Now, Manila

“Okay… not ominous at all,” Cal shrugged and boarded the bus.

To his surprise he saw several familiar faces.

Fin was out cold in a seat. Next to him was Jovita with an ice pack on her head.

“I would’ve stayed, but they didn’t let me,” she said.

“That’s because you have a concussion,” an old man with a bloody bandage around his head said.

“No shame in that. Sometimes your body won’t let you fight, even if you’ve got the will. Rest and heal. There’ll be more fights,” Cal said.

He saw Ramira and a few spears. They all looked to be in rough shape.

He saw Cristos as he continued toward the back.

The special forces soldier gave him a curt nod. “It was a tough fight just getting there.”

Cal nodded.

“Cal… um…” Ginessa emerged from one the seats with a small girl cradled in her arms like a baby.

“Ginessa… I’m glad you’re okay,” he regarded the girl, “and this is?”

“Lilah…”

The young girl eyes fluttered open. She was pale, sweaty, clearly under duress and Cal had an uncomfortable feeling that he should’ve known why.

“… she woke up and said she had to talk to you… she’s the one doing the wards,” Ginessa said. “Can you help her? Please?”

“Kuya Cal, we have to go to Kuya Eron.” Lilah’s voice was weak, barely a whisper, but easily audible to Cal.

“You know who I am?”

“… saw you, it, me… dreaming…”

“She’s been saying stuff like that while she was sleeping,” Ginessa said.

Confirmation.

Sometimes it was good to have. Other times it wasn’t.

Like taking a test. One’s score could be anything. It wasn’t certain until one got the results back.

“Schrodinger’s test or something,” Cal muttered. “The dreams. Visions. They were real. Somehow the last dregs of my powers connected me to it and to you, probably through your magic sigils.”

Lilah nodded weakly. “Not gone. Still there. Hidden.”

“I thought so. It’s good to get an expert opinion,” he smiled down at the girl. “So, don’t worry Lilah. I’ll help Eron right away. I just need directions to where I might find him and the fog entity.”

“They think it’s in the senate building. I overheard them talking about it,” Ginessa said.

“Address?”

“I don’t know, you can ask someone else, Madalena or Cherry. It’s almost directly west from the place we arrived in. Right on the bay,” Ginessa looked down.

“Thank you, both of you,” Cal turned to leave.

“No!”

He looked back at Lilah.

“I have to come. Not enough without me.”

“You’re in no condition—” Ginessa began.

“Okay, hand her over,” Cal said.

“What?” Ginessa had a betrayed look on her face.

“Lilah made these sigils. She’s more connected to the entity than anyone else. My instincts are telling me that victory is going to come down to her.”

“But, she’s— I mean, look at her,” Ginessa tried.

“That’s why me, Eron and Lilah are going to kick that thing’s butt as soon as possible. Just get out of the city as fast as you can.”

Cal ignored the protests as he carried Lilah out of the bus.

The other passengers didn’t object. He couldn’t really blame them. Horrifying experiences had a way of numbing a person to their surroundings.

“The hell do you think you’re doing?” Madalena met them outside.

“Don’t stop me, Ate Madalena. Have to go to save everyone,” Lilah said.

“I don’t like it either,” Cal shrugged. “But, she’s magic girl and I’ll trust her.”

Madalena tensed.

It looked like she was about to punch Cal in the face and snatch Lilah out of his arms.

“Please, Ate,” Lilah pleaded. “I have to save Eron… you… everyone before I can’t anymore.”

Cal gaze softened as he looked down at Lilah. “Time is precious. You know that, don’t you?”

Lilah nodded up at him.

“Madalena, none of us has much time left. It seems that this is Lilah’s and my part to play in this terrible Quest.”

“Don’t call it that!” Madalena snapped. “This isn’t a game!”

“Agreed, but we have no choice either way. Save who you can in the way you can. We’ll do the same.”

Madalena gently touched her forehead to Lilah’s. She glared at Cal. “If anything happens to her…”

“I will kill everything in the fog and myself, before I let that happen,” Cal said.

“No sacrifice,” Madalena warned Lilah.

The girl said nothing.

Madalena wiped her eyes as she headed to the rear of the bus.

“Take care of yourself, Lilah girl,” Cherry called down from the roof.

“I’ll try,” Lilah’s whispered.

“Don’t try. Do! If it’s between you and either of those boys, you pick yourself,” Cherry waved as the bus began to move.

Madalena gave them one last look as she pushed the bus past them.

“You should take their words to heart. One shouldn’t be eager for self-sacrifice,” Cal said.

Lilah nodded.

“Tell me if this gets uncomfortable.” Cal shifted his grip so he could take his helmet off. “Put this on. It’s going to be a little sweaty, but it’ll protect your face from the wind.”

“It smells,” Lilah’s nose wrinkled.

“Warned you,” Cal shrugged. “Shall we?”

Lilah gave him the thumbs up.

Cal shifted his arms again to shield her frail body from the wind as he ran.

He hit 50 miles an hour within a handful of strides.

He could’ve gone faster, but he didn’t want to risk it for Lilah’s sake.

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

Rino’s vision cleared. Her thoughts returned. Closer to her human self than the beast. Her time had run out and with it the pain returned.

An involuntary whine escaped her blood-stained muzzle as she placed too much weight on her broken leg.

She almost collapsed, but stubborn will kept her standing.

“What kind of monster is this?” a shade sucked in deep breaths as he circled out of Rino’s reach. His shirt was in bloody tatters and bone-deep lacerations marred his face.

“It doesn’t matter. She can barely stand. Let’s just rush her and get this over with,” another shade said. The young man was also covered with deep slashes. His right elbow ended in bloody meat from when Rino had chomped right through. His face, a younger version of the first shade’s, was twisted in pain.

A third shade, a young woman, her eyes glinting in the red glow from the tiger paw-shaped forcefields over her hands, snarled. “She killed Tita Lu. Hold her and I’ll gut her!”

The two men exchanged glances.

“We’re already dead,” the young shade said.

“That doesn’t matter to me when that monster butchered her like an animal!”

“Young lady, your tita will be back the next time our jailer needs her. Just like we will,” the older shade said.

“Then why are the two of you hesitating?”

The two men shrugged at each other.

The older charged and leapt at Rino from high while the younger aimed for the side of her good leg.

Rino caught the older shade around his torso in her right hand. Claws pierced through superhumanly tough skin. The wounds on the shade’s face opened wider and gushed more blood as he grimaced.

The younger slammed his shoulder into Rino’s knee, but she had managed to turn so that he wasn’t able to break it or tear ligaments and tendons.

She reached down with her left hand. Rather, she tried. Her arm didn’t respond. It hung limp, torn and tattered from dozens of deep cuts from so many different forcefields.

She had found the limits of her quickened healing.

Hobbled by the strong young man, Rino couldn’t do anything to avoid or block the young woman leaping up and slashing forcefield claws across her muzzle.

Rino hurled the older man, but the young woman ducked out of the way. She laid open the young man’s back with a swipe, but he stubbornly clung to her good leg with his arm.

The young woman darted in and cut deeply into the hard muscles of Rino’s stomach.

Rino snarled and blindly swiped with her claws.

The young woman dipped underneath and dragged gouges into Rino’s inner thigh as she circled to Rino’s back.

Rino howled and tried to pivot, but her injured leg crumpled.

The older shade reappeared, landing heavily on her back. One arm encircled her thick neck and tightened like a vise. He landed jackhammer blows to the side of her head with his other fist.

“Pull her head up!” the young woman cried.

Rino shook her head savagely.

The man struggled to stay on as he wrestled with her huge muzzle.

Her huge, teeth-filled muzzle.

His hand slipped.

Her jaws snapped shut.

Dagger-like teeth pierced supertough skin.

A loud crunch forced a pained shout from the man.

Rino violently thrashed her head. The bone was hers now and she wasn’t letting go.

The man screamed as muscles and tendons in his elbow finally gave.

He tumbled off Rino’s back, dazed from the shock and pain.

Rino spat the arm out.

It had tasted horrible.

Wrong.

A flash of red crossed Rino’s left eye right before it went dark.

Pain in her throat.

Claws piercing, reaching for her windpipe.

So, that’s what it felt like, Rino thought.

Rino reached for the young woman, but found her right arm held fast.

The young man had leapt up and was now dragging her to the ground.

Rino couldn’t resist.

Their strength had been too close. Her usual advantage was absent against these shades.

Rino caught the older man reappearing at the corner of her remaining eye, minus an arm like the younger, but somehow still strong enough to crash into her body and finally knock her to the ground.

The young woman had clung to Rino through the violence thanks to her clawed-forcefields.

Rino’s vision dimmed as the grip around her throat tightened.

The superstrong shades held her down. One on her good arm and the other across her legs.

“You’re a monster! You deserve this hell more than us!” the young woman snarled.

Darkness.

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

Demi sprayed indiscriminate projectile fire from her recoilless rifle into the greenish forcefield dome shielding a small group of shades. It kept them from going on the offensive and that was good enough.

A shade rushed from the side trailing mist in his wake.

Amber stepped forward with her conjured blade

The shade took the strike on an upraised arm.

She had cut him to the bone, but he was more than strong enough to pull her off-balance with simple twist of the arm. He lashed out and sent Amber flying with a flash of light from her mage armor.

The shade faced Demi.

“Power Strike!” Rebekah stepped in behind him and separated head from body. She bent over and sucked-in deep lung fulls of air.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Demi’s rifle clicked empty. She reached for a canister at her waist and found none.

The forcefield generating shade saw this in an instant and dropped it. The shades he had been protecting charged forward.

The colors of the rainbow and beyond flashed through the swirling mist.

Rebekah, exhausted, still stepped forward with a desperate swing of her axe.

A shade blocked with a disk-shaped forcefield at his arm.

A second shade punched Rebekah in the chest.

The bone crushing blow sent her flying a dozen feet. She would’ve went further had a rusted car not stopped her flight.

Demi drew her pistol and squeezed off two shots before the shades were on her.

Hands grabbed her arm and slapped the weapon free.

With her other she drew her knife and stabbed wildly as lights flashed in her faceplate. Forcefields and damage alerts tangled in confusion.

A hit rocked her head back.

Then another across the back of her knees brought her down.

Strong hands lifted her up and brought her down with a thud.

She would’ve been dead hadn’t it not been for the Threnosh armor.

The shades stood over her and all she could do was curl up as they began to batter her.

Trevor threw stones that multiplied into many.

Alexa cast eldritch magic even as her small familiar viciously defended her without regard for its safety.

Del appeared next to the fallen Amber as if out of thin air and helped the shaky young woman up.

They had been separated from their captain as they retreated toward the spear line’s left flank.

Jake waved them on with one hand while the lightning claw surrounding his prosthetic crackled. He pointed toward the middle of the street, where they could see Hanna trying to fight her way through the press of shades separating her from the rest. “Watch Captain Lawrence can take a beating, but Rino’s in trouble! Trevor, you’ve got to help her!”

Trevor stood on his tip toes, then did a bunny hop. “I can’t see her!”

“I can see,” Jake said. “Use my eyes.”

“The fuck! How?”

“My Skills,” Sgt. Butcher grunted between shots, “just believe it and will it.”

Trevor concentrated for a few seconds. “Holy shit! This is weird,” he said.

“Do it!” Jake snapped.

Trevor muttered something inaudible as he hurled a small stone over the melee.

One stone became three.

Each struck a shade in the head.

Two were too tough to be killed instantly.

One wasn’t.

The young woman with her tiger claw forcefield around Rino’s neck collapsed on top of Rino.

The Weredog suddenly came to life with a roar.

In the thick of the melee the spears fought and died.

A woman shade grabbed Brendon’s head in between her hands.

The woman was slightly-built, but that didn’t mean anything when one had superstrength.

Brendon was average-sized, but he was in his prime, strong and fit from hard exercise and training. He had lost his spear early in the battle, so he struck at the woman’s face with his tactical, black tomahawk.

The steel blade cut into the woman’s forehead, but her grip didn’t waver.

Her hands continued to squeeze Brendon.

Desperation filled him as he had no choice, but to look into the woman’s resigned eyes. He couldn’t understand why.

He dropped his tomahawk and drew the sawed-off shotgun from the holster at his side.

Two point blank shots to the woman’s face finally freed him.

He raised his shield just in time as the woman punched right through it in a shower of splinters.

Brendon had cause to regret his choice of an open-faced helmet as they cut his face. He backpedaled, frantically looking around for his teammates.

He saw the two that had been with him dead on the ground. New recruits from the north. No. That was wrong. They were part of the team even if it had only been a few weeks. They had fought with him. Had died, just like he was about to.

Brendon tripped over another body and fell on his seat.

The woman shade with that same dead look on her face appeared in front of him and grabbed his head in between her hands.

She squeezed.

Brendon fought like an animal. Punching at her thin wrists and arms to no avail. He might as well have been hitting steel cables.

“Someone, help…” he managed to get out right before the end.

“Brendon!” Xing cried out as he rushed, too late. He put everything he had into a swing of his blood-stained crowbar. The hooked end caught the woman in the eye, bursting it like a grape.

The woman regarded Xing coldly as the Spearman battered her around the head and shoulders to minimal effect. She reached out with hands stained by Brendon’s blood.

“Spear Thrust!”

A spear whistled past Xing’s ear and plunged into the shade’s other eye.

The Spearwoman left her weapon as she pulled Xing back closer to the remnants of their formation.

Behind them.

Up against the ruined front of what was once Cherry’s restaurant several still bodies lay on the sidewalk.

Not dead, but injured and unconscious.

Aims stood protectively over them.

The antique revolver in each hand felt heavy for all that they were half-empty.

He wanted nothing more than use them on the shades fighting against his team. Unfortunately, those were his last rounds and he didn’t want to use the Skill he got after the aswang village until the absolutely necessary, which was looking close.

Sgt. Butcher’s Skills had given him dozens of good shots viewed through the eyes of the others. The shifting tableau would’ve been maddening had he not practiced it often with his ranger squad.

Still, the number of people added when the Ranger Sergeant had temporarily inducted everyone else into the rangers was making it difficult to concentrate.

It was starting to make him nauseous, so he pulled back with a thought and focused on his own vision.

Mouthy stumbled back toward Aims.

The result of a superpowered punch to the helmet that dented the metal.

Sgt. Butcher shot the shade in the face as she pulled Mouthy back and ordered her to take a second.

Mouthy plopped down next to the unconscious Rai and squinted up at Aims. “Don’t you think it’s time you used your super bullets? We’re just about fucked.”

“Guns need to be empty first and I can’t waste them. It has to be a last chance kind of thing.”

“Fucking wait too long and you’ll be the only one left. Explain that to Ranger Captain Pena.”

“She’ll understand.”

“Yeah, fuck you too… we can’t lose this. Not after everyone we’ve already lost,” Mouthy said.

A pair of shades broke around to their right flank and headed straight for them.

Aim’s coolly aimed and fired.

A bullet in an eye for each.

“3 left,” Aims whispered as the shades hit the ground before returning to the fog. “Smores pointed something out to me when I got that Skill. I just figured hollow-point, armor-piercing, the standard stuff. The kid opened my eyes. Helped me conceptualize all sorts of possibilities.”

“Dumbass genius loved theory-crafting shit,” Mouthy agreed.

“I just realized he’s never going to get the chance to see what my Skill can do.”

Mouthy let out a long breath and spat before climbing to her feet.

“You sure you can go back into the blender?” Aims said.

“No, but I’m gonna do it anyways. For Smores and the others.” Mouthy walked toward the melee on unsteady legs only to nearly fall over as Del suddenly appeared in front of her.

Mouthy drew her machete back, but relaxed a split-second later. “The fuck, man!”

Del gasped for air. He was hunched over with the weight on his back. The unconscious Rebekah.

“She alive?” Mouthy said.

“Yeah,” Del nodded. “Broken ribs. I need to check to make sure one didn’t go into a lung.”

Mouthy helped the thin man carry Rebekah over to where they had placed their other wounded.

Max stumbled over as the rest of the Watch fell back behind the defensive line on the left flank. The one-armed man looked like he could barely stand.

“Might want to sit down,” Aims suggested.

Max waved the concern away.

Aims eyed the thorny vines wound around Max’s remaining arm.

How had the man managed to do that in the middle of a city street?

He had been under the impression that Max had needed some kind of nature for his spells.

Another question Smores could’ve probably answered.

The thought brought a pang to Aim’s chest.

A flash of movement out of the corner of his right eye had him pointing his revolvers only to find a wide-eyed Jimenez, staring at him like a frozen squirrel.

Aims moved his revolvers out of her face with a curse.

The small woman took a tentative breath.

“I thought you were on the bus with the others.”

“I got off with them,” Jimenez pointed at the Watch.

“Brave, but you were better off getting out of here. You’ve got good sneaking and hiding abilities, but that’s not of much use right now.”

“I just… it didn’t feel right leaving when I wasn’t hurt like the others.”

“Sure, okay… just try to pick your spots. Shoot and vanish, keep moving.”

“That was my plan, but I got a spike from my danger sense.”

“There’s fucking a lot of that all over the place,” Mouthy snorted.

“Yeah, I’m getting all that, but I just got one from in there,” Jimenez pointed into the darkened interior of the restaurant.

The fog-filled interior.

“Shit!” Aims cursed.

He saw movement.

“Mouthy, Del! Pull them away from the windows!” Aim’s fired his remaining rounds into the human shapes. Even with his enhanced eyes and aiming he wasn’t sure if he had managed eyeball shots. He didn’t see the flash of forcefields. “Max, any magic you can do would be great!”

The one-armed man grunted. “There are plants in there,” he said through clenched jaw. “If I can—” he held out his thorn covered arm.

Max’s entire body swayed as Mouthy and Del hurriedly dragged their unconscious comrades away.

There was a rumbling sound from within the restaurant.

“Roses…” Max muttered. “Thorn Wall.”

Aims flinched as several things hidden by the fog shattered.

Small particles struck him in the face.

Dirt?

The fog swirled as what was once small, grew to an impossibly large size.

Thorn-covered stems as thick around as a man’s arms twisted and shaped into a barricade that blocked whatever, whomever, was inside the restaurant.

Magic.

Smores would’ve found the sight fascinating.

“It won’t hold them long,” Max gasped.

Indeed, the wall was already shaking as super strong hands tore at it. The telltale glow of forcefields could be seen as they sliced at the stems.

Aims sighted through a tiny gap.

“Special Round: Explosive Stun.”

He felt the empty revolver in his left hand suddenly grow just that much heavier.

Bang!

The round whistled through the gap.

A bright flash was followed by a loud crack.

Almost like a flashbang.

Keen eyes saw bodies drop or stagger.

Of course, it’d take more than that to put down a supertough shade.

Aims leveled the revolver in his right hand.

“Special Round: Explosive Incendiary.”

Bang!

Fire bloomed, consuming the interior of the restaurant in intense flames that lit up the gray gloom.

The shades inside burned. Their durability and toughness had limits.

“Motherfuckingshit!” Mouthy snapped. “Do it to them!” she jabbed a finger at the rest of the shades.

Aims sagged and was forced to take a knee. “One a day per gun. Wipes me out.”

Mouthy let lose a string of expletives before once again heading into the fight.

“That’s it for me,” Aims looked up to Max, Del and Jimenez. “I’m well and truly empty.”

“We won’t let the shades get past us,” Del said.

Max was unsteady, but he, along with Jimenez nodded.

“Thanks, Smores,” Aims said as he sat down and helplessly watched the battle continue.

Behind them, the restaurant and the thorn wall burned.

While in the distance, a rooster crowed.

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

What might’ve been the most powerful jet of water in recorded human history slammed Eron through a building. It shredded his shirt before he managed to get out from under it.

He blindly cut into a narrow alleyway that led to a shanty town.

The ibingan circled over head, searching.

Eron crouched low to the ground and reoriented himself.

The senate building was still a mile or two away by his reckoning.

Despite its immense size the ibingan was both fast and accurate.

Eron heard an intake of breath that sounded like a turbine spinning up. He launched himself forward just as another jet of high pressure water shot out of the ibingan’s mouth.

It was like a weaponized fire hose.

Eron would’ve laughed had the thin stream not cut into the asphalt below his boots and the concrete blocks and aluminum siding of the make-shift homes as it traced its way after him.

He burst through the shanty town as the ibingan cut a swathe of destruction in his wake.

Once again he emerged out on a street in a nice-looking area. Trendy shops, well… they were a decade ago. Abandoned ones lined both sides of the street.

Eron zig-zagged in an effort to throw off the ibingan’s aim.

The giant dragon-serpent opened its maw and let loose.

The stream sliced through the buildings like a scalpel through skin.

Eron ran up to the back of the car, lifted it up and quickly walked his hands to the center of the undercarriage. He turned and hurled the rusted hulk at the diving ibingan.

A jet of water sliced through it and forced him to jump back to avoid it.

He crashed into a power pole. He ripped it out of the ground and gave it his best home run swing.

The impact of the pole hitting the side of the ibingan’s draconic head sent a shockwave across the street that shattered windows. The ibingan demolished an entire block of buildings with its train-sized body.

Eron threw the power pole at it then turned and ran.

Half a mile, that’s how far he had gone before the ibingan caught up again.

He cursed.

He could cover more ground, much faster by leaping. However, that would’ve left him vulnerable while in the air without a way to truly change direction.

The ibingan was proving frighteningly accurate with its breath attack… spit attack?

The ibingan he had faced in the past didn’t have any breath weapons. He was starting to think that it had been a younger one.

This time the ibingan spat a glob of reddish liquid.

Eron juked to the right.

Bits of asphalt went flying from the force and suddenness of the move.

The glob hit the ground and immediately sizzled as it ate through.

Great, Eron thought.

Venom? Acid? Whatever the substance? It was highly corrosive.

As Eron found out a few minutes later.

He ducked around the corner of a building just as a red glob hit.

It ate through the material like nothing and a few droplets landed on Eron’s arm and back.

Burning pain!

It had been a long time since he had felt something of such intensity.

He fought the instinct to wipe away to the droplets with his bare hand.

He thought to tear a piece of fabric from his jeans, but the corrosive substance worked fast. All he could do was watch in horror as the flesh on his arm dissolve.

A large patch of skin just sizzled away.

Red muscle bled.

He waited for that too to be eaten away.

It didn’t.

A small drop was enough to get through his skin, but not more.

Good to know.

He had an exposed patch of muscle on his arm and no doubt several on his back.

There were worse things to deal with.

The pain began to dull.

He resolved to avoid a second experience.

He took to running through the buildings for added cover.

Walls barely slowed him as the ibingan alternated attacks from overhead.

Entire city blocks were annihilated.

Eron burst through one last building to emerge onto a wide street.

He smelled the ocean on the wind.

After a few more blocks of desperate sprinting with the giant dragon-serpent on his trail he saw his destination.

So close.

He hurled cars and light poles at the ibingan as he ran.

The senate building was only a few hundred yards away.

A few more seconds and the ibingan would be forced to back off.

At least that’s what Eron had been counting on.

Surely, the fog entity would avoid friendly-fire.

The ibingan suddenly crowed, like a rooster greeting the morning sun.

Eron blinked in momentary confusion before pain filled his head.

He had been wrong.

Though it sounded like a rooster at first. It was impossibly loud, enough that it was the only sound he could hear. And it caused him great pain.

He felt something pop in his right ear, felt wetness drip out and down his cheek.

He staggered, stumbled to his hands and knees.

He felt the immense presence of the ibingan as it swooped down.

Eron tried to rise, but his head spun.

He looked up and saw nothing but sword-like teeth in a great yawning maw. The thin fog did nothing to conceal the ibingan.

He raised his fists even as everything in his vision swirled.

The ibingan’s jaws suddenly snapped shut dozen feet away from Eron.

Enormous eyes narrowed as it deliberately turned its head away from Eron back to the way they had come from.

He thought he could see a faint glow rising up through the thin fog and the buildings in the distance.

Eron was thrown back by the displaced wind the ibingan’s massive body made as it undulated away.

“I’ll take it… even if it’s just a trick,” Eron muttered.

He picked bits of asphalt from the exposed muscles in his arm as he stumbled toward the senate building.