The Scepter of Marahuyo

Chapter 053

“Start on what?” I ask myself. Is it because we are the intruders? “We are just taking shelter. We are about to leave the area now,” I say to the old woman. 

Never mind all the food containers we left at the cave. I glance at my friends. Only I and Aicelle have our robes. Al and Ethan are just wearing a shirt and loose pants. 

“You’re types are exactly the types we are waiting for on this side of the mountain,” the old woman responds.

“So what do you think we should do with the other mages?” she asks the kibaan.

It makes a trilling sound again. When it turns its attention to us, there is a glint on its eyes. I hear my heart thump. I have deja vu in the way it looks at me as if the Olivia from my previous timeline is inside the kibaan's body. My breathing hitches. I am okay. I calm myself. It will not happen again. I am stronger now. 

The old woman drops her whip, and the kibaan retreats from her. 

“For my little one, I’ll retrieve you,” she says, her focus is on Aicelle. “But first, let me remove the other mages.”

The old lady moves, and we all tense, but in a split second, she attacks Al. She is so fast that I didn’t even have the time to react. She’s like a wind that dashes past me at a speed of a single blink. I turn behind me and see Al sprawling on the ground. How can she be so fast at that age? It’s supposed to be a retirement age for mages! 

Then Ethan moves and tries to s***h the old woman with his gulok. So, he still has it. Good thing he had the presence of mind to hold on to his weapon. He didn't have it during Benia’s selection. If he loves his weapon that much, I’m not sure when and how he lost it.

The old woman evades and says, “Bad boy. I’m still trying to have my taste on the wiry one.”

“Why are you looking like that at my lovely girl?” Ethan asks, catching me eyeing his weapon. Somehow, I feel like he loves it more than Cara. “I almost lost it!”

Then,  I remember. Ethan lost it after our graduation, after a mission. My head hurts as I try to remember what happened then.

“You are ignoring me!” the old woman says and attacks Ethan. He side-steps just as fast and hits the old woman on the side.

The woman gets up and attacks again but Ethan parries her. They look like they are on an ugly dance. Ethan is just as fast as the old woman but more robust.

Another wave of headaches, and I kneel in pain. Finally, Aicelle goes to me and asks, “What’s wrong, Holly?”

“My head,” I breathe. “I’m not sure why it’s aching.”

I take my gunong from its holster and put it in front of me as a defense. I can’t be attacked in this state. 

Suddenly, memories flood into my head. The look on Ethan’s face, one day he returns from his mission. The worry that Cara has for him and her decision to stay in Marahuyo to be his support. Then he and Al proceed to train like crazy as if someone or something possessed them.

“They are going into a classified mission,” is what Cara had said then. “I don’t even know about the details. I just know it’s about Aicelle.”

Aicelle. This is about Aicelle. Aicelle wasn’t there when Al and Ethan returned from their first mission.

“Ah!” I groan.

“Holly?” Aicelle’s worried face came into view.

And with it, the pain subsides as memories come back. I remember now that Aicelle disappeared during this same mission. It’s this Kibaan and the old woman who successfully takes her. After a couple of months, in that same year, they retrieved Aicelle, then she proceeded to become the Scepter of another nation. How could I forget something so important? How can I be so selfish to be thinking of only what happened to me before and not of my friends?

They won’t do it this time. So, I stand up and prepare myself. This is where all the training I’ve done with Master Deborah and Nico will be used. Even with only my gunong, I can do this. They warned me not to use it haphazardly, but these are my friends. 

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and then attack the old woman. I can see it. The point of my blade approaches the old woman’s heart. Then, in slow-motion, the old woman turns towards me, and I can see the horror in her eyes as if she knows it will be her death if my gunong connects to her chest.

But suddenly, I find myself getting whirled away from the old woman. The Kibaan protects her, and then it makes a shrill cry. My back hits the tree behind me, and my knees hit the ground. I ignore the pain and focus on the Kibaan again. It looks angry at my attempt to murder its human.

The Kibaan attacks but then a wave of ocean water stops it from attacking me. Aicelle is immediately beside me.

“Your skill to my brute force, Holly. What do you think?”

I stand up and wipe the dirt on my knees. The wave of ocean water stops. Aicelle faces the Kibaan and says to me, “My abilities are mostly ranged, perfect for a flying monster.”

That’s true. But in my previous timeline, she’s still kidnapped even if she already had a good grasp on her blessings. We’re stronger now, yet, I feel like there is something wrong. 

I close the distance with the Kibaan. Aicelle supports me from behind. I attack with my gunong. The kibaan uses its wings to parry all my attacks, even uses it to attack me. However, I evade it because my strength and my gunong cannot defend directly against its wings. 

I need light feet for this kind of battle. I withdraw, place my blade in front of my face, and focus. Nico trains me for this. That it’s easier to be light and use my weapon if I think it is part of me. I can hear the Kibaan coming close. I hear Aicelle’s water trying to pierce its wings, to stop it from attacking me, or at least to delay its advance. 

I open my eyes and exhale a little. I notice the damage that Aicelle’s jet of water does to it. I clutch on my gunong that is protected by Denise’s blessing, then run towards the Kibaan. Aicelle stops attacking and lets me get close to it. I need to damage its small main body, but its wingspan is the problem. It uses its wings as its defense. 

Realizing that it’s my target, the Kibaan covers its front body with its left-wing and then covers its back with its right-wing. It makes another shrill cry before it hides itself inside the protection of its wings. It looks like a cocoon now. 

But that’s precisely what I am waiting for. I release another breath and stare. A small smile escapes my mouth as I remember Nico telling me that none had ever survived this skill. And with Denise’s enhancement on my gunong, this will be more effective.

I jump and use my blessing to lift me off the ground. Once I am a few meters off, I situate myself, so I’ll hover with my upper torso facing the ground. I deactivate my blessing, and the absence of it spirals me naturally to the ground. I exhale a bit again, and then my gunong pierces the top of the Kibaan’s head with all my weight against it. It penetrates through the wings, feathers, muscles, and then to its head, hitting its skull, but it’s not enough to totally impale it.

I activate my blessing again to propel my blade further into the Kibaan’s head. The Kibaan attempts to remove the blade from its head, but the blade is so tightly stuck on it, that its wings are slashed instead. But now that its wings are free, it can finally hit me with it.

It raises its wings, but then it stops. Jets of water come rushing from both my sides. Aicelle is doing her role of making sure I won’t be killed while I force my gunong into its head.

I shift my wind from my body into my gunong. The wind makes a spiraling motion and my gunong shifts and starts to rotate. Perfect. I think, as I watch my blade drills into the Kibaan’s head.

As if sensing its death, the kibaan cries so loud that I almost let go of my weapon and cover my ears instead. Then in mid-cry, it stops, at the same time that my blade is already half-buried into its head. The Kibaan falls, and I shift my body so I can stride its upper torso.

This time, I let go of my blade, then directed my blessing to bury my knife into the Kibaan’s head. Now that my hand is out of the way, a tornado takes hold of my gunong and successfully buries itself into the Kibaan’s head. Once I’m sure of it, I make a hand gesture to take it off. Then, I cleanse it with my rain and whisk the blood and brains off it.

To be continued…