While Lumawig was in the Spiritual realm, Lolo Gani who had been sitting for some time suddenly opened his eyes. He then turned his head to his left and trained his eyes in the distance. Although it was already nighttime and the sky has been unnaturally dark, covered by the strange mass of clouds, he was still able to make out the group of silhouettes approaching their area.

As more time passed, the silhouettes became clearer and not long after, Lolo Gani was able to see what these groups of silhouettes are – they are the bal-bal. Lolo Gani’s eyes narrowed into slits as he was aghast by the sight, his complexion turning a shade paler and cold sweat drenched his back; a whole group of bal-bal was coming and their numbers are not lower than ten, with these numbers even the most seasoned babaylan will turn pale with fright. Alarm was apparent on Lolo Gani’s face, however, after thinking about his preparations earlier he was able to calm down a bit.

Lolo Gani remained vigilant even if he had faith in his arrangements; he was ready to fight them off.

“It seems that my hunch was right all along. There seems to be something or someone controlling these things. Could it be that something more evil and powerful really killed Elsie?” thought Lolo Gani to himself.

The group of bal-bal are just now a few meters away from the clearing, and their guttural growls can be heard clearly. Their eyes that are almost glowing red makes a hypnotizing scene amidst the dark backdraft. At this moment, Lolo Gani stood up, however, he did not wield his sundang but just tied it around his waist, nor did he pick up his buntot pagi. Instead, he picked up a bamboo spear coated with lana oil and walked towards the side from where the bal-bal are coming.

Every step he took made his heartbeat faster, and large beads of sweats started to form on his forehead. Despite feeling the terror of facing these many monsters, Lolo Gani steeled his resolve and gripped the bamboo spear tighter.

Another three breaths went by and one of the bal-bal has made it into the clearing, it is already fast charging speed has increased further the moment it saw a human. Like a bullet that was fired from a gun, the bal-bal became a blur and sped towards Lolo Gani.

At the moment of impact, a golden light flashed, and three ancient Filipino scripts that spelled ‘Ka La Sa’ appeared.

[Filipino: Kalasag; English: Shield]

A sound of an object colliding against something hard produced a deafening sound followed by a sound of flesh being seared by hot flames, lastly a weak cry was heard. The bal-bal that sped towards Lolo Gani collided against the barrier the old man had prepared. Hearing the sound of collision, Lolo Gani took bigger strides to quickly reach his destination.

Arriving at the site, there he saw one of the bal-bal lying prone on the ground. One of its hands was broken just below the elbow and is bent at an unnatural angle, all its claws have been shattered, one of its eyes popped out of its socket and a severed tongue can be seen a few feet away from the monster. Both of its legs have also their bones broken, with one of them piercing out of its skin.

From this sight alone, Lolo Gani was able to tell that it suffered a severe injury, and even with its regenerative ability, it will take some time for it to recover. Not letting the opportunity go to waste, Lolo Gani immediately thrust the bamboo spear he was holding to the creature's right side.

The monster let out a terrifying howl the moment the spear pierced into its heart. Its death cries however did not manage to deter the oncoming group of bal-bal because right after the first bal-bal died, four more came out of the forest. The same terrifying appearance of these four almost made Lolo Gani drop his bamboo spear in surprise, however, having killed one of them meant one less of these monsters. Gaining a bit more confidence from his kill Lolo Gani prepared to strike at another helpless bal-bal that will collide against the barrier.

Four groups of the ancient Filipino scripts again appeared on the moment of impact, and a moment later…

Four thunderous sounds of collision were heard and another four bal-bal are laying on the ground, receiving the same grievous injuries as the first. Wasting no time, Lolo Gani immediately pierced the bal-bal closest to him on the chest, and then proceeded with haste to kill the remaining three. All four of them released great howls of pain just before they died. Right after he killed the other four bal-bal, just as Lolo Gani was about to breathe a sigh of relief, more of these monsters came out one after the other from the forest.

One, two, three, four…a total of fifteen more bal-bal came out of the dark forest. However, unlike the first five bal-bal, the fifteen did not immediately attack, but instead stood some distance away from where Lolo Gani was.

Seeing the monsters standing a few meters away from him, Lolo Gani’s body visibly shook, and his already pale face became even paler. His breathing became ragged, and he felt his whole body go weak.

“Merciful Bathala! Where did all these monsters come from?!” stepping a few steps back, Lolo Gani could not help but exclaim in fear.

“I just hope that this barrier of mine can stop all of these monsters. Hm?!” sighing with uncertainty, Lolo Gani also noticed that one of the bal-bal was bigger than the others, no it was humongous, at least four meters tall.

While most of the bal-bal that came have the same appearance of the one he killed a few nights ago, this huge bal-bal also has bone spikes covering its back arranged in a random way; and its claws are colored black. Unlike the other bal-bal as well, this giant bal-bal is also covered in thick muscles, and its eyes look more malicious than its contemporaries but also reflects a bit of wisdom. Most eye-catching of all is its dark red skin, that looks like it has taken a bath in an ocean of coagulated blood.

“W-what is that?! Is that also a bal-bal?” Lolo Gani could not help but feel as if his spirit left his body. “Hm?! What is that black fog-like thing coating their bodies?”

Lolo Gani continued to observe the group and also noticed something peculiar about them, but before he could think about it more…

The huge bal-bal released a stentorian howl that visible waves of sound can be seen travelling from it towards the old man’s position. Lolo Gani brought his hands to his ears and used them to cover them to mitigate the loud sound and avoid damaging his ears. After releasing that terrible howl, the bal-bal growled in a low voice and pointed at Lolo Gani. As soon as the growl ended, five of the bal-bal charged towards Lolo Gani in a straight line.

A moment later…

Five loud collisions sounded followed by whimpering. Lolo Gani was about to stab one of the bal-bal when another sound of collision was heard, ten meters to his right, and one more was heard fifteen meters to his left.

Realizing what they were trying to accomplish, Lolo Gani wasted not another second as he stabbed the five grievously injured bal-bal, effectively killing them. He then ran towards his right, showcasing the same speed he used when he ran from his house to tiyo Noning’s house a couple of days ago, and stabbed the bal-bal lying in the ground.

However, before he could reach the other bal-bal on the far left, it was able to heal itself enough for it to crawl away from Lolo Gani’s reach.