Dragon Conjurer 2, page 6
“That’s good.” I walked up to the stall I’d been standing in earlier, set my Walther down in front of me, and put the safety gear on. “What do these knobs on the side of the ear protection do?”
“Turn up the volume so you can hear us talk,” Steffi said in a muffled reply. Then she walked up to me and tweaked the knob on the right side of my head, and I could hear a lot clearer out of my right ear. “Better?”
“Much.” I smiled at her and turned the knob on the left side so it matched the same level of volume. “What about the gunshots?”
“It muffles them,” Nala explained as she took to the stall next to mine. She already had her Glock in hand, and she didn’t look like she was hesitant to use it.
“Why that gun, Nal?” I asked as I released my gun’s magazine and double checked the chamber even though I hadn’t pulled the slide back yet.
“Because it’s compact,” she said. “It packs a punch, but I can keep it on my belt where no one will see it. I don’t want to use it unless I have no other choice, and I don’t want to put locals on edge if the four of us came strolling into their village with rifles and shotguns and shit like that.”
“Fair point.” I put the magazine back into my gun. This time, I loaded a round into the chamber by pulling the slide back, and the satisfying click of the bullet slipping into the chamber almost made me shiver.
It was such a sexy sound.
“This is just your basic training,” the dark beauty explained, “so don’t feel pressure to be super good at it right away. We just want you to get used to different kinds of guns before you decide what you want to use as your personal sidearm.”
“Thanks.” I smiled even though I knew she couldn’t see me through the stall wall, and then I took on the stance my granddad taught me. “I remember a little from back home, but it’s been years since I went shooting.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great.” The dark beauty pulled the slide of her gun back, and I knew I wasn’t about to wait for her to fire before I did.
When I was a kid, my granddad made sure I knew how to handle guns on the farm. He thought it was a growing boy’s responsibility to shoot air rifles and get good at it, so he taught me how to load his revolver, how to aim, and how to handle the little kick it gave when we shot at snakes.
But this Walther made my granddad’s revolver look and feel like a pop gun.
I squeezed the trigger three times before I realized I hadn’t once had to pull the slide back. The grip felt natural in my hand, and the kick made me feel alive.
Being a dragon conjurer was fun and all, but shooting guns was just as fun.
I finished the fifteen-round magazine off after my team finished shooting, and the four of us pressed the buttons to reel in our targets at almost the exact same time.
“How did that feel?” Nala asked as she took her target down. I got a glimpse of it, and she’d put three rounds in the head and neck, two rounds in the heart, and the other five in her magazine in non-lethal body shots.
She had precision, that was for sure.
“That was fucking amazing,” I laughed and observed my target. I didn’t have any good grouping, but I’d managed to hit the human-shaped silhouette with every round. If this were real, the guy would’ve been dead.
“Not bad,” the dark beauty commented as we walked back to the wall of guns to pick out new firearms and reload. “The important thing is you get used to that feeling. Why don’t you try a different pistol this time, make sure you like the Walther before you settle on it?”
“You make it sound like I won’t have a chance to change my mind later.” I set the empty gun down on the table in front of me and slid the spent magazine out of it. “It’s not like I’m going to get bored with shooting guns before I make up my mind. If I get to shoot more, just tell me, and I’ll be stoked about it, don’t you worry.”
“How did that compare to the revolver?” Nick asked as he shouldered his rifle. “Not the same, huh?”
“Definitely not,” I agreed with a nod. “Snakes wouldn’t stand a chance against this puppy.”
“That would be an expensive snake gun,” Steffi giggled. “What do you want to try next?”
“What’s the one you’re using?” I gestured to the Glock still in her hand. “You and Nala are using the same one?”
“Yeah, the 43 X,” the fairy-girl said as she slid the mag out, checked the chamber, and handed the gun to me. “It might not be the best gun AIMM has, but it works for us.”
“It’s small,” I commented and sighted down the barrel. “But it feels comfortable in my hand.”
“Look at my target and see for yourself.” She unrolled her paper target and laid it out in front of me. The cotton-candy headed beauty had killer accuracy, with five shots grouped in the head and the other five clustered around the target’s heart.
There wouldn’t be anything left of that guy if this were a real situation.
“Do you think shooting magic balls helps your accuracy?” I asked as I handed her gun back to her.
“Practice does.” She put one hand on her curvy hips and tossed her rosy hair over her shoulder. “I’ve been here for several years, Dylan. I know my way around a gun.”
“That’s not the only thing you know your way around.” I winked at her.
“What about me?” Nala asked as she stepped up beside me and put her arm around my waist. “How did I do?”
“You killed your guy with dangerous precision, Nal.” I smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. “What’s next?”
I went through two more rounds of shooting pistols, just to get a feel for the difference between a Walther, a Glock, and a Smith & Wesson. Of those three, I preferred the Walther. The grip felt right in my hand, and the weight was just right, too. It held fifteen rounds to each magazine, and to top it off, it just looked badass.
I’d found my sidearm, and it just so happened to be the first one I’d used.
“So,” Nick began as we stowed away the guns, “what now? Any more shooting, or should we move on to regular training?”
“Let’s move on to regular training,” I suggested as I cracked my neck. “That was fun and all, but I think we need a quick session to give our powers some time to flex. Don’t want those muscles to get weak.”
“You’re right,” Steffi added as we cleaned up in the shooting range and headed for the door. “I don’t mind target practice, but I much prefer fighting monsters in a changing environment. I think it helps to keep my skills sharp.”
“You’re just saying that because you don’t have to use your firearm as your primary attack.” The nymph pushed ahead of our group as we walked through the door, and then he spun around and began to walk backward down the hall. “I mean, I’m not trying to be rude or anything, but there is a big difference in the way you practice and the way I practice. I have to rely on my gun at all times, and you three only use yours to deter crazy locals.”
“Hey, your powers are evolving,” I said in an effort to comfort Nick. “Who knows? You might develop a power that helps you attack. In the meantime, though, we like having you as our marksman, Legolas.”
“Legolas, huh?” Nick spun back around and fell into step with the rest of us. “Nice one.”
“It’s true.” I elbowed the nymph in the side and grinned at him so he would know I was trying to make him feel better about himself. It wasn’t like I thought he was an expendable part of our team. We needed him just as badly as we needed anybody else, and not just because he was our marksman.
“Let’s prove it,” Nala added as she walked up beside me and wrapped her hand around my elbow. “Nick, let’s use those nymph powers to kick monster ass!”
“Yeah!” The blond dude pumped his fist up into the air as we came into the hallway between the training rooms. “What scenario are we going to work with today?”
“I think we have some new skills to test,” I began as we came into the first empty room, “so we should work on new skills instead of strengthening our old ones. We know what we’re good at, so the best thing we can do after that thunderbird fight is working on what we aren’t sure of.”
“I agree,” Steffi piped up as she led the way into the control room. “I want to work on my accuracy with my magic, and I think I can shave some flying time off. I wonder if I can fly even faster with the right motivation.”
“I want to work on the sense thing,” Nala added while she took a wristband off and used it to tie her hair back. “I think it’ll be cool if I can learn to rely on my sense of touch in a fight, if we’re ever underground or in the dark.”
“And I want to work on stretching myself between plants,” Nick said and leaned against the far wall behind the computer chair. “I want to try teleporting between plants further and further away, so I can work on using small shrubs in a fight.”
“What about you, Dyl?” The fairy-girl slipped into the computer chair and began punching in the various elements of our training scenario. “What do you want to do?”
“I have a few ideas for some dragon attacks,” I explained and laid a hand on the back of the chair. “Ky’s getting bigger and bigger every few days, and Beyblade keeps getting hotter and faster. Fire and ice don’t work together very well, but I want to develop some combos.”
“Sounds like a solid plan, Fearless Leader,” the dark beauty teased and elbowed me in the side. “What do we want to fight?”
“Something that flies.” I leaned on the back of the chair and looked at the data flashing along the screens like code out of the Matrix. “And something that burrows.”
“Monsters teaming up?” The cotton-candy headed girl spun to face me. “We haven’t seen that personally yet.”
“Japan saw it last week,” I said grimly and crossed my arms over my chest. “I have no idea what the future holds, but I know we need to be ready for anything. In order to be prepared, we need to be ready to fight different monsters at the same time. I don’t like it, but we might have to face a cocktail variety one day. I don’t want to be caught unprepared, and I don’t want any of my team to get hurt.”
“That’s fair,” Nick sighed and moved closer to the computers. “What North American monsters fly and burrow?”
“They don’t have to be North American,” Steffi murmured as she switched the computer screen to a search engine. “If AIMM has captured it, then we can fight it.”
“What about native legends?” Nala asked while she bumped her hip against the chair and crossed her arms. “We got the thunderbird, right?”
“Yeah, but we don’t need to fight that again today.” The fairy-girl’s fingers flew over the keyboard while she searched the database for the perfect combination of monsters.
“What about Mothman?” Nick snickered. “I mean, that thing’s real, right?”
“We don’t know,” Steffi grunted while her thin brow furrowed. “It’s like Bigfoot. If they exist, there’s probably only one of them, and there’s no way to track the monster down. Any information we have about those monsters comes from hicks living out in the hills.”
“Have any of you ever heard of the Snallygaster?” I asked and shrugged. “Or something like it?”
“Vaguely,” Nala murmured with a hand on her chin. “Wasn’t that a monster from Prohibition-era Maryland? The locals claimed the monster was killed, though, right?”
“Right, but there’s another side of that legend.” I crossed my arms over my chest and started to pace in a short circuit around the control room. “The Snallygaster was a bird-reptile monster that people in Maryland claimed to see between the early 1900s to 1932, when the monster was claimed to have been killed by the fumes from an illegal still. The authorities blew up the still where the Snallygaster had collapsed, and there was no way to prove the monster’s existence.”
“So, there’s no way for AIMM to have one in their cages,” Steffi mused and leaned back into her chair to watch me pace. “If it’s been dead for almost a century, then AIMM couldn’t have captured it.”
“But the Germans had a similar legend, and the Snallygaster was the bastardized, American version of the Schneller Geist.” I stopped pacing and looked at my team. “Steffi, see if you have any information about a flying reptile creature that likes to suck blood.”
“How did you learn about this monster?” Nick asked as Steffi worked to find a creature to match my description. “If it was a Maryland legend, and you’re a Midwestern boy, then how do you know about this?”
“My first folklore class was dedicated to American legends, and Maryland has a lot of monster legends.” I shrugged my shoulders again. “The Snallygaster is the Maryland name for it, but there are other stories of Schneller Geists across Germany, and like Burkhard explained to me, sometimes the legends follow the immigrants.”
“Got one!” Steffi cried and leaned back in her chair. “Does this look like the Schneller Geist?”
The monster on the screen was the perfect combination of a snake and a bird. The beast had a scaly face and neck, and a birdlike beak on the end of its toothy mouth. Its gray skin stretched down its writhing body to the forked end of its tail. The monster’s wings and legs were covered in gray and black feathers, and on the ends of its toes were wickedly sharp, yellowing claws. The reptile’s slitted eyes seemed to glow with a monstrous yellow light, and I understood why the Snallygaster scared the people in Maryland.
“Sucks blood, right?” Steffi asked as she selected the monster and added it to the scenario.
“Yeah, the locals in Maryland claim the monster killed a man by sucking him dry.” I frowned and leaned back on my heels. “They’re quick, as you can imagine by its Germanic name.”
“What does it mean?” Nick questioned and cocked an eyebrow. “I know ‘geist’ means ‘ghost,’ so what’s the first part mean?”
“‘Schneller’ means ‘swift,’” Nala answered for me. “Swift ghost. So, we need to be careful this monster doesn’t snatch us up.”
“It’ll motivate me to fly faster,” the fairy-girl joked as she went back to work to find the next monster to our training session. “How about this giant worm?”
I examined the picture of the ten-foot long, dull pink monster, and it was hard not to scowl at how butt-ugly it was. The worm’s body was separated by darker red lines in ten sections, and its head was more mouth than anything else. Inside the creature’s wide jaw were rows and rows of yellow teeth, and its beady black eyes never once blinked.
“Gross,” I grunted, “but let’s do it. Just one of each. I don’t want to get overwhelmed when we fight out there. It’s going to be tough enough as it is.”
“You’re right,” Steffi agreed as she added the worm into our scenario. “So, what’s the terrain?”
“Sparse forestry, with plenty of rocks in the earth.” I nodded at the screen. “Nick wanted to test his ability to stretch between plants, and Nala needs to sense the worm moving underground.”
“And we’ll be in the sky.” The fairy-girl made the final touches to the program and got out of her chair. “Right?”
“Exactly.” I grinned at her as the four of us left the room to go train.
The idea of facing a giant worm that was big enough to swallow me whole and a lizard-bird hybrid known for draining its victims dry made my stomach tense up, but I reminded myself about the training room, and I knew we wouldn’t be seriously hurt by a couple of holograms. I wanted to treat the scenario like a real fight, but I wasn’t about to get ahead of myself.
“Program’s about to start,” I said as the room started to stretch and shift into a dusty, sparse forest. The terrain almost looked like a section of woods was dying, and I didn’t know how that would affect Nick’s ability to teleport. He didn’t seem to struggle with using dead or dying foliage, but I had no clue.
“Take your places, everyone,” Nala said as she slid the wristband out of her hair and over her eyes. “Dyl, come give me a kiss before this starts.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” I murmured to her and bent down to plant a kiss on her lips. “Good luck, Nal.”
“My turn,” Steffi giggled as she fluttered up to me and planted a kiss on my mouth. She even stuck her tongue between my lips and licked my gums.
“Wow…” I breathed as she flapped her dragonfly wings and took to the air to await the Schneller Geist. “Okay, I guess I need to summon the boys. Exokyzo! Bianxifa!”
One right after the other, Ky and Beyblade emerged from my skin and landed on the ground next to me. My blue dragon snaked his head toward the ceiling and set his huge paws into the dusty earth, while the fiery snake on my other side slithered in a tight circle around my feet.
They seemed to be just as eager for a fight as I was.
“Okay, Ky, we’re going to take to the sky,” I explained as my icy dragon dipped to his knees so I could climb onto his back. “We’re going to help Steffi in the fight, and Beyblade, you’ll alternate between the ground and the air. I’ve got some combos I want to try after I get more used to flying.”
A little over a week ago, I’d been worried about flying in jets, and now I was getting used to flying atop the back of a dragon.
My new reality was certainly crazy.
But I loved it.
Ky flapped his sinewy wings and vaulted up into the air while Beyblade curled up close to Nala’s planted feet. The air rushed past my face and blew through my hair as Ky chased after Steffi, and I latched my hands around the beast’s neck to anchor myself into place. My heart seemed to pause inside my chest, but my adrenaline was pumping harder than ever before.
“Look who decided to join me,” the fairy-girl giggled as Ky hovered next to her. “How do you think we should stop this monster?”
“I think it would be a rookie move to focus on one,” I explained. “Nala’s blind down there, so she can only feel the worm. We have to be able to keep the Schneller Geist off her back but also keep the worm occupied. We need to learn how to stretch ourselves across a battlefield anyway.”
“Look!” The rosy-haired girl pointed her thin finger toward the ground, and I spotted a burrow forming in the dust. That had to be the giant worm, and it was heading straight for Nala.
