Dragon conjurer 2, p.26
Dragon Conjurer 2, page 26
“You can ride Beyblade whenever you want, man!” I yelled back. “Just keep the monster busy!”
“No problem!” I watched as the nymph below me grabbed onto the red dragon’s neck and raced only feet away from the Magumau Ingu’s snout.
That took balls, I had to admit. I couldn’t believe how brave my teammate was sometimes. He acted like he was nothing but a jokester, but he had the courage when it mattered most.
“How can I use my powers to help?” Phoenix asked me as he and I zoomed through the air above the monster firebird. “I know you want me to use my projections to hold the Magumau Ingu down, but how, exactly?”
“I think the best way is to push him flat,” I explained and ducked lower on Ky’s neck so I could pick up my speed. “Just hold him so he can’t get more than a couple stories above the mouth of the volcano, and then Nala can use her powers to throw lava onto his back.”
“I like how you think, Dylan,” the winged guy said with a grin. “I’m here to help.”
“Then let’s do it.” I gripped Ky’s spine in front of me and nodded at my teammate. “I’ll help Nick with the distractions until we weaken the firebird enough to take him down. I think that’s our best bet, honestly.”
Together, the pair of us flew around the monster’s backside and hovered just above its fiery tail.
“Ky, you know what to do,” I whispered to my dragon as I leaned forward and patted his neck. “Freeze his tail and annoy him until he gets weaker.”
My blue beast reared his head back and launched a volley of frigid ice at the Magumau Ingu’s tail feathers. The layer of frost clung to the Magumau Ingu for a moment before the heat and cold collided to hiss and pop like microwave popcorn. Steam rose into the air from the contact, and the firebird lashed its tail around and screeched.
“At least we know the frost makes him angry,” I muttered and directed Ky to get some distance between us. “Watch out, Phoenix!”
The astral-powered dude ducked under the Magumau Ingu’s tail just before the firebird could knock my teammate out of the sky. It was a close call, but Phoenix pulled the maneuver off like a champ.
“I’m going for it!” he yelled as the projections along his arms extended and covered the monster’s back like a massive, sparkly red blanket. Phoenix spread his wings out and hovered in place as he moved his arms to create more surface area with his projections, and I blinked in amazement as my Japanese teammate worked so hard to stop the monster firebird from getting anywhere.
“I don’t know how long I can hold him!” the Japanese man shouted as he pushed his arms down on top of the monster. “Nala, I need you to do your thing, and fast!”
“Got it!” the caramel-skinned beauty yelled back over the comms as her lithe form danced around the edge of the volcano far below us.
“Hey, you fugly firebird!” Nick screamed as he jumped off Beyblade’s back and onto Goldie like the most experienced aerialist. “Look at me! I’m a moving target! You’ve been asleep for centuries, so I bet you’re hungry for a snack!”
“Beyblade, use Flame Wheel!” I ordered and moved my arms to command my red fire dragon into the attack. “Keep the Magumau Ingu busy!”
The flaming, scaly beast swam through the air until he got up in the firebird’s face, and then my dragon turned into his fiery Ouroboros form and spun like a crazy wheel from hell. Beyblade rolled through the air, ran over the Magumau Ingu’s snout, and wheeled down its back until the firebird tried to turn around and snap at him, but the lava-bird was stuck because of Phoenix’s hold on its back.
“Great distractions, guys!” I shouted and pumped my fist up into the air. “We’re doing great! Nala, I need you to give it your all!”
“He’s not low enough yet!” the dark beauty cried as she moved her arms and tried to wash lava over the monster’s back, but nothing happened. The magma just fell back into the volcano with a sludgy splash. “Push him lower, and I can do it!”
“Phoenix, keep shoving!” I sat up straighter on Ky’s back and scanned the smoky air until I spotted my white dragon tossing Nick back onto Beyblade’s scaly back once the red beast finished his distraction.
“Goldie!” I yelled and waved my arms to get her to come over to me. “Fly over the Magumau Ingu and use your wind to push him lower! We’re going to have to give it everything we’ve got to manage this!”
My pearly-white beast seemed to nod her head to show she understood me, and she flapped her wings and glided to the center of the monster’s huge back. Then she opened her mouth, angled her snout downward, and exhaled a hurricane-force wind over the Magumau Ingu’s back.
The firebird sagged lower in the air, even though it kept flapping its wings to ascend higher into the sky. No matter how hard it tried, though, it couldn’t get anywhere. The Magumau Ingu opened its mouth and let out an ear-splitting scream, but the noise did the monster no good in its struggle against us.
“I can do it now!” Nala cried out and set her feet into the ground.
I watched as she lifted her arms like a maestro about to move the symphony into the violent crescendo, and then the dark-haired beauty raised tons and tons of magma out of the mouth of the volcano. Like a tidal wave, the lava rose from the pool underneath the monster, and the sludgy, molten rock ascended toward the sky until it created a wall on either side of the Magumau Ingu.
“Do it!” I yelled and leaned over Ky’s neck as I watched the scene unfold beneath me. “Nala, do it now!”
With a scream I could hear from this height, the dark-eyed goddess dropped her arms, and the tsunami of lava cascaded over the firebird’s back like a mudslide of heat and pain. The magma spread over the monster like thick molasses, and the weight of the molten rock caused the bird to dip lower and lower toward the ground.
I knew we didn’t have much time to act before the Magumau Ingu shrugged the lava off its feathers and doubled down on its attack, so we had to act fast if we wanted to stand a chance at defeating this monster. We’d been clever once, but I doubted the creature would let us try the same strategy again.
“Ky, use your Ice Beam!” I ordered and waved my arms to get Goldie to come down to us. “Hey, girl, I need you to give your wind breath everything you’ve got. We’re going to make a frosty tornado and freeze this fiery bastard in place. Now!”
Both my white and blue dragons shot their ice and wind out of their mouths like they were living, elemental cannons. Ky’s frosty breath met with Goldie’s gale-force wind and created a blizzard the likes of which I’d never seen. Even though we were flying over a volcano, I got cold, and I even let out a shiver when the frigid air met my skin.
Below us, the magma on the firebird’s back started to harden and turn black. The frost evaporated into water vapor, but Ky’s constant stream of ice kept more liquid coming to freeze the magma into place.
The Magumau Ingu fought with the attack, even screeching and trying desperately to shake the lava off its wings, but nothing came out of it. All the monster could do was sag closer and closer to the mouth of the volcano because it couldn’t fight back against the hardening rock on its spine and wings.
“I can reach his neck!” Ronin shouted as her form danced around the edge of the volcano and headed straight toward the monster’s throat.
From this height, I watched as the katana in her hand extended like a collapsible blade, until the translucent sword was almost twenty feet long. I had no idea how she managed to hang onto it, but it was an impressive sight to say the least.
I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. Everything around me seemed to slow down as I came to terms with what my life had been like since I discovered my powers just under three weeks ago.
Right before the time I was found by AIMM, I thought I was just a normal guy. I was a junior in college with the plan to stick around for at least three more years and earn what amounted to a pretty useless degree, but I was okay with that because it made me happy. I had a job, a decent roommate, and the normal life I thought I wanted. I could live vicariously through my books and anime, so I didn’t need to do anything else. I was set, or so I had thought.
Then my first dragon came to me, and my whole life changed. I was the only male Dragon Conjurer in the whole fucking world, and everyone thought I was the coolest person ever. I signed up to be what basically amounted to a superhero, I got paid for it, and I was assigned to an awesome team. I had a best friend, and two hot chicks who always wanted to sleep with me. Life couldn’t get any better.
And now I was flying on the back of my ice dragon as my team and I worked to take down a monster that was basically Rodan from Godzilla. I had an air dragon flying next to me, my best friend on the back of my fire dragon, and my newest friend flapping his ethereal wings as he used astral arms to hold the monster down.
On the ground below was one of my two lovers and an exotic, samurai beauty. My ebony-eyed goddess used her totally god-like powers to hold the firebird in place while the stoic warrior woman rushed at the monster all showdown style with a sword made out of astral energy.
My life was so fucking cool.
With a mighty scream, Ronin lifted off the ground using her astral powers and swung her katana in a wide arc toward the Magumau Ingu’s neck. The monster turned its head just in time to see her, but it was too late for the firebird to stop the attack.
The blade sang as it sliced through the Magumau Ingu’s neck, and Ronin fell to the ground in a tight somersault to absorb the excess momentum.
There was a pause, and we all waited to see what would happen next.
Then bright red blood sprayed out from the firebird’s severed neck, and its feathery head fell off its shoulders and began to roll down the side of the volcano. Its body sank into the boiling pit of lava below it, and soon, its feathers caught fire and began to burn.
“We did it!” I screamed and raised my arms up over my head. I stared at the sky, even though the smoke kept me from seeing anything past the thick ash, and I just fell backward on Ky’s spine. I made sure not to impale myself on his spikes, but I had to just lie back for a moment and take the moment in.
We’d actually pulled it off. We defeated a monster powerful enough to create a volcanic eruption, and we’d done it in style. It felt so fucking awesome to be this cool.
“Dylan, another excellent plan, my man,” Nick said over the comms. “You’ve outdone yourself this time, good sir.”
“You were amazing!” Phoenix added as he flapped over to me. “We all did exactly what you said, and we pulled it off so well! I can’t believe how amazing that was!”
“I’m just glad we managed to stop it before it got worse,” Nala panted over the radio. “Dylan, it’s all thanks to you. We managed to defeat this baddie because of your flawless plan.”
“I have to admit, Dylan,” Ronin spoke up, “you really are a skilled leader. We never could have done this without you.”
“You guys are too much,” I chuckled and covered my face with my hands as if any of them could see the blush creeping onto my face. “The plan only worked because you guys were on point. I’m really proud of us.”
“We’re not done,” the dark beauty mumbled, and I sat up to see what she was talking about. “We need to make sure we relieve the volcanic pressure so it doesn’t erupt and destroy all the people who live around here. We stopped the monster, but we haven’t stopped the disaster.”
“Oh, right.” I pursed my lips and looked over at the guys beside me. “There’s that.”
While we’d been talking, Nick flew over on Beyblade so he could give me a high five, but I didn’t give it to him right away since I knew we had more work to do.
“Well, are we up for more challenges?” I laughed under my breath, and I only laughed because the alternative was to scream and cry. “We got a little more in us?”
“Of course, we do,” Nick scoffed and waved his hand. “We’ve got this.”
“Then let’s finish this,” I said.
Chapter Eighteen
I was scared to set Ky down on the volcano because the rock might still be hot, and I sure as hell didn’t want to burn my poor dragon’s feet, so I just hovered over the ground next to Nala and Ronin while Phoenix and Nick descended.
“I don’t think it’ll be too hard,” Nala mused as she used her abilities to scoot around on top of the rock like she was on Heelys. “We just need to relocate the pressure somewhere else so it doesn’t wreck these poor people’s lives.”
“How do we do that?” I asked and cocked my head to one side. It didn’t seem like this task would be too easy. I mean, Nala was saying we had to move tons and tons of molten hot lava without rupturing the volcano. That didn’t seem like an easy feat.
“If I cut a hole in the side of the mountain,” Ronin began as she walked beside Nala, “perhaps we can dive deeper into the volcano and find the source of the pressure.”
“Wouldn’t that be unbearably hot?” Nick questioned. “What could we do to help, anyway? That sounds like it’s all on Nala.”
“Then Dylan and I will go,” the dark-haired beauty said to the nymph on Beyblade’s back. “He and Ky can help me vent the pressure by solidifying the lava. I just need to locate the spot with the most pressure.”
“And how will you stay cool?” Phoenix asked as he cocked an eyebrow. “I suppose Ky will blow cold air over you?”
“That could work,” I admitted and patted the blue dragon’s neck. “We can bring Goldie, too. Her wind and Ky’s ice can freeze the lava in its tracks.”
“Like we just did with the Magumau Ingu,” Nick added with a grin.
“While we’re down there, I want the rest of you to work on cleanup.” I pointed at Nick first. “Make sure the people at the foot of the mountain have all evacuated. I’m not asking you to tell them to get the hell out of there, because I know you don’t speak a word of Japanese, but just do a perimeter check to make sure no one’s been hurt in the fallout.”
“Got it, boss.” The blond dude gave me a mock salute with his left hand. “Want me to ride Beyblade down there?”
“Just as long as you ditch him before anyone has a chance to see you.” I looked at the dragon he was riding. “Hear that, bud? I don’t want you to be seen.”
The red beast just blinked at me slowly before he swung around and swam through the air on his way down the mountain.
“Phoenix, use your abilities to catch as much of this ash as you can,” I ordered as I turned back to the twins. “Try to keep it from falling farther down the mountain if you can. I know it’s a lot, but just dump it into the volcano with the rest of the magma.”
“What do you want me to do after that?” he asked as the projections on his arms extended and formed an umbrella over the rest of us.
“Help Ronin slice through these rocks and break them up so they don’t roll down the mountain and crush anyone.” I pointed to one of the huge boulders Nala had used to throw at the firebird. “That could crush a house. Just do your best to pulverize them so no one gets suspicious of why they look like that.”
“Fair enough,” Ronin murmured and bowed her head. “I trust you will find the pressure and vent it safely.”
“Don’t worry about us.” I smiled at the Asian beauty. “We’ll be fine. Nala always has my back.”
“We’ll keep in touch,” the caramel-skinned goddess added. “As long as our radios work, we’ll keep you posted on our progress.”
“Meet us at the base of the mountain so Yoshi can pick us up,” Phoenix suggested, and then he flapped his wings and kicked up a flurry of ash as he ascended back into the sky. “Good luck, everyone!”
While Ronin dashed away to get to work, Nala used her powers to open up a sinkhole in the side of the mountain. Heat flashed out of the hole and smacked me in the face, and I had to shield my exposed skin so I didn’t get crispy like a chicken nugget.
“Holy shit, that’s hot!” I shouted and looked over at my white dragon. “Goldie, vent that!”
The sleek, pearly beast opened her mouth and exhaled a jet of lukewarm air to break the stream of heat coming at our faces.
Ky joined in a second later by laying down a gentle layer of frost in her stream of wind, and together, the dragons cut through the heatwave enough for us to crawl into the hole to find the source of the volcanic pressure.
As we headed down the tunnel Nala made, the dark-haired beauty paused every few seconds and closed her eyes as though she were concentrating on something hard. Her head would bend low, and her shoulders would drop, but she never put her bare hands against the hot walls. I figured she was smart for doing that so she didn’t get burnt, because I’d hate to imagine how painful the rock would be if she touched it.
“I think there’s a lava tube somewhere up ahead,” Nala murmured. “It must connect to the core, so it’s venting all this hot air up here.”
“Is it hot in here?” I joked. “Barely even noticed.”
It didn’t take long for my scalp to start dripping sweat, though, and even with the heat-resistant suits on, the oven-like environment was almost unbearable.
Still, even though it was uncomfortable, I couldn’t help but marvel at how these suits were working so well. These outfits must have some really serious tech inside the material if they were working so well to keep us from burning up into a crisp.
But maybe it wasn’t just the suit? What if my dragon powers kept the heat from getting to me too much? How cool would that be?
“How do you think we’re going to manage to blow the pressure safely?” I asked her as I ducked low on Ky’s back. Nala had made the hole big enough for my dragons to hover through, but the ceiling was still a little closer than I wanted it to be. “The only way I can think of doing it is, well, to just let it go.”
“I’m wondering if I can find ways into the magma chamber,” the ebony-eyed goddess mused as she stopped for a moment. “I’m feeling around for the biggest reservoir, then all I need to do is direct the lava out of the reservoir and through these tunnels.”
