Dragon 2 Chapter 20 (Patreon)

We were a few blocks away from the convention center when I spotted a red glow down an alley. My dragon eye recognized the spectrum of color as magic and not just some tinted light.

“Morgana, pull over here.” I quickly called out.

Morgana's van screeched to a halt, and I jumped out, rushing into the alley before the warlocks could get away. Car doors slammed behind me; I knew the girls were tight on my heels.

I raced into the alley, quickly spotting three young magi. They seemed to be loitering around, flicking spells off to impress each other. One of them had fire streaming from his finger as he held a cigarette over the flame. His arm was frozen halfway to his mouth as we sprinted into the alley.

His eyes quickly slid off of me to Morgana behind me, clearly assessing her as the larger threat. One quick look over my shoulder, and I saw her hands itching on the pommels of her blades.

The three young men dropped everything, including the cigarette on the ground, at the same time as I heard the ring of Morgana’s blades.

“It’s just pot. Please don’t kill us.” A magi wearing glasses held his hands up, but then had to put one down to readjust his glasses.

There was a small enchantment on the wall behind them. I squinted at it before giving up and asking Morgana. “Can you check this one out? Right here.” I pointed at the wall.

Instead of Morgana, Sabrina stepped forward. With a wave of her hand, the ward became visible.

“That’s just for us to hide out here so we can do a little magic.” The one who dropped his cigarette stated. The cigarette definitely smelled like stinky weed.

“It’s not every day we get to hang out with other magi, and we don’t like the hotel and all the old farts.” Glasses seemed to be pleading with Sabrina.

“I know. They just talk about the golden days all night long, don’t they?” Sabrina made conversation while she looked at the ward. “This is really sloppy work. I almost couldn’t recognize it.”

“See, we weren’t doing anything that needs those.” Cigarette pointed to Morgana’s naked blades with a trembling finger.

Morgana eyed them once more before seeming to decide it was time to put them away. She stuffed them back into the sheaths on her hips. “I think they are harmless.” Morgana sighed. “Not who we are looking for.”

There was a collective exhale from the group at Morgana’s comment.

This was just a group of young magi hiding out from the watchful eyes of their elders. I leaned into my instincts to make sure, and they were quiet. These guys weren’t up to anything besides maybe a little recreational drug use. It was a false alarm.

“Well, we certainly don’t care about that.” I pointed to the still burning cigarette. “Better pick it up before you start a trash fire here.”

I started to turn, but then realized maybe they could still be of some use. “Look, there are a few warlocks causing trouble in the city.” Taking out a little notebook I kept, I scratched my number on a page and handed it to them. “Call me if you see anyone doing something strange around the convention.”

“Sure. Whatever, yeah.” Glasses took it and spoke like he just wanted us to leave. I had a feeling he wouldn’t call if he saw anything, so I went to impress the importance upon them.

“I know you want to throw that away as soon as I leave. But don’t. The warlocks causing trouble could bring a world of hurt down on all magi in the city. Call us if you see anything. They already attacked a group of high-profile paranormals; the last thing we need is them to cause a larger problem.”

That seemed to get their attention, and this time he put it in his pocket. I felt like I’d had a little more success.

We stepped away from our false alarm. “What do we do?” Sabrina asked. “Wait for another call?”

“That’s all we can do.” Morgana grumbled as she paused at the door to the van.

I hated the idea of waiting for another call, but our only other option at that point was continuing to scout along the ley line. We could completely miss them altogether again.

Frustrated, I reached for the van handle, but then screams broke up the quiet night.

I was running before I even realized it, heading just down the street towards the sound. I saw the hotel next to the convention center. Similar to the elven neighborhood, it was covered in wards, but unlike those, these were all separated and disjointed, as if done individually by hundreds of people.

I realized that was the exact difference. The magi no doubt had each put their own small protections on their rooms. And it didn’t seem to be doing them much good.

A public trash can shot into the hotel lobby, taking out two magi as it flew. I winced, hoping they survived the metal trash can that was yeeted into the crowd. I knew from experience that trolls could put a ton of force behind something like that.

Taking in the scene, I grimaced. It wasn’t just one troll. At least a dozen were transforming in and around the hotel.

“Shit.” Morgana came up next to me and cursed.

She was right. I had dismissed this possibility earlier, because they hadn’t gone after magi before, but it looked like the convention was their target after all. Only it wasn’t the convention center, it was the attendants in the neighboring hotel.

The magi were quick to react, lobbing lightning and fire at the trolls, but the hotel lobby was catching fire faster than the trolls. Both of those elements did little to stop a rampaging troll. I already knew that, having tried to cook one with dragon fire.

Frost worked much better. All the excess water in the swamp troll’s body didn’t freeze well. Seemingly in response, a single frozen lance crashed down among the trolls, freezing and shattering an arm. It did much more damage than the dozens of fire and lighting spells.

“This feels close to what I promised not to do now that it involves the convention. But given that we have magi that can’t seem to save themselves, I need to go help.” I watched Morgana to see if she agreed. This was potentially inviting trouble, and I wanted her to make that call.

Her blades rang out as she drew them again. “I’m ready to carve up some trolls, if that is what you are asking.”

“I can’t shift here, Morgana.”

“Don’t worry. I was starting to get bored. This’ll be fun.”

As if the dozen trolls weren’t enough, more were spilling out of the nearby alleys as they continued to be drawn to the hotel. This was more trolls than we’d ever seen before.

“Where are these coming from?” I asked. The trolls almost seemed to multiply before me. Despite the magi’s best efforts to hold them back, the trolls were pushing into the lobby. Whatever tactic was being used to lure the trolls, tonight it had been dialed up to eleven.

I wanted to jump right into the action, but with spells flying all over the place, getting close was too dangerous.

“It looks like our troublemakers have really outdone themselves this time.” Sabrina clutched her blasting rod in front of her, ready for a fight.

I looked at the rod in Sabrina’s hand, worried that she’d brought fire to a swamp troll fight like so many of the other magi. “You sure you want to use that? You can always hang back. I promised you previously that you wouldn’t have to fight.”

But Sabrina shook her head. “No. I’m here, and I’m going to fight. Just because I don’t want to doesn’t mean I can walk away from this. Plus, I spent all the time making this. I want to give it a try.”

She held out the end of the broomstick that had been carved, or rather butchered, by a small knife. Intricate carvings were broken up by cracks in the wood as she held it aloft like her prized possession. “This thing is going to pack a punch.” She sounded excited, like a kid with a new toy.

I figured Morgana had thrown me into more than a few fights in order to learn, and I could do the same for Sabrina. I just needed to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

“Cover my back. Follow me.” I approached the carnage out in front of the hotel.

Car alarms blared as one of the trolls smashed in the hood of a nearby car that had parked out front of the hotel. I looked around, realizing that it was quiet outside of the immediate battle.

Why the heck weren’t people a block over screaming, and where were the cops? It wasn’t as if the area was unpopulated.

Yet somehow, as I looked down the cross street, everyone was minding their own business, as if the hotel didn’t even exist. I realized one or more of the wards around the hotel must be keeping people from noticing what was happening. They’d likely put it up to help keep them covered as they talked or worked any magic.

But I knew that if the fight continued to spill out, even magic had its limits.

The magi were being pushed backwards in the lobby, and the front of the hotel was clear of haphazardly flying spells for now, but more trolls than I’d ever seen were in the area. And they could wreak havoc, as was proven by the three trolls pounding on the nearby car in an effort to silence the alarm that seemed to be annoying them.

“I think catch and release isn’t viable tonight. We need to stop these trolls, however we can.” I looked Morgana and Sabrina in the eye before I turned back, gritting my teeth and charging into the three trolls still whalopping the car.

I didn’t like the idea of having to kill the swamp trolls, but we didn’t have many other options. This needed to be contained.

Sabrina all of a sudden came from my left, surprising me as she leveled her blasting rod at the first swamp troll we encountered. It lit up with a white glow and then started to pour out a jet of mist, coating the swamp trolls' two arms as it tried to block.

Immediately after, its arms froze and crumbled into swampy slush under its own weight. The troll was just as baffled as I was.

“Damn, that’s got some kick.” I said, impressed.

Sabrina blushed. “I was just trying to help. Swamp trolls are weak to frost magic. That’s just basic information in the bestiary.”

Morgana patted her on the shoulder. “That was great work. Keep it up. We have more where that one came from.”

Encouraged, Sabrina hit it again. This time she focused on its legs, reducing the troll to the squirming torso as little baby hands started to regrow from its arms. I tried not to look at the tiny hands; those things were creepy.

Feeling better about pulverizing them, given their regeneration, I looked at the others.

The car that the trolls had been smashing sounded pitiful; its alarm was waning into a sad beep as the crushed vital components attempted to sound.

As the car quieted, the other trolls looked up and saw the state of their third.

One of the trolls that looked up had tusks that curled up, nearly poking itself in the eyes. Tusky was a big fucker and proved it too, by grabbing the smashed up car and hauling it over his shoulder.

“Get back!” My clothes popped at the seams as I shifted just enough to take on more mass, doubling my weight and charging into the car just before Tusky threw it.

The geek in me was curious about what would happen when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, but it looked like I’d have to wait until another day. Because as the sedan crashed into me, I barely kept my feet under me as I crashed back into the pavement. My shoes were torn up as I slid backwards on the pavement.

Sabrina gave me a small smile. I looked over my shoulder to try to check on Morgana, but she had disappeared.

Tossing the car to the side, I got a glimpse of the blur that was my partner as she twirled between the trolls, slicing and dicing at them. Those cuts served their purpose as a momentary distraction right before she cut at their joints, slowing them down, but certainly not stopping them.

I dove back at Tusky. “Morgana, keep the other one disabled. Sabrina, take it down.”

Tusky looked up at me and swung for the fences, his big meaty hand sounding like a plane passing over my head as I ducked just under it. I came back up with a hook that caught his chin, just damn near perfect.

His head snapped to the side, and the lumbering fool took a few unsteady steps to the side before he shook it off.

But I was already there, following up on my hit by driving my fist into his gut and pulling him over to the side. I tossed Tusky on the ground and went down with him.

He thrashed, but I got a hand on a tusk and pushed his head back to the ground. Two big meaty hands came up and tried to stop me, but I shifted my fingers to claws and tore out his shoulders.

I smiled, looking down at him. That ought to keep him down long enough for Sabrina and Morgana to finish him off. Looking over, Morgana had gone for a similar tactic, and Sabrina’s blasting rod was freezing his limbs off.

They finished up and came over to help me out with Tusky. “So, how long do you think this’ll keep them down?” I asked casually, as I did my best to keep the thrashing troll still.

“An hour, maybe two.” Morgana said. “But this is going to cause a fucking mess. I am happy to be the mercenary and not the one cleaning this up.”

The hotel itself had its glass front smashed in, and the front desk had been pulped to toothpicks. Uncomfortable lounge chairs lay strewn about, burnt to a crisp. The little grab and go snack alcove looked like something far too big had shoved its way in and forcibly enlarged the area. Half eaten candy bars littered the floor.

Thankfully, it seemed the magi had been smart enough to use the stairwell as a bottleneck. For now, they had held the trolls from advancing up the stairs, but I wasn’t sure how long they could hold it.

A few trolls were already trying to haul their huge butts up the side of the hotel, and though they were struggling, with enough sheer effort, one of them was bound to figure it out. Two of them working together would certainly be able to reach a second-story window.

“We need to figure out what’s attracting them and stop it.” I told the girls as Tusky became limbless. Watching his torso wiggle as he glared, I felt a little bad for him.

“Stupid magi, loving their flashy attacks. When will they learn that fire and lightning don't kill everything?” Morgana looked at the hotel lobby. “Not like our crack wizard here.” She pulled Sabrina close, giving her a squeeze. “Now, what do you say we figure out what’s drawing the trolls here?”

“Gosh. Thanks.” Sabrina hazarded as she adjusted to Morgana’s familiarity. “I think a lot of the magi just don’t know the difference between a swamp troll and the far more common forest troll. At least, I hope that’s what’s happening. As to the root of this problem, I don’t know. Whatever is drawing them here, it would work better if it was ground level or below ground. It is hard to tap a ley line on upper stories.”

I nodded, grateful for that information. It saved us a lot of hotel searching. “Into the basement then.” I pushed forward, glass crunching under my shoes as we made it to the lobby.

“What are you again?” She eyed my bulky form.

“Something big and dangerous.” I winked, shrugging off her question as we found a maintenance only door that seemed like our best bet to get us into the basement. When I tried the door, it was locked.

“We need keys.” Sabrina said. “I’ll go—”

But she cut off as my hand turned into claws and I tore out the door handle and the lock. I smiled over at her. “Oh look, my bad. It was open the whole time.”

She started to say something, then thought better of it.

Prying the door back, we started to step forward before pausing. Down the hall, we were met with an eerie red glow and shouting. It looked like others had beaten us here.