Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Seventeen: "Oooooh, I'm Blinded by the Lightssss..."

The blind man was facing towards us now. He had set down his cane and was cracking his knuckles.

"There's not a lot of daylight left," he said grinning. "Thought I might have to go hungry."

Phillip gripped his swords and lifted his lip. "Who the hell are you?" he snarled.

The old man took off his heavy black sunglasses. Where his eyes should've been was just a single, large eye in the center of his brow. Great, I thought. Another cyclops. But this cyclops was different. His eye wasn't really an eye, but an empty socket filled with light. It was an intense, bright orange light that was difficult to look at. I had to put a hand over my eyes and turn away from him to keep from going blind. Spots danced across my vision.

"Well, I suppose you should know who I am, seeing as you're all about to die. The name's Raymond, short for Raymonectus, son of Helios."

"What the hell kinda cyclops has a glowing eye?" strained David, shielding himself from the bright light blaring from Raymonectus's eye.

"Well, you see." explained Raymonectus casually. "As I'm sure you know, I, like most cyclopes, are children of gods. My godly heritage happens to be that of Helios, the old sun god."

"I thought Helios faded," grunted Phillip.

"Oh he did," answered Raymonectus. "But not all of his children didn't. Those of us that are left may have some pretty powerful gifts, though."

I tried looking at Raymonectus again. The light was still bright, but I could manage to look at him now if I squinted. "Elder sun god and all you got was a glowing eye?" I taunted.

Ray turned his eye on me, shining like a spotlight. "Really?" he smirked. "How about now?"

He opened his eye wider, and the light got way more intense, too bright to handle. I threw my arms in front of my face and turned away. The backs of my eyeballs were on fire.

"Now as I said," said Raymond. "It's dinner time!"

"Fat chance." I snapped. Bad pun, and a bad idea.

He rushed at me. For his size, he was incredibly fast. I didn't even see him coming because he kept his spotlight vision trained on me. He threw his arm out and swatted me into the wall of the shop, using his cyclops strength. I shattered several light fixtures as my back slammed into the wall. If I hadn't been wearing my backpack, my back would've been shredded. I sank to the floor, wheezing.

"Motherfucker!" yelled David, jumping up behind Raymond, swinging his sword aimed right for the cyclops's neck. Raymond whirled around and caught David by the collar, his huge hands curling around David's neck. He then looked right at David, opening his eye wide, sending beams of light so bright into David's face that the whole room lit up. David had his eyes closed, but he still screamed in pain.

Suddenly, Raymond grunted as Phillip slashed him twice across the ribs with his swords. Ray's skin must've been thick, because Phillip barely made two small cuts on Ray's torso. Raymond dropped David and growled. He punched Phillip square in the chest, knocking him down. Phillip got up to face Raymond, but Ray focused his vision on Phillip now, blinding him. Phillip backed up against the store counter, swinging his swords wildly in front of him, trying to cut Raymonectus, hitting nothing but air.

Raymonectus strolled towards Phillip, who was now thoroughly blinded. Phillip swung a sword at Raymonectus who dodged it easily and smacked the sword right out of Phillip's hand. Phillip tried to swing his other sword at Raymonectus. Ray caught his arm and twisted it, then raised his own fist, aimed right at Phillip's head. I knew I had to act. Spots danced across my vision, my chest hurt, and I could hardly breathe, but I knew I had to act. I couldn't let Phillip and David down again.