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

“You have no idea what you’ve done here,” Fatiha shouted, cursing and then turning and charging at the oncoming Nine, rising into the sky and pulling together her own flashing, bursting circles of magical light.

I grinned. We knew exactly what we were doing, and apparently, it was working.

“Let’s take out the ranks while the more powerful ones are distracted,” Steph said, and without waiting, moved down the hill with her wraith knights, led by a wall of flame that shot out before her.

“Protect Aerona,” Megha said, following Steph and leaping into the air to ride one of her titans. It appeared, gray skin, nasty face without eyes but a gaping, sharp-toothed mouth, and leaped out into the midst of the enemy. All I saw was a flurry of fists and the enemy falling before it. Then her pet Bob was there, jumping out and landing on another summoned beast, merging with it to grow large and fly at her side, then another—she was making more and more summoned monsters form with it, tearing through enemy ranks.

And I was there, glad to have Shisa at my side as I chanted defensive magic and sent out flurries. My spells brought remnants up from the fallen enemy troops so that we had a growing army down there on the ground.

Only, as they pushed the tide below, a body went flying past me to slam into the ground near Aerona’s translucent form. I spun to see Mizoa, recovering. When she saw me, she cried urgently, “Look out!”

Moronoe and Fatiha were incoming, locked in battle with each other, while behind them the others were still going at each other in flashes of light and darkness.

Ebrill landed at my side to check on me, sent a healing spell winging its way toward Kordelia, then ran and leaped to take on a large beast that was fighting among the orcs.

“Tell them!” I shouted, then turned to others, amplifying my voice. “Make sure they know that we won’t hurt any who want to come to our side.”

“On it,” Mizoa said as she rose to join Glitonea. The two were like flashes across the sky, playing a game of hit and run over and over while passing on the message.

I went back to my spellcasting, summoning every spell I could come up with, working to keep my allies safe and focus mostly on the main enemies who I knew had no chance of switching sides.

With more remnants rising below, I saw enemy forces begin to kneel, forgoing alliances, joining what would soon be our empire. My empire.

At that moment, Galahad and Riland charged in with members of the Order, all wearing gold robes and joining Steph and her wraith knights. Percival turned to me and nodded, then charged out.

“On them,” I said, and rushed out to join Steph and her wraith knights. Apparently, this new attack brought the attention of Moronoe down on us, along with a renewed assault of rune-covered creatures. They reminded me of something between a lion and a rhinoceros, with a heavy mane and horn, great clawed paws and more horns on their backs.

Yenifer was still the size of two of them together, at least, so when she flew in to take out two of them, I had to cheer. More were coming, though, and were too much for her to handle on her own. I caught one with a blast of lightning but another leaped up to my ledge and swiped with one of its paws. My ice wall rose and was instantly shattered, but Aerona landed at my side with a flaming magic sword that went right through the beast’s head, leaving it to collapse, dead.

She winked and then went to fight at Yenifer’s side, where the two were able to fight off waves of those creatures. Orcs and Drow were fighting, too, or trying to get in to fight us—except my remnants were keeping them busy.

Moronoe turned on me. A moment later Fatiha did, too, each launching individual attacks my way.

It was time to bring the power of Avalon back into the fight. Staff thrust forward, Liahona summoned, I once again went wild with all spells at once, pulling together everything I could—this time including the amplified power of my internal runes—and attacked. My clothes were replaced by those robes again, my feet by sandals as I became one with that other land, embracing the magic of Avalon.

My assault on the lion-rhinos was like a child tearing apart clay. I spun, robes fluttering around me as my magic cut through them. I felt like at last I was in my true element. Each new spell came out of me naturally, and as my XP rose and my levels increased, I ‘learned’ the spells I was using, learned what I was taking from Avalon and made it my own.

To say the battle that followed was anything other than destructive and devastating would be an understatement. I was like a force of nature, shooting waves of magic and bolts of lightning, casting down the enemy and binding them in place so they couldn’t move. If it had only been me the area around us would have been in chaos, but Fatiha was fighting with equal fervor, the members of the Nine as well, and plus the gargoyles with their magic.

Knowing I needed to focus if I was going to end this thing, I turned to Fatiha. The longer I held this connection to Avalon, the more dangerous it got. Taking her out quickly was the only way.

Sprinting in sandals—even the magical sandals of Avalon—wasn’t the best way to travel, so I attempted a levitation spell. Instead, what I got was a spell that threw me up into the air and propelled me directly at her. She turned from her fight with Moronoe, and then it was the three of us casting spells at each other, throwing up defensive walls and counter-curses.

A roar sounded, and I glanced over my shoulder to see that the