Mythian Academy: The Timeglass

Chapter Twenty-two: The House Special

Chapter Twenty-two: The House Special

    My hand wraps around the mirror's vine handle. Returning my reflection gaze, images of when I was here last flash across the surface. The tour guides were telling us about all the different animals who lived here, and I was to distracted by the life-like wire loins to see a pair of grubby hands drag...

    How about a house special?

    "Alexi!" I shove the mirror in his face.

    He similes and a perfect Barbary lion lunges from the light shining through Alexi's staff. The lion stands on the offensive ready to attack our enemy. It stands tall and proud, like any gorgeous animal should when sporting a long muscled body of nine feet from head to tail. To my shock and disappointment, Caius stands his ground, unaffected by the majestic predatorial beast ready to sink his massive canines into Caius' jugular. Callous as a miner's hands, he pulls out his own defensive weapon. A watch of gold unfurls itself from around his wrist to take the shape of a brilliantly detailed circular shield.

    "Hey you have a shape shifting artifact too!" Asher cheers.

    "Yes, Ignoramus. Now, let me show you how to fight like a Mythian!"

    Around Caius' neck a dull necklace of gold catches my attention. It's not unlike the shield he now has on his arm. The sword charm hanging from the chain disappears. Caius yanks it from his neck and holds it in his hand. It grows before us into a full fledged lethal weapon. The dull, unpolished blade is pointed directly at Asher in a form of challenge.

    Something shimmers just above the hilt where Caius loosely grips the handle. A three pronged pitchfork, maybe a trident, sits in the middle of a circle with a series of lines touching each point to make a kind of deformed star. The once long and fragile chain wraps itself mechanically around and up his arm.

    He rapidly swings his sword from left to right in a well practiced manner before this time holding it up defensively. Six hundred pounds of pure killing machine lunges full force towards Caius. He dodges, turns, and just as the lion recovers he drives his sword into the side of the poor creature. It falls to the ground like glitter from a confetti bomb. We stand awestruck. That was epic! I mean... Dang it! He beat our first attack.

    Caius swings at Asher. Asher steps up and blocks with the cube's shield form. Asher then counters with a swift jab of his sword. It's easily blocked by the tip of his opponent's blade. Please be safe Asher. No more trips to the hospital!

    I turn to Alexi, "What in this room can we use to turn this fight in our favor?"

    I watch him examine the room while trying, myself, to strategize, and come up with anyway to keep Asher from dieing at the hands of Baby Face. Apparently I need more practice in the art of strategy because I come up empty minded. From the repeating symetric arches to the prayer benches to the different hallway's footsteps echoing towards us, I find nothing but the idea to pretend Caius is a vampire and try holding the cross up in front of him. Wait...that won't work. I don't think vampires can be on sacred ground, so pretending he's a vampire is out of the question. Vampire? Seriously? What am I even talking about? Last week I didn't even believe in blood sucking vampires. Wow, it's crazy how quickly your perspective on the world can change.

    "If we get up to the balcony then we can attack from up there."

    "Huh? Yeah, Let's do it!" I shake myself from my daze and pocket my mirror, "Give me a boost, and then I'll help you up."

    "Okay," he nods.

    I, with quick strides, pull him towards the easiest accessible point. As if he had given someone a boost a thousand times before, he cups his hands and waves me on. Taking only a second to prepare myself, I step into his hands and out of the lunging unnamed criminals clutches rushing in from their rat holes. The wind rushes through my hair as I fly through the air. In that moment, before my stomach attacks my heart with a ball and chain, I feel weightless until the gravity of things crashes down on me like any other object on a spinning glade with a gravitational pull. I grab the edge with the easy of a fat cat and haul myself up like I had back in the obstacle course a few too many times a few days ago.