Shaking trees was not the only thing to be seen in the distance. The fins of giants like the lizard or occasional spike or wing of something flying low, even an eye or three. This was all I and the guards could see. We waited patiently for the creatures to breach the tree line. The number of echoes was unlike any we had ever seen, maybe the lack of resources was not the only thing that would do us in.

The creatures were approaching the tree line when all the soldiers hefted their weapons up. It was not their first wave, but I could tell it was their worst. The soldier I had heard earlier looked like he had seen a ghost. “It's as big as the first flood” He whispered barely loud enough for me to hear.

I felt myself go pale. The first flood was said to have been massive and unending. Full of every creature from myth and legends. If this flood was truly as big as the first wave we had to evacuate right now. 

I flew up and searched the wall for whoever was in charge. A man In his late forties sat at the center of the wall. He had the largest weapon around and looked ready to issue commands. I assumed he was in charge. 

“Are you in charge?” I asked. He and his men all pointed their guns in my direction or as close to where they had heard my voice as they could. The man I assumed to be in charge directed the men around him to aim right in front of him. I took this as a yes.

“You need to evacuate the people farther into the city. This one is bigger than the others” I said. not listening to his reply I flew up higher and blasted towards the echoes currently shaking the forest. I didn't have a plan. All I knew was I needed to buy time.

I flew tell I was directly above them. I was able to see creatures from every myth I could think of. The only exception was the truly powerful monsters like dragons or liches. I knew that they existed it just seemed that we had lucked out, Kind of. 

I pulled my staff and pee shooter out of my storage before aiming them down into the chaos below. I had thought about it and come up with a plan. Casting earth mold I commanded the ground to leach onto any creature it could and drag it under me. The ground below exploded up word towards any creature unlucky enough to be in its range. It began to pull the creatures into one hissing and growling mass of monsters.

The strain of dumping so much mana into the spell was somewhat alleviated by the stone around my neck. It still felt like a lot but it was better. Once all the creatures the ground could pull were just below me. I pointed my staff down and cast flamethrower. A stream of flame shot downward in an ever-increasing amount. I used my pee shooter as well. It broke the hard defenses of the monsters while the flame seeped in and burnt them. 

I felt something meld with me. Then it struck me this is how I had been expanding my mana capacity. It was by killing monsters. I hadn't realized this before because I was always on the verge of collapse but not this time. I felt it seem into me and strengthen my mana. I felt strong I wanted to use it so I pulled it out of me and forced it into my spells. 

The ground must have shot upwards for miles grabbing anything and everything that wasn't human. My flame grew hotter and bigger, melting the very ground to magma. The ground pulled creatures into the magma ending them before they could even his or howl. The air bullets grew harder and faster, I knew they would do no good shooting the ground so I aimed it at the creatures that were flying or were too strong to be pulled by the ground. 

“Hamilton the chief guard of city 453”

I heard the voice of a young boy. “Are you in charge?” I was baffled but I had honed my skills for years. I instantly pointed my gun straight at where I thought I heard the voice. But there was nothing there. The men around me had all done the same so I pointed out where I had heard it. 

My attention was just beginning to fade when I heard “You need to evacuate the people farther into the city. This one is bigger than the others” the voice said. I was about to ask who they were when I felt their presence move away. I considered the voice's words wisely. It could be a trick I never even saw its face.

“O MY GOD!!!” I heard one of my soldiers shout. I quickly looked towards where he was pointing. The ground was dragging the monsters together. Above them was a lone figure. The figure seemed to materialize some kind of stick. It pointed it down and a huge fire shot out of the stick in golfing the monsters. Yet the monsters seemed never-ending. I made my decision then and there.

“Men evacuate the city, tell them to head into the center and to grab any weapons they can find” I hoped that I had made the right decision. I was about to join them when I felt a shift. Looking back at the figure the ground had expanded and the fire had grown the very stone beneath it turning to magma. “Whatever being governs our world I beg of you help us,” I said before rushing off to help evacuate. 

“Alex”

I ran out of small fry to pull into the magma. All that was left were the truly strong beasts. The ones who the ground couldn't pull. Thankfully it seemed that anything that went into the magma didn't come out otherwise I would have a real problem killing it. I needed to get better weapons.

There were quite a few big lizards like the one I fought in my town. Except for this time they seemed that they might have some kind of dragon blood in them. Because they had small wings across their back that I highly doubted could lift them but with magic who knows. Now that I had a flight ability. I could go from one to the other firing into their scales with my stronger Pee shooter. Braking them and roasting them from afar.

But it wasn't all easy, I could feel myself running low on mana. The headache I had was slowly growing in pain. But there were still more monsters to kill so I pushed on. The lizards were not the only monsters still left. There were giant wolfs, flyers, and even a vaguely humanoid cyclops. 

I methodically killed one and moved on to the next. My headache as I came upon the last monster was almost too much. The cyclops stood 5meters tall. Bigger than any man, still I shot at blowing chunks off of it. Finally, I flew at it. Jamming my staff into its chest and casting flamethrower. It burned from the inside out. It was over.

The biggest flood in 29 years was over completely obliterated by myself. It didn't make sense. Normal people would have trouble with it yes. but if it was as big as the first. Their technology would have wiped them off the map before they had done so much damage.

Then I felt. The ground hadn't stopped shaking. In fact, it seemed to be shaking more than before. I shot towards the sky. Just in time for a club the size of a tree to smash into the ground where I had stood. I quickly looked over at the creature. Everything I had done id done with courage and sometimes even excitement. But not this time, this time all I felt was primal fear at the massive Giant in front of me.

It was at least 90 meters. I must have been so preoccupied that I missed it. But there was no way that I could miss this how. Then it disappeared. Poof gone “What” I just managed to squeak out. I felt the air behind me displace. Turning he was there two massive eyes that felt like they were burrowing into my soul looked down on my flying self. It was a true echo. the things I was fighting were just monsters that came from another realm. This thing came from its own little place in hell. “I'm screwed” I whispered.