Akhratan had no words for what he saw. The creature in front of him was bipedal; however, it used its large knuckles to keep itself balanced on the ground. Just like the creatures before, it was red and had two curved horns, though the ones that this specimen possessed seemed to be much larger. And just like the ball-like creatures, it had a very pronounced jaw, meant to crush things more easily; however, it seemed to form more of a snout for this thing.

Its skin was also very weird. In fact, Akhratan was pretty sure that, due to how hard and rigid it looked from the outside, the creature's skin was some sort of armor. However, the most worrisome fact about this being was its size. It was absolutely humongous, encompassing the entire street, and Akhratan was absolutely sure that if it stood straight, then the creature's head would be visible above the buildings.

Overall, it was a far improvement compared to the horde of malformed abominations that these men had to battle previously.

"EVERYONE, ESCAPE TO THE SIDESTREETS," Akhratan yelled, since he was the first to get out of the stupor.

This order was received with mixed results. A large chunk of the guards listened to what he said and began to disperse. Though the process in which they did it could hardly be called an orderly and calm fashion since many of them left their weapons and shields on the ground as they fled. Then there were the ones that didn't follow these orders, though it was done more out of panic than disobedience.

A crossbowman fired a bolt at the goliath, which shattered upon impacting its skin. It angered the beast, which made another ear-splitting roar and aimed its fist against another guard that was charging it in blind panic. A shockwave rocketed the earth, and what was left of the man was a blood-covered chunk of metal inside a cow-sized pothole.

Realizing that he had a snowball's chance in hell of beating that thing in a fair fight, Akhratan had done the sensible thing and bolted. However, he wasn't running away. Instead, he ran up to the first house that was to his left and kicked the door open.

Fortunately, it was empty except for the furnishings, so Akhratan made his way upwards without any interruptions. Meanwhile praying to the Gods that the creature wouldn't destroy this building on purpose or accidentally. The fact that the house was shaking with each movement that the beast made did little to ease his nerves.

Finally, Akhratan reached the attic, which apparently was being used to store tapestries. Nevertheless, the mercenary found what he was looking for, which was a bolted-up window. Using his buckler as a hammer of sorts, Akhratan broke the window open before throwing the buckler away. He wouldn't have any further use for it.

The mercenary then pulled himself out of the window and then onto the roof. It was there when he saw it. The creature was a few houses further than him and was having a leisure-filled time brutalizing all the guards that didn't pay heed to Akhratan's words and had stayed on the main street. In fact, there was even a group of guards who had huddled against a building with their shields raised. Much good that will do them!

Understanding that he needed to be quick or else they would be flattened, Akhratan began making his way by jumping from building to building. Fortunately, in order to save space, houses were built very close to each other with the passageways between them being incredibly narrow.

Finally, he reached the beast who was currently being "attacked" by one of the guards. As Akhratan thought, the man's blade only bounced off the creature's skin as it would from any other piece of armor. The Goliath then took hold of its newest victim and threw him against the ground, where the cadaver bounced off it one time before laying there, unmoving.

This led Akhratan into a little predicament. The creature was now unoccupied and could spot him at any moment. And if it did... well, the upside will be that his death shall at least be a quick one.

Having no other choice, Akhratan started to wave his hands to gain someone's attention. From the guards that were huddled against the building, the front one spotted him, which ironically happened to be the man that got him in this mess in the first place.

Once Akhratan was sure that the other guard could see him, he pulled out his sword and started to make movements as if he was hitting it against an invisible shield. The guard immediately understood what that meant. However, to do it would be a death sentence. But, since they were dead men either way.

"Hey!" He yelled and started to bash his sword against his shield.

It worked like a charm. Without even hesitating, the beast turned towards him. The other guards tried to stop the man, however, it was too late. The Goliath huffed as air escaped its nostrils and seemed ready to charge them.

This was exactly what Akhratan needed. Not letting the opportunity to escape him, the mercenary jumped off the roof and landed himself on the beast's shoulders. There was a second where it did nothing. Possibly the creature couldn't understand what was happening; however, very quickly it knew that whatever it was, the creature needed to get this pest off.

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The Goliath started shaking its head, thus trying to make Akhratan fall. Unfortunately, the ex-gladiator's hold stayed tight, and without even giving it a second to try something else, he plunged his sword into the only part where he knew it didn't possess any armor: its eye.

What followed afterwards was an ear splitting roar as Akhratan tried to jab his weapon deep enough into the creature's brain to kill it. There, however, he came across an issue.

Despite its head being relatively small, compared to the rest of its body size, it still had a larger diameter than Akhratan's sword, meaning that even though it will most definitely feel this tomorrow, it will be alive to see one. Which unfortunately isn't something that he could say about himself.

Understanding what would happen if that thing got a hold of him, Akhratan let go and fell to the ground.

A descent from such a height could prove fatal to a person. Well, unless they knew how to fall. Akhratan pressed his head against his chest and relaxed his entire body as he landed on his shoulders.

The impact was devastating and hurt like hell; however, he was still alive. Unfortunately, Akhratan was too dazed to properly move, which was bad, knowing that a one-eyed mass of death was staring at him while the hilt of his sword was sticking out its ruined eye socket. Maybe the mercenary should've just let the fall kill him.

The Goliath roared and raised his fist, which would most likely do the same thing to Akhratan as what happened to some of the guards.

Accepting his fate, Akhratan closed his eyes and said his prayers. However nothing happened. A few seconds passed, which should've given that thing ample time to crush him a few dozen times over.

Understanding that he wouldn't be given the chance to die with his eyes closed, Akhratan opened them up.

The Goliath was still there, however, its head was turned to its left towards the city's center. Before Akhratan could understand why it was doing it, the creature made another giant roar and ran deeper into the city, crushing whatever stood in its way.

The mercenary just blankly stared at where the creature had vanished, not understanding why it didn't finish him off, however, it did know one thing. Something had called it, and it had answered that call.

With clenched teeth, Akhratan pulled himself up and flexed his limbs. The mercenary's body was full of pain, fortunately, nothing was broken. Or at least he didn't feel anything yet. A row of footsteps could be heard, and Akhratan turned to see that the soldiers had walked up to him, most likely to see if he was still alive or not.

Not being one who liked to waste time, Akhratan pointed towards the line of wrecks that used to be houses.

"What is in that direction?" he asked them. They all looked at each other as if not sure how to respond before his employer spoke.

"Well, the only notable thing that way would be the duke's residence."

"I see," replied Akhratan, to whom this whole ordeal started to make much more sense.

“I'll need something long and sharp," he said out of the blue.

The guards looked confused.

"For what?" one of them asked.

"To finish what I started," Akhratan calmly explained while looking in the direction where the beast had vanished.

"That won't be necessary," said his employer, "the duke possesses great powers. He'd be able to crush a beast like that with a flick of his wrist."

"Unless, he is already fighting something and that monster was called as reinforcements," Akhratan calmly added his opinion.

At this point, the guards looked more worried at him than before. His best bet was that this was the closest to what a person could count as being crazy in these parts. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to back off.

"I'll need something long and sharp," he explained, "longer than what my sword was because it couldn't entirely pierce its brain."

Some of the guards who had given up on trying to convince him shrugged and went to look for the required weapon. Meanwhile, Akhratan's friend, the lazy guard who paid for a replacement, was giving him a look.

"You know that there is very little that average men like us could do in a situation like this?"

"I know," Akhratan replied and faced the man. "However I'll try anyway."

Seeing the expression in the mercenary's eyes, the man knew that trying to convince him would be a fool's errand, so he just shook his head. A few minutes later, the other guards returned, and one of them was holding something. Seeing what it was, the man widened his eyes and exclaimed.

"You dolts, what would the captain think if he saw you manhandling his sword!?"

Akhratan turned and saw that indeed it was the weapon that the guard captain had used to slay those creatures. Indeed it would perfectly fit the task, however he didn't take it because it still was an item belonging to someone of higher standing than him.

"He'd be happy that someone is putting it to good use," said the other guard and showed it into Akhratan's hands, which was a risky move because the sword didn't have a sheath and it was quite sharp.

Nevertheless, Akhratan had to admit that this sword was something else and not only because his previous weapon was barely passable. Even compared to the better ones that the guards had, it was special.

It was long, however not too heavy, with a basket-shaped crossguard and an engraving on the sword's hilt that resembled some sort of horned water creature.

Then there was the metal itself, which had a strange wave-like pattern that Akhratan had never seen in his life. In fact, Akhratan felt sort of bad that he'll have to plunge it into a ton of monster gray matter. Still, a man much less a sword could choose its fate.

"I'll be off then," Akhratan said to the guards. "I'd offer if any of you wishes to come along, however I'm pretty sure that you'd just reject my offer."

"That would be right," said one of the guards.

"Yes, we'd probably just get in your way. Our skills are better found elsewhere," explained another one.

"Like tending to the survivors," added a third guard.

Akhratan turned his gaze back at the man who had gotten him into this situation in the first place.

"Goddess be with you," said the guard while smiling.

Akhratan smiled back and turned around to make haste. He had a beast to catch up to.