The Attack of Ganhai Mountain by Jason Richard (fox in socks read aloud txt) 📕

out. All he had to do was touch it and
"Maelin," said an angry woman's voice.
She took off her own sun amulet. It was Jaxia.
Maelin said, without turning around, "How did you follow me?"
"I have my ways," she said. "What are you doing here?"
Maelin turned around slowly, and Jaxia glared at him angrily, only to become astonished when Maelin revealed a single eye between the places where his eyes should have been.
"What else?" said Maelin. "I'm going to end the cyclops spell."

Chapter Eighteen
You Idiot!

Leevan and Normir searched desperately, but they could find nothing resembling a spell that could affect an entire race. Leevan figured it must be hidden, but try as he might he could find it nowhere in the passages of this castle. Normir was looking around even more desperately.
"We'll find it," said Leevan reassuringly. "We'll find it."
But the truth was, he was losing hope too.
They kept passing squads of cyclopses in their full body armor. If they could end the spell those cyclopses might just become their allies, but for now they were enemies. Leevan was thankful for the invisibility spell, but Normir got panicked whenever he saw his kind. Leevan kept having to tell him
"We'll find it."
But he wasn't certain he believe it himself.

"What in the world do you think you're doing?" Jaxia demanded.
Maelin looked at her with his one eye. He really did look like a cyclops, but Jaxia knew he wasn't...and he was standing next to the metal cyclops statue that could only be Hurvun's spell. This was bad. She looked at him with as much anger as she could muster, but she wasn't certain how frightening she could look at the moment.
You see, she was really very scared.
"I just told you," said Maelin. "I'm going to break the spell. I don't believe the humans will steal cyclops metal craft, so if I touch this spell, it will break, and the cyclopses will see Hurvun for what he really is."
"Maelin, Normir is a real cyclops. If he touched the spell it would break. You, on the other hand, are not a cyclops. You are merely an imitation of one. If you touch that statue the chances of breaking the spell are very low. Either nothing will happen, or something worse."
"What could be worse than an army of cyclopses in invincible army?"
"Do you really want to find out?"
"I do. More than I want to find out what happens when Leevan tries to break the spell."
Jaxia paused, and then laughed. She laughed long and loud, "Oh I get it. This isn't about breaking the spell, it's about remaining the top magician isn't it? Leevan figures out how to beat Hurvun and you can't stand that he outdid you. Can you?" She became angry again. "Well your jealously is putting us all in danger, so I'm going to end this now!"
She ran forward, drawing her sword and looking Maelin straight in the eye! But Maelin just pulled out his wand...that looked suspiciously like a knife...and shot a red beam of light at her. She collapsed on the ground, her sword skittering to the side.
She cried out in pain, and looked at her hand. It was wrinkled, as if she had aged fifty years in less than a second! She tried to move but a few of her bones had broken. She cried out again and stopped.
"Don't worry," said Maelin. "You'll be young again in an hour. The spell is just meant to incapacitate so the blade of my wand can finish you off." He looked at her curiously. "You didn't really think your fear spell would work on me did you? I could see the enchantment directly on your eyes. You know, I used to respect you Jaxia, but putting stock in Leevan could get us all killed."
He turned around and looked at the statue, the focal point of the spell.
"Leevan," he spoke to himself. "Why? Why is it when I'm the best magician it's your father that loves you, and mine who says I'm not good enough? Why? Well, after today, maybe I'll fix that once and for all!"
He touched the statue.
"No!" cried Jaxia weakly, reaching her hand out.

Leevan and Normir looked around as a bright light came from the troop of cyclopses ahead of them. The cyclopses themselves seemed confused as the two of them remained hidden. The armored soldiers pulled their weapons out. Instead of battle clubs, they were now armed with swords. Swords that looked suspiciously liked Maelin's wand knife.
Once cyclops pulled his sword up and shot a red beam from it! Leevan and Normir looked on in horror! Leevan asked himself.
"Maelin? What did you do?!"

General Hevman waited with the rest of the soldiers, watching the castle that looked like a giant rock. Eventually the drawbridge opened, and the general heard Maelin's voice.
"The spell is broken!" he cried. "The spell is broken!"
The general wondered for a second why Maelin was there, but he still felt he would have to ask questions later. He raised his sword and cried
"Attack!"

Chapter Nineteen
What now?

At the windows cyclopses in full battle armor with heavy crossbows looked out. They could hear something, as if a great mass of people was running towards them up the slope of the mountain, but they could see nothing. No cyclops would claim to have exceptional eyesight with only one eye, but this was ridiculous.
Even though he couldn't see an army, he could hear it. The cyclops in a room high above the ground, next to a giant turn-wheel that controlled the drawbridge, considered closing it. He was about to do so, when a blast of light entered the eye hole in his armor!
The cyclops fell down, and Maelin stood over him with his wand. He left the drawbridge open so that the invisible army could get in. He heard them enter, and then saw them kick up dust where their feet landed. They were in the castle!
They became visible. In a fight there was too much of a chance of getting hit by your own men. The spell had done its job. The army was in the castle. They were few, but surely the cyclopses were on their side now?
Then why did this cyclops want to close the drawbridge? Maelin asked himself that. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He turned around and lifted his wand to destroy the chains linking the turn-wheel to the drawbridge. The chains would rust as if fifty years old, but then something struck Maelin from the back!
He fell to the floor, but was picked up by strong arms. Two cyclopses had him pinned. Hurvun picked up Maelin's wand and grinned at him evilly, his golden metal cloak glimmering. Maelin looked at him in horror.
"Close the drawbridge," the cyclops sorcerer said. "Trap the army inside."
Another cyclops turned the wheel, closing the drawbridge. As it creaked while closing, Hurvun grinned wider.
"Thank you for your assistance," he said. "You've brought my enemies into my fold, and made my servants all the more powerful." He laughed, and Maelin wondered what he meant, before something hit him again and he remembered no more.

General Hevman ran at the head of his army through the corridors. It was ogres and slefah first. The general halted his army and shouted for archers! The arrows twanged down the corridor, striking the beasts down! More came, and more arrows took them down, and then the armies clashed!
Slefah, like snakes, ducked and wove through their ranks, biting men and throwing them across the room, but the men fought bravely. General Hevman chopped off slefah heads left and right! The magicians that were left used all the magic they had. Dalib shot fireballs from his staff, and Bendon single handedly kept the ogres at bay, using his ring to grow to their size! Even his sword grew with him! Of course he would also shrink, slip by them, and attack from behind when he was big again. He was quite good at changing rings in the heat of battle.
He was assisted by the eagle men who had survived. They flew around the upper parts of the corridor shooting arrows at the ogres. Next to the magicians, they were the fiercest!
Other magicians had subtler ways of fighting. Kemra for instance had this blue dust that floated around her, and at a moment's notice she could slip that dust into an enemy snake, put him in a trance, and take him down while he was helpless. A few shot other elemental blasts; ice, fire, and other things. Even the non-magical soldiers brought down many slefah. It was a battle to behold!
They were winning! The slefah and the ogres fell back! The human army of the Ciniceros empire cheered! They charged forward, and general Hevman had only one question!
Where are the cyclopses?
They turned a corridor and there they were. The ogres and slefah kept retreating, but the cyclopses in full battle armor marched onward with swords that looked Maelin's wand. They didn't look friendly. They pointed their swords and shot red blasts that struck soldiers and turned them into old men. They collapsed, helpless. The cyclopses marched onward, shooting too many blasts to avoid. Even if they got close, it would be hard to strike the one weak point their armor; the eye. General Hevman had no choice.
"Retreat!" the army retreated. They fled through the corridor, men falling to red blasts left and right. They made it back to the entrance, but found the drawbridge closed. They could not escape. The cyclopses marched on, still firing magic blasts.
Leevan and Normir, invisible, watched the scene with horror. What could they do now?

Chapter Twenty
This is it.

The cyclopses fired red beams of light from their swords! Humans were dropping like flies, and the eagle men in the air had been hit from the beginning. They turned into old men and plummeted to the ground, breaking their necks on impact. The humans were pinned between the armored cyclopses and the drawbridge with no escape. Then, as quickly as it had begun, it stopped. The cyclopses stopped firing.
The one eyed and armored men lifted their swords and backed off. General Hevman, amid the humans, wondered what was going on, until the cyclopses parted to make way for the cyclops sorcerer Hurvun.
Leevan and Normir watched, invisible and helpless.
Hurvun grinned widely, "Surrender, General," he said. "You're outnumbered and overpowered. Of course you were overpowered from the start, so really this surrender has been a long time coming."
The general didn't respond, he looked around at his men. Many had hopeless faces, including Kemra. He looked directly at her, and nodded. She understood, and so did some of the men around her. They huddled and she put on her sun medallion, turning invisible.
General Hevman bought her some time, "I suppose you're right Hurvun," he said, turning back the cyclops dressed in a golden cloak. "This has been a long time coming. Though...to lose to someone