Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

Cheers erupted from her gathered Legends.

“Do something!” Nivian screamed, for the first time apparently not having answers.

Sekhmet changed her fire attack to Morganna, but the latter threw up a hand that created an emptiness where the fire vanished.

“You fools,” Morganna said, floating over to the center of the standing stones, a jerk of her hand causing Arthur to fly out of the lightning and land next to her. “Didn’t you know that by the time you got here, it was already too late? The second we arrived here, it would’ve been too late.”

I tried charging, but a burst of energy shot out from the stones, knocking me and my companions back.

“Go ahead, get rid of them,” Morganna said to her horde. As the enemy started to close in on us, she muttered a chant, hands lifted to the sky, and more magic flowed out of the gigantic standing stones.

The first to reach us, as we were recovering and getting to our feet, were the flying monkeys and those who could move in bursts of magic, like the witches. If not for Bastet’s magic I would’ve been toast in seconds. She and Sekhmet were both damn powerful, and Nivian began to get more involved too, muttering chants that acted as buffers and enhancers. When I lunged for a counterattack against three trolls, the sword felt like a toy as I cut through them, moving faster than I was pretty sure Mr. Vampire Arthur himself had.

A claw snagged me and yanked me back, throwing me to my ass. I lifted my arm so that my shield appeared to block as a sword came down, and when I looked up I saw Hook there, sneering at me.

“The man who killed Peter Pan,” Hook said, and laughed. “You’d think I’d be thanking you.”

“You still can,” I said, realizing it had been a hook that had yanked me down, not a claw.

“Not likely,” he replied and came back with a strike from his hook and then his sword, the later catching the side of my arm but only with a slight cut.

“See, after all these years I was growing rather fond of the lad,” Hook said, trying again as I rolled aside and recovered. He squared off against me, the two of us going blow for blow. “I even liked him bossing me around. Poor form, perhaps, but jolly good fun.”

“You’re fucked,” I replied, coming in for a strike, “in the head.”

“Ah-ha.” He blocked the blow and came in for an uppercut strike with his hook, pulling blood from my chin but not landing in my neck as he’d attempted. “So you do get me.”

“I get that you’re about to meet your maker, fucking pirate.” I lunged and struck, but only as a feint before kicking out one of his legs and bashing him with the pommel of my sword. For some reason, killing the good ol’ captain felt wrong, so I left him there, moaning in pain, and turned to face my next opponent.

There were plenty left to keep me occupied.

More enemies and Shades kept coming, and my levels started stacking on top of each other to the point that I think I leveled up to twelve. I was pretty sure I’d gotten an Ichor or two along the way as well.

All the while we were trying to reach the standing stones, but couldn’t quite make it. Bursts of light and darkness, explosions and what looked like opening rifts formed and surrounded the sky above the stones, until three flying monkeys were sucked in and a couple of witches. The rest started steering clear of it, some even forgetting to fight, simply focusing on trying to escape this force that was acting like a magnet, pulling those nearby into it.

And then, as Morganna lifted Arthur to her and pressed her lips to his—almost like in the fairy tales, but in a much darker, twisted turn of events—he turned to ash in her grip, floating up and into the void she had created.

The last of him entered, and then it collapsed in on itself with a burst of red light that shot outward, knocking us all over and pausing the fight.

When I looked up again, all of the void and the storm was gone, replaced by a single man who was standing there with his long white robes flowing, a beard of white and grey to match.

“Merlin,” Morganna said, smiling wickedly.

“You,” he replied in a raspy voice, moving his hands to form a spell, but she simply stepped forward before he could finish and thrust her hand onto his heart. It was as easy as that—no magic, no fight to the death. She pulled her hand back, and with it the glowing red Ichor I’d come to recognize, as Merlin’s body collapsed to the ground where Arthur’s should have been.

Morganna absorbed the Ichor, and before our eyes she seemed to grow in size and power. It was like a shadow had fallen over her, but her eyes glowed bright green and the air around her seemed to push outward, as if she had too much power and it was taking up all of that space.

We had failed—Morganna had won.

44

My first thought was to run in and attack, and believe me—I tried. With all of the buffers from Nivian, along with my magic shield and enhanced sword, I actually believed I had a shot. Charging at her with Excalibur held high, blue was trailing me and my skin was crawling with the power of my tattoos feeding me more energy. My war cry would’ve scared the largest grizzly bear, maybe even a dragon, I was certain.

And yet, all it took from her was a swipe of her hand to send a gust of wind at me that threw me back and onto my ass. With another swipe, a burst of lightning shot out and nearly hit me, but I held up Excalibur and the lightning hit, surging through me in