Fighting a yawn, Akhratan stared blankly at a small, dingy street. Dusk had already arrived, and as promised, he had been assigned to guard duty for most of the day. The only downside might have been that he was posted to guard the most remote corner of the city.

As his employer had mentioned, the guard captain, a rather elderly gentleman with a white mustache, didn't mind that some of his men had been replaced by proxies. In fact, Akhratan spotted three or four sellswords who had taken the place of some of the other guardsmen.

Unfortunately, the guard captain was quite unnerved when he noticed Akhratan, and for reasons better left unmentioned, he ordered him to be posted in the farthest corner of Rinaz between the storehouses belonging to the merchant and craftsmen guilds and the slums. He was also told that if anything went missing, so would his head.

So now, the proxy guardsman gazed at the small brick street with his back against the outer wall, while to his left stood the main reason the city even needed a guard in this spot, the pipe down which the city dwellers threw all of their waste, and in theory, someone could use it to gain entry to the city. Assuming they hated themselves enough to attempt it.

Akhratan's job was relatively straightforward: guard the pipe, and if it seemed like something was trying to enter through it, ring the bell standing next to him. Then, the guard above him should hear it and ring their own much larger bell, thus alerting the entire city. However, if luck was on their side, nothing that could lead to such an event wouldn't occur.

The ex-gladiator cracked his neck, trying to recall how long he had been there. Since most of the day had passed the guard who was supposed to replace him should be here any minute. Although the proxy seriously doubted that.

From what he had observed, the warriors here seemed to enjoy lazing about as much as the regular peasants. Frankly, it made him a bit envious. Not that they could be lazy while he had to stand guard, but more because they seemed to have carefree lives that warranted such lax behavior.

Even now, he could hear the guards above him making a lot of noise, most likely reveling after having brought some ale with them to brighten the mood or something. Thinking about this, Akhratan spat on the ground. Lazy amateurs!

Anyway, due to their lax behavior, Akhratan could bet that his replacement wouldn't arrive for another hour or so. He sighed and kept looking ahead with a determined gaze when he heard something. It wasn't the guards; in fact, they had fallen eerily silent, which unnerved him given how loud they had been just a minute ago. What he heard was different.

It was very faint, but it was the sound of something scratching against the brick wall behind him. Immediately, there was a weird stillness around him as his mind became incredibly keen and observant. Without wasting a second, he turned around and saw it.

It was a round, red object with what seemed to be blades protruding from its center. Without wasting a beat, Akhratan distanced himself from the object by stepping back toward the city, keeping it in his sight. That's when he realized there were five identical objects following it. Quickly, the objects rolled down the walls, using their blades to stay attached. Once they reached the ground, the ball-like objects unfolded, revealing themselves to be living creatures.

They were in varying shades of red, around the size of a small barrel, and proportionally built like one. The creatures had small, gangly arms and legs, with two small curved horns on each side of their heads. Their eyes were yellow and positioned far apart, probably to ensure they could see while in their ball state, with formidable-looking jaws.

Frankly, Akhratan had seen many strange creatures during his time as a gladiator, but none came close to the strangeness of these things. And that was even before they started to speak.

"Darn, we didn't manage to kill the human before he noticed," said one of the creatures on the right.

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"It's all your fault for being so damn noisy," it said to the creature that Akhratan had heard.

"I wasn't being noisy; you lot were just too slow," replied the center being. "Besides, I can still think of something."

The creature then faced Akhratan.

"Human, give up, and we promise to kill you painlessly."

Frankly, the ex-gladiator believed they were capable of murder. Even in the darkness, he could see blood covering their bodies, a clear indication of why the other guards upstairs had fallen silent.

Still, despite that, Akhratan wasn't impressed. He raised an eyebrow before responding, "No thanks. How about I offer you something instead?"

"What?" one of the creatures asked, sounding strangely excited.

Akhratan scowled. "If you turn around and go back the way you came, I'll give you a head start before calling the guards."

"No deal," said the same creature. "We were ordered to help others attack the city, and that's what we'll do."

"Stupid, don't say that!" exclaimed the center creature to his mouthy colleague. "See, that's why Mistress gave me a longer name because I'm smarter," it added.

"Is Mistress the reason why you decided to attack this city?" Akhratan asked, gaining all of their attention.

All of the creatures immediately looked incredibly surprised, and their leader even exclaimed, "How do you know that?"

Now Akhratan knew what level of intelligence he was dealing with. The human pulled out his sword, cracked his neck, and began approaching them. This was going to be easy.

Seeing his approach, all the creatures wickedly grinned. "Oh, does the little human think he has what it takes to take us on?" the head creature taunted.

He then faced his comrades. "Let's get him, boys!"

With that, the line of creatures formed into balls and rolled toward Akhratan, their sharp spine blades gleaming in the torchlight. They moved toward him quite fast, and the sound of their spines slicing through the ground would send shivers down any man's spine. But Akhratan found their charge relatively straightforward because they attacked him in a line formation.

Without hesitation, he ran at the creatures, flipping over them, narrowly avoiding their blades. Akhratan then turned to see the creatures heading toward the nearest brick building. Instead of crashing into it as he hoped, they traversed the building's brick wall by cutting themselves into its surface.

The creatures then accelerated until they reached the top of the building, from where they launched themselves into the air. The attackers reached a height of a couple of meters above the structure before a lack of a solid surface made them curious, and they forced their shells open out to see what had happened.

What followed afterward was just sad. The creatures flailed in the air out of sheer panic until they eventually hit the ground. The brickwork was covered in purple viscera from their torn-open bodies. Some who had managed to form back into their ball shapes lay still on the ground, most likely internally bleeding from the impact of such a fall.

Akhratan could only stare in disbelief at what had transpired. The subsequent turn of events could only be described as the very definition of anticlimactic. Despite the disappointment, he still had a job to do, so he ran up to the bell and kicked it once, making it ring.

The sound of the bell echoed high in the wall, which should have been followed by another ringing from above the wall. Unfortunately, there was no response. Remembering the direction from which those creatures had approached him, Akhratan swore under his breath and made his way toward the entrance that led to the top of the wall.

A few staircases later, Akhratan reached the top, and that's when he saw them. As he suspected, the guards who were supposed to ring the bell atop this wall were dead, as were the archers stationed here.

They appeared to have been sliced to pieces, as if they had been attacked by giant, sentient beard knives or something similar. Since it was so dark outside, the creatures probably had no issue making their way up the wall without being seen, given how quiet they were.

However another thing that had aided them was the strong smell of beer that permeated the area, coming from the destroyed barrels and the many mugs littering the ground. The men were likely drunk enough to not notice them, even if it had been as bright as day outside.

He then heard the stomping of feet and giggling. Akhratan looked down on the other side of the wall and saw shapes moving through the darkness. His best bet was that they were attempting to enter through the waste pipe.

Knowing what needed to be done, Akhratan ran inside the small tower next to him until he reached the other bell. It was much bigger than the one he had been ordered to ring, meaning that the sound would undoubtedly be louder. Without wasting any time, he took the bell and pulled it. The sound echoed far and wide, most likely alerting at least half of the city.

The attackers heard it too and, after a brief pause, continued their advance even more fervently. Understanding the situation, Akhratan steeled himself and ran across the wall to reach the nearest entrance and regroup with some guards. This was turning out to be a busy night.