Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Read online

  “At least we have it,” I said with a little guilt at having burned through some of the battery life to move a few yards in the shadows.

  The two doors of the shipping container were designed to swing outward, but the left one was already open, so it was no trouble at all to get in. I used my phone light again but slid the brightness slider down to bring it closer to default. It would do the job, and also save power. I quickly saw that we’d opened the right box.

  “This is it,” I said.

  It looked like the yard tool aisle at Walmart. There was some space open at the front of the container, so we could stand inside, but the rest of it was stuffed with rows of staffs like the one in Tex’s hand. Ten feet across and thirty deep.

  “What the fuck is this?” There had to be five hundred wooden staffs, at least, in the container, each with its own one-foot tall slot in some packing material. There were about eight units missing from one row, but all the others were there.

  “Matt, look,” Tex said softly. “It’s glowing where it should go.”

  Sure enough, the bottom of her staff glowed internally like there was a light inside the wood at the tip. A similar light glowed in the fourth slot.

  “Do we stick it in the hole?” I asked an instant before realizing how it sounded.

  Tex laughed. “That’s your gig, sweetie.”

  ***

  I shook my head but felt a little relieved we could laugh at all. We’d been running at high-tension all day and this was finally the payoff.

  “It’s easy,” I said. “You pick your target and drive it home.”

  Magic crackled on the link between me and Tex, but then it seemed to also run up the wires to Jo and Echo. We were probably all thinking about what was going to happen when we got somewhere safe tonight.

  Tex looked at me for a moment as if she was going to say something, but she ended up putting her staff in the assigned spot.

  My phone vibrated in what had to be a report I’d fulfilled my mission. I’d check it as soon as we weren’t in such a bad position.

  “That’s done,” I said hastily. “My phone reported it. Let’s go.”

  I spun to pass through the doorway, but I noticed one of the military-style shipping labels plastered to the inside wall near my head.

  “What’s this?” I said as I shined light on it. “Pacification Staff, Iteration 3.” The fine print underneath was written like the directions for use on a medicine container, so I read it aloud.

  “The wielder of this staff will gain the passive ability to soothe non-typical magical species within a radius proportional to the wielder’s magic level. User must invoke aura by touching the inset ruby and clicking base three times. Active for all users until deactivated. Recommended for level 3 sorcerers and above. Must be level 3 to invoke. Warning: Side effects of prolonged usage may include hair loss, muscle growth, dry mouth, red eye, and brief moments of unexpected gravity reversal. Not recommended for children, pregnant women, or operators of heavy machinery/winged creatures.”

  I had to lean in to read the even smaller print under that.

  “The Imperial Surgeon has determined some side-effects can be counteracted by casual use of pipe weed from Crown-approved medicinal huts. Please see your supervisor for details.”

  Tex crossed her arms. “So, we can control the bad guys, but we have to lose our hair to do it?”

  “It might be worth it,” Jo went on. “Lord Bart must have been using this to control those guards.”

  “Yeah, but this one is defective,” I replied. “That’s why we had to bring it back, remember? Maybe it’s why the guards acted so strange back at the amusement park, especially the ones in costumes.”

  “Those guards were bald,” Tex said. “Maybe that’s what happens when you are under the effects of the staff?” She ran her fingers through her curly red hair as if worried it was going to fall out.

  “Your red hair is beautiful,” Echo commented. “I wish mine looked like that.”

  Tex leaned toward her. “You’ve got nothing to be jealous of. Your ocean-colored hair is darling, and unique, and I would kill to have locks as straight as yours.”

  While the girls discussed styles, I was coming to a decision on the staff. There wasn’t time to hash out the pro’s and con’s, because we needed to get the hell out of there before the fighting in the main warehouse spilled into the surrounding area.

  “We’ll take one that isn’t defective,” I declared.

  “You sure?” Jo spoke with great concern.

  I shined my light into the giant container. “Yeah, if we can gain an advantage over the magical creatures we encounter we have to take the other risks. I can afford to lose a little hair, especially this crappy stubble that acts like it wants to be a beard.”

  My witch was unconvinced. “And the anti-gravity?”

  “I’m sure it has to be an exaggeration or a typo. Besides, it says brief moments of gravity loss. I can handle that.” Of course, I had no idea what I was talking about, but it was my first magic item and I wasn’t going to throw it out because of some side-effects I didn’t like. I was relieved the effects weren’t embarrassing like the loss of bladder control or anti-gravity diarrhea.

  I reached for the nearest staff, but it wouldn’t come out of its slot at the base.

  “Here, hold this,” I said as I handed Tex my phone light.

  I pulled up on the staff with both hands, but it still wouldn’t come out of the hard material holding it upright in the container.

  “Fuck this.” I held out my hand for my phone and Tex gave it right back.

  It took a few moments to draw the staff coming out of its confinement, but when I hit save the app tossed up a text message.

  “Unable to complete. Level 10 magic required for master release override. Note, only one staff per operator. If this staff isn’t yours, leave it alone.”

  “We should forget it,” Tex advised.

  “I’m with her,” Jo said quietly.

  As a test I pulled at the staff we’d just put in the slot. It came out with no issues.

  A far away explosion rocked the container, which caused all the poles to shake a little as if to suggest I hurry up.

  “Has this thing been on the whole time we’ve had it?” I asked in a level voice. “Maybe it has been affecting the creatures we’ve met, like the siren and Merkur? What if instead of soothing, it clouds their judgement or forces them to make mistakes?”

  “Wouldn’t the opposite of soothe be to provoke monsters?” Jo inquired. “Maybe they wouldn’t have attacked us at all if we didn’t have the staff.”

  “Yeah, and I’ve been the one carrying it,” Tex added with another rub of her scalp. “I’m not level 3, right?”

  The girls made perfect sense, but I had to look at this from a gamer perspective. The system sent me on a quest to return the staff to this place. Why didn’t it have me throw it in a river or give it to one of the witches running the game? Maybe it became dangerous in their hands? Was Conflict somehow driving this, or was the game system acting independently from her?

  “I’m going to take this one,” I said carefully while I grabbed Bart’s staff.

  If this was Conflict’s plan, my brain couldn’t wrap itself around why she would want me to return the staff, unless there was something special about it that wasn’t obvious to an outsider. I still had the option to identify the staff for 501 Dragon Bux. It would sort it out in a hurry, but I didn’t have enough credits at the moment to do it.

  “Did she intend for me to keep it, all along?” I asked while looking at the staff like I saw it for the first time. “Or did the game system set up the mission so that I would keep the staff to fight her?”

  Jo seemed surprised. “They aren’t the same thing?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied.

  “It could be a trick,” Jo pressed on.

  “I have to do what feels right.” It was the same thing she told me earlier in the day.

 
We shared a brief smile, but I stepped out of the box and turned to Tex. “I’ll carry it.”

  “No, I don’t mind,” she replied. “I—” Tex was cut off by a flurry of motion. The clang of metal on metal scared the shit out of me because it happened inches from the back of my head.

  “What the?” I cried out.

  Jo raised her gun straight up behind my neck just as a silver blade struck it from the side. I had an instant to appreciate how close I’d come to being decapitated.

  “Master, you are in an ambush.” Banger said it with no sense of irony.

  ***

  Someone had come alongside the shipping container, probably through a hidden back door beyond the crates. Or they’d been waiting for us. Either would explain how they avoided my feline guard.

  A female attacker cried out as she took another swing with her sword. This time it was more of a jab, but Jo parried that as I scuffled out of range of the blade.

  I tossed the staff to Tex and pulled my rifle to the ready. The safety was already hot, so I leaned around the door and lined up the target barely three feet away.

  The armored woman grabbed the barrel of my gun and pushed it up against the container door with a throaty grunt. I poked the bayonet button to try to thrust it in her face, but she kept out of the way and followed up with a knee to my side.

  “Fuck!” I yelled in pain. She had one hand on my gun and the other on her sword. We were both off balance in the tight space between the front of the cargo container and the next row of crates, so I let her push my gun while I leaned into her.

  “Matt!” someone screamed from behind me.

  Even off-balance, the woman didn’t go down easily. She managed to shift her feet backward for a couple of yards before I finally forced her to fall, but even then she didn’t give up.

  I had the size advantage on her, but she was in that fucking dragon skin uniform from head to toe. Both of our weapons were tangled up to the side of us, so there was little I could do besides keep her pinned.

  “Guys, grab her sword. Shoot her!” I said to all three women on my link.

  Before any of them could do what I asked, I caught sight of the glimmer of blue steel down the aisle to my left.

  “Shit!” I exhaled as I scurried back toward the safety of the metal shipping container.

  It seemed like the gun went off next to my head, but the shooter was ten or fifteen feet away. The bright light stunned me as I got behind a crate and I didn’t start breathing again until I realized I was still alive.

  “Run, Suze!” a female cried out from deeper in the pile of crates. The woman I’d tackled was still where she fell, as if to stay out of the path of the bullets.

  My ears felt like they were bleeding from the insanely loud noises, but I had the good sense to grab the woman’s foot to keep her from getting away.

  “Can anyone shoot this bitch?” I asked on the link.

  The downed woman moved like a ninja. She first kicked my vulnerable hand to get me to release her foot, then she pulled back and hopped to her feet. At almost the same time, she grabbed her katana. The sword was so clean it practically glowed.

  I fumbled with my rifle, but it was hard to maneuver in close quarters. The best I could do was hold it sideways in front of me to absorb her overhead blow. However, I was really exposed to her next move, which I was sure was going to be the same piercing thing she did before.

  The woman drew back her sword as if to wind up for the killing blow, but then she looked up to something behind me.

  A white whip cracked through the air and impacted the woman on the wrist.

  “Don’t think so!” Echo shouted.

  A pulse of magic coursed through me, over to Echo, and down her whip. The shock seemed to make the woman release her grip on the sword, and it fell to the concrete floor like a piece of silverware from the dinner table.

  A bullet ricocheted off the side of the woman’s helmet and she immediately began to retreat.

  Jo fired another round that missed, and I waited a second to be sure she wasn’t going to pursue the target. I finally had my rifle pointed in the right direction, so I leaned down the corridor of crates to pick what I assumed was going to be an easy target.

  I took one shot that went between the legs of the running woman.

  “Fuck me,” I said to myself.

  I really wanted to fire some more, but the other shooter was still out there, so I yanked myself back. I received air mail confirmation when a return blast chomped at the corner of the nearest crate.

  My heart rattled so violently I thought it might break a rib. I’d come inches from death two separate times in about sixty seconds. I ran my fingers through my hair as I tried to think, instead of react.

  “We are vulnerable in this tight space,” Jo advised.

  That was my first opportunity to get us back in the game. “Can you get airborne? Make them think twice about coming up this way.”

  “Yep.” She holstered the pistol to her thigh and pulled out the sweeper.

  “Watch for the sniper,” I said to Jo on our private link. “These guys are prepared.”

  Jo used her wooden broom to travel fast to the far side of the warehouse, which was about fifty feet away. I quickly lost her in the boxes over there.

  I looked at Echo and Tex and scrambled on the floor over to them. I pulled in a huge breath to try to project calm. “We can’t stay here, but we can’t run out into the open like a bunch of rookies.”

  If we stayed in the metal container, we’d have some hard cover, but we wouldn’t know what was coming up behind us. If we went for the front door beyond the lighted campfires, we’d be seen for sure. If we went deeper into the crates, we ran the risk of fighting them at close range.

  The battle against Ivona was won because Tex ran right to her, but was that tactic the best course here? Firing guns inside a weapons dump was probably a dumb thing to do, and that was my go-to weapon, so going on the offensive might not be the right course.

  “I see them, Matt,” Jo said quietly on our comms. “They are hiding by some boxes near the back wall and a small exit. Three of them. Want me to drop a pineapple on them?”

  “No!” I communicated in return. “There could be all sorts of bad stuff in these boxes. We can’t risk blowing things up while we are here in the middle.”

  “Oh, good point.”

  “Can they see to the front of the building?” I wondered.

  “Unknown,” Jo advised. “These are the same people I saw back in the other warehouse. That means there is a fourth one somewhere. I’d be careful about moving.”

  The longer we stayed, the more nervous I became. If there was a fourth person, he or she could be lining up a shot from a totally different direction.

  “Banger, anyone outside?” I asked.

  “I see no one nearby using my infrared scanner. There are several living creatures still fighting inside the main warehouse, but the noise prevents me from listening to enemies in and around this structure.”

  “Can you give me a best guess? Is there a fourth person here?”

  “Master, I do not guess. The only things I can say with certainty are that there are no enemies between you and I, and there are no threats immediately outside this door.”

  “We go for the door,” I said after considering our options. I wanted another chance to shoot the woman I’d missed, but going into a dark cavernous warehouse seemed like a dumb move. The smart play was getting out of this place and finding a better position.

  A rattle of gunfire rose up from the back of the building. The flashes of light reflected off the walls and windows like bursts of lightning.

  “They’ve found me,” Jo said on the link.

  I saw her fly by and loop around to take up a position near the front of the room.

  My jittery nerves were already on the edge of a razor. Losing Jo because I’d sent her scouting was foremost on my mind.

  “Stay safe,” I commanded.

 
Jo continued on the link. “I am, for now, but I’m getting something on my witch channel.”

  She listened for a moment before continuing.

  “The witches must know when you are facing off against another knight, Matt. There is an automated call requesting a witch come to this location and ensure no rules are broken.”

  “Can you—” I started to say.

  “Already done. I’m waiting for approval from HQ.” She sounded pleased with herself.

  “Good work,” I said to her. “Keep me apprised.”

  My skin sweated out like I’d just run a marathon, and I was so tense my balls were almost in my stomach, but I could still talk to the others as if I was in full control.

  “We have to move. Tex, you are going to blend us. We’re going for the front door. Echo, do you have enough water to put out those fires? I’d rather travel in shadow.”

  “I do not like fire, Sir Matt, but it could be a problem to douse them all. It will consume a great portion of the water I need to stay in this suit.”

  “Can you douse the one in the middle? We’ll run right for Banger.” I didn’t want to overthink it.

  “Yes, I can do at least one with no harm, but it might make my whip shorter.”

  “OK. Good. We’ll fill you back up, soon.”

  Her blue eyes twinkled. “Soon.”

  “Jo. Cover us, if you can. We’re coming over to you.” The link between myself and the three women was a giant advantage over the other team.

  Echo went first, but Tex and I stayed right on her six. Tex’s ability would hopefully make us impossible to see in the darkened building, but we crouched low and moved fast just to be sure.

  When the water nymph reached the middle fire she extended her whip and used some of its contents to douse it. Almost immediately, some gunfire chattered behind us.

  “Run for it!” I shouted out loud.

  We probably would have been fine if we’d left the fire alone. By disturbing it, we called attention to ourselves.

  “Fire at them!” a woman shouted from behind.

  I shoved Echo sideways, to get her out of the path of the incoming bullets. Tex followed us as rounds punched holes in the sliding door ahead of us.