The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 5 by Bella Forrest (book series for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

terrifying as he wielded the vast blade, preparing for the fight ahead. Ellabell followed straight after, pulling a trident down, alongside a net. It reminded Alex of the retiarius gladiators, who had fought in grand arenas with the same weapons she had chosen. Aamir sprinted toward a mace and shield, grappling with them, until he too looked the part of vicious warrior. Alex moved toward a curved saber, lifting it off its bracket. The solid silver handle was scarred with the wounds of past battles, and the blade glinted with a deadly sharpness. It felt heavy in his hands, but, after a few practice swings, he knew he could do some real damage with this thing—and he intended to.

As a unit, they circled the mechanical creatures, who had come to life, moving with surprising fluidity toward them. Proper combat wasn’t a natural state for any of them, and Alex was nervous about making the first strike, even as one of the lions snapped its jaws at him.

Within seconds, the creatures had snatched away any choice they might have had in the matter. One of the lions pounced, coming within inches of Alex’s shoulder. He ducked out of the way, rallying against the automaton as he sliced his blade down onto its back. It made a dent, but the lion was unperturbed, wheeling back around to have another go. Again, Alex brought his sword down onto the creature’s back, wanting to crack the metal, but the beast swung out of the way at the last minute, unscathed.

At the far end of the room, Aamir smashed his mace down onto the Minotaur’s chest plate, not seeing the second lion as it approached. Aamir raised his arm to swing the mace again, and the lion pounced, clamping its metal jaws down on his hand. Aamir cried out and dropped the mace, trickles of blood meandering down his forearm. Ellabell ran to him while Lintz distracted the Minotaur. She was fending it off, jabbing at its golden eyes trying to get it to let go, when Alex raced up to assist. With a great leap, Alex drove the sword down into the spot between the lion’s shoulder blades, using all his forward momentum to shatter the mechanism within. The creature let out a robotic roar, opening its jaws. Aamir snatched his hand away just as Ellabell forced her spear down into the open mouth of the golden beast. With a heavy clunk, the lion slumped to the floor, the clockwork broken.

“You okay?” asked Alex, looking at the blood trickling down Aamir’s arm.

Aamir clutched his wound, breathing hard. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

Ellabell turned to Alex. “I had it covered,” she said, her eyes glinting with irritation.

“I was just trying to help,” Alex replied, brow furrowed. “Two weapons are better than one, right?”

Ellabell whirled around in time to smack the remaining lion hard in the face, forcing it to run toward the far wall. “Aamir, are you going to be okay?” she asked, and Alex noticed that she had ignored his question.

He nodded. “As long as you cover me.”

There wasn’t time to patch him up now, but the older boy didn’t seem too bothered by the injury, dropping the shield to the ground and picking up his mace again. With only one usable hand, he returned to the fray. Alex and Ellabell joined him, though Alex had to take a moment to pause at the sight before him. Lintz, in a feat of athleticism, had jumped off the back of the remaining lion and was soaring through the air toward the Minotaur, crashing his double-sided axe down on the monster’s neck, beheading it in one fell swoop. The head arced through the air, sparking from the point of its beheading. Its body crumpled. Alex dove out of the way as the head came rushing in his direction and hit the wall behind him.

“Nice, Professor!” he whooped.

Lintz grinned. “It’s good to stretch your legs once in a while!”

The others looked at the professor in awe, before remembering they still had another beast to dispense with. They approached the final lion, backing it into a corner. Bombarding it with blows from their various weapons, they had it lying defunct on the ground within a matter of minutes. Looking closely at the unmoving metal body, Alex saw that it had the word “Strength” written down its spine. The fifth virtue of Orpheus, no doubt.

“Well, that was refreshing,” boomed the professor, propping his axe against the wall.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Ellabell asked.

Lintz wiped sweat from his forehead. “I was young once, remember?”

Aamir was still bleeding, and the flesh of his hand was torn up pretty badly. Walking up to him, Alex ripped a strip of fabric from the edge of his shirt, and helped to bind the wound with the rudimentary bandage in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. Aamir winced as Alex tied it into place, but said nothing of the pain.

The door to the next room lay just beyond the crumpled form of the headless Minotaur, but Alex paused for a moment, realizing this might be the only opportunity they’d have to take a breather. Looking at the others, he could see that they were beginning to tire, though their optimism had yet to wane. Alex felt it too, tugging at his muscles.

After a brief respite, they moved on through to task number six.

Almost halfway, thought Alex, with a sigh of tentative relief.

A set of stairs took the group down, deeper into the earth. Alex thought of the pagoda and pictured the vault like a reverse version, with the floors going down instead of up, though it served to make him anxious about what might lie at the very end.

He was the last to descend the steps and enter the next room, which was lit by a central spotlight that illuminated only a small section of the space, the rest shrouded in darkness. He froze, as he saw the others standing stock still, clearly perturbed.