Chapter 24: The End?

Chapter 23

Max

Of all the things I may have expected fighting a fire, ice, and acid breathing Hydra, an army of skeleton warriors was not one of them.

Many of the bony soldiers ran over and around me charging the beast, while a few with shields stood in front of me and created a barrier. As I stared at the back of their shields I heard the roar of the beast, the clatter of bones, the crunch of something being stepped on. I should have been wondering what the heck just happened.

Instead I was wondering how sandals made before the fall of Rome could have survived in such good condition. The shield guard in front of me was wearing sandals with thick leather straps holding them to the bones by wrapping up like a boot. It was odd how natural it looked. Except for the red that was glowing on it, kind of like blood. The red made me kind of angry...

Duke flipped me on to my back and fed me some water from his canteen. He was...glowing. That was the only way to explain it. He looked normal, but the air around him was red, and I knew that the red was coming from him. As I drank the water energy was coming back to me, I could stand. As I got up I saw that the place on Duke’s arm where the axe was stored was bleeding some, as well as a cut on his other arm. He saw me looking.

“Father told me it would take a price of blood to awaken those who lost the battle last fought here and give them a chance to redeem themselves. Unfortunately, normal soldiers are not equipped to deal with this monster. Can you toss two more lightning bolts?” Duke asked looking at me. Energy was flowing into me now. Rage at this monster was flowing into me now. Rage at the loss of my beautiful city, at those damn invaders who DARED to come to our shores and...

The rage wasn’t mine. It was theirs. All the skeletons who were throwing what remained of their bodies at the monster to give us time to prepare. Julie was throwing torrents of water to try and stop the acid or frost from hitting the skeletons, but only succeeding a third of the time.

I stood and nodded my head, then gathered the energy flowing in to me letting the power building up until my head started hurting and my stomach felt like it was trying to rip itself out of my body. The shield bearers stood in front of me, letting me see the fight but ready to step in the way if the Hydra attacked me. I opened my eyes and saw that Duke was staying behind the monster and directing his fallen soldiers to attack the front. They were the distraction for the main strike, which Duke implemented just as another wave of soldiers charged.

He ran jumped onto the back of the Hydra and swung the axe, its blade glowing, cleanly through the green head. He reversed the stroke, but the Hydra reared in pain at the sudden loss, and he was sent sailing back. I loosed a lightning blast into the wound to close it, preventing more heads from growing. The lightning did not come down as a typical blast, but instead as a pillar of light slamming into the beast, pushing it to the ground. The blast of thunder that resulted from the lightning created a dust cloud that knocked anyone close to the beast over.

“Good going Hydra! Defeat those brats and I will let you cause mayhem on the mainland!” Eos cackled. I was about to respond, but Julia yelled something at me, it took me a second to realize what she was saying.

“Pay attention Thunderhead! She cannot interfere any more without attracting the attention of the Gods, which she dares not do if she wants her plan to succeed. Get another one of those lightning things ready!” I screamed my agreement and refocused the second blast and got it ready. The Blue head turned towards Duke, swinging its body around (sending skeleton soldiers flying) and began to walk towards him. Then the ocean stopped.

I don’t mean I stopped hearing it, because that happened too. It just stopped. The waves froze where they were, some in mid crest. Then the water started getting pulled back as a spout rose from the ocean. The spout twisted and turned like it was a living thing, the wind whipping around Julie causing her hair to fly this way and that, she looked like she was in some sort of wind tunnel. Then she raised her hand, and the giant water spout contracted to something so thin I could barely see it.

Then she swung her hand down and pointed straight at the Hydra.

There was a rush of wind over me (more soldiers fell over) followed by what sounded like a hundred waterfalls. It took me a second to realize that the thin spout of water swung across the field, and I didn’t feel any water touch me. The Hydra moved foreward a few more steps, then stopped. The blue head fell to the ground twitching. The skin started to bulge before I realized what was happening and slammed more lighting into the beast.

As my vision cleared the Hydra’s headless corpse was lying on its side. The blue head with a clean cut lying next to it. The red head behind it being eaten away by acid, and the green head not far from that. It was dead. The energy rushed out of me and I fell to my knees again. The skeleton soldiers were cheering as they were returning to the underworld. Duke’s axe returned to his hand as he got up on one elbow and looked, rather amazed, at the Hydra that, if it had taken a few more steps, would have killed him. Julie was stumbling towards us trying to talk, but apparently having difficulty.

“Too bad, it would have been nice to use it as a distraction,” said Eos as she rose into the air, something red hanging from her belt. “Too bad for you kids, I already got what I wanted from this place. This island will now return to the sea from which it came. Bye bye” She cooed sweetly as she flew away.

With a rumble the Island began to sink.

I fell forward on my face. The world went black.