The bells were struck one time, a single ring that lasted for a long time. It was the last signal before the strike from above appeared. “Fire!” shouted the general. Before catapulting the rocks, they lit the oil on fire. Once the levers were pulled, the burning stones arced over the city. The falling stones crushed the Barnacles to death while the oil set the ground on fire. The flames slowly ate the monsters and slowed them down as many of them ignored the pain of burning flesh.
One catapult threw the stones farther than the others, hitting the remaining tower of the first wall. The stones first weakened its damaged inner wall, then the flames slowly burned the wooden construction inside. The weakened frame surrendered to the tower’s weight and collapsed. The building fell toward the city’s first ring.
Navia saw the falling tower, and she saw where it was about to land. Right in the place where Taizen was standing. He did move back with the rest, but once the flaming rubble landed, he advanced forward. “Taizen! Look out!” Navia shouted as she ran toward him. Even with the wind carrying her quickly toward him, the tower fell before she could reach it.
The woman froze in place as she looked at the cloud of dust. “Be fine… Please be fine…” She whispered as the dust spread into the city, partially obscuring the view.
Seeing a shadow running toward her, she shouted, “Taizen! Are you okay?!” Taking a few steps forward, Navia got a better look at the man. Once they got close, she saw something off about the silhouette. It wasn’t Taizen. A Barnacle with a swordfish’s skull raised its arm and swung it at Navia. With her guard down, she barely raised her blades to block the attack.
Navia was too late; her hands were moving upwards to intercept the swinging arms. All of her muscles tensed up, bracing herself for the pain coming her way. The Barnacle suddenly stopped moving, then a sound of splashing came from below. Its head was on the floor, and a blade moved in a sharp arc to shake off the blue blood from it.
“I’m alright.” Answered Taizen, standing behind the monster as its body fell prone to the ground. “Let’s get moving before they fire another round.”
The two of them walked toward the wall, barely visible above the dust cloud. They knew they were close to the wall and could slowly see other soldiers standing by the wall. Seeing the muskets pointed at them, he shouted, “Don’t shoot!” and waved his arm so they would know that he was not a monster.
Even though he signaled to them who they were, the shots were fired. Except the bullets flew right above their heads. Both of them heard the bullets hitting something close, but before he could even turn around, Taizen was pushed forward. He could hear the breaking of an iron and then a sound of moist flesh being cut.
When hitting the ground, Taizen immediately turned around to check what was behind him. A seven-foot-tall creature made of a human skeleton with a piranha’s skull. Through the dust, he could clearly see the creature’s face as a single light source hung above its forehead.
It held a long harpoon with a long blade and gashes all over its blade. That weapon certainly didn’t make the cuts clean; instead, they were agonizing and painful. The weapon was pointed upward as if it was showing it off to everyone. What confused him was the constant sound of dripping liquid. Hearing the gasps of the soldiers behind him, he realized that something was off.
Moving from the pool of some liquid underneath it toward the top of the harpoon. Those strands of golden hair, the teal cape of the order, and lastly the now emotionless face. He recognized them all.
Even though he saw it with his own eyes, he didn’t want to believe it. That’s not what he wanted to see; that wasn’t something anyone would want to see. Even if he wanted to reject it, the truth was right in front of him. His wife impaled on a harpoon, her lifeless limbs hanging down as there was no life to lift them.
“Navia!!!” He shouted out with all the air he had in his lungs. Tears slowly appeared in his eyes. As if that was the signal it was waiting for, the Tide spawn swung its harpoon to the side, letting the dead body fall off it. Navia’s dead body hit the wall of the nearby building, splattering all of her blood across the whole wall and the ground in front. That swing carried a lot of strength as it pushed the dust away, revealing itself from the clouded view.
It wasn’t just a skeleton; there were a few muscle fibers along its limbs, visible between the bones. Algae hung from its body, and the seawater was still dripping from it. As if the creature had just come out of the water, when the sea was at least three miles away from them. It was tall with thin limbs except for its head. From the skull of an anglerfish, a single bulb of light hung from the few strings of muscle fibers left on its white head.
The way it stood made it look like the monster was going to collapse at any second, with its two legs barely standing straight and the rest of the body kept straight only because it was attached to the hips.
The soldiers froze in place, cold shivers running through them at the sight of this horrifying creature and how effortlessly it killed a warrior from the Order of Tomorrow, which was known for having strong warriors. They all witnessed how powerful she was, easily slaying hundreds of Barnacles. That image of strength was burned and replaced by this monster.
The smell of blood’s iron in the air brought Taizen back to his senses. He stood back up, but his legs were shaking. The tears fell down onto the stone path. As he took a step forward, his whole body was shaking, not from fear but from guilt. Guilt of not being able to protect the woman he swore to spend the rest of his life with. He tightened his grip on his sword and raised it to his chest.
“You’ll pay for this!” He shouted as flames engulfed his longsword, seeming as if he were holding the fire itself. He ran toward the creature, which towered over him. Taizen swung his sword before he could even reach the Tide Beast. He wasn’t aiming for the creature; he was aiming for the ground under it.
Screaming, “GATE OPEN!” he shattered the stone pavement, the rubble flying right toward the monster. Once it touched the creature’s body, all of the bits of stone exploded.
The smoke from the explosion obscured his vision, but Taizen was certain that the skeleton survived this attack. He swung his longsword wide toward where the Tide spawn had stood. His blade stopped as it hit something with a loud clunk. As the smoke cleared, he saw that his attack had stopped. The monster tilted its body to the other side and blocked the sword with its harpoon.
“Gate open… ERUPT!” The flames on Taizen’s sword burst outward, pushing his sword back while the monster stood motionless. He used the momentum for the swing from the other side. With two steps, he turned his back on the creature and then faced it again, creating a circle of fire around him. Yet the blade stopped again, spreading the flames toward the bones of the creature. The monster tilted its head as it watched Taizen’s moves, like a curious cat.
To the man, it seemed like the creature was mocking him. The warrior wanted to try another approach to attack, but as he raised his sword to strike, he saw a rusty and dull blade of a harpoon close to his face. In a second, he flew between the soldiers and hit the wall, making a crack in the place he hit.
The men watched as Taizen hit the ground. Their gaze was broken by a scream from behind. As they turned around, they caught a glimpse of the monster dashing toward them. Trying to follow its movement, they observed as the body without a head hit the ground. Then another head fell. Next, the two arms flew into the air as blood splattered all around them. The soldier was the first to raise a gun toward the enemy and the first to lose his weapon. The last man only saw darkness for a second as his head was swallowed whole by the nightmarish creature.
“Fire! Fire at it!” The soldier desperately shouted before his scream was cut short by a harpoon. Two halves of his body slammed to the ground, and the rest of the men began to panic. Some soldiers shot at the monster while others ran away in fear.
The officer standing on the second wall observed the massacre with his black eyes and red sclera. His skin was a dark blue color, nearly melting into the uniform he was wearing. Seeing as the creature effortlessly took care of the soldiers, he shouted, “Cannons! FIRE THE CANNONS!” Fearing he was going to be next after the soldiers on the street, he moved closer to the tower where he could run and escape to the streets of the second ring.
The soldiers rushed the cannons, loading and moving them toward the edge of the wall. Without the command, the first cannon was fired. With the explosive sound, the monster stopped chasing the men and looked toward the source of the sound. With one swift move, it cut one steel ball into two pieces. The two of them left a mark on the ground behind the monster. The second cannonball was caught by it with a single hand. Hearing more shouts from the wall, “Faster! Quickly! Where’s the fire!” The creature turned its head toward those screams and threw the ball with a creaking sound of its bones rubbing against each other.
It hit the cannon, making it fly off the wall, destroying the merlons on the side of the wall as it fell. The soldiers who operated the cannons were lucky enough to only get hit by small bits of stone. As they looked at the place where their cannon used to be, they didn’t notice when the creature got on top of the wall. It squatted on the edge of the wall and watched how the people reacted to its appearance. Most of them ran away while screaming, except for one man who aimed his musket at the nightmare in front of him.
Before he could even pull the trigger, his body got cut from shoulder to hip on the opposite side. It then butchered the rest of the soldiers who were on this part of the wall, making the red blood of the humans flow down the walls to both sides.
The blue-skinned officer ran out of the tower into the city street. He was huffing as he ran down the stairs, but once he saw the blood on the ground, it gave him second strength to run.
He could see the straight line toward the third wall, where he could hide among soldiers as they shot down that monstrous skeleton. For a second, he saw something in the middle of his path, and then his vision went dark.
The monster stood behind him with its harpoon to the ground, and the officer's body fell to both sides as he was cut in half. Behind it, pools of blood were gathering under the walls. The wind spread the smell of iron toward the other walls, mixing it with two other smells of smoke and dead fish.
The officer on the third wall wore a bone mask over his face that was painted with red dye, which made a pattern of lines with two visibly painted eyes. He observed the Tide beast from afar and held his hand up; the soldiers on the wall waited for his order to fire.
The creature turned around toward the gate of the second wall and swung its harpoon three times in three different directions, cutting down the gate and making a path for the other monsters. As it was about to move toward the third wall, it stopped. “I’m not done yet!” A shout came from behind the wall.
Standing on the broken gate was Taizen, his whole armor and face covered in blood that flowed down the walls. There was a cut in the stomach of his armor, but he wasn’t seriously injured. His weapon had a dent near the guard of the sword.
“I am the guard of the people. I am the one who will defend them so they will see tomorrow’s sun. I’ll be the sun for the people when the night comes… Because I’m the warrior of THE ORDER OF TOMORROW!” Taizen chanted as cracks spread across his skin like fractures in cooling lava. Right beneath the skin, red light burned. The blood on his body began to boil and vaporize with a vibrating sizzle.
“So that is the Lava Blooded Taizen.” The masked officer whispered as he saw the warrior’s change, but his tone carried no emotion; it was simply a statement.