The two opposing forces finally touch each other. The first strike is done by a slender bipedal aswang who attempted to slash Mateo's face with his sharp claws. Only for it to get deflected and for him to recieve a quick counter-attack, splitting him diagonaly from the shoulder.

  Yet Mateo have no time to finish the job as the horde is dead set of killing him, overwhelming Mateo with more of the aswangs who forced to put him in the defensive.

  The same situation is also happening to Beltrand. No matter how many aswangs they kill, they got easily replaced by more of their kin. Despite being overwhelmed, the two still holding on.

  Beltrand delfects a pounce using his shield. But by doing so, he didn't notice a hulking aswang rushing towards him.

  And give him a solid punch to the face. Beltrand got pushed a few inches, his feet making a drag line on the ground.

  "That stings a lot." Beltrand recovers and stretches his neck.

  The large muscled aswang continues its assault followed by three others smaller ones.

  "It's been a decade since I eaten a foreigner's flesh! I'm so excited! I gonna tenderize you alive!" The monster shouts with his gurgled voice.

  Beltrand eliminates the three minions who attempted to flank him and then block the ground slam of the large aswang, making a dent on the ground with Beltrand in it.

  "Then why you serve us your intestines then if you want to eat as so much?" Beltrand smirks.

  "Standard procedure! The leader would get mad if we not try to turn you into our kind!" The monster joyfully answers.

  "For a father who just lost one of his daughter, you're surely livid huh?!"

  Beltrand push his shield to deflect the large arm, then he follows up by slashing his torso.

  And then another slash, followed by another before he backs down to deal with another minions to trying to interfere with his fight. Beltrand skillfully block and parried their attempts while also dismembering them.

  The decapitated aswangs are scattered on the ground, trying to regenerate themselves.

  "It's her fault for being weak and stupid!" The aswang smirks and then he leaps to slam his body towards Beltrand.

  Beltrand rolls over to avoid the crash but the large aswang is not done as he rush forwards and give Beltrand a barrage of heavy punches. Beltrand blocks all of them using his shield who slowly getting crumpled by the intense strenght of the monster.

  "Die!" The aswang clenches both of his hands and slam it to Beltrand who still holding his ground. The slam destroys the ground, sending debris everywhere and creating an even larger crater.

  "Huh?"

  The aswang is dumbfounded to only see a broken shield in the middle of the crater. He look everywhere to find Beltrand only to fail as.

  SWOOSH

  His face felt an painful burning sensation. The pain is so intense that his strenght can't do anything to relieve it by anymeans.

  "ARGHHHHH!!!"

  The large aswang is blinded as he thrashes around. Hurting his fellow aswangs in the process. As the scene unfolds, Beltrand is busy fighting more of the horde. With no more shield on his hand, Beltrand picks fistful of salt to his BoS then throwing it to the aswangs attempting to attack him.

  The salt is stunning the aswangs with indescribable pain. Enough for Beltrand to decapitate all of them and reducing his burden of fighting by limiting the amount of enemies.

  Eventually, the large aswang recovers slightly. His vision regenerate yet still feeling the aftereffects of the salt. He looks at Beltrand with seething rage, screaming before he dash forward

  Beltrand anticipates the enemy and dodge all of its attack. Each punch and slams packs power as everytime it hits the ground, it creates small craters.

  But the same power doesn't translate on his speed as the large aswang slowly getting frustrated watching Beltrand sidesteps his barrages with ease.

  "I knew it! You just caught me off guard that time!" Beltrand smirks to further riled up the enemy.

  "Damn you!"

  With one wrathful slam with his fists. The aswang unleash all of his force making the largest crater and the impact is so intense the it sends shockwaves to the surroundings.

  "What was that?" Shiva asked as he assisted Sophia who still helping Penelope give birth. He feel the house shake a bit due to the tremors.

  "They must be fighting a powerful enemy." Shirna speak while being attentive on the surrounding.

  "I can see the head! Push harder Penelope!"

  "I'M TRYING!!!"

  Back outside. The hulking monster makes a satisfied grin. Filled with confidence that his attack would surely kill Beltrand. Even if he try to dodge, the shockwave and debris would surely cause injuries.

  STAB

  The aswang felt something penetrate his skull.

  "What?!"

  "Oi. Your moves are quiet repaatetive to be honest." The aswang can't see Beltrand but he knows his voice.

  Beltrand is standing on his back. Holding the sword he plunged on the top of his head. Despite that, the large aswang is affected by the direct stab to its brain as he thrashes around in an attempt to throw Beltrand away.

  "Woah easy!"

  "Fuck you!. Get out on my head!"

  "Ok."

  Beltrand jumps down but still holding his sword. The sword slides down from the top of the Aswang's head until it reach to the bottom, creating a long and deep wound that shows the Aswang's organs.

  The aswang creates an ear piercing scream as he falls to the ground face down with a thud. His spine cut, organs exposed. It would take a very long time for him to recover and regain control of his body again.

  But Beltrand have no time to wait as he opens his BoS and proceeds to scatter all of its content to the large body of the Aswang who can only scream in pain as he feel the crystals melting his body. Each grain digging deep on his flesh.

  "AUGHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh!!!" His scream slowly fading away until it becomes gurgled then silent.

  The once hulking aswang now turned into a puddle of blood, guts and bits as Beltrand watch.

  "Phew!" Beltrand looks around and the other aswangs are contemplating on attacking him.

  "You're not.... Human..." One of the aswangs speak. She's afraid alongside others. Frozen in place as they can't comprehend the power of the human in front of them.

  "Trust me. I'm a full fledged human. Or maybe you all just can't believe that a human can fight back right?"

  Beltrand stomps his feet. Sending slight shockwaves to the nearby monsters.

  "Want to see what this human is capable of?"

  Tobias watch with concern as the humans manages to hold all their chaotic assault. He see his kin getting decimated one-by-one.

  "T-this is... Impossible..." He said quietly as he watch Mateo kill his fellow aswangs.

  Mateo meanwhile continues to fight back. Decapitating anyone who dare to try attacking him. Stacks of injured monsters on the ground as Mateo have no time to kill them for good due to the rampant assault.

  He feel someone tries to attack him from behind, Mateo countered with a slash. His eyes widen when he see the one that recieves his blade. It's a kid. One of the young villagers playing fiesta games just earlier.

  Time slowed down and he watch the young monster in front of him. Still trying to reach its sharp claws on his neck. Mateo is contimplating on why such innocent kid would turn out to be a monster.

  Mateo wakes up on his thoughts and kick the kid away before resuming on attacking the others. There's no reason for him to feel guilty, especially for ones that dead set on killing them for food.

  Mateo felt a multi-pronged attack aimed on his blindspot. He manages to deflect all of them. He saw the tentacles extended far away from Tobias.

  "So you decide to finally join the fight?" Mateo asked.

  Tobias didn't answer but instead extend all of his tentacles and rain it all down to Mateo. Mateo dodges and deflects the sharp ends of the tentacles while also cutting some. All of this while also striking the aswangs who try to flank him.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Tobias retreats his decapitated tentacles and regrow them before sending it back to attack Mateo. Ensuring that Mateo is truly overwhelmed.

  Feeling that his consecutive strikes didn't make a dent on Mateo's defenses. Tobias makes a high pitch whistle which make Mateo think.

  "Back-ups?"

  Behind Tobias, the rustling of plants and stampede of animals are heard partnered by howls. And in the dark foliage, reveals a huge pack of monsters.

  They're small, quadpedals and look likes skinned dogs. But what makes Mateo more surprised and disturbed is the new monsters run backwards with their heads upside down between their legs still connected to its elongated neck. Thier butt is now replaced by a gaping mouth full of hundreds of teeth.

  "Are you telling me those absurd things are also real?! Fucking hell!" Mateo shouts as he continues to deflect and cut the never ending barrage of tentacles.

  Mateo watch as the horde of Sigbin close their distance to him. Mateo have no choice but to allocate his attention on fighting the aswangs, the sigbins and Tobia's tentacles who continues to punish him. Eager to find an opportunity.

  Overwhelmed, Mateo is starting to recieve injuries. One of the aswang is able to slash his back, one of the sigbin manages to take a bite of his leg. Both was able to resist by his mana coating which prevent further injury.

  "Shit. I'm starting to get exhausted."

  A group of sigbin pounces on Mateo. Planning to dogpile and tear him into pieces. Mateo got caught off-guard and unable to defend himself.

  STAB!

  STAB!

  STAB! STAB! STAB!

  The sigbins got stopped mid-air. Their body pierced by earth spikes.

  "Thank you Trinne!"

  Claustrine smiles. Behind her are a scene of catastrophe. Aswangs being skewered by spikes, crushed by two pillars, and burnt into ash.

  "Leave the fodders to me." Claustrine speaks then she starts to gather the attention of other aswangs and sigbins by attacking them with basic spells.

  She manages to lure most but there's still more aiming to attack Mateo. Only for them to get dismembered into parts by Beltrand. He also garner minor injuries after fighting some powerful aswangs.

  "You're quiet in a pickle here!" Beltrand while still fending the horde.

  "I'm being flanked by all sides! And the mayor is quiet skilled compared to others!" Mateo respond while still dodging and deflecting the tentacles.

  Beltrand notice an attack behind him and halt it with his sword. Only to get grossed by the mouth of the sigbin trying to maw his head. He see the head under the belly of the beast.

  "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING?!"

  "That's a sigbin! Just kill it!"

  Beltrand push the sigbin and cut it in half.

  "Leave the rest to me! Focus on him!"

  "Ok thanks!"

  Confident that Beltrand would protect him. Mateo solely focused his attention to Tobias and his tentacles. Unlike before, Mateo is pushing forward. Dashing while deflecting and chopping the tentacles which earlier held him in place.

  Behind Mateo are Beltrand and Claustrine killing the aswangs and sigbins with sword, salt and fire. They knew the number of enemies reduced but there still few. Like the few slained monsters got replaced by a fresh batch.

  "Where the fuck these things coming from?!" Beltrand asked.

  "This woods might be full of aswangs. Remember what Nathan said?"

  "Right! They're not the only village in this forest!"

  "Exactly."

  As the three continues to fight. Out of nowhere, the aswangs suddenly stops their movement. Their gaze focused on the house. After few seconds, all of the aswangs become excited and feral. Even Tobias starts to droll.

  "W-what now?" Claustrine is dumbfounded.

  Inside the fortified house. Sophia is holding a new born baby. Crying on her gentle embrace.

  "Get me a towel." Sophia asked, Shiva picks the nearest towel and give it to Sophia who wraps it to the baby.

  Penelope is looking tired yet she still feel joy seeing her child. She didn't speak instead she reach her hands to her baby. Sophia smile and give the baby to Penelope who overwhelmed by joy. Tears flowing on her cheek.

  Outside. All of the aswangs suddenly rush forward directly to the house. Completely ignoring Mateo, Claustrine and Beltrand.

  "WHAT THE FUCK?!" The three screams out of frustration and confusion.

  "Chase after them! They're after the baby!" Mateo realizes what's going on and shouts.

  Beltrand and Claustrine didn't respond, instead quickly give chase to the rabid aswangs. The aswangs become so feral that there's no self-preservation within them, only the desire to consume the new life that just born.

  The trio decimate the aswangs and sigbins but their combined might is not enough to halt the deluge of monsters. Few faster and flying aswang manages to reach the home. Those with no wings crawl through the wall while the winged ones flew directly on the roof.

  Mateo open his BoS and pull all of his spears. Throwing them one-by-one with great accuracy that all of his 10 spears nailed their targets to the wall.

  Claustrine meanwhile shot a scattered balls of salt. The salt quickly melting the flesh of the flyers, including their wings. Guts, blood and body parts fall to the ground.

  "There's still few that managed to reach the roof!" Beltrand shouts.

  "I hope others can handle them!" Mateo repond.

  Inside the house. Everyone can clearly hear the loud slams coming from the roof.

  "They're here." Shiva speak as he pull his pistol.

  Penelope got alerted and her baby starts to cry again, she hug her baby tightly but not hard enough. She'e afraid that the monsters might breach and take her away. Sophia calm her down by patting her head.

  "Leave this to us. We gonna protect both of you." Sophia gives a gentle smile.

  The lights suddenly cuttrd off. Plunging the room into darkness.

  "Tsk! They know their stuff." Shiva commented with annoyance.

  It turns out the aswangs disconnected the line connecting the lights to the Solar Panel batteries.

  Everyone stay quiet and tense for a moment. Until...

  Creeeeak crack screech...

  Numerous screeching sound becomes audible, quickly followed by dozens of tendrils like flesh plunging down. All aimed directly to Penelope and her baby.

  Sophia quickly cast a small dome around her and Penelope, blocking the tendrils.

  "W-what?!" Penelope is surprised to the glowing dome around them.

  "Tiktik?!" Shiva shouts in awe.

  Shirna opens his BoS to pull her daggers and cut the tongues of the tiktiks into pieces. All of them heared a chorus of horrifying screams after as the now decapitated tongues retracts to their origins.

  "I gonna deal with the enemies on the roof. Please protect them." Shirna then jumps outside the window and climb the house swiftly. There, he see the tiktiks in agonizing pain but still noticed his presence.

  Without hesistation, Shirna dashes forward and proceeds to fight. 1 vs 12, Shirna make a quick job of the 3 in front of him as he disconnect their head and limbs.

  While Shirna is fighting on the roof Shiva is still alerted. Penelope is still trying to calm down her crying daughter.

  "How long can you maintain that barrier Sophia?"

  "Not long. It drains a huge amount of mana."

  "I see..."

  Suddenly, a loud cry of a baby can be heared. It's clashing with the crying of Penelope's baby.

  "W-what is that?!" Sophia asked as she becomes alerted alongside Penelope.

  Shiva thinks for a moment then he remembers something.

  "No fucking way." Shiva becomes even more alerted as he waits on the darkness with only the lights eminating from Sophia's barrier. A pistol on her tight grasp, he waits.

  And waits, the loud crying of the baby becoming more quiet.

  "!!!"

  Shiva got shocked when on her sight on the darkness, a small sinister face with its gaping mouth full of sharp teeth suddenly appears. Shiva manages to put away his surprise and proceeds to defend himself by holding the small body of the monster and throwing it to the floor.

  The small monster rolls and regains its ground. It looks at Shiva who clearly see its hideous form.

  "T-that's Rosa's baby? Right?" Sophia is sad and disgusted, remembering the innocent look of the baby who now is a small monster crawling in all fours. It sprints back in the darkness as Shiva shot it with his pistol, all bullets missing its target. The monster resumes its soft crying.

  "We should really expected this. It should be obvious that even the baby in this town is a monster." Shiva said as he reloads. Then return to his tense and alerted form. Waiting for the monster to attack again.

  "What is that thing to begin with?" Sophia asked.

  "That's a Tiyanak. It lures its victim with its cries deep in the woods, and once the target show pity and pick it up, it would start to attack by biting the victim's neck." Shiva answered seriously which make Sophia horrified.

  Once in her life she didn't encountered a monster that use human sympathy as a weapon.

  "But I didn't expected it to attack this direct. Perhaps the folklores are not really that accurate. Hmmm? Wait..."

  Shiva focused as he directs his attention to the sound of the tiyanak as it crawl in the darkness. He knows as long as the barrier is up, targeting Sophia and Penelope is out of option. Leaving him the sole target.

  Shiva calculate the location of the tiyanak using the sound of the soft crying it makes. Signifying that the monster is still nearby.

  With one swift action, Shiva points his pistol on his left and fired bullets to the tiyanak mid air. He ducks to dodge the pounce and point his gun again to the monster.

  The tiyanak is severly injured, it twitches to the floor trying to crawl away but fail. Shiva didn't give it a chance and emptied his clip on the small monster.

  The tiyanak, now riddled with bullets are only tweaking gently as it makes a soft whimpering sound of pain. Shiva walks close to it, confident that it doesn't have any capacity to fight anymore. It looks at it with sad expression on his eyes.

  Shiva open his sling bag and pulls a fistful of salt. Then he proceeds to pour it to the tiyanak who can't even make anymore sound of pain due to its injuries until it also turned into a puddle of liquid flesh.

  The surroundings now turned into silence. There's no more rumbling outside nor the banging sounds of the roof.

  "It is done?" Sophia asked. Feeling exhausted, she shuts down her barrier.

  Shirna appears from the window and regroups with the people inside. He's covered with blood and garner minor injuries.

  "The roof is now clear." -Shirna.

  "Shirna come here." Sophia's call. Shirna follows and Sophia starts to heal his minor injuries.

  "How about the others outside?" Shiva asked.

  "They manage to defeat all of them. I think we're safe now."

  Sophia and Shiva makes a deep sigh of relief.

  "Good grief." Shiva smile.

  But their relaxation is short live. Shirna suddenly snaps back to his alerted state, this time more worried and afraid.

  "W-what's wrong Shirna?" Shiva asked.

  "H-how we can forgot him?! Sophia, we need to regroup with the others. Shiva, please protect Penelope and her daughter."

  Sophia finally understand Shirna's action. She stand up and prepare herself.

  "Wait what's wrong?! There's still more?!" Shiva asked angrily.

  "Yes. The true monster finally decides to reveals himself." Shirna's sinister words.

  Outside of the house. Mateo, Claustrine and Beltrand are catching their breath. They're just decimated a horde of aswangs while also garnering minor injuries defending the home.

  "We should be safe despite getting bitten by this monsters right? We're not becoming like them, right?" Beltrand asked with concern.

  "I think that's not an issue. They're not vampires nor zombies." Mateo answers.

  "Vamp what?" Claustrine asked with curiosity.

  "Zom what?" -Beltrand.

  "Just ignore it please." -Mateo.

  "!!!"

  But the trio suddenly go on high alert as they feel a very sinister presence. They look on the direction where the plaza is and see an old man in a wheelchair, he roll the wheels until it reach a distance where they now both seeing each other.

  "It's Tobias' father." Mateo speaks with intense seriousness.

  "I'm really starting to wonder why he didn't show himself earlier. But now he's in front of us for some reason." Claustrine speaks with equal seriousness.

  The old man stand up slowly. Panning his gaze on the battlefield.

  "All you are now dead because you'll allowed yourselves to get consumed by hunger." The old man softly speak while shaking his head slowly.

  Then he look at Mateo, Claustrine and Beltrand. His gaze full of rage but he calm himself and now his expression is full of sorrow as he pan his vision to his dead comrades.

  "I didn't expected that our enemies are equally a monster like us. I should analyzed the situation first. I'm so sorry." The old man's gentle words.

  The old man returns his gaze on the trio who still on high alert. Then he finally reveals his true self.

  Mateo, Beltrand and Claustrine watch as the old man slowly becomes an aswang. But they clearly see how much different he is compared to the others.

  His frame is skinny and tall. So slender that he's almost a skeletal figure due to how thin he is.

  Unlike the red fleshy skin of the earlier aswang, his skin is a slimy ashen grey.

  The grey aswang is completely bald with no extra features like the tentacles of tobias, wings and muscle plates.

  It's just a slender 8 ft tall gray monstrousity with its sunken empty eyes.

  "Guys this is it. This is the real leader of this village." Mateo speaks as he grips his sword tightly.

  The grey aswang marvel on his form while moving his arm and hand.

  "It's been 300 years since the last time I used this form. I'm really look old." The grey aswang smile. Then he gaze on the trio.

  The leader suddenly disappears on their sight.

  "!!!"