Erik was close to several government buildings at the border, which was likely where the hounds had been patrolling when he arrived there.

  He rushed inside one of the buildings, as there was a small kitchen he could see through one of the windows. The doors were all open, which didn’t surprise him at all. Even if they had been locked, there were several broken windows he could have easily climbed through.

  He rushed back out with a medium-sized kitchen knife his magic didn’t react to at all. He got close to one of the hounds and stabbed it with the knife. It did rip the beast’s thick skin, but only barely. He tried again with as much force as he could, but it only went a little deeper.

  Erik wanted to test the knife for just that reason; would it work if he used it? Could he grab a knife, or a sword, or even a gun, and it would kill the monsters when a magical being used the weapon?

  The results were mixed. Had the beast been just a normal animal, he would definitely penetrate the thick skin with the amount of force he had used, especially considering his improved strength. The fact it managed to rip the outer yer, however, meant it had a slight effect.

  Finally, he focused on his own magic. He reached into the pool of magic he constantly felt in his chest, trying to lead it through his arm and into the knife. As the magic reached his hands he felt resistance, as if the magic didn’t want to leave him, or the knife actively refused it. He felt like he got a trickle of it through, however.

  Focusing on keeping the slight flow active, he once more stabbed the beast, and the knife went through skin and muscle, although it took more force than Erik had hoped. The low rumble of the beast stilled.

  After putting down both hounds, Erik attempted cutting himself with the knife as well. He had to see if his own defence was as high as that of the monster dogs.

  He attempted it without the flow of magic first, and while it did cut him, it didn’t draw blood before he used a bit of strength. He was definitely not impervious to damage, but he was much more resistant to it than a normal human.

  He figured his bones would almost definitely stop a bullet, but he was certain it would hurt like a right bastard.

  His motorbike was perfectly alright, and seeing that he had already killed the beasts patrolling the area, he took the time to search for food and camping supplies. There still wasn’t any power around and Erik figured the entire northern Scandinavian Empire was dark. It was likely the dogs had spread both south and east, towards Finnd and beyond.

  He found a rger bag he packed the new stuff into, tying it to the back of his bike. He also tied a bulkier bck box on the front, above the headlight. He could still see good enough, though it was slightly in the way.

  He still wanted to avoid most towns, as he still wasn’t confident enough he would win in fights. All it would take was one beast he didn’t see coming, or one that didn’t charge at him directly, as his frisbee-shields only covered a few metres on either side of the frisbee centre.

  All it took was one dog from his side, or one with enough intelligence or instinct to get away from the frisbee Erik threw straight at its face. He was on the lookout for one more thing, however, and that was gems.

  If he wanted to get stronger quickly, that was the easiest way right now. Rock shops or nature museums would likely be his best bet, as he wasn’t sure the tiny diamonds or rubies inserted into rings or bracelets would even be viable for absorption. It was the raw material he was after, not how pretty it was. He’d be on the lookout, as he didn’t know where to find such a pce.

  Halfway towards the border to the Danish region, Erik finally found at least a trace of the military in the vicinity of Gothenburg. The sun had already set, and the sky had darkened, but it was still not entirely dark out yet.

  He drove through what could only be described as a war zone, complete with craters in the asphalt, military vehicles smashed to pieces and signs of fire. There were also hundreds of military personnel scattered around the area, likely dead for weeks.

  Erik knew it was bad when no one had retrieved the corpses of their fallen comrades. All the civilians scattered around all the way from his hometown to here was one thing, but this was the first site he’d found of actual defence, not just fleeing people. Erik took this opportunity to test how his magic affected guns. While his intuition said it wouldn’t work, rgely based on how the knife had fared, it was at least worth a try. He took a rifle lying on the ground in between a couple of soldiers, not knowing which of them it belonged to, and tried holding it.

  Erik had never been part of the military, and had never even held a real gun before. He pced the butt firmly against his shoulder to test the comfort. He figured the most comfortable stance was the right stance, otherwise gun manufacturers should redesign their weapons.

  When he felt he had an okay grasp on it, he tried running his magic through the weapon, first from his shoulder. He experienced much more interference now than when he tried with his knife, so he changed the flow to go from his right hand. Like on the butt, he could barely even touch it with his magic.

  Eventually, this proved to be the easiest way, as the handle on the barrel with his left hand proved impossible, just like the butt. It might have something to do with the materials it was made from, he wondered.

  In the end, he couldn’t manage to get his magic all the way to the bullet, as he had to keep the flow going, otherwise it would almost immediately dissipate. This was the reason he didn’t have high hopes for any ranged weapon, not just guns.

  He couldn’t keep the magic flowing to the projectile without touching it, and a projectile you have to hold in your hand and bring it to the target yourself was simply just a small melee weapon, after all.

  Erik left the gun behind. He had no need for it. Erik continued on for an hour or two until he could barely see anything other than what was right in front of his headlight, and camped for the night.

  The next day he drove past a few other war zones, and he was surprised how quickly he reached the Danish region. He turned onto a long bridge, and was faced with blockades along the entire highway crossing the bridge.

  Hoping there were still people alive in the area, he parked his bike close to the blockade, which was basically just one huge wall. Before he could call out, he himself was shouted at from a helmet-wearing man on the top of the wall. The man shouted in Norwegian, which warmed Erik’s heart more than he thought it would. At least some had survived.

  “Hey! This is an active battlefield, what the hell are you doing here?”

  Erik looked around. It didn’t look ‘active’, but perhaps it meant that hounds could attack any minute.

  “I live here?” Erik said half-jokingly. “Listen, can you take me to the UB? As close as possible to Leicester would be nice,” he yelled in a casual tone, looking up at the weapon-wielding man.

  “Are you armed?” the man responded, completely ignoring Erik’s attempt at a joke.

  “I got a knife and some rocks. Oh, and frisbees, if that counts. Some screws.”

  The man stared at Erik. He wasn’t even going to comment on it, Erik could see that. He turned away from Erik.

  “Open the gate! Got a civvie on the other side!” he yelled, and vanished from the edge of the wall.

  A few moments ter, the gate creaked and opened, three armed soldiers coming out in all haste, two of them going straight for the motorbike and the third leading Erik inside with an arm on his back.

  All of them threw several nervous gnces further down the road onto the mainnd. Erik realised these people were looking quite haggard. He didn’t consider how they felt in this situation. Their countries were gone, maybe even their entire families. Everything had been taken from them, and they couldn’t do anything about it, as the vilins of their story were practically unkilble. Considering they still had to fight them, putting their own lives on the line at the same time…

  As they had all entered the military camp, the gate was shut, and the tension he could sense all around him immediately lightened. Soldiers pushed his motorbike further away, and parked it along a deep green truck along the rails of the bridge before starting to search it.

  A cap-wearing woman with broad shoulders and a different attire than the soldiers walked straight towards Erik.

  “Don’t make a mess of my stuff,” he shouted over to the soldiers near his stolen bike.

  “Good day, sir. My name is General Mathisen. Welcome to Bridgefort, the northernmost European defence zone still standing. May I ask your name?” she greeted, reaching her arm out towards Erik.

  “Afternoon, ma’am. Sir?” Erik awkwardly attempted. “I’m Erik Fried.”

  “Mathisen is fine, Mr Fried. May I ask… have you been out there until now? I hope you haven’t crossed the sea in some heroic attempt at being a complete idiot?” Mathisen asked. She kept her face almost completely static, but Erik realised that was exactly what she thought he’d done. Were people doing that?

  “I came from up north, and I’m not the only one. The woods seem safe, so I’ve gone off road when close to a town. There’s a mother and her child further north, living in tents in the woods. Are you attempting to rescue those left behind?” Erik asked. He didn’t think they were, as he would’ve seen a helicopter or something if they did.

  Just then, a scream sounded from the area where they took his bike. A soldier was on the ground, quickly crawling backwards away from the bike.

  “Private Vik, what the hell?” the General screamed at the panicked man.

  “The-the box, ma’am!” he tried, pointing towards his bike.

  “I hope you didn’t make a mess of my things,” Erik interrupted.

  “What about the box, Private?” the general said, a bit calmer now. She was looking at the two other pale-faced soldiers standing stiffly next to the bike, looking into the bck box on the front of his bike.

  “It’s… it’s…”

  A clear answer didn’t come.

  “What’s in the box?” she asked the other two, who couldn’t even look away, much less respond to their general.

  Mathisen stopped her advance, turning to Erik and grabbing him by the colr of his stolen shirt.

  “What. Is in. The box?” she asked with a deeply terrifying grimace. Erik did all he could not to make a pop-culture reference joke, and the soldier on the ground finally shouted what was, in fact, in the box.

  “It’s a Hellbeast!”

  The two soldiers looked up at Mathisen as she rushed over to look for herself. Her eyes practically gzed over when she saw the decapitated head of one of the beasts they had fought for months, whose kill counts numbered among hundreds of thousands by now, versus their own zero.

  The general looked at the rising number of soldiers and other military personnel around. Erik saw her thoughtful expression, and knew exactly what she was thinking. They could be killed. He wanted everyone to know that too.

  However, there was nothing they could do about it, other than helping him and Jessie if he could get her to help. They had agreed to explore their new powers together, not fight off an invasion of magical beasts. He’d understand if she said no.

  “Mr Fried. Where did you get this hellbeast head?” the general asked in a deep and commanding tone. Several of the other soldiers visibly grimaced.

  “I killed it,” he said.

  “You killed a Hellbeast? You expect me to believe that? The whole world is fighting these things, and we have yet to confirm a single kill.” The general’s words grew angrier and angrier, but when she was done, her face changed to a more regretful one. A small glimmer of hope, maybe?

  “I killed two, but I couldn’t fit the second one in there. I didn’t want to steal another car as that would make the woods much more difficult to traverse,” Erik expined truthfully.

  He’d decided to at least tell the military what they needed to hear, and right now that was the fact that magic existed, and it could kill these beasts. He needed their help, after all. And the world needed him.

  “You expect me to believe that, do you?” the general asked, her hope now much more apparent on her face and demeanour.

  “The evidence is right there, isn’t it? I don’t think anyone else has cimed a kill, so why would I do so, with evidence, fully expecting to have to kill some more with you watching before you’d believe me?”

  “You can kill more of them?” she asked.

  By now, everyone gathered in the vicinity were talking and whispering amongst themselves. The susurrus quickly became loud.

  “I can, and I will. It isn’t free, however. I need you, just like you need me. I can’t teach you to kill them, just so you know.”

  “We will speak somewhere more comfortable,” she said, looking around at the excited soldiers. “Colonel Ashleigh, get Major Svensson and meet me and Mr Fried in Command in fifteen minutes.”

  Colonel Ashleigh, a pretty woman with straight, blonde hair and blue eyes saluted the general, and jogged away. The general led Erik towards the biggest temporary building in the camp, as far as he could see, and followed him inside.

  “Mr Fried, I want you to be completely honest with me right now,” she said, sitting down behind a desk covered in paperwork, printed pictures of Hellbeasts and maps. She gestured to Erik to sit on the opposite side, on a much less comfortable chair. He did so.

  “I will be,” was all he said.

  “Did you kill one or more beasts on your way here?”

  “I did.”

  “You can do it again?”

  “I can,” he confirmed.

  “That’s all I need to know. You have the next ten minutes before the colonel and the major get here to change your answers, and I will let you leave here without any trouble. If you haven’t changed your answers by then, you are, from then on, neck deep in shit if you can’t deliver on your words, as I will, in ten minutes, decide not just for me, but for the entire world, to trust you to save us all.”

  The general spoke slowly, succinctly, and to the point. She wasn’t going to waste words, not when the fate of the world was at stake. “As you might realise, I don’t really have the authority to decide this, but considering the state of the world, I don’t care much about that. If I’m court-marshalled by the end of this, I’ll be happy so long as we win this war, do you understand?”

  “You’re my kind of gal,” Erik grinned at the much older general. “With your help, we can save the world.”

  After the intense conversation, Erik was left alone in Command to wait for the colonel and the major, and meanwhile, the general went to get him some food and water. He knew what she was pnning.

  She was going to hire him as a civilian contractor, using him as an asset, moving him wherever she pleased, make him kill whatever beast she wanted, and get some recognition to herself, her troops, or both.

  Erik didn’t mind, so long as she gave in to his demands as well. His demands were, after all, a boon to them both. Erik was surprised when his food arrived. He was sure he’d get some type of ration, something rehydrated from a bag. When he got a full-on hamburger and fries, his stomach churned in excitement.

  He hadn’t been feeling hungry at all since he left, but he had eaten a little bit. He was still not sure if he needed food, how much of it, or how long he could go without it. Even if he didn’t need it, his body yearned for it right now. He waited politely for the man from the mess to pce the tray down in front of him and turned to leave before he attacked the burger.

  When he had ravaged the burger to completion, and halfway done with the fries, a woman cleared her throat behind him. He turned around, two fries hanging limply from his mouth. It was the colonel from earlier. She was alone.

  “Nice to meet you, my name is Ange Ashleigh,” she said.

  “Hi,” Erik said, his mouth still full. She smiled.

  Another woman entered the building from behind Colonel Ashleigh, who moved out of the way. It was another attractive woman. Erik realised what the general was trying to do. She was trying to get him over on their side, trying to manipute him with beautiful women. It was a good effort, but women were the st thing on Erik’s mind right now.

  “You must be Erik. I’m Major Svensson. A pleasure to meet you,” she said, much more formally than Ange, who became visibly embarrassed.

  “I am, Major Svensson. Any first name?” Erik asked, looking over at Ange with a smile.

  The major wore a helmet just like most others outside and her hair was braided tightly into a ponytail hanging down her left shoulder, barely reaching her chest. It had hazel colour and was quite shiny, revealing that she likely took good care of it. Next to the colonel, Svensson was a head shorter with a slimmer build.

  “Of course, sir. Emma,” she responded.

  “At ease, Major,” Mathisen said as she entered Command. “He’s a civilian. He’d prefer to use your name rather than rank.”

  “Of course, sir.” The major visibly rexed her stance, but somehow looked more uncomfortable that way.

  “Please, all of you, sit,” the general said as she went back to behind her desk. The two soldiers did as told, Ange sitting next to Erik, followed by Emma next to her. “Have you reconsidered, Mr Fried?” she asked when everyone was sitting down and paying attention. Erik was still picking up one fry at a time, eating it calmly.

  “No, General,” he said. The colonel next to him tensed up, unsure what they were talking about. She could see in both their eyes, however, that a war was raging between them.

  “I see. In that case…” the general started, her eyes suddenly transforming from that of a raging sea in a storm to calming waves at the beach.

  Somehow, this tensed the colonel up even more, and Emma just looked confused at the two of them. Had the general really backed down on something? The major had never seen that happen before. General Mathisen was known to be one of the most stubborn officers ever, and she would always get her way, one way or the other.

  “Colonel Ashleigh, Major Svensson,” the general started after a short while of complete silence. “You are hereby relieved of duty from the Scandinavian Empire’s Military Power and the Emergency Council.”

  “What?” the two excimed, rising from their chairs in near-perfect unison.

  “Sit!” the general ordered in a harsh tone.

  The two sat down with reddening faces, and Emma stared daggers at Erik as she did. Erik wasn’t sure what the General was doing, but he was intrigued. This wasn’t heading in the direction he thought it would. He continued eating.

  “General, what-” Ange tried, but was only given a hand signal to stop.

  “Let me finish. The two of you are both exempry soldiers, and I believe you have what it takes to assist Mr Fried in finally taking the upper hand in this war. Colo-.. I mean, Ange,” the General corrected herself. “You are among the greatest military strategists in the world right now, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you under my command. Under normal circumstances. Emma, you are among the best marksmen and CQC-officers in Europe. There’s a reason the two of you are here on the frontlines with me. However, since Mr Fried arrived here a short while ago, things have changed.”

  “What the hell does he have to do with anything? He’s no one, just a civvie!” Emma shouted, losing what little remained of her composure.

  “He killed a Hellbeast,” Ange whispered to her side, as if the others couldn’t hear her.

  “He killed two,” Erik leaned over and whispered.

  Emma’s eyes grew wide, and she seemed to panic. She kept it bottled up, however, and she calmed after a short while. She sat up straight and stared at her general. Mathisen cleared her throat, attempting to disregard the st twenty seconds or so.

  “As I was saying. You will no longer be under the jurisdiction of SEMP or the Emergency Council. I want you to assist Mr Fried in whatever way you can. I could have ordered you as officers of the military, but I need him to be completely autonomous, and I also want him to be able to trust you. He can’t do that if you are under my command,” she said, looking expectantly at Erik.

  He nodded in confirmation. He wouldn’t have. He wasn’t sure if he could anyway, but it was at least a gesture of good faith from the general, which Erik appreciated.

  “I can’t guarantee he will treat you well, and I have no idea what he will use you for, but I trust he will do what’s right and what’s needed. Of course, I’m giving you a choice to follow him. It’s up to the two of you, but I won’t trust anyone else with this. If you decide you won’t do it, I’ll transfer you from my command to somewhere else. Mr Fried, you will of course have whatever resources I can give you, and I’ll pull what threads I can for you. Do note, however, that this is completely unsanctioned, and I can make no guarantees. I can only ask you to accept these girls’ help, should they offer it after this.”

  Silence filled the building. Emma and Ange both looked at each other, at Mathisen and at Erik in varying intervals, carefully considering this. Ange was the first to speak up. She looked at the general with determination.

  “I’ll help. I don’t know what I can do,” she started, then turned towards Erik, who smiled at her. She smiled back. “- but I’ll do what I can. If you’ll have me.”

  “Of course,” Erik said with a nod.

  Emma wasn’t as easy to convince. She went out for some air after a few minutes had passed, and stepped back in after a while, still undecided. She took both Ange to the side to speak, and even the general. Eventually, she wanted to talk to Erik, who obliged, and they both stepped outside.

  “Listen, I’m not as gullible as Ashleigh. Whatever magic you’ve weaved here will only get you so far. I won’t hesitate to arrest you if you can’t deliver on what you’ve promised. Do you understand?” Emma said.

  “I understand. Does that mean you’ll help?” Erik agreed.

  “Not until you tell me how you pn to do this. How did you kill that Hellbeast?” she asked, pointing towards where his bike was. It seemed she had gone to see it for herself when she had stepped out earlier.

  “Magic,” Erik responded.

  “Magic?” she asked, a tinge of annoyance growing in her voice.

  “Yeah. If you join me, I’ll show you stuff you thought you’d only see in movies.” Erik said.

  “Don’t flirt with me,” Emma groaned.

  “I’m keeping that part more or less secret, but if you won’t join, no one will believe you anyway, considering you don’t even believe it yourself. So I’m fine with telling you the how.”

  “You really intend to keep to that expnation?”

  “Yes.”

  Emma sighed, and went back into Command. Erik followed her, just barely hearing Emma’s words as he entered the door a few seconds behind her.

  “I’ll go with them,” she said.

  “Excellent,” the general said, smiling at the girls. “Keep in mind that you technically won’t be part of the military any longer, so you shouldn’t tell people you are. You aren’t even bck ops. Technically, you’ll be mercenaries, I suppose.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Now, let’s talk details,” the general said, folding her hands together in front of her chin.

  The four spent the next hour in Command, talking about how the general could help with her resources, and how Ange and Emma could assist him. As far as he was concerned, they would have to help with logistics and acquisition of gear, and hopefully support and intelligence.

  They agreed, but they also wanted to fight the beasts. Erik wouldn’t stop them, but he couldn’t promise he could protect them, nor did they want him to. This was their job, or it had been, at least.

  The general could help by providing a chopper and pilot, at least to the UB, where she could pull some threads to get them further assistance from an air base close to his destination.

  During their talk, Erik told an abridged version of his story, and that he was looking for clues about his father, who may or may not be dead. The fact that he may or may not also be behind the Hellbeast invasion, he kept to himself.

  In regards to his previous request back when they first met, General Mathisen also apologised for not being able to send anyone into enemy territory to pick up any remaining survivors. After the initial evacuation, nothing they had sent in to scout or surveil the area had returned. All they got were final transmissions of a rather confusing nature before the comms went down. Everything past Bridgefort was designated a no-go zone.

  They did have cellur at the base, and several generators provided power, so the general sent an intelligence officer to gather what information he could about Erik’s father. It wasn’t good news the officer brought back, but Erik was sort of happy about it just the same.

  His father had died in the fire along with his mother and himself. In fact, what little remained of him was right in the entrance of the house, where fire investigators surmised the fire had started. The officer brought with him a printed picture of the front page of the local newspaper where Erik lived. The title said ‘Mysterious fire kills family’, and in the article, it mentioned his father, his mother and himself as their only son.

  That was true, of course, but it didn’t escape the notice of the general. Erik hadn’t considered that, and didn’t have a half-truth prepared for that line of questioning. He decided to tell the three of them the truth.

  “So you believe someone is behind this? A person? A Remnant?” Ange asked, to confirm what she’d heard.

  “I believe so, yeah. There’s another one in Leicester I think can help, which is why I’ve been travelling that way,” Erik expined.

  “How sure can you be that this other one isn’t the one behind this?” Emma asked.

  It was clear none of them believed his story, but they had little choice but to go with it for now.

  “I was with her the three months after we died, in the same pce. Don’t get me wrong, both me and her can kill these things. But we’re new at this, which is why we need help.”

  “And crystals or gemstones will help you get stronger?” Ange asked. From her disbelieving tone, it sounded like he was telling her about alternative medicine. That wasn’t far off, he had to admit.

  “Yes, they’re supposed to. I haven’t stumbled upon any in the woods or on the road, obviously, so I can’t say for certain what will work and what won’t.”

  Erik decided to stay the night at Bridgefort. The following morning, a pilot would take him and his two companions to the air base near Leicester, and Ange would talk to the leadership over there, passing along a missive from Mathisen, while Erik and Emma would go find Jessie.

  After that, they would seek out various rock shops, museums and so on, requisitioning what material they needed. After that, if Jessie would join them, the Remnants would have to train to fight as they would get more powers added to their arsenal.

  As night descended, however, the soldiers at the walls shouted that an attack was incoming. Moments ter, Bridgefort was drowned in the loud sounds of gunfire, explosions and monsters crashing into the thick wall standing firm between the beasts and people.

  Erik rushed over to the wall he’d entered earlier that day and climbed the small metal stairs to get on top of it. Right behind him were Ange and the general.

  “How many?” Erik asked the scout that had given the warning. A couple of others were shooting short bursts close by and it was hard to hear, but the scout raised two fingers in the air. Just then a hellbeast rammed into the wall beneath Erik, and the wall shook and rumbled.

  “Mr Fried! This is your chance to get in my good graces and prove yourself,” the general said.

  “Yes, sir,” Erik said casually, and saluted as he dropped down the other side of the wall. He brought his stuff when the arm rang, of course. As he nded, he cushioned himself by bending his knees, a frisbee already in his hand.

  “Soldiers! Fire up all the generators and get those floodlights on! I think you’re all going to want to see this,” the general said, and everyone stopped firing.

  A few on top of the wall had visibly panicked when Erik dropped down, but the general had motioned that it was okay. The fact that she had to believe he was telling the truth, didn’t mean she did. If he died down there, she would personally sign the paperwork telling the SEMP he was a mentally unstable civilian with suicidal tendencies.

  The floodlights were mostly off, as they drew quite a bit of power. They were turned on to do a quick search a few times a night, but she had now ordered them all on. One after the other, people manned the rge torches, and they aimed them at Erik and the beasts.

  The gunfire had been repced by murmurs, but everything turned completely silent when the civilian that had knocked on their door earlier that day threw a small pstic frisbee towards the hellbeasts and the frisbee stopped in mid-air.

  The sprinting dogs stopped right in front of the frisbee, as if met by a wall. Except they didn’t stop. They smashed into something. There was nothing to crash into, but by the help of the floodlights, they saw blood trickle out of the frontmost beast’s mouth. They had never seen any of them bleed.

  The civilian then searched his backpack of goofy stuff before he ran towards the confused monster dogs. He was fast! A few soldiers shouted to keep away from the frisbee, but the man rushed straight past it unhindered, and ran past the closest dog. Something audibly clinked, but no one saw what as they all focused intently on Erik.

  The stupid man rush-kicked the next dog in its face, which amazingly seemed effective. The dog was pushed back slightly, and the man followed up with a punch before grabbing its massive snout with one hand. He stuck his other hand down the beast’s throat for a short second, before pulling it out again, finishing with a punch to its throat.

  The man then retreated backwards, always keeping his eye on his enemies. Some had noticed the bright lights around the closest dog by now, but when Erik retreated past it, everyone else noticed as well.

  A blue light strobed all around the beast, and it kicked sporadically with its legs until the light show stopped. It didn’t move after that, but Erik went closer to it with a knife in his hand. They knew that wouldn’t work, and as the soldiers whispered that to each other, the civilian stabbed the metal into the beast’s neck.

  The squelch as he retracted the knife was audible to everyone on top of the wall due to the almost eerie silence. Erik then cleaned the knife on the dirty fur of the beast before he went back towards the wall, picking up his frisbee which was now lying on the ground.

  “The other one,” people murmured. Ange looked towards the beast his new boss had fought in close quarters. It was melting from the inside. A yellowish goo trickled out from increasingly rge holes all over the beast. Never before had she seen anything like this. She looked back at Erik’s confident stride back towards the wall. What was he? The man looked up at the rge gathering of uniforms atop the wall.

  “Mind opening the door?” he asked.