drove me to this forest, and my doom. The others are younger than me, with many years of exciting battle ahead of them. No matter how much they dislike this order, they’ll have an entire career to make up for it. There may be others who refused, but none I know personally.”

  I suddenly had a bit more respect for him.

  And a shitload less respect for Conflict.

  “Tex,” I said, “will you watch over the general for a couple of minutes? I want to check something.”

  “Sure thing,” she replied.

  “Am I under arrest?” he joked.

  “No, I have a little experience with orders I don’t want to follow, so I feel your pain. It kind of helps knowing how you fought back.”

  “Going into the woods to die isn’t much of a way to fight,” he replied.

  “No, but I still have to try.”

  I stepped away and pulled out my phone. Only after I thought about it for a few seconds did I realize he’d been talking about himself.

  ***

  The shady grove of trees was peaceful next to the calm stream flowing nearby. As with every moment of my life in the royale, I found some peace by ignoring the creatures under the surface of the water, and the roving death squads that would kill me on sight. However, the game zone was so huge I was positive the other teams had to be well spread out. The odds of us encountering another team was minimal, which was the precise reason Conflict needed to send in those surrounding armies.

  I strained to listen for the sounds of war I knew were on the way, but there was nothing to be heard but the wind in the leaves and trickling water.

  How long did I spent talking to Anton? Was it enough time I should expect the girls to come back? Probably not.

  If I was going to soon be pursued by armies of my own people, I needed to get into my phone and do a few things, so I swiped past the yes/no gate that had to do with Echo, and got into my drawing application.

  The first thing I drew was the DRG app itself. Almost every game had a console mode that allowed players to access the coding more directly. Sometimes it was helpful for dialing up the power, like going into god mode, but it could also be used for innocent changes like turning off rain. The digital version of Dragon Royale had this feature, so I hoped the real version did as well.

  I didn’t know for sure how to represent console mode in my sketch, so I drew an arrow and added a couple of sentences: ‘Use more text feedback. C key to access console.’

  After hitting save, the picture flashed with my blue magic.

  “That should do it,” I said to myself.

  Once inside the DRG app, I immediately hit the C key. As I’d hoped, a screen overlay dropped in front of everything else, and I was given a prompt to type something in. Console mode usually had its own programming language, but I hoped my magic would supply the back end coding behind my requests.

  I keyed in: ‘Remove Matt from Conflict’s party.’

  I held my breath as I waited for the confirmation. I’d already planned to put up a yes/no barrier so she couldn’t ever do that to me again. However, when nothing happened, I became discouraged.

  As much as I tried to think of a way to get out of her grasp, the system refused to even acknowledge my requests. Kind of like it was forbidden to think such thoughts.

  My fingers banged on the tiny keys as I reworded my request over and over, but still nothing happened.

  “Fine,” I sighed to myself. “You have me, for now.”

  I tried to think of something a little less complicated, so I typed in: ‘Explain how to level up.’

  But still nothing happened.

  I typed ‘help,’ to see if that gave any clues on how I could structure commands, but that also had no effect. I tried several variations of commands from other games, but they all failed to produce a result. Finally, I got frustrated enough to speak to it.

  “Screw this hacker bullshit. Just tell me what the fuck I need to do to reach the next level.”

  A text message appeared on the screen as if another player was talking to me. It was behind the transparent console data, so I closed that.

  The username was ‘System.’ “To reach level 3, you must level up one squire three times, or three squires one time each.”

  I spoke to my phone in a low voice. “But I already leveled up three squires. Nora, Tex, and Jo. Shouldn’t I be at level 3?”

  “Level up one squire to reach level 1. Two additional squires to reach level 2. Three additional to reach--”

  “OK, I get it. The amount required increases with every level, just like experience.” I’d have to level up the girls a total of three more times to reach level 3.

  The phone sat in my hand for a long moment as I tried to determine the reliability of ‘System.’ Was it the DRG app itself, or someone talking to me remotely, such as a certain dragon with her eye on me? The bright silver lasso around my waist was still there and I had no idea what it meant for my privacy.

  I tested the voice command thing again. “Remove me from Conflict’s party.”

  Nothing happened.

  “See this silver band around my waste? I want it off. Cancel joining Conflict’s party.”

  The System’s text box didn’t put up any response.

  “Such horse shit,” I said under my breath.

  I was on the verge of spiking my damned phone in anger when something tapped at my ankle.

  “Banger?” I asked with a bit of relief. “What are you doing here?”

  The cat didn’t use the link to respond, which seemed about right since I didn’t use the link to ask the question. Instead, he was lying on his side and batting at my boot with one paw.

  “Banger, shouldn’t you be listening for threats?” That time I used the link.

  “Affirmative. But I am also protecting the master, as per protocol Salmon-2.”

  The small black cat continued to bop my heel as if it was a giant monster, except he was doing it while lying on his side, so he came across as lazy.

  “Fine,” I said to him before looking at my phone again.

  The text message earlier said I had to get to level 3 before I could edit lowly magical items, such as the dragon suits. I was already at level 2, so I needed only three level-ups to get there. It seemed doable, so I thought of something else that had been bothering me.

  “What is my base ability? What is TIA?” I asked with sudden inspiration. The blue core magic icon said I gave and received magic, but it said nothing about those letters.

  “Trust In Allies, Matt,” the system typed out to me.

  Tex and Jo were my allies. More than that, in fact, but I guess it made some sense. I trusted them with my life, so the explanation seeme
d anticlimactic.

  Banger chose that moment to bat a few more times on my ankle and heel.

  “Another monster?” I asked him.

  “Affirmative. Threat continues to crawl on master.”

  “Fuck! What is it?” Now it had my attention. I could imagine snakes, scorpions, or even a black widow. I fought the urge to swipe at my boot for fear it was something poisonous.

  Banger swiped at me one more time and I saw movement at the base of my pant leg. I was a little disappointed the cyborg cat couldn’t clear it from my boot himself, but when I crouched and saw what it was, I almost cracked up laughing.

  “You saved me good, little man. That ladybug is pure evil, you know?”

  The cat didn’t even look up at me. Instead, he took another swing at the insect.

  The dramatic battle at my feet went on for many minutes while I poked around to various screens inside the DRG app I’d created. I studied the girls’ base abilities, the four skills, and anything else I could find.

  All of our screens were organized the same way. The avatar and names were at the top, small icons for abilities and skills flowed below, and mine had an extra icon for accessing the console.

  Sometime later, Banger got my attention a different way.

  ***

  “The mistress has crossed my defense perimeter,” Banger said in his same constant computer tone.

  I looked up, expecting the girls to be far down the stream, but Jo was practically next to me, so I glanced back down at the cat. “Big help you are.”

  “Fish treats are appreciated.”

  “We’ll talk about it,” I said aloud.

  “They’re back!” I said in a raised voice to Anton and Tex. “Keep watch.”

  Now was the most dangerous time because Jo was a huge target exposed as she was over the waterway. She also had a bright yellow sheet of rubber rolled up under her arm.

  “Matt!” she said with relief.

  “Hey!” I said back.

  She chucked the roll at me and I caught it like a football. The flying witch then did a tight loop over the water to make sure her partner had arrived.

  It only took about five seconds.

  Echo shot out of the water and used her rope trick to walk a few feet over dirt and old leaves until she was next to me. Her naked skin glistened as the water drained off.

  Jo descended and hopped off her hog.

  “I can’t tell you how glad I am you’re here,” I said. “I was worried sick.”

  “Jo was fantastic,” the blue-haired woman gushed. “The raft wasn’t far from where we met, Matt, but one of my other sisters had moved in to investigate the half-destroyed boat. Jo used her broom to fly overhead and get her to leave. I cut the piece as you instructed, then got out of there.”

  “And then you gave her the rubber?” I pointed to Jo.

  “I couldn’t swim very well while holding it. You know that spot where the river goes downhill and upstream? I had to hand it off to her there. It was all very easy after that. Besides the first incident, no one bothered us.”

  Jo nodded. “I ran the siren in circles while Echo snuck in and cut the boat. I did hear other witches out there, but they are wrapped up in stuff happening elsewhere. Either they are invading, or are being invaded. I couldn’t make it out.”

  “I’ll tell you about it in a few,” I said. “Right now, I want to see what you brought.”

  Echo used fingers of water to push open the rubber swatch on the dried leaves. I couldn’t help but be impressed with her dexterity, but her sexual energy was mingling with mine despite the yes/no gate I still hadn’t answered on my phone.

  “You are incredible, Echo. Why didn’t you walk on land when we were on the other side?”

  “It takes great trust to show you my secrets, Matt.” She said it with a ton of sexual innuendo in her voice. “And I wasn’t yet sure I could reveal them to you and your friends. Not until we struggled together to cross my stream. After that, I knew you were true to each other.”

  “You could have used your water skills to hold Raven well above the water, miss Echo,” the general said from his sitting spot.

  “Who says I didn’t?” she shot back. “I used everything I had to get your friend to shore, good sir.”

  The general looked lost. “Thank you again,” he mumbled.

  My phone was already out, so I got back into the drawing program. Before I did anything, I looked at Jo. “Banger was behaving weird while you were gone. I think we’ve got him confused with all the changes.”

  “You mean like turning into a witch?” she said with a laugh.

  “And all the new people,” Tex threw in.

  I went on. “I guess it’s to be expected he’d be a bit confused, but he targeted a ladybug on my foot a few minutes ago.”

  Jo chuckled. “That’s normal cat behavior.”

  “But he told me what he was doing,” I replied. “He said it was a threat to my life.”

  “Yeah, totally normal. You aren’t used to hearing him spell it out.” Jo crouched down and picked up the little black furball.

  “All right, stand back,” I said with flair. “Let me see if my magic is powerful enough to do some sewing.” I’d parted out a roller coaster and worked the controls of a cargo plane, and I’d seen it in action inside the girls, but the refusal of the magic to work on the dragon suits had me spooked.

  I took a deep, cleansing breath. I soaked in a little sunshine as it came down in pillars of light through the leaves above. I felt the magic stir inside me and my two girls.

  And Echo.

  It came as no surprise to me that Echo’s magic flowed inside her like a powerful waterfall. All I wanted to do was stand under her magic and be soaked by it. Yet, I had to wait until I knew for sure I could bring her along.

  I traced lines across the screen of my painting program. First, I drew the naked water woman as the model I needed the material to fit. Next to it, I sketched the one-piece rubber jumpsuit that would wrap Echo from her toes to her neck and keep her life-sustaining water on her skin.

  The yellow fabric began to glow at the edges, as if my magic burned it. The blue flames ripped in a pattern that quickly outlined a woman. Before I had time to wonder what would happen next, the same glow helped to fuse more rubber into the pattern, so it started to look like a 3-D model.

  “Is this what it’s like to belong to a man?” Echo said in a dream-like voice. “I can feel him already.”

  I turned to answer, not sure of her question, but she wasn’t looking at me. Instead, her odd statement was meant for Jo and Tex.

  Her hands roved between her legs, but I could barely see her fingers. She’d manipulated a rope of water from the nearby stream and created a fig leaf of coverage between her hips. Her gestures were the same as I’d seen Jo and Tex do when my magic probed at them back in Fawn Forest. Even at PG-13, it was an insta-hardon for me.

  “Come on, magic, don’t fail me now,” I said to myself. Nothing was more important than finishing the suit and ensuring it worked. That would allow me to say yes to her.

  “Belonging like this is not common to all men,” Jo answered.

  “Just this one,” Tex added.

  We all felt the new girl’s magic.

  ***

  “It’s done!” I said like it was the most important piece of magic I’d accomplished.

  Echo abruptly pulled up her hands and dropped her dainty water shield.

  “Oh, Matt, I feel you already. I need—”

  “Before you say anything more, please try this on.” I crouched down and picked up the yellow outfit. Just eyeballing the design, it did seem to be about her size and shape. I felt immense relief my magic got it correct.

  “Matt, will you help me into it?” the elfish young woman pleaded.

  I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over to Jo and Tex. I acted like a horny teen being asked to help the captain of the girls’ swim team into her suit, but this was also a deadly serious game
with life-and-death ramifications. Added to that was the sexual magic I shared with my two friends already. Would one more girl make them jealous? Would it dilute my magic, or strengthen it? I certainly didn’t feel any less powerful after making connections with Jo, Tex, or Nora.

  Echo was already powerful as a magical creature.

  Jo’s crafty grin hinted at her mood, but she turned away with Banger still in her clutches before I could be sure.

  Tex also smiled. “We’ll keep watch while you help her, Matt. Don’t worry about a thing.” Her emphasis on ‘help her’ suggested she knew where this was going.

  Echo stepped closer to the stream so her tether was super short but also very wide. Energy built around us, like our magics were already seeking each other out. My heart rate skyrocketed in almost the same way as if I was facing a siren or another knight’s team.

  “Right here should be good,” she said. “I can get all the water I need once you help me inside my beautiful new dress.”

  I set the suit on the shore and looked it over. She assured me it didn’t need to be 100% sealed, so there were holes for her hands and feet. I couldn’t wait to see it on her body.

  “Are we safe here?” I asked as a way of staying on task. “What about all those things in the water?”

  “Are you planning on taking a dive?” she teased as she placed both hands on her stomach in a suggestive manner.

  “No. Well, I, uh, it seems dangerous.” I stumbled over my words only because I faced two threats on the bank. The fish-like things that made the water boil earlier, and the beach babe who forgot her bikini.

  I thought she’d been looking down at her womanhood, but her eyes went to her foot as she held it off the ground. “Can you slip it in?”

  My heart stopped, and my dick was already unzipping my pants. “You mean?”

  Her smile glowed brighter than the sun.

  “The outfit,” she said after a long pause. “Slide it on my foot, please.”

  “Fuck, of course. I got it.”

  The magical skin suit was harder to put on than I thought. It was so tight she had to step into both legs at the same time. I strained to stretch the material over her knees and up her wet thighs. After shimmying it up over her waist, I almost regretted the whole affair, because it covered her so completely.