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

Watching through the screen, we saw the version the normies saw—people yelling at each other, a fight breaking out, and it leading to chaos. To be fair, the Ex Gods cosplayers had done a damn fine job, and the one who had the sides of her pink hair shaved to look like Threed was practically naked, showing off hot body tattoos that I had to think might be real. If they’d put those kind of costumes on the actors in the movies, I would’ve seen it in the theater way more times than the two I did.

“Damn,” I said, as a Jehovah’s-witness kind of guy ran up and clocked a man with a shaved head across the jaw, and then the woman painted blue like Andromida from Ex Gods came in with a knee to the balls and elbow to the throat. That’s when it got nasty.

Red glanced up and grinned. Her lip piercing sparkled, standing out against her black lipstick.

“Finally you’re up,” Red said.

“He was,” Pucky cut in, handing me a scone and biting back a laugh. “Not anymore.”

“Subtle,” Red said with a roll of her eyes.

“But whenever it’s just us in a room, isn’t that how it goes?” Elisa said, joining us to watch the footage.

“I’ve watched it at least five times,” Red said.

“Yeah, it’s interesting,” I said, biting into one of the scones.

“Sure, but I’m just trying to figure out how the Threed wannabe gets her ass so sculpted. I mean, look there.” She paused it, holding up the screen for me to see while zooming in on the lady’s ass. “Isn’t that hot?”

“Trick question,” I said, not taking the bait. “When it comes to asses, you all have the best of ‘em.”

She frowned and closed the app.

“But…” Elisa nodded to the door. “Sharon’s already out there training, the others probably are too.

“No sign of Arthur yet, I take it.” I sipped the coffee she handed me, taking a moment to treasure the perfect mix of creamer and coffee, no sugar.

“If he’d come, we’d know, even with the defenses Mowgli set up. They’re strong, but Morganna,” she consciously didn’t look at Pucky as she said it, “combined with the power of Arthur? It’s going to be a real battle, one we won’t win easily. Which is why we need to get you trained up on this Tempest business. It’s getting late in the day already.”

I broke my scone in two and ate my half in two bites, nodding as crumbs fell down my shirt. With a quick sip of the coffee, I said, “Ready and excited.”

“Let’s go learn how to use Excalibur properly, then.”

26

What made training as a Tempest hard, they explained to me, was that there simply weren’t many of us around. Only a Protector could choose a class, while most Myths and Legends were born into theirs. The exceptions were those who took over as former Myths or Legends, such as Riak with Morganna. In theory, that could lead to a class change, but this was rare.

And from all of that, Tempests weren’t easily found. Overseas there were more, Mowgli explained, such as in China and Japan. There was the Little Mermaid, but she had sworn off fighting years ago and, while technically on our side, wouldn’t be any help here.

They got me into the penthouse, a suite that was cleared out for this specific purpose, and Pucky had Excalibur waiting for me.

“We’re going to train with real blades?” I asked.

Red stood with Elisa on the opposite side of the room, drawing her sword—much thinner and shorter, but still very much a sword. “Would you jump into the ocean only having tried swimming without water?”

Red held a sword at the ready. I glanced at Elisa nervously.

“We’ve enchanted the room to ensure there will be no death or maiming,” she assured me. “Cuts though… we’ll see.”

“We’ll see?” I questioned, not liking the sound of that.

Not that it mattered, though, because Red was already darting toward me, red cloak billowing out behind her so that it was like a tidal wave of blood sweeping in. I took a step back and held up my sword, not sure how I was supposed to be doing anything different here than a warrior would do. When she struck, I parried, but she was too fast, coming back around to slap me in the ass with the flat of her blade before dancing off to prepare for another strike.

Damn, that stung.

“Hmm,” Elisa said, shaking her head. “I was hoping that it was going to come naturally.”

“What was?” I asked.

“The Tempest powers. Maybe…” She held a hand up to Red. “You’re too much in your head. Get out of there, focus here.” She touched her stomach, her sexy, revealed abs. Yeah, I could focus there no problem. Her finger turned back to me. “Not mine, yours.”

“Sure, focus on my abs.” I nodded, knowing that wasn’t what she meant but unable to grasp what she was going for.

Somehow my new powers were supposed to take over, but only if I let them. Problem was, I had no idea what that meant in a practical sense. When Elisa lowered her hand and Red came at me again, I felt like an idiot swinging my sword without any magic or energy flowing from my stomach. Red’s strike nearly hit me but I stepped back defensively and my shield—a level two warrior upgrade—burst into effect, deflecting her strike. What a relief to know it still worked, even though I’d switched away from being a warrior.

Another strike and somehow she was behind me, this time giving me a swift kick in the ass.

“Going to have to do better than that,” Red said, pulling back and out of the way of my strike. Seeing that I’d overextended myself, she came back in and hit me with her shoulder against my ribcage, knocking me off balance—and she’d gotten her foot behind mine, so that I tripped and dropped my sword.

A flash of magic hit