Dragon Conjurer 2, page 19
“Whoa…” I breathed while the five of us stood on the edge of the fields. “This is so fucking awesome!”
The training fields were made of a mixture of grass and dirt, and all five of them were the size of a football field. I couldn’t believe how much space MAJK had back here for their outdoor training sessions. The amount of time and effort it must’ve taken to make everything look nice was enough to blow my mind.
Each of the fields seemed to have a shield around them to keep magic attacks from escaping and hitting someone in the face. So, when a kid in one of the occupied fields launched an ice blast toward a holographic enemy, the excess frost pinged off a pastel green grid that flared to life upon impact. Once the attack faded, the shield winked out of sight.
I had no idea where they were keeping the holographic projectors for the enemy, but I couldn’t worry about that now. The holograms in the occupied field closest to us hopped across the stretch of earth like they were made of rubber, and when one of the small, salamander-like creatures leapt at one of the students, the girl actually fell over and had to wrestle with the projection.
“Tangible holograms?” I asked as we walked past the occupied field toward an empty one. “Do they actually have weight to them?
“Sort of,” Phoenix explained. “We don’t have fully accurate projections, but MAJK encourages us to treat these holographic monsters like they’re real. We do our best to avoid being pounced on or knocked down, so we’re better prepared for what reality holds for us out of these walls.”
“So, you treat it like Star Trek holograms?” Nala questioned while she walked next to me and held my hand. She was back to wearing her skimpy uniform, and she reminded me of one of those bunny-girl costumes I’d seen in different anime shows, minus the ears.
“That is a good analogy, yes.” The Japanese dude turned his head around just as we made it to an unoccupied training field. “I’ll let us in, so just wait right there for a second.”
The four of us stood back while Phoenix messed with a control panel mounted into the ground next to the training field. In the meantime, I adjusted my grip on Nala’s hand and gave the dark-haired beauty’s fingers a gentle squeeze.
“Yesterday was amazing,” she whispered to me. “I fell asleep until dinner time, and I only woke up because Ronin came in and asked me if I was hungry. Even after eating with everyone else, I was so tired. I dreamt about fucking you all night long, and I even thought about sneaking into your room, waking you up, and going again.”
“Even with the guys in there?” I asked in an equally quiet voice, even though the idea of her climbing into bed with me and fucking me with Nick and Phoenix in the room made me want to shout.
“Why not?” She fixed me with a sharp gaze and a smirk, like she was about to tell me about her grand scheme to overthrow some corrupt form of government or something. “I’m still so fucking wet, but that could also be your cum still dripping out of me. My panties are soaked.”
“Damnnnn,” I whispered as my body got hot.
“Got it!” Phoenix called out and interrupted my covert conversation with Nala. “Not that I had to hack into it or anything. It recognized my biometrics right away, but I had to make sure the input knew there were three visitors.”
“So, I don’t see a control room,” Nick said while we walked through the gap in the green shield. “Do these training areas come preprogrammed with different scenarios?”
“Yes,” Ronin spoke up for the first time since we walked outside before she dropped her head and looked away from the group.
“Well,” Phoenix began in his sister’s silence, “our culture has a lot of monsters, and a lot of those monsters are unique in the threats they pose to our population. However, there are several monsters which follow a similar fighting pattern or method, and MAJK decided to keep those similar fights in the outside training fields so the students didn’t have to invent a new scenario every time they needed to practice.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” I said, “but wouldn’t that limit what you can fight outside? I’d think you’d like to get different practice outside and inside.”
“If we want, we can specially request a new scenario.” He crossed his arms as he walked toward the middle of the field. “We just have to go make that request, then we can port the fight onto the field through the control panel. We don’t get the advantage of the changing terrain like we do inside, but it’s nice to switch things up a little.”
“Alright, enough talk,” Nala chuckled as she punched her fist into her hand. “Let’s fucking do this thing.”
“One more thing,” the Japanese dude interrupted as he stepped forward and opened his hands. “We have some earbuds for each of us to wear. It’ll make communication easier, even if this is just a training mission.”
“Sounds smart,” I admitted as I took one of the communication devices and pushed it into my ear. “Check, check.”
Each of my teammates followed my lead and ran through the mic check with me.
“We’re all set,” Nick said as he clenched his hands into fists. “Let’s do this thing!”
I normally liked to have a battle plan in place before we started to train, but since I had no way to plan around two people whose powers were still a mystery to me, I’d just have to formulate a strategy on the fly. That wouldn’t be a problem, but it would be something I’d have to get used to for this fight.
I thought back to a few weeks ago when I first came to AIMM and how I didn’t know what my team’s powers would do together. I knew I needed to figure that out, and I had, so I thought about today being no different. I was my team’s leader, so I would have to step up and lead like I knew I could.
“Let’s move out,” I ordered while my team spread across the flat field. “Stay close so I can give instructions, but for now, let’s just get a feel for each other. Exokyzo! Bianxifa!”
Both Ky and Beyblade emerged from beneath my skin and landed on the soft ground next to me. The dragons blinked their slitted eyes and lashed their tails, and I wondered if they could sense today was different. Maybe they were thinking about how we were never outside unless it was serious, and they were looking around for the big bad monster we were supposed to fight.
“Just a training drill, guys,” I assured them as I patted each of their scaly snouts. “I know it’s different, but we’ll get used to it. I don’t know what we’re fighting, so do your best to lay down cover for us until we get a feel for the landscape. Got it?”
Again, the dragons blinked, and then they whipped their bodies around toward the rest of the field.
“Ky, let’s get up there,” I ordered as I slid onto my blue beast’s hard back and settled between the spines. “Show Phoenix he’s not the only one who can fly.”
While the red beast stayed planted on the ground next to Nala and Nick, Ky and I took to the air so we could have an aerial view of the battlefield below. It would be easier to coordinate attacks and plan the next moves if I could see everything from above. There wouldn’t be any surprises, then, and I’d be able to make educated commands while knowing all the variables.
Once we were about four stories off the ground, I guided my dragon over to Phoenix.
“You really can fly!” the Japanese dude shouted as he flapped his own flaming, ethereal wings. “I thought I saw you on your dragon’s back yesterday, but I wasn’t sure. Not bad, Dylan.”
“Thanks,” I said back and held onto Ky’s spikes. “Your power’s pretty cool, too. So, what are we up against today?”
“Generic yokai sprites.” The dark-haired guy flying next to me peered down at the ground as though he were waiting for the monsters to spring up at any moment. “They’re only about a foot tall, but they attack in packs and can be very troublesome. We’re facing about two dozen of them, so I hope your team knows what they’re doing.”
“Of course, they do.” I pursed my lips and looked down at the field below. Surprisingly, some foliage sprung out of the ground as if by magic, and even from this height, I could see Nick dancing around like a kid fresh out of school.
“We have some technology to help create different terrains,” Phoenix explained. “We don’t have any people like Nick here at MAJK, but some of our students want natural cover to hide behind. Even though the majority of our monster attacks happen in urban areas, we believe it’s essential to know how to fight in a more natural environment.”
“Smart.” I nodded and watched my blond nymph friend as he zipped around using the trees as his transports. “Most of our fights have happened in the middle of nowhere, but the hurricane we stopped--”
“You stopped a hurricane?” The ethereal-winged dude jerked his head around and looked straight at me. “AIMM told us your team was the most powerful one they had, but we didn’t know you’d stopped a hurricane.”
“It happened right after the earthquake and tsunami wrecked here,” I explained and held one hand up with three fingers extended. “It was part of a three-front attack. We had to send two other teams out to the West Coast and the Midwest to stop more earthquakes and a dust storm. It was pretty bad, but we made it through.”
“Sounds like it was hard.” Phoenix gave his wings another flap before he pointed to the ground below us. “Hey, here they come.”
I looked down and saw what he was talking about. In between the tree cover, I spied a dozen or so little red monsters pop out of the ground like angry daisies. From this height, I couldn’t see distinct features, but I didn’t need to be up close to know they were ugly little things. The way they moved reminded me of the fire imps we’d stopped in California, but these Japanese demons were faster, and they weren’t using fire to fight.
“They’ve got claws, so watch out for that,” Phoenix said as he spread his hands out and created two flaming balls of energy in either palm. “What’s your plan?”
“We stay up here,” I explained, “and we fight those little shits from the air. The tree cover is going to make it hard, but Ky’s agile enough to zip around between the canopies.”
“What do we do, boss?” Nick asked through the comms as he continued to travel through the trees. “It’s a little dicey already!”
“Keep doing what you’re doing, Nick,” I ordered. “You’re doing great. Use your martial arts on them if you have to!”
“And me?” Nala asked as she anchored herself in the ground by pulling the dirt up over her feet and ankles.
“Practice your senses, Nal.” I gave her a nod, even though I didn’t know if she could see it or not. “Keep your eyes closed and fight the yokai off without your sight. These monsters have to run, so they won’t ever be out of touch.”
Just as I turned to the final member of our new team to give her some instructions, Ronin waved her arms over her body and created a set of white samurai armor. The plates and fabric of the armor looked real, even though I could still see through the material. Ronin’s body looked like it was encased in starlight, and the helmet she set onto her head gave her a pristine white halo over her smooth hair.
“I will use my sword to cut them down,” she stated in a curt tone.
Before I could offer anything else, Ronin had already jumped into battle and began to fend the demons off with her ethereal katana.
Holy fuck, she was a real-life samurai girl, and she was so fucking hot. I had no idea how anyone around here got any work done with such a gorgeous, badass warrior woman running around the place.
“Don’t worry,” Phoenix started as his voice pulled me out of my trance. “Ronin will learn to respect you. She just needs to get used to the idea of you being around first.”
“That’s comforting,” I muttered and gripped Ky’s ribs with my legs. “Come on, bud, let’s go!”
Like a living divebomb, my dragon folded his wings to his sides and shot to the ground toward the yokai.
I held onto the spine in front of me and closed my eyes to keep the wind out of my eyes. My stomach flipped at least three times on our descent, and I had to fight the urge to open my eyes to make sure we pulled up at the last second.
I trusted my dragon, though, because we’d been through so much by now. We’d been partners for two weeks, but that short amount of time was more than enough for me to trust him with my life.
I snapped my eyes open when I felt Ky’s flight level out, and I saw the ground zipping under us by just a foot. If I let my feet hang off my dragon’s sides, my toes would be turned into a red streak on the grass.
“Pull up just a bit, bud!” I ordered Ky as he ducked and dodged through the trees to take on the yokai. “I don’t want to lose my feet!”
My dragon did just that, and the pair of us flew about five feet off the ground now. The little red demons jabbed their hands at us and tried to reach Ky’s legs, but they had no luck in getting a hold on him.
While we blasted the monsters with ice and teeth, Beyblade used his signature move to roll like a flaming wheel of death through the horde of demons. His bright ring of fire stuck out in the shadows of the artificial terrain, and the screams of his victims bounced off the trunks to create a morbid symphony of fear.
“Doing great, Nala!” I yelled at the dark-haired beauty when Ky and I zipped past her. “Looking good!”
The caramel-skinned goddess didn’t open her eyes or stop throwing pebbles at the half-dozen yokai running at her, but she paused just long enough to give me a thumbs up. After she dropped her digit, she went right back to flinging clods of dirt at the demons to hold them off, and she was doing a damn good job of it.
Nick flitted around like he had invisible wings, and any time he emerged from a tree and a yokai was there, he swung his arm or his leg around to knock it out. His weird fighting style worked, too, and any poor little demon who got in his way was flattened against the earth.
“You’ve got a knack for leadership!” Phoenix called out as he flew next to Ky and me.
“Thanks,” I said back while my dragon froze a couple more holographic monsters to the ground. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities to practice.”
“Let me end this for us.” The Japanese dude pointed to a cluster of seven yokai charging toward us, and he flapped his translucent wings and zipped toward them like a silent banshee. Then two projections shot out of his shoulders and wrapped around his arms like a second skin, and once he was right on top of the little devils, he flattened them underneath his projections like they were made of jelly.
It was brutal, but it did the job right.
“Nice work,” I panted as Ky landed, and I slid off his back. “Team, let’s huddle up.”
Everyone walked over to me from their various positions on the battlefield, and while I waited for them to come back, I recalled my dragons into my body.
Ky and Beyblade disappeared in flashes of light, and I felt when they settled themselves underneath my skin because my right arm and chest got colder and hotter at the same time.
“That was pretty fucking awesome!” Nick exclaimed as he held his hand up for me to high-five. “I know we’ve taken down monsters like that before, but it still felt so fucking good to stop the little yokai bastards!”
“I feel like I’m getting better with the whole ‘seeing with the ground’ thing,” Nala added while she slipped under my bicep and wrapped her arm around my waist. “I think I’m finally getting the hang of it.”
“You three really have a handle on your powers,” Phoenix commented while he patted me on the shoulder. “I wouldn’t believe you’d only been working together for a few weeks if you hadn’t told me.”
“Thanks,” I murmured and looked down at my feet even though I had nothing to be embarrassed about. The guy had given me a genuine compliment, and it felt good to hear it from him. Phoenix and Ronin were two of the best students in MAJK, so to get praise from one of them felt pretty fucking good.
But Ronin stayed quiet, and even though she’d been silent pretty much since I’d met her yesterday, I was still determined to catch her eye.
So, when we left the field, I made sure to match my pace with Ronin’s while Nick and Phoenix headed for the doors in front of the rest of us.
“Your power is super cool,” I said quietly to the silent girl on my right while Nala put her arm around my torso. “I think we’re a pretty good team, you know?”
“I think you are powerful, too,” Ronin said back without even looking away from the path in front of us. “But I want to see if you’re more than just lucky.”
“Lucky?” I tilted my head to one side and furrowed my brow. “What’re you talking about?”
“You do seem powerful,” she continued, “but everyone I know is also powerful, and this was just a training exercise. Your Academy clearly thinks you have what it takes to be the most powerful magic user in the world, but I will withhold my judgement until I see it with my own eyes.”
“Uhhh, yeah. Okay.”
Damn, did she have to go so hard? I mean, I guess she wasn’t that harsh about it, but Ronin’s words did hurt a little. I’d gotten so used to impressing everyone, but now I felt like I actually had to work for her respect here.
Maybe the rest of MAJK didn’t share Ronin’s sentiment, but maybe I’d have to do more than fly around on a rhino-sized ice dragon while a red Chinese dragon rolled around behind us.
I was up for the challenge, though.
We walked up to the door, headed inside, and marched to the elevator to head back to our dorm room. After the momentary conversation with Ronin, the silent Asian beauty walked on ahead next to her brother and pushed Nick back to Nala and me.
Well, maybe she didn’t really push him, but it was more like a strong physical suggestion for him to fall back with us.
“What’s her deal?” the nymph asked as we stopped a few feet behind the twins while we waited for the elevator. “She doesn’t seem happy.”
“She’s like that all the time,” Nala muttered and crossed her arms under her shapely bust. “When she came into the room last night, she didn’t say a word to me.”
