Dragon Royale 2: An Urban Fantasy Adventure Read online

  I glanced over and caught her with a huge smirk, but she only stared at the screen.

  I scrolled to her skills page, and it was the same interface as mine. The square with a grid of nine smaller boxes inside. Her circle sat in the middle square, but was pink, instead of blue.

  “Hmm, you only have one skill point to use. I had two.”

  She tapped the screen with her long fingernail, like she often did. “You upgraded two of us. Isn’t that why you got two?”

  “I actually leveled up three of you, but Nora is gone,” I said glumly.

  “Do you think it took the point when she left?” she asked matter-of-factly so as to not encourage my sadness.

  “Probably. I can only assign points to girls who are in my party.” I eyed the blank spot on my wrist where her glasses used to be.

  I tried to sound a little like I wasn’t winging the shit out of my life right now. Having a magical power in reality was tons different than back on the tabletop. There, I had notebooks and guides filled with tables, charts, and explanations for every detail of magic and its application out in the world. Here, I got the occasional text message to tell me something changed. If a quest came up to find a real-life dungeon manual, I was going to jump on it.

  “So,” I said with manufactured enthusiasm, “you can put a point toward Sorcery, Mind, Strength, or Speed.” I knew where I would put it, but I was curious how she saw herself in this game.

  Tex took her finger off the screen and nibbled at it as she considered.

  “I guess I would go for sorcery. I’d love to be smarter, or faster, or even stronger, but in this place I would like to work on my Blend ability some more. Having better magic could make that happen, right?”

  “I knew there was a reason we picked you,” I said.

  “No, I picked you guys,” she laughed before flashing me a disarming smile. “But I’m so happy we found each other. After our first time last night, I’m sure I will never have better sex if I live to be a hundred.”

  I furrowed my brows to study her, but didn’t fall into her trap.

  “Yeah, well, I think you are correct. Magic is what we need to focus on, here.” I tapped the Sorcery corner and hit apply. The perfect circle bulged outward toward the Sorcery corner, giving the circle an irregular look.

  “It will be an X if the circle is stretched fully to each corner,” Tex remarked.

  “Yeah, but I wonder how many levels we’d have to pass to warp this circle that much?”

  “I guess we’ll find out.” She patted my thigh.

  With a swipe of the screen, I got us to the abilities page. Blend was at the top, in red capital letters, and two other words sat underneath, but they were greyed out. I looked them over and handed the phone to her.

  Conflict had her talons deep in my magic, so maybe this was her doing. “I can’t believe these are picked at random by the magical app. See if either of these interest you.”

  “Blend/2nd degree, or Staff Fighting?” she said aloud. “Does the second degree mean my Blend gets even better? I’d assume yes.”

  I shrugged. “Mine shows that same slash with the number 3 for Trust in Allies. I’m sure that means you get incremental improvement. In your case, for the second level you can try something new, or double up on Blend.”

  “If I choose Staff Fighting, will I still have Blend?”

  “I think so. Once you have an ability, you should always have it.” That seemed logical, and was how the digital version of Dragon Royale handled them.

  “OK, I want to contribute with a weapon, and the staff is what I have. I know we might get rid of it, soon, as part of your quest, but it should be easy enough to find another. I want a gun, too, but it can’t hurt to have options, right, darlin’?”

  “You make this so easy,” I said to her.

  “Hey, I’m not easy!” she said in mock anger as she handed the phone back to me.

  I selected Staff Fighting, showed it to her to confirm one last time, then clicked it when she nodded yes.

  “Done. Now git!” I said in a southern drawl like hers. “And send me a witch, if you have one.”

  “Oh, I have one,” she said as if very proud of that fact. She got up and walked away.

  I admired the small strip of blue jeans she called shorts as she flung her hips from side to side. She knew where my eyes were. I wasn’t ashamed of drinking in her body anymore, and it felt rather liberating. However, when I saw Anton grinning at me like a circus clown, I toned it down.

  Jo hurried over and sat where Tex had been.

  “Did it work?” she asked.

  “Yep, this interface is super liquid. You’re going to love it.” I stared into her exotic brown eyes for a few moments. “For the one millionth time, I’m so glad you made it back to me.”

  “It was your magic, Matt, that kept me from changing into a witch completely.” She paused to keep herself composed. “Are you going to show me my new skills or are you going to make a witch cry with happiness?”

  We both focused our attention on my phone. I showed her the choices she had to make on the grid.

  “Magic me up,” she affirmed with hardly a moment of delay.

  “You sure?”

  “Yes, but the next one I get is going to be speed.”

  That surprised me. “Really?

  “Taking turns at fifty miles an hour is second nature for the witches, as I’ve learned, but it still scares the hell out of me. If I had a little more speed in my system, I think I could do them even better.”

  “Sounds smart,” I replied.

  When I got to her abilities screen I found the same layout as Tex. At the top it said Surveillance and in row two it listed Surveillance/2nd degree or Combat Shotgun as her choices.

  “Your core ability is Surveillance,” I declared. “It really fits.” She’d been operating her cat as a reconnaissance platform back at the camp, and she did it so well my magic transformed her kitty into an even more realistic intelligence-gatherer.

  “I was hoping for healing,” she said when she saw the two options. “We aren’t getting out of this without needing to heal. You know that, Matt, from playing the game back in Tent Hell.”

  I couldn’t disagree. In the digital version there were lots of health jugs and magic band-aids to help players on contact, but there was also a dedicated class of players who scored points healing their teammates.

  “Maybe when you reach level 2 you’ll have the option. My magical app seems to consider what’s happening around us and puts the options in context. That’s why Tex was offered the staff option, and not something useless to us, like Dog Training.” I paused for a second. “No, maybe that would be useful with Wolfy over there.”

  We both cracked up.

  “Basket Weaving,” I said. “A truly useless ability.”

  “Unless you need to harvest berries, for food.” She seemed serious.

  “Nah. We won’t need that.”

  “You’re probably right. We’ll be out of here before we go native.”

  We laughed again, but not as much.

  I mentioned the options Tex faced. “So, Tex ended up taking Staff Fighting instead of Blend/2nd degree. I don’t think she likes being unable to fight. When we first met her I thought you were going to be the pacifist and she was going to be the warrior. Now look at you.”

  “The old me was bored. I had no business joining this game.”

  I started to argue, but she held up her hand like it wasn’t worth it.

  “I’ll keep thinking about the abilities I really want, all the time.” She took a deep cleansing breath, as if happy to be sitting next to me in the woodlands. “But I think for this first one I’m going to choose Surveillance/2nd degree. I feel pretty competent with my gun, like the witches code has something about firing guns in their DNA. I would rather see how I can get better at spying on our enemies. Also, if Tex didn’t upgrade her Blend, this will help us see what happens when you hit the second level on a single abili
ty.”

  “Thanks,” I replied. She and I thought the same way about gaming, which streamlined things a ton.

  After I pressed the button to save, nothing changed with her. I also got no text messages or other reporting that said what my selection did for us. It drove me crazy, so I thought about the next issue.

  “So, did you get everyone the water they needed?” I asked.

  “Yeah, Anton chugged three bottles, and his wolf took two. We need to find a bigger jug when we can.”

  “And what about hunger? We need to find someone who can turn dirt into food.” I realized I knew several of the type from my small hometown. “Like a farmer.”

  We both chuckled, because she was from the same place.

  “What do we do next?” she asked.

  I looked upriver through the red-stained trees that marked the banks of the magical waterway. The next part was pretty much flat, but it turned to the left, away from where I wanted us to go.

  As I pondered the question, I caught a whiff of her wildflower scented perfume. I thought it was coming from her sweaty body, but it was actually coming from mine. Some of her perfume washed onto me when we were pressed together this morning.

  There wasn’t time for sex right now, so I tried to think of something tactical to keep us moving toward the goal.

  “I believe it’s time to cross this river.”

  WOLF PACK

  “Guys,” I said to everyone, “we may have to cross. I want to check out the next bend and see if the river turns back in the direction we need to go, but right now it doesn’t look good.”

  Echo splashed to get my attention. “Oh, Matt! I can go up the river and check for you.”

  “I take it you haven’t been up there?” I asked.

  “No, my pod favored staying near where you found us. Getting down that hill was more work than the other girls ever liked to do, so none of us gave it much thought.” She looked back downriver, which was also uphill.

  “The stream seems super dangerous, and you said not to touch it. How do you not get attacked?” I inquired.

  “The river is full of challenges, and magic transports many things deep under these waters, but being a siren has its advantages, even if I haven’t done any killing. Most creatures leave me be.”

  I turned to Jo and Tex. “Any thoughts? Should I let her go on her own?”

  Jo reached over her shoulder to tap her broom. “I could ride ahead and check, too.”

  We were clear of the witches, so it was probably fine for her to ride her broom again, but it seemed like a risk. Sending anyone to go off on their own seemed unnecessary right now.

  “Let’s stick together, guys,” I said to be heard by Echo and the other girls. “We’ll go around a few more bends in the stream and see what happens. If we find trouble, we’ll all be able to back each other.”

  “Well reasoned, young master knight. I hope there is a proper road on the other side, because this forest is really trimming my beard.” Anton’s meaty fingers pulled below his chin.

  “Your wounds appear better,” I lied. The blood on his nose and forehead had long since dried, but a peach dropped down the stairwell would have less bruising. He looked horrible.

  “An unfortunate ailment on this otherwise fine day,” he said as if the wounds were no big deal.

  Banger stalked around Raven, but then took off ahead of us as if he couldn’t wait to go.

  “Raven and I will stay in the back,” the old man advised as we all watched the cat scurry away.

  “Jo,” I said over our link. “Banger took off at a run. Can you guide him where he needs to go. Keep him closer, OK?”

  We needed the recon kitty to keep his eyes open out there, but the forest had been quiet for far too long, and I didn’t want him to get beyond our support.

  Jo bumped my hip but spoke on the mental link. “The upgrade to level 1 has really helped. Banger’s eyes are now capable of seeing in infrared and his CPU has doubled in power. I can’t wait to see what else he can do.”

  “You don’t know?” I said with surprise.

  “Not unless you are going to tell me,” she replied with good-natured ribbing.

  “You saw what I did when you chose the next level of surveillance. I guess it is just like everything else: a mystery.” I absently wondered if I could modify the app so it was more verbose in feedback.

  “This is great, Matt, I—” She stopped talking on the mental link and switched to voice. “Banger already sees something.”

  I jumped on Banger’s connection.

  “It’s not alive,” I said to keep anyone from panicking.

  “Banger, be careful,” I commanded.

  Giant trees of the forest towered over the colorful waterway, and they made the object by the water seem tiny.

  I waved everyone to walk ahead.

  “There’s a box sitting on the shore. It’s not a threat,” I said before adding a precaution, “but it might be a trap.”

  Banger searched the land near the box. I ran him in ever larger circles away from the metal case to be sure everything was safe. While the cat did that, Echo searched the adjacent waters for any signs of traps or enemies, but she also came up empty.

  When Anton saw it with his own eyes, he seemed further impressed. “You continue to inspire, good knight.” He chuckled. “Today is your day, too.”

  It was a treasure chest.

  “We have to open it,” Tex said with excitement. “It could be full of gold.”

  The wooden chest was the perfect size for a man to carry in his arms. Someone had apparently come by and set the box in the dirt next to the flowing river.

  “Have you ever seen something like this?” I asked Echo.

  She treaded water as she looked at it. “It does look familiar, but I can’t recall where I’ve seen it before.”

  One of my friends back home kept fish in his basement. I would never remember the type of fish he had, but I did recall the brown and gold treasure chest at the bottom of the tank. The real thing was almost like that one, with gold bands running over the top and sides.

  “I’ll open it,” Jo volunteered.

  “Hey, girl,” Tex replied. “That’s not fair.”

  “I’ll open it,” I cut in.

  “Oh, no!” Both girls turned and put their hands on my chest.

  Tex spoke first. “One of us, not you, is going to open the chest. We’ll make sure it isn’t some kind of time-sucking portal designed to trap you forever.”

  Jo looked over at her like she was crazy. “Yeah, or maybe it shoots poison darts at the person who opens it. We need to be sure you don’t get hurt.”

  “I really don’t need …” I stopped. They weren’t going to let me do it.

  “It has funny things inside!” Echo shouted from the water’s edge.

  The three of us turned to face her. She’d already come to shore and opened the container.

  Anton leaned in. “Did she get trapped forever?”

  Banger skittered by as if he wanted to check out another part of the forest. Raven reared up on his back legs and playfully pawed at the cat as he landed back down.

  The box was opened. Cats and dogs were living in harmony.

  And we were still alive.

  ***

  “I just did it,” Echo said as if proud of herself. “None of you had to risk it.”

  I took a few steps to stand next to her. She’d come out of the stream to reach the mystery box, but still had her feet in the magical red waters. Her nude mermaid-ish image next to the open chest further reminded me of my friend’s fish tank.

  “Please ask, OK? I’m very dangerous to be around.” I tried to sound stern, like any number of foster parents over the years, but it came out kind of weak. In my defense, she was at my feet and totally naked.

  Her smile strongly suggested she didn’t see anything wrong with what she’d done, but I decided not to press it. Instead, I leaned over and looked inside the chest.

  “W
ell, that explains it,” I said in a humdrum voice.

  “What?” one of the girls asked.

  “This is more and more like the digital game, Jo. We’ve found our first cache of weapons. There’s a pistol, some ammo, and, uh…”

  “A Five-and-Slide fire blaster?” Anton asked with real curiosity.

  “No,” I said sadly.

  “A repeating hammer?”

  “What? No. It’s a freaking toaster.”

  The old general seemed taken aback. “I do not know what that is.”

  I whipped my head around. “You insert flat pieces of bread into it.” I showed him the slots at the top of the silver device.

  “And that’s a weapon where you come from?”

  I chortled. “Yeah. It’s our most powerful magic item. I’ll let you fight with it the next time we get into a battle.”

  He didn’t seem to believe me.

  “I’m kidding. This is used to make toast. It’s like a little fire that heats up the bread.”

  “Oh,” the soldier sounded defeated.

  I set the toaster back inside. “This,” I said while pulling out the black semi-automatic pistol, “is for Tex.”

  She came up close and took it. “Thank you, darlin’. I’ve been aching to get a real gun since we met.”

  “Grab the ammo, too. Feed it into the mag, and put what you don’t need into the backpack.”

  Tex pulled out two flat boxes of ammo. Each one had a big number 50 on it, but no other markings. I took that to mean she now possessed 100 rounds. I instantly wondered if I could buy a second magical shell and modify her gun so it would work on magical creatures.

  I slammed the lid shut. “So now we look out for more chests. Others will have better stuff in them, I’m sure.”

  “Wait a minute. Who will be taking the toaster?” The general was genuinely concerned.

  “You want it?” Tex asked. “I’ll get it for you.”

  “Sure, little lady. I once spent ten months behind enemy lines in the land of mystical dreamers, and my mates and I had to subsist on what we found in chests like this. You live like that for a time and you learn never to let anything go to waste.”

  I rolled my eyes but didn’t interfere. It would be a while before we found a power outlet, much less a loaf of fresh bread.