Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2) Read online

  These spells were endowed—meaning that they weren’t choices. I just got them. Which I had to admit was pretty badass. That last spell sounded intriguing—the ability to call for aid. It would help, for sure. The cost was prohibitive so using it in combat would be out of the question unless in the most dire of circumstances. And even then as a last resort. The other spells, though? Those were going to be huge in the coming battles. If we ended up having to go to the Hells to get our friend, holy damage would serve us well.

  With these spells came a heavier need for mana, and I was tempted to dump my stats into intelligence and wisdom. Hell, Yoh was probably going through a similar issue himself. His Spell Blade class ate mana and spit out ass whoopings. It was a problem that we loved having, because his mana usage was always the best. His strikes were the most effective because of his Spell Sniper ability. It let him target certain things and get critical strikes and—if he hit the head—potentially confuse enemies.

  For me, though, I needed to be strong, fast, and able to sling spells. My ability to be a multi-purpose tool for the party was the key to keeping us relevant in a few areas. Granted, the party would do well without me—they’re all much better gamers than I am. Strategy, luck, and skill, they had all that and more.

  I provided support that kept us flush in a lot of situations, even if the others pulled my ass out of the fire more than I cared to admit.

  With that in mind, I added a point to my wisdom. The next four went to my dexterity, five to strength, and five to intelligence. I felt a rush as my muscles bulged once quickly and seemed to thicken and strengthen even as I felt more lithe than before thanks to the points in my dexterity. I never felt any smarter or wiser, maybe a little itchy? I couldn’t tell you.

  I checked Kayda’s stat page and was pleased to see that she had leveled up to fifteen. Three levels worth of points to play with—nine since she earned one point that was spent on a stat used most per level and three for me to spend—so I threw four points into her strength and five into her dexterity. Her other stats—constitution, intelligence, and wisdom—had gone up naturally by one point apiece, so the result looked good enough for now.

  Name: Kayda

  Race: Storm Roc

  Level: 15

  Strength: 20

  Dexterity: 25

  Constitution: 26

  Intelligence: 15

  Wisdom: 11

  Charisma: 10

  Unspent Attribute Points: 0

  Normally, I would dump into her constitution and increase her health pool, but for now, her ability to throw down was what we needed most. Also, with her being large enough and strong enough, she may be able to carry someone other than me in my fox form.

  I checked the spells she could learn, and I had to admit, the pickings seemed slim for her fifteenth level. One did seem interesting enough—Flash Freeze.

  Flash Freeze – The caster touches one target and freezes them solid. Cost: 50 MP. Range: Touch. Cooldown: 1 minute.

  That would be interesting to see in action. I could imagine her plopping down on some poor, unsuspecting Goblin, freezing it solid, and hauling it into the air before dropping it on some other schlub.

  I stretched a bit, bending at the waist and putting my hands on the ground. Fighting was tense work, and I was still pissed off about that little boy having died. Rowan’s death hadn’t been painful enough to avenge the lad, in my opinion. That rage left me stiff all over, and it was a good, languorous stretch that would help me ease out of combat mode.

  My tails caught in the breeze and rustled in the air. It felt good.

  Look, man, I’m a fox—what do you expect?!

  Once I finished, I went over to my friends as they seemed to be finishing up their own leveling.

  “We good?” Jaken asked. He was bending and making circular motions with his arms like he was loosening up. “What’s the tally on everyone’s new skills, abilities, and what not?”

  Skills are abilities that some of the martial classes get. James has a few that allowed him to use his ki in different ways. Jaken had skills that let him get the enemy’s attention and keep it.

  I filled the others in on the spells and Celestial abilities I had gotten for leveling up. Jaken also received the Summon Celestial spell, but his was likely from his service as a Paladin rather than mine being from a racial ability. I wondered if mine would be less powerful because of that, but it would have to wait.

  Yohsuke got a self-buff that let him be harder to hit called Blur, a spell called Putrid Mind that confused the enemy, and another buff called Hell Blade to give two allies massive added fire damage to attacks. The last two were expensive casts at 100 MP apiece—the buff was per casting but definitely not bad to have.

  Aside from our shared spell, Jaken chose a shield spell that summoned a “monster” to attack anyone in front of his shield. It was a touch thing, so they had to be right up on him, and the monster didn’t leave the shield. It did, however, immobilize that target, so it took some damage away from him.

  So, imagine a Goblin in front of his shield, he activates the spell, and a large mouth emerges from the shield and bites the Goblin, holding it in place and causing damage over time. Now, he has one less thing that can hit him.

  He also got an instant heal and area of effect spell that healed allies and damaged foes called Radiant Burst. It took all his mana and only spread thirty feet from him, but all allies healed to full health in it, and enemies got damaged and knocked aside—so that’s a win. The downside was that it takes all of his mana—no matter how high it goes—to cast no matter the amount he has. So that would be a last resort kind of deal, that and the long cooldown.

  Not to mention—a resurrection spell.

  These were crucial in a lot of role-playing games because, well, they bring people back to life. Though, with how things seemed to be going for us lately, I doubted we would have to use it, and none of us really wanted to entertain the thought of any of us actually biting the big one. Kind of like the last spell he had gotten, this took all his mana. Tack a full 100 HP on top of that, a cooldown of twenty-four hours, and that it only worked up to three minutes after the target died—and it was great news. Just a little rough to think about.

  James took a pretty sweet ability called Sunder Armor; it allowed him to find the weak point in an enemy’s armor and then crush it. It increased his damage output to that target and lowered their defense too. Ki Confusion, which caused his opponent to become confused, duh, but this was especially detrimental to spellcasters because it could cause the spells they cast to backfire. And finally, Elemental Channel, which covered his body in a specific element for different effects.

  That last one sounded dope as hell and vaguely like my own elemental shapeshifting. I couldn’t help but be a little proud.

  Bokaj only took one new ability, Arrow Trap, which would trap one target in vines with one arrow for a little bit. What was really cool was that he unlocked a secondary class. The ever infamous, ever sexual and talented—Bard.

  So with secondary classes, it was kind of a hit or miss requirement to get one. Weird—I know. But here’s why, from what he seemed to be thinking and gathering. When you choose your starting class, it’s automatically available, but in order to qualify for another class, you have to meet requirements. It looked like, for Bard, that you had to have a high amount of charisma, be able to cast some spells, and have some kind of bardic talent. Luckily, Bokaj was a musician back home on Earth, so he had all of that. The downside to it was that it seemed like it was mostly guesswork to get a class you wanted unless you knew someone who had done so previously.

  But man, how about that Bard, eh?

  Now, from the books I’d read and games I’d played back home, these guys were as much, if not more so, jacks-of-all-trades than my own class. They could do everything and with their charismatic skills, would look damned fine doing whatever they wanted. They also got some pretty sweet magical abilities and were adept at social maneuvering
. More than a few villains and maybe some Dragons—just saying—had fallen prey to their sexy wiles.

  The downside? We would need to find a trainer for him to be able to unlock the class and use it properly. It was there, he could see it, but he didn’t have access to anything.

  Having more than one class wasn’t unheard of in a lot of games, especially tabletop games. My only complaint was not being able to do it myself. I’d have to try and figure out how to do so for myself and get a more badass class to pair with my already sexy Druid abilities and spells.

  “Good?” Bokaj asked tersely. “Can we hurry up and go figure the fuck out how to get my best friend back now?”

  Everyone nodded, and we turned to where we had left our Fae friends in an alley behind the house. As we walked, we spotted the citizens that had been taken in by Rowan, the general, and bent to his will. They had acted brainless and hostile—like those old-timey zombies limping at the heroes as they ran away. They lay in a pile; we’d had to fight and kill these ones, but for some reason, there were others lying lifelessly in the streets that we had to step around. It was daunting.

  My thought was that they were probably either reanimated dead, or they had been enslaved to the point where they were brain dead. That was no life to live, and once this was all done and over with, I would try to honor them as best we could.

  We grabbed the “emissaries” of the Unseelie Court and bid them follow us. They obeyed with nods. It was hard not to be angry with them. I knew they couldn’t have helped us in that fight against the general, but still—they had been safe here in hiding while we risked our necks. And now my friend was gone? Fuck, man.

  A red tinge began to cloud the edges of my vision, and I growled deeply as I willed the rage and Lycanthropic transformation away. While we had been in the Fae Realm, we had a fun run-in with a psychotic alpha Werewolf bent on trying to wrest control of the realm from the queens of the Seelie and Unseelie, and she had given me the “gift” of being a Werewolf. She died, unpleasantly. The thought made me bare my teeth in a grim smile.

  “Let’s try and take care of the people of the city first, man.” Bokaj gestured to us all angrily as he lifted a large man up into a more comfortable position.

  “We have to help these people,” Jaken said, redundantly. “There has to be something—anything—we can do.”

  I closed my eyes in thought, then willed the spell I had in mind to activate.

  A large rent opened in the air in front of me with the sound of tearing fabric, and golden light poured over us. A ten-foot-tall Greek statue stepped out. Well, it looked like it should be made of stone at least. The thing was buff with a capital Holy Shit! It had a halo of spun gold above tightly curled hair that looked like it could be blond. Golden wings spread behind it as far as fourteen feet to each side. The eyes were golden as well—I think I was beginning to see a theme.

  “Summoner,” it greeted me in a deep baritone, “what is it that I can do for you?”

  It took me a moment to find the words that had barreled out of my head the second the very fabric of the universe tore open before me. Ah well, fuck it.

  “Yes, hello.” I searched for a name and floundered, so I cleared my throat and continued, “Yes. Please, if you would be so kind, heal all the citizens in this city.”

  Look, if you were in my place looking at a heavenly being such as this dude, you would stumble with words too. Stop judging me.

  It stared at me for a moment in absolute silence, then kneeled down and put a hand to its ear and said, “Say your request once more, Summoner.”

  “I, uh, asked you to heal all the citizens in this city,” I stated louder once more with a little more order in my tone. It reminded me of the orders we would get when I was a lance corporal in the Corps.

  The being smiled and stood tall, its wings bursting forth from his back. “As you wish.”

  The being—angel, I thought to myself—snapped his fingers and a horn the size of my great axe appeared in his left hand. He raised it to his lips and blew mightily. The thunderous call lingered in the air after he stopped, and he smiled at the sky. Clouds of silver and gold began to formulate over the entirety of the sky above the buildings and land that we could see. Then a warm, soothing raindrop fell from the sky and tapped my arm. A smile crept unbidden to my face, and the urge to stand in the rain was more than a little difficult to fend off.

  It was a gentle drizzle, really, but soon, all the people that we had left laying on the ground began to visibly relax.

  “You aren’t the first to use this power unselfishly for their very first summoning, and I hope you will not be the last. I am Samu, Torchbearer of the Seventeenth Celestial Squadron under Lady Radiance Herself. You may call on me for anything that you need within the parameters of the spell, but know this—I was able to perform this miracle because the general is gone and the people here aren’t dead, just locked away in their own minds and bodies. They will awaken in their own time. Doing this much was within my abilities, but it has cost me.” He looked toward the heavens with concern. “Lady Radiance has needs of all her people to assist her and the other gods in keeping War thwarted, and unfortunately, I cannot do more for you at this time. Please, use this ability only when you have great need. Good luck and may Radiance guide you all.”

  There was the sound of tearing fabric once more, and the angel was gone. The citizens were none the wiser that I was aware of, and I wanted to try and keep it that way.

  “Good thinking, man,” Yohsuke whispered beside me. “Let’s go see if we can’t find some people who aren’t still napping and get to wherever this asshat’s been holed up.”

  We called out, looking for anyone for about ten minutes. Finally, a small child, a little girl who looked to be around five years old, looked out a window. Her tiny, blonde curls bounced as she watched us uncertainly. She kind of brought my son to mind, but I didn't want to think about him amongst all this carnage and anger.

  Bokaj, as pissed off as he was about his friend being missing, was still the most charismatic person in the group, so he asked her which way Rowan had come from.

  “The bad man?” she asked softly. “He’s from the tower—that way. We don’t go by the tower. Too many spooky people.” A small tremble showed on her body, and with a sniffle she continued, “My friend was there too. He hasn’t come to play with me since.”

  “Thanks, little one.” Bokaj tried to smile at her, but she seemed to be able to tell it was forced and shrank back a little.

  I threw her a coin to try and help her family a bit more. She simply looked at the platinum in awe and disappeared from the window.

  We moved in the direction she had nodded and kept an eye out for more of the puppet city folk. The few we came across laid on the ground, no longer just drooling heaps lying there unblinking and unmoving. They were alive, obviously, but they were still semi-catatonic.

  We tried to make the ones who had fallen awkwardly more comfortable, but other than that, we just left them and moved on. The more we passed, the more uncomfortable I felt. We were here to stop this galactic asswipe from taking this planet, then ours, but at what cost? These people were so low a level that they couldn’t defend themselves. They needed us, and more people out there may be experiencing the same thing.

  “Let’s get to the tower. I’m happy we could help these folks, but we need to move.” I sighed, my anger coming to the fore again.

  The Fae-Orc nodded and held a fist out for me to bump. We continued on for another ten or fifteen minutes, finding hundreds more people laying in the large, expansive streets between shops, houses, and a tall tower carved into the side of the city’s namesake—Maven Rock. The stone was as dark and ominous, but there were blue symbols etched into the side of it all the way up that stood out in stark relief against the black backdrop.

  “Warded?” Yohsuke wondered as he stepped closer. He touched a rune, and it glowed briefly, but nothing happened.

  “Maybe try the door of the tow
er?” I said in a hushed tone. Luckily, my mana had fully recovered by now.

  Yohsuke nodded and tried the door—it was locked. Of course it was. It never could be that easy, could it?

  Jaken stepped up next to the door and kneed the lock a couple times as quietly as he could. Then he got mad and booted it unceremoniously. The door flew open and banged against the stones inside, causing the group to check out our surroundings. Nothing stuck out, but being in the open here was not my idea of a fun time.

  “Go, go go go,” Yohsuke whispered harshly, and Jaken moved through the doorway.

  Once we were all inside, the last person through shut the door, and we began to file up the stairs slowly, leaving the Fae to their own devices at the bottom. There was no telling if a minion of War was at the top of this tower, and them being this close would likely be a beacon to it. Better that they think they had time, right?

  Balmur’s presence was even more sorely missed; as a Rogue, he was our primary trap finder. Sure, Bokaj could, and he was, but he was no Rogue.

  The traps we did find were runes that were inert and devoid of any power. They were drained and seemed to have been for a while.

  “Think the cocky, smug bastard didn’t care whether someone came at him or not?” Bokaj grumbled to the rest of us.

  “Probably not—he was a fucking general, man,” Yohsuke confirmed. “Better still check for traps, though.”

  In the next half an hour of slowly moving up the staircase with no rooms to speak of, we found nothing but an indignant spider in a windowsill and a single mirror halfway up. It was more for function than fashion—plain silver lining with sigils etched into the side and a reflective glass surface. We touched it, and nothing happened other than burning the ever-loving shit out of my poor fingers. Werewolf—gotta love the whole silver allergen thing. So other than being a shitty, annoying source of slow cardio, nothing of great import happened on that damn flight of stairs.