Noware

"Sir Melvin, please tie this guy up and—" Maya looked at Clarence with her hand still pointed at the guy on the floor. She pursed her lips, and with a demanding tone, she followed, "Clarence, tell me what I don't know."

Acting like a butler, Melvin gave her a nod and a bow before immediately following her command. She picked up the rope on the side of the room and tied the guy as Clarence stepped forward with his cheeks clenched.

"Well… it's the cult." He gazed at his weapon and swallowed his saliva. "They're coming."

"Ah, shit."

"I used a spell to check and it turns out that a ward has been placed here. They know where we are, ma'am, and we're pretty much screwed now that our front door is gone."

"Shit!" Maya glanced at the door as if she had forgotten about something.

Seeing her reaction made Clarence's eyes lit up and there, he followed, "Yeah… that's what I've been telling them to do. We need to get a door there fast or else we'll be—"

"Miss Agatha, you can come in now," she said with her voice now sounding slow and sweet. "I've taken care of the bad guy."

"Oh dear, so that's what you meant when you told me that there was an asshole nearby."

After a voice that mirrored Maya's tone in terms of grace rang in their ears, another woman in her late fifties who had a carefree face and empty eyes entered the room. She placed her hat on her side and watched it drop to the floor as if she was expecting a table to catch it. After a moment of silence, she stepped forth to wave her hand to say hello to Melvin, who blushed for a moment, and to greet Mr. Breen with her gray dress, emphasizing her swollen belly as well as her long light brown hair that swayed while she's doing so.

She then paused for a moment, again, as though she was looking through them and the walls around them before staring back at Maya with her eyes now glistening with concern. "I… I thought Roland would be here." She puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms. "What a bad boy. He's making his mother wait for some stupid and simple cleanup."

"Well… Miss…"

"No matter, he is a growing boy after all… he must be getting on rebellious on me, oh goodness, I might be sheltering him too much… Oh well, so-let me just prepare his meals…. I wonder if a simple porridge would suffice and ah… and-and maybe some hot milk too. Yes, yes, that would be good…." She turned to Mr. Breen and gazed at him without changing her expression as if she was there stuck in deep thought.

After a few awkward seconds with Maya and Melvin urging him to say something, Mr. Breen chucked and peered into her eyes. "No worries, Madam, we have plenty in the kitchen so let me take you there, Roland's friends are here to discuss something so let me help you out too if that's okay…"

She slowly curved her lips without blinking for a good ten seconds that irked even Mave and Clarence in the distance before tilting her head and clasping her hands over her chest in delight. "Oh dear, you're being so nice today, Mr. Breen. Well then… let me take on your offer and we'll make something for my dear boy… I wonder if that would be enough…"

The others who kept their sights on them scratched their eyes as soon as she got taken to the kitchen where she was welcomed by those two kids, who she passed through as if they were not there. Mave and Sana glared at Melvin with their faces full of confusion. He tried to appease them by suggesting that they should follow her inside while Maya, who just heaved a sigh of relief, turned to Clarance with the same raised right eyebrow that made him tighten his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I-I'm about to say something about the entrance and the door… and…"

"The door? What about it?"

Clarence's face froze with an awkward smile. "I mean… we should at least put some barricades and stuff… by chance… or anything… anything at all perhaps?"

"Sure, it'll take about a week though… I think we do have some funds for it… anything else? I mean you told me that they were coming so… is there anything else you might want to add? Like do we have a clue on what we're fighting against?" Maya peered into his eyes and tilted her head in confusion. "I mean do we have the numbers or are you still going to mention a damn thing about the door?"

"I-I mean… well… nevermind." Clarence sighed and gazed at the sunlit space beyond the door frame. "He did tell us that they have three people waiting for their command and—"

"You… assholes… especially you… woman… you're all done for," the intruder said, trying her best to open just one of his eyes with his stiff tongue sticking out of his mouth and interrupted Clarence who had his hand raised in the air with his face full of disappointment. "I've.... sent my command… they're… coming… they're… coming… my subordinates will annihilate... you all. You're going to pay for what… you've done… I…"

He raised his head with his lips curved upwards to resemble a poor broken smile. It seemed as if he was about to say more but then, he was interrupted, yet again, by another figure that appeared by the entrance. It was an old man in slippers wearing a pair of dirty shorts under his rugged and baggy shirt.

"Peon was threatened so…" the man said, with his words followed by a sharp hic and a slow burp. He didn't step in right after, he just raised the three large balls obscured by the bright rays of the sun in his hand that soon turned out to be three decapitated heads with fresh blood still dripping from the corners of their mouths as well as at the bases of their necks.

Melvin grimaced and Clarence sighed. "I guess those were the…"

"What did you… you bastards…. What… why…."

"I thought I knocked him out," Maya said to Melvin who shrugged as a reply before giving her attention to the man at the door. "Peon, please throw those stuff out. It'll be worse if the smell of blood lingered around the shop."

"Peon says it's alright, we'll be going and be back after we bury the rest of the bodies."

"The… rest?" the intruder laughed and lowered his head. "I guess, there's no need to wait then. It's fine… do I look like I care? Do I look like… care? Because I don't… I don't care about them… haha… I don't care about them at all… I'll just… I'll just kill the lot of you and take everything for myself."

Melvin jumped back in panic towards Clarence who just raised his weapon. Maya stepped back as well as a streak of black particles started to ooze out from his skin, swirling into a thin mist that covered and dyed his body black starting from the tip of his nose.

"Peon says that he knows what that is. He says that I need to get my spear," the old man muttered at their backs before dashing out of the tea shop.

The intruder grinned with the corners of his mouth ripping through his cheeks until the gap that parted his face had reached the spot right beside his ears. The dark pigment that started from his nose continued to spread throughout his body, and his muscles then began to expand like a balloon pulsing as it filled itself with air with his face taking shape resembling that of a black bull with its long arcing horns.

The ropes had been snapped as the monster takes its stance, bearing its rows of yellowish and human-like teeth under its wide unhinged jaws that made them hold their breaths.

"It's a monster… should we… should I run?" Mave asked himself, glancing back to his sister in the kitchen with Agatha without the slightest care of what's happening at the room right beside them.

"It's been a long time since I've seen one, It's actually quite too defined compared to the others…" Mr. Breen stroked his long gray beard behind him.

"What? What is that?" Mave asked, stealing a glance at her sister before gazing back into the monster with his quivering knees telling him to take her and run.

"In a forest, a few days far from here, lies a country filled by hunters of those black monsters that we all know. They were weak, unable to use magic and all, but they were experts at it… like that old man Peon. They used a lot of tools that they could just to bridge the overwhelming gap of strength between them, until one day, a hungry hunter who wanted to assert his dominance amongst the others tried eating them… that's how it started. Some said that they gained strength, a heightened sense… go figure."

"What…"

"If you're looking for a name, the locals call them 'It-him.' But for those of us who are in Tinora, we just decided to call one a Noware. So, little man, stop looking at me for not being taken aback since if you're wondering why… then…"

Without another word, the beast roared and lunged forward with its sharp claws to Maya, who welcomed him with a fierce smile. She leaned back to dodge his attack and as her enemy remained in the air, thinking about what just happened, she twisted her body and planted her feet forward to gain enough force to send a crushing blow that dented the monster's chest before teaching him to go through the roof and beyond. What followed was a moment of silence and a sense of relief that made Mave's jaw drop in awe.

"Guy's tough," Maya said with a smile as she massaged her shoulders. "I've used too many spells for the day. Does anyone want to take over from here?"

"As you can see, they're not that special," Mr. Breen continued and patted Mave's head.

"Well ma'am," Clarence murmured as he looked at Melvin. "I know a certain man who had this terrible, terrible urge to suplex someone."

Melvin looked at Maya in contempt and after a moment, he picked up his sword and walked outside, sniffing the homely smell of the air that reeked of metal and blood with Clarence following his lead. Peon joined them thereafter with a spear and a metal bucket filled with dirt under the red setting sun where they soon saw two people who wore the same gray cloaks treading the dry and dusty path where the man they've apprehended lies.

"Weeeeeellll... Looooooks liiiikkkeeeeee Jaaaaack goooot himmsseeeelllf iiiiiin trooooubbleee... Heeeeeheeeee…" the one on the left was a woman with short white hair, carrying twisted grin that was carved on her face.

The man beside him who had dark skin, let out a proud smirk along with a slow nod, saying, "Thanks for taking care of our comrade here, gentlemen, but I do apologize, we'll be taking him back along with the kids and a head or two as payment."