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

The gargoyle plowed into him, lifting him, and while dark shadows began to pool around his hands, she threw him from the roof. Next, she was on the woman, who shouted words I didn’t understand and flicked her wand, sending the gargoyle back with a black and green explosion.

A grunt, and the gargoyle was back at it, this time going for me. Both Steph and the witch watched this in confusion, neither moving as the gargoyle shouted in my face and attempted to swipe me with her claws. Only, she stopped with them an inch from my neck, sniffed me, and looked at me with curiosity.

“We’re getting out of here,” she said and rolled, grabbing me as she went, coming up on the other side and running with me held in her arms. Magic hit her and she almost stumbled. A death knight appeared a second later and nearly landed a blow on her, but then we were off, soaring through the air.

Not flying, I noticed, but gliding.

“The other one,” I blurted out, realizing what was happening. “Your sister, or friend, or—”

“What?”

“She’s back there, on the roof! They’ll destroy her!”

The gargoyle looked at me in her arms, growled, and then adjusted course, flying back to land on a balcony one level below.

“You. Stay.” She turned and leaped, claws digging into the side of the house, and started to climb back up to rejoin the fight. If we could wake the other one, I figured we had a shot at taking Steph and the others down.

Only problem was, I was apparently being left out of the fight.

“I have to come,” I blurted out. “You need me to wake her.”

She paused, glanced back, and asked, “It was you? You woke me?”

I nodded.

“Well then, great mage, hop on. I’ll need you up there.”

For some reason, I was smiling as I ran forward and jumped. Her tail hooked me under the arm and pulled me up so that I was on her back. The enemy hadn’t realized that we had come back yet, apparently, because they were still shouting at each other about letting us get away.

There we were, climbing back into the thick of it like idiots.

“It’s witch, actually,” I mumbled.

“What?”

“I just… nothing.” Thinking it over, ‘mage’ did sound cooler, even if my game screen said I was a witch. “Just, I’m only a level one mage, so…”

“Your words are gibberish.”

“I mean, I’m not very powerful.”

“But you woke me, meaning you’re powerful enough. Worthy of saving Avalon, I’d wager.”

As we reached the top, my mind spun with confusion over the words she’d just said, but the fact that we were about to charge back in against an enemy who seemed likely to kill me took precedence on my worry meter.

“What spells do you have?” she whispered.

I frowned, held up my hand, and looked over my screen. Aside from stats there was a passive skill called ‘Searcher,’ just like Steph and her friends had referred to my aunt, but otherwise, there was nothing.

“Stop that, you look like a fool.” She glanced around, sticking low, wings folded against her back. “Tell me, what spells?”

“I’m checking,” I hissed, trying to find out how to access other screens, hoping I was wrong. Giving in, I said, “Right now, none.”

“That doesn’t make sense. You said you were a mage.”

“I… yes. But only level one. And I imagine I have to learn the spells, don’t I?”

With a nod, she pursed her lips. “I can’t believe you lived long enough to make it this far. How did you wake me?”

“I… touched you.”

Her left eyebrow arched, the corner of her lip going up, but then the coldness returned as she gestured toward the edge of the roof. “Stay out of the way until we’re ready. I’ll charge over, distract them in battle, while you wake the other. Think you can handle that?”

“Yes.” I projected confidence, in spite of the many deaths of me running through my mind. A fireball through the face, green magic turning me into a pile of dust, or whatever the hell that man was capable of, if the fall hadn’t taken him out of the fight. Then there were the two or three remaining death knights and their swords. How could I forget about them, when the threat of my head being chopped off loomed over me?

To my horror, she was already slinking along the roof, to the left of where I had first awoken her, leaving me with a clear shot for the other one. I did a quick scan to confirm it was the only other gargoyle statue up there, then crouched, legs ready to sprint.

A roar filled the night and she was on them—throwing a death knight from the roof and leaping to dig her claws into the witch. That was it, my chance. I sprinted all-out, making for the statue, and reached it as the gargoyle flew off the witch, taking a chunk of flesh with her. The witch was screaming, flinging hexes left and right without a target, and then I saw why—the gargoyle had not only torn flesh, but managed to scratch out her eyes. Damn.

Steph, meanwhile had her shield of fire again, shooting flames at the gargoyle while the last two of her death knights took up a defensive position. If they’d given up the offense, that meant we were looking good.

“Steph!” I shouted, reaching for the other gargoyle, smiling. “Let’s see how well you hold up against two of them!”

My fingers touched the hand of the second gargoyle as Steph cursed and waved her hand to make her last two death knights vanish, then her. The witch was still there, moving her head about as she tried to work out what was happening, while the gargoyle was back up and preparing to pounce, but looking my way as I awoke the other.

I held up a hand for the screen as before. Only, this time the ‘Awake’ option wasn’t there. In fact, it showed an image of a