The Alchemists

Chapter 11

RECAP:

I felt the air around me swirl and the ground leave my feet. I charged towards the Cyclops, splitting my scythe into two and shouting, "Die, one-eyed freak! DIE!"

I was idiot to do that because the cyclops heard me and turned its head to face me. I gulped as it opened its cavernous mouth, no way to avoid it. The last thought I had was that cyclopes really need breath mints, before I was swallowed by the unrelenting darkness.

-*-

Let me tell you something. Being trapped in a Cyclops' mouth is not fun.

Not. Fun. At. All.

I was standing on a soft, wet surface which I assumed to be the tongue. The walls were all slimy and red. The whole place reeked of rotten meat. I dared not stab anything lest I wanted to be covered in blood.

Ick. I'd rather die.

But I couldn't just sit here. I had to do something. Right now, my scythe had gotten stuck in his teeth which stopped him from swallowing me into his stomach. His jaws were clamped shut, preventing my escape. Let's see... I really don’t want to be soaked in Cyclops blood so I'm not using my scythe. Looks like I'm resorting to magic.

Let's get this show on the road.

Axel's POV

Damn it. Why did Sam have to pull such a reckless move? Now we had to be careful to prevent injuring her. The Cyclops was just gracefully avoiding our attacks, even if grace wasn't a quality I usually associated with a twenty-foot high monster. We needed to stop this thing from moving if we expected to attack. I faced Parth, who looked impassive and said, "Stop this joke of a giant from moving."

Parth nodded and knelt down on one knee, his arms out in front of him, crossing each other, his eyes closed, concentrating. We needed to buy him time. Ryder seemed to realize what we were doing and stepped in front of him, protecting him from assault.

"Earth style: Dust storm," I chanted.

Immediately, the dust from nearby lifted itself and swarmed around the Cyclops, effectively blinding it. River pulled out his bow and locked in arrow. Letting it go, he focused on it. The arrow shimmered in midair, transforming into a shining rope. The rope attached itself to the monster's torso, pinning its arms down, while Wendy was busy keeping the storm up.

I wanted to bash its stomach him, forcing him to spit out but refrained from doing that. But what if I caused it to spit fire? That will be the end of Sam. I glanced at Parth and saw his magic circle drawn into the ground, icy mist swirling around him at high speeds. He's almost done.

"Everyone get back!" I shouted. We retreated, letting Parth do his thing.

Parth opened his eyes and I swear they looked so cold and void of emotion that even Antarctica would have seemed warmer. The mist around him blasted away and collected around the Cyclops but I could still feel the cold from here.

Silently, as if in a whisper, Parth chanted, "Ice style secret art: Frozen Monolith"

The words itself imparted a sense of power into them. The mist around the giant's feet started to solidify making massive crackling sound. The ice encased the beast, moving up from his feet, slowing its movements, encasing it up to its neck. It was very impressive. I looked at Parth but he seemed to be drained as he was leaning on Ryder, panting for breath.

The Cyclops still held its mouth closed, despite being frostbitten all over. That did not last long however.

I saw the same icy mist escaping its mouth and nose, flowing out like water through a strainer. The beast's mouth was suddenly wrenched open - possibly breaking its jaws - by massive ice pillars. Sam then leapt out of the gargantuan mouth, using her scythes, which were incidentally coated in lightning, slicing across the fiend. She landed on the ground like a cat and turned to Parth and Ryder.

"End it!" she shouted. Ryder nodded and stamped his foot onto the ground, opening a familiar magic circle, one made moments ago.