Malysseus stopped in front of the triple layer of Arcane magic. At least—it had been a triple layer. He found that one of the three layers had been shattered, completely destroying the spell. He focused on the original spell, twisting the magic of the first barrier. He stretched out the enchantment until he held an arcane spear hovering in front of him.

He repeated the same process with the second barrier in the front, which was already partially damaged. The cyclops, taking some sort of break, didn’t notice him form the second spear. This spear was shorter since the barrier’s integrity was already damaged.

Malysseus marched from the cave, holding his spears hovering aloft and catching sight of the cyclops. The cyclops was holding a boulder and, upon seeing Malysseus, promptly tossed the boulder at his head. He immediately cursed himself for not keeping one of the barriers as a shield.

He sent both spears hurtling for the cyclops’ chest, dodging out of the way of the boulder. He made it out of the way. Unfortunately, the shockwave from the impact was more than enough to knock him off balance. Malysseus tumbled to the ground, rolling out of the way and praying to avoid a follow-up attack.

When he stood to his feet, he was coughing. His body was still trying to reclaim lost air from the surprise impact. The cyclops picked up its weapon, holding a large axe aloft. It was much more talented with a proper weapon. As Malysseus pulled himself together, he could hear the axe whistling back and forth through the air as the cyclops brandished it violently.

Now that his airways were clearing, he could see the impacts of the Arcane spears. One had landed in the monster’s gut; the other landed in the monster’s shoulder. It was holding the weapon on the side not impacted by the spear, so Malysseus could only hope the spear was making things difficult.

The creature lumbered forward. He couldn’t create an Arcane spell fast enough to avoid swings from the oversized axe or wayward boulders. Instead, he decided to rely on some of the crystal magic he had seen deal damage in the previous encounter. He formulated a new spell: a modified version of his gemstone ropes.

The Arcane spears, however, had given him an idea. Instead of trying to tie the cyclops up, he created a series of crystal chains. Attached to the end of each crystal chain was a spearhead. He fired several of these chains from the ground in quick succession, impacting the creature’s legs. It roared with fury as Malysseus’ Mana quickly drained. A total of eight crystal chain spears were sent flying from the ground. The cyclops strained against the chains but grimaced with pain as the movement created more serious wounds.

While the creature was occupied, Malysseus called to the four elements, forming another Arcane spell. The spears were useful but tricky to manipulate. He focused on creating a sizeable Arcane orb, similar to the first spell he had made with the magic. As he formed the attack, the creature began using its meaty hands to tear out the crystal spear chains.

The cyclops suffered heavy damage as Malysseus pulled the Arcane magic together. He misjudged the speed of the creature in its rage. The monster managed to tear the ropes free before the orb was fully formed. It lumbered toward him, grunting with pain as the movements shook its wounds. He focused harder, trying to complete the sphere. He had invested too much Mana into the spell to be able to form another blast capable of dealing real damage to the creature.

Just in time, Malysseus fired the Arcane orb into the spear sticking from the creature’s shoulder. He expected to push the weapon deeper, dealing more damage. That did not happen.

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The actual effect was to create an explosion from the Arcane orb, which took the cyclops’ arm clean off. This did not stop the creature. It swung the axe hurtling a brutal attack at Malysseus. He ducked, drawing his sword from its sheathe and holding it above his head.

The axe slammed into the braced saber, backed by earth magic the Wizard used to try and hold his body together.

The move saved his life, but Malysseus could not escape such a brutal blow unscathed. The impact shook his whole body, tearing muscles, despite the strengthened core of earth magic. The ground around him was crushed by the force of the blow. He was pushed down into a small crater, wincing with pain.

The monstrous, gigantic cyclops cocked back its remaining arm for a second attack. Malysseus didn’t want to give the creature a chance.

He sent as many crystal chain spears as he could summon, honing in on the creature’s neck. He didn’t even count the attacks. He kept sending spear after spear until his Mana pool bottomed out. Left with absolutely no magical power, he could only hope it was the end of the monster.

He took a breath.

The creature’s eyes rolled slightly, and it swayed backward. A moment later, the cyclops regained its footing. The creature peered down at him with its single eye. The monster grinned, causing Malysseus to curse internally. He knew he was out of Mana; for a Wizard, that was as much of a death sentence as anything else.

The cyclops finally died, falling forward at Malysseus.

With the last of his will, he pushed himself to move out of the way. He ran between the creature’s tree-sized legs as he advanced. His eyes went black. He wasn’t sure if he had made it.

Consciousness faded as he said, “Got ya. That’s for Imero, hero of the archers.”

***

The next thing Malysseus did was groan as he woke up. His whole body ached like he had blocked a cyclops with his own power. Of course, he actually had, so it was a reasonable feeling.

He tried to open his eyes, but the light hitting his eyeballs caused him to hiss in dissatisfaction.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Kewari said. He could recognize her voice, even half dead.

“You disobeyed my orders,” Malysseus croaked. “Didn’t you? Otherwise, I’d have succumbed to my injuries.”

“Being a doctor supersedes being a Captain where life is concerned, Captain,” she replied. He was struck by the image of her saluting him—even with his eyes closed—knowing that she was likely doing it. He gingerly tried to open his eyes again, which went better this time.

She was saluting.

He was lying on a makeshift cot. He recognized the material as his fingers ran over it because it was constructed from the cyclops’ bedding. Malysseus supposed it didn’t need the bedding anymore on account of being dead. He was lying in the forest, right outside of the cave. The cyclops’ body was far away, which was acceptable because it smelled even from where he lay.

“The crew thought some of the sunlight leaking through the canopy would do you some good,” Kewari said. “Nobody listened when I promised you were no good, no matter what we did.”

Malysseus cracked a smile as he looked up at Kewari. She was standing over him, hair falling into her face, eyeing him intently.

“I see your eyes are working again,” Kewari said, looking away from him, “but you don’t need to stare.”

“Thanks for disobeying my orders,” Malysseus said, trying to form actual words again. He was still croaking. “Help me up.”

“Oh no,” she protested, “You’ll be in that cot for about another week.” Leaning back over him, she smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for saving our lives, though. No big deal.”

“No big deal,” he repeated, chuckling. The process of trying to laugh made him cough. Eric started yelling from nearby. Malysseus could recognize that voice, too. It was shrill and, at that moment, annoyed him intensely.

“Boss, Captain, sir!”

Eric stopped in front of the doctor and patient. Kewari was no longer leaning over Malysseus, but Eric could still tell he was interrupting some moment. He cleared his throat and paused a beat. After what felt to Kewari and Malysseus to be an eternity, the other sailor found his voice again.

“I found this,” Eric said, holding up a staff that could match Gurten in height. He waved the thing in front of Malysseus’ face since he still couldn’t stand up. The staff was made of a strange blue wood. Malysseus could practically feel it humming with power.