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

the door. Suddenly, she burst into flames—her entire body! She yelped and then put it out, but not before it spread to the rug. I was there with my ice blasts, which luckily did the trick of putting out the fire.

“Shit,” Steph said, and then laughed. “I like this extra power deal!”

“Keep it under control, please.”

“Sure thing.”

We made it through the door to see the others sniffing and glancing back.

“Just a little fire,” I said. “Nothing to worry about. Keep it moving.”

Steph chuckled, and we took the lead. The gargoyles made loud thuds with each step, shaking the walls, and Shisa came running halfway up the stairs to meet us. I knelt to rub its head, then told it to come along for training. ‘It’? Maybe I’d start referring to the little guy as a ‘he,’ because that made it seem more real.

“I’d love to see what else you’re capable of, when your magic is enhanced,” I told Shisa. The little lion-dog gave a bit of a bark-growl in excitement.

“You’re starting to communicate!” Steph said, and laughed.

We made it into the old family room, and I glanced around, deciding to try something else. Usually, my transmutation didn’t extend to changing actual materials like real alchemy, or maybe I was limited by my mental ability to grasp such changes. But with the Avalon connection, I felt confident. My hand on the wall, I grinned as I felt the wood transform so that whatever substance I put there held a metallic gleam. My goal was something akin to the X-Men animated series version of their training room—although I couldn’t remember what it had been called or made of. Regardless, this seemed to work well enough. I stopped short of creating sentinels and the whole simulation aspect of their training room. We had real gargoyles and magic, after all.

“Holy hell,” Steph said, and glanced my way as if asking permission.

“Try,” I said, figuring I had a good notion of where she was going with that look.

She held up a hand and thrust, sending a massive blast of fire at the wall. It roared and the heat was intense, but when she ceased, there wasn’t even a scorch mark.

“While you’re at it,” Kordelia said, eyeing the wall and then Steph, “might as well do the whole house like that.”

Sometimes I hated when a badass idea wasn’t mine. Such as in that moment. I nodded, impressed, and said, “You all start training, but see that you don’t hurt each other. I’ll be a couple of seconds.”

“If anyone does get hurt, I can simply heal them,” Ebrill pointed out. “Usually, it isn’t too strong, but with this amplification, it shouldn’t be an issue.”

“There you go.”

I watched them form pairs and start sparring, lightly at first and then harder as they tried fire and other spells to see how much amplification there was. After a moment of this, I went ahead and started making changes to the house. My gut instinct said to change it up and make it look as much like the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland or something while I was at it, but I had to curb myself—this was not for cosmetic reasons, it was vital defense of the house. And I couldn’t change the outside much, or passersby would get suspicious. Still, I decided to have a little fun and redecorate. I imagined a room that had reliefs in the walls that showed the story of our adventures and fights so far, and made the rugs rearrange themselves into tapestries to show my ladies in all their beauty. I wondered what they would think of that! The fun kept going until I heard an ‘Oomph’ from behind me and remembered the training, so I quickly finished changing the walls and whatnot to fortress mode.

Ebrill was on her back, wings pushing her up, and Kordelia circled her with a grin.

“Even our physical strength is amplified when tapped into Avalon,” Aerona said.

“Apparently,” Ebrill added, cracking her neck and flexing her arms. Watching her muscles like that, this almost nude, beautiful gargoyle, I felt something else amplified. The power seemed to be affecting my sex drive, or maybe I was just getting turned on by these hot women kicking each other’s asses. Steph and Aerona went up against each other next, going spell-for-spell, and sure enough, I was like a horny teenager by the time they were done.

“You’re up,” Kordelia said, motioning me forward.

“Um, yeah… sorry.” I adjusted my pants.

She laughed. Ebrill smiled, and Aerona groaned.

“She meant ‘you’re up’ as in it’s your turn,” Steph explained, passing me and grabbing my package for emphasis.

“I can’t fight with this.” I gestured to my crotch.

“You think the enemy will care if there’s extra blood in your cock when it’s time to fight?” Kordelia retorted. “Now get out here and try not to poke out any eyes with that thing.”

I laughed, but held up a hand. “Let Shisa show us what he’s got first. If I haven’t had a downsizing by then, sure.”

They must’ve been curious, because they all stopped giving me a hard time and turned to Shisa instead.

“Do your thing,” I told the lion-dog.

Shisa shook its head, a mixture of stone and fur, and then stepped out into the middle of the room. It looked at each of us, waiting.

“Oh, we should send an attack,” I said. “Got it.”

Throwing out an ice blast, I watched as Shisa braced and an energy wall shot out around it, deflecting the attack right back at me! Steph hit the ice with fire, so that the result was me simply getting drenched as the remaining water hit.

“Your turn,” I told Steph, wringing out my shirt.

She shot out fire and dodged immediately, so that when it rebounded, it hit the wall and didn’t do any damage. We went at this a few more times, trying with Aerona and then seeing that the shield worked on us, too, and then watched as Shisa shot out energy attacks from its mouth and performed