The Warlock's Flame
Chapter Six
Merlin smirked at the prince before charging forward lighting coursing across the spear, just before he reached attack distance the young warlock planted the butt of the spear on the ground and pole-vaulted himself into a very debilitating kick; knocking the cyclops back toward the window he had come through.
Arthur and his father were stunned, this was the same goofy manservant who couldn't walk five paces without tripping over himself.
Merlin landed and swatted the cyclops in the stomach and proceeded to go into a dizzying series of spiraling staff-style attacks ending with another kick, this one enhanced with lightning.
The kick struck with such force it sent the monster flying out of the window and landing on the ground below with an almighty crash.
"Merlito is so strong" Leo said in a voice of whimsical admiration.
"Yes he is fire-cracker" Arthur responded with a smirk now that the initial shock had warn off.
Leo then thought of something, he now knew that his precious Merlito was a demigod just like he was, did that mean he could become a mighty hero too?
"Prince-ito...do you think I could be that strong some day?"
The son of Hephaestus gave Arthur an almost pleading look.
"Some day, yes but for now we must let Merlin deal with this...he is the only one who can." the prince replied patting the boy's shoulder.
The next moment a large rock hits exactly where Merlin was standing but the warlock apparently moved faster than they could register since he had jumped back from the spot and was now standing only a few steps away.
"Merlito are you okay" Leo asked worriedly taking step forward despite the king and prince trying to keep him from getting in the way.
The spirited warlock looked back at the younger demigod
"Yes Leo, I am fine...I was hoping that fall was enough to kill it but apparently not" was Merlin's response.
He then sprinted to the rock and with another almighty kick sent out of the window and sailing over the horizon.
"Time to send this cyclops back to Tartarus where it came from."
The clever warlock then leaped out of the window, focusing as much lightning into the spear head as possible before bringing his spear down hard on the monster's head, smashing it into the ground where it exploded into a cloud of golden dust and making an impressive impact on the city street.
Merlin glanced up and now realized that the cyclops wasn't alone, there were two other cyclopes flanking two human-like creatures.
Before he could register who they were the manservant heard the scraping of metal boots and saw Arthur skid to a stop beside him.
"Don't say a word Merlin, you no longer have to fight alone" the gold-hearted prince stated with confidence and that's when he noticed the knights had joined him as well.
Sirs Lancelot, Leon, Gwaine and Percival lined up so they all were standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
Merlin smiled
"Well then if that is the case you'll need better swords"
he then reached into his pocket and extracted more gold coins and tossed them high in the air
"Catch!"
Each knight caught a magnificent celestial bronze sword, Merlin had called on his magic to make sure they landed on heads.
The blade was glistening with semi-divine power.
"Alright let's give them HELL!" shouted Gwaine fiercely
"For the love of Camelot!" cried Arthur and they all charged
"Okay the knights need to handle to the cyclopes while Arthur and I deal with the two in the middle."
The knights nodded Leon and Percival took the cyclops on the right, while Gwaine and Lancelot took the one of the left.
As the warlock and prince closed in on the two humanoid beings Merlin realized who they are
"Okay Arthur we'll need to watch each others backs...the two ahead of us are the twin gods of fear, Phobos and Deimos"
Arthur paled
"They're gods!" the warlock nodded grimly
"Phobos is the god of fear, his power works best on an individual while his brother Deimos is the god of terror, his power is used best on a large group. "
"Don't worry my prince, I'm on your side!" Merlin stated with so much confidence that Arthur couldn't help but be inspired.
Merlin then charged Deimos with his shimmering spear and proceeded to prove he was more skilled in combat the he let on.
Phobos and Deimos were the twin sons of Ares and Aphrodite.
They both had tall, muscular builds, ebony black hair and blood-red eyes.
They wore traditional Greek battle armor and both had swords and shields made of celestial bronze.
Arthur attacked Phobos proving his tenor as the best swordsman in Camelot.
He attacked the god with a series of skillful attacks, the gleaming sword leaving graceful orange-gold arcs as the blade sliced through the air.
The fair prince and his loyal manservant were battling well against two immortals but the two fear gods were parrying all their strikes.
"You think a mere demigod and mortal master can defeat us!" Phobos cried out hysterically as he and Arthur's swords collided.
"I will enjoy tearing your flesh from you bones son of Zeus!" Deimos boomed viciously while delivering a brutal attack with his sword that sent Merlin sliding back until there was ten feet gap between them.
The intelligent warlock knew that he and Arthur wouldn't hold out for long against Phobos and Deimos since they were gods it was only a matter of time before they eventually gained the upper hand.
Merlin was contemplating how to get them out of this mess before the two immortals killed them.
His train thought was disrupted when two earth-shaking thuds were heard and felt.
It appeared that the knights had fell their enemies.
The cyclopes dissipated into golden dust.
The knights all turned their attention to Deimos who was now advancing on Merlin's position.
"Careful! He's the god of terror!" Merlin warned but it was too late Deimos used his power as lord of terror to turn the men from brave knights to cowering children.
The god roared with laughter
"Is this the best this kingdom has, son of Zeus?"
Merlin then saw Arthur cowering on his knees too, Phobos must have used his god of fear powers on Arthur to make him experience his worst fears.
So now both the gods were moving towards the warlock with menacing expressions on his face.
It looked like the end to all of the onlookers but Merlin was not licked yet.
He then remembered something his father, Zeus had given him to use in times of great peril and if this wasn't great peril, he didn't know what was.
Merlin opened up the left side of his jacket and there strapped to inside was a small horn.
It was simple and elegant, made of Ivory and white birch-wood.
The large end was carved into the shape of an eagle.
He quickly took up his horn and put it to his lips, Merlin then blew with all he was worth.
The horn sounded immediately, its blaring resonance could be heard across the city and probably the neighboring forests.
At first Merlin didn't think had worked and the fear twins had stopped to laugh at the semi-divine warlock's seemingly pathetic last attempt.
Then a colossal clap of thunder boomed across the heavens, next a lightning bolt surged down to the ground with a deafening bang and a blinding flash of light.
It was so intense that it temporarily blinded Merlin but his vision quickly clear due to his natural immunity to lightning.
When his sight fully cleared the warlock was met with image of a tall bearded man with jet-black hair and startling blue eyes that were identical to Merlin's.
He wore a cloud-white Greek tunic with matching white pants and sleek black boots emblazoned with an electric-blue lightning bolt.
Merlin recognized the man almost at once it was his dad, the god of the sky himself
"F-father!" the youth cried overjoyed as he flung himself into his father's arms.
"I am sorry that I forced you to endure all this, it seems that the triple-goddess has enlisted the help of the fear twins." said Zeus apologetically as he hugged his son.
The warlock shook his head
"You do not need the apologize Father, I am willing to protect the innocents of this kingdom with my dying breath" the sky god's eyes softened his son was truly more noble and pure then all of Olympus combined.
"The council could learn a thing or two from you, now listen Emrys, go see to your friends my power should have been enough to dislodge Phobos and Deimos' illusions."
with that Zeus stood and rounded on the previously mentioned god-lings.
"Now for you!" he thundered summoning his master bolt.
Deimos and Phobos tried to look nonchalant but they were now face the king of the gods.
"We're not afraid of you, the triple-goddess will make us major gods if we kill him!" Phobos sounded more confident then he probably felt.
Merlin covertly slipped around and managed to make it to Arthur.
He taps the blonde prince on the shoulder
"Arthur are you okay"
Arthur glanced at Merlin
"What happened?"he asked sounding disoriented
"You were caught in one of Phobos' illusion."
Arthur looked at Merlin with shame in his eyes
"I fell for an illusion?"
the warlock squeezed the prince's shoulder
"Don't beat yourself up Arthur, remember Phobos is a god...a mortal has really no chance of resisting a god's power"
Arthur nodded "
You did very well all things considered" Merlin stated to which the prince smiled at his friend.
"So who is that man, I can feel his presence even from here"
the warlock's eyes moisten with tears of joy
"That is my father, he came to our aid"
The prince's eyes were as wide as shields
"He is Zeus?"
Merlin nodded as Zeus directed another bolt down from the heavens and struck the two fear gods on the chin.
Apparently Phobos and Deimos forgot just how powerful Zeus was because the bolt sent them screaming across the horizon and landing with an almighty crash.
Merlin felt the fear brothers' presence vanish, which meant they must have teleported
"No need to worry anymore stalwart prince and knights" the sky lord stated "They have fled for now"
Just as all the knights are released from Deimos' spell a voice boomed full cold hatred
"SEIZE THEM!" roared to cruel voice of Uther Pendragon.
Before Merlin knew what was happening he was being manhandled by a platoon of soldiers, forcing his arms behind his back.
"Father! Have you lost your mind! Are you trying to have Camelot reduced to cinders!" Arthur raged at his father, how could he do this to Merlin when he protected them all.
"He has been using magic while he was fighting...he must have summoned the creatures...to make himself look like a hero."
While Uther was on his tirade no one seemed to notice the clatter of a pair of tiny feet.
"LEAVE MERLITO ALONE!" roared the angry but squeaky voice of Leo Valdez as he barreled into the guard that had hold of Merlin's arms, the little demigod was entirely engulfed in fire.
"So he's a sorcerer too, I knew his talent was unnatural" Uther said with disgust.
"Father if you don't stop this you will bring more strife upon Camelot than you can imagine." The prince shouted, pleading for the king to listen.
Leo has started shoulder checking the guards one by one until one guard brought the pommel of his sword on the boy's head knocking him out instantly.
Time seemed to slow down for Merlin and Arthur as the boy hit the ground and ceased moving.
Thunder suddenly boomed overhead, all present company looked up to see large, ominously dark thunderclouds; lightning flashed and darted across the darkened skies.
Their eye are immediately drawn to the intimidating image of the warlock's godly father.
The rage was pouring off of Zeus in waves.
"UTHER PENDRAGON!" Zeus bellowed furiously "YOU HAVE JUST MADE THE WORST DECISION OF YOUR LIFE!"
[Uh-oh how will Uther react when he learns that he just made enemies with Zeus, not to mention Hephaestus, r&r plz]