The Descent: A Middang3ard Series (Dragon Approved Book 6) Read online

  The Descent

  Dragon Approved™ Book Six

  Ramy Vance

  Michael Anderle

  The Descent Team

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  Dave Hicks

  Kathleen Fettig

  Diane L. Smith

  John Ashmore

  Deb Mader

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Larry Oman

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editor

  The Skyhunter Editing Team

  This Book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2020 by Ramy Vance & Michael Anderle

  Cover Art by Jake @ J Caleb Design

  http://jcalebdesign.com / [email protected]

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US Edition, March 2020

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-785-3

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-786-0

  Dedication

  To Wee Orla… you should be here by now!

  —Ramy

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  to Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  to Live the Life We Are

  Called.

  — Michael

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Author Notes Ramy Vance

  Author Notes Michael Anderle

  Other Books by the Authors

  Connect with The Authors

  Chapter One

  Alex impatiently tapped her feet while she stood outside, waiting for Team Boundless to meet her. She’d already been waiting for an hour, and patience was not one of her virtues. She’d become very aware of that fact.

  Waiting for the team was much better than waiting for the higher-ups to take her seriously. At least the team was going to show up.

  When Alex had decided that Boundless was going to go help Roy and Toppinir, she’d thought they would just jump on their dragons and head out. Then Gill had brought Alex back down to reality and explained what they would have to do before they could get moving.

  The dragons had just been in an impressive and taxing battle a few hours before. Maintenance had to be the first and foremost priority if the dragons were going to be moving again. The dragons could very easily get hurt if their equipment was not maintained, not to mention, they needed a break.

  Alex had jumped at the chance to do anything to help Chine feel better. She hadn’t been aware that he had been in any kind of pain. None of the dragons seemed to have been damaged during the battle, and she had completely forgotten what she’d been told when she was back at the Nest.

  Gill once more burst Alex’s bubble. It wasn’t as simple as just going to change out their dragon’s equipment. They would need access to the stables in this facility—the facility they weren’t supposed to be exploring. The same facility where everyone was on edge and which was filled with patrols.

  “I see your point,” Alex had said. “You’re basically telling me we have no options. We just have to sit around, even though we all agreed that we’re going to help Toppinir and Roy. That is what you’re saying, right, Gill?”

  Gill had taken a deep breath and launched into a lengthy explanation of his plan to get the team out of the facility with their dragons healthy and newly equipped. The plan was long. And complicated. There were moments Alex thought Gill might have snapped under the pressure. But it was a plan—that much she could be certain of.

  The team had decided to go with Gill’s plan, seeing as how they didn’t have any other options. That was why Alex was waiting outside, very aware that she wanted to be pacing and even more aware that pacing would just draw more attention to her. Which was not in the plan.

  Gill, Brath, Jim, and Jollies exited the facility and rushed over to Alex. Jim and Gill were carrying a couple of video cameras and cords that they packed onto Jim’s back. Brath was playing with a set of keys. “What are those for?” Alex asked.

  Brath tossed the keys to Alex. “We’re going on a little joyride,” Brath replied.

  Team Boundless rolled down the quarry, driving a yeti ATV. Naturally, the ATV was nearly twice the size of a regular ATV, and as a result, Alex and the others had to come up with a creative way to drive the beast of a machine.

  Alex and Gill were given brake and accelerator duty. They were both down at the bottom of the ATV, shoved together tighter than Alex liked. As they worked the two pedals, their hands occasionally brushed.

  Gill didn’t seem to notice. Alex tried not to notice Gill not noticing.

  Jim sat on a milk crate in front of the passenger seat, working the clutch. For some reason, yeti ATVs required two yetis to operate them, possibly because they were so large and demanding.

  Whenever Brath shouted, “Shifting,” Jim would kick down on the clutch so that Jollies, who was zipping around in the ATV, could slam against the gear shifter and move it to the appropriate gear.

  Brath was taking care of the steering. He was the oldest of the team members. Alex found this extremely surprising because Brath seemed like the least mature of the group. But as the oldest, he had been the only one who knew how to drive.

  The ATV bumped up and down as Brath steered over a large rock. “How did you ever get a chance to drive?” Alex asked from the bottom of the ATV. “Do gnomes even have cars?”

  Brath struggled with the wheel as he tried to rein in the beastly ATV. “I mean, they’re close enough to human cars,” Brath explained. “They’re kinda slower and clunkier, kinda like your human’s steampunk nonsense. Except ours actually work well. Mostly dwarfish style. You know, similar heights.”

  “You probably should have taken more driving lessons.”

  Brath pulled hard to the right, swinging the ATV around the canyon’s corner. “I don’t see anyone else with anything close to driving experience!” Brath shouted as his face went red. “Anyone who has that is more than welcome to get up here and start steering.”

  Alex and Gill snickered from the bottom of the ATV as Brath continued to mutter under his breath about how underappreciated he was. “So, why are we doing all of this, Gill?” Brath shouted.

  The ATV shuddered as Brath tried to guide it toward the canyon’s walls, where the slope was low enough for him to start climbing. “We are doing this as part of a diversion,” Gill explained. “We need to get the soldiers out of the facility so we can access the dragons.”

  Jim, who was staring out the window, jumped as Brath shouted, “Shift! Then speed up!”

  Once the team had changed gears, Ji
m asked, “How does becoming an A/V team help us to get everyone out of the facility?”

  The ATV started to climb the canyon. It instantly began losing speed, its wheels churning through the gravel as Alex panicked and hit her pedal, causing the ATV to speed up. Brath shouted, “Clutch,” and Jim slammed down on the clutch while Jollies screeched, “Shift!”

  They continued on in this way, the ATV a collection of shouting voices: Brath trying to direct what action needed to be fulfilled, Alex trying to stifle her nervous giggles, and Jollies cursing under her breath in Pixie.

  As they climbed the mountain, Gill went further into the plan. They were going to draw out the soldiers with a ploy. Over in the canyon, where they had battled the trolls, there was plenty of material to work with.

  A second attack by the trolls would light a fire under the asses of the soldiers at the facility. They wouldn’t be able to ignore it. It wasn’t as if the soldiers were going to help Roy and Toppinir since the facilities’ resources were already low.

  Alex thought the idea sounded far-fetched and hard to believe. Why not just start a fire in the facility? When Alex pressed Gill on the details, he merely shrugged and said, “Outside the facility is better. We have more control and a longer window of time to work in.”

  So, Alex accepted that it was going to be out of her control. The more she thought about it, though, the more she was all right with it. She’d been calling most of the shots since they left on their mission, but she knew her team was capable.

  Why not find out their strengths?

  After another twenty minutes of fighting with the ATV (and each other), Team Boundless arrived at the bloodstained battlefield. There hadn’t been enough time for the trolls and vrosks to start rotting. Still, Alex was taken aback by the scene. When they were fighting, she had been in the frenzy of battle, and she hadn’t really thought much about what she had done. There hadn’t been time, but now there was.

  The canyon was quiet, the only sound a breeze rustling through. This felt like a solemn moment, and Alex tried to take it all in. It was different than in Middang3ard; after the battles in VR, players had cracked jokes, and there had been an air of levity. Nothing like this.

  They weren’t standing in the middle of a virtual battleground. This was a field of death. Vultures were already starting to descend on their oddly winged brethren, lying dead on the floor of the canyon.

  Jim whistled. “Man, those dragons can really tear things up.”

  Alex started heading toward the field to get a better look at the carnage the dragonriders had left in their wake. “Yeah, that’s an understatement,” she replied. “Seriously, those beasts are powerful. Extremely powerful.”

  A thought crossed Alex’s mind, and she turned back to face the other dragonriders. “Hey, if dragons are this powerful, what the hell does the Dark One have up his sleeve that’s causing so much trouble for the rest of the dragonriders?”

  Jollies was flying back and forth, looking at all the bodies. “That’s a good question,” she answered. “As far as I know, dragons are the be-all and end-all of creatures. The wisest, the strongest…you know, pretty much the top of the line.”

  “Yeah, back in VR, dragons were mostly end-game. Nothing you took lightly,” Alex agreed. “But if you could take down a dragon, you could take down anything. What is this guy using that could take down dragons?”

  Gill was already farther down the canyon, walking among the bodies. Jim was with him and they were talking quietly, Gill pointing to places where he wanted Jim to set up a camera.

  Brath came up behind Alex and stood next to her. He didn’t say anything, but Alex could see that he was watching Gill and Jim closely. She thought it might be jealousy since she’d noticed that Jim and Gill seemed to get along very well. Brath probably felt threatened. Alex leaned over to Brath and nudged him.

  Brath looked up at Alex, annoyed. “What?” he growled.

  “Jealous much?”

  “What? Of what?”

  Alex tilted her head in the direction of Gill and Jim. “You know you can go over there and help them.”

  Brath scoffed loudly and folded his arms. “If Gill wanted my help, he would have asked for it instead of asking Jim.”

  “Or maybe he just assumed you knew he’d like your help. You two already know each other. He’s probably just trying to help Jim feel like he’s part of the team. He hasn’t known us as long as we’ve known each other.”

  Brath threw his hands in the air as he walked off. “I don’t need any advice,” he shouted.

  Alex noticed that Brath was heading in Gill and Jim’s direction. The gnome had gotten the point. Now she was free to wonder about the vast complexities of the universe, especially the part where she was unlucky enough to have a crush on two guys who were becoming fast friends.

  The three boys worked on setting up the cameras as Jollies and Alex stayed farther back in the canyon, keeping watch for any troll patrols or other dragonriders. Jollies sat on Alex’s shoulder as usual, chattering nearly too fast for Alex to understand.

  Sometimes Jollies got like that. It meant she was either excited or nervous, and at the moment, it seemed like too much excitement. She was curious to know how the plan was going to work out. Alex, on the other hand, was trying to keep her pessimism to herself.

  Finally, the boys finished placing the cameras. Alex and Jollies came over to check out their work. Altogether, there were ten cameras placed around the circumference of the battlefield. In addition, there were also ten cameras on the ground, facing up at the sky.

  Alex pointed at one of the cameras looking skyward. “Okay, so you’re going to have to explain exactly what you’re doing,” she said. “Because it looks like a really weird photography project.”

  Gill slid up his visor and sat down on a rock as he scrolled through menus, occasionally looking at his dragon anchor. “I’m creating a digital construction,” Gill explained. “Basically, a virtual reality simulation, or more like a computer-generated image—the kind that humans use for their movies. The sky acts as the green screen. The bodies are assets.”

  “You’re making a movie?”

  “A movie of our trolls’ reinforcements. Then I’m going to hack into the security systems at the facility and replace their feed with the one that I made.”

  Gill pointed to the canyon, and Alex noticed that there were cameras sporadically placed that were used for the facility’s security. “Wait,” Alex asked. “Why didn’t the facility send reinforcements when we were being attacked?”

  “Because they’re understaffed. Also, the cameras have a delay, which we can use to our advantage. We’ll head back after I upload the video. By the time we get back, they should be sending out their reinforcements.”

  Jim gave Gill a high five and said, “Dude, that’s sick. Using their own tech against them.”

  Brath chimed in, speaking a little too loudly and eagerly. “Yeah, that’s amazing, Gill.”

  All of the riders turned and looked at Brath, surprised by something other than smugness or carefully cultivated disinterest. Brath blushed under their gaze. “I mean, it is,” he muttered. “You’re always coming up with cool stuff. Just thought you should know.”

  Gill smiled as if he had known all along about Brath’s jealousy over his new friendship with Jim. “Thanks, Brath,” he said. “I always appreciate your support.”

  Brath huffed and puffed loudly as he folded his arms and turned. “You don’t have to go making it all weird,” he mumbled.

  Team Boundless waited while Gill worked on constructing the computer-generated troll horde, which took nearly twenty minutes. The team made conversation during that time, Alex occasionally paying attention when anyone other than Jim spoke. But mostly she zoned out.

  Finally, Gill flipped his visor down and stood. “All right. Just sent it through. Let’s get out of here and head back.”

  Chapter Two

  Team Boundless made their way back to the military facilit
y. They were still having a hard time working together to operate the ATV, but after some readjusting, they found a better system. Alex was still at the bottom of the ATV, but Gill and Jim had switched places.

  Jollies wasn’t working the shift anymore; that was Brath’s job. Instead, she was a lookout, watching to make sure they didn’t come across any of the riders from the facility. Being spotted would be the end of their plan. That was what Gill said, anyway, when Jollies pouted about having her position snagged.

  Alex was glad Gill had stepped in and said something before she did. She’d noticed that Jollies could go from excited to sullen in a split second. The pixie’s temperament was not something to take lightly.

  As they made their way through the canyon, focusing on staying at the top so they could keep an eye on what was going on beneath them, Alex concentrated on ignoring Jim. She had only just got out of this same situation with Gill. There wasn’t anything more uncomfortable than being shoved as close as possible to a boy she liked.

  Jim being Jim made it a thousand times worse. He wasn’t as kind or brooding as Gill (which, Alex admitted, was a very interesting combination). Jim was normal and human.

  The ATV bounced upward and Brath shouted, “Brakes!”

  Jim leaned forward and pressed down on the brakes as Alex took her hand off the accelerator. The ATV jerked forward as it slowed down, and Brath shifted the gears. “I don’t ever want to drive like this again,” Jim said, laughing.