Might of the Gods

By Eric Flynn

Might of the Gods is a book for anyone who wants quick, exciting stories of adventure! It is good for:
-People who don't speak English as their main language,
-People who have a hard time focusing on reading,
-People who don't have a lot of time to read,
-And anyone who likes action and adventure!

Aydax is a young man without a home and without a family. Then one day he discovers the Bracers of Might: magical armbands that give him the strength of a god! With his super strength, Aydax defends the magical world of Thon from monsters, robots, and more. But the evil wizard Atrofon wants to use his undead warriors to stop Aydax and take the Bracers for himself. Fortunately, Aydax isn't alone: the mystic warrior Kwon Song Kang and the crafty sorceress Vyx are there to help! Join Aydax and his friends, and experience the might of the gods!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eric Flynn
• Release date: Jun 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223707073

Eric Flynn

Eric is a trainer for EFL teachers and a former Arabic linguist. Currently he resides with his wife and daughter in South Korea where he advises both teachers and students in improving their English. His hobbies include martial arts, writing, and roguelike video games.

Book preview

Welcome

These are stories from another world and an ancient time. They are from a time of monsters, gods, and heroes. And among these heroes, one of the greatest was Aydax the Strong.

Aydax wore the Bracers of Might. The bracers were powerful armbands that gave Aydax the power of Korik, the god of strength. Aydax used the Bracers of Might to fight evil and injustice everywhere.

But where there are heroes, there are villains. Aydax often had to fight against the evil wizard, Atrofon. With black magic and his army of undead rot thralls, Atrofon would stop at nothing to kill Aydax and take the Bracers of Might for himself.

Luckily, Aydax wasn’t alone. With him was the mystic warrior Kwon Song Kang, and the great sorceress Vyx. With his friends by his side, Aydax defended the land of Thon from Atrofon and the forces of evil.

Stories of adventure and danger are ahead, Reader!

How to Read This Book

This book has many different stories. All the stories are about the adventures of a young man named Aydax. Each story is a different adventure. However, the stories are in the order they happen to Aydax. Sometimes something important happens in a story, and it affects other stories later in the book. As Aydax goes on his adventures, he learns new things, meets new people, and becomes more powerful. Therefore, it’s best if you read the stories in order. However, if you want to skip some stories, or read them in a different order, you can. If a story talks about people, places, or things that you don’t know about, look in the back of the book. There, you can find a glossary called A Guide to Thon. It will tell you about everything important that you need to know. It also tells you how to say some of the unusual names in the book—if there’s a name you don’t know how to say, look for it in the guide. Be careful, though! Reading the Guide to Thon might spoil some surprises that happen in some of the stories.

Also, this book seldom describes what people look like. It seldom describes what places look like, too. You have to use your own imagination to decide how they look. The book’s job is to tell you the story. Your job is to think about the details, yourself!

Finally, this book is a little different from other books. It has many short sentences. It often uses simple words. It always tells you which character is talking. This is so many different people can easily read it. I hope you can easily read it, too, and that you have fun doing it.

Story 1: The Brotherhood of the Lion

Aydax was sweating. His muscles hurt. It seemed like he had been climbing the rocks for hours. There were a few times when he thought he wouldn’t be able to make it to the top. But he kept going. He knew there was a treasure at the top. It was a treasure that could make him rich for the rest of his life.

Life hadn’t been easy for Aydax. His father had been killed when Aydax was just a baby, and his mother had died when he was little. He had no parents, so he had to live by doing hard work, begging, or stealing. Sometimes his life was very dangerous. Luckily, Aydax was strong. He wasn’t very smart, but he was strong and tough. This helped him a lot. He could fight if he had to, and if he wasn’t strong enough, he was usually fast enough to run away. Aydax had been in a lot of fights. Some were his fault. Most weren’t. Once he had even killed a man. Aydax had felt very bad for a very long time after that. He knew that if he hadn’t killed that man, the man would have killed Aydax instead. But he had still felt bad.

But that was in the past. Now Aydax was doing something important. He had heard a story about a mysterious temple on a small island. No one still lived there, but there was supposed to be a valuable treasure still inside. Aydax had found a little boat and taken it into the ocean. He had thought it would be difficult, but the island wasn’t too far. The island was very beautiful. It had nice beaches and forests. After exploring for a little, Aydax had found the temple. It was on top of a tall cliff. But there didn’t seem to be any path to the top, so he had decided to climb. It looked dangerous, but he had decided to try. When he did, he found that there were lots of little pieces of rock sticking out from the cliff. These made it easier to climb.

It was scary. Sometimes Aydax thought he couldn’t make it, but finally he got to the top of the cliff. When he got there, he wasn’t as tired as he thought he would be. Instead he was amazed. He was amazed because of the temple in front of him.

The temple was very beautiful. It was very big, and carved from the stone around it. It had big columns in front. There didn’t seem to be anyone there, just like the stories said. Still, Aydax looked around to make sure nobody was there. When he was sure he was alone, he walked inside.

Inside, the temple was also very nice. Like outside, it had big stone columns. It looked like whoever made them was very good at carving stone. The floors and ceilings had pictures made from many small bits of colored stone. Aydax remembered that these were called mosaics. The pictures showed things like people wrestling and fighting. Just then, Aydax remembered that this was a temple that people had made for some forgotten god of war, or fighting, or something like that.

At the end of the temple was a large statue of a strong and handsome man. Like other things in the temple, the statue seemed to be expertly carved. Aydax was impressed with how big and lifelike it was. The man was no one Aydax recognized. He thought it was probably the god that the people had come to the temple to worship. ... But he wasn’t a god Aydax knew. Aydax knew about most of the gods. Gods like Solus and Dendra. But he didn’t know about this god.

Aydax looked around some more. There didn’t seem anything valuable here. He wondered if there was some gold or jewels on the god’s statue, but there wasn’t. Even if there were, stealing from the statue of a god didn’t seem like a good thing to do.

After a while, Aydax found some stairs that led down. He got out a torch and lit it. It was dark, and also a little scary: This was an old place, and strange things could live in old and dark places. But Aydax wasn’t a coward, so he kept walking.

At the bottom of the stairs was a hallway with more mosaics, and also statues of warriors. It was quiet like the rest of the temple. As Aydax walked, though, he noticed that everything seemed clean and new. It was almost like people still lived here. But no one did. People had told him that.

Now Aydax stood in front of a large door. Actually it was two doors that came together. Each door had a big picture of a lion’s head on it. The lions looked fierce and ready to fight. Maybe the treasure was behind them. Aydax pushed on the doors hard.

Behind the doors was a big, dark room. It was too big and dark for Aydax’s little torch to show everything. But he walked inside.

Then, he heard a voice. It was a deep voice, and it sounded scary, but also friendly in a way Aydax couldn’t quite understand. It said, Well, well, it looks like we’ve caught another thief in our trap!

Suddenly the room became bright. It was full of men all holding lamps and torches. They all wore tunics and sandals. Some of them were old, and some of them were Aydax’s age. All of them—even the old ones—looked strong. Suddenly Aydax thought he might be in trouble, so he decided to run. But when he turned around, he saw that some men had moved to stand in front of the door.

One man walked forward. He looked strong like the others. His tunic was made from a lion’s skin. He had a big beard and a mustache. When he talked, Aydax realized that the voice he had just heard belonged to this man.

The man said, So, boy, could you please tell me what you’re doing in our temple?

Aydax said, I was looking for treasure. Someone told me there was a big treasure here. But I didn’t know anyone still lived here!

The man said, "But someone does still live here. And that makes you a thief! He was smiling, so Aydax wasn’t sure if he was angry or not. And do you know what we do with thieves?"

Aydax shook his head.

We break their arms! said the man.

The other men laughed.

But I didn’t know anyone lived here! Aydax said again. "I didn’t mean to be a thief!"

The man was still smiling a little. He said, But even if you didn’t know, you would still have stolen something from us, right?

Aydax didn’t know what to say. The man continued, Sometimes it matters if we don’t know something. So we always have to think carefully before we do things! That’s your first lesson!

What did the man mean by ‘his first lesson’? Aydax wondered.

The man kept talking. Anyway, you made it here, so you must be very strong. And we like strong people here! So here’s what we’ll do: We’ll give you a test. If you pass the test, you may leave.

What’s the test? asked Aydax.

You must win a fight against one of us!

And if I fail? said Aydax.

The man smiled. "Then we break your arms!"

Again, everyone laughed.

Aydax wasn’t afraid. He was a good fighter. He had won many fights, sometimes even against men bigger than he. Okay, he said. I’ll take your test.

Good! said the man.  Hydron! a young man stepped forward. He looked about Aydax’s age. 

Yes, sir! said Hydron.

Show this thief your strength! said the man.

Hydron replied, Yes, sir!

Hydron ran forward. He stopped a little ways in front of Aydax. He crossed his fists in front of his chest and bowed his head. Aydax guessed it was some kind of salute. Then Hydron got into a fighting stance. Show me your strength! he said.

Aydax didn’t have anything to say back, so he just got in his own fighting stance. He wasn’t sure if his stance was better than Hydron’s. No one had ever taught him how to fight. He just did what he saw other men do when they fought, and then tried to hit faster, harder, and more often than his enemy.

Aydax wasn’t an expert at fighting, but he knew it wasn’t a good idea to go in swinging hard right away. It was better to throw some light punches and see what his enemy did. So Aydax threw a few light jabs at Hydron’s face.

Now it was time for a trick. Aydax moved his body to make it look like he was going to punch hard. Then he stopped, and punched with his other fist. It usually made his enemy move to get out of the way of the first punch, then Aydax would hit him with the other hand. Except, before Aydax knew what happened, Hydron was next to him. Aydax saw an explosion of color and felt an explosion of pain as Hydron’s fist hit him on the side of the head.

The men who were watching laughed. How did he do that? Aydax thought. He was surprised. But he was more angry than surprised. He was angry that the other men were laughing at him. He was angry that Hydron had done something that he couldn’t. He was angry that Hydron was better than he was. Except Hydron wasn’t better. Aydax was. Hydron didn’t deserve to be better. And that made Aydax angrier.

Hydron wasn’t smiling. Or frowning. He just kept moving around Aydax, waiting for the chance to hit him again. That also made Aydax angry. He growled and moved towards Hydron. He had a different idea. Instead of trying to trick Hydron, he’d just attack him so hard and fast that Hydron wouldn’t be able to do anything. It could be a little dangerous, but it usually worked.

Aydax jumped at Hydron. He hit again and again, hard and fast. He put all his anger in his attack, and tried to hit Hydron in his face. Hydron put up his hands and blocked. That was Aydax’s chance to hit him in the ribs. Before he had the chance, though, Hydron grabbed Aydax. He kneed him in the stomach several times. It hurt a lot! For a second, Aydax thought he was going to die. Then Hydron tripped Aydax. Aydax hit the ground, with Hydron on top of him. Aydax knew a special way to fall so he wouldn’t get hurt: He blew out all his air and tucked his head in, but he still hit the ground hard.

Now Hydron was on top of Aydax. Aydax knew this was bad, so he tried to hit Hydron. But Hydron quickly put Aydax in a wrestling pin. Aydax tried to escape, but could only move around a little because his hands and body were trapped under Hydron. Hydron wasn’t even trying to hit Aydax anymore. He was just sitting there. He seemed to have a little smile on his face. Aydax wasn’t totally sure if Hydron was smiling, but he thought he was. He was pretty sure. And that made him even angrier. Meanwhile, the other men were laughing even harder. Aydax hated them all. He remembered all the times anyone had laughed at him. Suddenly he wanted to get out and hit Hydron as hard as he could and as many times as he could. But he couldn’t do anything. It was a terrible feeling.

Hydron! Enough! said the big bearded man.

Hydron stood up, and finally Aydax could stand up, too! Now Aydax could punch Hydron! He knew he had lost, but he could still get revenge. But before Aydax could hit Hydron, another man grabbed Aydax and held him. Aydax tried to move, but the man was too big and was holding him too well.

Kroson! said the bearded man. Another man stepped forward. Go over there and teach Hydron not to get too proud of himself.

Kroson walked over to Hydron. Aydax watched the two of them salute, then get in fighting stances. They threw a few light punches and kicks at each other. Hydron tried to do the same thing he had done with Aydax: He moved to the side of Kroson, but Kroson was fast and ducked the punch. Then he moved forward and grabbed Hydron around the waist. Both of them fell down. Hydron tucked his head just like Aydax had done. Hydron tried to get away, but Kroson was faster and put him in a pin.

Stop! said the bearded man. Now he moved closer to Aydax. Boy—Hydron beat you earlier. Now he is beaten. So you can choose what happens to him. It is a tradition here. Should Kroson let Hydron go ... or should he break his arms?

Break Hydron’s arms? Aydax thought. Aydax didn’t like Hydron at all, and he kind of wanted to see him get hurt. But he knew he would also feel bad if he let Kroson break Hydron’s arms. And then Aydax wouldn’t feel good about himself for a long time.

Let him go, Aydax said.

Kroson and Hydron both stood, then went back to the circle of men. Now everyone was looking at Aydax, but none of them were smiling. Not even the bearded man.

The bearded man walked up to Aydax. He looked even bigger up close. He put a hand on Aydax’s shoulder. Congratulations, my son. You have passed our test! Suddenly, the man looked very wise. You are right—there is a great treasure here. This place is a Temple of Korik, the god of strength! We are the Brotherhood of the Lion—fighting monks who follow Korik. And I am Lorus, the head priest of this temple. If someone finds this place, the Brotherhood of the Lion gives him the gift of strength. But not anyone can have this gift. People who want this treasure must show us that he is brave and strong, but also kind ... because strength without kindness is useless! And you, my boy, have shown kindness by letting Hydron go!

Aydax was surprised and confused. How do I get this gift of strength? he asked.

Lorus smiled. "Easy! You study here with us! We will teach you how to strengthen your muscles! How to fight! How to run, climb and swim! But we’ll also teach you how to be strong in other ways! We’ll make you smarter, because a strong mind is sometimes as important as a strong body! Most importantly, we’ll give you a strong spirit, because without a strong spirit, you’ll give up when things get hard.

"And things will be hard! But everything that’s worth doing is hard. And when you finish your training ... well, you’ll be ready to do anything!"

Aydax thought for a little while. It sounded hard. But maybe it would be fun, too. And he wouldn’t have to worry about finding places to sleep, or food to eat. The only thing that he wasn’t sure about was getting smarter. That sounded a lot like studying, and Aydax wasn’t good at studying. In fact, he didn’t like it at all. But he supposed it was better than being cold, alone, and hungry.

Okay, I’ll do it, he said. The other men clapped and cheered. It made Aydax feel good. For the first time in a long time.

Good choice, my boy! said Lorus. We’ll get started right away.

Right away? said Aydax. I just got here. Couldn’t I rest a little?

Nonsense! said Lorus. "There’ll be time to rest! But if you want to get stronger, you can’t put off your training, or you’ll never get started!"

Aydax shrugged. Then everyone began to walk outside the room. A rest would have been nice, but Aydax still felt good. Suddenly he thought of something.

Lorus? he said.

Yes, my boy?

What would have happened if I hadn’t told Kroson to let Hydron go? asked Aydax.

Why, we would have broken your arms and thrown you in the sea! Lorus laughed.

Aydax wasn’t sure if Lorus was being serious or not.

Story 2: The Bracers of Might

Urgh! growled Aydax. Hydron was pinning him. If Hydron pinned him, it was very hard to escape. I’ll break your arms!

Hyrdon laughed. You can’t break anything right now!

Aydax moved and struggled with all his might. He tried some of the moves his teachers had taught him. But Hydron was too good.

Okay, I give up, Aydax sighed.

Hydron stood and held out his hand. He was smiling, but it was a kind smile. Good fight, Aydax. One of these days you’ll beat me.

Aydax took Hydron’s hand and stood. I don’t think so. You’re too good.

Hydron said, But you’re better than I was when I started here!

Thanks, Hydron, said Aydax. Aydax liked Hydron. He knew that he had only embarrassed Aydax when they had first met because of the test. But Hydron was kind and helpful. Since Aydax had joined the Brotherhood of the Lion, they had become good friends.

Hey, it’s starting to get late, said Hydron. We should go back to the temple.

Hydron was right. They had been sparring in the olive orchard. It was a little far from the temple, so it was time to leave.

As the two friends walked, Aydax