The shadow of the forest extended ever closer towards the city. As it did, a sense of fear began to take root in me. A deep-seated terror I had never felt before and would rarely feel again. Seeing that mass of writhing shadow, that tidal wave made of Nightmares and flesh, approaching the city which felt like the last holy bastion of the world in that moment, I felt my legs go weak and my will to fight waver. The ringing of the bell above me and the echoes of the bells through the city seemed to herald the end; the oddly pretty clanging of the bells, which I had always associated with a sort of holiness, stood in stark contrast to the unholy flood that rushed towards me, yet it did not seem entirely out of place.
I noticed at some point that I had stopped actively ringing my bell, but it continued on its own. Looking across the other towers, I saw all the other bells continued to ring as well, despite no one being there to ring them. Even the towers that stood unmanned when we first took sight of the beasts were now ringing. Clearly, there were other people there that day who had experienced this before. I realized then that I was the only one who remained on a tower and how bad of an idea it would be to stay at this edge of the city when the wave hit.
Just as I went to turn to make my way down the tower, I heard a thump and a grunt behind me. I turned to see a yellow-eyed, bowling ball of a man stood behind me with an ever-present jovial smile on his face. In his left hand, the Mayor still held his cane, while in his right he held a massive firearm which was rested against his shoulder. The thing looked to be nearly twice as long as he was tall, and whether that says more about the comedic enormity of the weapon or his short stature is a conversation best held out of range of his hearing.
"So, it turns out I was joking about this being a long day. A wave like this will hit us fast and hard. It's far beyond what I expected, but I suppose it explains why the fort fell. I was expecting a siege, but it looks like we're getting more of a cage match," he turned towards me, "Sorry, kid. If I had known what were in for, I would've thrown people out of town myself and called your courage foolishness. Follow me."
Before waiting for a response, he jumped off the tower to the roof below and began to leisurely walk more towards the center of the city. I looked down at the near 20-foot drop and wisely chose to slide down the ladder most of the way before jumping off. A few pieces of the roof shifted or broke when I landed, causing me to lose my footing for a second. I looked to where the Mayor landed, only to see that spot had suffered no damage. Shaking off my questions for the time being, I hurried to catch up to him, finding that no matter how fast or slow I moved, he always seemed to keep the same distance between us.
Looking down on the streets as we hopped from roof to roof, I saw only a few people rushing about. The city was as quiet as always apart from the cacophonous bells. Most people had likely decided to hole up in their homes, hoping the flood would wash around them rather than through them. The people running around were either preparing themselves to fight or trying to find a nice hole to hide in until the storm passed. Looking around me across the top of the city, I realized it was just the two of us up here, running somewhere unknown to me. I began to wonder what set me apart from the other people in the city. Why was it that I was up here, following the Mayor in the calm before the storm, and not running around confused on the streets below? What gave me the right to look down on these people like this?
Eventually, the Mayor stopped running and I was finally able to catch up to him. We were stopped on a house near the edge of the city, directly in the center of where the beasts were to soon hit. A few rows of buildings stood between us and the wave. I assumed they had all been evacuated or abandoned, but I wasn't going to check them myself to confirm. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
"So," the Mayor declared abruptly, pulling me out of my thoughts, "here's how this is going to go down."
He gestured out towards the oncoming wave.
"Within that group are what we call weak and strong beasts. The "weak" beasts are the ones you've probably fought countless times yourself, and they're what will comprise the majority of their numbers. Your best bet is to get one of them alone and take it out as quickly as possible, repeating the process until they're gone." he shot me a serious look before continuing, "The stronger ones are where this gets tricky. If you see one, just run away. I won't go into more detail, as it would only give you confidence. I need you to believe me here, which I know may be a hard ask given this is only the second time we've spoken, when I tell you that you cannot take that fight. People stronger than you have tried and failed, do not believe yourself special. Do you understand that?"
I gave him a nod, now significantly more worried than before.
"If possible, try to find me. I plan on staying up here, picking off the big guys as they enter the city. I sent a message back to the big city for some type of reinforcement, but I didn't hear back before the bells started ringing. That leaves me as the strongest person in this city, and to my knowledge, the only one who can deal with the problem nightmare-children. If you can, try to lure them to me, but don't get yourself killed. If you feel like the situation is hopeless, try to find somewhere out of sight to hide. Somewhere secret is better than somewhere secure, which you'll soon find out. No one will blame you for preserving your life, and neither should you."
He lowered the stock of his gun to the ground and gave me a quick pat on the shoulder, followed by a confident smile. He turned back towards the edge of the city, his hawkish eyes seemingly shining with the light of confidence. He switched his weight from his cane to his now-grounded firearm, and began to lift the cane off the ground. He gave it a casual swing in front of him, a strange action if not for what it revealed. A metal rope with countless blades forged into it struck out like a whip before him, extending at least twenty feet. Performing another quick movement, he caused it to coil up in his hand, which just so happened to fit perfectly in a space with no blades.
It was at this point I realized there was much more to this short-statured man than I had believed. Such a carefree man held within him a boundless confidence and an, at the time, unfathomable strength. It felt in that moment as though he emitted some sort of pressure. His presence alone inspired more confidence in me than I had felt all day, but it was at that time that I realized this was the first time I had ever felt his presence. When he first stood before me in the town hall, even though I could see him and hear him speak, a part of me felt he was never there. When he entered, I heard nothing, and it was now that I realized it wasn't because I was distracted. When he appeared next to me at the watchtower, I hadn't heard him approach, and had only barely heard him arrive next to me. Thinking back, I realized he had likely jumped from the rooftop below us, intentionally letting me hear him land so as to not startle me too much.
"Why do you seem to place such care in me?"
"I liked the look in your eyes from the first time I saw you. I can tell there's more in store for you than potentially either of us realize. It sparked my interest, and I never doubt my intuition, not after everything I've been through. Plus, there's enough death in the world already. Nothing wrong with trying to stop what you can."
He never turned back to look at me. He seemed to be comprised of an extraordinary calm and an otherworldly focus, completely prepared for whatever may happen over the course of the next however many hours. It was an image that stuck with me for a long time afterwards, and I'd often find myself thinking back at that moment whenever I found myself lacking courage.
I took a deep breath and turned, jumping to the next house over and beyond. There was no reason, in theory, for me to leave him in that moment. There was no reason I couldn't have waited for the beasts to come before going off to do what I had been instructed to. But I had a feeling that he no longer wished to see me, not until this battle was over. So I left, prancing my way into a fate unknown.