Now, Manila
Eron stared at the small… creature?
He didn’t know what to make of it.
He had almost punted it out of existence when it had first scampered up to him.
The only reason he didn’t was that he had thought it was a cat at first. One of those hairless ones that had always creeped him out.
He then realized that it wasn’t a cat.
Sure, its hindquarters looked like a cat’s, tail included. Its head was quite close as well. The resemblance fell apart at the upper half of its body. The forelimbs were closer to a monkey’s or an ape’s. Long and sinewy, they reached the ground as the creature sat on its haunches.
It had paws for the back legs, but the front? Well, they looked like hands, people hands.
Eron suppressed a shudder at the creature’s needle-toothed smile.
“This is new. If you’re trying to be reassuring with the smile, consider one without the teeth showing.”
The creature immediately pressed its lips together.
“Okay… marginally not as disturbing.”
The creature rolled its eyes.
“The fuck? You can understand me— Don’t roll your eyes at me!”
The creature shrugged and beckoned him with an arm.
“Uh… yeah, no. What even are you?”
The creature sighed and gestured with more urgency. This time it pointed to the ceiling.
“You’re going to have to give me more to work with. I’m still not sure if this isn’t the newest fog trick.”
The creature spat with derision. Then it began to cut something into the floor with a clawed finger.
When it finished Eron warily moved closer to look.
Help. Friends. Upstairs.
The words had been neatly done.
Eron eyed the creature. “Okay… take me to them.” He couldn’t quite believe he was going to along with this. To be fair this wasn’t the strangest thing he had interacted with in the last decade.
The creature held up its long, sinewy arms. Almost like a baby wanting to be picked up… exactly like a baby wanting to be picked up.
“Oh… no,” Eron blanched. “Just go ahead, I’ll follow.”
The creature shook its cat-like head vehemently.
Seconds ticked away.
Eron sighed. “I swear… if you even scratch me a little…” he held out a hand.
The creature solemnly mimed a cross over its chest before scampering up Eron’s arm to perch on his shoulder.
The creature’s bare skin was warmer than he had expected. It was comforting, which made it disturbing.
He tried to ignore the feeling of tiny fingers grabbing his hair. He was relieved to note that the claws were retractable.
“Lead the way.”
The creature imperiously thrust out a hand.
Eron punched his way through the shades in the stair well.
One hit was all it took to dissipate them. There was a lack of powerful monsters and people. He was glad that he hadn’t had to fight any more of his relatives.
The creature pointed urgently down the hallway.
Shades were trying to break their way into one of the apartments.
“You might want to get off here,” Eron warned.
The creature leapt up to the ceiling and disappeared into a vent.
Eron charged the shades.
A few seconds and a dozen punches later found him alone.
“Anyone one in there? It’s Eron. Offic— Watch Captain Lawrence sent me to help you.”
Muffled shouts came from other side of the barricade.
Eron heard people dismantling it.
When he saw the fridge begin to slide back with agonizing slowness he casually pushed it. Slowly, so as to avoid hurting the people on the other side.
He vaguely recognized two out of the seven people in the apartment.
One of them had the creature cradled in her arms.
“Hi. Introductions later,” Eron waved. “Let’s get you all to safety.”
“How?” a young woman wearing a hard hat said.
Eron glanced back to the hall way. “I figured we can just run to the sanctuary. You guys stick together, watch each other’s backs. I’ll take care of the shades around you.”
“Excuse me, sir,” a tall young man ventured.
Eron realized that four, including the speaker, were Filipino.
The other three had come with Cal from America.
He wondered what the story there was. How had locals ended up joining his brother? Not to mention the aswang.
“Please don’t call me that. Eron is preferable.”
“Right, of course,” the young man nodded nervously. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful or, like, question you… but is that your plan? Just run for it? Cause we sort of tried that and… if it’s a stupid question and I’m just not seeing something, I’ll take it back,” he shrugged.
The young woman wearing the hard hat snorted.
“There are no stupid question questions—” Eron paused. “Okay, there are. Maybe, there aren’t any stupid first questions. So… anyways, follow me.”
He turned and strode back into the fog-shrouded hallway.
The others raced out on his heels.
“He— He didn’t answer my question,” Ambrose whispered. “It’s not funny!”
“It’s such a Rayna-thing to do,” Hardhat chuckled.
“Not at all like Remy,” Alexa said. “Scout ahead for threats,” she unceremoniously dumped Mr. Bigglesworth on the floor.
The bipedal cat-like familiar huffed, but scampered ahead past Eron to disappear into the fog.
“Alexa, right? I’ve some questions about that thing,” Eron called back.
“I got the Summon Familiar Spell at Level 20. Mr. Bigglesworth is what… appeared,” Alexa sighed.
“At least he didn’t cost you one million dollars,” Eron drew out the word in an exaggerated manner.
Alexa laughed.
Eron laughed.
The others stared in confusion at the two laughers, then at each other.
“I loved those movies. My brother had the DVDs and I ended up with them when he moved… good times,” Eron said wistfully.
“See… see…” Alexa gloated to Amber.
“I didn’t doubt that your dumb movie existed. I just thought that Mr. Bigglesworth was a dumb name for a familiar,” Amber shrugged.
There were nods all around.
----------------------------------------
Phillip leapt high into the air.
The wind whistled in his ears as the gray swirled around him.
Being unable to see the ground was unnerving. He hadn’t realized it before.
His target became visible a second before he crashed feet first into the mass of shades assaulting a fast food restaurant.
Bodies were crushed and went flying as the ground shook underneath Phillip’s boots.
Overwhelming relief filled him when the human bodies disappeared back into the fog.
There were doubts when he had first seen them.
Humans and monsters fighting together.
Although he had been mostly sure that they were shades, confirmation was nice.
A faint light glowed in the distance. The sigil was visible through the thick fog. He vaguely recognized it as being ancient Philippine script or at least close. Not that he was an expert or knowledgeable by most metrics.
The ground shook again.
Something big rumbled up the street, headed right for him.
He rushed to meet it.
An enormous mutated carabao thundered, head down, horns poised.
Great clouds of gray mist blew away from its nostrils. Its breathing sounded like the roar of a huge engine.
Phillip raised his fist and brought it down with all his might.
The hammer blow struck the mutated animal on top of its massive head.
Bones broke. The shards were driven into the brain, killing it instantly.
It quickly vanished back into the fog leaving behind the small crater its head had made in the asphalt.
Bleating sigbin appeared and just as quickly vanished at Phillip’s fists.
A woman appeared and pointed a finger. “Disintegration Ray,” she said with a dead-sounding voice.
The dark beam was fast, but not the speed of light.
However, Phillip had been caught off guard and he hesitated.
The beam struck him right in the middle of his chestplate.
The steel flaked, leaving behind a hand-sized circle of blackened metal.
As far as he could tell a layer of steel had just been turned into nothing.
He was fortunate that his armor was thicker than normal.
Phillip ripped a chunk of asphalt out of the ground and crushed the woman’s face with a well-aimed throw.
That was close.
He shuddered to think what would’ve happened if the spell had hit his bare skin.
It was stronger than steel, so he told himself that it wouldn’t have been an instant death. It certainly would’ve been painful.
The shades focused their attention on Phillip.
Spells, but none nearly as dangerous as the first one, bombarded him.
Small bolts of fire, rocks, jagged ice spikes and more.
He felt them, but none had been strong enough to hurt him.
He didn’t have time to waste, so he ran.
He ran right over the shades.
He covered the twenty to thirty feet of distance before they could react.
It was exactly like getting hit by a truck moving at close to a hundred miles an hour.
The shades didn’t have a chance.
Even the one that managed to cast a shield spell in time didn’t fare any better.
Phillip broke through the spell without slowing.
The shade fell to the ground clutching his head in agony from the damage feedback.
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Phillip put him out of his misery with a boot to the head.
He looked away as the shade disappeared.
Why did the fog have the bodies act as if they were still alive at the instant of their deaths?
It forced him to see the results of his strength on normal human bodies. Something that he hadn’t truly done before coming here.
It was a sight that would stay with him.
All he could to was to keep telling himself that they were already dead.
Sudden silence.
Phillip realized that there were no more shades.
He breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t had to face any of his family.
“You… you got them all.” Doran came out of the fast food restaurant with a strange look on his face.
Whether it was awe or horror, Phillip couldn’t tell.
He couldn’t look the grizzled Spear Sergeant in the eyes. “Are you okay? What happened here?”
“Got ambushed and separated. I don’t know what happened to any of the others,” Doran said.
The rest of his Spear Unit emerged from the building with stunned looks on their faces. Not a single one stood without some form of injury. Several had to be carried or helped along.
Phillip couldn’t help but count.
There were less of them than he remembered.
“Is that it? No more shades?” Xing said.
“I’d like nothing more than to head to that,” Doran pointed a broken spear toward the glowing sigil in the distance. “But, I can’t be sure that this reprieve isn’t just another trap.”
“Three hundred yards is a long way to go,” Harmony said.
Phillip regarded the fit woman. “It looks to be a hundred yards to me.”
“Yeah, I’m with you,” Jessie said. “I say we make a break for it before they come back.” The short young man winced as he tightened the bloody bandage around his thigh.
“We can’t be sure how far away it is. It seems different every time I look at it,” Doran said.
“Spear Sergeant, we can’t hold back another assault,” Audra said.
There was a gray pallor to the dark-skinned woman’s face that Phillip didn’t like.
“It has limits,” he said.
“You know this for a fact.” Doran’s gaze could’ve cut.
“Yes.” Phillip wasn’t a hundred percent certain. “I’ve never encountered anything without them. You spend mana for spells and stamina for Skills. The shades of these people—”
“They were using them,” Doran said.
Phillip nodded. “However, whatever the fog entity uses to recreate all of it… people, monsters… has to come from somewhere. It remade the ibingan that almost ate me. That had to have taken a lot of energy.”
“Plus all the shades we just fought,” Xing said.
They watched their fog-shrouded surroundings warily. Not willing to call calamity upon their heads by being hopeful that it was over for the moment.
“This might be your best chance to make it to the sanctuary. I could take smaller groups. It’d be easier to protect you. I could start carrying the injured two at a time. It’d take me seconds to run there and back.” Phillip said.
“That’d leave the ones left behind less able to fend off an attack,” Doran said.
“Then we all go together.”
“Okay,” Doran grunted.
----------------------------------------
Demi realized why Eron had warned them about fighting.
She grimaced as Rino stared down the woman, Cherry, who was an Aswang: Gabunan judging by the impossible beauty and luscious, silvery hair.
The Weredog had come in to Cherry’s restaurant with Marci, the lithe, tall Spearwoman tucked under one, long, furry arm. It almost reminded Demi of a huge dog carrying its favorite toy… if the dog was north of eight feet tall and bipedal.
Rino had dropped Marci to the floor as soon as she had laid eyes on Cherry.
She would’ve broken Eron’s no fighting rule if it hadn’t been for Jake foolishly placing his big body in the way as the Weredog growled and stalked toward Cherry.
It had looked dicey for a moment, but Rino had calmed and transformed back into her human form.
Demi repressed a shudder at the memory. It had looked painful.
They gave Rino her spare clothing from the dwindling supply in her pack.
“C’mon, Rino. Eron said no fighting,” Jake pleaded.
Rino bared her teeth in Cherry’s face, who stared at her impassively. Both women were tall enough to stand nose to nose.
“It’s like watching supermodels about to throw down,” Trevor whispered.
“Shh… they can hear you!” Santi’s eyes were wide.
Demi figured the kid had the right of it to be scared of the possibility. She remembered what the gabunan at the village had been capable off. She didn’t know if Cherry was the same. If all gabunan had the same abilities and strength.
“I don’t know Eron,” Rino ground out. “All I know is that I see and smell the same thing as what was in that village.”
“I’ll make no apologies for what I’ve become. I will only remind you that you are guests here in this sanctuary. Starting a fight is unseemly,” Cherry said. “Besides, you’re traveling with another aswang,” she pointed a long, delicate-looking finger at Ginessa without taking her unblinking eyes off Rino.
Seated at the most distant table, Ginessa tried to shrink into herself at the unwanted attention.
Demi thought it was like a cat seeing a tiger at the zoo. There was something instinctive to Ginessa’s futile efforts to avoid notice.
“Oh relax, girl,” Cherry sighed. “I mean you no harm, nor will I try to dominate you. I’m not like that.”
“Stand down, Rino,” Demi said. She wanted to calm things down before the two strongest beings in the room started something that the rest of them would regret. “She hasn’t done anything.”
“I heard the unspoken ‘yet’,” Cherry chided. “Typical of you Americans. Always thinking you’re the big dogs,” she smirked at Rino, “wherever you go. No respect when you visit other peoples homes.”
“I’m only half,” Rino growled.
“Spoken like the petulant child you are,” Cherry sneered.
“Please, we don’t want to fight. We came here to help,” Demi said.
“Then stop trying to intimidate me in my own home. I have every intention of being polite. Are you capable of doing the same?” Cherry said.
Rino balled her fists.
“Oh… for fuck’s sake,” Jake muttered.
Demi could tell that he was getting ready to do something he knew he’d regret.
But before anything could happen Cristos pushed himself up from a table near the door. “Might want to put those claws away.” He pushed the door open for the new arrivals.
Demi felt a flood of relief as Alexa and Amber walked in. Followed by Ambrose, Hardhat, Boy, Venida and Gabrio. Eron came in last, shirtless for some reason.
His gaze immediately went to Cherry and Rino. Eyes tightened.
The two finally stepped back from each other. The former rolled her exquisite eyes before looking his naked torso up and down. The latter tried to stare Eron down, but couldn’t hold it.
“Did anyone else come in while I was gone?” Eron looked to Demi for confirmation.
“No,” she replied.
Eron didn’t outwardly react. “I’ll get them.” He simply turned around and headed back out the door.
“Wait! I’ll go too!” Rino called out as she started to take off her clothes.
Eyes either averted or focused depending on the person.
“No you are not,” Demi said flatly. She regarded the unhealed cuts and ugly bruises on Rino’s body. The Weredog was a fast healer. To still have such ugly looking wounds suggested that Rino was operating close to her, considerable, physical limits. Never mind the mental ones. “You need to begin recovery. We need you for future operations.”
Rino looked like she was about to argue, but relented.
Eron had already exited the restaurant. He walked with a purpose toward the wall of gray, swirling fog. He needed to hurry. He had no idea how long the others could last… and yet, he found himself reluctant.
The toll of it was getting too heavy.
He had to keep moving. Keep going forward. Don’t give himself time to think and doubt. Don’t think of the consequences for when his strength was finally found lacking.
He took a deep breath and jumped back in surprise as dark shapes came rushing out of the fog.
There were so many of them.
Was it an attack? Had the fog finally breached Lilah’s protection?
“Lilah!”
A jolt of terror flooded Eron.
He was torn between getting ready to face the dark shapes or jumping straight to Lilah’s window.
His eyes fell on the glowing sigils on the walls.
They glowed.
He realized they still filled him with comfort. With the strength to keep moving forward.
Eron charged into the fog.
He wasn’t going to let them destroy the sanctuary, hurt Lilah and the others.
The gray swirled around him.
A dark shape appeared right in front of him.
Too close.
He reacted without thought.
His fist struck out.
Only to be caught.
The grip was like a vise around his fist. Stronger than him. Much stronger.
Eron tried to pull away, but he barely budged. He punched with his other fist.
Caught.
“Eron? Stop! It’s me, Dad!”
“They said you got eaten.” Eron wanted to believe, but he couldn’t trust the fog.
“I got out of it.” His dad beamed as he pulled Eron into a bone-crushing hug.
Eron tried to resist, but couldn’t.
If this was a shade of his father then it was over.
Eron noticed the other shapes over his dad’s shoulder.
A battered group of men and women with shields and spears.
There was fear and relief in their eyes as they hurried toward the glowing light behind him.
Not shades.
Eron returned his dad’s embrace.
“I’m glad to see you,” he said.
His dad held him by the shoulders. “Same… let’s get out of this and into your sanctuary.”
“Everyone inside,” Eron jabbed a thumb toward the light, “no fighting,” he added.
“Why would there be fighting?” his dad said.
“We’ve got an aswang. She’s been… helpful,” Eron replied.
“Same with us,” his dad shrugged and placed an arm around his shoulders.
“I can’t go back yet. If these are the spear unit…”
His dad nodded.
“… then most of Rayna’s Rangers are still missing. I have to find them.”
“We’ll do it together.”
Eron and his dad waited for the last of the spear unit to disappear into the sanctuary’s aegis.
“Everyone was supposed to be on this street when they got separated by the fog’s ambush,” Eron pointed.
“I just came down from there and I didn’t notice anyone else. They were the last in the formation,” his dad said.
“We should check the side buildings. That’s where I found some of them.”
Just as they were about to head off fortune finally shined on Eron.
In a literal sense.
A light appeared a short distance away, bobbing in the thick fog. As if being held in human hands.
Lilah’s portable ward revealed the people under its protection.
Madalena led the way carrying two unconscious people, one over each shoulder, as the twenty or so people clustered around the source of light held high by one of them.
“Is that you, Madalena?” his dad said.
“Tito Phillip?” Madalena replied with surprise.
“I’m glad you made it,” Eron said.
“It was… close,” Madalena didn’t look him in the eye.
“Are they—?” his dad began.
“Mr. Cruces, the sarge and Fin are probably going to be fine,” a brawny woman limped forward, “but—”
“What is it, Mouthy?” his dad’s voice almost cracked.
“Sir— the fucking fog— took them—”
“Who?”
“Two-toes and Smores… killed them and turned them into—”
The woman, Mouthy, couldn’t finish.
Eron knew what she had been about to say.
“Sir? We got separated from the others. They might still be out there,” a young man with a pair of antique revolvers, one on each hip, said.
“You should be the last, Aims. We’ll make sure once you get inside.”
Eron nodded at his dad and ushered them on.
It was a bloodied, beaten group that finally reached their destination.
Not all who had started the journey made it.
Eron would learn more later as his dad recounted what had transpired on the journey.
Guilt. He felt it keenly. Many had died at his call for aid.
Still, not one of them looked at him with blame in their eyes as he saw to it that everyone had a place to rest as Dr. Rufo and those with medic skills or Skills and healing spells tended to the injured.
Food. Water. Showers.
It was the least that he could provide.
Though it seemed an insufficient thanks for such sacrifice.
“So, this is your dad?” Cherry raised a brow.
“Yeah,” Eron said while staring at the glass of top-shelf whisky cradled in his hands.
“Well… Mr. Cruces, don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t look nearly old enough,” Cherry continued.
“Phillip is fine. It’s thanks to the spires. Whatever change they did to make me physically superhuman also shaved a few years off.“
“You certainly are… superhuman… I mean,” Cherry’s gaze lingered.
“Please don’t flirt with my dad. He’s happily married to my mom,” Eron said.
“Oh, I don’t mean anything by it. I flirt with everyone. It’s my thing,” Cherry winked. “I thought you already knew that about me.”
“Yes.”
“Fine, be no fun,” Cherry waved dismissively as she got up from the table and disappeared behind the bar.
Phillip blinked. “She just—”
“Vanished? Yeah, she does that. Superior senses and I still haven’t figured that out.” Eron swirled the contents of his glass. “Dad, do you miss it?”
“What, Anak?”
“The ability to get drunk.”
“Sometimes… but now I can really appreciate the taste.”
“I’ve realized that I don’t… didn’t drink for that. I definitely drank to get drunk and have a good time with friends more than anything else.” Eron downed the glass and grimaced. “And this is the expensive stuff?”
“Very. It’s kind of nice that more just shows up after some time.”
“Maybe that affects the taste. It being a copy made from magic.”
“Can’t say that I can tell. It tastes about the same as I remember.”
“So, those magic communication devices?” Eron changed the subject. “They worked?”
“Yeah. When we first went into the fog. They were working fine. Distance might be the problem, but I trust that they’ll figure it out.”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Eron shook his head. “The fog isn’t just a force of nature. It’s a thinking entity. It’ll be doing what it can to interfere with your devices. You’ll have to strengthen that magic signal thing or weaken the fog. I think now that you’re here we can get these people out.”
“If we can reach your brother we can get his help, coordinate.”
Phillip noticed that a little bit of light that had been missing from Eron’s eyes had returned.
“Going straight up is a lot shorter distance than pushing a bus on the roads. If Cal could just lift the bus up,” Eron smiled. “Easy!”
“How would your brother know when he can’t see?”
“But he doesn’t need to see with his eyes,” Eron frowned.
“He can’t, he’s tried. The inside of this stuff is like a blank space to him.”
“Damn it… so close, yet so far. Maybe, he can use one of us and see through our eyes,” Eron mused. “If we can talk to him through those devices that might be enough of a connection for him to latch onto with his bullshit mind powers.”
A boy came running out of the stairwell, panting. “Lilah’s woke up and she’s asking for you! Madalena says to hurry!”
“Thanks, Nestor,” Eron patted him on the head. “Do you want to come with?” he turned to his dad.
“It sounds urgent,” Phillip nodded.