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

by Christopher Johns

  “You are not the kind of magic user we would let in,” the young man answered smartly.

  “No, I really can do magic,” Bokaj rolled up his sleeves and settled into his position a bit. He closed his eyes, then smiled and looked at one of the women, the redhead. “You want to see it, right?”

  She answered him breathlessly, “Yes, I would like that a great deal.”

  My grip tightened on my weapon, and I saw Yohsuke’s hand clench at his side. Muu stopped moving forward and let his hands go to his sides in a forced attempt to look less hostile. The wolves began to inch forward cautiously. If one of the casters looked their way, they stopped moving.

  The young man looked at the redhead strangely, and Bokaj snapped his fingers to get their attention. “You do too, right?” The other woman looked at him as if he were repugnant. “But this one requires a volunteer.” He looked at the red-headed caster and winked. “Come help me.”

  Three things happened at once. The young man roared, “No!” and he lunged forward. The woman’s hand slid through the barrier into Bokaj’s hand.

  “Drop the spell,” I heard Bokaj whisper.

  The barrier dropped, and all hell broke loose. A drove of twenty wolves fell on the older caster before he knew what was happening. His screams and attempts to cast any kind of spell foiled when the alpha tore his throat out.

  “Kill the other members of the Order,” Bokaj whispered to the redhead.

  She turned and began to mouth a spell at the other woman who had her hands full with Jaken and Yohsuke.

  James went after the young man, who suddenly stepped away from the fray and began to mouth something.

  I took Storm Caller, activated Cleave and Wind Scythe, then belted the weapon at him. He smiled, then disappeared. The weapon sailed through the spot where he had been standing, and I called it back to me. Between the lightning spear that shot from the redhead’s hands and the ass beating she was taking from my other friends, the other caster stood no chance.

  Within seconds, she was dead, and so was the old man who the wolves had overwhelmed. The other caster stood there, motionless.

  “What about her?” James asked as he walked back over to us. “Can we ask her questions.”

  “No,” Bokaj said simply. “I get two orders per spell. Those were it, though I thought that racist fucker was going to be fighting us.”

  “What spell was that, man?” Yohsuke asked.

  “It was Charm at first, and all that requires is that they are close enough to see me,” he explained. “The closer the better. They become fascinated and are more friendly. Likelier to do as I ask, but within something that they might be more inclined to do. The other was what Pharazulla used on Zeke—Bend Will. It makes the target do things they wouldn’t normally do, even if it’s something that they outright wouldn’t do, like fight their friends.”

  “She taught you that?” I gasped.

  “No.” He shook his head and spread his hands. “She taught me Charm. Bend Will was a spell that once the class became fully available, I acquired it. I guessed Bards are squishy and convincing people to fight for you would be a good idea. Even against their friends. Sucks I can only do it once a day.”

  “Shit,” Muu said in wonder. “Well, what do we do with her?”

  We looked at him somberly, and finally, Zhavron spoke up, “Necessary sacrifices.”

  “Ah.” Muu’s face fell. “One of them already escaped. So we have to tie up loose ends, right?”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “Yes, but you don’t have to do it, man.”

  “No,” Muu said with a shrug that pushed my hand away. “No. I need to do this. I need to forge myself anew. Become the weapon which protects my friends.”

  I shook my head. “That’s honorable, man, but seriously, you don’t have to.”

  Cold lanced through me, and as I looked down, I saw a jagged spear of pure ice sticking out of my stomach covered in crimson and gore.

  “Zeke!” Muu roared.

  He juked around my body and accidentally shouldered me into a turn and tumble. I watched as if I was in slow motion as Muu dove on top of the now free Mage. Punching her once. Twice with his shield.

  I felt radiant energy engulf me, and Muu growled, “I’ll kill you for that!”

  Muu put his shield above her chest, over her heart and brought his spear back and thrust with everything he had. He triggered his shield’s blade at the same time, and her health plummeted. He twisted the short spear and pulled it out viciously.

  Her body shuddered and lifted briefly off the ground before falling, her health falling with it.

  Muu sighed, then looked at us. “Level 9 and then some. Zeke okay?”

  I felt a very odd sensation as someone jerked the spear from my body and another wave of healing hit me. I stood slowly, then we all stepped forward to give him some comfort as he spent his stat points.

  “Druid,” I heard the alpha behind me. Now that combat was over, I could get a good look at him. His fur was pure white, and his eye—the other was a scar—was cool blue. His tail was high as he addressed me with the pack stood arrayed in a fan with him at the base.

  “Alpha,” I greeted him with a nod. “Thank you for your assistance. Without you, that could have gone poorly, but why were you here?”

  “The Mother sent us,” he replied. The wolves behind him wagged their tails three times when he referred to Mother Nature. “She felt the weakening and then the tear of the veil that allowed the flame passage to our forest. When we found it, the snow hurt it to even move. We nurtured it to health, then let it join us for a bit. She bid us protect it from the creatures here, but the humans were a surprise she had not known of.”

  He looked back at his pack. All the wolves lowered their tails and crouched a bit. He looked back to me and my friends.

  “You saved many of my pack,” he said with his head held high. “What do you call yourself, Druid?”

  “My name is Zekiel Erebos.”

  “The Mother speaks highly of you,” the alpha remarked. The other wolves gathered around me as they gathered my scent. A couple of them growled deeply the closer they got, the largest among them being the most fervent.

  “Moon Touched,” he growled. “Back, all of you.”

  The rest of the pack backed off.

  “You better have that shit on lock Zeke,” Yohsuke quipped. “Wolf boy that you are, they ought to like you.”

  “Rilk,” the alpha barked. The largest wolf backed down slightly but kept his eyes on me. “The Mother has told us of him, and if he’s Moon Touched, he has proven he isn’t driven by the beast. Can you not feel his presence?”

  Several of the other smaller wolves muttered the word alpha.

  “I’m an alpha in my own right.” I looked down at them. “You’ve done my friends and I a huge favor by helping us with all of this. I’m no threat. Promise.”

  The burning in my palm returned two-fold and I hissed in agony. The wolf was close again, his orange eyes on me. The heat reached for my mind once more, and this time, I let it come.

  I rocked back on my heels as I felt the whisper of flames across my mind, the voice of the Primordial Flame Elemental whispered through the core of my being.

  Touch the creature you see before you, I heard the crackle of flame inside my head. As I locked eyes with the Flame Wolf, the crackle continued, Complete the quest, and gain your reward, little flame.

  I reached out to the Flame Wolf, his orange eyes locked on mine, and he trudged forward. The heat became more and more unbearable until I was grunting, tears forming in my eyes. Then his head touched my hand, and the burning stopped suddenly. The creature was gone.

  QUEST COMPLETED: A Small Flame in a Snowstorm – The Primordial Flame Elemental has requested that you find the small flame in the winter lands of the Prime Realm.

  Rewards – 2,000 EXP, unknown.

  I felt the rush of the EXP hitting me letting me know that I had leveled up along with the others, then I
felt something else. I gathered from the stirring in my body and mind that I wasn’t entirely alone. At least, not the way I had been.

  He has seen your strength, little flame, but is not yet strong enough to return to my realm, The Primordial Flame explained. Will you safeguard him until he is strong enough to return to my side?

  QUEST ALERT!

  Enkindle the Elemental Beast – The Primordial Flame has asked you to oversee the growth of the Flame Wolf until it is strong enough to return to him.

  Reward – 3,000 EXP, unknown.

  Will you accept: Yes/No?

  Another damned unknown reward? Fuck! I accepted readily and felt a bloom of heat in my chest.

  LEVEL UP!

  You are now level 21!

  CONGRATULATIONS!

  Blessing of Fire deepened – You are now friendly to all beings from the Elemental Plane of Fire. Spells and abilities unlocked! Elemental Tinkering (Fire), Heart Flame, Burning Familiar.

  Boy, was this like Christmas or what?! I used my screen to look over the new abilities I had earned.

  Elemental Tinkering (Fire) – Flames now heed your command unlike they had before, and new spells can be created and discovered within the proper elemental realm. Be warned that mana is consumed at a higher rate while tinkering with a spell or discovering a new spell.

  Heart Flame – Your body has become home to an elemental soul. You become more resistant to fire damage as host. Your body burns hotter. Your ability to manipulate flame becomes more instinctual.

  Those were beyond cool as all hell. I looked at the spell I had unlocked with it.

  Burning Familiar – The elemental soul inside you takes corporeal form at your command. Takes place of a familiar, if the summoner has a familiar already—and no ability to take multiple familiars—they must choose. Number of Familiar positions available 0/2. Cost: 50 MP. Cooldown: N/A.

  Zero of two familiar positions? Wha– oh! That must mean that Kayda and the new beast each count as one, I thought to myself. So until I made him strong enough to go home, he was stuck with me.

  You may name him, little flame. He will heed your word as if it were my own, the Primordial Flame Elemental’s voice whispered through my head. I got the distinct idea that it could be the proximity of the elemental creature or that the quest was completed.

  I flexed my will and summoned the Flame Wolf into being. Fifty mana drained away, and I watched as a burst of flame saw the creature sitting at my side.

  “Woah,” I heard Muu whisper. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Beats the shit out of me,” James grunted. “Better him than me. He’s gotta feed them all.”

  I thought for a moment, taking him in visually. His paws burned lightly, and his skin was charcoal black with bits of red and gray near the top of his body in a line. His head looked like a normal wolf’s, but it was red and orange with blue undertones near his eyes that offset the orange of his irises.

  “I think I’ll call you, Coal,” I said as I leaned down to touch him. He was warm, like a normal dog. He leaned into my hand as I pet him and it was a comforting feeling. My palm burned sharply, and I held it up to look at it.

  The flame symbol on my right hand had grown slightly larger, and its color deepened from orange to red.

  “Our task is done,” the alpha said as he began to back away. “We will take our leave. If you ever have need of us in this area again, Druid Zekiel, howl for us, and we will come.”

  “Thank you, alpha.” I nodded to him with respect, and the wolves turned in unison and bolted away.

  “Level 11!” Muu looked confused. “Levels go up one hundred in experience, right? So, it’ll take roughly one thousand one hundred experience to get to the next?”

  “That’s how it was for us.” I smiled.

  While there seemed to be a lull in any action. We took the time to allocate our points. I put two into strength and constitution and one into dexterity. Kayda had leveled up, so I fixed her up with two points to wisdom and one to strength.

  Name: Zekiel Erebos

  Race: Celestial Kitsune

  Level: 21

  Strength: 47

  Dexterity: 36

  Constitution: 32

  Intelligence: 50

  Wisdom: 35

  Charisma: 17

  Unspent Attribute Points: 0

  “Thanks for the experience, broski.” Bokaj bumped my shoulder.

  “Yeah, no shit.” Yohsuke smiled. The others nodded their appreciation. Even Zhavron had leveled up, though his level was hidden for some reason.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask, Zhavron—Why can’t we see your level?” I asked bluntly.

  He looked at me in surprise. “Well, I wear an item to obscure it. It gives me an advantage in battle.”

  Huh. That was a neat idea. Maybe we could do that and lure people into being stupid with us. I grinned at the thought.

  Or maybe not be stupid ourselves.

  “Well, that’s all for this quest, guys.” I shrugged. “What now? We can teleport back to anywhere we’ve been, or we could try and go to the High Elves and see what that symbol we were shown means.”

  “We could do that.” James nodded. “Yeah, I’m kind of curious about this whole “High Elf magic” thing. If they were strong enough to beat ass on the human Wizards and Sorcerers—I’d love to see what they’re capable of.”

  “I heard they’re pretty much dicks,” Yohsuke said. He was picking through the dead casters’ pockets. “Got some gold here, no items on them. Must have been purists or something. Not even the robes appear to be enchanted.”

  “Yeah, they don’t like other kinds of people, especially the Drow and Orcs,” James said, “or anyone, really. If you aren’t a High Elf—they hate you.”

  Zhavron grinned sardonically. “So you were listening to that little history lesson I was giving Muu while I was beating sense into him, then!”

  “Sounds like a good time to me,” Muu grunted. “Do we know where to find any Dragons?”

  The question caught us by surprise, and we all glanced his way.

  “What?” I tried to wrap my head around the question. “Why would you want to find a Dragon?!”

  “Well, not any old Dragon, a green one, like me,” Muu explained. “I was thinking if Zeke has the blessing of an elemental king or whatever and Mother Nature herself—Jaken is a Paladin for a Goddess, and Kayda is a flying myth—why not try to get some other serious magic on our side?”

  After a moment of stunned silence, none of us had a real answer.

  Finally, Jaken spoke, “Yeah, that’s not a bad idea, actually. We have two of their kind among us. Maybe we can find out where one lives and then go seek their help?”

  “Yeah, but how likely are they to want to give it willingly?” I asked. “You all know something of Dragons. Winterheart was an ancient Dragon. Old as fuck and highly intelligent. We can’t guarantee that the next Dragon we find would be as amenable to our cause as he was. If it hadn’t been for Maebe sticking up for us, he wouldn’t have done shit.”

  “What other option do we have?” James threw his hands up. “We either go as we are to see a bunch of dickheads and maybe get some help—or we go see if we can find some powerful creatures who may be interested in giving us some juice. At least with the second option, we have to go somewhere with a lot more likelihood of quests, EXP, and loot.”

  “If you all are going hunting for Dragons,” Zhavron stood and arched his back in a stretch, “I’ll take my leave. I want nothing to do with that venture.”

  “Okay, how about this then?” I offered. “We teleport back to Lindyburg, drop off Zhavron, then figure out our next move. But if we’re going to look for some Dragons and shit that could really fuck our shit up—we need to make sure that we are properly outfitted. That means a trip to Djurn Forge.”

  “Well, then we are definitely parting ways.” Zhavron laughed. “Dwarves hate Orcs something fierce. Can’t say as I like them much either. Jaken seems comforta
ble with it though, so to each his own, I guess.”

  I grinned at him. “It’s an acquired taste, Dwarves.” I looked at him for another moment. “Hey, can I take Norla’s form?”

  “How do you mean?” The Fighter asked after giving me an odd look.

  “I would just have her bite me, then take her animal form for use in a fight. She would be completely safe.”

  The dire wolf, who had been standing at the side after the confrontation, trotted over to Zhavron and butted her head against his shoulder. “I suppose so.”

  I offered my hand, and Norla gingerly craned her head forward to just barely break the skin. It stung, but I could feel the wolf being added to my assortment of animal forms.

  “Thank you,” I grunted before healing myself. “Now, there was talk of trying to recruit Dragons to the cause?”

  “Sounds good to me.” James shrugged.

  Yohsuke came over and clapped me on the shoulder. “Think we could see about talking to Shellica about another kind of adaptor? Now that I think about it, we never asked her.”

  “We could always try.” I frowned. Had we really forgotten to ask her about that?

  I shifted into my human form for safety and looked at the others. “You guys ready to go?”

  The group nodded and grasped hands. I put Kayda back into my collar. Then I felt a bump at my leg and saw Coal look up at me.

  “Shit, sorry, bud.” I reached down and touched his head like I had before and watched as the flame that made his body siphoned into me. “That’s going to take getting used to.”

  Chapter Nine

  We arrived in the alleyway next to the Marching Mercenaries Inn. The ground was covered in snow and so were we. We pulled off our snow-covered cloaks and walked casually inside.

  The place was starting to get busy. It was mid-afternoon, so people were ordering food and drinks for their work day.

  Giledt looked up at us and grinned. “Welcome back, boys! Need a room? If you like, I can have some food ready too.”