An Old Legend

This was the third time I had been to this courtyard, the first being just after I arrived at the city and the second being when I rushed through it earlier in the day. A few buildings around it were destroyed, but it was in good condition overall. A simple yet pleasant fountain sat almost in the center of the courtyard with a slight bias towards the steps leading up to the town hall. The edge of the fountain was carved into the shape of a snake eating its own tail, with another snake carving curling up out of the middle of the fountain, a stream of water streaming out of its mouth. The courtyard itself was made of square-cut stones and was likely the most even part of the city.

We stood in front of the fountain, putting both it and the town hall behind us. The buildings around us weren't built with much order in mind, meaning there weren't specific lanes for us to watch. We were going to have to rely on our reaction speed and our hearing to not be jumped, all while hoping these things didn't learn how to work together and attack us while we were distracted. As I was looking around, I felt a pat on my shoulder that mildly startled me.

"I masked your presence a bit earlier, which you may have noticed. I didn't tell you because people like to test how strong these things are, only to immediately be torn to shreds when they stand in front of something that can see their shadow. Its counterproductive now though, so I undid it. I don't plan on using you as bait, but that may be the way things turn out."

"Well now I'm not sure if I should thank you or not."

"It certainly never hurts."

"Then thank you for helping me stay alive and please don't sacrifice me for the sake of the city."

"Well, I never said anything about a sacrifice, but I'm sure I can work it into my plan if'n you want."

"You have a plan? I thought the plan was to just kill until they stop coming?"

"That's pretty much it, with some other variables thrown in just in case. For you though, 'kill' is pretty much what I'm expecting. Don't let me down."

"Well, since letting you down means death in this case, I'll do my best."

"All we can ever do is our best, isn't it?"

This sort of banter continued for a bit until we heard something approaching. After a few short moments of waiting, a ball of fur and shadow appeared between two houses along the edge of the courtyard, sprinting towards us the moment we entered its eyes. I prepared to fight while the Mayor simply stood there, seemingly uncaring. Eventually it reached us, and as I tensed myself for a fight, the Mayor struck out sideways with the back end of his hand-held cannon, putting a dent in what could be considered its skull and sending it bouncing across the courtyard for a few yards before stopping. No residue was left on the gun itself. 

I stood there dumbstruck, remaining in a battle-ready stance until I processed what I had just seen. Finally releasing the tension in my muscles, I turned to look at the Mayor, only to be met by a big grin.

"If anyone ever tells you you can only use a gun for shooting, just do that to them."

"Not everyone can just 'do that', you know."

"Eh, they'll get the point if you do it a few times. It'll at least be more effective than those fists you seemed to want to use."

It was at that point I realized I had never actually drawn my weapons. My face flushed with embarrassment as I took my sword and gun out of their sheath and holster, putting the sword in my right hand and gun in my left. Comparing them to the weaponry of the Mayor, I suddenly felt like I should've spent more time seriously looking at the selection in the Forge. As he said though, it was still more effective than just using my fists. Thinking about the Forge, I realized I hadn't checked its condition at all today and made a note to take a look at it immediately once this was over. 

Turning my mind back to the present situation, I saw the Mayor leaning on his broomstick-like gun, his cane, if it could still be called that, remained wound up around his hand, seemingly unmoved from earlier. He radiated an aura of calm and confidence, which helped me greatly in dispelling my nervousness. While being appreciative of that, I realized that all the banter we had engaged in earlier, along with his joking, was all meant to ease my nerves. Thinking about that, my gaze towards him was filled with even more respect than before. Even during all the chaos of the past few hours, despite him dealing with things that could easily kill me, he still spared the effort to think about me.

A short while later, the sounds of more things approaching reached us, and two beasts appeared at the left and right sides of the courtyard. The Mayor and I took one each. I took the initiative to rush towards my beast. As we were about to run into each other, I sidestepped to the left and jabbed my sword into the side of the beast, it doing my work for me as its momentum kept it moving forward, dragging my sword along the whole length of its body. It didn't cut very deep, but the length of the cut caused it to start to leak blood rather significantly. The added drag of my sword in it had caused its direction to turn, it now moving in between me and the Mayor. It was at this point I saw a black spot rapidly growing larger coming from the direction of the Mayor, and quickly withdrew my sword, diving off to the side as the flying beast collided with the one I had been fighting with a low thump. Standing up quickly from where I dove, I walked over to finish off the one I was fighting. It was struggling to get out from under the corpse of the other, so I simply drove my sword into its head region a few times until it stopped moving. Looking back towards the once again grinning figure of the Mayor, I simply chuckled and shook my head.

The number of beasts coming began to ramp up after that, from two at a time to three to four to six, until they started to slowly keep trickling in rather than coming at once. The time in between for banter decreased to none, and the two of us became solely focused on dealing with the beasts. After taking out a few, I realized these beasts were weaker than the ones I had fought out in the field. They seemed to not have the same awareness as usual, running towards us with a single-minded focus, uncaring about their own lives. I couldn't complain too much, as it made my job much easier, but it gave me an uneasy feeling. This deviation from normalcy was something I had been experiencing all day, in one way or another, and it was starting to really bug me. There was nothing I could do about any of it, from the wave coming earlier than expected, to the feeling of being watched as I was running through the city, and now being rushed by completely mindless beasts. None of it was what I expected, or what I considered "usual" given the situation. 

There had to be reasons for all of this, but for now all I could do was continue fighting. The pattern I fell into involved side-stepping attacks and retaliating at their sides until they became too weak to move, at which point I would rush in a deliver a final blow. It was monotonous and repetitive, something the beasts would've normally started countering after seeing their fellows fall to it, but it continued to work so I continued to do it. Over time, my sword began to dull, so I put it away and switched to my mace before it became completely useless, now targeting limbs to immobilize them before smashing their heads in.