Anakin looked back as another soldier came running to report the sight of a monster approaching the city.

“A three-headed snake? Out of all things it had to be this one!”

Anakin signaled his soldiers to prepare for battle.

“How far is it from the walls?” Anakin asked as he signaled Cygnus to follow him.

The soldier who had reported the sighting, Erix, quickly replied,

“Sir! The snake is a few meters away!”

Anakin looked back at Erix.

“A few meters?! And no one saw it before it got so close to us?!”

“Sir! The rain is falling strong tonight so it’s very hard to distinguish what is what. My apologies!”

“This is why I hate the rain!”

Anakin cursed under his breath. He signaled the soldiers to their positions as he walked to the destined location.

“You three! Go and make sure the wizard isn’t out getting his cup of coffee! We can’t take our chances on something going wrong with the barrier!”

“Yes sir!”

“I need half of my archers to follow me! I want the other half to spread out on every part of the wall that has a pillar in case another monster appears! You guys get the longbows ready! The rest of you patrol the wall and make sure there aren’t any more of its friends lurking around! Go! Go! Go! I don’t want any remains to be left of that putrid animal!!”

As they approached the location where the monster had been spotted, a deafening, screeching sound was heard and then...

BOOM!!

The floor trembled as the wall was hit with a ball of fire. Cygnus almost lost his balance but Anakin managed to grab him.

“Sir! What was that?!”

Cygnus managed to stand as he tried to figure out what was happening.

“The last thing we needed tonight soldier…a monster that shoots balls of fire,”

“But…but why didn’t the barrier stop the attack?”

Erix tried to make out what was in front of them. He saw smoke and fire coming from the area of the wall that had been damaged.

Anakin didn’t say anything as he also wondered why the attack hadn’t been stopped. Though the three-headed snake was powerful, it wasn’t enough for its attack to break through the barrier.

“This isn’t good,”

The three of them finally reached the place that had been damaged.

Anakin’s eyes grew wide open as he saw the corpses of his men lying around the aftermath of the explosion. The ball of fire had hit right at the top of the wall where most of the soldiers were located.

“You BEAST!”

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Anakin yelled in his mind as he clenched his fists in anger.

“Sir! The wall…the barrier…we don’t know what happened!”

A soldier yelled while holding his arm, covered in blood.

Anakin turned to get a glimpse of the monster which hid among the shadows of the night and the curtains of rain. Its glowing red eyes were full of menace and desire to kill whatever was in front of it. It’s big. muscular lion-like body slowly approaching them. Its tail, full of spikes that are known to be poisoned and lethal. Its three heads hovering over the trees, each having a devilish smile, deciding where to attack next.

BOOOM!! Another fireball exploded on the wall, making the place tremble once again.

Anakin took action right away.

“Erix! Release the signal for reinforcements! I want everyone who can move and has enough strength left to carry the wounded to the infirmary! I need archers here and longbows! The rest of you get your swords ready and follow me to the gate! If the archers can’t stop him, then it will be up to us! We need to hold on until whatever happened to the barrier is resolved! We will send this creature back to the hell it came from and make it wish it never opened its eyes in our realm!!”

“Yes sir!!”

The soldiers started to run around like ants to their designated assignments. Some moved the wounded and the dead away from the battle zone, others readied their bows, arrows, and longbows. Not knowing if they would go back home tonight, the soldiers said their final farewells to their families in a silent prayer.

Cygnus started to get himself ready to go with Anakin who, after realizing what he was up to, tried to stop him.

“No boy, you help carry the wounded,”

“With all due respect sir, I believe I should be down there with you!”

Anakin shook his head.

“You are not experienced yet! I am not taking you down there to die a meaningless death!”

“It’s not meaningless if I know I am fighting for something sir!”

Anakin paused for a moment, looking for anything that would help him convince the boy to stay behind but found nothing.

He chuckled and placed a hand on Cygnus’ shoulder.

“Don’t die on me, boy. I still have to invite you to dinner at my house. My wife is quite the cook,”

“I’m looking forward to it sir!”

Anakin got his sword ready and led the way to the possible doom of 50 of his men.

“Why wasn’t the barrier up? I made sure to be there when the wizard put it up as the sun was going down!” Anakin wondered about this as he hurried to approach the gates.

150 years ago, monsters had entered the human realm. Although the White Lotus Priestess had managed to seal the gate temporarily, she was unable to exterminate the monsters that had already crossed the gate. The royal family discovered that there were stones within the priestess’ precious mountain, The Silver Summit, which held blessed energy. It is said that because the priestess constantly held the ceremony to bless the empire in that mountain, its inner stones gained her blessed energy over time. The royal family gathered a group of people, now holding the title of “wizards,” who dedicated themselves to understanding how the blessed energy within the stones worked and how they could be used as protection against the monsters. One of the things they noticed was that devices could be built to transfer the blessed energy and transform it into solid matter. Such devices were used for barriers and some special-grade weapons. Of course, only a selected group of people were able to understand and use such devices.

“Some of them have even been crazy enough to…”

Anakin cleared the thought from his mind.

“If something happened to the barrier, then that means that one of the key elements is missing,”

These being the wizard, the device, or the stones.

“OPEN THE GATES!”

Anakin could hear the screeching sound of the monster from the other side as it got closer and closer. He could hear the battle cries of his men on top of the wall as they tried their best to slow down the creature. The gates slowly opened. His heartbeat overshadowed the sound of the rain. His mind started to tell him to run away. As the glowing red eyes fell upon him, Anakin's thoughts brought him back to his family. His beautiful wife had told him she would have his favorite meal ready when he returned. His daughter had asked him to take her to the coming festival and eat their favorite dessert.

“Oh Lucia, I hope that meal doesn’t go cold…if so, you will have to go with Madeline to that festival in my place.”

The gates parted as the monster opened one of its mouths ready to strike again.

With all his might, Anakin yelled,

“ATTACK!!!!”

Out they went...50 men, with families waiting for them within the city, shouting as the gates closed behind them.