The group stayed close. No one spoke. The hallway felt different. It got quiet. They could hear themselves breathing, waiting for the right moment to strike. Cafra rolled his shoulders, tightening his grip on his bamboo sword.
Visitor1: "Are.. are they still out there?"
Efrain didn't look away from the darkness ahead.
Efrain: "They are still around us. These things will not leave us alive."
Silence continued. Then, they heard a sound of something moving very fast. Two shadows peeled off the walls and lunged straight at them. Fast enough that the air cracked behind them. Long, skeletal limbs unfolded mid air, blade thin claws gleamed like glass.
Visitor2: "Here they come!!"
Cafra stepped forward. Lightning cracked across his bamboo sword. He swung. The first monster slammed into the blade, sending it flying into a wall. The creature shrieked a high, broken sound, as electricity crawled through its body. It's claws scraped against the stone floor. It stood up and ready to attack once more.
Behind him. Efrain moved, quiet, precise. He pulled his push dagger hidden from his forearms, imbues it with concentrated flame. His blade glowed deep orange, white at the core. The second monster landed in front of him, claws already swinging for his throat. Efrain stepped inside the attack. He drove the dagger towards its chest, sending flames inside it's body. The creature's body glowed from the inside. Thin cracks of light splitting across it's shadow. It tried to scream. Flames filled it's throat. The monster collapsed into burning fragments of shadow that vanished before they hit the floor.
Visitor1: "We're not dead..."
Visitor2: "I can't believe we are winning."
Efrain: "Don't celebrate yet. There are still some monsters left."
More eyes ignited. Closer this time. Claws scraping the stones
Efrain stepped beside Cafra.
Efrain: "Left side is yours."
Cafra smirked.
Cafra: "Don't worry about me. I don't plan on dying here."
More monsters rushed. The first wave hit like a collapsing ceiling. Cafra spun into them, his lightning imbued sword carving wide arcs, every stroke exploding into bolts that chained from one creature to another. One leapt over him. Cafra slammed his free hand into it's torso. Lightning discharged. Behind him, Visitor 1 and 2 swung wildly at a lunging shadow.
The creature moved unnaturally. It's limbs bent in different directions. Visitor1 barely parried the first strike. The claws screeched against his weapon, the impact threw him off balance. More shadows poured from the walls as if the stone itself is bleeding them out. The air turned heavy, thick, with the smell of rot.
Cafra stepped forward into the swarm. He swings his blade and a discharge of lightning struck the swarm of aswangs. The discharge followed the creature's veins like a living thing. It chained outward. Jumping form one skeletal frame to another. They convulsed, bodies shocked, claws carving jagged lines into the floor as they shrieked.
One jumped straight at Cafra, but he ducked just in time. The claws grazed his shoulder cloth but didn't break skin. He twisted and brought his sword upward. Thunder burst in a confined explosion. The creature was flung to the ceiling, bones cracking on impact before it slid down in twitching spasms.
To his left, Efrain moved like controlled fire. Where Cafra was explosive and loud, Efrain was surgical. An aswang lunged at him, maw unhinging too wide, rows of needle-like teeth. Efrain pivoted, letting the claws pass inches from his throat. His dagger flashed forward. The moment steel met shadow flesh, flame detonated inward. The monster's rib cage lit from inside like a furnace door opening. It clawed at Efrain's arm, but fire had already filled its core. Cracks of white-orange light split across its body. It collapsed into fragments of burning cinders that dissolved mid-air.
More came. They did not fear death. They climbed the walls. Crawled across the ceiling. Dropped in spirals. Their eyes ignited one by one until the hallway looked like it was filled with floating embers. Visitor2 screamed as something grabbed his leg from behind. A claw pierced through his calf. He fell hard, slamming into stone.
Visitor2: "Ahhh..!"
The aswang climbed over him instantly, skeletal jaw splitting open for his throat. Efrain moved first. He threw his dagger. The blade spun once, twice, then embedded directly through the creature's skull. Flame erupted from the wound. The monster convulsed violently and collapsed across Visitor2's body.
Efrain was already moving again before it fully disintegrated. Visitor 1 grabbed Visitor 2 by the collar and dragged him back, away from the swarm.
Visitor1: "Hey man, you're bleeding!"
Visitor2: "I noticed!"
Visitor2 snarled through clenched teeth. The wound wasn't clean. The claw had left black residue inside the tear. The skin around it darkened unnaturally. Another aswang lunged for them. Cafra intercepted. He stepped between the visitors and the charging creature. His sword crackled louder than before. He swung in a tight arc. The lightning this time didn't just chain it exploded outward in branching forks that illuminated the entire corridor in blinding white. For a split second, everyone saw them clearly. Dozens. At least twenty more pressing from the dark. Cafra exhaled slowly.
Cafra: "Stay behind me."
The horde surged. They hit like a tidal wave of bone and shadow. Cafra planted his foot and swung again and again. Each strike sounded like thunder trapped inside stone walls. Lightning ricocheted wildly, carving through torsos, snapping limbs, blasting creatures off the ground. But for every one that fell, two more replaced it. An aswang slipped through. It tackled Visitor 1 to the ground. Claws raked across his chest. Cloth tore. Blood sprayed.
Visitor 1 screamed, not in fear, but in fury. He drove his weapon upward blindly. It struck something soft. The creature shrieked in his face. Efrain appeared above them. He pulled his dagger free from another corpse mid-stride and plunged it straight through the aswang pinning Visitor1. Fire erupted downward this time, controlled but devastating. The heat washed over Visitor1's face without burning him. The monster crumbled. Visitor1 lay there breathing hard, chest bleeding but shallow.
Visitor1: "I'm fine, I'm fine,"
he gasped, though he clearly wasn't. Visitor2 tried to stand. His injured leg buckled. The black veins had started creeping upward from the wound. Cafra noticed.
Cafra: "Your wounds. I think their claws infect you with something,"
He said sharply.
Visitor1: "Can you burn it out?"
Efrain hesitated only a second.
Efrain: "Hold him."
Visitor1 gripped Visitor2's shoulders. Visitor2 shook his head violently.
Visitor1: "No! no wait!"
Efrain pulled his dagger, it started to glow and it glowed orange. Visitor1 looked at the hot blazing blade scared. Efrain looked at him and asked.
Efrain: "Ready?"
Visitor1: "Just do it, quick!"
He pressed his dagger flat against the wound. The hallway filled with a scream. Flame sank into flesh. Smoke hissed upward as black residue burned away. The creeping veins stopped spreading. When Efrain pulled the blade back, the wound was cauterized.
Efrain: "Don't waste that second chance"
The aswangs did not pause for their mercy. They swarmed harder. The ceiling cracked as multiple creatures launched themselves downward simultaneously. Cafra's eyes sharpened.
Cafra: "Efrain!"
Efrain: "I see them."
Cafra jumped forward. He slammed his sword into the ground. Lightning erupted in a circular shockwave that expanded outward, lifting several aswangs into the air mid-leap. Efrain stepped into the opening. He inhaled. The flames around his dagger intensified, not just orange, but white-hot.
He slashed once. A horizontal arc of fire carved through the airborne monsters. Their bodies split mid-flight. The interior flame spread from one to another like oil catching fire. In seconds, five creatures detonated into burning ash. The hallway dimmed slightly. The number of glowing eyes decreased. But the remaining ones grew brighter, smarter. The aswangs began moving differently. Not rushing. Circling. Cafra narrowed his eyes.
Cafra: "They're adapting. They're starting to move differently"
One of them darted forward then retreated immediately, testing distance. Another crawled behind pillars, staying just out of range. Efrain shifted beside him.
Efrain: "They're waiting for us to exhaust ourselves."
Visitor1: *swallowed hard. "Are we?"
Cafra: *grinned despite the sweat running down his temple. "Not yet."
Another wave charged, but this time staggered. Three attacked Cafra from the front while two slipped low toward the visitors. Efrain intercepted the two. His movements became faster, almost blurring. Flame trailed behind his dagger in thin ribbons. He cut one clean through the torso. The second dodged and clawed across his arm. Fabric tore. A shallow line of blood appeared. Efrain didn't react.
He grabbed the creature by the back of its skull and drove his dagger upward through its jaw. Fire erupted through its head. Behind him, Cafra was surrounded. Five at once. They piled onto him, claws scraping against lightning, bodies twitching as electricity surged but refusing to die quickly. Cafra roared and released everything at once. A concentrated bolt detonated from his blade in a vertical pillar. The explosion blasted outward violently, throwing every creature off him and slamming them into walls with bone-shattering force.
For a moment, Silence. Smoke filled the corridor. Charred fragments of shadow disintegrated slowly in the air. One final aswang dragged itself forward, half its body missing, eyes still burning with hatred. It lunged weakly. Visitor1 stepped forward despite his injury. With shaking hands, he drove his weapon down through its skull. The creature convulsed once. Then dissolved. And then Nothing. No more glowing eyes. No more scraping claws. No more breathing except their own. The silence returned. But it felt different now. Heavier.
Visitor2 leaned against the wall, sliding down slowly. His leg trembled but held. Visitor1 pressed his hand against his chest wound, wincing. Cafra, exhausted, stood in the center of the hallway, lightning fading from his blade in slow residual sparks. Efrain extinguished the flame from his dagger with a controlled exhale. For several seconds, no one spoke. Then. A low hum vibrated through the walls. Faint lines etched into the corridor, patterns none of them noticed before, lit up in soft golden light. The group slowly looked around.
Visitor2: "What... is this?"
Cafra walked forward carefully. At the far end of the now illuminated corridor, something had revealed itself. A door. Efrain stepped in and slowly opened the door. The light from the carvings reflected in their eyes. Behind them lay nothing but fading ash. Ahead of them stood the door. Waiting.