by V. A. Lewis
And it’s not like guarding the city got dangerous at all! Well, that was what David used to think.
"What are you doing, you idiots? Fire!"
The Guard Captain bellowed at his men. Bolts of blue energy flew up at the walls, but none of them hit their target. David gritted his teeth in frustration, and yelled again.
"What is wrong with you?! It’s only one person! Just kill them already!" He pointed at the lone cloaked figure running along the walls. Hundreds of bullets were flying at the person, and yet they elegantly danced their way through the hail of fire.
That should not have been possible. There were so many bullets. The sounds of gunfire nearly drowned out the ringing of the bells! But the figure evaded them all.
And yet, that was not the only impossible thing the figure was doing. They were running across the walls!
Normally, such an act would be unbelievable. But with magic, it was doable. And that was what the cloaked figure was using. Magic.
David walked up to the nearest guard, and snatched the rifle out of his hand. "Give me that!" he spat as he spoke.
The Guard Captain turned back to the walls of Bys. He saw the fast moving target running along the walls, and carefully aimed. "Now I’ve got you, you filthy heretic." Once he was locked on to the figure, he pulled the trigger—
And the figure was not there. They were gone, like the wind.
David watched as his bullet impacted the brickwork of the walls and nothing more. The shooting from the ground stopped, and David scanned the walls for their target to no avail.
But the firing continued from the battlements. The Guard Captain cast his gaze in the direction of the bullets. He saw the figure flying midair, with nothing but the silver moon behind them.
The cloaked figure pointed a finger at the direction of the city gates. And for a moment, all was nothing. Then, the figure vanished.
David blinked as he stared at the empty space where the figure once was. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a dark green light emanate from the gates of Bys.
He turned to the source of the light, and for a second, he saw a green and black sphere where the gates of Bys should have been. But once he fully made the turn, the Guard Captain was met with a massive explosion that blew apart the walls and surrounding buildings.
The blast sent him and the other nearby guards flying back at least ten feet. The Guard Captain felt his back slam into a concrete wall that was still intact. He had barely survived!
Out of virtue from being just outside the blast radius, David had survived. However, he was not unscathed.
David felt warm liquid pouring out the side of his head, and realized he had burst an eardrum. He had cuts and bruises on his arms and legs too, but other than that, he was mostly fine.The Guard Captain steadied himself as he got up, and looked at the devastation caused by the lone figure.
A pile of rubble was all that remained of the gate that had been hit by the spell. An entire section of the wall had been blown apart, and a large plume of smoke covered the area like a blanket.
He looked around, and saw a dozen other guards slowly getting to their feet. The Guard Captain dusted himself off, and barked at his men.
"Get up," he coughed as dust entered his lungs, "you idiots."
David felt for the sword on his waist, checking if it was still there. It was. But instead of drawing it, he bent down and picked up the rifle at his feet instead. Now where did that—
The Guard Captain scanned the cloud of smoke that stood where the walls once were. He saw nothing, and heard only the groans of the survivors lost in the rubble. This was a disaster!
It had been such a bad day for David. First, he woke up in the morning to an earful from his wife over their finances. Apparently, she did not like how he kept spending nights gambling, even though he had such a stressful job as of late!
And in the afternoon, a small horde of monsters attacked the walls trying to get into the city. Then, in the evening, he had to punish one of his guards for messing around while inspecting slaves brought in from the Mancis Company. That was inappropriate behavior, especially considering the influence Julian Mancis had in the city.And now, late at night, when he had been enjoying himself at a brothel—
This.
The old man paused and thought to himself, Perhaps it’s time to retire. He was grateful for his job, for sure. But it was not nearly as exciting as fighting in the frontlines of a battle. He could just remember the thrill he got whenever he—
The Guard Captain’s thoughts were interrupted by a scream. A piercing shriek of agony came from the wall of smoke.
David snapped his rifle to the direction of the sound as it slowly faded away. The guards around him were on alert now, too. He was just about to order one of them to check on what happened, when another scream came. And another.
And another.
And another.
A cacophony of screams came from inside the smog that covered David's vision. It mixed together in a symphony if the choir was a disorganized mess that shrieked over each other, while the violins played off tune to the pleasure of no one, and the pianist smashed all the keys at once to the tune of a nail on chalkboard.
So, it was not like a symphony at all. It was a terrible echo of death that sent a chill down the Guard Captain’s spine. It continued on for a minute, then silence.
"Captain—" someone started from behind him.
The Guard Captain raised a hand, shutting up the guard that spoke. He carefully aimed down his rifle, and whispered.
"Something’s coming."
And as if his words were some sort of trigger, something came.
Out of the dark clouds ahead, a figure emerged. It looked humanoid in shape at first. It walked on two legs, and had two arms, like any ordinary person. And that was why the Guard Captain did not shoot.
But as the figure got closer, David saw that it had a hunch. Not only that, but one of its arms was much larger than the other. It was as though it had disproportionately large biceps reaching all the way down to its hands.
The figure moved faster and faster as it got closer, and David realized the ‘bicep’ did not just go down its arm. Large bulbous protrusions came out from the thing’s chest and face. It also glowed.
The figure sprinted out of the smoke, no longer being just a shadow in the cloud, and David finally got a good look at it. It had the body of a Human. It had the arms and legs of a Human. It had the face of a Human. But it was not Human. Large lumps of some sort of dark blue bumps swelled throughout half of the Human’s body. It was growing out of the person like some sort of fungus. And at the center of these bulbs was a luminescent yellow core, which shone at an ever changing intensity.
The figure emerged from the ruins of the walls, and along with it came a horrific screech. Like a thousand tiny high pitched screams came out at once. It uttered its battle cry, and ran out at the small retinue of guards.
It was an abomination.
David had never seen such a thing before, but the former soldier did not hesitate. He pulled the trigger on his rifle, and fired two shots at the thing.
The blasts splashed across the Abomination’s chest, but it continued running. It did not even stagger! It absorbed the impact like it was nothing.
The Guard Captain loosed another shot. And another. Five. Six. Seven. He aimed for the chest. The head. The legs. Anything—
The fourth shot actually rocked the creature, and the fifth brought it down. However, the Abomination continued crawling towards them, and so the fifth finally killed it. The sixth and seventh was just fired as a precaution.
David wiped a sweat off his brow, and stared at the Abomination. What was that? He had fought all kinds of monsters before, but he had never seen anything like that.
The Guard Captain shook those thoughts off his head. First, he had to reprimand his men—
David froze half turn. Out of the corner of his eye, more shadows appeared in the smoke. He spun back around slo
wly, and looked in horror. He did not have to shout to get his men’s attention, because what they saw broke them all out of their stupor.
Hundreds— no, thousands of figures moving in the shadows. So many tiny little specks in the distance. But slowly getting larger.
"Goddess grace us." David did not remember uttering the words, but he did.
He lifted up his rifle, and along with his dozen other men, began firing blindly into the storm looming in on them.
Inhuman screams erupted from the darkness, and out came the Abominations. There were so many of them!
The Guard Captain kept firing at the oncoming targets. At all the Abominations. And they were not just Humans.
David saw monsters with the same blue-yellow bulbous cores sticking out of them, mixed in with the Humans. He was not sure if there were animals too. He could’ve sworn he saw a goat at one point.
But it did not matter.
He kept firing and firing into the oncoming mass of Abominations. People, monsters, animals, all disfigured into such horrific creatures.
And they did not fall easily too.
It took only four or five shots to down a single one of them. That might not seem like a lot, but it was still too much! The Guard Captain threw down his gun, as he saw the man next to him get overwhelmed by the Abominations. He drew his sword, and touched the small red mana crystal on it.
A fiery red glow overcame his sword, creating a second edge to his blade. This red aura began vibrating in place, as though it was spinning quickly around the sword, and David readied himself for the coming Abominations.
He saw a Human-Abomination charge at him. It was no faster than a regular Human. But as it approached, it changed.
The dark blue bulbs that reached down its arm shifted. The pulsating yellow core glowed brighter than it did before, as the blue mass formed a shape. A vague outline of a… sword?
It was like the arm became a sword. A very rough sword, with a mildly sharp edge. But a sword nonetheless.
The Human-Abomination swung at the Guard Captain, and he stepped to the side. The creature was mid turn, when David brought down his sword at its head. Its head flew off, and the Abomination collapsed. Dead.
Another Abomination ran at him, and the Guard Captain slashed horizontally this time. He went under the oncoming strike, swiftly slicing the Abomination in two, killing it instantly.
He stood back up, only to be immediately met by another Abomination. It swung at him. The Guard Captain parried the attack with his sword, cleanly cutting through the Abominations arm.
He only paused to blink for a split second, then swung madly at the Abomination. It was like cutting butter! His ‘chainsaw’ blade was certainly supposed to him cut through armor better, but not as easily as this! David quickly disposed of the Abomination, then another. And another.
David was laughing maniacally as he killed a Chimera-Abomination, when a large shadow appeared in the smoke. A looming figure that stood as tall as the walls, and wider than a house. It was a single mass that dwarfed over everyone on the battlefield, even while in the dark clouds.
He only had a second to take in the figure, when something shot out of the smoke. A dark blue tendril was sticking out of his chest. No, it was sticking into his chest.
The Guard Captain felt a sharp pain go through his body, and barely managed to utter a scream as the tendril pulled him into the smoke. Into oblivion.
The remaining guards saw this. They saw their Captain crying out in agony as he was killed by a large figure. They saw the large figure emerge along with an army of Abominations. They—
They ran.
The guards threw down their weapons, screaming as they fled the walls. But there was nowhere to run.
The Abominations came for them. For the city of Bys. They emerged from the smoking debris of the walls.
From the abyss.
From the void.
From a God.
***
I felt the shockwave reverberate through the ground as the green blast destroyed the gates of Bys. I looked on in horror at the Abominations that came pouring out of the fallen walls of the city. It was a calamity!
So much death. So much destruction. I felt a shiver go through my spine as I stared at the chaos in the walls; it was not just me, everyone stared. All of us were stunned— like statues frozen in time, forever forced to watch the destruction ahead.
All of us except for a certain Cat Beastkin.
Rin saw the opportunity present itself— the unmoving guards and slavers— and she took it; the catgirl dashed forwards in a blur, straight at Julian. The owner of the Mancis Company barely turned around in time to see a clawed hand coming at him.
"No—" the words escaped his mouth, as he lifted his cane too slowly.
He’s going to die.
My thoughts were quickly proven wrong, as someone tackled the old man to the side, taking the blow for his boss. Marcus rolled his shoulder, blocking the strike with his gardbrace.
The mana crystal on his armor glowed as the Cat Beastkin’s claws struck Marcus. There was a brief flash of light, and an aura of energy flickered around the man for a moment. The head guard of the Mancis Company stepped back, his shoulders bloody from the attack.
Rin grinned and flicked the blood of her claws. She took a step forward, but Marcus was faster. The man did a quick draw of his flintlock pistol, firing a large red bolt of energy at the Cat Beastkin. She dodged to the side, and the bolt of energy exploded on the catwalk overhead.
The metal railing holding up the catwalk was obliterated, collapsing parts of the catwalk around me; I ducked my head, and felt myself getting picked up. Theodore grabbed me off the ground, getting away from the falling iron bars clanging onto the ground.
The middle aged man held me under my arms, dashing for cover by the crates along the sides of the room. I watched the room erupt into chaos, as slaves and slavers clashed with one another in battle.
Shots were fired from both sides, and screams came from every direction; it was not just the Beastkin fighting, but the other Human slaves armed with whatever they had charged into the battlefield. But even then, we were outnumbered more than two-to-one.
Marcus drew his scimitar, but Rin was no longer there. The Cat Beastkin was dodging gunfire coming from the hundred other guards in the room, but she was too quick. She was fast. Inhumanly so.
She dove into a group of three guards, all of which had their swords and spears out. The catgirl held out her claws at the small group, and spun. All three guards collapsed to the ground, clutching at their chests, neck, and legs, as blood leaked out of their wounds. It was only a moment, but Rin was already charging at another group of armed guards.
Everywhere the Cat Beastkin went, limbs went flying. She left a trail of blood and gore behind her, as she slaughtered the guards around her. She dodged the glowing blue bullets as they flew past her.
A large red bolt of energy came flying at her, and she took a step back. But the bolt was not meant for her.
The red ball of energy exploded at the ground before the young woman, sending her stumbling backwards. A man with a sword ran at her as she picked herself off the ground, only to find a sword sticking out the back of his head. The man collapsed to the ground, and Shang drew his sword back.
The Dog Beastkin nodded at his companion, and immediately was assaulted by two guards from the side. He grabbed a spear mid-thrust by its handle, snapping it in two with one hand. He elbowed the spearman, and parried the sword swing from the other man.
Shang redirected his blade from the parry, decapitating the spearman in an instant. The swordsman stepped back, but Shang charged at him, clashing blades.
The Dog Beastkin stuck out two fingers, and poked the man in the eyes. The man dropped his sword, clasping at his eyes in pain, when Shang ran him through his chest.
Rin watched this happen, and picked herself up. She cupped her hands around her mouth, taking a deep breath. "Hey Shang!" she yelled through
all the fighting.
The Dog Beastkin’s ears perked at the sound. He turned to Rin, fighting four other guards coming at him as he shouted back.
"What? Can’t you see I’m a little busy?!"
"I know!" the Cat Beastkin said, rolled her eyes. She quickly ducked under a stray bullet, and stood back up. "I’m not an idiot. I can see that!" She shook a fist in the air.
"If you noticed, then hurry up"— Shang kicked a man onto another, and impaled the third— "and tell me what you want!"
"Ok! So there’s this really annoying guy with red hair, and I’m going to kill him. So I’ll leave you alone m’kay?"
"Yes! Go for it!"
"Nn, thanks!" The Cat Beastkin’s lips curled into a smile. She turned her head to the battlefield, scanning for Marcus. "Found you," she whispered to herself.
Across the warehouse, the head guard of the Mancis Company was escorting Julian out of the large entrance of the room. A small retinue of guards accompanied the two, heading for a car in the distance.
The Cat Beastkin began barreling her way towards the two. She covered half the distance in an instant, cutting down anyone in her way. But that attracted attention to her.
Marcus noticed Rin’s quick advance, and loosed another shot at her. It once again blew up on the ground before her, staggering the Cat Beastkin for others to attack her.
Rin could make no headway; every time she got a little closer, the head guard would slow her down, giving him the reprieve to further the distance again.
I watched helplessly from behind a wooden crate as the game of cat and mouse went on without end; Julian and Marcus were going to escape, and I could do nothing as they did.
No. I can do something! A realization crossed my mind, and I unclenched a fist I did not know I was making; I shifted my focus away from the Cat Beastkin, scanning the battlefield instead.
I looked around the large room, seeing death everywhere. I did my best to ignore a Cat Beastkin getting gunned down as he charged a group of guards with guns; to ignore a Dog Beast ruthlessly rip off the head of a guard with her fangs, baring her bloodied teeth at other guards coming at her; to ignore a Human slave bloodily wrestling with a guard on the ground, smashing each other’s heads on concrete and at each other.