Amos Daragon_ The Mask Wearer - Bryan Perro [50]
Amos concentrated on creating a sphere of communication in his right hand. Then he raised his other hand and made the wind blow in the direction of the basilisk. The hideous bird-creature flapped its wings furiously to reach the knights. But the wind was too strong and the basilisk was hardly advancing. Amos had to maintain his focus to command the wind. He had trained a good deal before leaving Berrion, but this exercise always quickly drained him of energy. The intense attention it required gave him horrible headaches.
The basilisk kept making huge efforts to move forward, but Amos was putting a difficult obstacle in front of it. The mask wearer was sweating heavily. He had to wait for the right moment—for his rooster to crow—his right hand firmly holding the sphere of communication, his left hand still raised. He felt his legs weakening. The rooster was at his side, unconcerned. Amos was gradually losing his grip on the wind, and the basilisk was gaining ground. To delay the flying creature, Junos signaled for a volley of arrows to be unleashed. They rained down on the basilisk, causing the beast to falter slightly.
Karmakas gnashed his teeth, his lips foaming, as he looked upon the scene. He couldn’t understand why the wind had picked up and how the knights were still able to move. A second volley of arrows took off. The basilisk was wounded in the thigh. Strangely enough, this seemed to increase its strength tenfold. It used all its energy to fight the wind and was getting closer to the Berrion army.
At last, Amos’s rooster let out a loud cock-a-doodle-doo. Warned by Medusa, who had unblocked her ears, Amos turned around and imprisoned the animal’s song in a sphere of wind. At that precise moment, he lost his focus and the wind stopped blowing. The basilisk surged headfirst toward the knights. His stare burned their hair and beards, as well as the manes and tails of the horses. Exhausted, Amos managed to launch his sphere in the basilisk’s direction.
“Catch this, I have a message for you!” he shouted.
What followed brought two large tears of rage to Karmakas’s eyes. The rooster’s song, locked in the ball of air, reached the basilisk and filtered into its ears. It was the only one to hear the rooster’s song—and it exploded in midflight, a few yards from Junos. Shouts of victory rose from the army of knights. They unblocked their ears and congratulated each other. There were a lot of handshakes and embraces. Amos had time to smile slightly before he passed out, drained by his efforts.
When Amos regained consciousness, Medusa was by his side. He had been taken to a temporary shelter and the young gorgon was watching over him.
“What happened? Where am I?” he asked.
“You’re awake at last! You’ve been asleep for two days!” Medusa answered.
Amos sat up, totally horrified. “Two days! I’ve been asleep for two days?”
“Yes,” the gorgon said. “But don’t worry, the knights have everything under control—for now.”
“Tell me what happened. Tell me everything.”
“We took control of the situation,” Medusa began. “After the basilisk died, Karmakas sent dozens of pythons and boas down the walls of Bratel-la-Grande. They were huge and strong, with bodies as thick as tree trunks. But the knights felt confident and were motivated by their two previous victories, so they attacked the snakes. It was a tough fight and several knights were wounded. But Junos shouted orders and himself killed at least a dozen of the beasts with his sword. Thanks to him, we won the battle. A while later, a slight earthquake shook the castle of Bratel-la-Grande. Nobody knows why or how this happened.”
“But what’s going on now?” Amos asked, alarmed.
“The knights worked tirelessly. They dug trenches, put up wood fences, lit fires that burn night and day, and patrol outside the city relentlessly. Their shield-mirrors are directed toward the city constantly,