Mysticons: The Secret of the Fifth Mysticon by Liz Marsham

Author:Liz Marsham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Imprint

11

In Which There Are Several Types of Bad Breath

Em quickly counted them off in her head: one two three four five SIX. Six rocs, huge birds ten times the size of a griffin, were descending on the city in a V formation. The one in the lead, lava dripping from its beak, was deep red. The others in the V were green, white, blue, and purple. And bringing up the rear, largest of all, was a huge black roc, its beak parted in what Em could swear was a grin.

“All right!” Zarya shouted, leaping on top of a nearby fruit cart for a better vantage point. “Boss fight!” She nocked an arrow, took aim at the crimson roc, and fired. To her surprise, the arrow bounced right off its beak. The huge beast didn’t even flinch.

“I call the green one!” said Piper, somersaulting through the air and tossing her hoops at her target. The emerald roc didn’t bother to dodge. It swatted the hoops out of the air with its giant wings, then dropped into a dive.

“Okay, let’s try something with a little more oomph,” Em called, pulling three orbs out of her pouch. “Heads up!” As the green roc swooped over their heads, she hurled the orbs up at its exposed belly. They beeped twice, then exploded in a cloud of smoke with a fwa-BOOM that Em felt in her gut.

But when the smoke cleared, Em cried out in disappointment. The roc was completely unharmed. Its feathers weren’t even singed. Opening its beak wide, it exhaled a cloud of green gas at a family of terrified elves.

Arkayna was just in time. She fired her staff at the elves, and a dome of energy sprung into place around them as the roc’s gas descended. The family sagged in relief as the noxious fumes wafted harmlessly around the protective dome, dispersing in the air.

“Something’s wrong!” Zarya shouted desperately. “Why can’t we hurt them?” She drew and fired, drew and fired at each roc in turn. And one by one—red roc, green, white, blue, purple—the arrows bounced and fizzled off, to no effect. Zarya fired one last arrow at the faraway black roc, who backed up leisurely to hover in place. The arrow fell short, and the beast snorted in amusement.

The blue roc swooped down, spitting jagged shards of ice from its beak as it came. People dove for cover as the razor-sharp icicles fell from the sky, impaling kiosks and driving themselves deep into the stone ground with the force of their impacts. Narrowing its eyes, the huge bird made a beeline for Zarya, still standing atop the cart.

“Uh, so, don’t worry,” Zarya stammered. “This is all part of the game. It probably can’t hurt me. Probably.” Her hands shaking slightly, she nocked and aimed another arrow. “Maybe the trick is to wait until it’s closer?” As the roc bore down on her, she waited three seconds … four seconds … five. She fired.

The roc snapped its beak and plucked the arrow from the air effortlessly, breaking it in two.

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