Hearing Lola Yma’s words, Mawi’s heart pounded even stronger that even without a stethoscope, a doctor would surely hear it beating. He then turned around, and lo and behold, right in front of his face appeared a horrifying figure.

With a head of disheveled hair so long that it covered its entire face, red glowing eyes, bat-like ears and nose, a mouth full of sharp uneven teeth that reeks of rot, and a tongue that reaches to its chest. It was also constantly salivating. Mawi’s first instinct was to turn around and run, but his reason told him that should he do so, it would spell his certain death. The creature in front of him did not do anything, it was smelling the air, and its red eyes, though it was staring at Mawi, it seemed to not see the young man. The creature then emitted a shriek, seemingly disappointed, and turned around. Its actions, however, inadvertently disturbed the salt formation; and as soon as the salt formation was disturbed, a strong smell immediately assailed its nose. It was the smell of the sweet meat of a human, the intoxicating smell of their blood.

Just by smelling the scent of a human, the creature immediately became hungry and turned around. Mawi who was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the creature turning around, suddenly froze and felt a terrifying pressure descend upon him. He unconsciously looked at the ground and to his horror, found that the salt formation was disturbed. He quickly looked up and saw the creature looking at him with red glowing eyes. In just a split second the creature lunged towards him with great speed. Mawi did not have enough time to think and instinctively dodged to the left. As he did so, he rolled on the ground and grabbed the buntot pagi. The moment Mawi stood up, as if by reflex, he swung the buntot pagi upwards, and a painful shriek was heard.

It was a lucky hit, for if he did not reflexively swing the buntot pagi upwards he might have died. Hitting the creature gave Mawi a moment of respite and he took advantage of it by looking towards this unknown monster that assailed him. Earlier, Mawi only saw its face for it was standing so close to him, but now that he was able to take a breather due to his lucky hit, he was fully able to see his opponent.

The creature’s body was thin up to the point that its ribs and pelvic bones can already be seen. It has long and bony arms as well. The whole creature looked like it had been starving for a few weeks already. The nails on its fingers and toes are long and razor sharp, like claws. On its face a thin white smoke can be seen rising, it was the part where the buntot pagi had hit it.

The creature touched the area where it was hit, and feeling the stinging pain on it, it released a furious shriek and stared at Mawi. Then its long tongue touched the wounded area and it started to heal at a rate visible to the eye. Seeing this, Mawi’s pupils constricted, and he felt a sort of déjà vu with the scene playing out in front of him. However, he did not have enough time to ponder on this as the creature lunged towards him again. This time, its speed seemed to have increased, perhaps driven by its fury from being wounded. Mawi on the other hand tried to dodge again while simultaneously swinging his buntot pagi like a sword.

Another painful shriek was heard, and this time Mawi did not try to create distance between him and the creature, for he knows that with its speed, it can close their gap in just a blink of an eye. So, he decided to bite the bullet and charged at the creature, taking advantage of it being momentarily stunned by his previous attack. He swung the buntot pagi again, hoping to hit it a third time; this time however, the creature also swung its bony hands towards Mawi, catching him by surprise.

The buntot pagi hit one of the creature’s bony hands and swatted it away, while receiving a ghastly wound along the length of its arm. However, the creature’s other hand struck Mawi on the shoulders and the sharp claws on the creature’s nails opened four wounds that were around three inches long. Though the wound was not deep, the pain it caused Mawi caused him to take a few steps back; the creature on the other hand hissed at Mawi and charged at him straight away, ignoring the ghastly wound on one of its arms.

Mawi was not prepared this time, and all he could do was to defend by bringing the buntot pagi to his chest to block the creature's unwounded hand. He was successful at defending himself, but due to the inertia of the charging creature, Mawi was pushed away and as he stumbled backwards, he tripped over a stone and fell. A chance that the tiktik was waiting for, and immediately dived towards him again with its mouth full of sharp teeth wide open to sink them into its victim’s flesh.