Hayan unmasks himself, digging a deep breath that grants strong relief throughout his body. He slowly holds his abdomen "Ack..." he groans softly after being battered like a sandbag. "This will get away," Hayan said as he lay his back on the railing. He looks above the night sky and watches the stars as they shine from the cosmos. "The two may have returned to the condo by now," he sighed. Quiet roof enough to hear his breath, yet his heart pumps uneasily. With his ocean-blue eyes, stars twinkling in his pupils, a cold feeling shivers down his spine, and with that, he grabs his daggers, and every nerve in his body surges with adrenaline. "Shit!! The kid!!" he said as he stood up and immediately wore his mask.

Something whips straight to his face at incredible speed, such a reflex and he evades it as he flips backwards giving a fair amount of distance. As he sets his eyes above.

A winged woman in half, "You dare to kill Gregorio! You're going to pay for that!" she said. A female demon split in half, screeching at him, with her intestines hanging in the air as she glides in her bat-like wings.

He holds his daggers tight for another duel. In a second his legs feel numb as he's about to pass out with a blurred vision. His right arm was severely cleaved open which led to massive blood loss. She's so fast that… I thought I avoided it…

He pulls out a handkerchief and temporarily closes the wound by wrapping it tight. "He died afraid…" Hayan said as he threw his formal jacket and folded his sleeves “It would be my delight to deliver that same feeling to you, Manananggal." His fighting spirit never ceases to falter despite exhaustion, he forms a stance with both of his daggers in reversed grip ready for another bloodbath.

In his ragged and sharp fangs drooling in her saliva, she laughs after seeing a man severely wounded and still having the pride to stand up for a fight. The Manananggal sets both of her deadly claws to Hayan's throat as she dives down with blood from her internal organs rains down on him.

The Manananggal is an ancient creature from the Philippines that can fly thanks to its wings but with only their upper torso. Their sharp nails can easily cut through human flesh and their long tongue can whip with incredible accuracy with the capabilities of cutting a limb in half. As long as the moon reigns in the night sky, they can feast on humans. However, before sunrise, they must return to reconnect with their other half, otherwise the scorching sun will burn them to death. They are weak during the day and feral at night.

Hayan also charges head-on and launches himself up in the air clashing with his daggers and the Manananggal's claws and exchanging devastating blows. As he delivers powerful hits, sweat and blood drenches through his clothes, as well as his arms tremble from each strike from the overwhelming strength of the Manananggal. With the heavy and aggressive strikes of the fiend, despite Hayan being exhausted and already wounded and with continuous blood loss from his arm, he still has the unwavering will to defeat her, his determination shines more than the stars in the night sky. With his focused precise and agile mobility, he is able to strangle her with his firm grip and takes her down slamming to the rooftops, he stands on top of her and nails her two arms with his daggers.

Hayan charges for a sure kill strike, but the Manananggal has the means to do everything to kill him first. She breaks away from his daggers by force, tearing her palms away from the blades, without any sweat she heals to deliver a lethal attack on his injured arm, and deliberately loses more blood, with her whipping tongue, she wraps it around Hayan's neck, choking him, and with enough aggressiveness, she crashes him on a populated street below.

People are left stunned and terrified as their eyes widen, catching sight of the heinous creature of darkness in front of them. The street collapses to shambles as the people scramble for safety. Unknown certainties and his current state it will be his last stand, “Get out of here! Run!” he shouts at the top of his lungs. But he stands once more even with pain inching across his body, and the risk of dying is in his eyesight yet he perseveres.

He has no choice, if he chooses to escape the Schatten will probably feast on the place with no effort, and if he remains to fight, he'll die, the weight of his responsibilities as a protector is far more precious than his life. So he raises his blades ahead of the Schatten for him to be cut down, “Now that the battleground is clear…” Hayan said, “Feel free to break a sweat against me.” He taunts beneath his mask.

"Are you sure? You look like you’re about to collapse with a flick of a finger." the Manananggal taunts back.

Then Hayan executes his stance, eyes fixed on the Manananggal, analyzing and anticipating every conceivable strike while remaining cautious not to get hit on the same arm again. I need to behead this monster quickly or I'll be out of blood in no time.

A searing heat burns his right with a blinding ball of fire, and then a strong shockwave blasts him flying many meters away, his body scorched and scratched from top to bottom. Deafened by the loud wailing noise from the vehicle alarms, he has a cloudy vision to recognize anything, with only flashing orange lights from the totalled automobiles around him he can distinguish. In his blurry eyes a figure of a hunchbacked old woman with orbs of black flames stands ahead. Lying down, a heavy leg pounds his chest repeatedly as his ribs crack from the brute strength of something on top of him.

The Manananggal shouts in agitation, "Stop! Why did both of you even bother to show up? He’s dead." she hurried at the Tikbalang whose been killing Hayan with his crushing hoofs, "I can't savor the food if I can only taste a horse's foot..." she scoffs.

She kneels down at Hayan with lustful eyes, "But before I devour him," she licks her tongue. She slaps the Tikbalang out of the way "Get lost, horse-face. I need to see what's under that mask. Seems like you have an irresistible face," she said and licked the blood dripping from the mask. With that, she lays her finger on the mask unveiling underneath those ocean-blue eyes.

Uncontrollably trembling, she drops to the ground with her eyes wide open in fear like she saw a wraith, a hellspawn. A blood-curdling scream deep from her lungs completely pierces the Tikbalang and the other's ear. She drags herself away from Hayan with hard gasps as her heart beats as if she's going to die. Both of her allies are confused. The Tikbalang rushes to drag the Manananggal further away from Hayan.

The Tikbalang is unsure if that man embraced with unbearable burns and a pool of blood is truly in pain or pretending to be weakened waiting for an opening to strike; his gaze remains focused on him, his hoofs scraping against the ground, ready to unleash striking kicks anytime Hayan foils his ploy. "What did you do?!!" the Tikbalang asks Hayan.

With his bruised face, he grotesquely smiles as blood oozes to the ground, sending absolute dreadful fear to the Manananggal worse than ever that she cries wishing to be dead already rather than seeing a face that has existed thousands of years ago.

The Manananggal screams once more as she shakes in fear after she completely stares into Hayan's blue eyes, "CHAOS MAGIC: SINGULARITY!!!" she opens her mouth and large quantities of mana gathered up and concentrates on one point creating a deadly unstable energy of destruction. Strong winds whirl around her in such instability. With sheer intensity, she blasts it like an animal to Hayan directly as he remains with a disturbing grin at them, the raw energy of death destroys everything in its path with total power.

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Hayan covers his face back, outstretches his hands, and recites "Purifying Magic: Adamant Resolve!" manifesting pure mana of defense as dark magic rages at him.

With the impact, the force of the magic effortlessly knocks him back, quickly destroying his shields. Every inch of his body scorches deep, his clothes have been charred by intensity, entirely depleted of mana and strength, finally falling to his knees.

"That should do it, he’s gone to ashes, now stop screaming like an infant, he is not that strong," The hunchbacked old woman said to the Manananggal.

Continued wailing. "H-He's still alive!!" the Manananggal said as she remained rattled.

Charred, battered to death, severely wounded arm yet he keeps his feet on the ground, breathing still. But it is his ocean-blue eyes that caught their attention, his gaze is enough to deliver sheer dread.

With absolute terror consuming her whole, in her trembling tongue, she screams "DIE!!!" as she launches herself clawed up with her teeth thirsting for his blood, she'll tear his limbs away, skin him, and feast on his flesh.

But before she can even land a finger on Hayan, an immensely violent surge of wind cuts her slithering tongue and blasts her away from him crashing into her allies like she was nothing.

Cold soothing wind envelopes him. A woman stands before him with her weapon outstretched, a kampilan with luminous wind dancing to its blade, "Don't even think about touching this boy," she said. As Hayan finally fall she rests him easy on her arms. He took too much beating... He’s smart enough to fire that ray of light to the sky for help.

Picking up to their feet, the Manananggal grinds her teeth and asks, "Who do you think you are?!" she says as she clenches her sharp claws. "You dare stand against me—" As she releases her frustration towards Hayan’s savior, her head slips down from her neck and thuds to the ground before she even notices. With her eyes open wide “W-What just happened?!" she crumbles into dust and is swept away by the woman’s wind.

After witnessing the death of the Manananggal by a swift gust of wind, the remaining two immediately move into position with intense mana surging and cautious movements that could give the woman an opening attack that could take their lives in the blink of an eye.

The old woman stands behind the Tikbalang. "Mangkukulam! Cover me!" the Tikbalang exclaims. The Mangkukulam extends her arms as dark energy concentrates from her palms, and then she whirls ten violent flaming orbs of flames towards the woman while the Tikbalang charges for a potent strike. The horsehead sprinted towards the woman with adamant force and speed, launching himself and kicking the waves of flames towards her.

As the two take on offensive attacks, the woman's steel strength, with one swing from her blade generates a surging current of wind extinguishing the orbs of flames mid-air.

The Tikbalang stomps at her, but she leaps backwards evading it. He chases her with chains of raw deadly kicks, trying not to give her a counterattack. The woman completely plays defensively blocking and deflecting the Tikbalang's heavy blows. He continues to deliver lethal strikes, in a fraction of a second the woman hastily grasps the Tikbalang's foot and he doesn't see it coming. His life flashes before his very own eyes, as the cold breeze he feels through his face, death caught up face to face. He snaps back to his wits, kicks the woman's kampilan inches away from his neck, kicks her again only to be averted, and dashes back to gain distance in his heavy and rapid breathing. He glances at his ally, the Mangkukulam, who understands through his dilated eyes that they have no chance of winning this fight, the only thing that kept him alive during that fatal swing was adrenaline pouring throughout his body, the fight or flight response, and now his body is begging him to flee.

She raises her sword at them with wind residing on her side, "Where is the kid?" she asks.

The Mangkukulam with eyes of wit decloaks the kid behind her.

"Now, let go of the kid," the woman said.

"Not if you let us go," the Mangkukulam bargains.

Without a second thought, a blast of wind surges right before them as she dashes for their heads. With no such assurance, the Tikbalang charges ahead of her, engaging her in battle just long enough for the Mangkukulam to flee with the child.

Tilting her sword at an angle, and with flawless form she carves the air with a swift swing "Amihan: Zephyr Gaze” Unleashing a divine whirlwind, sending them into the sky as the wind tears their bodies apart by the strong currents.

With the magic of the Mangkukulam, they managed to break out from the strong wind, without saying anything or having thought of orchestrating a scheme to trick her into lowering her guard and pouring all their power to deal damage as much, but no, they let go of the kid and runs away as fast as they could and did not look back.

From meters away, "Hayan!! Hayan!!" Cloud comes running with Yunika behind him in a much fret. He sees the abducted kid and Hayan who is bathed in blood and unexplainable bruises scattered around his body and at the same time a woman holding him. An umbral aura catalyzes around him, to his side, he tears the fabric of reality and pulls a spear from it, whirling it with total force to the woman with death following its trail.

The dreadful aura immediately sends pressure on Yunika, he quickly gazes ahead and she recognizes the woman, "No, Cloud! No don't!" she tries to inform Cloud about a piece of important information but uncontrolled emotions reign first on him.

She easily avoids it by simply leaning to the side. "Hey, calm down—" Before she even attempts to enlighten Cloud, she is bombarded by heavy strikes of punches and kicks imbued with mana. She effortlessly tanks every strike with her iron-like arms.

In his purple eyes, he glares at the woman with such intensity. His bracelet shudders as it constantly restrains the immense power as he succumbs to it. He swings his tightly closed fist augmented with mana straight at the woman, but it is easily stopped by her bare hands echoing an ear-piercing shockwave.

In his purple eyes, "What have you done?!" the feral Cloud asks her.

"I think we are having a slight misunderstanding, kid" she replies. She grips hard at his fist and subdues Cloud in a swift move, but he doesn't make it easy, he wrestles with her and tries to headlock her from behind. The woman easily knocks Cloud away, and intense amounts of mana accumulate in her kampilan, spiralling a violent gust of wind in front of Cloud blasting him away stopping him from his aggressive strikes and leaving him gasping for air. "You need to calm down, you don't know what you're doing." She said.

Cloud stretches his palm, recalling the spear, "Am I that blind to understand? You're holding them hostage!"

As the atmosphere shambles, Yunika catches her eye on the kid who is now in the middle of the fight and quickly runs up to him carrying him away from the two, "Let's find your father, okay?" she says as she tries to calm the kid down in confusion.

Cloud gestures his hand and an ominous shadow and mana concentrate on it, clenching his palm condensing to unstable energy in the shape of a crescent, "Corrupt Magic..." A cold wind surges through his fingertips, gentle and calming, and comes whipping at him knocking off the unstable magic in his hand.

Despite Cloud's aggressiveness and carelessness about it, she gives her best efforts not to hurt him. In the flash of an eye, she paralyzes Cloud's other hand using a freezing wind temperature, snatching his spear from him and tossing him away. "Stand down! This is your final warning!" she said as she held his weapon.

"Shut up!" Cloud said.

As the standoff between shadow and wind remains heavy.

"Cloud! Calm down, Cloud!" Yunika rushed back. "She's one of us, I know her!" she said.

"Listen to the gal," the woman said, finally breaking Cloud's fervor. In a show of trust, she drops her blade, as well as Cloud's, lowering her immense mana and calming down the heated space. "Can you just listen to me first, kid?" she said as she scrunched her brows to the persistent Cloud.

Cloud has his palm open and the spear comes flying back at him, then he thuds it to the ground dematerializing it in follow up reverting his eyes to normal as he takes grasp of his senses back.

You have efficiently grasped the ways to harness my power... mortal.

Yunika right away runs with teary eyes to the unconscious Hayan, her eyes widening as she lays her eyes on him covered in bruises and scars. "W-will he be okay?" she asks the woman in her breaking and trembling voice.

"He's alive, his wounds must be treated immediately." the woman said. She snaps her finger and lays her hand on Hayan as she lends a portion of her mana, "This slight mana transfusion will stabilize his body for now." She turns at Cloud standing behind contemplating silently as he watches Hayan in pain, "Are you in your senses now? In case you don't know I'm also a Radiant, I hope that is enough to tell that I have no intention to hurt you," she said.

He just ignores what she just said and straightly mouths "How many escaped?" he asks.

"Deep breaths, boy, that is not for you to think of, we'll be the ones who will handle that."