Dragon Conjurer 3, page 2
“Oh, I didn’t mind it, either.” I grinned at the dark beauty next to me as the jet dipped a little lower.
We must’ve been getting close to the Academy if we were in such a sharp nosedive.
Sure enough, the jet bounced down onto the runway within seconds, and the three of us gripped our armrests as Silva guided the plane onto the tarmac with practiced ease. It wasn’t the smoothest landing, but it was smooth as far as I was concerned. I was getting used to flying on Ky, and my icy dragon could do a lot of things, but landing steady was not one of them.
But we’d work on that.
The jet taxied into the hangar, and as soon as it rolled to a stop, Silva popped the ramp down for us so we could get off and greet the inevitable crowd. We hadn’t been told to expect the cadets to swarm the jet once we got off, but sure enough, as soon as I got off the ramp, I spotted a line of AIMM cadets of various ranks standing there waiting for me. Most of them were female, and every one of the ladies tried to push another girl out of the way as if she’d be able to win me over if she threw herself onto me.
Didn’t these girls know I already had two special ladies in my life? Even though I was open for more, I didn’t want to settle for just anyone. I didn’t think Nala and Steffi would be too happy if I brought just any regular cadet into our relationship, not without consulting them first, at least.
“Can we get by, please?” Nala growled as she stepped next to me and grabbed my hand. “We’ve got to report to Burkhard.”
“It’s alright, Nal,” I whispered to soothe her while we eased our way around the swarm of my adoring fans. “They’re just happy we’re back, and can you blame them?”
“Our boy’s the local celebrity,” Nick piped up as he pushed himself behind me and started rubbing my shoulders like I was a fighter on the way to the ring. “They’re just glad he’s back, and we are, too.”
“But we were with him the whole time.” Our smallest teammate crossed her arms as we made our way past the crowd and to a nearby shuttle to take us the rest of the way to the door. “It’s not like we missed him.”
“No, we didn’t miss him, but if he’d been gone to that exotic land by himself, we would’ve been the first in line to welcome him back.”
“You probably would,” I agreed as the shuttle started to trundle toward the hangar exit. “Which makes Steffi not being here kind of weird, right?”
“Yeah, it is weird,” Nala admitted and sank lower into her seat. “Maybe she’s finishing up her work with the scientists downstairs.”
“Or maybe she knew she’d be mobbed if she tried to show up here today,” Nick added with a frown. “I mean, the crowds were almost enough to suffocate me. I know there aren’t any trees or shrubs inside the hangar, but I was looking for some just so I could get past the worst of the crowds.”
“But we’re past them now,” I said and crossed my arms over my chest. “It’s just smooth sailing from here to Burkhard’s office.”
“How do you know?” The dark-haired beauty put her hand on my bicep and cocked her head to one side.
“If everyone who wanted to see me is back there, then there’s no way in hell they’d be able to get out of the hangar and stop us again.” I grinned at the goddess beside me before I looked over my shoulder at the crowd shrinking away. “I can’t imagine there being anyone else between us and Burkhard now.”
“Nobody except maybe Bruce,” Nick muttered. “I wonder if he had a brain injury while we were gone and forgot all about his made-up, bullshit rivalry with you.”
“Probably not,” I chuckled, “but he would’ve challenged me back there in front of the whole school if he wanted to start something today.”
“Fair point,” Nala added and rubbed my arm just as the shuttle rolled to a stop at the doors. “Thanks for getting us ahead of that mob.”
“Not a problem,” the driver said as he brought his right hand up to his temple in a short salute. “We’re glad you’re back.”
“We’re glad to be back,” I responded as we hopped off the shuttle and walked to the doors. The smooth steel in front of us contrasted with the mostly wooden doors back at MAJK, but even though I liked the aesthetic of the Japanese academy, I was glad to be back home.
We walked through the door and down the hall to the elevator without any interruption, just like I’d predicted. Not that I was going to be all “I told you so” with my team, but I was glad to be right about this. It would make the journey to Burkhard’s office so much faster.
And the faster we got to the office, the faster we could find Steffi afterwards.
We rode the elevator up to the top floor and disembarked once the smooth, bronzed doors opened for us. The hallway in front of us was barren except for a pair of guards walking toward us, but I didn’t think the big Men in Black were there to escort us the rest of the way.
“Welcome back,” one of them gruffed as they walked past us and boarded the elevator we’d just vacated.
“Well,” Nick scoffed as the doors closed behind the guards. “That was actually pretty human of them. I’ve never heard one of them say anything like that to any of the cadets.”
“Yeah, usually they’re pretty stoic,” Nala added while we made our way to the headmaster’s office. “It was nice to hear one of them say something like that, like they actually missed us, you know?”
“We’re here.” The nymph said as we made it to the heavy office doors, and he put his skinny hands on his hips and slumped his shoulders. “Well, here goes nothing, right?”
I knocked on the door and waited for the person on the other side to answer, and in the meantime, I slipped my hand into Nala’s.
“Come in,” Burkhard’s voice boomed through the wooden doors like they were paper thin or made of balsa wood or something.
“Hello, Headmaster,” I greeted after pushing the door open so my team and I could step inside. “It’s good to see you again.”
The big, Kingpin look-alike stood up from his place behind the desk and opened his arms wide like he was trying to give all of us an air hug. To his left stood the gorgeous Dr. Hastings, and she smiled at us while she clutched her data pad and other important documents to her chest.
It was great to see some familiar faces again.
“I trust the experience was a good one,” the headmaster continued as he motioned for us to take our seats in front of his desk. “MAJK’s Headmistress already sent word ahead of you to tell me she was pleased with you.”
“We had a great time!” Nick exclaimed while he plopped down into his chair. “It was so ballin’! We got to team up with these badass Japanese twins and defeat some huge fucking goblins right in there in the middle of Seoul, South Korea. Then we got to travel to Mt. Fuji and kill a Magumau Ingu! I’d never even heard of that monster before this trip!”
“Seems at least one of you enjoyed himself,” Dr. Hastings chuckled as she turned and looked at me. “They didn’t experiment on you too much, did they, Mr. Cooper?”
“Not really,” I admitted with a shrug. “It was just one hour or something like that. The rest of the time was a blast.”
“Start from the beginning,” Burkhard instructed and held his hand toward me. “From the moment you arrived.”
“Well, we had to fight a Tengu before we got there,” Nala piped up. “This bird monster came at us out of nowhere, so we had to bail out of the jet and fight the monster before we could land.”
“One of the twins who ended up on our team came to help us,” I added while I crossed my ankle over the opposite knee. “His name was Phoenix, and he captured the Tengu after we knocked it out of the sky. When we got to the runway, he was there to greet us.”
“I suppose he was waiting on the ground for you,” Burkhard mused. “He must’ve seen the struggle and gone to help you. I assume, by the name Phoenix, he was able to fly?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “He had some sort of astral-energy projection power, so he could make these translucent wings and other extensions of his body to help him fly, grab things from far away, you name it.”
“He was one of the top cadets there,” Nick added. “Him and his sister.”
“Did the sister have similar powers?” The big man folded his hands together and steepled his fingers. “I assume she was the twin.”
“Yeah, she was.” I sat up straighter in my chair and began to bounce my knee, but not because I was nervous or anything. I just felt like I needed to move a little more while we were sitting there. “She could use the same powers to create a samurai sword and armor, which was pretty cool in my opinion.”
“We were assigned to work with them this week,” Nala spoke up and crossed her arms under her shapely bust. “MAJK doesn’t assign teams who work and stay together like we do. Instead, the students rotate out on a mission to mission basis. Phoenix and Ronin, his sister, were the exception. They always worked together.”
“Phoenix and Ronin,” the Headmaster murmured and put his hand on his thick chin. “What odd names for Japanese students.”
“Oh, well, those aren’t their real names,” Nick spoke up. “Instead of using colors to rank their cadets, MAJK uses the terms ‘Unnamed’ and ‘Named’ to separate their students. When they’re Unnamed, they have a letter and number to correspond with their dorm number, and once they get to be powerful enough, they’re allowed to pick a name for themselves. There aren’t a lot of Named students there, so I guess it’s pretty hard to earn the name.”
“Well, where else do you go once you reach the top?” Nala questioned and leaned over to look at Nick past me. “I mean, before Dylan showed up, we only had colors, and then when he was given the best rank, they changed the system up a little. Maybe MAJK just needs to reevaluate their ranking system, but I don’t see anything wrong with it now.”
“How many missions did you go on while you were there?” Dr. Hastings asked while she leaned her hip against Burkhard’s desk.
“Just two,” I answered. “The one in Seoul, and then the one on Mt. Fuji. We spent the rest of the time going to class and training, except for that day the scientists did their tests on me.”
“Seems to me like you had an eventful week,” the Headmaster chuckled and laced his fingers in front of his stomach. “What can you tell us about the differences between MAJK and AIMM?”
“Well,” I began, “like we mentioned earlier, MAJK doesn’t assign cadets to a permanent team. They say it helps keep the infighting to a minimum since you wouldn’t want to fight with someone who might end up being on your team on the next mission. I think it works for them, even if it’s a little confusing.”
“They also do teams of five,” Nala added. “It was nice to have that extra person on our team, although I felt like we were a pretty powerful group already. If you took any one of us out of the team, the remaining four still would’ve been strong enough to stop whatever threats came our way.”
“They also encourage students to battle one another if there’s a disagreement,” Nick piped up and placed his hands on his knees. “When we were there, we encountered a guy who had, like, elemental breath--”
“He wasn’t an Elemental Conjurer, was he?” Dr. Hastings interrupted while her fingers tightened around the bundle of files in her arms. “I didn’t think any of those existed anymore.”
“He wasn’t,” I assured her and glanced down at my tattoos. “He didn’t have any markings, and the attacks all came out of his mouth.”
“Which is why he called himself Dragon,” Nala said and shook her head. “He challenged Dylan to a fight while we were there, and of course, Dylan kicked his ass. After the fight, Dragon left us alone. I think there’s something in the rules about how you can’t fight a student about the same disagreement or something like that. The battles are supposed to help keep arguments from getting out of hand.”
“I guess MAJK sees it like this,” I began. “If the disagreement is serious enough for a student to challenge another, then it needs to be solved, whether through combat or not. If the angry cadet is just being petty, then they won’t want to fight, so problem solved.”
“Why did this Dragon want to fight you, Mr. Cooper?” Burkhard questioned. “Was it because he felt you were going to steal his thunder, seeing as you’re the only male Dragon Conjurer?”
“He thought I was going to steal Ronin from him,” I scoffed, but I wasn’t scoffing at the idea of stealing Ronin away from Dragon. Well, I was, but I’d be more than happy to take the exotic beauty away from that nasty bully. “Apparently, Dragon’s and Ronin’s parents thought they’d marry their kids off to one another when they got older, but MAJK refused to honor that agreement when the kids came to the Academy for the first time.”
“I see.” The Kingpin look-alike pursed his lips. “Well, I’m certainly glad you could hold your own against the bully, though I have no doubt you are the most powerful magic user in existence. That much is clear.”
“We know he is,” Nala giggled and rubbed her hand over Goldie’s marking on my bicep. “How else can you explain why he’s so good at everything he does?”
“Is that a new tattoo?” Dr. Hastings gasped as she set her things down on the desk and walked over to inspect the newest addition to my growing collection. “Incredible! I almost didn’t see this one! Why didn’t you mention it earlier?”
“I was going to mention it, don’t worry,” I chuckled as I rolled my sleeve up higher and gave her a better view of my arm. “I got her when I fought Dragon. Apparently, trying to summon a dragon at random doesn’t work, so I think I have to really want or need the dragon to show up before the conjuring works.”
“What’s her element?” The platinum-haired former model-slash-hip grandmother leaned in and peered at my new ink like she was trying to find a flaw in it, but I knew she wouldn’t see anything wrong. “How big is she? Have you used her in battle before?”
“She can blow air really hard?” I snorted and shrugged my right shoulder. “I guess she’s a wind dragon, and she’s about half of Ky’s size now. I used her in the fight we had with the Magumau Ingu on Mt. Fuji, and she really came in handy up there. Her powers combined with Ky’s make a blizzard strong enough to solidify magma, so I already have some ideas of how I can use her on missions.”
“We look forward to seeing her in battle,” the Headmaster said with a tight smile.
“She came in handy with our little detour.” I shrugged again and looked around at the rest of my team. “Don’t worry, sir, we handled that well. The serpent is dead, and we’re all fired up after the fight.”
“I knew sending you three would be the best decision,” the headmaster replied, “and I’m glad to see I was right. It seems we will be keeping in contact with MAJK for a long time, and your mission there helped set those plans in motion.”
“What happens now?” I asked and cocked my head to one side as Dr. Hastings moved away from me. “Are other Academies opening their borders to us?”
“It seems we are beginning to see more open relations around the world.” Burkhard straightened his spine and rolled his thick neck until it popped. “Pardon me, I’ve been calling the Russian Academy all morning, and they’ve been increasingly stubborn.”
“Figures,” Nick snorted and shook his head. “If anyone was going to be stubborn about opening their borders, it would be the Academy with the only other Dragon Conjurer in their student body.”
“But we’re getting close, right?” I sat on the edge of my seat and put both feet down on the floor. “I mean, we’ll see how things go, and then we might just get the Russians to agree to open relations?”
I knew it might look suspicious for me to be so adamant on the Russian Academy opening its doors to us, but I wanted to see Lia again.
“I believe we’re making some groundwork, yes,” the Headmaster answered with a nod. “I don’t know how soon we’ll know for sure, but I do believe RMA will eventually allow us to send someone there or allow their students to come here.”
“Well, RMA has apparently already allowed MAJK to send someone,” Nala interjected. “Phoenix told us he was there for a little while, so I don’t know why they’re being so stubborn with us.”
“It’s probably because we have the other Dragon Conjurer,” Dr. Hastings mused as she leaned against Burkhard’s desk again. “If we continue to work with the other Academies, then perhaps RMA will fold to us eventually.”
“Relations with AMIE are growing every day,” the Kingpin look-alike said, “and our talks with MIA are getting somewhere.”
“AMIE and MIA?” I asked. I assumed they were the European and African Academies, but I didn’t know what their acronyms stood for.
“Academy of Magic In Europe,” Nala answered, “and Magical Institution of Africa. See how much easier it is when we have acronyms for everything?”
“Except Russia had to do RMA,” Nick muttered and folded his arms over his chest. “Everyone else’s acronyms can be pronounced like words. AIMM is like ‘aim,’ MAJK is ‘magic,’ MIA is ‘Mia,’ like the name, and AMIE is like the French word for friend, ‘mon amie.’ Russia’s is R-M-A, and you can’t pronounce it like ‘Irma’ or anything. How much sense does that make?”
“Well, Russia has always wanted to do things their way,” Dr, Hastings murmured and looked down at the desk. “Be that as it may, we are still thrilled with the accomplishments we’ve made thus far. Our relations are getting better and better, and perhaps within the next few months, we will be able to send our students to any of the other four Academies in the world.”
“We’re ushering in a new era of cooperation,” Burkhard added with a smile. “AIMM and the other Academies are finally on the same page, which is incredible. Those who founded these Academies never would’ve dreamed of this amount of prosperity between institutions, and we have you three in part to thank for that.”
The three of us grinned at each other while I felt a warm sense of pride swelling inside my chest. We’d done a good thing, and I couldn’t help but be proud of my team for it.
