Dragon Conjurer 6, page 14
Both monsters blasted away into nothing in a huge spray of pixels.
Ronin looked a bit pale as she turned quickly away from the sight and slashed out at the nearest Popobawa with her extra-long astral katana. Her white blade easily sliced one of the beast’s wings clean off at the shoulder, and the one-eyed bat monster screamed in rage as it lumbered awkwardly toward her.
Without skipping a beat, Ronin pivoted like a ballerina and angled her katana easily to lop the beast’s other wing completely off. Then she shortened her astral blade back toward her body before she projected it straight through the monster’s hairy chest.
The Popobawa gurgled slightly before it exploded into a flash of pixelated light, and I grinned and turned back to check on Nala.
My earth-bending girl had raised herself up on a wide platform of stone a few feet off the ground. She’d formed a make-shift barricade of stone pillars around herself to keep the monsters at bay.
Three Popobawa hovered around her as they tried to reach through the bars of Nala’s self-made cage, but I got the feeling that was exactly what my curly-haired girl had hoped for.
Nala smirked confidently as she slammed the rock bars of her cage together and crushed the arms of one bat monster.
The sickening sound of crunching bone mixed with the Popobawa’s screams as it raked down my spine. Then Nala formed a thin spear of rock straight up and skewered the beast from the bottom up.
“A little taste of your own medicine,” Nala cackled at the monster.
The shish kabobbed Popobawa wriggled like a worm on a hook for a few seconds before he shattered into pixelated death.
“Nice one,” Steffi laughed.
“Thanks.” Nala smirked.
Two Popobawa still tried to grab Nala through her stone barricade, so she raised some huge, flat boulders up on either side of them and flattened the monsters like flies. A sickening squelch sound and a thin spray of bright pixels spewed out from between the stones as the holographic monsters met their end.
A few feet away, Elisabeth roared at a Popobawa and slammed her paw down on one of the beast’s feet before he could escape into a nearby tree, and the monster’s huge red eye widened with shock as Elisabeth’s grizzly bear teeth tore into the muscles of his upper leg. Then the shapeshifter tore her claws across the Popobawa’s narrow throat.
Blood bubbled out of the monster’s gaping neck and dripped from his open mouth for a second before his hideous body burst into a million bright pixels.
“Shinjimae!” Ronin screamed suddenly.
I whipped around to see the gnarly hands of a Popobawa on my Japanese warrior’s shoulders. Before I could even form the thought to lift my foot in her direction, Ronin slashed out expertly with a short astral dagger.
Ronin’s new blade sliced the Popobawa’s limp dick clean off at the base, and it plopped comically on the ground between his feet.
The bat monster looked down at his weapon of choice where it laid useless on the ground, and then he sucked in a deep breath.
Ronin didn’t give the ugly fucker the opportunity to screech. Instead, my Samurai girl pointed her dagger at an upward angle, and she extended her astral blade clear through his torso and into the neck of another Popobawa a few feet behind the first. Then Ronin flung her arm to the side and ripped her astral dagger clear out the sides of both monsters, and the two bat creatures exploded in a shower of bright pixels.
“Kuso yarō,” Ronin spat.
My freckle-faced girl turned toward me, and I raised my eyebrows at her.
“What?” Ronin smirked.
“Remind me not to piss you off,” I said.
Ronin blew me a subtle kiss before she pivoted around to slice through the wings of another Popobawa that was aggressively stalking Nick through the brush. She forged an astral spear and extended it to pierce precisely through the back of the Popobawa’s skull, and the white energy blade jutted out from the monster’s red eye for a second before it succumbed to his pixelated death.
“Dylan!” Bo called to me through the comms. “Will you show us how you would dispatch these beasts?”
The tall guy held one Popobawa firmly in his mental grasp beside another that Nala had pinned down by his wings with an enormous boulder.
Steffi fluttered high overhead and launched a rapid flurry of small energy shots at the feet of a bat monster whose wings had been shredded by Elisabeth’s claws. My fairy-girl made the monster dance as she fired golden balls at the beast’s feet like a bad guy in an old cowboy movie. Then Steffi redirected her target closer to the two Popobawa that Nala and Bo had captured.
“Go on, show off a little bit.” Steffi smirked.
“Alright.” I shrugged and tugged the zipper of my uniform down a little way to reveal Beyblade’s tattoo on my chest. “Bianxifa.”
My Chinese fire dragon flashed out in a bright burst of orange light. He slithered forward a step and glanced slightly from side to side as he instinctively looked for Nick.
The blond nymph must have seen my dragon searching because he appeared out of the grass to stand beside Beyblade in less than two seconds.
“Right here, buddy,” my best friend chuckled.
I patted Beyblade on his scaly shoulder and silently instructed him to destroy the three remaining Popobawa with his fire breath.
Beyblade practically smirked at me as he bounded a few paces over to the three limp-dicked monsters. Then my red dragon sucked in a huge breath and blasted them with his flames.
The hairy bat monsters’ screeches scraped in my ears for a second until they died away, but I noticed a subtle ripple of vibration raced under my leather training uniform as my fire dragon incinerated the last of the ugly monsters.
The beasts didn’t even have a chance to burst into pixelated death before Beyblade’s scorching heat turned them into piles of ash on the grassy ground.
“Oh, my,” Bo breathed. “I have never seen the programming struggle to keep pace with the destruction of a target before.”
The tall guy stared in amazement for a second at the piles of ash before they disappeared in a rather anticlimactic blink of pixels.
“Yes, that was very impressive,” Binta agreed.
Bo and his girlfriend strolled over to admire the charred spots of grass where the Popobawas had stood a moment before.
Elisabeth sauntered over on all fours to join us, and then she raised up on her hind legs as she shifted back from her grizzly form. Her long red hair flowed down her back once more as her bear snout returned to the beautiful, foxy face that I loved so much.
“Impressive?” Elisabeth said. “These suits are impressive. Even when I was shifted I could feel the feedback.”
“Yeah,” Nala said as she ran her hands over her flat stomach. “It really helped me feel more connected to the program.”
“I have to agree.” I nodded.
“It was like that rumble in a good game controller.” Nick smirked. “I love a good rumble.”
“Wonderful.” Binta smiled. “I am glad you enjoyed our training session, even if my love did cause a little trouble with his selections.”
“Who?” Bo grinned innocently. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” Ronin laughed. “Those Popobawa were very unpleasant.”
“I have to agree with Ronin.” Elisabeth grimaced. “And when Binta made the one Popobawa attack the other?”
A harsh shudder ran down the French girl’s back.
“That was really brutal,” Steffi said, and her color was a little more green than normal.
“Much like Nala said,” Binta laughed. “I wanted them to have a taste of their own medicine.”
We all laughed at that as Bo strolled over to shut down the simulation. The beautiful sunset over the grass plains of Tanzania faded away and the cool tiles of the training room returned around us.
“Come on, Beyblade,” I coaxed. “Fanhui.”
Beyblade disappeared in a burst of bright light and slithered back under my skin. He twitched a little restlessly, and my other three dragons wriggled with agitation, but I mentally soothed my dragons.
I know, guys. I know you didn’t get as much time as you really would have liked.
Ky shot a spike of cold down my arm that tingled like frostbite in my fingertips for a second, and Thor sent a shock of electricity down my spine that made my toes feel like pins and needles.
“Understood,” I said through slightly gritted teeth.
“Lunch time, anyone?” Nick suggested and rubbed his palms together in anticipation.
“Lunch sounds great,” Steffi said.
“I could definitely eat,” Nala agreed.
“Wonderful.” Bo grinned. “Let us change out of these uniforms, and Binta and I will show you to the dining hall. I think you will be very pleased with the selection of food they offer here.”
Ronin and Elisabeth nodded as we all started to walk back out to the locker rooms.
The ladies disappeared into the ladies’ room, and then Nick, Bo, and I walked into the men’s to change. We dressed quickly and walked back into the hall to wait for the girls, but I was a little distracted as Goldie wriggled with agitation under my skin. Then Thor zapped me with a fresh wave of electricity just as the girls stepped out from the locker room, and I decided I really did need to address my dragons’ needs.
“Everybody ready?” Nick asked without delay as he sucked in his stomach and hunched forward dramatically. “I’m wasting away… need lunch.”
“Alright.” Nala rolled her eyes. “Let’s keep this one from starving.”
“You guys go ahead,” I said as we filed out into the hallway. “I’m going to check out the grounds Headmaster Mahrous said I could use for my dragons.”
“Certainly.” Bo nodded and pointed down the hall. “Take the large double doors down the hall, and they will lead you straight to the courtyard.”
“The boys getting a little antsy?” Steffi asked as she stroked her hand over Ky’s tattoo.
My ice dragon wriggled restlessly under Steffi’s touch, and a fresh spike of frost raced down my arm to my fingertips.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I think they’re a little ticked that they didn’t get to enjoy the training session with us, and they haven’t had time to really romp around since we left AIMM.”
“You should tend to their needs, then,” Ronin said. “They need training as much as the rest of us.”
“Ro’s right. Take care of those beauties. We’ll see you later.” Nala leaned up to kiss me.
“I’ll catch up with you guys in a little while.” I bent down to kiss my other ladies before I turned down the hall where Bo had directed me.
I silently soothed my dragons as I walked down the elegantly decorated hallway. About a hundred yards down the corridor, I spotted a small sign that said “East Courtyard” with a little silver arrow. I followed the arrow down a short hall that ended in two huge glass doors, and then I pushed out into the dry air to find a gorgeous oasis of well-maintained gardens.
The outdoor space was huge and at least the length of two football fields, and a wide variety of flowers, trees, and decorative hedges filled almost every square foot as far as I could see. Walking paths were laid out in cream-colored limestone, and I could see several wrought-iron benches placed in strategic spots under the wide branches of various trees.
I picked a path at random and started walking.
The landscaping was gorgeous, and there were roses, poppies, lilies, lotus flowers, orchids, jasmine, and several other exotic-looking flowers I’d only ever seen in photos. As I made my way further down the winding paths, I came across a few stone fountains that bubbled merrily with fresh clear water.
Despite the intense heat of summer and being this close to the equator, the atmosphere of the courtyard was rather comfortable. Something about the flowing water and the bright rainbow of plant life tempered the dryness of the Egyptian air, and I wondered briefly about what portion of the Academy’s budget was spent on landscaping. The water bill alone must have been astronomical to upkeep this amount of greenery in a desert climate.
Maybe that’s why they’d built the Academy near Lake Nasser. I knew the lake was man-made to extend the reach of the Nile River out to more areas, and I wondered how intertwined the construction of the lake and the Academy were, and which had come first.
The light-tan stone of the building bordered the entire perimeter of the garden oasis, and a large portion along one side stood three stories high. I suspected that was where the dormitories were.
As I strolled further into the huge courtyard, I noticed the quiet buzz of bumblebees, and I glanced closer at the flower bushes nearby and spotted a small swarm of the chubby little insects. I couldn’t help but smile as the small bugs flew around like tiny, drunk, college dudes as they bumped around from blossom to blossom.
Thor wriggled impatiently on my back and sent a painful zap into my spine.
“I know, buddy,” I said quietly. “I’m going.”
I kept walking back toward the large open area of the courtyard, and I noticed a large open archway in the back wall. The stone arch was beautifully constructed, and each block was carved with the image of a different monster.
The archway led out toward the open plain between the Academy and the still waters of Lake Nasser. The earth spread out before me in a smooth swath of tan and blue, and I realized the only time I’d ever seen this much of the planet in front of me was at the beach when the Pacific Ocean was spread out at my feet. It really was incredible that AIMM gave me the chance to see so much of the world like this, and I stood for a minute as I grinned at the expanse of Egyptian landscape before me.
Then I turned back toward the courtyard with a moment of hesitation.
As delightful as the garden was, there really wasn’t all that much open space for my dragons to roam around in without doing some serious damage to the landscaping.
I sighed and had just started to walk out toward the open area when a sudden movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention.
One of the beautiful sheets of jasmine that hung down over a wooden trellis nearby withered quickly, and the small white blossoms dropped to the ground. Then a fresh array of tiny blooms sprouted and instantly aged and withered away, and the cycle continued a few more times until the ground below was covered with so many fallen flower petals, it looked like snow.
I was completely baffled as I looked around for the cause. I must have looked like an idiot as I spun around trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but then I walked back up the path toward the jasmine to investigate more closely.
The beautiful white flowers hung down both sides of a wooden trellis beside the path. I couldn’t see anybody around, so I walked further up the limestone walkway, and on the other side was a wrought-iron bench with a large display of yellow roses.
A girl sat on the bench with her back to me. She had long, silky hair that was a brown so dark it almost looked black, but in the bright sunlight, I could see the deep hints of rich chocolate tones as it hung down her back in a thick braid. She waved her tanned hand in the air, and as she did, the flowers bloomed and died over and over again.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
She was controlling the life cycle of the jasmine. She had plant powers.
I’d fucking found her.
Nick’s dream girl was at MIA.
I grinned like a jackass as I watched her manipulate the plants around her. She wasn’t conjuring them, she was controlling the life cycle of plants that already existed around her.
Then the girl turned slightly to stare off into the distance, and I got my first look at her face.
“Holy shit,” I said barely above a whisper.
The girl had drawn a smokey gray shadow around the almond shape of her hazel eyes. Her nose was fine and straight, and it turned up just the tiniest bit at the end above her full lips. A small mole accentuated the natural upward tilt at the corners of her mouth that gave her the appearance of a permanent smile, and her eyebrows were strong and just a shade blacker than her hair.
She was perfect. She was gorgeous.
She was looking right at me.
Shit.
“Can I help you?” Nick’s dream girl asked in a vaguely irritated American accent.
Wait. What?
She was American?
“Hoooly shit,” I croaked again.
Chapter 9
“I, uhhh, I just…” I fumbled dumbly for words, but my mind was still reeling.
Nick’s dream girl was right here in front of me. She was gorgeous, and she had plant controlling abilities, and I could hardly keep my shit together right now.
The beautiful Egyptian-American girl stood up from the bench and turned to face me. Her long, black-brown braid swung down to her waist as she propped one hand on her cocked-out hip. She had the narrow waist and slender curves of a model and was almost as tall as me, and she held herself like her body didn’t weigh a thing. It was the kind of effortless strength ballerinas perfected for the stage, but she wasn’t dressed anything like a prima ballerina. She wore light denim jeans and a faded Flip Flappers t-shirt that depicted two super cute anime girls in short schoolgirl uniforms with bright pink and periwinkle-colored hair. On the right side of her shirt was a black pin with one lonely gold star on the left side.
I frowned a tiny bit. Either this girl was brand new to her powers, or she was not all that powerful. But I had a gut feeling she was probably just a new recruit to MIA, because based on the minimal display of her powers I’d seen, I thought she had the potential to be a lot more powerful.
I’d never seen the anime from her shirt myself, but I’d spotted these characters as small figures on Nick’s shelf. Either way, she was into anime, which just seemed to scream “Nick’s Girl!” at me.
My vision practically tunneled out.
“Are you a jerk?” The girl narrowed her hazel eyes at me with annoyed confusion. “Or just an idiot?”
I shook my head and mentally slapped myself. I was making a terrible first impression.
