The army of barnacles was spread through the whole district almost to the mountain except for the stairs leading up to the vaults and the platform by the shelters. They stood there without moving an inch as if they were dead but Navia knew that even one sound could trigger the whole army to move.
She slowly pushed the cannons to the other side of the wall and aimed them each in a different direction, one for each corner of the district and one for the center. The remaining cannons were aimed in random directions where larger groups of monsters were close to each other.
Even though the buildings were intact she wasn’t going to avoid any destruction, one cannonball would even hit the tower of a building to collapse on the rest of the monsters.
“Not like they will live in those houses anymore.” Thought Navia as she looked toward the breached shelter for the rich citizens who paid their way into the luxurious vault while others had to wait for the Tide to be wiped in a cramped dark room.
From one tower of the wall to another there were eight cannons, each one loaded and ready to fire. Navia leaned her back against the tower’s wall and took a deep breath, concentrating and thinking of her next moves. Once she opened her eyes she lit the torch by sliding it against the wall. As she ran to the other side she lit the matches of the cannons, once she got to the other side the first cannonball flew to the corner of the district, killing dozens of barnacles and attracting their attention toward the wall. Second, after a second more cannons shot toward the district killing more than fifty monsters. Many of those creatures began to move toward the wall and they cramped up into groups barely leaving any space in between them.
A cannonball ran through the center of the group, parts of their bodies flying into the air, blue liquid splattering around the street. But that didn’t stop them, those monsters were incapable of fear. Another ball of steel flew through the wall that was a base for the tower, and the bits of the ruble fell on the creatures but they ignored the threat and moved forward, not noticing the tower that was about to crush them. Even though around two hundred of them were killed it was merely one-eighth of the whole army.
“I’m here you sons of a bitches!” Shouted Navia as she hit the wall with the side of his dagger to attract the monster’s attention toward her. She then jumped onto the roof of the building, which had a thick fog covering the streets. They couldn’t see her as well she couldn’t see them but they all could hear each other. She continued striking her dagger against a solid surface and shouted so the monsters would move toward her. Once she heard a large amount of them around the building she moved on to another one, further away from the mountain.
“That’s right! Come here my flock of sheep!” Shouted Navia, almost laughing at what she was saying and glad that her plan works. She thought of coming back to the fourth wall to attract those monsters who were in the back of the crowd so none of them would back away toward the mountain.
She jumped onto the second building away from the fourth wall and struck the dagger against the roof tiles. One of them slid off the building and fell into the street without Navia noticing. She heard more creaking from barnacles around her and they became louder.
“Time to move you a bit closer to the center.” Whispered Navia as she jumped onto another building away from the wall and repeated making loud sounds to attract the monsters.
A sudden noise of creaking wood made her turn toward the sound, she looked down but she couldn’t see anything through the fog. “They must have broken a barrel or something.” She thought, unaware of what was broken by the monsters.
Hearing more of them around her she began moving onto another roof. Building up her speed by running from the end of the roof she jumped but as she flew she felt a cold touch against her ankle. Her speed rapidly slowed down and she didn’t fly as high as she previously did. For a brief moment, she felt heavy.
Anxiety took her over as she saw how low she was compared to the roof she was aiming for. Quickly noticing through the thick fog a windowsill she grabbed it and felt a pain in her arm as her body jolted down. She let out a moan of pain but it was masked by a loud thud. Even through the rush of thoughts and rapid heartbeat, she was able to hear the creaking of the barnacles. Even though she was by the window of the second floor she was able to spot the head of a barnacle and it was getting closer.
“They are climbing the buildings…” Pure shock was visible on her face, she couldn’t predict that.
Navia quickly lifted her left hand to grab the windowsill before her right arm muscle could tear out of strain. She lifted herself to the window but was unable to reach something to get to the roof.
“I’ll try my luck on the other side.” Navia grabbed her knife and with the hilt of her dagger, she broke the window and opened it to enter the building. Inside was a bed with a blanket unrolled, left in a rush after the bells warned the citizens about the upcoming tide. Taking one step forward she kicked something forward. Looking down she saw a toy of a knight made of wood. Sorrow slipped into her mind and face, knowing that those poor people were dead.
A creaking sound woke her up from the daze and she quickly ran to the doors and opened them with a force, almost throwing the door off its hinges. She wasn’t expecting any of the monsters here but one of them hit the wall as she pushed the door open. Another one stood in the middle of the corridor and twisted its head with one fast move.
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Navia took out a dagger and a sword. The barnacle smashed against the wall, moved the door, revealing its head covered in barnacles and distorted with a chin almost connected to Adam’s apple on the throat. As it opened its mouth to attack a dagger went through its head.
The second barnacle dashed toward Navia, as she pulled out the dagger the monster's body fell, and closed the door behind her. She then plunged her sword forward between the hands of the monster that was going to tear her flesh to shreds. The sword thrust into barnacle’s head but instead of going through it the blade shattered and left bits of it inside the creature’s head. It wasn’t a swift move and once the sword broke her right arm jolted as she pressed forward a blade that couldn’t cleanly go through the monster’s flesh.
Her right arm was aching constantly as if it was going to fall off her body. She grabbed her arm and rubbed it, hoping it could ease the pain but it was as if she couldn’t reach the source of the pain.
In the middle of the corridor on the left wall, there was a staircase leading to lower floors, and at the end of the hallway, there was a door to another room. A pale hand grabbed the edge of the wall by the staircase, Navia noticed the limb and began running forward, pressing her left hand against her right arm.
When she ran past the staircase the barnacle tried to grab her but she was out of its reach, taking a glimpse at the attacker she saw ten more of those monsters climbing up the stairs.
Her hand reached for the door handle and she pulled it down, but nothing happened. She pulled again but the results were the same. Turning her head around to check where the monsters are she saw two of them already moving toward her from the staircase.
Navia quickly took a few steps back and ran into the door, hitting it with her shoulder. The monsters were halfway toward her and the doors weren’t open yet. This time she took more steps toward the monster, leaving a length of two arms between them. Picking up the speed she broke down the door and entered the room.
Hearing a loud thud behind her made her panic, one of the monsters fell over and was reaching for her foot. Without taking in her surroundings she found a window and sprinted toward it. There was no time to stop and open the window, she had to go through it. Picking up her guard to block her face she jumped into the window, breaking the glass and spreading it through the street. Once Navia felt the outside wind she opened her eyes, the roof of a lower building right in front of her.
Without much time to react, she braced herself and hit the hard surface of the roof, rolling on the stone tiles. Opening her eyes she saw a lake of fog under her as she was on the edge of the building, close to falling down into the army of monsters. Looking back at the house she jumped off, Navia saw the two barnacles that were pursuing her, fall through the window and down into the street.
Her face was stinging as a few shards of the glass cut her skin when she broke the window. Ignoring the wounds she moved back to the fourth wall to check if she got all the monsters out of the district.
Hearing all the creaking noises as she moved toward the wall Navia knew that she got most of them in the district enveloped in thick fog. Looking down the wall there were zero monsters. She got all of them and had a safe passage to the shelters.
Navia jumped off the wall and landed on the street of the last district. Before going forward she approached the open gates and listened for the sounds of monsters since she couldn’t see them through the fog. After a long moment of silence, she was sure that most of them were far away from the gate.
Looking around the last district she got a close look at the damage she had done with the cannon fire. Between those fresh dead bodies of the monsters were only a few corpses of the Berionian’s soldiers.
“There should be more bodies… Maybe they were able to escape with some of the citizens…” Thought Navia as she carefully moved through the street in case any monster was hiding somewhere.
Approaching the stairs that would lead her to the shelters she noticed that there were no marks on the stone bricks. Like no monster placed its foot on those stairs. Not even a hole left by a missed shot from the musket. A simple question was repeated in Navia’s mind “Why?”
“Did the monster stop their attack? Or the soldiers were able to defend the city but had to evacuate the people, thus leaving the last gates open? Then why was one shelter closed?” Those thoughts ran through Navia’s head as she peacefully moved up the stairs.
Looking at the open gates there was no sign of struggle, no corpses of fallen soldiers or killed monsters. As if this place was abandoned except for one place that remained closed, or at least it seemed like it was. Once Navia approached the shelter’s gate she noticed a small gap between them, they were slightly open.
She pushed against the gates and there was no resistance. Nothing placed to block the open gate. Slowly opening the gates she looked for bodies or signs of monsters but it was empty.
“Was my assumption correct? Did they all escape?” Thought Navia as the place was empty and undamaged. Yet it didn’t look abandoned as she saw a torch lighting the wall down the stairs. “Maybe they left that torch lit… or maybe someone is still there…” Navia descended the stairs and as she got closer to the bottom she could hear steps. Many steps but no creaking sounds, making lower her guard.
At the end of the stairs, there was a massive hall stretching for a mile, with a high ceiling that was as high as a two-story house. Tens of tents were placed all around the hall with lit torches standing by them. The only source of light in this room is made of rough stone for the poor citizens of the city. A few people were walking toward the biggest tent which was the size of an actual building as it reached the ceiling of the hall.
The giant tent stood out the most in the hall as it was the most lit place and the most colorful out of them all. The tents were simple gray in color while this one was made of many colored fabrics. Blue and green at the sides, purple and pink at the entrance to the tent, and red and yellow as the roof. From afar, it looked like one tent was connected to two smaller ones. The ones to the sides were circular shapes while the one in the center was more square-like.
At the sight of this tent only one word came to Navia’s mind “Is that a circus?”