Dragon Kings of the Orient (The Myth Hunter Book 2)

by Percival Constantine

“What would give you that idea?”

  “Shroud…”

  He stopped in his tracks and grabbed her wrist to halt her as well. Max, who had been lagging behind, came up beside them.

  “Something wrong?”

  “No, just go on ahead. Someone needs to keep up with Asami,” said Elisa. “Or…at least keep her in your sights.”

  Max breathed in deeply. “I’ll try…”

  “Thanks Max,” said Elisa.

  Shroud watched him leave and, once convinced Max was out of earshot, turned his attention back to Elisa. “Look, there may be other factors here. Things we don’t know about. I told you before I think the Dragon Kings may be plotting something. Something big. And I don’t think it’s just their unlucky coincidence that the Monkey King was released now. At this point in time.”

  “Do you know who set him loose?” asked Elisa.

  “No, but I don’t think it happened by accident. I think someone deliberately set Wukong free. He’s defeated the Dragon Kings before, he’s probably the best weapon anyone has against them.”

  “And why don’t you want to say anything about this?” asked Elisa.

  “Because Asami was working for one of the Dragon Kings. Doesn’t matter if she’s your new life partner or whatever, fact is, kitsune are tricksters. That whole thing could have been a set up to lull you into a false sense of security.”

  Elisa began to walk on ahead. “Come on. We can’t fall too far behind. What if they catch up to Wukong without us?”

  Shroud followed but said nothing more. Elisa was grateful for that, it allowed her to fully digest what he had just told her. She didn’t trust Shroud, but she couldn’t deny that he’d come through so far. And he’d made some very good points.

  ***

  Asami came to a stop at a cave leading inside the mountain. Surely, some of the Monkey King's magic had been responsible for opening up this portal. Torn vines and foliage lay scattered about, the mouth of the tunnel which had opened up in the sheer cliff face. There were footprints in the earth, and Asami could sense the peculiar scent of Sun Wukong.

  She wrinkled her nose, glanced over her shoulders as her keen ears caught the sound of approaching footsteps. Max came panting up the trail. When he arrived, he knelt over, his hands resting on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

  “Maybe Shroud was right about you coming along,” she said.

  “Don’t start.” Max looked at the cave entrance. “I assume this is the entrance?”

  “Yeah, here’s where the trail stops,” said Asami. “How’d you beat the others?”

  “They stopped for a minute. Maybe I should’ve stopped with them.”

  Asami arched her brow. “Oh did they?”

  Coming around the path where Max and Asami just came from were Elisa and Shroud a few paces behind. Elisa peered inside the cave once she saw it. “This it?”

  “Don’t see any other caves around here,” said Asami.

  “Okay, you wanna take point?” asked Elisa.

  Asami gestured to Shroud. “Why not the expert?”

  “Because you can see in the dark,” said Elisa.

  “Doesn’t mean—”

  Elisa shut her eyes in frustration. “Asami, please. Don’t start.”

  “Fine.”

  Asami moved inside the cavern. Elisa, Shroud and Max each drew small flashlights from their pockets and followed her in. The entrance was followed almost immediately by a flight of stone steps. As they descended, Asami commented to Elisa.

  “Hey, remember that temple in India? Where everything seemed quiet?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Point being, maybe you should have your weapons ready.”

  Elisa took the curved khopesh blade in hand. Max and Shroud each followed her lead by drawing their Berettas.

  They reached the foot of the staircase. Asami could see the flickering of flames in the distance. Something, a dark shadow or a projection in the tunnel, partially obscured her view. She could sense Sun Wukong. He was close. And she would be ready for him.

  She ran ahead. As her legs moved, her fur started to grow and she got down on all fours. She ran faster, bounding forward. Her body changed even more until she was fully transformed.

  “Dammit!” said Elisa, running after her. “Asami!”

  “She does have a death wish,” said Shroud.

  Elisa kept after Asami, and followed her through a doorway. Then she stopped immediately, shocked at the vision in front of her. Asami had also halted, now transforming back into her human state.

  The room was a bright gold, lit by some unseen light. It was massive, filled with treasures of gold, jade and silver. Weapons and statues that had to be thousands of years old.

  In the back of the room, resting on a pedestal, was a long, golden staff. And Sun Wukong knelt before it. He placed his palms underneath the staff, eyes shut as he carefully lifted it from its cradle. He seemed to struggle with lifting the venerable object and when he turned to face the pair, he opened his eyes once more. They burned even brighter than before. The staff, which had previously appeared to be almost too heavy for him, now appeared light as a feather. Sun Wukong whirled it around his body as he twisted with it. He stopped in a fighting stance, pointing one end of the Ruyi Jingu Bang at his pursuers. He grinned.

  “I see you found the trail I left for you. Are you ready for round two?”

  CHAPTER 11

  “You bet I am!” growled Asami.

  She pounced at Sun Wukong. He shuffled back, batting her aside with the staff. He thrust it at her again, striking her dead in the chest, and knocking her backward, so she clawed and scrabbled ten feet across the cavern floor. Using Asami's attack as a distraction, Elisa was able to run in at Wukong from behind, swinging the khopesh fiercely.

  As if he had some sixth sense to warn him of the attack, Sun Wukong ducked to avoid the strike. He shoved the back end of the staff into Elisa’s chest, stopping her dead. Then he used the other end of the staff to knock her feet out from under her, depositing Elisa on her rear end.

  During this moment that it took for Sun Wukong to stop Elisa's assault, Asami spun to a stop and bounded full speed at the Monkey King. Her claws raked across his back. The Monkey King cringed, rolled away, and the magic staff shrunk down to the size of a billy club. He threw it with unerring accuracy and it struck Asami right in the throat, causing her to gasp. The staff flew back into his hand as though it were a boomerang.

  At that moment, Shroud entered the room, firing both his Berettas. Sun Wukong deflected each projectile with the billy club. He pointed it and the staff magically extended across the great chamber, slamming into Shroud with enough force to send him into the wall.

  Bracing herself with arms, Elisa kicked out from her position on the floor, her foot striking the Monkey King's back. Sun Wukong stumbled, but then swung the staff towards her head. Even as she moved to her feet, Elisa blocked it with her khopesh and twisted, the hooked blade trapping his staff in her grip. While she had the Ruyi Jingu Bang temporarily restrained, she moved her hand behind her back. In a rapid motion, she drew a kukri and striking with all her strength, and embedded it in his shoulder.

  The Monkey King pulled back, resting the end of his staff on the ground as he used one hand to pull the bloody kukri out. He glared at her with those burning, fiery eyes.

  “I tried to be nice, but you just had to keep pushing me, didn’t you?”

  “You’re not killing anyone else, not until I can figure out just what the hell’s going on here,” said Elisa.

  Ignoring Elisa's bid for information, Asami used the lull in the battle to leap on the Monkey King from behind, her figure caught in half-transformation between human and fox. With ferocious intensity, she bit into his neck. Sun Wukong flailed, trying to shake her off. He jumped back, ten feet, into a wall, slamming her against it. It stunned Asami enough that she released his neck from her jaws.

  Sun Wukong moved away from the fallen fox-woman, looking aroun
d the room at his three attackers. “Okay, I am officially through screwing around with you people!”

  “Yeah, what’re you gonna do about it?” hissed Asami.

  “I see you learned a thing or two from the last time we fought. This time you brought help, so that makes things a little more complicated for me. But sadly, that won't help you much longer. It's time I quit toying with you and show you just what this thing can do!” The Monkey King winked and started to slowly twirl his staff, the Ruyi Jingu Bang, around. The speed grew faster and faster and the temperature in the room began to drop dramatically. He thrust the staff towards Elisa and she jumped to avoid it. The Buddha statue she had been standing in front of was now frozen solid.

  Sun Wukong used the same trick, this time turning the powers of the Ruyi Jingu Bang on Asami. She too, was fortunately able to avoid it. As Asami fell to the ground to avoid the icy wind that swept over her and shattered a row of idols into frigid fragments of clay, her own eyes turned bright red. She opened them wide as she witnessed the ground beneath Sun Wukong erupting so that the Monkey King went flying into the air.

  Once he landed, Asami was on him again, clawing at his body with her razor-sharp nails. He flipped her over onto her back and drove his fist against her face repeatedly. Elisa leaped from the tumult of earth thrown up by the Monkey King's flight into the air and grabbed him by his tail, pulling him away from Asami.

  Max came alongside Shroud, who was climbing from the floor, blood streaming from the gash in his head that he had sustained when the Monkey King had thrown him against the wall.

  “This isn’t going well,” said Max.

  “I know. You see anything that could be that headband?” asked Shroud.

  Max gestured. “There’s a Buddha statue, one that looks vaguely simian. And it’s wearing a strange headband.”

  “Okay,” said Shroud as he spotted the Buddha toward which Max had pointed. “I’ve got an idea.”

  Sun Wukong deflected Elisa’s khopesh strikes with the staff, which was once again shrunk down to a smaller size. It grew again as he slammed it against the ground and used it as a pole from which to give Elisa a two-footed kick, which sent her tumbling through a pile of coins minted in the Ming Dynasty. He spun around the staff and released himself, springing at Asami. He screeched as he pounced on her, pummeling her into the ground.

  Shroud fired several bullets into Sun Wukong’s back. He screeched, but the bullets seemed to have little long term effect—except to make Shroud the object of his attention. He jumped off the bruised and broken Asami, and landed a few feet before the Freemason. The Monkey King gazed into Shroud’s dark eyes. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Believe it or not, for your own good.” Shroud fired again from just a few feet away. Be it bullet or blade, when Sun Wukong was fighting just one attacker at a time he didn't seem to have any difficulty avoiding being hit. He jumped past the bullets but before he struck Shroud, the Freemason threw something—a small pellet that exploded into a large cloud of smoke which was not so easily avoided.

  The Monkey King stumbled, blinded by the strike. He could not reach his staff, and he couldn't seem to call the Ruyi Jingu Bang to him, as he had done before.

  “Hold him!” barked Shroud.

  Elisa jumped on him from behind and forced Sun to the ground. She tried to keep him pinned, but he was strong and struggling against her.

  “Whatever you’re gonna do, better do it fast!” she said.

  Shroud fired a few more shots into Sun Wukong. “Max, hurry up already!”

  Max stood at the statue of the strange Buddha and raised raising the headband from the simian forehead. He ran towards them, but found the struggling Sun Wukong unwilling to wear the headband. Elisa elbowed the Monkey King in the back And this gave Max just enough time to slip the headband over Sun Wukong’s head.

  The Monkey King stopped struggling, just lay there for a few moments. Elisa slowly got off him as Shroud kept the gun trained on Wukong's chest. Asami limped to them and slowly, Sun Wukong rose back up to his feet.

  “You gonna be a good little monkey now?” asked Shroud.

  “What did you do to me?” asked Wukong. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

  “That headband allows whoever put it on you to control you,” said Max. “You answer to me now.”

  Sun Wukong pointed threateningly at Max. “I spared your life, you ingrate! And this is how you repay me?”

  “Oh, it’ll get better once we turn you over to the Dragon Kings,” said Asami.

  “We’re not doing that,” said Shroud.

  “The hell we’re not!” objected the battered Asami.

  “Asami, there’s something else going on here,” said Elisa. “We need Wukong to help us fill in the missing pieces.”

  “What missing pieces?” asked Asami. “He’s a demon!”

  “Some might say the same about you,” said Shroud. “He stays alive. At least until I find out what I need to know.”

  “Not gonna happen. I owe this bastard,” said Asami.

  Shroud shifted the aim of his Berettas to Asami. “Down girl. Or I’ll give you a Scooby snack you won’t soon forget.”

  Asami smirked. “First off, I’m a fox spirit, not a dog. Second, you really think that’s gonna work on me?”

  “Not directly, no. That’s why I’m aiming at those pretty little pearls you’re wearing around your wrist.”

  “Small target. You think you can get a shot off, and actually hit your target, before I tear out your throat?” asked Asami.

  Shroud smirked. “You wanna find out?”

  “Elisa…things are getting a little tense here…” said Max.

  “I agree,” said Elisa. “Both of you calm down. Asami, this is my call. There are some questions I’ve got for Wukong myself. And I want them answered.”

  “Well, isn’t this a happy little occasion?” asked the Monkey King. “You lot are pretty screwed up, you know that?”

  Elisa faced him. “What’s this all about? Why are you going after the Dragon Kings?”

  “It’s like I told you in Kowloon—I just want what’s mine,” said Sun. “You’re trying to keep that from me.”

  “And what’s yours?” asked Elisa.

  He gestured to the staff. “This—the Ruyi Jingu Bang. These boots that let me walk on clouds. And I want what the Dragon Kings took from me—my Buddhahood.”

  “The Dragon Kings stripped you of it?” asked Shroud.

  Sun nodded. “I worked hard for that title. Protected Xuanzing on his entire journey…”

  “Because you were forced to with that little tiara,” interrupted Asami.

  “Bite me,” said Sun.

  “I'd only be returning the favor.” Wukong displayed the deep bite that marked his flesh.

  “The Dragon Kings, were they the ones who imprisoned you?” asked Max.

  “I think so,” said Sun.

  “What do you mean you ‘think?’” asked Elisa.

  “I can’t remember clearly. All I know is that I was trapped in the body of a monkey for a very long time,” said Sun.

  “How did you escape?”

  “I didn’t, someone freed me,” said Sun.

  “Who would have the power to undo a spell the Dragon Kings cast?” asked Shroud.

  “Nezha,” said Max. “He’s a Taoist deity.”

  “What interest would Nezha have in this?” asked Elisa.

  “Nezha killed the son of a Dragon King,” said Max. “They reported him to the Jade Emperor and he disemboweled himself as penance, only to be resurrected almost immediately after.”

  “We clashed a few times but we always respected each other,” said Sun Wukong. He helped us during Xuanzing’s journey and he’s the one who freed me from my prison.”

  “Why now?” asked Elisa.

  “The Dragon Kings are up to something, that’s all I really know,” said Sun.

  “Right. And we should just believe you,” said Asami.

 
“Do whatever you want, just take this thing off so I can do my job,” said Sun.

  “It’s not coming off, so you can just forget about that little fantasy,” said Elisa.

  “At least not until we know just what we’re dealing with,” said Shroud. That earned him a glare from Elisa.

  “It’s not a consideration at all,” said Asami. “Elisa, we’ve got him—this is what we’re here to do.”

  Elisa looked at Shroud as she spoke. “Things have changed. Not sure we can trust the Dragon Kings.”

  Asami pointed to Shroud. “And you think this guy can be trusted? Or how about the demon that tried to kill me? Think he’s trustworthy?”

  The ground began to rumble. A rumble that grew louder, the vibrations rippling through the chamber. Sun Wukong, who never seemed concerned about much of anything, seemed to be very worried.

  “What’s going on?” asked Max.

  “You didn’t think the Dragon Kings were just going to sit back and let us raid their treasure room, did you?” asked Sun.

  “Remember I said this place would be well-guarded?” asked Shroud. “What's coming is probably the guard dog.”

  “Let's get out of here,” cried Max and he headed for the tunnel out.

  Sun Wukong laughed, but it sounded harsh and tense. “Even I can't outrun what’s coming. What chance does an aging mortal have of escaping?”

  The rumbles and quakes came faster and larger. The gathered participants readied their respective weapons for anything. Sun took up the staff again, and no one objected. The Monkey King seemed to be the only one of them that had an inkling of just what was coming. He stood at the ready.

  “Move away from the center.”

  Everyone followed Sun Wukong's command and something burst through the center of the chamber's floor, throwing up a haze of earth and flying rock. The beast that emerged had a serpentine body that was covered in in red, overlapping scales. His eyes burned like raging infernos. He was a red dragon about twenty feet in length. He had no wings and rested on powerful hind legs and long, clawed arms that swung with enough power to decapitate anyone unfortunate enough to be within reaching distance.

  However, the dragon didn't need to be within reaching distance to kill. His large jaws opened and flames spewed forth. Already, the group was jumping for cover or many of them would have been burnt to ashes by the superheated flame that devoured all in its path. Elisa found herself at the flank of the dragon and she lifted her khopesh and hurled it. The blade spun toward the dragon's eye—the only place Elisa could see didn't have any armor, although perhaps even the lids were armored. However the dragon undulated his skull away from the spinning blade, moving just enough to avoid losing his vision. Still, the khopesh came at the dragon's armored neck at a sideways angle and slipped between the overlapping scales, slashing into its neck. Elisa realized that the knife throw, though it hadn't gone where she had hoped, had been lucky enough to penetrate the beast's natural armor. If the khopesh had struck at any other angle the thick scales would have deflected the whirling blade without doing any harm.