The sounds of buildings collapsing behind me continued at an even pace as I ran, although it did seem to be getting uncomfortably closer over time. It was now a race between me and this Nightmare, which I assumed to be one of the "big guys" the Mayor had brought up. I could hear it barrel through houses like their walls were made of paper, soaked by the previous rain. The only thoughts in my head were planning my jumps and looking for some potential way out, conveniently ignoring that every time I would do this during the duration of this wave, I would lose more and more houses to run across.
The longer I ran, the more tense my nerves grew. At any time, this thing could be upon me; at any time, I could choose to stop and fight, hopefully surprising it enough to get the upper hand. I didn't know whether I had the ability to put it down, but I knew if this chase didn't stop soon, I'd be forced to find out. Luckily, I wasn't too tired. I had always felt that keeping my stamina high would serve me well, as I still had the will to run from an unwinnable fight.
Soon, as I began to think the next house I would jump to would collapse under me, exposing the open limbs of a waiting beast, I saw a small figure standing on a house in front of me. Only a few rows now separated us, and if not for their unevenness I would have seen him much earlier. I once again felt as though he was glowing, like a guiding light in the depths of a hopeless fog. As quickly as he appeared before me, I arrived before him and shot past like an arrow.
I finally allowed myself to stop running on the house just next to where the Mayor stood. Without a word spoken, he swiftly turned to where I had run from and shouldered his flagpole of a gun one-handed. As though he had willed it, the beast that had been chasing me burst through the house the Mayor was facing, eyes locked fixedly on me still. So single-minded was its focus that I doubt it even noticed it arced directly over the waiting barrel the Mayor had presented before it.
He pulled the trigger, causing a fist-sized projectile to shoot straight through the creature and continue over the city, landing only God knows where. The force of it was so great that rather than "penetrated", "obliterated" would be a more fitting term to describe the resulting mass of flesh. It was surely a spectacular sight, but I was unable to see it as the concussive force had forced my eyes closed, knocked me backwards to nearly the edge of the roof I was on, and squeezed all the air out of my lungs. I simply laid there for a moment, desperately gasping for air.
Eventually I stood back up and dusted myself off, looking at the Mayor with a sort of wonder I had never felt before. He remained on that roof, seemingly unphased. A circle of Nightmare juice surrounded him, with a convenient dry patch he stood in the middle of. He had the stock of the gun held between his arm and chest, the barrel pointed at the ground, and the back end of the barrel removed, held between his fingers. His whip-cane had been wound up around his free arm, which was reached deep into one of his pockets. After a short bit of rummaging, he produced a powder charge as big around as my forearm. He then tossed it into the air above him and pointed his now open palm towards the street below him, which briefly confused me until a piece of the cobblestone street shot into that open hand. He quickly stuck that into the open chamber of his gun, before reaching out and grabbing the charge out of the air, seemingly without even looking at it. Once that had been placed in the chamber as well, he placed the cap back over the chamber and gave it a quick spin. It seemed to automatically thread itself down onto the barrel, eventually forming a seal so perfect the seam simply disappeared. Despite its outwardly crude, simplistic nature, this simply action betrayed the level of craftsmanship that had gone into this weapon. Truly, it was fitting of someone like the Mayor.
"Keep it up, kid. Bring me every one of those things you see and we'll get this taken care of hopefully by tomorrow."
"Rodger that."
I shook off my awe and darted off again across the rooftops, this time in the opposite direction. The next few, I'm not entirely sure how many, hours passed in much the same way. I'd run around the city for a bit until finding something big before luring it back to the Mayor, doing my best to lead them along the same paths I had already used. I also quickly learned to move away as soon as it was within range of the Mayor, so as to not have my eardrums rupture. Soon after this pattern started, I began to hear his cannon echo across the city more and more frequently, which I wasn't sure was a good or bad sign.
Some time after the wave started, I'd wager a few hours, the tide had begun to thin out. By now, the city was fully infested with these Nightmares, and it had become increasingly difficult for me to find the bigger ones. Every now and then, I'd catch a glimpse of something I instinctively felt fear for, but I could never get a good look; always just a shadow in the corner of my eye that would seem to fade around a corner before it could be fully revealed before me. The more time that passed, the more I felt I was being watched, as though the shadows of the city themselves were keeping an eye on me. It was nothing but an illusion, I was sure, but I was also sure that there had to be something behind it. In the meantime, however, there was nothing I could do, so I shook it off and continued about my business.
The number of stronger beasts eventually reached a level where I couldn't keep the same rhythm I had had while maintaining any degree of efficiency. I had grown numb to the thrill of being chased by this point, which allowed me to think more as I ran. I realized that we would have to start doing something about the "small" Nightmares running amok in the city, but it was something I didn't particularly want to dive headfirst into. While thinking over this, I once again ran past the Mayor, putting some decent distance between us before circling back once I heard the shot.
"That should be the last of them, more or less, right? You've been taking longer and longer every time you leave. Sorry to say it, but the time has come for you to get your hands dirty. But! Fret not, my young companion, for I shall join you on the ground!"
We both smiled and chuckled while I conveniently ignored him seemingly reading my mind. He then turned and started towards the center of the city. I followed.
"By now, they would have found anyone who tried to hide in their houses. We're going to hold our ground in the square in front of the town hall. The more of them we fight and kill, the more will be attracted to us, so you shouldn't need to do anymore running around. There'll be some more of the big'ns about yet, but I'll take care of them as they come. Still, you should always be on the lookout. As I'm sure you've noticed, they tend to go for ambushes rather than frontal conflicts."
I had begun to grow nervous once again. It was a feeling I had grown used to not having, and I immediately realized how much I had taken it for granted. It wasn't much of an overstatement to say that not being on the ground had kept me alive, so losing my position of relative safety wasn't something I was particularly looking forward to. Nonetheless, I understood the purpose of it, and so I steeled my heart and pressed on.
The two of us eventually arrived at our destination and jumped down from the rooftops, ready to stand in the flood and do everything we could to keep our heads above water.