I sat idly in the front passenger seat as Panda drove us through the desert. The local topography was a sight to behold. We’d quite literally left the snowy mountain tops of High Rock to find ourselves immediately in a sweltering red desert.

  Scarlet sand dunes flanked us as we raced down the only street for miles around. Though the term street was giving credit where it wasn’t due. The dusty track was barely visible below us.

  “Wow, look at that, kid,” Panda said, awestruck, as we crested the horizon and Castalor finally came into view.

  It was a shining jewel in the sand, an oasis of unparalleled proportions. It was… raining blood?

  Crimson droplets splashed onto the wind shield as we drove onwards and I gazed at it with a furrowed brow. I looked up, half expecting to see a fight between two flying kaiju, but there was nothing.

  “Raining blood… It’s a feature of this region,” Panda explained idly. “It’s not actual blood. Castalor is surrounded by red sands and water reflects colours, which is why it’s usually blue – because of the sky, right? Well the sheer amount of sand in this region causes the rain to appear red. Which is why people like to say it rains blood in Castalor. Of course there’s also a dual meaning there since this place has such a violent history. Or at least, that’s what my books told me. This’ll be my first time visiting in person.”

  I nodded and returned my gaze to the city ahead of us. Nestled in the middle of a barren wasteland of sand, Castalor seemed to encompass a strange mix of cultural clashes, at least where the architecture was concerned.

  I could clearly make out clay huts dotted about, especially in the outskirts, and yet there was a Taj Mahal-looking domed palace dotted in the middle, a large glass skyscraper behind it, and modern high-rise buildings dotted about the intimidatingly large city. I could see mansions, office buildings, Tudor-esq houses and a range of other oddities scattered around an otherwise middle eastern setting.

  “Castalor,” Rex said softly, “the cultural capital of the world, and the ancestral home of my people.”

  “Where to first, kid?” Panda asked as we closed in on the suburbs which ringed the outskirts.

  “Get us to Adventure Society if you can,” I replied. “I promised Freja we’d check in there, and I believe we have a quest to hand in.”

  We’d more than doubled the extermination requirements for the quest, which Freja had given us, over the past few weeks, stopping to slay groups of monsters as we travelled from town to town. I was hoping we’d get a secret reward when we handed it in.

  The rest of the team huddled around the cockpit of our camper as Panda navigated the winding, and complex, roads.

  All types of people were going about their day, an array of clothing and races amidst a sea of energy. I saw long robes, metal armour, turbans, fedoras, feathers, fur, and everything in between.

  Driving through such a densely populated area was quite the challenge for my familiar. People didn’t seem to care that a vehicle was about to hit them, and I was tempted to tell Panda to just run them over.

  Ignorance wouldn’t be bliss for long with me at the wheel.

  What was more frustrating; the seemingly clear level capper road just next to the busy causeway we were relegated to. Despite the occasional flash of distorted wind, it seemed to be deserted. Though the locals avoided it like the plague and, after my near miss in Cali Port, I planned to follow their lead.

  “I wish I was a level capper,” Bell muttered. “Just look at all the room they have. Yet here we are, relegated to a curb crawl with the peasants.”

  “We’ll get there,” I replied, keeping my echoed sentiments to myself.

  I have to.

  ***

  A few hours and a guarded checkpoint later, we made it to the Adventure Society building. It was the usual glass skyscraper complete with a vertical neon sign, but with one obvious exception: underground parking.

  Following the signs, we drove down a paved path into the underbelly of the building. Panda parked our camper next to a flamboyant car, if you could even call it that, which looked like a roman chariot minus the horses. It even had spiked wheels.

  Exiting the vehicle, we found our way into the foyer where groups of armour-clad adventurers stalked around. This AS building seemed more luxurious than the ones I was used to. There was even a bar in the foyer, sofas, a lacrima screen – which was basically a TV – and the receptionist desk was complimented by security screens like a bank.

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  It was certainly a step up from Havar.

  Approaching the counter, I bent down slightly to speak into the gap between the desk and the screen.

  “Uh, hello,” I began awkwardly. “We’re the Dissident Flame party; we have a quest to hand in and we were told to report to the director here.”

  “ID card please,” the human receptionist replied in a board voice. She wore a buttoned-up shirt with a bowtie, tucked into an appropriately lengthened skirt.

  Taking my card out of my inventory, I slid it underneath the window.

  “Hmmm,” she muttered, inspecting the card. “Kaleb Akabane… looks like you’ve been temporarily promoted to bronze rank. Now that you’re in a city I’ll have to bump you back down. Battlefield promotions only apply in the field-”

  “Hold on a minute,” I said, “I was told that I could keep the rank and I’d just have to attend the seminar.”

  “And just who told you that?”

  “Director Freja of Cali Port.”

  “Well, from what I’ve heard, she’s currently fighting tooth and nail to reclaim her city. A poor showing for a director if you ask me.”

  “Which nobody did,” Bell said under her breath,

  “It does explain why you received a battlefield commission,” the receptionist continued uninterrupted, “but just what are you doing here when there’s civil unrest back there?”

  “I’m here because I need to see the director of this Adventure Society,” I replied. “Freja-”

  “Director Freja.”

  “FREJA asked me to deliver an urgent letter to your director.”

  “Tsk,” the receptionist harrumphed and I began to seriously lose my patience. “The director is very busy at the moment. You’ll have to come back another time.”

  “Oh you know what,” I said, raising my voice. “I’ll find him myself. Let me guess, top floor, take the golden elevator, big, open office with windows that overlook the whole city?”

  Clenching my fists I turned on my heels and marched towards the golden elevator which was located in exactly the same place as it always was.

  “Guards!” The receptionist called in a particularly shrill voice.

  Immediately, every adventurer in the place turned towards us, interrupting their conversations. Some of them looked pretty mean and from the reaction my dragon’s eye had, at least five of them were probably level cappers.

  Shit, can’t fight my way out of this one, I thought as the rest of my team moved to stand back to back with me. We were trapped in, encircled by dozens of adventures.

  “That might not have been the best way to handle things,” Rex sighed.

  “Nah, that bitch brought it on herself,” Bell said, “that’s probably why they have a safety screen, cause if it was me, she’d have gotten a bloody nose.”

  “I do love me a cat fight,” Panda smirked.

  “Don’t worry human,” Asmodeus said much too loudly. “I shall devour their souls so that you might visit this director you so crave to see.”

  “We got a problem here?” An extremely buff, shirtless, bald man said, stepping forward from the circle of foes.

  “Not at all,” I replied casually. “I just need to see the director.”

  “No one sees him without permission,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “And you ain’t got that.”

  “I was sent here as an urgent envoy from Cali Port’s director,” I said, mustering up all the patience I had.

  “I don’t know what that is, but it changes nothing.”

  “Urgh,” Asmodeus scoffed loudly, “allow me to devour this plebian. I get the impression that even if a brain devouring parasite crawled through his ear it would starve. There’s simply no reasoning with some people.”

  “What did you say?” The man replied, moving closer. “A brain devouring… what?”

  “I think he was calling you stupid,” someone said from behind.

  “What would a flying monkey know about being smart? Its brain is smaller than my balls.”

  “Unless you’re confessing a severe and unfortunate case of testicular cancer, that’s simply not true.” Asmodeus replied haughtily. “AND I AM NOT A MONKEY!”

  “Calm down,” I said, stroking the top of his head lightly.

  “Nah,” the bald man said, “let him keep going. I’ll happily teach all y’all a lesson.”

  “Perhaps you should,” the same calm voice added from somewhere behind him. “I for one would love to see a good smackdown right in the middle of the newly refurbished foyer.”

  “Right?” The bald man replied, “ok pipsqueak, you and me, one on one. Let’s fucking go.”

  “Gladly,” Asmodeus snarled and before I had a chance to stop him, he dashed across the room, sinking his teeth into the bald man’s Adam’s apple.

  “Ah! What the hell!” The man exclaimed, wrenching Asmodeus away from his throat and causing blood to spray out all over the polished floor. “You’re gonna wish you’d never been born monkey!”

  Without hesitation, Asmodeus spat a ball of lightning into the man’s face, causing him to let the little dragon go.

  “What the hell was that?” Bell said, pushing forward for a better view.

  “Your blood tastes like cowardice,” Asmodeus said, backing away slightly as lightning glistened on his teeth. “But the skill I have gained from it will grant you a suitable death, one far better than you deserve.”

  “That’s it, no more messing around,” the man said, wiping the lightning spit from his face as if it was nothing more than a drizzle of rain.

  My dragon’s eye twinged as his aura exploded, filling the entire room with a menacing feeling. Frankly, he was way out of our league. More worryingly though, was the aura behind it. A darkness which completely overshadowed all the other auras in the room. It was fierce and visceral. I could practically touch it.

  “That’s enough, Rohan,” A quietly calm voice said, the same voice that had been egging him on before.

  “Says who?” Rohan, the bald man, replied through gritted teeth.

  Turning on his heels, fists clenched and clearly ready to throw down, he stopped in his tracks.

  “Director?” He squeaked.

  I couldn’t see how, but suddenly Rohan flew across the room, smashing into the receptionist area and shattering the security screen.

  The fierce aura moved towards us and I equipped my daggers, not that it would do me any good. We were completely outclassed. There were no two ways about it.

  Thundering steps shook the floor as the owner of the powerful aura approached me. Though I couldn’t see anything at all.

  “Welcome to Castalor, I’ve been expecting you.”

  Looking down I saw a cat, not a catonid. A literal cat.

  What the hell have I gotten myself into?