Roar of Dragons

[Luke – 13 years] → starts towards the beginning of Chapter 46.

"Parker," I semi-whisper as I poke him in the side. "Parker. ParkerParkerParker! Parker! Parker! ParkerParkerParker!"

"Luuuke!" Parker groans as he slaps my hand. "Let me sleep some more!"

"We've gotta get up so we can eat breakfast before heading over to Xander's."

Parker spent the night here after the festivities ended and Tyler went back to the hotel where he's staying with his dad. For whatever reason, Tyler's dad is really resistant to letting Tyler spend the night with us, and Tyler even tried asking. That's really annoying, I love hanging out with him. My bed's even big enough for all three of us to sleep in without touching – Parker and I slept on opposite sides of it last night and there was plenty of space in the middle for, like, five more of us.

Okay, maybe not that many unless we were crammed together, but still. It's plenty big, and if his dad didn't like that, well, we have plenty of guest rooms.

I guess it was a little for the better, since Tyler would have to leave before we did for Xander's lessons, and that would probably be too early for his dad to pick him up.

"Come on, come on, come on," I poke Parker again. "Get up and get dressed!"

While Parker drags himself out of bed, I slip off of it and slip my sneakers on, then head downstairs to the dining room. My parents already have breakfast on the table and a pot of coffee brewing.

"Don't share that with Parker," I tell Mom as she pours coffee for herself and Dad. "It's gonna stunt his growth."

"You know that's a myth, right?" Mom asks me.

"He's thirteen, he shouldn't be getting addicted."

"You're thirteen," Mom says. "And you're addicted to magic."

"Okay, that's different," I tell her. "I'm brimming with magic and need it to live. I don't remember if I told you, but no draining my mana today. Xander wants to try putting up with me at full mana even though my hyperness bothers him and-"

"There aren't any lessons today," Dad tells me.

"Huh?" I ask. "Why not? Is Xander sick or something? Maybe he got sick after going to the fair? Did he go to the fair? That would be weird if he did since he doesn't like crowds and noisy things, and-"

"Trey called a little bit ago," Dad tells me. "He meant to call last night but forgot because of the hour. Xander spent the night at his friends' place and is helping them with stuff today, so there aren't any classes."

Xander will spend the night with four boys even though that's got to be way more hyper than spending the night with Parker and me. It's just another sign of how much he doesn't really like me. Why do I have to have this problem? I really can't help the hyper babbling and movements when I've got a lot of mana and it sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks!

"Parker's gonna be so disappointed," I say. "Hey! Can I see if Tyler wants to hang out? I-"

Dad's phone rings, and he tells me to sit and eat while he answers the call.

"Good morning, General," Dad says.

It's the general? The only reason we get called by him is if the magic special forces are struggling with something and we're the best option to deal with it. There are a few families which hold that status, with the Lumaria Kings being the last resort.

"He's awake," Dad says as I start serving myself stuff. "What's up?"

A request for me? The last time they asked me for help, it was with some lightning beasts that were a little bit more powerful than my parents. When dealing with creatures of lightning magic, the best counter for it is lightning and that's something my family specializes in.

"Hey, Parker," I say as Parker approaches the table. "Guess what? Xander's got not classes today so we can hang out all day! I'm gonna see if Tyler can hang out."

"I got woken up for nothing," Parker groans as he plops himself into the chair beside me. "Can we cancel the hangout and go back to bed?"

"You might be able to," Dad tells him, then looks at me. "Luke, they want to know if you're willing to get flown out to an island to deal with something immediately."

"Immediately?" I ask. "Dude, it's gotta wait until after breakfast. I'm a growing boy! You really think I'd turn down bacon or go do work on an empty stomach? What are you, insane? You should always make sure I'm well-fed and ready for battle! Oh! Speaking of battle! Tyler was-"

"Luuuuke!" Parker whines. "I'm still waking uuuuup!"

"Here, have some orange juice," I grab the pitcher of it and a glass and start filling. "That'll wake you up for sure! Way better than coffee, too!"

"Luke," Dad says. "Yes or no? They need it as soon as possible, but can wait until you finish breakfast."

"Oh, sure!" I say. "Will I get to fight some monsters?"

"Maybe," Dad answers. "He needs someone with the ability to perform high-level impacts at speed. You're the best person in the country for the job, exempting the Kings."

A high-level impact that Mom and Dad can't do, or any of the others at similar levels of power? That suggests they need one of two types of magic for it: force or lightning. Wind would work as well. However, that's also the code the general uses for "we've got a tough as heck barrier that our tools can't damage quicker than the barrier repairs".

I'm about to say sure when I realize something important. If I do this job, I probably won't be able to hang out with Tyler again before he leaves. He told us yesterday that he and his dad are leaving tomorrow to return to doing hunts so today's the last chance I have before then. They never know how long they'll be gone and while the last couple of hunts were shorter, he could be gone for weeks.

As much as I want to turn this down so that I can hang out with Tyler some more… this is sort of an unspoken obligation for high-level mages. I'm not required to do this work, but it earns goodwill and favors for when I need it. Taking on this job will also help me, personally, build professional connections with the military.

While it might seem wrong for a thirteen-year-old to think about that sort of thing, I'm a thirteen-year-old who builds magitech generators and who wants to inherit his family's company. There are times I might need to call in a favor to get some materials for a project, materials I can't normally acquire on my own.

Mom and Dad already do that from time to time. I might even be able to use this to get some help acquiring something I want for a personal project. It's a rare mineral found mainly in the shells of a specific monster which only shows up in a few areas and those areas are under military control for unrelated reasons, so the magic special forces are almost exclusively the only source of it in the country.

Why did I have to make a cool friend who's rarely around? Argh!

"I'll do it!" I say.

"He says he'll do it," Dad tells the general. "Alright. Luke, he says they'll have someone here to pick you up in thirty minutes."

"Got it!"

I hurry through breakfast, then head up to my room to change into my proper combat outfit. The base for it is a silvery unitard, over which I pull on specialized armor pieces made of a high-quality synthetic shells with a specialized fabric covering, the insides of them padded. The fabric itself is blue with golden stitching, and I look sort of like a hero from comics and shows in it, minus a cape.

As I change, Parker shows up and switches back into his sleepwear before just flopping himself onto my bed.

"Wake me up when the hour's reasonable," he says before passing right back out.

He'll wake on his own before I get back, I'm sure.

I finish changing and lace up my boots, then head to the bathroom to brush my teeth before slipping on my gloves. There's a little bit of time to kill before the truck shows up, so I text Tyler a picture of my outfit.

He replies immediately! That's awesome!

[Tyler]: Damn! You going monster hunting?

[Luke]: Something like that! Was gonna ask if you wanted to hang out, but I don't know how long it'll take!

[Tyler]: I can!

[Tyler]: But it's gotta be before eight so lemme know when you're back and we can see

[Tyler]: Eight tonight, not this morning!

[Luke]: Will do!

[Luke]: They're here! Gotta go!

I pocket my phone, then bid goodbye before leaving and heading out to the military truck that's pulling up. The driver is a man in his early forties, dressed in black combat gear with the logo of the US Magic Corp on one shoulder and the nation's flag on his other. He's not the general, but is the usual driver for when they have to take me somewhere.

The trip to the base doesn't take very long since he can speed without getting pulled over, and I'm quickly brought to a plane where a lot of soldiers are already seated in the back. They're all young men in their late teens and early twenties, fresh faces heading out to wherever the operation is.

Since they're normal magic special forces members, they're wearing the all-black combat uniforms of such. They're not people who are called in for stealth, not in the slightest. Camouflage means nothing to them other than "that's what other groups are for".

If MSF gets called in, they're called in to be battering rams and bombs, not needles in a haystack.

The soldiers all give me confused looks, but I ignore them as I take a seat. Forty-three. That's how many MSF soldiers are seated back here. Just what the heck is this operation if they're bringing in this many fresh members?

"Soldiers!" An officer steps into the seating area from the front as the plane takes off. "We're heading out to the islands off the east coast today! Most of you will be spending the next six months there at a minimum, assisting the soldiers already present in culling the demon tide that's occurred!"

A demon tide? Damn. That's what it's called when a long-lasting rift opens up and regularly lets out low-level demons instead of closing after releasing just a few. If it's the island cluster I'm suspecting, they're prone to having that happen, but it's been about eight years since the last incident. Nobody really knows how to seal up the rifts so we have to wait it out.

Since it's a regular occurrence on those island, we have a base there. Lesser rifts open up all the time and they need to make sure the demons are located and put down before they can find a way off the island – or taken out before they fly off for the ones which can.

The office continues going over the plan, the flight itself taking about three hours. It's a high-speed plane, able to travel thousands of miles in a short time. Magics woven into the jet give a smoother, less-noisy flight for us, so we don't need special headgear to hear each other talk.

Which is probably why there's some chatter among the soldiers, including confusion about the kid. While they go over what's going on, I look through a tablet I was given at the base to see what my specific job is.

This particular rift let out some mid-level demons that erected a barrier around the zone around it, making it more difficult for the soldiers to take on the lesser demons. With a base set up, the demons have been building up their numbers, which has the corp concerned they're going to try to launch an attack on the military base we've set up there.

A low-level demon can be taken out by a single magic special forces soldier. A mid-level one can be taken out by a unit of ten. That's with their own magic, not including their gear. The soldiers usually work in groups as well, which makes handling things easier when the demons group up for battle.

While such an attack can be handled, they want that barrier gone so that they can begin taking out the lesser ones on their terms.

Which is where I come in. My job is to break that barrier and take out the mid-level demons. It seems that the mid-level ones only came out in the first few days, and it's only been low-level ones ever since.

This isn't on the scale of what happened to cause Interception Day to happen so it's not a major threat to the nation, they just want to make sure it doesn't become a problem that affects civilians. The barrier seems to be one that will take around 9,000 units of mana in power to break through it in a single strike at a minimum. Possibly more.

No wonder they wanted me instead of my parents. They could probably break the barrier, but then they'd not have enough power left to handle the mid-level demons and make sure the barrier is down for good. A barrier like that will have some sort of power source from the demons and so that will need to be taken out as well.

Yep, there it is. Their notes on the barrier mentions that it repairs itself fairly quickly, which is why they can't just pepper it with attacks until it cracks. Our military is good, but even high-level weaponry has around a third of the power as needed to break the barrier.

It's rare for us to need something even stronger than what the magic special forces soldiers can do with their own power so we don't keep very many of that sort of thing on-hand. That's why they'll call in even higher-level mages for help.

"I'm still confused about why there's a kid here," one of the soldiers says to the one to his right. "And that outfit is-"

"Gatewood!" The officer calls from the hatch as it begins to lower. "We're at your stop!"

"Alright!" I unbuckle and get up, setting the table down.

"No parachute?" A soldier asks. "Wait, you're dumping a kid out?"

I turn around as I reach the edge.

"See you all at the base!" I salute, then step backwards.

As I begin the free-fall from thirty thousand feet, I turn around and lightning-charge my body to allow me an easier time controlling my descent, something I do face-first because it feels amazing. This lightning-charged state is different from the one I normally go in. Without needing to worry about damage to the area or civilian casualties, I have no reason to hold back so I don't.

It isn't just my body that's sparking here but the air itself just by being in my presence.

I can feel the electricity of the soldiers sparking strongly at my jump, and I'm sure the officer's called up the plane's feed of me so they can watch. It's got a good magitech camera so they'll be able to watch me even as they travel away.

That means I should really put on a good show, so I quickly assess the situation in the moments after I jump. The barrier appears to be a shimmering dome of transparent red energy which stretches roughly a mile in diameter and within it, I can see crude buildings made by the demons and hundreds of demons milling about.

Near the center of the base but not quite is the rift, a jagged tear in space filled with black and red energy. Nothing can be seen through it, but a demon exits as I descend. They come in a wide variety, but most are scaly or fleshy with coal-black and/or red scales and flesh. Lesser ones have extremely bestial forms and a single horn atop their heads, while mid-level ones have more primate-like forms, including some that are rather humanoid, and a pair of horns atop their heads.

I've never seen a high-level one before, but those are apparently extremely humanoid in form with three horns. None of the electricity sources I can feel are stronger than what I've experienced before, so it probably is just twenty mid-level demons and hundreds of low-level ones.

Five towers have been constructed of some sort of warped red stone, and I can see demons milling about atop them. Hmph. Faking watchtowers to conceal the real power sources for the barrier. The observation notes I was given mentions that MSF suspects the power sources to be some smaller buildings that are more heavily-guarded and clustered closer to the center of the zone..

But I know better. I can see better in this state.

And when I'm a hundred feet above the barrier, I flip myself around as a surge of magic surrounds me, lightning filling the air.

Then I crash through the barrier like the god of lightning I am. On impact, lightning spreads out and dances across the entire dome, shattering it. I hit the ground with an impact hard enough that I would be a pancake if I weren't using magic.

An impact that creates a crater in the ground as more lightning blasts outward, zipping towards the five towers and obliterating them. On impact, my lightning doesn't just obliterate the towers – it spreads in wide bursts, wiping out the areas around the towers as well.

The barrier had begun repairing itself from my initial attack already, but the destruction of the towers puts a stop to that.

I've wiped out basically the entire demon base now. This was fun! I want to jump down like that again! Next time, there better be something that can withstand the initial impact so I can make a two-finger "come at me, bro" motion and then wipe the floor with it! If I'd realized it would be this easy, I wouldn't have even crashed through the barrier itself, that was just for show!

Taking out everything without crashing down would have actually been magically cheaper. My parents could've done that if the barrier wasn't in the way!

Since my work here is done, it's time to see if I can't get some of that metal!

[Luke – 13 years]

"Luke?" Mom says as I enter the house. "What's that in your hands?

"It's a box!"

"I can see that," she says. "It looks heavy."

"It is!"

"What's in it?"

"A cubic foot of mythronium!" I answer. "It's too rare to use in generators, but I'm betting it'll work wonders in remote-controlled cars!"

"There is no way you need that much of it," Mom says.

"Well, yeah," I say. "But this means I won't need to worry about getting it again for awhile!"

"How did you convince them to give you that much?" Mom asks.

"I tried putting on a show since I was sure they'd be watching and did things too fast."

"You took out the entire demon base, didn't you?"

I'm the one who told my parents, which is probably why Mom was waiting near the door when I got home since she knew I was on my way. I was never forced into an NDA regarding the job, and they wouldn't bother trying, either. The magic special forces isn't a secret forces, and everyone knows that they often deal with demon attacks.

Most people would either not believe that they called in a thirteen-year-old to handle something MSF couldn't or they'd believe it and just be like "yup, sounds about right". Those who don't believe there are true powerhouses in the world and those who accept that we'll sometimes be called to deal with things.

And not required to do them, either. The government watches us but doesn't control us. We have zero obligation to work as soldiers. As long as we behave, they don't call in other big guns. If said big guns aren't big enough, Adrian King steps in.

Now that I think about it, he probably controls the whole world from behind the scenes. It's probably why I've never heard about him needing to step in to get out-of-control mages back to behaving.

"Is Parker still here?" I ask. "Or did he go home?"

"You didn't answer my question," Mom says.

"You call in a thirteen-year-old to do something," I say. "He's gonna go all-out. You can't stop it. It's just a part of us and how we are. Like, if you were to ask Xander to sit down and eat a cheesecake? You've gotta specify not the whole cheesecake if you want even crumbs left. Well, he's only twelve, but that's definitely a sign of how things will be once he's thirteen. I mean, just think about it, he's-"

"Parker's in the game room," Mom tells me.

"Oh, cool!" I say. "Hey, can I call Tyler and see if he wants to come over? We've still got a few hours before his curfew!"

"Go ahead," she says. "Let me know if he'll be here before dinner. I'm just getting ready to get started on it."

"I thought it was Dad's night for dinner?"

"He went to the office to deal with an emergency," she tells me. "Go on."

"Alright!"

I take the box to my at-home workshop, then text Tyler to see if he'll come over while I change into shorts and a tee. He can, so I let Mom know before heading to the game room where Parker's logged into his account to play New Frontiers of Zenzialtz, which is surprising. He's chilling with a large bucket of popcorn and a cup of soda, the lights of the game room turned low.

Mom calls it a game room, but that's because that's what I use it for the most: gaming. It's a theater room like at Xander's, except with eighteen seats instead of twelve. I've never had that many people over, but that's fine because I get to play with Parker in here!

"You haven't beaten it yet?" I ask. "You normally have that stuff done in like, two weeks!"

He'd have needed to restart the game to play on my system, but he'd only do that if he hasn't beaten it on his own yet. I don't understand why he'd have two different playthroughs of it going at once, but it doesn't affect me so who cares?

"Luke?"

"Yes?"

"It came out a week ago," he rolls his eyes. "And I don't play it all day long, you know. It'll probably take me more than a month or two."

"Cool!" I say. "Hey, by the way, Tyler's coming over! He can only stay until eight, though. Mom said she'll send him up to us once he gets here. Why the long face?"

"Can't we just hang out?" He half-whines. "Why does he have to come over?"

Parker doesn't like Tyler?

"What's wrong with him hanging out with us?" I ask. "He's a cool dude! And he can talk about magic with me! And he's a monster hunter!"

"Well, yeah," Parker says. "But it's like as soon as he's in town, you've gotta hang out with him all the time!"

"What's wrong with that?" I ask. "He's a cool dude and my second friend! I can have other friends, Parker! We hang out all the time, too!"

Parker huffs and sinks down in his seat. What's wrong with him? He had other friends until he ditched them for being jerks but as soon as I have another friend, he doesn't want me to have friends other than him?

"If you don't want to hang out with Tyler," I say. "You can go on home. No one's forcing you to be here and hang out with him. But it's my home and he's my friend. We can hang out plenty just the two of us when he's gone."

Parker just huffs again and shoves a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

I fix myself some snacks and sit beside Parker to watch him as he plays through the second chapter of the game. He's almost completed it and is just preparing for the big boss fight there.

"Wait," I say. "What's the gun? How'd you get it? I haven't seen that gun yet and I thought I had them all!"

"A hidden unlock," Parker says. "You get it by take an energy core to the Shrine of Light after beating the hzaviit lord. There's a quest series that unlocks and you get the gun at the end. Now shush. I'm trying to focus."

He's still being moody over me inviting Tyler over?

I don't say anything else as Parker keeps playing, up until Tyler shows up.

"Hi, Tyler!" I hop out of my seat and rush over to give him a fist-bump. "Thanks for coming! Parker's playing New Frontiers of Zenzialtz and is about to take on the boss for the chapter and-Parker? Whatcha doing?"

Parker's just saved and closed the game.

"Going home," he stands. "Bye."

Parker leaves without saying anything else.

"Er… is everything okay?" Tyler asks.

"I dunno," I shrug. "Parker's just being moody for some reason. Come on! Mom's probably going to finish making dinner soon, but we can start a game! What do you want to play?"

"I haven't gotten to play that one yet," he says. "Can we do that?"

"Which one?" I ask. "New Frontiers?"

"Yeah," he says.

"Sure!" I beckon for him to follow as I return to my seat. "It's singleplayer. Let's make you a profile so you can play a new save. The starter enemies are sooooo funny to fight, you're gonna love them!"

[Greyson – 10 years]

What the heck is this?

I arrived in my workshop with dinner, ready to work on my mega computer some more after a long day of just being at home because Dad said I couldn't go out until now, and there's a big-ass spherical mana crystal just sitting by the machine.

After examining the giant mana crystal from several angles to determine whether or not it may be problematic to keep around, I discover two things. First, it's absolutely packed with mana. Size doesn't always equal to quality but this one has both.

Second is that there's a note in Xander's crude handwriting taped to the crystal.

Grandpa Adrian made this for you. It produces its own mana using the technique I used for the batteries for the puzzle spheres. It's for the power source for your mega computer.

It does what now? It makes its own mana? And the puzzle spheres' mana batteries apparently do the same. Xander's magical abilities are truly on another level if he managed to figure out how to do that! It also proves that it is possible!

Yet I can't figure out how to do it just by staring at this sphere. No matter how much I try to analyze it, I just cannot figure out how it produces its own mana. Once again, Xander is proving his divinity by coming up with something I can't decipher.

Not only that, but he did it by making a mana crystal that produces mana instead of just being crystallized mana.

As much as I want to try and break apart the mana crystal, there's no way I'll do that to something Xander acquired for me to use for the mega computer. By convincing Grandfather to make this for me, he just sped up my work on the computer by years!

I put my food down and pull off my backpack, then get to work while making sure to eat as I replace the power supply network for the mega computer. Doing that takes me almost an hour and once I finish, I boot up the computer and begin running checks to make sure everything is good with the new power supply.

Mana is drawn out in the appropriate amounts when I run systems that require more power than others, though tweaking that a little is a must as the amounts are a little bit too high. They aren't high enough to be a concern, though, so tweaking the magic matrices isn't an urgent need.

If I turn on the transfer pod… wait. I should actually put something in the pod first so that there's something to transfer.

The pod is a coffin-like-chamber temporarily fixed to part of the mega computer and can fit a whole human inside of it and can transfer a variety of things. I know it works fine, but I need to make sure that the power supply is operating as necessary when the processes are in use. There's a 0% chance that my dad and papa would let me use one of them or my brothers for the check, and Grandfather would likely have a punishment if I acquired someone who hurts little boys to use. It's not like I can actually make sure the power supply works properly if I go in, so that's ruled out as well or I'd play with it myself again.

"Hm…" I tap my chin.

Without a person to give feedback on the experience, I can't know for sure whether or not the other aspects of the experience went well. Well, it isn't as if getting feedback on that is important since I already know the transfer process itself works, so I can use something that doesn't have the ability to give it. All I'm testing right now is the energy draw with the new power source.

I teleport to a section of wilderness where multipurpose chickens can be found, grab the nearest one, and teleport back. The chicken wants to fight me but I send some soothing feelings into its mind to calm it down, then tuck it under an arm as I punch the buttons to open up the pod.

Once the chicken's placed inside and the pod is closed, I tap some stuff on one of the key screens for the computer.

"Activate transfer process," I say as I finish navigating the menus and inputting my codes. "Transfer Pod 1."

"Activating transfer process in Transfer Pod 1," a robotic voice says.

I really want to fix the voice so it sounds more human, but that can wait until I'm using the computer more. For now, getting the computer fully-functional and ready for changing the world is more important.

Lights illuminate on the pod after the computer responds to my verbal command and I hear a slight humming sound. That's… concerning. I've already fixed all of the issues that Xander showed me the other day so there shouldn't be anything wrong. It did require me sneaking out at night on Sunday and Monday, but I got it done.

That humming also wasn't there last time I tried to activate the transfer process. Great. Now I have to fix something else. Ugh. The life of a ten-year-old genius is so hard. As soon as I fix one thing, another thing breaks.

"Transfer process completed," the robotic voice says.

Maybe I should fix the voice today instead of letting it go. I'll be using the computer more often now that I have a good power supply for it.

I look to my left, to a section of the computer that's just a display table. Floating over it is a light magic representation of the chicken, which is just wandering around, pecking at a ground we cannot see. The transfer worked just fine, so I check the readouts for the power. Hm. There was too much of a draw so I'll need to fix that, but it otherwise worked fine.

"Activate return process," I say after navigating the menus and inputting some commands. "Transfer Pod 1."

"Activating return process in Transfer Pod 1," the computer responds, and the humming starts up again. After a few seconds, the lights on the pod turn off and the humming stops. "Return process completed."

I open up the pod and pull out the chicken, which seems a little bit confused but which was also about to return to pecking at the ground, only this ground was the bed of the pod.

"You don't want to eat that," I tell her. "It's a synthetic material I invented with a 0% chance of you being able to damage it, so you'll just hurt yourself. Here, have some seeds."

I toss my right hand toward the ground and some seeds land on it, summoned from a container in my backpack. I set the chicken down, then get to work on seeing what's wrong with the pod.

It takes me an hour, but I discover that during my last time performing maintenance on it, I accidentally knocked something loose and it was just straight-up vibrating as a result of the electrical magic flowing through it.

"Whew," I tell the chicken, which is currently sitting while watching me. "That could have been disastrous if the pod was left in use for too long or if I used it too many times. By my calculations, there's an 87.41923% chance it would superheat and then explode if the pod was used for more than five minutes, sixteen seconds. That chance goes up to 100% if the pod was used for more than seven minutes, nine seconds. It's a good thing I only left you in there for eighty-seven seconds or I might not have been able to pull you back until I made a new one."

My stomach rumbles a little. While I didn't use too much magic to work on the machine, I'm still a growing boy who teleported a little bit ago and am still recovering from yesterday's magic use.

I walk over to the kitchen part of my workshop and pull off my shirt, hanging it up as I grab my apron and pull it on. Then, I walk over to the chicken, which looks at me.

"You get to be my second dinner," I grab it and snap its neck, then carry it over to my kitchen.

How should I cook it?