Chapter 4
"Under attack?!"
Suprising as it was, after thinking about it a little bit more, it seemed awfully unlikely that such a peaceful town would suddenly be attacked.
"Why would anybody 'attack' a town?!" I asked Hayden. "What motivation could they possibly have? More importantly, who are they and how are they they attacking the town?"
Hayden had finally calmed down and sat down up against the wall for support.
"The question shouldn't be 'who is attacking the town' but 'what is attacking the town'"
Okay, now what was that supposed to mean? "Don't speak in riddles, just tell me what you mean."
"It's these monsters! They suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started attacking people and destroying everything!"
"Monsters..." That dream suddenly flashed back into my memory.
"Wait, Hayden! Tell me!" I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt to make sure he understood exactly what I was about to say.
"Tell me, were these monsters black with gold eyes?!"
He seemed surprised. "Y-Yeah... Wait! How'd you know tha—"
I let go of him immediately and ran past him outside and around to the back of my house where the shed was to get my bike.
Hayden had gotten up to run after me.
"Sol! It's too dangerous!" He yelled after me, "I only came to warn you so you could evacuate before they came here as well!"
I started to bike down the driveway, stopping only to yell back to Hayden.
"Hayden, you take shelter like everyone else is supposed to, alright?! I'm going to see what's going on with my own eyes."
With that, I put my foot on the pedal and sped off.
"No! Sol! You don't understand!"
Too late, I was already well on my way.
I was absolutely certain that the monsters in town were the same as the ones that appeared in my dream. Somehow, I just knew...
But what did this mean? Why were they here?
And above all, what WERE they?
...
By the time I got to town, half of the buildings were on fire, others destroyed.
There were no signs of people at all... That either meant that they had evacuated or...
... Or they were no more.
I got off my bike and walked towards the town square, looking around to make sure there wasn't anybody trapped or left behind. I didn't see anybody... But I didn't see any of the monsters from my dream either.
What happened here?! How could things have changed so much in town when all I did at home was take a small nap?!
All of a sudden, I felt a strange presence around me. I kept walking but it was as though I just stepped past a marsh or a swamp...
"Stepped past"... There was something behind me!
I jumped forward and swung around to see what it was...
The ground beneath where I was standing just moments ago darkened, eventually forming a pool of some sort of black substance.
From it, something started to materialize: It had a humanoid-like torso, long sharp claws, and piercing gold eyes.
There it was... Exactly the same monstrosity I remembered from that dreamlike experience I had.
More started to appear around me... No! I had to run before I was-
I looked around to find myself surrounded by these creatures, exactly the same way in the dream.
No way was I going to let the same thing happen to me again!
Fortunately for me, one of the creatures was too hasty in his attack; he leaped toward me but there was too much distance between us and the jump was slow enough, just barely, for me to step aside and run through the gap the creature made in the formation.
I started running. What could I possibly fight these things with?!
I looked around me as I ran, knowing the monsters were in hot pursuit behind me.
Aha! I saw a metal bat in the broken display case of a sports equipment store...
No, I'm not a shoplifter... This was just an emergency.
I quickly ran toward it, grabbed it, and turned around.
Here we go... Moment of truth.
I took a batter's stance and when the closest of the creatures leapt at me.
"Back off, you!" I swung at the assailant with all my strength.
The creature should have been hit by the full force of my swing along with it essentially speeding straight into my bat.
... At least it should have.
It felt like I didn't hit anything at all. In fact, it simply dissipated into a gaseous state and reformed almost completely like before as though I didn't hit it at all.
... Wait, what?
Crap! I had to get away!
I dropped the bat, breaking into a run that let me narrowly dodge the swipe made at me.
But I was blocked off... Several of the monsters had jumped in front of my general direction.
I was surrounded again... And this time, by several more of the creatures than I was trapped by initially.
What could I do? I stood helplessly as the abominations slowly inched their way toward me, making them seem all the more menacing. Even they seemed to acknowledge that their prey now had no chance of escape.
Damn it! Was this it?! Was I going to die without achieving anything or helping anybody?!
...
Just then, somebody came down from above and landed right in front of me.
It was too dark so I couldn't tell who it was or what they looked like, but whoever it was stood upright and raised their hand into the sky.
Then something incredible happened.
From the raised hand a massive pillar of light shot straight into the sky, piercing the dark storm clouds that covered the sky and causing the creatures to hesitate in their advance.
"Whoa!" I shouted out in surprise; The sheer blast of force made by this action was immense!
Almost being blown away entirely, I fell backwards and attempted to shield myself against the raging winds and blinding light with my arms.
After the light subsided, I lowered my guard and looked up...
The clouds in the immediate area had been pushed away, leaving a clear sky; The full moon was shining and tiny glowing feathers were falling from above.
Right there and then, illuminated by the light of the full moon, I saw before me, garbed in a dress as pure and white as the first snowfall of winter, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my entire life.
With skin as pristine as the dress she wore, long, flowing, jet black hair, and chocolate brown eyes, she held in her hands a sword-like object that was also pure white, tinted with blue, and adorned with wing-like structures.
I could only gape at the sight of the girl for a few seconds as she instantly disappeared. I looked around until I saw she was behind me.
She whispered back: "Don't move" and then she disappeared again.
Hey, it's not like I could move even if I wanted to.
The girl engaged in conflict with the creatures, at least that's what I could tell from the few glimpses I had of her slashing through the monsters with her sword-like object, cleaving through them like butter.
She was so fast that I could barely keep up with my eyes, seeing her on one side of me for less than a second and then disappearing to the other side before I could blink.
When all of them had been vanquished, she gracefully landed in front of me and stared at me, still awestruck on the floor.
"You..." Hey, she said something! "I suggest you find shelter; if you couldn't figure it out yourself, this isn't the optimal place for the likes of ordinary pedestrians."
"But I have to make sure everyone's alrig-"
She interrupted me. "No exceptions and no questions." And with that, she made a dash toward the town square.
I wasn't going to leave the hands of everyone I knew and cared for in the hands of a stranger! As pretty as that girl was, she'd have to think twice before telling off the likes of me from helping my friends.
I stood up. Although it took a little while to stop my legs from shaking, I straighted myself up, regained my composure, and started running toward the townsquare.
I thought a little bit more about the situation as I ran.
Who was that girl? Why was she here?
And above all, what was that weapon in her hands that managed to successfully strike down these monsters?
The sight of it left me with a very... Familiar feeling....
Why?
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