At some point in the fleeing, her hair had fallen out and was now a mess over her sweat-covered face. She tried desperately to catch her breath.
“Not to worry,” Arthus said reassuringly, “my men can handle this.”
A group of guards down the road cried out as the anchor swung into them like a battering ram, launching them off their feet with incredible force. A pair of men approached cautiously, but the hunchback screeched at them before stomping down on one with its tree-trunk-like leg.
The other guard stabbed at the back of the creature’s ankle, severing its tendons. Black blood began to pour from the deep gash like tar. It roared, reeling the anchor back in.
The hunchback went wild. It swung the anchor like a flail, smashing through upper storey walls on either side of it. The guard, shocked, dove for cover but was flattened beneath collapsing rubble.
The hunchback shambled up the hill towards hightown, roaring like some rabid animal and attacking anyone who approached it.
Katryna did not want to wait. She had to trust her gut. “Everyone needs to get out of here, right now! Flee for Castle Bower. You must go, now! Go! Run!”
The many onlookers heard her shouts and began to run away, finally realising they too were about to be caught up in the attack themselves.
All they needed to hear was some instruction, apparently, Katryna realised, relieved that they were listening.
She waved them on, pointing uphill towards the castle as she called out directions.
Arthus appeared at first to be disapproving. He stared at the princess with concern, realising she was now in the line of danger as the creature stumbled uphill towards them. However, he could not deny that she had made a good decision, lending his voice to help direct the townspeople.
“Surround that thing! Gather up, and work together, for fuck’s sake!” Arthus commanded to the guards, his voice booming out over the sounds of destruction, before running towards the fleeing crowds and shocked bystanders. “Move! You heard the princess! Get to the castle! Grab your families and go!”
Debris rained down with each swing the hunchback took, levelling multi-storeyed walls and rooftops. Alleyways between some of the tenements and rowhouses became ravines of shattered bricks, tiles, wood chips and dust.
There seemed to be no stopping it. It drew closer, merely a dozen metres away.
Katryna could feel the thunder of its footsteps shake the ground beneath her as she helped a struggling mother carry her three young children to safety, taking one in her own arms.
“Katryna, get out of here now!” Arthus shouted as the hunchback roared above him.
She screamed for him to follow, but before the words left her lips, Arthus turned and charged at the creature with his men.
What’s he doing?!
Katryna knew there was nothing she could do to help. She instructed the mother to run, each of her hands carrying an infant, racing alongside her with the third child in Katryna’s arms.
The High Sword and his guards counter-attacked, keeping enough distance between themselves to not be hit by each other’s swings, yet forming a sort of barrier of bodies between the hunchback and hightown.
The hunchback slammed the chain and anchor down, crushing two guards into a pulpy mess of blood beneath the rusted metal. Arthus dodged out of the way before leaping up and driving his sword into the creature’s exposed knee.
The guards worked in unison, driving spears into any part they could reach. The hunchback stumbled and became distracted enough that it stopped swinging its anchor, though it quickly regained its footing. It seemed nothing would work against it.
Katryna looked back as she ran, praying that Arthus would order a retreat and get his men away from the unstoppable monster.
Then, from the distance, came the sound of roaring thunder.
Three distinct booms from the direction of the harbour, so loud that both Katryna and the mother beside her stopped to turn back and see what it was.
Immediately upon spinning around towards the hunchback, an enormous explosion blew up the road just to the creature’s rear in an immense cloud of smoke and broken cobblestone. The guards were all knocked over from the force of it.
Another two explosions then occurred, this time through the hunchback’s body itself. A cast iron ball blew through the chain-wielding arm of the hunchback, ripping it off from its body. Black tar burst from the wound as its severed arm crashed to the ground with the head-sized metal ball.
The third ball blasted a neat hole through the hunchback’s chest from behind. Bone and tissue came spilling out with the flood of black blood.
The iron ball that had shot through its chest landed right next to Katryna up the street, before rolling to a stop in amongst some debris.
All went quiet as those still left alive looked upon the creature, in awe of what they had witnessed.
Arthus and the guards backed away from the hunchback as it swayed. Its wounds were smoking, dripping with tar-like blood, before it fell to its knees, and then face-first to the ground with an all-massive thud.
It lay motionless.
Katryna breathed in a deep breath of the fresh sea air, feeling the tightness in her stomach loosen ever so slightly.
But what had killed it?
Katryna put the child down and handed her back to the grateful mother, before walking over to the equally stunned Arthus Medonia.
The pair looked down the street towards the harbour where a colossal ship was sitting out on the open water directly in line with them. Its golden sails hung from tall masts, shimmering like jewels in the sunlight.
It was the largest ship Katryna had ever seen.
The side of the ship facing them
