A.R. Dragonfly Vol. 3: A.R. Dragonfly, #3

By Joshua Piedra

The fallout from the second annual Legacy of Champions tournament has caused the rivalry between Amber and Khaine to reach new heights. Little do they know that their rivalry pales in comparison to what awaits the two of them in the very near future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joshua Piedra
• Release date: May 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215953600

Book preview

Preface

Hello and welcome to Volume 3 of A.R. Dragonfly! I had a lot of fun writing this volume as I began to focus on character development now that the plot has been firmly established. The first volume helped build the world and introduce our main cast of characters while the second volume escalated the conflict and brought some hot and heavy action to the series.

Now that the plot has hit a critical point, it’s time to take things down a notch and focus on diving into the emotions of our characters, provide a bit of backstory, and get you guys to relate to them on a deeper level.

At least, that’s what I aimed to achieve here in this volume. Speaking of characters, we received a new character in Volume 2 in Lynn Aichner. This volume, I get the pleasure of introducing you to, yet, another new character in Takumi Karume!

Want to know a little secret? You already met him! Hopefully, his reveal will connect a few dots for you!

Enough rambling from me! Thank you for picking up Volume 3! I hope you find enjoyment in the pages to come!

CHAPTER 1

FAME AND MISFORTUNE

In a few short months, Amber’s life had been turned upside down. She sat atop of the world as the number one ranked player in Blaze Auras. Her complacency became her downfall as a virtual unknown named Khaine, handled by Kaito Akihiko climbed up the ranks and overtook her spot atop the leaderboards. Since then, a heated online rivalry brewed between them with Kaito constantly getting the upper hand. The mere fact that Amber couldn’t beat him, coupled with all of the trash talk that Kaito slung her way acted as the catalyst to their explosive rivalry. Amber never could have imagined that their intense and bitter rivalry would go any further than the confines of the Blaze Auras servers.

All of that changed at the end of the second Legacy of Champions tournament. Kaito bested Amber in the finals. Curiosity got the best of Kaito and he approached Amber, looking to offer his hand in fair sportsmanship. It was at that moment that Amber realized just who the handler of Khaine truly was. After a failed attempt at running away, Amber’s identity had been exposed to not only Kaito but the rest of the world. Learning a little bit about Amber’s condition and her situation with Sebastian’s store, Kaito threw a gesture of goodwill towards Amber by telling everyone online about how she worked at Things N’ Stuff. This brought droves of Blaze Auras fans to the store just to meet her. While this wasn’t an ideal situation for someone with Amber’s condition, it was a double-edged sword as it drummed up the business Things N’ Stuff needed to stay afloat.

Due to misunderstanding the circumstances, Amber could only come to hate Kaito even more for what he did. Kaito knew full well that she would, and yet, he went through with his plan regardless of what the results with Amber would be. Not all heroes wear capes and if Kaito had to be vilified and hated by Amber to help save the store he loved to frequent, then that was a cross he was willing to bear. Even though things were looking up for the store, in Amber’s mind, it only added a whole new layer to their rivalry. In Amber’s eyes, Kaito had made it extremely personal.

Those were the emotions rushing through Amber’s body as she hit her bed, letting out an exhaustive sigh. The nightmare of greeting her fans and signing autographs was finally over. She was so mentally drained that the thought of even playing Blaze Auras seemed like a chore. Despite this, she still decided to haul herself over to her computer as her curiosity piqued over what others were saying about her now that the secret was out. Amber plopped down in her chair and flipped on her monitors, the glow of the screens illuminating her face in the darkness of her room. The first place Amber visited was the official Blaze Auras forums. She didn’t have to look far as the General Discussion forum was filled with topics related to Amber’s identity. Amber let out a sigh after seeing topic after topic on her screen. She could only think back to just a short while ago when the forums tore her apart after losing the tournament. It was as if she were bracing herself for round two.

Even though Amber wouldn’t normally be a bit worried about other people’s opinions of her, the way she was called out after the tournament rattled her a bit. Despite all of this, she was still morbidly curious to see what others had to say about her. Her eyes quickly scoured each topic to see if there was one that jumped out at her. Most of the topics were rather generic, some of which were locked by a moderator for being a duplicate thread, others locked for various terms of use violations as is the norm with any online forum community. Amber simply gave up looking for anything unique and decided to start at the top and work her way down. She clicked on the first topic which said Did you think Dragonfly was a girl? and began to read the original poster’s message out loud.

So, anyone else not see that coming? I couldn’t believe Dragonfly was a girl! Always thought it was just some random dude but to think we all got our asses kicked by a chick. That’s kind of embarrassing!

Amber raised an eyebrow as if to say that she couldn’t believe the guy was serious. After mulling it over, she cracked a bit of a smirk as if she took some pride in the fact that this guy was embarrassed to lose to someone like her. That newfound cockiness faded as Amber glossed over the responses as most of them just contained negative backlash at the original poster’s comments. Her eyes stopped when she noticed one of the replies came from someone with the name Triggabyte.

Lynn…

Amber didn’t expect to see that name on the forum thread but as she recalled Lynn’s words since they first met, it began to make sense that Lynn would stick up for Amber. Even still, to do this for someone who she just met and barely knew was going a bit too far. Amber’s original suspicions of her being a complete and total stalker only intensified. Despite that, like a moth to a flame or an onlooker to a train wreck, Amber could look away. She wondered what Lynn had to say on the subject and began to read her post out loud.

So, what if she’s a girl? I’m a girl, too, ya know! I recognize your name. I beat you about a month ago in a pretty one-sided match! I guess that means you got your ass kicked by two women! Feel free to delete your account with that information, bub!

Amber’s eye twitched a bit when she read Lynn’s brashness. She couldn’t believe that someone as energetic and outgoing as Lynn could be so savage. Even still, it caused Amber to crack a bit of a smile when she read that. She glanced over at the wrinkled piece of paper sitting on her desk. She remembered pulling it out of her pocket when she came back from the Legacy of Champions tournament. At the time, she wasn’t sure what to do with Lynn’s contact information. She could only imagine that Lynn was being nice to her to set her up for an embarrassing situation and after reading that comment, Amber began to wonder if she would end up on the other side of a verbal lashing like that. Then again, maybe it was the way Lynn stood up for her but Amber caved and pulled out her cell phone. She added Lynn to her contacts and then opened up her messaging app. Amber nervously typed out Saw your forum post. Thanks. and went to press Send but she froze there for a moment.

Come on Ambs… you faced an army of troglodytes at the store today. I can handle a simple text. ‘Sides… not like she’s gonna flame me as she did to that pleb. She’s got my back…. r-r-right?:

Even though Amber told that to herself, her pulse continued to quicken. Tiny beads of sweat began to form on her forehead as her breathing became a little more rapid and shallow. Amber was beginning to have an anxiety attack over a simple text message. It got to the point where the phone’s screen faded to black and entered power save mode. Seeing the black screen began to calm her down. She placed the phone down on her desk and leaned back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling fan as it slowly spun around.

Shyeah right. As if somebody like me’s ever gonna make a friend. I’ve got Sebby an’ that’s all I ne-

Amber stopped herself mid-sentence and sat up in her chair. A look of painful regret washed over her as she realized what she had just said.

"Sebby’s always savin’ me. I say that I have him but… do I have him? He keeps on doin’