Remains of an Attack

Alfred looked around him.

Dead people, damaged houses, some people wailing and screaming, others crying silently.

He wanted to go to search for Madeleine and his kids, but he had to finish this task. He would be given the death sentence if he were to desert the mission.

Alfred was worried, weird monsters had appeared.

These weird monsters, which he hadn't seen any of yet, were very strong as told by the single surviving guard of this part of the city wall. He described them nightmarish. Purple skin, claws that could easily go through their armor, red eyes, muscled physique, and scariest of all, they seemed to be communicating with each other. They were also giving other "lesser" monsters commands, which were followed.

Alfred was burning with anxiety, but he could only focus on the task at hand.

"Squad leader!"

A young man from his unit approached Alfred and handed him something.

"What's this?"

"It seems that this is a piece of that weird monster that appeared."

Alfred took a closer look at the object, it was a brown-purple horn, it looked dull, and was quite similar to a horn from a goat.

Alfred took out his sword out of the scabbard and put the object on top of a flat rock.

He formed an attacking stance that was taught to him from a young age.

He swung the sword down, and lo and behold, the sword hit the object and was reflected straight back up. He examined the object and found it was only scratched a bit, his sword on the other hand was chipped after one hit.

Alfred exclaimed:

"Weird"

"Take this back to headquarters and ask the smith there to examine it more"

"Yes sir!"

After resting for a while Alfred called upon his subordinates to gather around.

11 men in total stood in an half-circle facing Alfred, all with a standard uniform and a longsword attached to their hips.

They all had a badge on the left side of their chest with an upside down longsword embroidered upon it.

"Listen up!" Alfred shouted

"Our task this time is to help this part of town restore as much as possible."

"So, how are we going to accomplish this?"

Alfred looked around, no one stepped forward. So he narrowed his eyes and looked at the most veteran person in his squad.

After being gazed at, the middle aged man stepped forward and did a standard military salute.

"Sir! Since it's nearing night time, we should first secure a place for people and us to rest! After that we can think about food and order."

Alfred couldn't agree more, he wanted to sleep badly.

"Okay, then take 3 men and search for suitable places to build or restore a place to rest! And also, build the sleeping places for our men apart from the commoners!"

"Yes Sir!"

Alfred looked around at the remaining team members.

"Alright! Who wants to go hunting?"

Two men announced they wanted to go.

"Alright, you two, you and you"

Alfred pointed at two other soldiers, they didn´t dare to show it on their face, but inside they were thinking about how to escape this task, they didn´t want to go hunting at all.

"The two remaining soldiers are to keep peace here, make sure the people here don't have to worry about getting attacked or getting stolen from!"

"Yes Sir!"

"Then move out!"

…

Alfred looked up at the sun, there was still one hour left until night fell.

"Alright, we have to be quick this time, luckily we packed as lightly as possible. Lets speed up!"

"Yes Sir!"

Alfred and his team members walked through the street, they looked around them in bewilderment, they didn´t notice earlier, but how strong did those monsters have to be in order to cause this much damage?

Alfred became more cautious towards the weird purple monsters.

As he kept looking around him, he noticed the closer they came to the wall, the more damage there was afflicted to the surroundings. He looked at his team members and saw they were quite nervous about this hunting task.

"Don't worry, we are only going to hunt some weak monsters for food!"

This statement visibly lowered the team's nervousness, Alfred nodded approvingly.

They were approaching the gate of the wall, it was broken and crumbled. But the wall above still stood tall, as a sign of humanity's determination. Alfred's mood improved a bit. He even had the mood to joke with his team, which normally never happened.

As they entered they saw an encampment outside, with an unfurled banner with the icon of a sword upside down. Alfred's face brightened up considerably when he saw the symbol.

"Maybe we don't have to go hunting?" He muttered

One of the soldiers who didn't want to go hunting heard this, and immediately looked up in hope, he started smiling foolishly.

"Although we probably won't get any food since a lot of people need it." Alfred thought.

"It's still worth a try."

A guard outside the encampment noticed them approaching and shouted:

"Halt! State your business!"

Alfred looked at the guard with confused eyes, the military had never been so strict.

"Hello friend, I am Squad leader Alfred from squad 771, we have come here in hopes of getting some food provisions!"

The guard narrowed his eyes at Alfred, after 5 seconds or so, he shouted out something and a person came walking out of the nearest shack. Both of them were fully alert, with their weapons drawn and their bodies tensed.

Alfred was beginning to feel disturbed by the stern approach of the guards, he could feel the urgency and carefulness in the air.

Alfred was now fully aware that something had gone terribly wrong because of the attack.

"Guy at the front step forward!"

Alfred looked at his subordinates who wanted to follow, but he signed them to stay back.

He walked forward until he came within an arms reach of one guard, the other was staring him down mercilessly.

"Show us your Identification papers!"

Alfred frowned, but still did as was told. Of course he had some pride, but it's pretty useless in such a situation, being prideful might even worsen the situation.

"Here it is."

The first guard examined it, after a while he gave the Identification papers back, bowed and apologized:

"I'm very sorry for our behavior, however please understand in these uncertain times we have to do this for our safety."

Alfred was surprised, but still put on a smile.

"No problem, however, what is it that made you guys take such drastic measures?"

The guards looked at Alfred with an questioning gaze.

"You haven't heard about them yet?"

Alfred frowned back.

"Heard about who?"

"Demons"