14. Blue light

The drizzle seems to grow heavy, turning into a full pledged rain, light but none the less, rain.

RD is nearly exhausted. He has been running away for his pursuers for almost an hour now. With several near misses, he is thankful he is still alive.

He heard a sword slash through the air. It is coming from the cloaked man in front of him. He blocked the strike, parried the sword away and turned his head to get a glimpse of another cloaked person, a woman. She is completing her turn and ready to jab her spear at his mid section.

RD stepped back, turned toward the katana weilding attacker, lunged with a downward semi-circle slash, pulled back and parried the spear.

The rain is getting heavy now. RD is getting wet. He is feeling cold.

The male attacker is thinking of the very same thing. Except for him and his companion, their cloaks are being soaked. A little while longer and they will become both a hindrance and an advantage. Sprinkles of water from the cloak will distract their prey, but they will be meeting that same effect.

It must end now, thought the female attacker. She too realizes the problems their wet cloaks will pose. Killing their target is going to be very easy. Except that they are not there to kill him but instead to capture him. They need some information from him. Something that they must have to ensure the success of their mission and their cause. And they must not fail.

Both cloaked assailants are now walking around RD, looking for an opening. Their weapons menacingly pointed at his direction.

Standing at the center of the circle, RD extends both swords in his hands. Each kampilan pointed at its intended target. Whether to defend from an attack or strike a lethal blow, both swords moving with the targets as if sensing their presence and tracking them, keeping them at the end of its deadly two prong-shaped points.

Rain starts to fall in heavier.

Suddenly, the menacing dance stops.

With all their strenght both attackers pounced at their prey. The spear bearer thursting the ge while spinning the staff to flailed the lion hair decoration of her weapon sputtering water at her intended victim.

On the other side of the circle, the swordsman swings his katana for an upward slash. His intention, to cut off RDs hands and relieve him of one of his swords. He may die of sever bleeding from this cut but they may be able to pull out the information they need before it happens.

Thanks to years of practice in college, RD was able to think of a move to avoid the cuts about to be inflicted on him. RD makes a half counter-clockwise, lifting the sword to his left while dropping his right, twisting his wrist as he goes. This brought the attacker from his right to his left side and the one from his left to his right side. When he finished his turn, he began to drop his left arm to katana that is swing upward. His twisting right-hand sword succeeded in parrying the spear. He was no longer in the line of attack of both assasins but his position now puts both weapons inches from him. Their movements are once again locked.

RD need to do something or he will loose time to react to any movements the assailants might make.

At first, he did not notice it but the rain seemed to have stopped. RD's first thought is that it did stop. But he noticed that his hands and kampilans are still getting wet. Then he caught a glimpse of his attackers beginning to gaze upwards. He wanted to look but it may give them an opening. He must get away from this position. He must muster enough strength to push them back. Slowly he pulled in his kampilans to prepare for the push.

As he did, the push from both enemy weapons suddenly slackened.

This allowed him to look up to see something dropping along with rainwater. It began to glow. It has a blue glow. And it's headed toward him.

Too late, he thought. This is the end.

The ground suddenly shook from the impact of the blue light. It did not hit RD but it landed directly in front of him. The blue light is not some sort of a fireball as it blew off from the hand of another cloaked person.

As fast as the sound of the impact vibrated through the rainy street, a concentric ring of blue fire rippled off from the point of impact causing the two attackers to jump back.

Two against one is hard enough, now a third one came, RD's mind is racing. He now truly believes that this is his end.

5. The Rescue

It was a dark damp alley just off Claro M. Recto Avenue in Sampaloc, Manila. The alley is littered with empty boxes of carton and some palettes made of palochina. Sitting on the ground with her hands supporting her, her bayong dropped behind her, its contents scattered on the pavement, a pregnant woman was trembling in fear.

Elena, 7-months pregnant and a street vendor in Quiapo watches in horror as a cloaked and hooded assassin pulls back his spear, covered in markings and a strange inscription.

"Your god has brought this upon you," the man said as he made a final pull to lunge at Elena.

Moving both body and arms, the man thrust the spear toward Elena.

Then Elena, her eyes closed, heard a clang of metal against metal and the thud of the spear hitting concrete instead of the sound of flesh being torn and the pain accompanying it.

She opened her eyes long enough to see a long and large bolo riddled with markings swing toward the spear holding assailant.

The assailant jumped back, pulling the spear away with him, holding it near the shaft's end.

The heavy bolo wielding person jump over Elena in a flutter of cloth, twisting in midair as he manipulated the bolo continuing its clockwise swing for another strike at the assassin.

As the bolo-wielding figure completed his 360 degree turn, the assassin pulled back on the spear still moving backward in midair. As the assassin pulled at the spear, he let it slide back in his right hand as he thrust is free arm, his left arm, palms up fingers spread, light creeping from his forearms toward his hands. A ball of electricity shot from his open hands toward the assassin.

This time the boloman has completed the swing of the bolo, twisted his bolo-wielding right hand 90 degrees clockwise holding the flat side of the bolo facing the assassin and swung the bolo using it as a racket to hit the ball of electricity and push it up toward the sky.

The assassin has completed his pull of the spear, now holding it at the foreshaft with his right hand pulled back. He then threw the spear with his body twisting and his left hand swinging back as the ball of electricity was deflected toward the sky. The spear flew not at the boloman but toward Elena. The assassin has now reached the apex of his jump curve and was descending.

The boloman continued his reverse twist powered by the swing of the bolo, now also beginning his descent to the ground. He extended his left leg, foot and leg forming a straight line, and made a turning side kick toward the spear. His timing was perfect as his foot hit the spear midshaft and propelled it sideways hitting the wall, stopping its progress and dropping to the ground, disintegrating along the way down.

Before the assassin hit the ground, he swung both his hands toward the boloman, left hand first then right, releasing two knives similar to those he used earlier on the beer drinkers killed in the main street.

The boloman used the impact of his left foot with the spear and the wall to catapult him for another twist in the opposite direction holding his large bolo over his head with his right hand. This twist was accompanied by a backward somersault to move his body backward away from the knives and at the same time allowing him to put his bolo between him and the knives. He parried both knives throwing them to the direction of the wall that they chipped before they disintegrated.

Both men landed on the pavement at the same time regarding each other, hands at the ready. The boloman clutched the handle of his bolo tighter as the other man clenched his fists, ready for another attack.

As if having practiced the move together, both men steadied their stance, both feet beyond shoulder width apart, hands held waist high, palms facing forward and fingers extended and curved as if they were holding balls in each hand. Then together they thrust both hands forward putting them closer to each other, with palm heels eventually touching.

"Kilat!" both shouted as electricity snaked from their forearms to their hands then exploding from the points in their fingers as a ball of electricity formed between their palms. The ball then exploded to a big bolt of lightning shooting toward the other person.

As the bolts collide, the two warriors felt the recoil and were rocked from where they stood, each sliding slightly backward. Smaller bolts struck out from where the two opposing bolts met hitting the walls, boring holes on impact, concrete chunks and dust raining down. Both men grunted as the pressure of the bolts started to push them back.

"Why are you doing this?" asked the boloman pushing forward.

"It must be done," replied the spearman pushing back at his opponent.

"I -- will -- not -- let -- you -- succeed," grunted the boloman as he began to take a step forward, pushing his bolt toward the assassin.

"We will -- umph -- not -- fail," said the assassin before he turned his joined hands clockwise so that his left hand is over his right and took a step back. Then he pulled back his left hand to point his palms 45 degrees upward in the process allowing some of the boloman's bolt to penetrate and then deflect it upward toward the sky and guide it to the fire escape landing above them just behind the boloman.

The deflected bolt hit the concrete walls exploding, concrete and dust flying away along with the fire escape landing that began to drop with a sound of strained metal toward Elena.

The boloman pushed off the ground to let the pressure of the bolt push him backward as he ascended. He then let go of the bolt that shot past below him and over Elena now lying unconscious on the pavement to explode at the wall of another building at the rear creating a hole through three other inner concrete walls. As he jumped back, the boloman made a counter-clockwise midair turn, holding his palms waist high, palm heels together, fingers apart and curved like before.

"Buga!" he said as he thrust both hands toward the falling fire escape landing. A ball of high pressure air came out from between his palms and flew toward the metal landing increasing in size as it went.

Meanwhile, the assassin raised his body a little, both feet planted well on the pavement, on foot in front of the other placed his hands above him, arms straight, palms facing forward, fingers spread and curved, forefingers and thumbs touching each other and recited, "Bolang apoy!" Light crawled from his forearms toward his hands. As the light reached his hands and he finished the incantation, the assassin thrust his hands toward Elena then holding them in front of his face, arms still extended. A fireball formed as his hands moved forward and sped toward Elena, increasing in size and turning from red to blue to white.

"Kalasag!" the boloman shouted. He is now facing the assassin having continued on his midair turn and is now descending, the metal landing, twisted by the impact of the ball of air, flying away from the boloman and the woman toward the hole created by the assassin's lightning bolt. From the extended right arm of the boloman, light flew toward the ground transforming into a large shield with ethnic markings and planted itself on the concrete a few feet from Elena putting itself between the fireball and the unconscious woman.

The fireball hit the shield and exploded. While the smoke lifted, the shield flickered but did not disintegrate, and the boloman landed inches from the woman's head. The two men are about to make another move when they heard sirens and voices from the buildings on both sides of the alley and the one at its end that was punctured by the lightning bolt.

The assassin used the distraction to jump out into a dark area on the wall formed by the shadow of the buildings and disappeared.

As the building flickered and vanished, the boloman knelt beside Elena. He was about to put his arms under her head and at the back of her knees when he heard someone shout.

"Hoy!" bellowed a bare chested man wearing maong short pants made by cutting his jeans just above the knee as he emerged from the hole in the building that the lightning bolt created earlier. He was holding what looked like a revolver. With him are two other men, one of them wearing a white kamiseta and yellow cotton shorts, the other, a t-shirt, its sleeves torn off, and blue striped pajamas.

"Nobody moves!" the police SWAT officer shouted as they entered the alley from the main street with his teammates flooding the alley with their sub machine gun mounted flash lights. The boloman turned his head from the three men to the SWAT officers.

The building residents raised their hands in panic as the boloman jumped upward, leaving Elena on the ground. The light beams followed the ascent of the cloaked figure but all they saw were building walls and dust whirling.

After the police and the residents got cleared up on who is a threat and who is not, they turned their attention to the unconscious pregnant woman lying on the ground, a female police medic now attending to her, checking her pulse and her extremities for broken bones, the medic's aid kit sitting beside her.

As the police and the building residents looked over at Elena, they heard a fluttering of cloth above them. When they looked up, they saw a figure flying along the length of the alley as it jumped from the street end toward the building roof in the other end of the alley, its body parallel to the ground below. The figure was twisting on its head to foot axis. Then they saw something glitter, then another, then they heard someone scream as knives rained down of them. Screams were heard as the knives cut through the people gathered, some burying themselves on the policemen, the residents, the concrete pavement and walls.

3. The Alley

It was night.

Elena tried to walk faster. She willed herself to run but the load she is caring plus the fact that she is pregnant stopped her from walking any faster. Her heart is pounding so hard it reverberates to her ear. It is as if she had her ear against her chest.

Then she heard the flapping of cloth... She turned... And what she saw made her scream...

Standing in front of her is a cloaked man. The hood and the dark obscuring her vision. She can't see his face.

Her scream caught the attention of some bystanders who tried to see where the scream was coming from. On the other side of the street, four topless men drinking some gin stopped momentarily and turned to look at the direction where the scream came from. At the corner, three students waiting for a cab turned to Elena's direction.

Elena was shaking. Almost loosing her grip on the bayong she is carrying. She willed herself to move. She was able to take one step back when the hooded figure slowly raised his head. Ambient light slowly creeping she can now see the person's jaw. It looks fiery red. It has some black markings like a tattoo.

She held her bayong tighter not knowing what to do. A lot of things raced through her mind. "Is this Mang Andoy's killer," she asked herself. "What could he want from me? I never saw him before. I was never even a witness to the murder!"

As Elena continued on these thoughts, the hooded figure's head continued to raise. Now she can see his cheeks, riddled with tattoo. His head stopped moving. Light does not penetrate enough to allow her to see the figure's whole face. But she notices that his eyes seem to glow.

"Miss! Are you okay?" shouted one of the drinkers from the other side who stood up to have a better look. Then seeming to notice the figure standing in front of the woman, they felt alarmed. They took steps toward the street.

"Hoy! Who are you?" asked the other man to the hooded figure they can barely see in the dark as he moved ahead of his buddies. Some of them picked up iron pipes or wooden planks.

The students waiting for the cab got scared at the shouting. They huddled together and tried to cross the street towards the fast food chain.

The four drinkers began their way across the street when the figure turned his head toward them. They can see his yellow glowing eyes. And it made them stop and rethink if they will go and help the woman or not.

"Puta, aswang!" shouted the thinnest of the four holding his wooden stick tighter.

"Let's get him!" shouted the braver one who was also the one who asked Elena if she is okay.

"Let's go!" shouted the big bellied one holding an iron pipe.

As they moved forward towards the island that separates the two opposing lanes, the figure whipped his left arm toward their direction shouting "Daga!"

In an instant, a bolt of light came out from the sleeve end of the figure's cloak. The light materialized to a knife before it disappeared into the neck-high island.

The brave one among the drinkers stopped dead on his tracks. Clutching his neck as he fall backwards from the impact of something that hit him. Blood came out of his mouth and seeped through his fingers. His eyes wide in shock. He hit the ground with a thud.

The others looked at him, got mad and angrily looked at the hooded figure.

When the hooded figure released that bolt of light, Elene got to her senses and turned toward an alley to her left.

With deadly swiftness, the hooded figure flicked his other arm toward the direction of Elena. A bolt of light flew out and struck the wall behind her. Missing her by inches.

The assailant then moved to follow Elena in the alley but stopped when an iron pipe flew in front of him. He turned to see that the big bellied iron pipe bearer was no across the island. The two others just over the top.

Elene moved faster across the tight alley barely two persons wide. Boxes and crates were piled on either side. She tipped some of them and a few fell crashing on the ground. She heard screams as the four drinkers sparred with her assailant. As she turned her head back to take a look, she saw lights flash, heard more screams, and thought she faintly heard skin tear as if opening a zipper.

As the screaming stopped, she stopped and turned towards the end of the alley hoping that she will see one of the men who tried to help her. Her heart stopped when she heard the eerie fluttering she heard before. But no one emerged at the end of the alley. Trembling, she raised her gaze. In the ambient light of the new moon, she saw a figure descend from above. Her knees felt weak and she fell sitting on the ground.

"This is it for me," she thought. "I am sorry for my baby. He hasn't even come out yet to see the world and now he will die with me."

Tears trailed down her cheek as the fluttering figure landed a few feet in front of her.

"What do you want from me!" she screamed at the figure.

"You," the figure replied. His voice seem to come from the depths of the earth. "I have no business with you."