I once more looked down at the little thing that had just been briefly turned into a missile, wondering how it could possibly "lead" what amounted to a natural disaster.
"Notice how everything stopped running towards us as soon as I kicked this thing out here? They respect and fear the strong. Just the smell of this thing is enough to scare the little guys off."
I looked around, quickly noticing he was right. The endless onslaught had stopped at some point, and after playing back events in my head I realized it had stopped right after he had darted off. I kicked myself mentally for not being observant enough to notice that.
"How do they 'lead' the other ones, like you said? It's not like they can talk, and if they can that's absolutely terrifying."
"Oh, don't worry. They can't talk. They just use a sort of mind control, so nothing much to worry about."
He chuckled. I did not find it as funny as he did.
"Does it work on people too?"
"Not that I know of, but I've been alive far too long to rule something like that out. Maybe someone especially weak-minded could be influenced by them, but that person would need to have the same level of willpower as the lowest level of beast, and even then it would only be a weak influence; a suggestion in the back of their mind. This is what causes the brainless behavior you've probably noticed by now. When controlling so many beasts and also trying to remain unspotted they can only exert so much control. It generally seems like they just give a kill order and rely on sheer numbers to get the job done."
"So this little guy was responsible for the ambush earlier then?"
"No, actually. There's a reason I specified that their control only works on weaker things. The two-pronged ambush was likely set up by the two big guys on their own, or they did it independently and it just happened to line up. Now that I say it, that actually seems like the most likely option. The stronger things are, the less likely they are to work together."
"Huh. Good things to know, I guess. Would've been nice to know them sooner."
"And to what end? You couldn't hunt one of these things down on your own and knowing more about what was happening would have only made you more nervous and kept you from focusing on the task at hand. Let me make one thing clear, I don't particularly want to see you dead, but the main reason I've kept you alive is so I don't have to take care of this whole thing myself until backup arrives. So, forgive me for not telling you something you didn't need to know when we were already pressed for time."
A few moments of awkward silence passed as we looked at each other and the ruined city around us. I suppose a part of me had known what he just confirmed, but another part of me didn't want to believe it. It was nice, despite all the chaos around me, to think that I was helping; believing my presence mattered, even in a small way, was a part of the reason I kept going, continuing to fight despite the seemingly hopeless situation. Then my eyes unfocused as I realized something.
He had manipulated me.
The entire time, from the very moment he met me on the watchtower, his goal was to use me. My only purpose was to make his job easier. He had the ability to hunt down all the big beasts in the city on his own. He had the energy to fight this out to the end without any help. Even now he hadn't even broken a sweat. He intentionally radiated a confident aura to make me want to help on my own, even without his urging. All the information he gave me was to make me rely on him, making me think I needed to follow his orders to make it out of this. He intentionally displayed his strength in front of me to keep my faith in him high. He had no reason to show off as he did besides to make me want to help him. He had the power to take care of this whole thing alone, and that was what unsettled me the most, terrified me even.
He still chose to use me.
He had the focus to spare to think of how to get me to do exactly what he wanted without me realizing, and actively chose to do it despite having no need to.
But I suppose I should feel flattered in a way. He still chose to use my help despite not needing it, and he more than likely saved my life by doing so. Was it really such a bad deal? At the end of the day, I was still alive. His purpose in using me was to stop this wave from washing through the more populated areas further down its path. He didn't make much of an effort to save this town, but there wasn't much he could do to begin with. He had told people to leave, and some didn't. He could've tried to save the people that were left, but to what end? Where would they go? There was no escape, and the morbid truth was that there was a reason they stayed. There is no use in trying to save someone who doesn't want to be saved. Besides, I wasn't any better.
"Things should start slowing down now. There are still undoubtedly a lot of things running around the city that need to be taken care of. You can either start cleaning stuff up or take the opportunity to leave. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted a break after all this."
His voice snapped me out of my daze and forced me to put my worries away for the time being. What had happened, had happened. I'd have a chance to think about it more at some other point.
"I wish the town didn't get this beat up but stopping them is good enough. I suppose this is why they put me here, huh? I swear, making an old man like me do all this… I need a drink."
While he rambled to himself, I took another look around. The air over the courtyard had become even more hazy now, and a thin layer of black liquid was now seeping into nearly every stone. It had become quiet, desolate.
"So that's it then?"
"Yep, that's it. As I said, hard and fast. Waves are like this sometimes. They can end just as abruptly as they start. That being said, it was a bit shorter than I expected. Guess that has to do with me finding this little bastard when I did."
He gestured towards the black blob of meat a short ways away from his feet. I once again looked at it, failing to pick out any discernable features besides a few long, spindly limbs extending limply out of its core. There was something off about it that unsettled me, but I couldn't place it. At this point though, there had been so many things that made me uncomfortable that adding one more to the list hardly mattered.
I looked away, my gaze briefly passing over the Mayor who was now lost in thought, mumbling to himself, before coming back to the courtyard. Something about this image of death and strife made me unable to pull my eyes away from it for too long. The lights in the sky occasionally reflected on some of the particles in the air, making the air shimmer faintly. The corpses piled in various locations were now thoroughly melded together. In another few hours it would be hard to tell they were once living beings, not that they had clear features to begin with, besides limbs and eyes. It irked me that all evidence of them would at some point disappear while all the damage they caused would remain.
The shimmering of the air gradually grew stronger as the two of us stood there, thinking. I realized I could no longer clearly see the other side of the courtyard. The haze was thick enough to make me want to cough just from looking at it. It almost felt like everything had decayed faster in these past few minutes of us being lost in thought, but I can't be sure how long we were stood there.
"So, what will you do now?"
"I'll go see if there are any survivors and start making a log of the damages done. I'm still the Mayor after all. I still have a job to do, and I'm a man of honor. I was appointed to this town and, whether I like it or not, its my responsibility to ensure it remains standing… well, mostly standing."
He flashed another one of his confident smiles. It no longer sparked the same emotions in me as before.
"I still don't know what I'm going to do."
"I could use an extra hand if you can stand being around here for a while longer."
"Maybe… maybe."
I smiled weakly and looked around again, lost. My gaze drifted down towards the body of the Angler again. It hadn't started to decay yet, which I found strange. I assumed it either hadn't had enough time or that a higher-level beast like it maybe wouldn't decay as fast as the weaker ones.
"You didn't mention that the stronger things don't decay as fast as the weaker ones."
I voiced my thoughts in a semi-joking manner. I was confused when I saw his confident grin freeze.
Then there was a black flash that streaked across the bottom of my sight, immediately followed by another passing just behind the Mayor.