More Monsters, More Problems Read online

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  COPYRIGHT

  The kingdom of Knighton used to be a happy, peaceful place. But the castle held a dark secret—The Book of Monsters.

  A long time ago, an evil wizard named Monstrox unleashed monsters on Knighton. A good wizard, Merlok, trapped the monsters in one book—The Book of Monsters—and kept them locked away for decades.

  Then one day the power went out, and Jestro, the unhappy court jester, found The Book of Monsters. The talking book convinced Jestro to turn against King Halbert and bring the monsters within his pages to life.

  How do you save a kingdom from an army of Lava Monsters? That’s where the NEXO KNIGHTS team came in! Clay, Macy, Lance, Aaron, and Axl were able to fight the monsters with powers downloaded from Merlok’s new digital form, Merlok 2.0.

  So far, they’ve kept The Book of Monsters and Jestro from taking over Knighton. But bigger, badder monsters are coming to life every day! Can the NEXO KNIGHTS heroes keep their kingdom from plunging into darkness?

  The tall castle rose up from jagged rocks, bubbling, hot lava pits, and steaming sulfur pools. Two large, curved horns sat on top of the tallest turret. They looked sinister against the dark, red sky.

  Inside his Redoubt of Ruination, Jestro the Jester laughed. His cackle bounced off the stone walls.

  “I am the king of my own castle!” he crowed. “How great is that?”

  Jestro didn’t look like a king at all. He still wore his blue-and-red jester costume. It was jagged and dirty from battle. His yellow, evil eyes looked strange against his pale white jester makeup. In his right hand, he carried a scepter topped with a spiked circle. Its magic could bring monsters to life from the pages of The Book of Monsters.

  The Bookkeeper, the little red monster who carried around The Book of Monsters, brought the book closer to Jestro’s throne.

  “You’re right it’s great,” agreed The Book of Monsters. “No more trying to grab that shiny house King Halbert’s got. Now we got the castle of Monstrox himself! This place is much homier.”

  Jestro looked around from his perch on his rock-carved throne. There wasn’t much other furniture in the spooky castle. Two monsters—Burnzie and Sparkks—were busy moving around a stone table and chairs.

  “Yeah, it is pretty homey,” said Jestro. “It’s very, uh, rustic.”

  The Book of Monsters gasped. “I hope by rustic you don’t mean horrible and decrepit?” he asked.

  “No!” Jestro replied. “I mean, you know, naturalistic and with more of an earthy vibe.”

  Then Jestro sighed. “I’m just, not sure what to do next,” he said. “I’m not really a ‘homebody,’ you know?”

  “Totally get it,” The Book of Monsters said. “And castle maintenance can be so boring.”

  Clunk! As he said it, Burnzie and Sparkks bumped into each other. They both tumbled onto the hard castle floor.

  The Book of Monsters rolled his eyes. Those two magma monsters were great in battle, but they were terrible movers!

  “Besides,” Jestro continued. “Every castle needs a big chamber filled with treasure. That means we better get out there and do some major looting.”

  “I know a guy who would be perfect for the job,” said The Book of Monsters. “General Magmar. He was Monstrox’s right-hand man. Take-charge kinda guy.”

  Jestro looked interested. “A general, eh?”

  “The best,” the book assured him. “Check page thirty-eight.”

  Each page of The Book of Monsters contained monsters trapped inside by magic. The Bookkeeper opened the book to page thirty-eight. Jestro smiled when he saw the picture of General Magmar.

  Jestro raised his wand and quickly thought up a rhyme to bring General Magmar out of the book.

  “I want to go looting wide and far. So come on out, General Magmar!”

  As he spoke, a magical, glowing purple-and-gold light shone inside the spiked circle on top of his wand. The page of the book started to glow, too.

  Boom! The light exploded and created a huge cloud in front of Jestro. When it faded, a monster stood before him.

  General Magmar had a red body like the other Lava Monsters. He was slightly taller than Jestro, and the black ponytail that sprouted from the top of his head made him look even taller. He wore armor just around his mouth, exposing his eyes. Around his waist, he wore a black belt that bore the symbol of the evil jester.

  The general bowed to Jestro. “I am at your command, oh evil one,” he said in a deep voice.

  “Wow, you seem to have a lava brain in that monster head,” Jestro said. He looked at The Book of Monsters. “He makes a great first impression!”

  “Hmm,” said General Magmar, sizing up his new commander.

  Jestro turned back to the monster. “Okay, you’re a general. So I want you to be general manager of castle operations. Now, you make this place deadly for anyone who tries to sneak in, and we’ll go out pillaging and looting the countryside.”

  “What?” cried The Book of Monsters. “Have you lost your pointy-hatted mind? He’s a hardened battle leader!”

  General Magmar cleared his throat. “Sir, maybe you didn’t hear him. I have studied strategy, battle tactics …”

  “So you can add some nice, tactical-ish traps to make this place more homey!” Jestro said cheerfully.

  “Unacceptable!” shrieked The Book of Monsters. “I demand that you …”

  “And I demand that you shut your cover, encyclo-dopia! I’m in charge!” Jestro fumed.

  He looked at the general. “Now, General Manager, start, um, fixing.”

  General Magmar’s yellow eyes glared at Jestro. “I am at your command,” he said. Then he lowered his voice. “Even though you are completely wasting my time.”

  “What?” Jestro asked.

  “I said, ‘Have a wonderful time!’ ” General Magmar lied.

  Then he walked off, leaving Jestro to go off looting and pillaging.

  Bang! Clash! Slam!

  Sounds of battle practice echoed from the Fortrex—the blue castle on wheels belonging to the heroes. They lived there, trained there, and were ready at a moment’s notice to defend the kingdom against Jestro and The Book of Monsters.

  “Aargh!” grunted Macy as she fended off a blow from a sword with her shield.

  Her opponent was Robin Underwood, a freshman at Knights’ Academy. Wearing a pair of mechanical stilts, he towered over Macy.

  “Hah!” cried Macy as she swung her mace at Robin.

  Wham! She whacked at one of the stilts with all her might.

  “Whoa!” Robin yelled as he toppled over backward. He sat up, rubbing his head.

  “Good job!” Macy complimented him. “But tell me, Robin—why are you here? Lance is on the schedule.”

  Macy didn’t mind training with Robin. But she was a real knight, and he still had a lot to learn. Training with Robin was more like teaching, when what Macy wanted was a real workout that would truly test her skills as a knight.

  “He paid me to take his training spot,” Robin replied.

  “Does he think he can buy his way out of anything?” Macy asked angrily.

  Robin shrugged. “Uh, pretty much!”

  At that very moment, Lance was reclining in a chair in the Fortrex lounge. His golden-blond hair fell in perfect waves across his forehead. His white a
rmor gleamed, thanks to the work of his personal Squirebot, Dennis. His chest bore the symbol of a white horse, the crest of the Richmond family.

  Across from him sat Ava Prentis, another freshman at Knights’ Academy and a tech whiz of major proportions. She was busy tapping away on the screen of a gold cell phone.

  “Oh, and make my background photo that picture of me at the latest Holo-Wood premiere,” Lance was saying. “I looked great!”

  “Whatevs,” said Ava in a bored voice. “You’re paying me to program this thing.”

  She pulled up a photo of Lance grinning at the camera with a dazzling smile.

  “I am going to have the greatest phone ever!” Lance cheered. “That is, until the new version comes out in six months, right?”

  “Very trendy,” said Ava in her usual flat voice. “But I’m not an early adopter.”

  “What’s the difference?” Lance asked. “I want to make sure it’s ready for the B-I-G party tonight at my parents’ house.”

  Macy stormed into the lounge. Without her helmet, her dark red hair stuck up from the top of her head in a ponytail.

  “Lance, what’s the big idea of paying Robin to take your spot on the training schedule?” she asked.

  “I had more important things to do,” Lance replied.

  “Yeah, I can see,” Macy said sarcastically, pointing to the couch Lance was on. Then she got angry. “Look, I may be a princess, but I want to be treated like a normal person. You’re a rich kid who wants to remind everyone how special you are.”

  “Talk to Axl. I’m paying him to handle all complaints,” Lance said, pointing to the big-screen video game system nearby. Big, muscular team member Axl sat on the couch, playing a game called “Whackman & the Super Mega Power Panic” and munching on a giant turkey leg.

  “Ohhhh!” Macy cried, exasperated. She turned and stomped out of the lounge.

  Lance turned to Ava. “Now, let’s pick an awesome ring tone …”

  Jestro and The Book of Monsters (carried by the Bookkeeper) roamed the countryside of Knighton.

  On the day that Jestro first found The Book of Monsters, they battled with Merlok in the wizard’s library. The fight ended with a big explosion, and the evil books were scattered around the kingdom. Jestro and The Book of Monsters had found some of them, but there were still more to find.

  Now The Book of Monsters sniffed the air. That’s how he found the missing books—he could smell the evil!

  “Hey, I smell something!” the book said, excited. “This way!”

  The Bookkeeper carried him toward the smell, and Jestro followed. They entered a dark cave.

  Inside the cave, a book with a red cover was lodged into a crack in a big rock. The image of a gold gem glittered on the cover. The pages glittered with gold, too. Jestro’s eyes lit up.

  “Wow! What a find!” said The Book of Monsters. “The Book of Greed. You want dungeons filled with treasure? Well, you just hit the jackpot, Juggle Boy!”

  “Oh yes!” Jestro cheered. “I bet this will let me make greedy monsters that will fill my new castle with gold and jewels and … more gold!”

  The Book of Monsters’ eyes glowed with fiery evil.

  “Greed,” he said. “Greed is good!”

  “And I know the best place to get all the booty we want,” said Jestro. “The richest town in the kingdom … Auremville!”

  The road to Auremville was paved with real gold. It wound past houses made of gold, protected by fences made of gold. Streetlights made of gold cast a golden glow on the golden sidewalks at night. During the day, armies of Squirebots polished all the gold until it gleamed so brightly you needed sunglasses to look at it.

  On this bright, sunny day, four vehicles zoomed along the golden road. Lance led the way in his Turbo Jouster, followed by Macy’s Thunder Mace, Axl’s Tower Carrier, and Clay’s Rumble Blade. Aaron had hitched a ride in Axl’s tank.

  They came to a stop at the golden gates of the Richmond Estate, a huge golden mansion. Tall bushes sculpted into the shape of giant horse heads lined the grounds.

  Lance hopped out of his vehicle followed by his pet pig, Hamletta. A Squirebot in a butler’s uniform waited for them, holding a golden cloth.

  Lance wiped his hands on the cloth while another Squirebot started to polish the pig.

  “Hmm,” said Lance, looking around. “Looks like Mom and Dad wanted to have a small party this year. How boring. Right, Hamletta?”

  “Oink!” replied the cute pink pig.

  “Just one family lives here?” asked Axl in disbelief. “It’s bigger than my whole town.”

  The knights followed Lance inside to a huge entrance hallway. Food was piled onto tables, and Squirebots carrying golden goblets walked around, handing beverages to the Richmonds’ guests.

  “Quite the spread you got here, Lance,” remarked Clay, the knights’ leader.

  “This is like the party scene from the Ned Knightly: On the King’s Secret Service movie,” Macy said. “Is everything gold?”

  “Well, the water in the lake out back isn’t gold,” Lance replied. “But it’s filled with goldfish.”

  Macy rolled her eyes. “Oh, brother!”

  “Ah, the NEXO KNIGHTS team!” a voice interrupted them.

  It was Lance’s father, Cuthbert. He and his wife, Goldie, walked up to the knights. They both wore fancy white clothing stitched with gold thread. Each wore the symbol of the Richmond family, the horse head.

  “Welcome to our annual ‘Gold Is Good’ ball,” Goldie greeted them.

  “Mom? Dad? The party this year seems … tiny,” Lance said.

  “We booked a spa holiday that starts tomorrow, and we didn’t want the servants to have too much cleaning up to do,” his mother explained.

  “Isn’t that their job?” Lance asked.

  “Oh, son. Eat some gold ice cream and try not to be such a disappointment,” Goldie said, leading him away.

  Cuthbert walked up to Clay.

  “Why, you must be Mr. Moorington,” he said. “I do so enjoy your swordplay. Come, let me show you my weapons collection.”

  “I’d be honored, sir,” Clay replied politely.

  The huge Fortrex pulled up outside the mansion gates and screeched to a stop. The vehicle’s drawbridge opened and Robin and Ava walked out.

  Robin looked excited. “Whoa, this is going to be some party!”

  Ava handed the keys to the Fortrex to the Squirebot valet parker.

  “The clutch is a little tricky,” she said. “And wash and wax it by the time we get back.”

  The Squirebot looked up at the giant vehicle and gulped. Life was pretty sweet in the Land of Gold—unless you were a Squirebot!

  Jestro’s Evil Mobile pulled up to the village of Buttonburg in Knighton. His favorite monsters, Burnzie and Sparkks, pulled the vehicle with glowing lava chains. The front of the Evil Mobile looked like a monster face with a jester’s cap, glowing orange eyes, and mouth filled with sharp teeth. Jestro and The Book of Monsters stood on the very top.

  Jestro had decided to make a stop before hitting Auremville. Buttonburg made all of the buttons in Knighton. A blue hologram of a button glowed on top of the town’s tallest tower.

  “I wanna make sure this greedy book works before we hit Auremville,” Jestro said, examining the book in his hands.

  He shoved it inside The Book of Monsters’ mouth. The book eagerly gobbled it up, his eyes glowing with excitement. Every time he ate a new evil book, the monsters appeared on his pages.

  “Oh, that is so tasty,” he said. “It’s like potato chips. I just want more, more, more!”

  Jestro opened the book to the pages containing the new monsters.

  “Greedy, greedy monsters, come out and steal some stuff!” he chanted. “Loot and loot and plunder. You can never have enough!”

  A cloud of purple magic exploded from the book, and a small army of monsters rained down in front of the Evil Mobile.

  Round, red Globlins bounced up and down, anxi
ous to do some evil. Red Scurriers, short creatures with stubby arms and legs, cackled with glee. Spider Globlins tapped their spiderlike legs impatiently on the road.

  Burnzie laughed. The mammoth monster had yellow eyes, wicked horns, and a red body that looked like it had been carved from a volcano.

  “Grab anything gold! Or jeweled!” he yelled.

  Next to him Sparkks was itching to loot and pillage. The monster’s body looked like it had been chiseled from black rock. He had one huge, glowing, yellow eye in the middle of his face.

  “Treasure! I want treasure!” he cried.

  The monsters stormed into the village. The peaceful citizens gasped in fright when they saw the evil army.

  The monsters laughed at the frightened villagers. They burst into shops and houses, stealing crates, trunks, and barrels of buttons. One by one, they returned to the Evil Mobile with their loot.

  Jestro was pleased. “Oh, they are greedy, looting monster machines!” he cheered. The red dots in his eyes started to twirl like pinwheels.

  “Oh yeah!” agreed The Book of Monsters. “Just think how they’ll be when they hit a town filled with gold!”

  “Auremville even has gold toilets,” Jestro said.

  “And gold toilet paper!” said the book. He laughed, and his long, red tongue snaked out of his mouth. “Let’s take every last golden bit of it!”

  Back at the Richmond mansion, the guests were having a great time. They ate fancy food and listened to Squirebot musicians playing classical music.

  Clay stepped out onto the terrace overlooking the city. Axl joined him, holding a gold turkey drumstick.

  “Lance’s father has quite the collection of weapons,” Clay remarked. “All gold, of course.”

  “And the food!” Axl said, impressed. “This drumstick is actually basted in gold.”

  “What does gold taste like?” Clay asked.

  He heard Lance’s voice answer behind him.

  “Like coming home …”

  Clay turned to see Lance in a gold chair, carried by four Squirebot butlers. Two more Squirebots carried Hamletta in on a smaller chair. They set them both down and began to polish Lance’s armor—and Hamletta—with gold cloths.