The sound of tower bells echoed through the city. With each ring, another bell joined them, spreading deeper into the city to warn the citizens. Hearing the panicked banging of the bells, people hurried toward the mountain, as far away from the city’s port as they could. Between the sea and the mountain stood four defensive walls with fortified gates giving passage for running citizens. 

The gate guards looked distressed as they waited for people to pass through the gate onto the next district of the city. They were eager to close those gates as fast as possible. The first one to be closed was the one closest to the city.

Merchants left their ships and goods on the docks without looking back. Some took their most precious treasures or gold with them, knowing that the time was running out. The workers abandoned their tools and left with them.

The city guards moved through the streets, seeking any lost people to help them and direct them toward the mountain where the shelters lay. To the hesitant ones, they shouted as a reminder, “Tide! The tides are coming! Move to the shelter immediately!”

At the center of the running crowd, like a shepherd controlling the flock of sheep, stood a single man, towering over the crowd thanks to the wooden box he was standing on. Pulling his hood off the dark blue robe, he revealed his bold head with eyes painted all over. “This is the divine punishment! Do not fear, as this is judgment from the seas! Let the waves cleanse your sins so the Gods may welcome you in eternal afterlife!”

Most of the people were too concerned with saving their lives to listen to a madman’s mumbling. Yet a few of them spared the man a glance. They found an odd comfort in the eternal afterlife. Among those desperate to live there were always people who stood out.

As the madman kept screaming, he was forcefully pulled down to the stone pavement. A guard in a red uniform and blue coat pressed the man to the ground, trying to silence him. “THE WORLD WAS DROWNED FOR A REASON! HEAR-” The guard pressed his gloved hand to his mouth, annoyed by the man’s shouts.

“Shut it!” shouted the guard before using the butt of his musket to knock out the madman. Once the man fell unconscious, the guard picked up his own black tricorn hat, which had fallen during the struggle to subdue the madman. Placing the man away from the running crowd, the guard moved back into action, guiding panicked citizens to the shelter.

The mountain was home to five shelters. Each of them was hidden deep underground, with a narrowing path at the bottom to prevent massive monsters from entering.

Guards guided the citizens toward one of the five shelters. “Close the gate! The shelter is full!” One of the officers commanded, closing the gates to the first shelter.

On the outside, all of them looked the same. In truth, each one of them was different. The shelter which was closed first wasn’t full at all. This place was prepared for the richest people in the city, as they heavily contributed to building those shelters. With that amount of money and resources they put into it, they secured a special spot in the first shelter for themselves and their families.

Even though the cataclysm was coming, their shelter was furnished like a royal banquet hall. They all sat by festively set tables with fizzy champagne awaiting them. People in other shelters were trembling in fear, hoping that the tide wouldn’t reach them in the depths of the mountain.

Soldiers in dark and gold uniforms lined up on the walls with their muskets aimed at the shore. The only moment of calm focus they would experience on that day. Dark metal helmets reflected the last red light from the distant sunset.

The center of the walls was packed with soldiers and officers, while the sides were occupied by a different group. People armored with leather and metal plates, each one of them carrying a differently built musket. The only thing they shared was a mark painted on their armor: crossed muskets painted with orange paint. They were mercenaries known as Guns For Hire.

Behind each gate stood both soldiers and hired guns, standing ready for a possible breach. Among them stood different kinds of soldiers. None of them wore uniforms but silver armor. Each one had a different melee weapon, like swords, spears, or axes. All of them shared a single signature clothing: a teal cape with a symbol of the orange sun rising from the horizon.

Before the sun could vanish on the horizon, a fog rose from the water. A cold breeze brushed the faces of the soldiers and warriors alike with a salty smell of the sea.

The officers raised their hands, and the soldiers followed the order by raising their muskets and aiming them at the seashore. Once it got darker, foam along the shore began to glow blue, and a strong stench of dead fish drifted on the wind. 

From the water appeared the first creature. It resembled a human, encrusted in barnacles, its body rotted, bones exposed through missing flesh and torn clothes.

As its head stuck out of the water, the first bullet was fired. A man with a musket that had a scope attached to it joyfully announced to his fellow hired guns, “That’s one credit for me.”

After the first shot, more bubbles began to drift to the shore, and with them more creatures covered in barnacles appeared. Each one of them wore different clothing, some even wearing the uniforms of the soldiers on the walls. Some of them had a swordfish skull instead of their hands.

The hired guns were the first to open fire  on the sea creatures, but once more of them appeared, the officers gave the command, “Fire!” Rows of soldiers pulled their triggers, killing hundreds of monsters in a single volley. Muskets’ smoke drifted toward the city, carried on the sea wind and mixing with the reek of decay.

A man with a mask resembling a face stood beside the officer, also wearing a soldier’s uniform, except he didn’t wear a helmet, and he only had a flintlock at his belt. His main duty was to deliver messages among the officers if necessary.

“Seems like a usual tide. Barnacles and nothing special. Getting mercenaries and the Order of Tomorrow seems like a stretch,” the young man stated ignorantly.

“It may seem like that, but there was an omen. Ten times more foam than usual was gathered within a week. This is just the first wave. Something big is coming…” answered the officer as he searched for unusual creatures with his telescope.

Between the barnacles emerged a new creature. Its sphere and hard back pushed the water upward as it revealed a shell protecting its body. Sturdy dark blue limbs pushed it slowly forward, its head barely sticking out of the protective shell. Like a turtle, it crawled toward the walls. The creature was as tall as three men. Bullets bounced off its shell without making a dent in it.

“Prepare the cannons!” loudly ordered an officer. At his command, the soldiers pushed the heavy iron cannons forward. There were six of them at his side of the wall. Once all of them hit the edge of the wall and were pointed toward the shore, the officer gave a signal: “FIRE!”

All six of them shot at once; two cannonballs landed in the group of barnacles. The rest of them landed on the target, shattering and riddling the turtle’s shell with holes. Blue liquid splattered around the stone pavement of the port.

When the soldiers shouted in joy at the fallen monster, more appeared from the shore. Another group of barnacles and turtles emerged, forcing the cannoneers to reload the cannons and fire again. They weren’t hard to hit or kill with the cannons, but they had to waste a lot of ammunition to eliminate a single turtle. The barnacles ignored the death of their army, walking and climbing over their dead bodies.

Amid the chaos of running soldiers with ammunition and the preparations of the cannons, people heard a sudden eruption near the port, like a geyser. A roar echoed through the city, making everyone’s heart tremble. A fifteen-foot-tall creature took a step onto the shore. It looked like a shark with a bit of a humanoid shape, as it had both legs and arms. A turtle carapace was placed on its back like armor. In its hand, it held an anchor that had a chain attached to it and wrapped around its arm.

With another roar, the creature showed its many teeth, more than an ordinary shark, as it had three lines of them moving deeper into its throat.

“Anchor has emerged!” One of the soldiers shouted as he observed the monster standing tall. His shout practically attracted its gaze, making him shiver in terror.

Before the officer could even give a command, the scared soldier quickly ignited the cannon and fired it at the monster with an anchor. The steel ball hit it in the chest, only forcing it to take one step back. The beast growled, and with a third roar it began running toward the wall.

The officer grabbed the soldier who fired at the monster by the collar, pulling him close. He screamed at him, “You fool! Aim for its head!”

While on the move, the shark-like creature picked up a dead turtle. With a half spin, it threw the dead body into the wall. Sending the cannon, which attacked it, and the soldiers around it flying over the wall.

The soldiers took a look at the damage made by a single thrown shell. “Watch out!” shouted a soldier as he saw another shell flying toward them. Except this time it wasn’t only a dead turtle. Inside its hollow shell were barnacles. Two of them fell through the hole into the wall. One instantly died as it hit the side of it, and the other landed on the soldier.

Its sturdy hand grasped the man’s throat and began to press its fingers into it. With a scream, a fellow soldier thrust his saber through the creature’s head, saving his companion’s life.

The shell fell into the other side of the wall; the soldiers on the ground approached it to check if the creature was alive. “Don’t get close to it!”

From the cloud of dust appeared a creature covered in barnacles, grabbing onto the soldier's face and ripping the skin off. The man screamed in pain as the other soldiers watched in terror.

Next, shells flew over the wall, forcing the soldiers and hired guns to scatter around the main round. The moment the shell hit the ground, a dozen bullets would be sent toward them. Not even wasting a moment to think or look to see if something was inside.

Behind the second gate mostly stood warriors in silver armor and teal capes. They didn’t have to witness it with their own eyes to know what was happening on the other side.

“The Tide is slowly breaching through the first wall…” a young woman in light silver armor stated. Her blond braid fell against the teal cape as she looked back at her comrades. To her belt, she had attached a short sword and a dagger. Both of them had a teal wrapping on their handles.

A hand gently grabbed her by the shoulder, forcing her silver eyes to turn toward the person behind her. It was a man in a teal cape like hers; his armor was made of a thick chestplate and a few plates to protect his arms and legs. He was two heads taller than her with wide shoulders, making him look even bigger than he already was. His hair was slightly darker than his tanned skin, with a beard stretching from one side to the other. His hair was cut short, barely reaching halfway across his forehead.

“Let us see tomorrow’s sun,” said the man as he got closer to the woman.

The woman pressed her forehead against his, and both of them closed their eyes. “Let us see tomorrow’s sun. My love…” she whispered back and grabbed the man’s cheek for a second before letting him go.