I wanted to go check in on mom down below, but I couldn’t take my focus away from the fight – it was just too awesome to miss. They were moving the civilians onward as fast as they could, the half dozen painted soldiers protecting the rearguard often yelling something and looking back in the direction the group came from. There was something going on back there, but it was much too dark to perceive clearly at the moment... but that would soon change – the sun was rising.

The first thing I noticed was a grouping of blurs moving quickly, which gradually solidified into a small group of painted soldiers fighting a single shadow wolf. I expected the soldiers to make short work of the feeble wolf, and was completely caught off guard by what happened next.

One of the soldiers spun around, somehow shooting a stream of fire out of his mouth, followed by another throwing a long spear from a rooftop. Both attacks missed as the beast jumped backward almost quicker than I could make out, the woman yanking on a chain in her hand… which brought the spear hurtling back into her hand! Then the shadow wolf was suddenly on the roof with the woman, lunging towards her as she tried to bring her spear up in a defensive stance. The wolf twisted in mid-air, rolling past her guard and clamping its jaws tightly around her arm – she didn’t scream as her shoulder split open, separating her arm from the rest of her body. The shadow wolf bit down, chewed it into mush, and then let it fall to the ground as it backed off. It didn’t even finish her off.

At this point, I started to freak out again, and I noticed that a few of the soldiers fighting the single shadow wolf were missing arms. Oh holy fuck, we are so dead! That thing wasn’t fighting the painted soldiers… it was playing with them, like a god damned dog with a stuffed toy! As the guards on the roof around me noticed what was happening they started yelling and running back towards a large metal hatch set into the stonework. As they started filing quickly back into the fortress I turned my attention back to the fight. No… back to the slaughter. It dawned on me that those soldiers were spending their lives to distract the beast from the civilians – from the children. They were trying to lead it away from the fort.

The guards down below had the main gates open to welcome the new arrivals, completely ignorant of the danger just off in the distance. The reason for the separate safe rooms suddenly made a lot more sense to me: They could bring new people into the fort, opening the gates to stragglers without risking any more civilians if the enemy slipped inside. It was like a two-staged flood-gate system.

I wanted to tell them, but even at my fastest pace it would take me five or six minutes to get back in my body and wake up. Plus, who would believe an infant who suddenly started shouting ‘the god beast is coming, the god beast is coming!’ They would probably think I was possessed or something. So I kept on watching, more horrified than I had ever been in either of my lives, but completely unable to turn away.

The heroic painted soldiers managed to distract the god beast for long enough for the civilians to start making their way into the fort, and at the same time I sensed a massive ‘KLANNNGGGGGG’ sound from behind me as the thick metal hatch slammed closed. I was now alone on the roof.

The lesser wolves kept on attacking, spurred on by something to a new height of mad frenzy, but they were repelled by the fourteen painted warriors (they deserved the term – these were no mere soldiers) guarding the civilians down below. They were hard-pressed, but they were obviously amazing warriors, far above anything I had ever imagined could be real. So… what did that say about the god beast? Would these walls even stop it?

The civilians continued to stream into the fortress under the protection of both the guards and the painted warriors. They moved quickly, keeping a sharp lookout behind them for the terrifying beast… and I am sure hoping for the safe return of their fellows. The guards all worked together as an effective team, speeding up the process and actually getting people inside the fortress at a relatively fast pace. And, for a while, I thought they would make it.

Nobody even had time to scream as the god beast suddenly appeared on the rooftop beside me. I might have had a heart attack (if I had one in this form) and died all over again as I got to meet the beast up close and personal. It must have circled around after finishing off the other painted warriors, exactly like a wolf on earth might, wanting to take its prey unawares. I prepared myself for death as the massive head lowered towards me... then passed right through… it was looking at the people down below, the same ones I had been watching file into the fortress! Holy fuck, thank god! Errr… I mean… how terrible!

The wolf wasn’t much larger than the regular shadow wolves, but having it right next to me let me appreciate just how big it was. Certainly bigger than any dog I had ever seen on Earth (I had yet to see any domestic animals here in the village). The beast then jumped down into the crowd, landing on a group of adults (the children were the first ones let inside, thankfully) and swiping out with a huge paw. All I saw was a spray of red, and then the screaming began.

The painted warriors threw themselves at the beast, striking together in an uncoordinated burst of power that killed at least a few civilians in the process. But I suppose, really, all those people are already dead... we all are...