CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Storm flew back to the castle and saw Sky, Gramma and Ne-ma in the middle of the huge courtyard. Sky was standing in front of the two witches, trying to shield them from a gigantic multi-headed serpent that was attacking them.
“Sky!” Seath shouted as Storm swooped in. “What the hell is that? And where is Banet? Did this hideous monster eat him up?”
“This hideous monster is Banet!” Sky shouted back. “He changed himself into this monster using his staff. I tried using my dragon fire on him, but it’s no use!”
Storm aimed a ball of fire at the huge, hissing monster. All the heads reared up and glared at Storm with the same pitch black eyes. Storm saw the murderous rage in Banet’s eyes. Banet was going to kill everyone to get what he wanted. He had done it before and he would do it again.
Storm bombed the monster with dragon fire, but the scales on Banet’s serpentine body seemed to be fireproof. The dragon fire simply smashed into Banet’s long, scaly body and fizzled into harmless sparks.
“Banet changed himself into a Hydra,” Ne-ma shrieked. “The only way to destroy a Hydra is to cut off its heads...”
“...and burn the stumps with fire,” Gramma yelled. “Before it regrows a couple more heads!”
“I can chop off a few heads,” Seath answered as he leaped off Storm’s back to stand beside Gramma and Ne-ma.
“So can I!” Emilia piped up as Storm released her gently. Gramma and Ne-ma’s faces glowed when they saw her. Storm landed beside Sky and shifted back to human form.
The Hydra loomed over them, hissing and spitting. “Don’t let its venom touch you,” Ne-ma warned. “If the venom lands on you, it can eat through your skin and flesh, and kill you in a matter of minutes.”
Storm turned to his brothers and spoke quickly, “If we can chop off all those heads and scorch the neck stumps, we can defeat Banet. We have dragon fire, but we need swords...”
“Oh! We just learned how to make swords!” Gramma rubbed her hands. “Neveah and I bought a new spell book last week and we tried the sword-making spell with some success. I can’t wait to do it again! Here, we’ll show you!”
Sky and Storm shifted swiftly to dragon form and attacked Banet with fire. It was to distract the monster and buy the witches some time.
As Storm hurled fire at Banet, he watched Gramma and Ne-ma make complicated gestures as they worked the sword-making spell. To his amazement, he saw the gleaming handle of a sword push up from the ground in front of Gramma. More handles began to sprout around the witches. It was like they were growing swords out of the ground.
“Grab them!” Ne-ma cried excitedly. “Come and grab your swords! While stocks last!”
With a nod at Sky, who was still circling the Hydra, Storm shifted back to human form as he dropped in front of a sword handle. He gripped the shiny hilt and yanked the sword out of the ground.
He blinked. The blade was bent and crooked, and the tip of the sword seemed to be tied up in a knot.
Seath and Emilia pulled their swords out, and Storm saw that all the swords had irregular, misshapen blades.
“These swords are...weird,” Seath exclaimed.
“Oops! We must have gotten some parts of the spell wrong,” Gramma mumbled sheepishly.
“Never mind,” Storm said, holding out his crooked sword. “The blades are sharp enough. Doesn’t matter if the blade is straight or crooked. As long as it’s sharp, it can do the job.”
With a rallying cry, Storm charged at the Hydra, raising his sword high above his head.
Seath whooped and raced after him.
Behind them, Emilia, Gramma and Ne-ma all ran forward, wielding their deformed swords proudly.
“Sky, stand by! Get ready to do some barbecuing!” Seath let out a maniacal laugh and screeched, “We’ll do the choppin’, and Sky will do the cookin’!”