Sorry for not updating in a long time. I had major writer's block and I was busy researching for a school project.
As expected, the killer mutant cautiously eyed us and took one step at a time towards us with its large chicken feet. I could already smell its breath from here. Des tried pounding the legs of the giant but a few of those midgets strapped his wrists down with some type of glowing celestial chain to the floor.
"Alex!" he wailed, "Get away from it!"
Getting me distracted was a fatal mistake. Jenkins the cockatrice made a loud screech that could take out the glass of a window and lunged at us. I rolled to the side while Carthage took the first swing to the abdomen but the blade clanged as if the feathers were real steel and maybe a few sparks of flame sheered off. The cockatrice turned, reared up like a horse, and clawed at Carthage's arm. He yelled in pain and stumbled backwards.
As for me, I went in for the kill; I attempted to stab Jenkins near the neck area and he—she—whatever you want to call it—turned and sidestepped away from me. It managed to nip at my fingers, but only left a small drop of blood. I felt a bit weakened with a small burning in my hand.
"Die already!" Argius growled at me. I ignored him and jabbed the cockatrice into its lower neck. A loud screech erupted from Jenkins just before he disintegrated into flames. Huh; Monsters don't do that. Suddenly, the burning sensation in my hand spread to my wrist. Why can't I just be left alone for once?
Des got the upper hand and kicked Argius in his soft spot, making him stumble and double over in pain. Desmond drew his bronze dagger and shoved it into the giant's spine and ripped downwards, only to leave Argius bursting into a shower of sulfur.
Carthage lifted himself up and joined the fight into destroying three of the seven hobbit people while I ran over to kill the other giant who was barring fists at me. He swung at me but I sidestepped and sunk my right dirk into his arm.
"YAAAH!" he screamed in pain, "Oreius will crush you!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" I backfired. Oreius tried to throw another punch but he underestimated me and I jabbed him one more time into order to turn him into a cloud of yellow powder. Once the rest of the midgets were dead and gone, the HMS Annihilator's alarm went off.
"C'mon!" Des yelled and grabbed my arm, "We gotta' sink the ship!"
"B-but we don't have any explosives!" I reminded him.
"I remember picking up the mines that the dwarves were planting on the USS Suburbia. We could use those," the admiral suggested.
I nodded and followed him onto the command deck. The horizon was now dark purple instead of black. We slashed through other Scythian dracaenae along the way and knocked a few little men into the Atlantic Ocean. When we reached the motor boat, I slid down the service ladder and rummaged through the green army sack.
Almost immediately, I grabbed a grenade belt and a spare canteen of nectar from the sack. I hurled the belt up to Carthage, who grabbed it and ran off to find Des. Drinking the nectar, it tasted like my mom's homemade pumpkin pie. Sweet custard filling with a crispy cinnamon crust just makes my entire body feel like I'm having the smoothest massage of my life. I wonder if Olympian pies were better…
My ADHD started to sidetrack me, so I pushed the thought of pies away and the burning sensation from my hand slowly faded. I climbed the ladder two rungs at a time and jumped over the Annihilator's railing. More dracaenae sighted me when I ran to the far end of the deck and ran down the stairs. Des and Admiral Carthage were strapping the grenade belt to one of the fuel pipes in the back of the room.
"What took you so long?" Desmond grunted.
"No time to explain," I panted, "Monsters are on my—"
"ALEX MOVE!"
I immediately rolled to the right just before one of the Scythian dracaenae brought her scimitar to the floor. Then I heard something go WHISSH and the dracaenae burst into a cloud of sulfur. Des sheathed his dagger that so happened to be out of his pocket.
"Idiot," he called me and turned around to work on the strapping.
After the grenade belt was fully wrapped across the engine room, I helped Carthage set the detonator to five minutes. That would give us enough time to bail out of here before the ship turns into a full blown inferno. Bye-bye ghost ship.
"Ready?" Des said. His hands were gripped on the metal leverage key.
Both of us nodded and he yanked the key out of the hole. As soon as we made a break for it, the clock started ticking. We dashed up the stairs and bashed through hordes of midget-men while making our way to the lower artillery deck. When we'd reached the front end of the HMS Annihilator, Carthage literally jumped off the railing and plunged into the Atlantic. Sons of Poseidon really are radical.
Then, I don't know what Des was doing but he quickly threw his bronze dagger toward some stumbling Scythian dracaenae and most of them exploded into columns of powder.
"Gimme' one of your dirks!" he barked.
I did as he asked and he charged forward. Both of us backed the dracaenae and midget men to the railing. Below us, Admiral Carthage was steering the motor boat and ushered us to jump in.
That's when I saw it. About a kilometer north of us was a buoy-like figure rising above the water and it billowed smoke like a train.
"Jump, mate!" the admiral ordered. I slashed the last dragon woman and immediately leaped over the railing and into the Atlantic waters. I am so going to blame all this on Carthage when we arrive in Portsmouth.
When Desmond appeared next to me, he grabbed my white sailor's shirt and pulled me to the surface. Carthage hauled me into the boat, followed by Des. Before I could say anything, he revved the motor and took us far away from the HMS Annihilator as possible. Just then, the destroyer blew up like an airplane missile just exploded from the inside.
Carthage sighed, "Another innocent ship blown up. I'm gonna' be lawsuited over this now."
"Not if I have anything to say about it," a familiar voice said.
I turned my head to see the surface of a British Undersea boat floating next to us. On top of the hull was a man dressed in a deep green commissioner's suit: Colonel Roy Tavington.
"Nice job on the Annihilator, Admiral. I'm impressed."
"Just get us to Portsmouth," Carthage said, throwing our supply sacks over to Roy.
"We'll hurry. Besides, we've already spotted a few sea serpents just west of here. Think you could handle that?"
We boarded the U-boats hull and Carthage nodded.
Once we were inside the U-boat, I was literally stunned. So many people were at the radars and shuffling everywhere was about to drive me insane... including the enclosed space. I felt like I was going to die now.
"Okay men, back to Portsmouth! Dive, dive, dive!" Tavington ordered while pounding his fist into his hand. Almost immediately, I could hear the water rise above us. The submarine radar echoed throughout the submergible. Burr... burr... burr... burr.
Des looked at me, "If you get sick, the seasick bags are in the back."
"Thanks, but no thanks," I said, "I'm good."
After a long tour of the U-boat (given by Roy himself), I was assigned the radar and the radar while Des was to refit the torpedoes at the front and back of the submarine, but at least my job was easier than worrying about dropping a missile and making the entire Undersea-boat turn into serpent chow.
A few nautical miles out west, something was spotted on the radar... and it was big.
"Uh... Colonel? You better come see this," I said.
Tavington marched into the room and leaned in closer to see the radar.
His eyes widened, "Not a leviathan."
"What the heck is a leviathan?"
"An amphibious drakon, looks like one of the adults too. I better get Carthage to take command."
All too soon, a rumble echoed, followed by metal creaking.