Chapter 10

“Hmmmmm! Hmmmmm!”, Radim stroked his curly shortish beard, as if he was pondering the mysteries of the universe.

“Mmhmmm, Mmhmmm”, An unfamiliar voice responded as if they were communicating not worth words, but instead a language made of hmm’s and mmm’s.

Amy had several cuts and scrapes, bruising and reddened irritated skin; but otherwise, she was fine. She was in a world of her own. The image of the eyes of the creature that was solely focused on her, with a powerful malice, glee and anticipation at the carnage it would unleash. A chill went down her spine, she suddenly felt cold, her throat ran dry and seemed to stop working. The eyes in her memory, its transition into surprise anger then nothing. It was there then it was dead and unmoving. Amy wanted to throw up then, but her body lacked the wherewithal to do so. Her strength had fled from her body like smoke in an air tight room, after the seal broken and the door opened. She remembered the smell of blood, from Minerva’s broken bone that had pierced the skin. The sound of the air beaten back by the wings of the bats. She remembered, no she still felt the surge, flowing through unseen channels from her chest to her wand leaving her body. The look in Glyn’s eyes as she thought death was upon her that said, ‘not yet’, ‘one more moment, one more breath’. The feeling of foreign blood running down her cheeks, down her legs.

Her nostrils stung; the smell of tobacco smoke polluted the air. Her mental space receded, and her eyes lazily moved around the room. Radim seemed the most shaken, not Minerva, not Glyn, nor Lorenn, Osgur, William and Sean. Despite his reputation amongst some guild initiates as the sadist instructor reveling in the woes of his victim, he really became attached to his students very quickly. Amy realized this as endless smoke trailed from Radim’s mouth. Cigarette after cigarette, he smoked endlessly from the stress and thoughts of ‘what if’ ‘his dear students’. Amy’s imagination kept trying to draw her own thoughts towards what could have happened, but there was a repulsion also; it was too frightening. Then she felt the elation as protection and safety came. An intense joy that only those who were about to die, but survived could know.

“I am really impressed, I…I think you did an excellent job”, William said shaking his head in disbelief.

“Outstanding”, the unfamiliar voice uttered.

Amy turned her head towards the source of this voice, the Old Man Minerva had pointed out earlier.

He coughed, his voice was rich and thick, but seasoned with years unknown, “I am Denzel, head of the alchemist guild. An old man as the earther’s say in English. That was a splendid performance young one”, his gaze rested on the wand still clutched in Amy’s hand, “And that, that wand. As an alchemist I can see the materials alone is a mystery, neither from your world nor mine. What a curious thing, in all my years before the tablet was invented, I have never seen such a wand. Regardless, young one for better or worse you have used that wand, it is bound to you and you to it”.

Amy swallowed her saliva nodding; hearing these words, she could see a hint of greed in the old man’s eyes, a desire to dissect and study. But that was only for a brief moment before it submerged into the sea of consciousness that only a long-lived creature could possess.

The room seemed like any other infirmary ward she had visited in school, except the floors, walls, and ceiling were made of black stone.

Sean glanced away from his screen for a moment at Minerva’s resting, snoring form lying on a bed. All in the room, including Veve, were all silent entertaining their own thoughts, pursuing their own distractions. Amy opened the broadcast again as she laid in bed. Even though she was laying on her bed, against her pillow, her waga tablet, was displaying the scene in front of her eyes. She looked at Ian and Liam wiping the sweat and blood off their faces. They were in the barracks of the stadium. A woman was there holding a stone in her hand she pointed it towards Liam. The woman was in semi-casual attire, a blond tight pony tail, mannerisms that mimicked Glyn, and a way of holding herself was similar as well. The image was foreign but relatable, it was like a courtside interview of star athletes, except all three in the view of the camera were dragons. Instead of the squeak of shoes on a laminated smooth wooden basketball court, they were replaced by the clink of armor, the sound of a ball being dribbled was substituted for the grinding of weapons clashing from spars.

“So far, the raid has been eventful, but with so many questions and things going on, would you like to simply offer any comments?”, The dragon reporter asked as she moved the white crystal stone towards Liam.

“Well, we were definitely worried after we heard from the relief squad about what had happened after our thirty-minute opening round was finished”, Liam replied.

Ian began after Liam’s voice had receded like a tag team, Liam glanced at Ian and returned his focus to the reporter in confirming nod, “Indeed, but we are glad that all involved in the accident were safe. That poor dwarven girl though I saw the wound. But she is resting now and healing thanks to the efforts of the elven medical staff”.

The reporter steered the interview in a different direction, “So what do you think about the battlefield so far?”.

Ian held his cleanly shaven chin, and the camera caught his emerald eyes as he looked into it, “It’s definitely been interesting. A boss monster to show up in the opening duo round, a sizeable army from the beginning. It feels different than other raids we’ve participated in”.

The reporter nodded in agreement, “Do you think that this raid will be harder for the strat officials, to oversee and plan for? How will it affect the programming of this spring’s events”.

Liam responded as the reporter chased his words pointing the crystal towards Liam, “Well we are about to have our first staff meeting, so we cannot comment much about it, but indeed we have some work before us”.

Amy could read, and almost hear Liam’s inner groan.

“With that Draizel, we go back to you”, the dragon quickly ended the segment turning towards the camera to speak.

Soon there were two men sitting on a shapely wooden desk with several logos and banners and graphics floating behind them. Amy discovered that raids were not just an event, but was an entire lucrative industry in this new world.

“Work indeed, Jim it will be interesting to see how the strat staff deals with the current situation”

“I wonder who was that girl that defeated 20 vampire bats by herself”

Amy was surprised to see a replay of her, minerva, and Glyn falling on a screen behind the anchors thanks to some quick witted camera person.

“She’s the full blooded earther that recently came to Arbell and joined the ‘dungeon master’ Liam’s guild. I never imagined a pure human would have that much power. She should be praised for her brave actions. I’ve never seen a wand or magic for that matter being used like that. The wand enthusiasts will be pleased, I think they found their poster child as the earthers say”

"Agreed Draizel, she is sure to become a celebrity"

"Did you see how she stepped forward Jim, when her friends were about to be attacked. And she's very cute too. I'm sure a lot of males will be clamoring to get her favor"

Amy's face was red as a tomato, as she shot out of bed from surpise. Looking at her tablet like it was a coiled viper ready to strike. She paced back and forth. Over in the corner around Glyn's bed her and Veve were whispering then veve walked over to her.

Putting a hand on her shoulder Veve said with a serene detached voice, "Relax my dear girl we'll help you cope".

Somehow Amy felt suspicious as she looked at Glyn but nodded as she stopped pacing.

Ian and Liam were walking down the stone corridors in the bowels of the stadium. The hall had white crystals affixed to the wall on wooden stands, replacing the use of light bulbs, stone pipes replacing the snake like circuitry of wires and metal, carrying live mana instead of an electrical charge. Ian rested his hand on Liam’s shoulder guards before he reached out for the wide double doors.

They entered a stone tiled room. Circular in shape, with a large round table in the center. A familiar face entered Ian’s vision. A former wing mate of his.

He sat back leisurely in his chair with his feet on the table smoking a cigar. With several more strewn about his portion of the table within reach. He let the front legs of his chair return to the ground as he began speaking, “OOiii! you two glad you returned safe and sound. You must be proud of your little hatchling”.

“Indeed”, Ian said as he returned his look from Julius from the Caesar dragon clan to his chair and sat down.

A woman sat across from Ian, she had her elbows on the table, hands clasped together. In grey armor she was, with a slender alluring dark brown neck protruding from her armor. Her posture was straight, her presence regal. Her curly black hair was braided together on her forehead like a crown. Her nostrils flared as she exhaled, a smooth face and a strong jaw.

“The reports are back”, she said looking at every one around the table, eight in total, “We cannot fly the aggro wings, because of the sniper. It’s a magic shot of energy from what we’ve analyzed, so because us dragons are less than mighty against magic, we chose for safety to have them transition into pure reconnaissance flight patterns”.

Liam sitting next to Ian groaned as he lit a cigarette, “That means we will have to go to them”, he looked around at the others at the table, “Which it is undoubtedly a trap”.

A minotaur sitting next to Ian’s space slammed his fist on the table aggressively, “It’s better that way. I hate waiting for them to come”.

“Hold your hooves there my friend”, Julius descended into the depths of his chair, “An ambush awaits those who approach, sure overwhelming them by force is the way to break them but we must figure out how many teams we need, and who we need to send out. Also, they are hiding in the forest. But we have to think about the boss too, they won’t be near where we attack”.

Ian took his cigarette away for a puff as the minotaur snorted and flicked his ears at the room quickly filling up with smoke from the chain-smoking dragons.

A voice came from the depths of a black armored figure with a full mask and helmet. It leaned closer as it held a long slender pipe with a shallow bowl in one hand, the armor shuffling and clanking together let out a metallic ring, “hmmmm”.

“Toshiharu what do you think?”, Ian asked as he turned towards him.

The voice seemed to echo in the armor adding a metallic timbre, “I think we need to defeat this boss first. It seems the strategy is to snipe and cause confusion, allowing its minions to work, instead of empowering them or fighting alone as a force multiplier. Create a trap for the trap in other words”.

Ian’s eyebrows twitched; he had received a text from William about Amy, and had set his tablet back down on the table at a haphazard angle. He kept thinking, pondering, stewing as he straightened the position of his tablet. Was there more importance to the wand she had in hand. ‘It’s a magical wand, in a magical world, weird shit happens all the fucking time’, he thought to himself. He tried to soothe himself but Ian knew full well that this would consume him until he came upon the answer. He had an almost compulsive urge to yank on a string until the fabric become mere twine and yarn. He had the habit of tearing at and off the wrappers of the cheap lighters he would buy in the human world. Ian chuckled inwardly thinking about the time his father caught him tearing up a brand-new shirt just because a string was loose. It was a trait of his, for his benefit or to his detriment. He accepted he could not change it so he decided to use it for benefit, it’s what got him to the chief inspector of the information and investigation guild at a record age. He managed to curtail his compulsion by always measuring what he was doing, whether it be drinking water or driving his sword through the enemy. It was a mental game created for distraction, turned into a habit that others identified him by.

The door opened, and Ian returned from his thoughts, as all eyes looked at Denzel who had waltzed into the room with a surprising vigor for one his age.

“What an interesting raid this spring”, Denzel said as he placed his hand on his slightly protruding belly keeping his beard tucked in as he sat down, and gazed at Liam and Ian, “That ward of yours is…but what is surprising is that wand of hers, it is neither from this world or hers. I believe it maybe a relic from the time before the towers, during the unknown cataclysm that made the worlds as they are today”.

“Why is that relevant to the raid?”, the minotaur once again slammed a fist on the table.

Liam sighed, “Rossen, I do not know how I’ve maintained my patience with you over the years. If you keep assaulting the table, we’ll have to replace it again next year”.

Rossen slammed on the table once more while chuckling, “Then the raid council needs to buy a better table”.

Ian eyed Rossen with a bit of irritation clouding his eyes, then a mischievous grin, “This is the sturdiest one we can buy, its even got reinforcement spells. Do us a favor so we aren’t hemorrhaging money whenever a slight breeze rustles your skirt”.

Rossen snorted, and laughed boisterously “You want me to bury my axe in that handsome pretty little face, it’s a kilt, a kilt!”.

Liam chuckled, as he retorted, “You want Ian to turn into a dragon and make ground beef with just a single step. Of all the years we’ve been together, I’ve wondered if we pulled that ring on your nose, would it function like an off switch?”.

Liam stared directly at Rossen, and likewise Rossen returned the glare before they laughed.

“If you boys are finished swinging your dicks around, I think that wand is pertinent information. The opening ceremony and round attracted more monsters than ever before, a relic of bygone history has surfaced in the hands of a pure-blooded human. As a matter of fact, if it was not Ian and Liam in the opening duo round, the relief team would have returned with a cold corpse or two. It’s been nearly a century and a half without a single death. These are not mere coincidences, they are piling up and not in a good way”, Camila the dragon with the deep wonderfully lustrous skin color said.

“Sansei desu”, Toshiharu agreed, “Even though we’ll take a hit in our fighting force. It would be beneficial if Liam and Ian circled around this particular issue until they can swoop in and find an answer, rather than participating”.

Ian looked at Toshiharu, a mischievous glint in his eyes, “I agree with the Kanzume. I’ve been exploring leads on Earth, and Liam has been vigilant of Amy and her wand. We thought the same way too when we first encountered Amy”.

Toshiharu growled, “Kono yarou ga. You know this is standard Shinsai battle armor, I’m not a tin can”.

As he walked away ignoring his old friend’s protest with a satisfied hum, Ian thought to himself as Liam and him stood up and approached the door, ‘The unmovable black dragon has become agitated mission accomplished’.

Liam chuckled as he noticed the slight smirk on Ian’s face reading his thoughts. With that their direction had been set; and the Raid Council began planning and strategizing the next events.

“It was good seeing they haven’t changed at all”, Ian commented to Liam with a grin lingering on his lips.