Chapter 5 - Rip Current

When we fought our first monster, I'll admit that I was confused. Goblins look remarkably like humans, and we didn't realize what the horns were yet. What we did realize was that it had just smashed my bro's BFF into a tree with a single punch. He was stunned, lying on the ground, and didn't move for a couple seconds. None of us did, except the goblin, who sort of just stood there with this stupid grin on its face. That's when I finally realized what just happened and I fired an arrow at it. I, uh, missed. I wasn't very good with using my bow under stress you see. My only targets had been wooden planks my dad set up. Not the most evasive thing to shoot at, but still I shouldn't have shot that far above its head. God, that look in it's eyes. It didn't seem to realize that we wanted to kill it. With me and my brother working together, we scared it off at least. Turns out they hate being on fire. But yeah, that's how our first fight turned out. I had a total accuracy of 0%, my brother's friend was lying on the ground, and my brother himself had set a little girl on fire. We got better, but it still embarrasses me to this day.

Week 7

"This is the fourth person who's gone missing sir. We… We need orders! No traces of blood, all the missing people had no family and lived alone, no sign of a struggle, and none of them had enemies or really stuck out in any way. Nothing was taken, nothing even destroyed, we just don't know what to do!"

The Guard Captain had only just come back from yet another investigation, a few people, all of whom were adult men who were fit to work, disappearing the past few days without a trace. At first they suspected murder, but it was soon dismissed. Or at least thought of as highly unlikely. A murderer would commit his crimes for a reason, even if solely for the simple pleasure of killing. However to be so capable that they could kill without a trace, and to only do so now? Unlikely. Something had happened to them, but whatever it was they had likely decided to leave their homes and disappear off to… wherever they went, of their own free will.

Blackmail? Maybe, but to what end? And why have they disappeared after the blackmail was delivered when it would be more effective to use the person for whatever purpose more than once?

"You've gotten the guards to watch the walls carefully, right?"

"Yes sir. I've actually been asking around for anyone who doesn't have work to help out for the night shifts. It's taken a big load off the men's shoulders."

The Mayor sighed, to himself. First the riot, then the food shortage, and now this. Deciding that maybe he should clear his head, he asked, "Captain. Mind if I accompany you on a short patrol? The fresh air along the walls should do me good."

"Hm, I'm actually off duty as off five minutes ago, but a walk without needing to keep my eyes peeled might help me get my mind off of this mess."

Pulling himself out of his chair, The Mayor headed to the door and fell in line behind the Captain, only stopping to quickly grab and throw on his old tattered coat, patches and stains he had decided to never get rid of to remember the excitement of his adventurer days despite the sad memories they brought up as well.

They quickly made their way down the spiral staircase and out the door, and The Mayor instantly felt a cold gust of air wash over him, pushing away the slight bit of tiredness that the dark night had brought him and making him remember something.

"Ah, Captain? Do me a favour?"

"Yes?" Hearing The Mayor's question, he turned to the man, lowering the magical torch he was trying to ignite, it's glow easily able to stay lit for hours on end but needing to be recharged by a mage once it had run out of power. They were often used by adventurers and simple town guards alike, so the town had far more of them in stock than they'd ever really need. Especially with the low population.

"I want to go without a light today. They always make the night sky harder to see." he smiled, with a peaceful look on his face.

"Uh, sir, it's almost pitch black out there with the moon being covered by clouds and all."

"Well, how's your Night Vision? You haven't been slacking off with it yet, have you?" The Mayor looked at the Captain with an eyebrow arched high. "I didn't teach you that just so you could ignore it."

Night Vision was a very simple spell that beginner mages learned to cast on themselves, and that experienced mages learned to cast on others, but for the close ranged physical fighters like The Mayor and the Guard Captain who lacked great aptitudes in magic they had to find other ways to achieve the same effects. Thankfully, the Spirit Energy that lay inside every human could be harnessed to achieve superhuman feats with enough training, but even among the abilities that could be learned enhancing one's eyesight was particularly difficult, and it was because of this that adventurers often worked in groups where even a basic mage could handle problems that only highly skilled warriors could really learn on their own. The main problem for the warriors was that unlike how they could simply flood their muscles with Spirit Energy to enhance their natural strength, speed, and reflexes, enhancing the more vulnerable extremities such as the eyes, ears, or nose was far harder. You needed to get the 'flow' of energy just right and maintain it the whole time. Too little and nothing would happen, and too much and you'd just get a headache with nothing to show for it. Thankfully, once you learned, then a bit of practice every day for a while would be all you would need to gain a sort of 'muscle memory' and stop needing to concentrate on the flow.

"Well, uh, I haven't been using it all that much sir. You know, need to conserve my energy in case of a monster attack right?"

At this, The Mayor snorted. "More like you're just being lazy. I know the torches are reliable, and you like to stay on the same level as your men, but in the coming days this kind of thing could prove invaluable." As he spoke, the Captain shrunk into himself more and more. He knew The Mayor was right.

"Now. Get yours up and running again, and let's head over to the walls. Which has the fewest people? I'd like to have some peace and quiet."

The Captain seemed a bit happy at the cahnge in subjects. "Yes! The, uh, western walls have the least number of people."

"Oh? I'd think the gate where we're letting out all the ships would be the most guarded. I know the Monsters will have noticed by now."

"You'd be right sir, but the guards have been making a lot of monster sightings by the eastern walls, so we've drawn men away from this side to keep watch on that one during the night." The Captain said this with a smirk on his face, The Mayor's previous experience with the man telling him that he was probably thinking to himself of how his current strategy would stop the monster's plan, whatever it was, in its tracks. However, something was tickling the back of his mind.

"...Captain, I think we need to head to the eastern walls. Something doesn't feel right. Or rather, this feels familiar to me. And not in a good way." Without waiting another moment, he began to stride across the stone tiled walkway, passing by the Captain wihout looking back to see if had followed.

In a short time the two made their way up to the vicinity of the walls, and quickly began striding across the edge towards the guard towers of the west side. Behind him he heard the man grunt as he stumbled occasionally over small bits of debris, as well as the sound of his armoured glove sliding across stone as he dragged his hand across the sides of walls to keep track of where he was on the path, likely still getting used to his Night Vision once again, but it only took half a minute before the man's floundering suddenly stopped as he properly gained control of his Spirit Energy.

However only a minute after they passed by the last guard tower on the north side, the Guard Captain suddenly spoke up.

"Wait, what? Sir… You see the torch up on the tower, right? Is it just me or does it look like no one's up there with it? Where's the guard?"

Without answering, The Mayor only picked up the pace and shifted into a jog, but his footsteps became almost completely silent. Behind him he heard the Captain start to follow as well, though his steps weren't quite as muffled. If something was over there, he had reasoned, then it would be best not to let it know they had noticed something was wrong and were approaching.

As they drew closer to the tower, they began to make out a figure standing near the walls. The missing guard? But only seconds later something else filtered into their senses. The sound of… singing? And not just any singing, but good singing. Beautiful singing even. The Guard Captain almost stumbled for a second. Who voice was this? It made him feel safe, happy, wistful of home, and more.

"Oh goddamit." The Mayor suddenly rocketed forwards, breaking the Captain out of his slight distracted trance. He quickly shook his head, and realized that while he may not have been under the control of some foreign magic, the special gilded cross around his neck would have heated up greatly if he had been, but the sheer magnificence of the voice had been enough to make his attention stray. The fact that his leader had shrugged it off without a second thought… His respect for the man grew greatly in that moment. But he also knew that it wasn't the time, and began dashing after his leader.

Of course, by the time he had fully shaken himself out of his daze, The Mayor had already reached his target, and with a great leap he launched himself towards the man, plain clothed but wearing a standard issue shortsword and one of the temporary guard uniforms. And at the same time his feet left the ground as he dived forwards the man stepped forwards and off of the wall, about to fall either to his death or into the clutches of a ravenous monster, The Mayor shouting "NO!" as he watched it happen as if in slow motion in front of him.

The man began to fall forwards, body tipping forwards and legs leaving the flat surface of the wall's walkway, but The Mayor's torso hit the ground just at the edge of where the man had stepped off of, one arm snapping forwards to grab the man's leg as his other tried to find purchase on the smooth wall. The Mayor's first hand, fingers outstretched and a look of desperation on his face, pinched onto the edge of his pant leg before his other hand instinctively shot forwards to try and gain a better hold of the man's leg with the leverage he had gained but at the same time no longer trying to safely anchor himself. His legs flailed about, trying to get his feet to some place he could stick the edge of his boot into an indentation in the stone tiles, but his boots, too fat at the toe, found that they simply slipped off and only slightly slowed his inevitable fall. In that moment, he began to flow Spirit Energy throughout his body, knowing that while he could not stop himself from falling he could fling the man he had gained a hold of back onto the land though the opposite force would send him flying down towards the ocean far below faster than he believed his old body could survive.

But at the last moment as his foot finally left the edge of the wall, something grabbed hold of his own and his moment suddenly shifted from falling straight down to falling towards the wall like a pendulum. A second later, he flung his arm out at the wall his body had suddenly accelerated towards and stopped himself from smashing into it, which would have made him let go of the very man he had tried to save.

Silence reigned for a good five seconds, three pairs of heavy breathing audible over the slight whistling of the wind and soft crashing of the waves against the base of the walls.

"Sir?" The Captain asked?

"Yes?" The Mayor replied.

"Please, never do that again."

As if on cue, the two began to chuckle, The Mayor incredulous that he was still alive and The Captain amazed he had made it in time.

"W-What just happened? Where am I? Am I upsi-OH GOD, PULL ME UP, PULL ME UP!"

The two's relief were broken by the man they had saved finally realizing his situation, and the Captain quickly pulled the pair up and over the side of the wall, The Mayor and guard collapsing into a heap as the Captain looked them over for injuries before dashing to look over the side.

"...The singing stopped. And whatever was down there making it is gone. I think we're safe for now. Now what was that thing? I've heard of a flying beast that is supposed to have such a voice, but none from the ocean."

The Mayor sniffed in obvious disdain. "I doubt you would have. Some kind of relative of the Siren. Some actually say that the Sirens we know of were in fact named after the ones in the sea. Problem is, they're so goddam rare that any evidence they were there can be chalked up to other factors, and most don't ever get a chance to report it. Don't even have a name for the thing, since all the reports we got on what they physically looked like were conflicting. If it weren't for the barrier we have around the city keeping the more magical aspect of its voice from reaching our ears, I doubt that we'd only have one guy jumping… Oh dammit, that's what's been happening, isn't it?"

"Sir? Wait, you mean the missing people are-"

"Yeah. The blasted thing must have somehow been drawing them up onto the walls. Don't know why it went after the guard now if it didn't last time. Maybe it got greedy? Maybe another monster snatched the others up before it could get its share? Whatever the case, we got lucky here today. The fact we only lost four people is amazing by itself. If we hadn't got a closer look, or noticed that the guard wasn't up on his tower before he jumped off, we might have never figured it out."

"Uh, I don't mean to interrupt, but can you get off me?" The Mayor and Captain finally realized that, yes, the guard was still underneath The Mayor and couldn't seem to move underneath his surprisingly great weight.

"Oh. I apologize." Quickly climbing off the man, he continued speaking. "And how about you take the rest of the night off."

"And, uh, my shift?" The Guard Captain rolled his eyes at the man. He saw that the guard clearly wanted to go to sleep, but was trying to cover it up and make himself look better by asking about his work. But before he could say anything, the Mayor waved him away.

"Don't worry. But before you go to sleep, head to The Quartermaster and have him give you some earplugs. Enough for all the guards. Then distribute them around. The exercise will do good to get your mind off what just happened."

Nodding with a relieved smile on his face, the man quickly jogged away.

"Sir… We still need someone to guard this wall. I'll go and get one of the men watching the south to watch this one I suppose."

"No Captain. There's no need for that. I'd like to take the post for today. And if my suspicions are correct, the number of monsters that are seen by the eastern walls will go down over the next few days. After all, intentionally drawing the attention of a group to one side over a period of days for the sole purpose of striking at the other is something I took part in long ago. But once the ploy is revealed, it stops working and things can get a bit messy when you try it again."

The Captain stayed silent for a few seconds before nodding in acceptance.

"Yes sir. I'm going to head off to bed now. I'll have the men take up their regular positions tomorrow night."

The Mayor turned to the guard tower and slowly made his way up, deactivating his Night Vision as the bright glow of the torch started to hurt his eyes around it, he quickly noticed the single small chair and dragged it to the edge of the tower's parapet. His body lit up by the torch, making his figure easily seen by the slight unnatural motions on the sea that his hawk like vision could make out, he watched the walls around him and the sea for anything suspicious though he knew from experience that none would try anything for the rest of the night.

Eyes narrowed and a small frown on his lips, he settled himself in for the rest of the long cold night.