Another War

"You heard me right." The girl answered confidently while brushing her black hair, streaked with blue color. "Now just sit there and watch me annihilate that thing."

Then the girl started pulling the string on her bow and arrow-shaped energy appeared within.

After regaining some senses, the asw.a.n.g shook its head and slowly started pulling itself up. When it tried to move its body, additional wreckages plagued the structure of the building.

Taking advantage that the asw.a.n.g was still disgruntled from the collision from the white stag, the girl quickly released her energy arrow, aiming for the chest.

Upon releasing the arrow, a huge wave of air accompanied it, blowing the hair of the girl and dust within the vicinity.

The asw.a.n.g sensed the incoming attack, then quickly realized that the arrow was aiming straight at its chest.

It flared its nostrils again and tightened his right arm.

When the energy arrow was about inches away from its chest, the asw.a.n.g swung its right arm, disintegrating the energy arrow like swatting a fly.

The girl clicked her tongue. "Just you expect from a Level 2 Asw.a.n.g." She turned her head to Yule. "Hey! What"s your name?"

With his mouth hanging open, Yule then realized that the girl was asking him.

"Sorry. I"m Yule Azul. That asw.a.n.g just brushed off your energy arrow like a fly."

"I"m Sanna from Neo Archipelago Slaying Academy." She looked back again at the asw.a.n.g with a heavy grim on her face.

"And we better find a hiding place, so Zuna and I can regenerate our powers. We have been slaying asw.a.n.g for hours now."

Quick on his feet, Yule nodded and stood up. "Where to go?"

*****

Yule and Sanna started running away from the asw.a.n.g. They headed on their left side, running with all their might.

"I know asw.a.n.g, but that is not the asw.a.n.g that we study in school."

"What kind of education does your school teach? That asw.a.n.g has always been like that for 100 years since they first appeared in Manila." Sanna interjected.

They turned to a dark alley, stinking from various kinds of smells. Then they found themselves in a ruined business district where more collapsed buildings barricaded the main road.
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Sanna pointed at the wrecked convenience store and went inside.

Upon entering inside, there were shelves thrown on the ground. Lots of rusty and expired items such as canned goods and hygiene products were left scattered on the floor.

The two cleaned the corner of the store by sweeping the trash and sat on the ground with a heavy grunt.

Ignoring the broken gla.s.s, Sanna leaned her head to a broken fridge while Yule could still feel his heart pounding faster after running a long distance from the asw.a.n.g.

"Wait, you"ve mentioned that asw.a.n.g appeared 100 years ago? Am I in the future? What date is it today?"

Sanna raised her eyebrow and looking incredulously at him.

"Did that asw.a.n.g messed up with your head or what? First, it"s October 31, 2019."

This made Yule froze on his seat then looked at Sanna. It was also the same date from where he came from.

"Second," continued by Sanna. "What are you doing on the Ground? Mundane humans are prohibited from entering this place. Only slayers are only allowed in here."

"I don"t know. One moment I was just talking to my cla.s.smate on my way to school. When all of a sudden, a strange light sucked me up in this place."

"So you"re a student also." Examining his clothes, Sanna looked at him from top to bottom.

Yule was wearing a white polo shirt and black pants. The standard male uniform in their high school. "But looking at your uniform, I have never seen that within Tawalisi. And you"re asking questions like it"s your first time seeing an Asw.a.n.g in flesh."

"Of course, it was my first time seeing an Asw.a.n.g!" Yule raised his hand waving it in the air.

"I live in a world where that thing is supposed to be in books, tv, comics, and movies!" Then he looked around. "I also live in a world where it"s not all ruined. It may not be perfect, but we are never in war."

Sanna stood up and started pacing around. "This sounds insane. You know that, don"t you? You mean there"s a world out there where those things... those monsters don"t exist? No slayers around?"

"You keep on mentioning slayers. What do you mean slayers?"

Sanna sighed and looking down hopelessly at Yule. "I"ll show you." She started unb.u.t.toning her long-sleeve uniform.

This made Yule rose from his seat quickly, astonished at the sudden development.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Yule looked elsewhere to avoid Sanna"s embarra.s.sing action.

Sanna just rolled her eyes. "Don"t worry, I"m not undressing, you fool. I just removed the top b.u.t.ton to show you my shard." J

Just as she had mentioned, Yule could see her flesh. He noticed that she was wearing a white bra as there were some parts peeking behind the uniform. But when he looked closely, he could see a green shard embedded between her chest.

"What is that supposed to do? And why is it stuck between your chest?" Yule pointed out.

Sanna touched the shard and smiled. "This shard was given to me by the Engkanto, and help me fight the asw.a.n.g. I had this since 12 years old. Zuna, Appear!"

The shard glowed and white energy appeared from it. This energy slowly shaped to a white stag that Yule met earlier.

Now that Yule was seeing the white stag closer, he failed to notice earlier how majestic and beautiful the stag was. It was standing a foot taller than Sanna.

The stag inched closer to its partner and bowed, showing to Yule its long branches of horns protruding from its head. The stag raised its head again and looking at Yule with its piercing blue eyes.

"S-so beautiful..."

Sanna chuckled and patted the head of her white stag. "I know. This is Zuna. He is a Lampong. A mythical deer from the North Luzon provinces. As you saw earlier, Zuna helps me fighting the asw.a.n.g. Through this shard, Zuna and I made a contract. This shard helps him to materialize in our world."

"And he can transform into a bow, right?"

"Oh yes, if you know the stories of Lampong, they are always being hunted by tribesmen. They believe that this creature is a demon or a shapeshifter. Where the Lampong just wants to roam around our world. Maybe that"s why when we made the contract, he transform into a bow. Since their kind is being hunted and killed by it, which also tragic in a sense. But I"ve made a promise to Zuna that I will his bow to protect and defend the weak."

"So you mean, Zuna is living inside you?" Yule asked.

"It"s a yes and a no. Hehe. Yes, he"s living in me, but on a different astral plane through this shard. I don"t know how the Engkanto did it though."

"Wait, now that I know that there is asw.a.n.g, lampong..." Yule gestured towards Zuna. "...now, you"re telling me there are Engkanto too? Aaah! This is making my head hurts more!"

"Of course! I"ve mentioned that the asw.a.n.g appeared 100 years ago. Their appearance signifies the catastrophic start of our world. The government doesn"t know what to do, even the world leaders were left speechless. Military and nuclear weapons don"t affect them. Just like you, they thought these creatures can only be found in books. Plus, they are different from the stories they had read. They didn"t expect them to be these giant creatures. There are even records that the biggest asw.a.n.g ever fought was 30 feet long wherein a lot of slayers united just to defeat it. Anyway, when the world is in chaos already, and the population decimated to almost half. The Engkanto appeared."

"So these Engkanto, are they also the same from the books and stories? Beautiful and tall creatures, long pointed ears, wearing beautiful gowns, crowned with tiaras made of flowers?"

Sanna snorted and begun laughing. The white stag looked at Sanna, wondering what was happening to her.

"What?" Yule asked.

"Sorry. If you"ve just met them, they are so different from the stories. Yes, they are tall and beautiful creatures, but they don"t have long pointed ears. They have the same ears as ours. And they don"t wear flower crowns!" Sanna began laughing again, now holding her stomach.

"S-so they look like us?" Yule ignored the hysterical laugh of Sanna.

Sanna stopped laughing and returned to being serious again. "They do, but what differentiates them from us is their eyes. They all have emerald eyes, plus they are all serious creatures. They are so cold. Never seen one laughing.

So back to the story, the Engkanto appeared in our world after secluding themselves from thousand of years from humans. They arranged an a.s.sembly to all remaining human leaders, and that was when they told the leaders that the asw.a.n.g has been their longtime enemies. For thousands of years, they have been holding at bay the asw.a.n.g from the human plane, but something had happened. The asw.a.n.g acquired a new power. They don"t know from whom. And for the first time, the Engkanto were defeated by the Asw.a.n.g. They destroyed the world of Engkanto, the Dalakitnon. After destroying and killing the residents of Dalakitnon, the asw.a.n.g found a way to portal themselves out to the human world.

But not all Engkanto were killed Due to their technological advancement, they able to shelter some Engkanto into hiding. By the way, before you ask, Engkanto used to have magical powers but after thousand of years, it faded, leaving them to innovate and advance their technology. There is still some magic left, but they were all contained to magic stones, helping them advance their technology. If we are going to compare human technology, we are thousands of years behind them.

As I"ve mentioned, there was a group of Engkanto left behind. This group with the help of magic stones created the shards in slaying the asw.a.n.g. They are hoping that the shards will help them to regain their faded magical powers through making a contract with other mythical beings. Unfortunately, the shards won"t activate to Engkanto. That is why they turned to humans and forged a partnership with us, thus the slayers are born or at least made. They still don"t know why the shards will only activate to selected humans but not with Engkanto.

When the slayers started to fight back for humans and Engkanto, the humans experienced a win after so many years. The asw.a.n.g held back their attacks and retreated for a year. Since the Ground is already destroyed, the Engkanto built a floating city with the help of some humans and called it Tawalisi."

Then Yule and Sanna heard a faint crashing sound outside. The asw.a.n.g had found them.