Now, Northern Philippines

Rino reverted to her human form.

The full weredog form wasn’t the best when it came to verbal communication and she wanted to yell at the young ranger for screwing things up.

“Fin, right? What the fuck are you doing here?”

The boyish young man had a blank look on his face, as if he wasn’t seeing her.

Which was odd because she was naked.

Rino slapped Fin.

He blinked slowly.

“You didn’t need to help me. I had them,” Fin scowled at her.

Rino frowned.

Fin’s eyes stared into hers.

Not even the hint of a twitch downward to her exposed chest.

“You’re part of the rangers. I didn’t see you with them back in the forest. So, again, what are you doing here?” she jabbed a finger into his chest.

“Killing the enemy,” Fin looked at her as if she was the one confused.

“That wasn’t part of the plan,” Rino narrowed her eyes.

Fin stared at her for an uncomfortable moment. “Your arrival helped my squad so that I didn’t need to step in. They were injured and unable to continue. I decided to proceed to the village and continue the mission,” he said flatly.

“Were you following me?”

“Yes. It seemed prudent.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

Fin shrugged. “I thought if I stayed hidden I could catch the enemy off guard.”

“Did you even notice who you were attacking?”

“Aswangs.”

“Look again!” Rino snapped.

“I don’t see—”

Rino grabbed Fin by the arm and dragged him over to several broken bodies. “Humans, as in non-aswangs. Children and babies. Did you forget the briefing?”

Fin’s face was a stone mask.

“We were supposed to avoid human casualties,” Rino growled.

The young man’s demeanor changed. A straight, stiff back hunched over as he drew in on himself. “I didn’t notice,” he whispered.

“No shit!” Rino stalked around Fin. She stopped and sniffed the air. Her hair bristled. “Something’s coming. We need to move,” she transformed and threw Fin over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes before dashing further into the dark village.

Small wooden houses lined the dirt path.

They were well-made, not at all like the shacks Rino had been expecting.

She had to find a place to stash the kid before she could get back to her mission.

It irked her to admit that the Fin’s actions had probably created a greater amount of chaos than she would’ve caused by stealthily assassinating individual aswangs.

There was no way that the Elder wouldn’t have noticed all that death and destruction. If what Ginessa had said about the aswangs being connected to each other through some kind of magic or Skill was true.

She could only hope that enough distance from the site of Fin’s massacre would keep the Elder from locating them.

A futile hope.

A loud screech was Rino’s only warning that it was too late.

Pain suddenly wracked her body.

She and Fin tumbled down the dirt path.

Rino growled.

Every muscle in her body suddenly felt blown. It was like she had just completed the most difficult workout of her life. She felt the sheer exhaustion down to the bone.

“Get up,” Fin hissed. “It’s in the sky.”

“Kulam,” a guttural voice echoed from above.

Fin spread his arms wide and a glowing shield materialized over the two of them.

Something sizzled against it.

Rino didn’t see what it was.

“Identify the spell,” Fin muttered.

Rino could barely keep her eyes open.

More invisible strikes hit Fin’s shield.

“Curse. Pain and exhaustion as effects,” Fin said in monotone. “It’s an Aswang: Manananggal,” he said.

“The flying half-woman thing,” Rino growled.

“I’m going to take that as an assent,” Fin said. “I can counter the curse on you, but I have to drop my shield.”

Rino growled a negative.

“Right, I won’t have the time. The aswang will hit me as soon as I drop the shield. So, you’re going to have to wait.” Fin dropped the shield and barged into a house to his left.

Rino tried to crawl out of the path and into some cover to the right.

The aswang screeched.

Rino felt claws stab and cut into her back. She tried to turn and defend herself, but her muscles refused to listen.

Heat and light bloomed as a gout of fire emerged from the house Fin had dived into.

The aswang was caught and flapped away as the flames licked her body.

Rino turned a baleful eye on Fin as the young man stood in the shadowed doorway. For a moment he stared at her without emotion.

His hands contorted and light pulsed in front of his chest.

Rino felt the strength returning to her limbs.

She came to her feet with violent suddenness and unleashed a rage-filled howl.

The aswang answered the challenge with an ear-splitting shriek.

Rino’s blood was up.

All her attention was focused on the aswang circling overhead.

She didn’t notice Fin disappearing down the dirt path toward the center of the village.

----------------------------------------

The aswang brought in a woman and dumped her in a cage on the opposite side of the large room.

Rai exchanged a glance with Ambrose.

Going by her physical appearance the woman probably came from somewhere else.

As in from another country.

The aswang licked the bloody cuts on the woman’s face before locking the cage door and leaving.

Rai was impressed by how the woman hadn’t reacted to the leering aswang.

“It’s a trick,” Ambrose whispered, “put in a fake prisoner to get us to spill our secrets. Maybe even help us ‘escape’ before betraying us just as freedom is in sight. A classic.”

Rai pondered it.

Definitely possible, but why go through all the trouble when that Justino person had said that their leader could just take the information from their heads.

Rai had no idea if the aswangs were capable of that.

The mythology didn’t really suggest that aswangs could read minds directly.

Then again, he was dealing with reality, not fiction.

Even if the lines had been blurred.

Some myths, however, did carry over into reality.

“Excuse me, miss?” Rai waved to get the woman’s attention.

“I’m not spilling any secrets to you. I know about the fake prisoner trick too,” she sneered.

“We aren’t fake. We’re real… prisoners, that is,” Ambrose said.

“You will note the cuts and bruises on our bodies,” Rai held his arms through the bars of his cage, “see my wrists? The welts and scabbing? All thanks to multiple hours of being shackled over the last few days. The village is under attack, judging by the explosions. Your appearance suggests that you’re a part of this attack. Logically, you’ve caught the aswang by surprise. Does it then make sense that we’ve been prepared just for you?” Rai said.

“Lady, use your eyes and nose. We’re no aswang,” Ambrose cut in.

“The only things I can smell in this house are old shit, stale piss and rancid meat. Fits what I know of aswangs,” the woman said.

“Well, we were about to be introduced to the someone called the ‘Elder’ before you attacked, so thank you for momentarily postponing our painful deaths,” Rai began, “unfortunately, from what I overheard the fighting isn’t going too well for them and they’ll be bringing the Elder here to drain every bit of information out of your head.”

“You heard that from in here?” the woman frowned.

“I have good ears,” Rai smiled.

“Whether I live or die doesn’t matter. Whether you’re aswang spies or not doesn’t matter. We’ve already won,” the woman laughed bitterly.

“Then why don’t we do all that we can to get out of this alive?” Rai said.

The woman mulled it over for a second before nodding. “Okay. What do I call you two?”

Rai looked over at Ambrose.

“Your decision, but if she drops a kulam on me I’m going to haunt you for the rest of your short life,” Ambrose said.

“I’m Rai and that’s Ambrose.”

“You go by your real names? Rookie mistake,” the woman scoffed. “I’m Chains.”

“Wait!” Ambrose eyes widened. “That’s real?”

Rai shook his head. “I’ve yet to come across evidence of it.”

Chains tsked. “So, what can the two of you do? Classes?”

“Not much without our stuff,” Ambrose said.

“Our equipment is in the other room,” Rai gestured to the closed door.

“Good thing those aswangs are amateurs,” Chains said.

She pulled a cigarette and a lighter from her pocket.

“Lady, now’s not the time for a smoke break,” Ambrose said.

Chains took a long drag and exhaled.

The smoke slithered like a snake toward the padlock on her cage.

The lock started to glow red, then white, before melting to the floor.

“Well, that’s new,” Ambrose blinked.

“What kind of mage are you?” Rai said.

Chains winked before repeating the magic twice more. “Best get your gear, boys.”

The two young men rushed into the other room and quickly emerged with their weapons and other… equipment.

“Are those shrunken heads?” Chains’ face twisted.

Ambrose glanced at his belt. “Yeah.”

“Just wondering,” Chains shrugged. “So, what do they do?”

“I use them to gain abilities,” Ambrose said.

“And you?” Chains turned to Rai.

“Spirits,” Rai said.

“Great, well, I think our best bet is to ambush them in here. We’d be outnumbered out there, surrounded, I’ll confuse them with my smoke and the two of you take them out,” Chains said.

“Can’t you just burn them like you did those locks?” Ambrose said.

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“Too slow. They’d just move.”

Rai regarded the woman. She looked nervous despite her attempt to hide it. “Or we can sneak out the back. I’m pretty sure we’ll only die horribly if we try to take on the Elder. Even that Justino person would stomp us.”

“Yeah, we should go now before they notice. Aswang can sense magic… kinda weird that he hasn’t come running already,” Ambrose said.

“Alright, I’ll burn us a hole through the wall,” Chains said. “If we can get outside there’s a chance I can use an emergency get out of jail card. I hope Rayna’s brother wasn’t full of shit,” she muttered the last bit under her breath.

The front door opened.

All three spun around.

Extended fingers pierced them all, fixing them in place.

“You’re one of the villains hurting and killing my family.”

The figure standing at the door was a tall man, beautiful beyond belief with long, silvery hair. The fingers of his right hand were splayed out, resembling long, thin blades.

He pulled Chains closer, while keeping the other two pinned to the floor.

“You will die for your part in this, but first, I will take all you know.”

Chains couldn’t look away from the terrible beauty. “Please, help me,” she whispered.

“Prayer? Don’t bother. This is my village, my forest, my world. There are no other gods.”

Rai and Ambrose couldn’t bear to watch, but weren’t able to look away.

The Elder’s presence demanded attention.

“Do something,” Ambrose ground out.

“I can’t… there aren’t any spirits anywhere nearby,” Rai wailed.

They could only watch as the Elder drained Chains.

First of her memories.

Then of her blood.

Until a dried husk was all that remained.

A pensive look came over the Elder’s face. “So… that’s why,” he said softly before regarding the two young men skewered on his fingers. “You’ve become less important to me in terms of information. However, your lives will add to my strength for the coming battle.”

----------------------------------------

Justino had to leave his post.

A massive fireball erupting in the part of the village that many families would’ve been on their way to the meeting hall from demanded a response.

Fres had immediately transformed and shot like an arrow toward the immense column of smoke rising into the darkness.

Justino had almost immediately smelled burned flesh, aswang and human, while he sprinted.

How had the enemy penetrated so deeply?

Porfiro was silent.

He knew that the connection was there, but something was still interfering.

Enemy action.

It was the only explanation at this point.

They had been completely outclassed and that fell on his head.

He was responsible for the defense and he had failed spectacularly.

Long black hair whipped around his head angrily.

Protect the family. Kill and feast.

The latter sentiments were beginning to take precedence in the chaotic whirl of his thoughts.

Justino transformed.

His body and limbs lengthened, while his head changed shape until it resembled a vague mix between man and cat. Over two feet was added to his short height.

Sleek and sinuous muscles rippled with every movement.

A promise of the strength and speed he now possessed.

The transformation didn’t stop there.

Black hair grew from every part of his body until it obscured the form beneath. Strands waved about as if they had a mind of their own. They snapped and reached for nonexistent enemies while Justino ran.

He rounded a corner and slid to a halt.

Someone was close, hiding.

He was a supreme hunter and with his supernatural senses even magical means of stealth could be pierced.

Small homes lined both sides of the dirt path. They were tidy and well-kept as was the expectation. Not demanded, but rather encouraged.

They were empty since the owners had gone to fight or had evacuated to the meeting hall.

There!

Tendrils of hair stabbed out without warning toward a home to his left.

There was a bright flash of light as the enemy dropped what must’ve been some kind of concealment spell in favor of a hasty magic shield.

The shield shattered, but managed to protect the caster from Justino’s attack.

The revealed enemy was a boyish-looking young man. Slight of frame, but with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Justino could smell the blood of family around the young man.

That should’ve meant instant death, but Justino still needed more information about the enemy. All he had at the moment were bits and pieces. Instinct told him that they faced a grave threat, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to fully conceptualize what that meant. Every time he had tried his thoughts scattered, it was like he was trying to carry water with a rice sifter.

The young man sent a ball of flame at Justino.

He created a shield out of his prehensile hair.

Only mildly painful.

The magical fire sputtered out. Unable to find purchase.

Justino’s innate magical resistance was too strong for the young man’s magic.

The young man attacked with a black wave of crackling energy.

Justino leapt over it and bore the young man to the ground. He could sense magic pulsing within the young man’s chest.

That was new.

Justino sent hair into the young man’s nose and mouth.

The young man struggled, but soon passed out from the lack of oxygen.

An easy fight.

This enemy wasn’t the one Justino dreaded.

He heard the sound of battle not too far away.

Growling and screeching.

Fierce fighting.

Fres would have to handle it on her own.

He had to bring the enemy back to Porfiro.

While Justino hurried back to the center of the village with his captive Fres was in the most difficult fight of her life with a werewolf… dog.

Her enemy was a strong, fast, heavy and vicious.

Teeth and claws had scored multiple wounds on Fres’ body and they weren’t healing as fast as they should’ve been.

It wasn’t salt.

Fres didn’t feel any of the hated substance.

Perhaps it was something in the nature of the enemy.

Fres noticed that the cuts and stabs she had inflicted on the enemy were also slow to heal.

She slashed across the weredog’s eyes, giving her space to flap her wings.

Or so she thought.

A painful tug on her lower half kept her from ascending into the dark.

Fres screeched in pain and at the indignity of being held like a kite by her bloody entrails.

The weredog clamped her teeth into Fres’ intestines like they were sausages and savagely shook her head.

Oh such pain.

Fres had taken human fighters hacking at her with machetes and axes with barely a sting.

She abandoned her attempt to fly up and instead laid the weredog’s back open with her razor-edged wings.

The two crashed to the ground with Fres on top. Her entrails had luckily looped around the weredog’s neck.

She stabbed her sharp tongue into the weredog’s flank and sucked.

Blood and viscera gave her strength and healed her wounds.

And such strength it was!

So much more than her normal human prey.

The weredog howled and slashed at the tongue.

Fres pulled it back into her mouth.

She had gotten more than enough.

She beat her wings with renewed vigor and took off.

The weredog choked and struggled as Fres’ entrails tightened like a noose.

Claws tore at the coils, but with the weredog’s blood in Fres’ system they healed quickly.

Fres tucked her wings and dived to the ground. She angled her descent toward a row of homes. At the last second she unfurled her wings and with mighty beats flew fast, just over rooftops.

She dragged the weredog through the homes leaving a wake of broken brick and wood.

She pulled up and chanced a glance down.

The weredog was covered in wooden splinters, large and small.

Fres couldn’t resist the bloody wounds. She shot her tongue toward a particularly oozing one near the meat of the weredog’s left thigh.

That was a mistake.

The weredog’s clawed hand moved faster, catching the tongue.

Before Fres could react the weredog had wound the tongue several times around its arm and yanked.

Fres’ head was jerked down.

Her wing beats faltered and the two of them plummeted to the ground.

They crashed into the middle of a dirt path.

Somehow they had missed the homes on either side.

Fres was dazed by the impact.

Suddenly, she felt teeth and pressure around the back of her neck.

It was immense, more than anything she had ever felt before.

Panic flooded her.

She beat her wings with fury.

Razor edges caught flesh.

The weredog let go with a yelp.

Fres pulled herself forward in the dirt before launching herself into the dark sky in desperation.

That was too close.

For a moment she had known what her prey had felt.

It wasn’t a feeling she liked.

Fear filled her.

Away.

That was the only thought in her mind.

The Elder’s encouraging presence wasn’t in her thoughts like it normally would’ve been. Like it had always been when they had to defend their village from strong monsters.

If it had been then Fres would’ve looked back to the ground and she would’ve seen that the weredog was clutching its bleeding throat, vulnerable.

Instead, Fres flew fast, away from the village and abandoned her family.

----------------------------------------

Hanna led the way through the breach in the village wall.

She had retrieved her Threnosh-made shield from Amber and along with her Threnosh-made armor made her the tankiest member of the group.

Besides, the young woman wasn’t going to use it since she had stayed in the forest with the gravely-injured Max to wait for an evac from Cruces.

The remainder of the state’s spear unit advanced a short distance on her heels, shields and spears forward.

The rest of the group was further back.

The open space behind the wall gave way to simply, but tidy homes in neat, orderly rows.

A narrow dirt path looked to be the only way further into the village.

Hanna raised her Threnosh-made sword to signal a halt.

The dark homes were the perfect place to attack from ambush.

“What are you thinking?” Demi said through the comms in Hanna’s helmet.

“Narrow path, houses on both sides. It’s a trap,” Hanna said. “Danger sense check?”

“One second.”

Hanna waited.

Unbidden thoughts of Ron flowed into and out of her mind.

Another death to add to the memorial.

Poor Hillary.

The girl had lost her only remaining family member.

No.

That wasn’t right.

They were all family.

Survivors united in their losses.

“Del and Jimenez are both at high numbers,” Demi said.

“I can go in and spring the trap. I think I’d survive long enough with my gear for the rest of you to hammer them with spells, but I’m running low on stamina for my Skills. I have to save my best for that Elder thing,” Hanna said.

“It might be time to call it and bring Cruces in,” Demi said flatly.

“Not yet, only when we’ve got nothing left to give,” Hanna said.

Ron had given everything.

She pushed the thought away.

“Jake’s got an idea,” Demi said.

Hanna glanced back.

Jake’s face was lit up by the laptop he held in front of him.

How many of those things had he brought?

The massive lightning bolt he had used to blow a hole in the village wall had fried one.

“This is my last one,” Jake said.

“Eyes shut!” Demi barked.

Hanna didn’t need to worry about that. The helmet’s faceplate would automatically darken.

Jake engage his spell.

An enormous bolt of lightning, blue-white crackling with energy lanced out from the space in front of the laptop. It arced into the homes and continued on for hundreds of yards.

Homes exploded on both sides of the path as the bolt oscillated from one side to the other and back.

Darkness reclaimed the night as the spell dissipated into the village.

Hanna tensed, ready for a response.

“Nothing,” Demi said.

“Grenades?” Jake suggested with a shrug.

“Do it!”

Each fighter had one grenade.

They threw them into the homes that remained standing.

Explosions filled the night as if it was the new year.

Although they weren’t trying to scare evil spirits away, but rather were trying to draw them out.

Still nothing.

Small fires and smoke littered the village as far as they could see.

“What about a taunt, Doran?” Hanna turned to the Spear Sergeant in command of the spear unit.

The grizzled man shook his head. “Need a visible target.”

“Looks like it’s back to my plan,” Hanna said into the comms. “Try not to hit—”

An enormous fireball bloomed in another part of the village to the west of their position.

“The rangers,” Demi said.

“That should’ve shaken the aswangs up.” Hanna sensed an opportunity. The best way out of a trap was to fight your way through or at least she remembered reading something like that once. She dashed down the path into the village with shield and sword ready.

Rubble was on both sides of her.

Fires filled the air with smoke.

Not a problem with her high-tech helmet.

Everything looked as clear as day to her.

“Advance carefully!”

Hanna heard Demi’s voice in her ears.

“Don’t get too far ahead!”

That command was for her, so Hanna slowed to a jog.

She heard it then.

Animal-like roars accompanied by the pounding of what sounded like dozens of heavy feet.

“Contact,” Hanna said.

“Fall back to the path head!” Demi barked. “We’ll bottleneck them!”

“Understood.”

Hanna hurried back.

What remained of the spear unit had formed a bristling wall across the path. There was an intact home on their left and a pile of rubble to their right.

“Trevor, that’s the last of our salt. I want as much coverage as possible,” Demi said.

The young man glanced at the glass containers of salt in his hands. Only two. He let out a long breath and nodded.

“Don’t hold anything back! This is the enemy’s last push!” Demi said.

The aswangs appeared out of the smoke.

Big ones, ground bound, just like the ones they had fought in the forest.

“Trevor!” Demi barked.

The young man hurled the containers of salt.

One toward the front of the charging aswang and the other toward the center.

Bursts of gunfire shattered them and showered much of the aswangs with salt.

“Weapons free!” Demi said.

The barrage was painfully short to Hanna’s ears. They had expended much of their ammunition during the previous battle.

“Taunts!” Doran said calmly. His Spearmen and Spearwomen shouted grimly in unison. They had gone through this already with twice their number. They remembered how the others had died and yet they set their stances and tightened their grips. “Brace. Reflect Charge.” His gaze shifted to Hanna for a moment. “My unit’s last.”

“It’ll be enough,” Hanna said.

“Shock!”

“Eldritch Dart!”

“Power Throw!”

A rock, of all things, buried itself into the forehead of one of the eight foot tall aswangs.

Demi poured accurate fire from the Threnosh-made recoilless rifle. It’d be awhile before she ran out of ammunition.

Hanna wondered if there would be divine intervention this time.

Cal had warned them that something inside the village was interfering with his abilities.

The aswangs reached their line.

And Hanna had no more time for extraneous thoughts.