“Uncle, why is it only the few of us? Shouldn’t we have brought more people?!”

Rakin’s uncle, Aram, gave him a quick glance before saying, “It’s fine, the safety of the village takes priority”

Even though Rakin doesn’t really understand his point, he just shrugged his shoulders as he ran behind the group through a rocky terrain surrounded by vegetation, while small critters on the ground, birds perched on the trees would scamper away in fear as the group ran past them.

And as they got nearer to their destination, Rakin could finally make out the slight sound of fighting happening in the distance.

Their faces quickly became grave as all of them were only expecting a group of injured people coming home, not a fight that was brought all the way near their village!

“Quickly! Pick up your pace!” Aram gravely said as their small group quickly increased their speed by a pace.

The nearer they got to their destination, the more that Rakin became nervous as he could even hear his heart pumping loudly in his ears. Which made it even worse as he already started imagining the scenes that they would arrive to when they reach their destination.

Meanwhile,

“Hold the line! The others will be here soon!”

“Damn aswangs! They are still following us all the way here! How bold of them!”

“And in broad daylight!”

Multiple weary voices but full of anger arose as a group of armed men in a round formation protected the injured in the middle, and there were flashing silhouettes in their surroundings which were accompanied by the rustling of wind and branches mixed with the sounds of low growling around them.

“Agani! You bastard better tell us now why these bastards from the Mergo Tribe are so persistent like this! It's not time to be keeping secrets from us when we have already come this far!!” Rakin’s father said to the Aswang beside him.

The aswang, has a face covered in red bulging veins on his forehead and cheeks, his pair of eyes had became so white that there’s a only pin dot pupils in the middle, while his pair of hands had took in the shade of black along with his fingernails that taken the shape similar to that of a claw.

And his teeth looked so sharp like a shark’s teeth, but had the appearance of looking like they're covered in cavities.

The other aswangs who were also with them had the same appearance as the man named Agani. Some are lightly injured while some are already bleeding out from their wounds, and if it wasn’t for their great vitality, they would have died from blood loss by now.

Agani looked at Rakin’s father and angrily said, “Didn't you already experienced what happened during these few days Rajah Darisay?! They attacked our village without any warning and they are still pursuing us like mad! We just need to survive this, I just hope your village has decent fighters to help us tide this situation or else the other Aswang tribes would be caught unaware that these bastards from Mergo Tribe had broken the Tipan ng Mahika!”

“Mergo, you bastard! I know you’re still there! Do you really think you and your tribe can get away from this treacherous act of yours!? Not only had you attacked us, but you even attacked one of the people from the human tribes! Your tribe won’t get away for breaking the two Tipans, that includes the Tipan between the humans and the supernaturals!”

“You bastards are starting a war between the humans and the supernaturals!”

“Hahaha! Ohh Agani The Turncoat, did you really think that our tribe had the guts to do this by ourselves?!” Then came a mocking reply from somewhere around them, and Darisay, with his exceptional hearing, immediately turned to the side and quickly pulled the arrow back on the bow in his hands and unleashed it!

Twang!

Even with their weary bodies from their long journey that have been mostly filled with battle day and night, Darisay’s competence for battle still hasn’t deteriorated as he had quickly took the chance to launch an attack when the other side was having a verbal argument with Agani, and the attack was so out of the blue that the Aswang Mergo who had mistakenly lowered his guard barely reacted in time to dodge the arrow that was heading for his heart, and he instead got his shoulder struck with it!

“Urgggh! P-poison!”

Then the arrow was followed by a groan, along with a voice full of terror!

“Stop hiding! K-kill them! Kill them all!”

Suddenly clouded with anger, Mergo immediately ordered his men for a head on assault after days of only executing hit and run assaults on Darisay's group during the past few days.

This instance was another of those stupid orders he had instructed the past few days.

Starting from toying their prey and not killing them immediately, to allowing them to call for reinforcements, and now, he had actually ordered them to attack the enemy head on instead of retreating knowing that reinforcements are already on the way!

“Chief! We should retreat! If we don’t, their reinforcements will be here soon!” an aswang hiding behind a tree said, looking a little anxious as he can’t shake the growing feeling that something bad is about to happen.

Mergo then glared at him and yelled, “Then what are you still doing standing there for? Go kill them quick!”

The aswang could only glare down and reluctantly join the battle taking place before them.

On the other side, Darisay and the other humans wielded their buntot pagi as they didn’t even hesitate facing the head on confrontation against the aswangs whose constitution exceeds the human standards.

And even with their disadvantage in numbers, they were able to hold their ground thanks to the help of the few allied aswangs who had been fighting alongside them.

The sound of mournful cries, shouting, growling along with the sound of flesh being hit with a whip resounded on this small skirmish between humans and supernaturals!

And while that was happening, the unexpected reinforcements finally arrived!

“Brother!”

“Rajah Darisay!”

“Hoy! I mean, father!”