Threads of the Soul

You may be thinking that Seth was doing a quite splendid job of defending the wall all by himself, never letting even a single Hemogoblin or collared beast slip his stalwart defences. If you were thinking such a thing, you would be wrong. Sorry to break the news to you, but someone had to do it. If you weren't thinking such a thing... well good for you Mr. Wise-guy, what do you want? A medal?

It wasn't inaccurate to say that he was doing a good job, because he certainly was, but he was anything but perfect. With only five defenders on the front line, there were always going to be enemies that managed to slip past, it was just a simple fact of numbers. The battlefield being lit almost exclusively by primitive torches, many of which were steadily dwindling, was not helping in the slightest. With every passing second he was having to deal with more enemies, since the mages were hard at work spawning more from the blood spilled, and had less visible area to work within.

But even with his first line of defence being bypassed, Seth had planned for that. It wasn't a very complex plan, in fact it only really had two steps to it, but a plan like this didn't need to be overly complicated.

His plan was as follows; Step one, Release Knife and Omelette. Step two, Use knife and Omelette to kill anything that tried to climb up the wall.

Despite the fact that it read like it was scrawled on a scrap of paper in crayon, before the writer proceeded to eat said crayon, the plan was, mostly, a success. With his observation post above all the fighting, Seth's diligent eye was constantly picking out those who managed to bypass the slaughter zones of his puppets. Whether it was by slipping past the puppets as they were too occupied with killing their horde kin, finding a stealthful route up and over the wall or simply going through the gaps between the pathetic number of defenders. Whatever their method of bypassing, Seth would always be able to spot them once they made it up the wall, even when they thought themselves safe since none of the 'guards' were looking, they'd often find themselves with a hole in the chest the next second.

Between himself and Omelette, they had the wall covered, even if it was getting more and more intense by the second, as more and more of the overwhelming horde slipped through the ever widening gaps.

As more and more of his concentration was sapped away, his consciousness stretched so thin between all of the tasks that it would make a supermodel green with envy, One of the wretched little monsters even managed to make it to the other side of the wall. Touching down onto the ground, it let out a victorious cackle and took a step forward, eager to spill some blood. But that was as far as it got before a set of talons plunged into its head and it was lifted into the air, leaving nothing but a pool of blood and a group of inner wall guards trembling in terror.

With prey in hand... or should that be in foot? Prey in talon? With prey in talon, Omelette rose into the air, his feathers rustling as he beat his wings with all his might to get up and away from the fighting. However, he didn't take the Hemogoblin all the way up with him, instead dropping the monster when he had passed over the wall.

They were easy to kill, but horrible to eat. If it wasn't for father telling him to kill them, he would have simply left the rotten prey to someone else. When he had tried eating one, it just dissolved in his beak. Where was the flesh to tear, the bones to crunch? 1 star, horrible dining experience.

Soaring high into the air, Omelette tilted his head and darted his eyes over the battlefield once again. This time, he would get something tasty, and if he could scare more of the useless humans... Well, it would definitely be a bonus. With a mischievous glint in his eye, Omelette folded his wings close to his body and dived back down towards the ground once again.

Since Omelette was still learning to control himself, as well as keep his communication abilities under control, these gluttonous and mischievous thoughts were even projected into his fathers head.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Seth was far too deep into his hyper-focus, with his consciousness being constantly overstimulated by a cacophony of differing, and sometimes contradictory, sights and sounds. Thus, he barely registered yet another voice whispering in his head as it was drowned out by wails of beasts and cries of Hemogoblins.

He was so deep in his focus, utterly losing himself in it, that he didn't even register the hand on his shoulder. Not until his vision shifted and he lost his view of the battlefield, as he was dragged away from the window.

***

"Everyone, Get back from the windows!"

A man with rubbery, amphibian-like green skin and frogs legs shouted out towards the groggy, gathering civilians as they watched with a mix of curiosity and fear, as the combatants hastily gathered their equipment and rushed outside to mount a defence. God damn rubber-neckers.

Even when there was danger right outside their door- No, especially when there was danger right outside their door, they couldn't help themselves. They had to abandon all reason and find a place to watch and gawk.

It wasn't bad enough that they weren't helping, but they were actively hindering their effectiveness since some people had to stay behind and guard them, make sure that they didn't panic or start fights or, even worse, wander into the battlefield to get a better look.

The communication devices truly were the worst gift. Many people had picked them out of desperation and ignorance, simply wanting to contact family or cry to other people about the situation instead of doing anything useful. Many of them didn't even consider the other options or that communication might not even be a phone.

Alas, even if it didn't always appear the same as a phone, they generally had the same functions. However, since it didn't use telephone numbers, people couldn't call their family regardless. That is when many of them discovered a main feature, a planetary wide forum. They loved posting on there, especially since they were layabouts and could spend all day there.

Find my family posts, country updates, death records, power debates, desperate pleas for 're-population efforts'. All sorts of posts were made. Including videos recorded by these useless folks. Even in the apocalypse they were still infected with social media influencers. There truly was no just god in this world.

The frog man rubbed his head in frustration at all the wanna-be's trying to get a better look, or get the best camera angle, of the fight as the remaining guards pulled them away from the windows and tried to keep them under control while the situation was dealt with. Deep down, however, he was still lamenting the fact that his transformation had made all of his hair fall out, leaving him with a slimey, baldy toad head. Just as he was trying to grow out a mullet too.

He quickly scanned all the windows, making sure no one else was rubber-necking, and eventually caught sight of a thin, one armed man looming near a window on the upper floor.

With another sigh, he crouched down low before springing into the air. In one mighty leap, he soared up to the second floor landing, and even cleared the safety railing with ease, before touching down on the wooden floor with barely a sound. No doubt that was why the gangly man had yet to turn around to acknowledge his presence. I mean, even if his powers weren't all that great, he was still an acting fighter and deserved some level of respect.

"Come on now, you need to move away from the windows and gather where we can protect you."

He puffed his chest out slightly, waiting for at least a modicum of praise and gratitude for the protection, yet the man didn't utter a single word. In fact he didn't even acknowledge his existence, simply staring out the window with unblinking eyes. It was kind of creepy actually.

"Alright... I don't care if you want some famous video, get away from the window. Now."

Placing his hand on the man's shoulder, he gave it a gentle squeeze, just enough to assert his power and remind the one armed man who was in charge, before pulling him away from the window. Only when they were far enough away that he couldn't see out of it, did the man finally snap out of his trance and look around with a sense of abject horror and befuddlement.

"What are you doing? Let me go! You don't know what you're doi-"

Stopping mid sentence, the rage completely drained from the one armed man's face as his eyes widened in sheer terror. Glancing over his shoulder, the frog man tried to see what this fellow was so terrified of, but he was just staring at the ceiling. However, before he could query the one armed man on the matter, something completely unexpected happened. With strength utterly unbefitting of his stature, the one armed man wrenched the hand off of his shoulder, nearly breaking some of the frog mans fingers in the process, before running over to the window as if he had a bomb strapped to his chest.

Pressing himself against the window, he quickly looked around and scanned the battlefield once, twice and then a third time. Each subsequent scan just increased the growing panic and paleness that had taken over his face until eventually he released it and shouted,

"What the hell happened to him?! Where the hell is he?!"

Curiosity sunk its claws deep into the amphibian, taking a firm grip on his mind and leading him to approach the window. When he gazed out, he finally got a good look at all the chaos and horrific bloodshed, and especially at the sheer scale of the army they were facing. Yet what he couldn't see, and what he could only assume the one armed man was screaming about, was something the other guards, the one's that had rushed inside from the wall, were constantly raving about.

Outside the wall was the four statues, valiantly defending as the reinforcements prepared their engagement and dealt with those overflowing over the wall. Yet no matter where he looked, neither one could find the defender draped in a raven feathered cloak. Corvus had disappeared.

Just as he was about to start another scan, just in case he had been buried underneath a pile of bodies, the window in front of them turned completely white.