The last ring of the bell was much longer and that was the last signal. “Fire!” Shouted the general. Before catapulting the rocks they lit the oil on fire and then the levers were pulled. The fire rocks flew above the city, many of them flew behind the wall, crushing the emerging monsters and setting the ground on fire to slow them down. One projectile hit the remaining tower of the first wall making it collapse toward the city.

Navia saw as the tower began to fall and she could see where it was about to land, right in the place where Taizen was standing. “Taizen! Look out!” She shouted as she ran toward him but the tower fell faster than she ran. Navia froze in place once the tower hit the ground, a cloud of dust was pushed toward the second wall, partially obscuring the vision.

She saw a shadow running toward her. “Taizen… Are you okay?” Navia asked, looking at her comrade slowly moving toward her. Once they got close she saw something off about the silhouette. It wasn’t Taizen, it was a barnacle with a swordfish’s skull. It raised its arm and swung it at Navia who had her guard down, thinking it was someone else.

As she was about to raise her weapons to try and block the attack the barnacle stopped moving as its head was cut off. “I’m alright.” Answered Taizen, standing behind the monster’s corpse, he pushed it to the side and turned Navia around. “Let’s get moving before they fire another round.”

They were walking away toward the wall that was only visible above the cloud of dust. They knew they were close to the wall and could slowly see other soldiers by the wall. Taizen noticed that the soldiers raised their muskets and aimed them toward them.

“Don’t shoot!” He shouted and waved his arm so they would know that he was not a monster.

Even though he warned the soldiers they fired toward them but the bullets flew above them. He heard that they hit something close but before he could even turn around he was pushed away and he heard a blade cutting through armor and flesh.

He could only see the silhouette of a seven-foot creature made of a human skeleton with a piranha’s head and some source of light in front of its face. It held something like a spear with a very long blade that had gashes. He could hear a liquid dripping down to the ground and see a body on the spear above the monster’s head. He didn’t have to see the face of that person to know who it was.

“Navia!!!” He shouted out with all the air he had in his lungs, tears slowly appearing in his eyes. As if on command the creature swung its weapon to the side and threw the dead body into the wall of a nearby building. With that swing, it pushed the cloud away and revealed itself.

It was mainly built out of bones with few muscle fibers left, visible between the bones. Algae hung from its body and the sea water was still dripping from it. It was a tall creature with thin limbs except for the head which was almost wider than its body, the skull of an anglerfish with the bulb of light left, hanging from the muscle fibers attached to the skull. Its weapon was a long harpoon with gashes in the blade to tear the flesh of its opponent. The way it stood it looked like it was going to collapse at any second, with two legs barely standing straight and the rest of the body kept straight only because they were attached to the hips.

The soldiers froze in place at the sight of this horrifying creature and how effortlessly it killed the woman from Order Of Tomorrow which was known for having strong warriors. They all saw how strong she was but the image of strength was burned and replaced by this monster.

The smell of iron in the air brought Taizen back, he stood back up but his legs were shaking, and the tears fell down to the stone path. His legs were shaking because of guilt, not fear. He tightened the grip on his sword and raised it to his chest.

“You’ll pay for this!” He shouted as his sword was once again enveloped in flames. He ran to the monster that was much taller than him. Taizen swung his sword before he could even reach the creature but he wasn’t aiming for it but the ground under it. “Gate, OPEN!” The rubble flew at the monster and exploded on the impact with its body.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The smoke from the explosion obscured the vision but Taizen knew that the creature survived this attack. He took a wide swing with his longsword in the direction where the monster previously stood. His blade stopped as it hit something with a loud clunk but once the smoke fell down he saw that his attack was stopped. The monster tilted its body to the other side and blocked the sword with its harpoon.

“Gate, open. Erupt!” Shouted Taizen and the flames on his sword exploded pushing his sword back. He used that momentum for the swing from the other side but his sword was blocked once again, the creature didn’t budge from the explosion its head only turned a bit as it watched Taizen’s movement.

The warrior wanted to try another approach of attack but as he raised his sword to strike he saw the 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 soldiers watched as Taizen hit the ground and then a scream cut the silence, turning around they saw the creature dashing from one soldier to another cutting them down. The first man lost his head, the second both of his arms, and then his head was bitten off.

“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 began to panic. Some soldiers shot at the monster while others ran away in fear.

The officer on the second wall had light blue skin and his pupils were of a red color. He noticed that the creature was much stronger than anything he had seen. “Cannons! Fire the cannons!” The officer shouted in panic as he feared that after those soldiers he would be next. Once they brought the cannons he moved closer to a tower where he could run and escape to the third wall.

The soldiers rushed to load the cannons and two of them fired without waiting for the rest. With the explosive sound, the monster stopped chasing the soldiers and looked toward the source of the sound. With one swift move, it cut one steel ball into two pieces that hit the ground behind it and it grabbed the second ball. Hearing more shouts from the wall “Faster! Faster!”, “Where’s the fire!” the creature turned its head toward those screams and threw the ball with a creaking sound of its bones.

The cannon that was hit flew off the wall, destroying merlons and the side of the wall as it fell. The soldiers that operated the cannons were lucky enough to only get hit by the small bits of stones. At least they thought before the creature jumped onto the wall, squatting on the edge of the wall. It watched how the soldiers reacted to his appearance. Most of them, in fear, began running away except for one man who aimed his musket at the creature.

That was the moment when the monster jumped toward him and cut him from his shoulder to the hip on the opposite side. It then butchered the rest of the soldiers that were on this part of the wall making the blood of the humans flow down the walls to both sides.

The blue-skinned officer ran out of the tower into the city. Huffing as he ran down the stairs but once he saw blood on the ground it was as if he had even more energy 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 in the middle of the 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 that made a pattern of lines with two visibly painted eyes. He observed the monster from afar and held his hand up, the soldiers on the wall waiting for his order to fire.

The monster turned around toward the gate of the second wall and swung its harpoon three times, cutting down the gate and making a path for the other monsters. As it was about to move toward the third wall it stopped, someone shouted from behind “I’m not done yet!”

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 injured. His long sword had a dent near the guard.

“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!” Chanted Taizen as small cracks appeared on his body, between them a red light came out, and the blood on his body began to boil and vapor.

“So that is the Lava Blooded Taizen.” The masked officer whispered as he saw the warrior’s change, but his tone carried no impression, it was simply a statement.