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

  Once we arrived at the top, the door to the place was wide open. Bokaj finished checking the doorway for traps, and Yohsuke looked for any kinds of magic, but nothing stuck out.

  Inside the room was a lavish interior that would’ve made me drool if I hadn’t known that Rowan’s stupid ass had been here recently. The stone floor sported multiple rugs and carpets of varying sizes and colors all over. A set of pillows and mats were piled off in a corner. There were doors carved into the stone with no visible marking as to what they could contain or what was behind them. There didn’t seem to be anything of real monetary value in this area. It seemed to be a living room or a reception area, maybe a bedroom even.

  We opted to try the doors from closest to farthest. So the closest door to us was on the left-hand side, closest to the pile of pillows and mats. The doors were all dark brown wood against the dark stone, so they stuck out, although what they were attached to, I had no idea.

  Going with the theme, they were checked for traps. Nothing on this door, but the others did have something, so they were important enough to guard. Bokaj wasn’t sure what the traps were, but he told us they were there, so I took his word even if the doors all looked the same to me.

  Jaken shrugged his shield on to his left arm, brought his sword into his right hand, and had me open the door. With a cry, he brought the shield up and stepped into the room. When he put the shield down, he realized it was a chamber for … undesirable acts needing a chamber pot. Nice.

  “Smooth, poo Paladin,” James teased a bit and clapped the Fae Orc on the shoulder.

  “You can go through that shit first next time then, man,” Jaken grumbled. Though he sounded angry, it was more a teasing gesture than anything. Jaken was a good dude like that—usually calm and friendly, almost always smiling or goofing off, and fiercely loyal. Gotta love friends like that.

  The next door, we gave Jaken the nod, and James made some kind of remark along the lines of not needing a secondary toilet. We all chuckled.

  “Focus, damn it,” Bokaj grunted.

  The rest of us settled.

  It was out of character for him to be this way, but his best friend was quite possibly in hell, so it was understandable.

  Jaken readied himself at the door while James grabbed the doorknob and looked to us. Yoh was off the side toward the right of the door with a hand on his Astral Adapters—they allowed him to condense his mana into sword blades. Bokaj stood out behind us in line-of-sight to the door with an arrow drawn and ready, while I brought up Jaken’s rear. I was the only one almost as strong as our Paladin, so I was there to help him push if needed.

  The door opened, and we tensed, then were surprised to find ourselves flying backward through a window opposite the door. I hit the window first, which hurt, and was able to try and push Jaken back and slow his momentum a bit. He was closer to the wall than me, but luckily for me, Kayda had been flying outside to try and be nearby. Unfortunately, there was no way she was going to be able to grab us both. Or was there another way? I thought to myself.

  I flailed for a second before sending a call to Kayda and focused on a point below Jaken’s falling form and cast my spell. Vines burst from the wall and clutched at the falling, armored figure but couldn’t seem to find purchase because he was too heavy and falling too fast.

  As I began to despair at the damage Jaken would likely take—life-threatening damage—I heard him cry out in pain. The tip of an arrow burst from his chest and seemed to expand and sprout vines of its own. That brief pause in momentum was enough to allow my spell to take hold, and I turned my thoughts to myself.

  I heard and felt Kayda closing on my position and shifted into my fox form. She caught me as gently as she could, but it still shaved off about a dozen HP. We were safe for now. My familiar brought me up to the window we had been shoved out of and tossed me to the window. My paws caught the opening and dug into the stone. I scrambled up then in a little breathlessly. I felt a hand snatch me by the tuft of the neck and tug, and I was inside. I shapeshifted back to my fox-man form and saw Yohsuke standing there looking angry, but he sighed in relief.

  “We saw what you did, man.” He smiled a bit. “Good shit. Let’s pull him up real quick. There was a log trap in there.”

  I just nodded, and we pulled a rope out. It had been Bokaj’s arrow that helped catch him, but the vine attached to the arrow wasn’t strong enough to do much more. We lowered it and waited. Then Yohsuke smacked the wall.

  “He’s fucking trapped down there, goddamnit.” He chuckled and grabbed his own rope out. I leaned out and recast my spell on the same spot before the first one could fail and drop him.

  We lowered Yohsuke out the window with his feet in a set of stirrups we had tied into the rope. Once he got to the strung-up Paladin, I willed Snare to release, and he was free at last.

  Once they were both safely indoors, we patted Jaken on the back in support, and I healed him up fully because we could have need of his mana if shit really hit the fan. I took a second to cast Regrowth on myself as well, ensuring I’d be up to full health in a minute. The arrow may have been meant to trap, but it was still a strong hit.

  “Yeah, sorry about that.” Bokaj grinned wolfishly. Jaken would never live this down, and the look on his face was priceless when he realized he had been shot.

  “Come on then, let's go see what the hell this trap was.” Jaken sighed tiredly when he saw the log. “My ass—-shit hit like a freight train on steroids.”

  “Sure thing, target practice.” James all but burst laughing at his own joke. The rest of us chuckled, and even Bokaj smiled.

  When we turned toward the door, a log was in the doorway. It was just large enough to take up the majority of the doorway with chains that held it aloft. Upon touching the log, I just knew it had been enchanted to hit harder and faster than what would normally occur, and in the same vein, I knew that because of my Blood Rite from Maebe, Unseelie Queen and overall badass. Thanks to her gift, I felt more in tune with my magic and abilities. Like they were all more a part of me than what the world’s video game-like mechanics and laws should allow.

  Yes, the idea behind any game was that, once you gained a skill, ability, or spell, you could use it automatically as long as the prerequisites were met. Most of those were mana costs. I had yet to see one that had any other kind of prerequisite, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out there. With the spells and abilities I had been learning since coming to this world, the knowledge was fed into my mind and muscles directly. I just knew what to do. It was instinctive.

  But like most games and life in general, you could theoretically know how to do something and still suck at it. It took time to master skills and abilities of a physical nature and thoughtful use of spells. Sure, I could sling spells fast and loose like some uber-talented Mage, but that wasn’t my purpose. Nor was it me. A more planned approach with magic could be as disastrous to the enemy as a flurry of spells, if not more so. I had learned that from years of gaming at home and my new mission here.

  Okay. You caught me. I lied. I like to play it fast and loose and get up close and personal with a lot of my enemies—specifically with my axe. The planning I do is more reactionary than I would like you to think. There—happy?

  But lately, it felt … different. More natural. I hadn’t taken the time to look into it on my status screen, but I felt like it may have had something to do with my racial evolution. I could’ve been wrong, though—sure as hell wouldn’t be the first time, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last.

  The chains came unhinged after Jaken took out a couple of pins, and the log crashed on to the ground. We dragged it out of the room while Bokaj checked for more traps. Nothing more stuck out to him right away. Cautiously, I led the way into the room.

  The room was long with benches and shelves throughout, piles of gold and other odds and ends in one corner. Books, huge, leather-bound tomes, and other items sitting on the shelves. Looking up and seeing no more logs, I took another step
into the room. I felt a prick on my shoulder, looked, and saw a small dart sticking out of my armor. It had only stung a little, and I lost a couple points of health. A quick glance revealed more darts flying out of a row of holes in the corner of the ceiling.

  I cast another spell I had never really thought to use, stupidly, and felt my skin grow cold for a moment, then warm. My fur and flesh had turned to diamond as Diamond Skin took effect—all incoming damage was halved. Better to get this over with as the duration was only three minutes. I cast Regrowth on myself, a spell that recovered 3 HP per second for thirty seconds. It would keep me from losing health for this stupid stunt. I began to sprint into the room, trying to dodge the darts and the thin, wooden pikes that began to thud into the ground as I moved.

  “WHO THE FUCK CHECKED FOR TRAPS AGAIN?” I roared in anger.

  I felt a large hand grab me by the scruff of the neck and pull me back. I yelped in outrage and surprise as Jaken’s shield appeared over my head.

  “You’re supposed to let the tank do this, man.” His normally surfer-like tone was all business as he noted the obstacles ahead. “You watch the front. There’s no getting you back there now. If a pike comes up, try to break it before it stabs me.”

  I heard a muttered apology behind us, but we kept moving forward, slower now. Jaken protected me as best as he could, and I tried to break as many of the pikes as I could. Healing shield or not, I was still getting hit, jabbed, and poked at, and the darts were coming from different angles now.

  “Try to find the switch to turn it off!” I hollered back to the group. “This shit hurts!”

  Run into the romper-room, Zeke, I mentally growled at myself. Play with the sharp objects. When will I learn?

  We finally hit the back end of the room after about thirty seconds of shuffling and destruction. I re-upped Regrowth on myself and then Jaken before looking back at my other friends. I felt three large thuds in my back and saw a debuff message pop up.

  NOTIFICATION!

  You have been poisoned. You will take 10 damage per second for 1 minute (damage multiplied by three for number of darts). Good luck!

  “Poisoned?!” I cried in anger and disbelief. “Fuck me. Jaken, a little help here?”

  “No, but I do have these.” He reached out and made a gesture with his hand, and I saw a radiant, gold light gather around me once, then an ethereal white set of plate armor that almost mirrored the Paladin’s own settled over my own armor. I looked over the buffs that he had given me and whistled.

  Grace – Regenerates affected creature’s health by 10 HP per second. Duration: 30 seconds.

  Radiant Armor – Decreases damage taken by 10% and regenerates 7 HP per second. Duration: 20 seconds for Regen. 2 Minutes for damage decrease.

  “Those mana efficient? No? Okay then, heal me when my health gets low. Without these buffs and regen spells, I’d flatline in ten seconds maybe? It’s ten percent of my HP, so let’s stick to heavier healing, and go from there.”

  “You got it, man.” Jaken nodded and took out a couple health and mana potions. He slugged back the mana potion and passed the health ones to me. We would need to restock soon. Really soon. “If you have a heal, put it on Zeke. He’s going to die without it.”

  Bokaj stepped up and threw a hand in my direction; green light enveloped my body, and my health jumped up ten percent. With my friends and me throwing constant heals on to my body, we were able to keep my health above zero. Made me appreciate the fact that we had healing capabilities other than our Paladin’s a little more.

  James poked his head around the corner and gave a thumb up. “Found it!” The deadly mechanical trap halted, everything going back to where it came except for the broken bits on the floor.

  “Thanks, assholes.” I grinned and affectionately threw them a rude gesture, which they returned in kind.

  “Shut up, puto.” Yohsuke grunted. “Got all this loot to look at. And you know how we feel about the loot.”

  “WE GET ALL THE LOOT!” James and I shouted together then laughed.

  “Let’s get this shit and get gone. Who wants to look at the money?” Jaken raised his hand, and Bokaj nodded him off toward the pile of coins. “Items? I’ll take the shelf to the right front. You guys go take a shelf and see what’s what.”

  This new side of our Ranger was a bit of a pain in the ass, but I understood. It was just so out of sorts for his usual personality, man. Oh well. Marines follow orders, and I could do that.

  I walked over to the shelf near the rear of the room with the books and tomes. Every book I looked at told me the name and author on the spines. For the large part, they dealt with magical theories. The ones that caught my eye were compendiums on certain types of magical creatures. I nabbed the lightest two on creatures to look closer at later.

  The items alongside them were some clockwork trinkets—think prototype watches and clocks but more in line with the steampunk trend. Although interesting and cool, they weren’t complete or anywhere near useful enough; I left those alone.

  One of the books was a spell book of some kind, like a personal one with a bunch of spells. The second I opened the book, my mind began to reel. Claws raked at my brain, and I couldn’t think. Something was trying to grasp at my mind. If it hadn’t been for Kayda shouting inside my head, I would’ve probably gone crazy. I threw the book away from me and began a spell to blast it, but as soon as it touched the floor, it began to burn with black flames, releasing an acrid rotten egg smell into the air.

  James’s hand hesitated and pulled away from a pointed hat. “We really need to stop touching things without checking them first.”

  Cautiously, we moved through and got what items we could that weren’t worthless or cursed thanks to a quick glance over. Yohsuke seemed to be able to pick which ones were cursed because they seemed to radiate a sort of cold temperature, but it was hard for him to really relate, so we went with his gut on it.

  According to Jaken’s count, there were one hundred thousand gold pieces worth of gold, silver, and platinum pieces. We pocketed three thousand apiece and agreed to leave the rest to the city to use for repairs or to help the families of those who lost their life.

  The items we collected, though, were very much magic oriented.

  Pointed Wizard’s Cap

  +3 to spell casting, damage and focus.

  +1 Defense

  A cap created for a capricious and miserly wizard. He did not appreciate it.

  That was a little odd that I hadn’t seen those kinds of stats before.

  “Yoh, you get what these mean?”

  “Yeah, man, spell casting is a general term. It just means that the likelihood you screw up a spell during casting and go through potential backlash is slightly diminished.” He pointed to the next bit. “Damage? Duh. And focus? Focus helps with things like spell sniper; it gives you a little more umph for your buck. These are small, but to someone like me, it would help.”

  Gloves of Casting

  +2 to spell damage

  +2 Defense

  These gloves were made for a capricious and miserly wizard. He wore them once and didn’t care for them.

  Ring of Mana Storage

  Capacity – 15 / 300 MP

  The wearer of this ring can draw upon it until it is empty, before their own reserves run dry, or to augment their own mana pool.

  Wand of Silence

  4 uses of the spell Silence

  Silence – The caster chooses one target and causes them to be unable to speak or cast spells with any spoken components for up to 30 seconds.

  Those last two items were wild! Having that much extra mana would be a godsend, so we gave that to Jaken. Our strongest healer would need all the mana to be able to keep us all in fighting shape, even with me being able to help.

  The wand would be the bane of any caster, though I had yet to know of any spells with verbal components that I had needed to use to cast. Maybe silence was purely a condition that just forced a caster to be unable to cast
? That went to Bokaj since he would be the one most likely to have the time and distance to use it.

  The hat and gloves went straight to Yohsuke, though he wasn’t sure why I wouldn’t take the gloves at least. I waggled my clawed fingers at him, and he grinned before slipping his own hands into the items.

  I mean, yeah. He fights up close, and he’s fast as all get out, but with Spell Sniper, the added damage and havoc he could wreak on the battlefield was simply too much to ignore. He fought from a distance at times, and it would all add damage to the DPS bucket.

  “So what now?” I asked. “What do we do? Who do we go to get information?”

  “We could try going back to Sunrise and seeing if they have a lead for us,” Jaken suggested with a grimace.

  “So, sit around with our thumbs up our asses while Balmur is having gods-knows-what done to him?” Bokaj shouted. “I don’t fucking think so!”

  Yohsuke, James, and Jaken looked uncomfortable, and I could see the anger in Bokaj’s features begin to flare anew, so I stepped in front of him.

  “Come on, man, let’s go have a chat.”

  “We need to be out there getting Balmur back!” Bokaj shouted again, flinging his hand out towards the window.

  I nodded as I took him by the arm and led him out of the room. Normally, he’s pretty laid back. The first one to crack a joke. The first one to laugh. This whole thing was really getting to him, and I couldn’t blame him; if it was Yoh who was missing, I don’t think I’d be reacting any different.

  “Look, man, I get it,” I spoke softly, but firmly. “You’re freaking out right now. Your best friend is gone, seemingly in a pinch, I get it. I know. But he’s our friend too. And we are going to get him back. It is going to happen, but we need to be better prepared so that nothing like this happens again. We need to get stronger first.”

  “I know that, man.” He sighed. “He’s been my best friend since school. He and I know each other like brothers. He’s somewhere right now… I need to get him back.”