The Stray Dragon : (A collage age urban fantasy with werewolves werewolf community center book 3)

by Abigail Smith

  The scratches only hit a magical field, much like the one that the demon mage had, only I never saw that thing go off for anything other than bullets.

  “What do we do?” Fumnaya asked.

  “I’mma take this guy at range. Make sure you’re on counterspell duty – if he tries to cast anything, get him!” I said as I felt around for anything to undo the Masked Kishu transformation.

  The cartridge moved out of my chest, again a disturbing feeling of painless and sensationless. I put the alchemical gun on the back-mounted magnet and took out the sniper rifle. I aimed it up at the guy’s head once all of us had retreated towards the bluff.

  I got ready with all the tips and tricks that Cynthia had taught me, leaning forwards, resting it on my elbow, and slowly moving the trigger. The man in return flipped around his tonfa, such that the wider plate was the forward-facing part. He stuck that under a werewolf and as soon as I fired, that werewolf was in the air.

  The bullets were not alchemical silver, so unlike on the roof when I was first made aware of this gun, the bullet didn’t go straight through the werewolves. There was a sickening crunch sound and a squirt of blood.

  Interestingly enough, the werewolf had to be dragged out of the fray and didn’t revert back to human form.

  “H-how’d he know where you were shooting from?” Fumnaya asked, still having the illusion up.

  I don’t know, but we either needed a better vantage point or to figure that out.

  The werewolves crowded around the man, claw attacks that didn’t hit the thick plates of steel were bouncing off the shield, and a lot of attacks were deflected by the steel. He was very adept at seeing where attacks were coming from and moving his plates up to block them. In between jamming the sharp end of the tonfa into some werewolves. The two runes seemed to be compensating for each other, allowing him to keep up the same strength of shield for longer.

  By the time Fumnaya and I got to the better vantage point, on the roof, the crowd of werewolves was half the size. This was the point where sorceress supreme decided to actually do something.

  “Damnation, chains, earth, vos Galvos!” Steel chains popped out of the ground and raced towards the man’s back.

  They went through his shield, grabbing his neck and apparently sucking something off him that emanated a blue-white light. They weren’t on him for long as he reached his fingers up to them and snapped them off.

  “W-what?!” Miss Galvos seemed rather shocked at this.

  Unlike the spectral chains, these were made of metal, which must have meant he was ungodly strong. I assumed that meant he didn’t work on his show muscles.

  I placed the sniper down on the roof as quietly as I could and aimed down at his head. He once again spun a tonfa around and picked up a werewolf. But this time I didn’t fire.

  “He can see through the illusions,” I said, biting my lip.

  We’d been silent getting up onto the roof, we’d been invisible the entire time, and he only picked up a werewolf when he saw that I was on him with my rifle.

  “What do we do?” Fumnaya asked.

  “Where’s Genki?” I said, having missed where he was on the battlefield.

  “They found him as a potted plant and bound him after knocking him out.”

  “Dangit! Gavin, can you go get him? We’re going to need his abilities.”

  I took out the Masked Kishu chronicle thingy and hit it. The device made its normal sound, and the man turned a single eye to look at me.

  “Your Fae tricks aren’t going to work on me, wench.”

  Fumnaya dropped the illusion and searched her spellbook and tried her own shackles spell. The purple chains burst from the ground, smashed against his shield, and tried to force their way in. He flipped his left tonfa around and sliced through one with the blunt edge of the steel plate.

  Now transformed, I jumped over to the middle of the fight, slamming my sword down on his steel plate. He tilted forwards and used his body weight to send me off, before picking up another werewolf and just throwing it at me.

  The wolf landed hard against my chest, sending me sprawling to the ground. The man jumped over the pack that’d been trying to get at his ankles and neck for about five moments now and pulled back his right tonfa for a devastating blow.

  I rolled and got up, activating the time stop ability while getting my sword ready for an overhand swing.

  The time stop didn’t even seem to phase him as the sharp tonfa bit smashed into the armour. It didn’t shatter like when Gavin broke something, but it certainly broke.

  “I told you your Fae tricks won’t work on me. Your illusions and tricks are worthless!” He grabbed at where I’d put in the plastic lollipop, with just two fingers.

  He pulled it out causing me to de-transform, and then he tossed it up and stabbed it with his tonfa. It shattered like a plastic trinket under a hydraulic press.

  “N-no…” I gasped out, unable to process this new event.

  “E-lis, get out of there!” Gavin called as the man lifted the tonfa to stab me in the chest.

  I couldn’t react in time and he grunted as he flung it down for an attack.

  There was a thick meaty thunk, but my chest felt fine. I cursed my lapse in combat sensibilities as I opened my eyes. What must have been Gavin was over the top of me, and unlike the other wolves, the angle he came in meant he was stabbing into the ribs, not the skull.

  Gavin grunted. Though he was a wolf I could feel the determination as he pushed back against the man. Raw muscle versus raw muscle, and it seemed like this new guy had the edge. I got out of the area as Gavin started to growl, pushing back with the full might of all four of his limbs.

  Apparently not satisfied with the resistance Gavin could put up, he pulled back the tonfa. He prepared for another blow, this one sure to break Gavin’s spine.

  I grabbed onto Gavin’s side. “Run!” I shouted.

  Before the man could get another attack off, we bolted out of there. Gavin transformed back once we were on the road. The group of werewolves that remained were few and far between. The rest laid around the side of the battle, panting and holding the various parts that’d been stabbed or impaled.

  “This guy… can beat off an entire group of werewolves… alone!” I panted.

  “This just isn’t my day, is it?” Miss Galvos said, floating a bit higher and performing her multi-shot fireball again.

  The werewolves ducked out from the group and all the fireballs landed around the man’s face. Through the eruption of flames, I saw that the blue shield was still operational. The flames didn’t even touch him, and my hope was slowly dying.

  “Ventas servitas, Vos vos Glavos!” A familiar voice came from behind me, and the flames were suddenly whipped up into a flaming tornado, causing a few more hits to appear on the blue shield, and eventually, a shattering sound could be heard.

  The man had to dodge out of the flaming tornado, and a spark of hope-filled me.

  I turned to see who’d done it and there he was, Leonardo, standing tall in his own set of armour. I could see that the rune on the right tonfa plate of his seemed a little dimmer. I wondered what kind of weapons one could make with that rune.

  “I got a report of Fumnaya randomly appearing at the base, so I decided to come here and sort you out myself, but it appears that it was not you, but someone else who needs straightening!” Leonardo said.

  “Tch, I could hardly touch the man, what do you think you could do, little brother?” Miss Galvos said.

  “Perhaps I’ll just meet him with weapons instead. Fewgo, adamtia, vos vos Galvos!”

  Leo pulled out two longswords, one for each hand, and as he spouted his incantation they burst into flames. He held them out in a powerful stance and approached the intruder.

  “I fight dragons for a living, do you really think your ceremonial swords and your lacklustre casting will defeat me?” the man taunted.

  Leonardo simply put his hand out and beckoned the man over. Fumnaya, stil
l on the roof, got into position on the proper side of the roof to toss spells at the man. Silvia ran around the fight to meet up with Gavin.

  I looked over to where David had run off to. “How much information can be put into a howl, and how far does it reach?” I asked, looking down at Silvia.

  She turned and sucked in a large breath before howling. Leonardo engaged the man, slashing at his open chest and hitting a magical shield, while the man lifted his tonfas to block the sword strikes. Since most of them came from above or below to center, he couldn’t use the plates, but he was managing with the tips.

  It was almost like watching a boxing match. He’d hold up the tonfas to his face and move them to block before throwing a punch.

  I got into a better position and pulled out the sniper rifle again. At this range, he couldn’t really block me with any werewolf or even Leonardo, but if I was unlucky he’d dodge.

  I fired a shot, and it just grazed off his shield as he dodged towards Leonardo. The Galvonian made use of some Judo and grabbed onto the tonfa to throw the man down to the ground. He landed with a thud, then rolled and got up to his feet instantly. Leonardo slashed at his exposed back, just to have him flex the plates into position.

  The man kicked back, sending Leonardo stumbling and followed up with a heavy blow to the side. The armour crunched and bent inwards before Leo got his footing back. The swords were enchanted to be stronger, much like the springs he’d enchanted in the practice knives, but his armour was apparently too weak to stand up to the thick point.

  “Sister now would be an excellent time to show off your sword fighting skills,” Leonardo grunted as he caught a stab of those heavy steel ends of the tonfas, and flipped it around to parry the attack.

  She pulled out her broadsword once more and charged at the man’s back. He turned so that he was at a ninety-degree angle to both of them, and used the plate side of his right tonfa to block Valkyrie while the left side had to move a bit faster to block the two swords that Leonardo was using.

  Leo started to stab at the man’s side, hoping that his two-pronged attack would see him through. The man swivelled the tonfa to block both blades with the two sides, before sliding it back and stabbing at Leonardo’s side.

  There was another crunch of metal as it stabbed through on the lower left side of his abdomen. At this point, his armour was looking more like an apple juice can.

  “Woof!” David, along with all the werewolves he’d brought back, ran towards the man.

  The two Galvonians twirled away from the man as werewolf mob two: electric boogaloo swarmed him.

  David transformed and met up with our group, panting and sweating up a storm.

  “Who’s… this… bloke?” he said, wheezing at the last part.

  “He says he’s come for his dragon, but I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Silvia said, shrugging.

  “Ohhhh,” David said, looking towards me, still panting.

  “Damn, he’s good at dealing with the crowd,” Gavin said, watching as three sets of claws were sliding off the steel plate, and another had their lupine skull crushed and had to retreat.

  “I’ve had enough of this,” the man said.

  He turned around both tonfas and slammed the steel plate on the ground. His shields appeared and were thrust outwards at the speed of sound, knocking back each werewolf.

  “Oh shit,” I said, seeing the power of force he could bring to bear. “You seem to have quite the excess of forces at your disposal, but so do I…”

  He twirled the tonfa back into their ready stance and picked up a small golden circle from his belt.

  “No… no no no!” Leonardo said as he ran forwards with his swords.

  The man heard him running and moved the hand which didn’t have the ring over. He angled it, and hit the first blade, then brought it over the second so both were hitting his defensive plate. He then tossed the ring like a frisbee over Valkyrie’s head, and it landed just before the dirt mound.

  The ring landed horizontally raised up, expanding all while flipping vertically. The center radius torus grew until the diameter of the cross-section of the loop was a foot long. The thing was massive, almost as big as two and a half stories. Sparks started to fly from it, just like the gate spell that the demon mage had cast six months ago.

  “This would be a good time for a tactical retreat,” Leonardo said, backing away from the man.

  “W-where do we go?” The full portal opened, and a magical set of stairs formed to be the landing for the portal.

  From beyond it, we could hear a bunch of yelps of surprise.

  “Alright! The boss has called us, so everyone line up and head out!” came the same voice as the one we heard at the portal.

  From it marched some blue-skinned people, with long pointed ears. They seemed to be wearing tattered leather armour, of varying states of disrepair and rags.

  The two whose voices I’d heard walked out to the side. Several more blue-skinned pointy-eared people started to walk out.

  There were some that looked elderly, while others looked fairly young. The first row that formed all carried a yellow and brown cylinder, with the yellow parts seeming to be sand in a complex glass hourglass, only it was repeating; some chambers had two sides, making it an extra-long hourglass.

  Leonardo waved us off, as Valkyrie stood her ground. Those werewolves who were still conscious, and able to fight came to her side.

  “Now you’ve done it, opening a portal to another realm inside of Earth is strictly forbidden! You will rue the day you made an enemy of the Galvos family!”

  She ran in aided by the werewolves, and I leaned forwards, unsure of what to do.

  The man ducked down, sweeping her legs, and performed the shockwave again.

  This time it was directed in front of him, sending the werewolves back once more. One landed right near us and fell unconscious, one landed on the wooden fence, snapping it and apparently something else, as he transformed into human form.

  With the werewolf gone, he dropped a tonfa, and grabbed Valkyrie by the head and thrust her high into the air, above one of the smaller blue people. The person moved the hourglass device up towards her, and the man dropped his other tonfa in order to operate her hand.

  A loud bang rang out, as I noticed Cynthia hadn’t joined in on the battle. She now saw her chance as he had neither tonfa. One of the two lackey blue boys jumped into the way, his entire skin lighting up with those runes, and taking the bullet rather well.

  “You’re a stubborn lot, I’ll give that to you, but there is one easy way to make a bunch of unorganized soldiers much less stubborn!” He clasped his hand over Valkyrie’s, and the magical device started to glow.

  It glowed yellow brightly. The blue person, who’d seemed fairly young, started to grow a little bit, gaining some facial hair, albeit very little, and the Galvos woman shrunk.

  “W-what are they–” I looked at David, and realized what was happening – it was the same that happened to that black dragon before she got away.

  The woman wouldn’t give up without a struggle, but the man’s grip must have been like iron; any harder and he’d crush her hand and the magical artifact with it. I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

  She shrank to about the size of a ten-year-old, and he threw her down. “Yeah, good time for a full retreat,” Leonardo said, the gravity of the situation causing his voice to become hoarse.

  He grabbed mine and David’s shoulders to turn us around.

  “W-we can’t just leave her behind!” Fumnaya said, pointing at Valkyrie.

  “We can’t be engaging him again! You saw what he did against two of us!” Leonardo said, regaining his command voice.

  “Yeah, but she’s just a kid now, you can’t leave her behind!” Fumnaya ran, clutching her grimoire to her chest.

  I sucked in a breath, finding that I couldn’t disagree with that. I loaded up the alchemical gun as quickly as I could on the run for a force chamber. And followed
her.

  Valkyrie had either fallen unconscious from the effect, or from being exhausted beforehand, and was laying down in her reduced suit of armour. I held up the alchemical gun and fired a burst, to get the blue people away from the area, and sent them flying into the pool.

  The man picked up both tonfas, and grunted, charging in towards Fumnaya. She dove past him and grabbed hold of the little Galvos woman, and I turned around to blast him with the force chamber.

  He grunted and lunged, stabbing his right tonfa into the ground. The force ran right down his body and veins seemed to pop out of his arm, but he didn’t move.

  I fired again, and he resisted. I lowered the barrel and fired a third time; still, he wouldn’t budge.

  By this point, Fumnaya had picked up the pint-sized Galvos and run around to the back of me.

  “There’s not enough alchemicals in there to fire another shot. Congratulations, you get to die a hero,” the man said mockingly as he stood up to his full height.

  Despite his look being intimidating from the start, this was more intimidating than anything, as he loomed over us.

  Fumnaya held out her hand, but she was neither floating nor utilizing her grimoire, so I had no idea what she thought she was doing.

  “Fire force Damnation vos Galvos!” Fumnaya said.

  I felt the edges of my eyelids peeling off my actual eyes, my eyes were so wide. The spell circle that Valkyrie got when she casted a spell appeared, and the runes she used also appeared.

  Everyone was left aghast when a flaming rush exited Fumnaya’s hand and sent the man off his feet.

  “Impossible!” he said as he landed just behind his lackey that took the bullet for him.

  We both started to run, and Fumnaya grabbed my shoulder. “Summon self Galvos!”

  With a blink of an eye, we were back over to where Leonardo and our friends were standing.

  “Summon, ponies, Vos vos galvos!” Fumnaya’s eyes were glowing really brightly, which was odd to see as her eyes were a fairly dark purple.

  “Chaplin?” Leonardo said, as I looked up from Fumnaya, and noticed that there was a group of three horses that had appeared around us.