Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Read online

  If I was able to sketch the garage door opening upward, I assumed I could also close them. To test my theory, I chose one of the doors on the far side of the warehouse. I drew the door and put some water flowing through it. Once I labeled it as the red river, and that the garage door should close, I assumed the drawing would light up with magic, but it did not.

  “What the fuck?” I said to myself.

  Echo screamed in fury. The water she sucked out of her suit was now a thin rope about ten feet long. It glowed bright yellow, almost white, with her magic, and she wielded it like a whip. The weapon cut into the green mass like a flaming knife through butter.

  Merkur’s bulk reacted by retreating a few feet.

  Echo yelled again and slung the whip into the creeping horror as hard and as far as she could. It burned yellow where it touched green, like it cauterized the wound at the same time, but the goo filled in the thin stream almost as fast as she cut in.

  I got back to my phone.

  I edited the words ‘red river’ and replaced red with yellow. I focused on the two garage doors the yellow river flowed through. That time the drawing flared with blue magic, like a fuse burning toward a firework.

  The garage door shut with a thud. The magical river didn’t flow up against the closed door and spread across the floor toward us as I expected. The water re-adjusted itself like a living animal and hopped on top of the other half, so the stacked pair could fit through the remaining open door.

  “There’s a range to my magic,” I said to myself. On paper, I knew there had to be a limit to what I could affect, but I’d never thought about it other than knowing I couldn’t pull asteroids from outer space to drop them on Conflict. No, my limit was much tighter than the asteroid belt.

  Echo cried out like she’d put all her strength into her arm and her whip slapped into the jelly the full ten feet, but Merkur only laughed.

  “I’m disappointed. With your strange memories and odd tools, I expected to see some new magic, but you are less impressive than the child-mages of Durge’s Span, and I drank them up them two hundred years ago.”

  “I don’t get your references, lady, but your point is taken. I’ll try to come up with something better for you.” I didn’t have much time left, because the slime glob started to slither toward us again.

  “What kind of overseer would I be if I gave you a chance to prove you could harm me? I think we’ll leave the magic tricks for another day.”

  “Shit,” escaped my mouth before I could stifle it.

  ***

  I had to take a big risk if we were going to get out of the warehouse alive.

  “Jo,” I said to her as she hovered nearby, “I need you to do something for me, fast.”

  “I’m moving Banger. He keeps trying to go around the blob to Raven, but tell me what you want, and I’ll get it done.”

  I put my phone in my pocket and raised my rifle. It spewed out another long chain of magic bullets, which sent many jabs of light into the meatball-shaped mass, but they were as ineffective as all the other shots.

  “Tex, back up!” She’d been swinging the staff with all of her feisty energy but had done very little except remove a few square feet of slop.

  The three of us moved back toward the door as Merkur’s body shifted on the concrete to follow. As we came up against the doorway, I realized the blob’s front edges would soon touch both walls of the corner, trapping us.

  I used our link. “Jo, get on the other side of it. Now!” I pointed where I wanted her to go.

  “You’ll be trapped!” she replied.

  “Trust me. Get out of here!”

  She hesitated too long, so it was impossible to fly sideways along either wall. Instead, she had to angle her broom straight up and fly out of the remaining space near the roof.

  “I’m out,” Jo reported. “There is another ball of hate fighting our trigger-happy friends in the other corner.”

  “Don’t worry about them. Here’s what I need you to do.” I told her my brief plan. There was no time to give details or make suggestions, other than ‘get it done.’ I trusted she was smart enough to know what I needed from her.

  I spoke to Tex and Echo on the mental connection. “This is going to be close, guys. Jo is going to help us out there and you two have to hold Merkur for a few more seconds while I light up my phone.”

  The big ball relentlessly pressed into the corner. It was so wide it touched both walls before it pressed in toward us. Our triangular refuge grew smaller every second.

  My phone was our last weapon. I slung my rifle and pulled my magical drawing program out again.

  “Ah, one last gasp,” Merkur’s voice resonated in the confined space. There was now less than twenty feet left between her and the door. “I wonder if I’ll be able to use your magic when I absorb your bones? Will this black book reveal your magic to me?”

  “What? This old thing?” I held up my phone a little as I continued my sketch. “Don’t you think I would have this booby trapped?” As I said it I realized how stupid I’d been. I’d booby trapped my gun, sort of, in that only my friends could wield it, but I could have put a self-destruct routine on it like they do in every science fiction movie ever made.

  Merkur’s forward progress stopped at about ten feet. There was barely enough room for the three of us, but neither girl could do much with their weapons in the tight chamber.

  “Tex, open the door,” I said to her on the link.

  I furiously sketched out the remaining three garage doors inside my magic range and got it so that all I needed to do was hit save, but I hesitated because I didn’t know where Anton was.

  “Jo, do you see Anton? Is he leaving?”

  “Wait one. I’m busy.”

  The dull sound of gunfire came from over the top of the meat pressed up against the nearby walls, so it sounded muffled and far away.

  Tex opened the door to the dim world outside. It felt a little like standing over an open manhole cover, because anything could have been waiting for us out there. We’d been firing guns and shouting at max volume for the last ten minutes.

  “I’m free, Matt,” Jo advised. “All the doors on the other side are down. Coming back.”

  “No! Get out. Wait. Fuck. Is Anton outside, yet?”

  Jo was silent for a moment before answering. “He is chopping at the back side of your attacker. He is—”

  “Jo?” I replied.

  I was blind with the wall of goop in front of me. If I executed the second half of my plan I ran the risk of trapping Anton, but there would never be another chance.

  “Jo. Get him out! Get yourself clear!”

  Nothing but silence on our line.

  “Banger, go outside and run over to the door I opened for Anton. Tell me if he comes out. Go!”

  “Master,” he said as he ran out the corner door.

  “You don’t sound like a wizard who knows what he’s doing,” Merkur said as if finally making up her mind from my threat of a booby trap. “I smell fear on you and your silence suggests you’re bluffing.”

  Merkur hesitated for a moment as if waiting for me to respond, but then she continued toward us.

  I watched through Banger’s eyes as he turned the corner of the half-open garage door. Anton and Raven stood at a huge gash on the backside of the sickly green mass, and slime piled up at their feet like they’d taken a huge bite and then spit it all out.

  “Shit. He’s not clear!” I said out loud.

  Merkur seemed to wince at my words, but then a tentacle shot out above my head and slammed the door shut before any of us could get out.

  The creeping mass started to fill in the rest of the space around us as Tex tried in vain to pull the door open. Echo used her whip to sever the first tentacle, but more showed up to replace it before we could leave.

  I was out of time. Jo had already done her part by closing the far garage doors. I needed to do mine. If we died in the flood, at least we might take the giant bitch with us
.

  “I hope you can swim,” I said to Merkur in our remaining closet-sized sliver of air. I pressed the save button on my drawing, which caused my phone to light up with blue magic.

  I realized we’d soon be swimming, too.

  Inside her.

  ***

  Merkur lunged over the final few feet, but she didn’t reach us. Echo stepped in front of me and gripped her whip with both hands in front of her, like a shield.

  “Fuck yeah!” I shouted.

  “She’s mostly water,” Echo said aloud.

  “What is this?” Merkur boomed. “You share magic with each other?” She made a sound like smacking lips, but she didn’t have them to smack. “I’m going to enjoy learning about you when I absorb that brain and your toys.”

  “Dammit, Jo, are you there?” I probed the mental link for her, but finally had to look through Banger’s eyes to see her. She seemed to be fighting with Anton, like she wanted to drag him toward the last open garage door, but he wanted none of it.

  “We have to get through this door, Echo,” I said in the rush. “Can you push her back a little farther?”

  “I…I don’t know.” I heard the emotional stress in her voice. “She is strong.”

  My tattoos were aglow, and magic flowed out of my body at an alarming rate. I suddenly felt like I was feeding coal into the giant furnaces of the Titanic. Tex and Jo both consumed my energy as they’d been doing since we met, but Echo was now burning it, too. Our connection was already a hot spark of canary yellow, but it kept getting brighter as she fought to hold off Merkur gigantic form.

  “It looks like you could use a little pick me up,” Tex said in my right ear. Her breath was hot and wet, like she’d been exercising in a sauna, but her sultry voice immediately reminded me of what she’d done to me last night.

  She held her staff in the small bubble of air we shared but leaned up against my side and forced her hand down the front of my pants.

  “You did fine with two women last night, but I wonder if you have what it takes to satisfy three?” She gave me a playful squeeze and I grew larger inside her palm as the magic supplemented the physical. “Ooh, that was fast!”

  My eyes were drawn to the dim outline of the sexy woman in the tight skin suit in front of me. From behind, she was a curvy aquamarine-haired picture of femininity, but the way she held the glowing whip fused with my magic made her seem like a pint-sized Amazon warrior. It excited me to think of what I would do to her when the opportunity arose to unwrap her amazing body.

  And Tex was suggesting I’d have to please all three of them.

  My boner grew beyond Tex’s ability to hold it, and my magical bandwidth grew as well. Echo’s glowing aura pushed the water-based creature back just enough that the door was clear of its touch.

  “I’m sorry,” Tex breathed into my ear as she yanked her hand from my crotch and lunged for the door handle.

  “You’ll get yours later, young lady,” I replied in jest.

  The moment the door opened, I reached for Echo to pull her back, but her outfit was so smooth I had to wrap an arm around her waist.

  “We’re free!” I shouted to her.

  The three of us practically fell through the door and I pulled it closed as we went out. As Echo retreated, Merkur’s mass powered forward, but all it did was push the door closed. A balloon-sized ball of green did squeeze through before it shut, but it exploded with pressure when it was cut off by the slamming door.

  “Jo! We’re outside! Get out of there!”

  She finally responded on the link. “Sorry, Matt. Getting shot at by others. Also arguing with Anton. He won’t leave.”

  I waved to Tex and Echo to get them to follow me the thirty or forty yards along the warehouse dock toward the middle. I went right to the half-open door I’d left for Anton to escape. It should have been next to the purple river, but since I’d closed both of its doors, the stream was no longer flowing out.

  I peeked inside. The purple stream was blocked at the two exit doors I’d sealed, but the water seemed to stack up against them rather than flow sideways like normal liquids. However, as the water pile grew higher, it finally started to move sideways. Soon, it would find the last open garage bay right at my feet.

  Jo was up on her broom still yelling at Anton, but he’d gone away from the open door, rather than toward it.

  “Anton! Over here!” I yelled.

  Tex and Echo stood next to me and started to yell for him, too.

  Anton ran up the steps on the circular bridge before looking back. “This is my fate, friends. I thank you for getting me here. This is about to become my greatest challenge of this fine day!”

  Yellow water flowed from around the far side of Merkur’s shape. It splashed up against the rip Anton and Raven had created, and the green goo recoiled from the water like it was going to turn her to stone.

  “What is this?” Merkur voice boomed inside the warehouse, but I was pleased to hear panic, too.

  The yellow water flowed all around the base of the green slime. Wherever it touched the monster, Merkur’s skin seemed to slide into the water as if it was being sucked through a straw.

  “No!” Merkur shouted with fear.

  Her tentacles reattached to the ceiling and the tree-building process began in reverse. As more of the creature went up to the rafters, more of it got sucked down at the edges. However, Merkur split a good part of her lower portion with a sick, slurpy tear, and left it for the flowing death to consume.

  Anton remained standing on the steps, axe in his hands, as Merkur returned to the ceiling in the four corners of the warehouse. From where I was, I couldn’t see the ground beyond the middle pit, but I hoped the waters were spilling out over there, too.

  “Jo, come on, I have to close this last door.” The purple river was close.

  “Echo, can you keep the water from coming out this door?”

  “I can’t stop a whole river, Matt, but I’ll try.” Her whip seemed to give her a confidence boost as she crouched at the open door to watch the arriving waters.

  Jo still hovered by Anton, but he was almost beyond saving. The yellow waters consumed the base of Merkur’s blob, but now made their way toward the purple river as if seeking new things to consume.

  “What is he waiting for?” I asked.

  “You will pay for this betrayal, General Anton. You should not have brought them here.” Merkur seemed to gather herself above the pit as her four pieces slimed their way in the rafters toward the middle. Her Cthulhu aspect seemed to reform, tentacles and all.

  “You are the one who will pay, Lady Merkur, for your betrayal of our people in this unholy place. Soon, you will have all the fight you can handle.”

  I almost shit myself when the tentacles rained down with more humanoids attached, like it was going to dogpile on the general.

  Anton turned to me. “Go! I’m right where I want to be!” Raven practically danced with anticipation of the battle with the descending shapes. “Complete your mission! This is mine! I can stop her!”

  The bridge was already heavily damaged from Merkur’s swipe at the three wolves, but Anton swung his big axe and drove it into the shaky scaffolding above the yellow stream. Sparks danced where he struck metal beyond the middle girder, and the bridge broke away between that beam and the steps beyond the river.

  Anton pulled himself up straight and turned around to us with a huge grin. Raven came up next to him and both stood at the edge.

  “You can still make it,” I cried out to the pair. The waters were swirling all over the place, but there was still a dry path over to me.

  The gray-haired man pulled at his beard and shook his head. He wasn’t coming.

  “Son of a bitch,” I yelled. The thought of leaving him didn’t seem right, but I couldn’t force anyone to do something they didn’t want. The general was always a little sketchy in his view of reality, with all his desires to engage in battle, but he was a general. Maybe he knew he could win the fight a
gainst the injured gel monster.

  “Jo, get over here immediately. I’m shutting the door.” I left no room for confusion.

  The waters from the purple and yellow rivers touched right below the steps where Anton was eagerly waiting for battle. As soon as they did, a magical barrier seemed to fall, and the shapes that had been swimming in the water as it came up the chasm hopped out and began fighting with one another.

  “Oh fuck!” I blurted as my adrenal gland somehow dumped more go-juice into my system.

  The purple river mostly produced the same black wolf-like monsters Anton pulled out earlier, but some were bipedal, and all had great fanged jaws. The yellow river primarily coughed out little winged rats that flew right at the wolves and latched onto them.

  But each river also shot out other dark shapes, some as big as horses, that sought out whatever they could find from another river. It became a mini-battle royale as more and more of the creatures sloshed through the mixing waters.

  Anton hooted like he’d struck the golden horde and shouted upward toward Merkur. “Never mix the streams! Now we’ve both got a fight on our hands!”

  Merkur’s tentacles hesitated in mid-air as Anton fought his first wolf-man. His great axe practically cleaved the man-beast in half on the narrow bridge. Several rat things jumped from the now-dead wolf and flew toward the nearest tentacle.

  “Damn you, General Anton,” Merkur hissed.

  More creatures topped the far steps, probably monsters that had been in the red and green rivers. They fought with each other, and lunged for the tentacles, too. It was as if everyone fought everyone as the rivers flooded the warehouse. The crafty old general destroyed the bridge behind him, and suddenly it made sense: no one besides Merkur could attack him from that direction.

  “I’m coming!” Jo shouted.

  The purple river seemed to split sideways, as if touching the yellow water had given it license to flow everywhere. Echo was able to hold it back from escaping out of our half-open door, but it kept pushing closer. She took my magic and put her soul into holding the line, but seemed to quake with the herculean task.

  “Matt. Something is wrong!”

  “Just a little longer, Echo,” I replied. There was no time to think sexy thoughts. I had my phone out to the drawing of the half-opened garage door. I changed open to close, and hesitated over the save button.