B2A1 - The World of Myths

Chapter 37 : Batibat, Mambabarang, Mangkukulam III

Chapter 37 : Batibat, Mambabarang, Mangkukulam III

-Vic-

            Enzo picked up the long wooden chair and placed it on his pocket again.

            “Now that you already have this long wooden chair, you can now bring it to my daughter to the next village… I’m giving you a shortcut so that you can get there quick” Nunong Banoy said as he smiled at us and handed us a map. Elliot accepted it and placed it on his pocket

            “Thank you so much for helping me…” Nunong Banoy thanked us, we just nodded at him and decided to go off already

            *You received x1000 golds*

            *You received x1000 silvers*

            *You received x1000 coppers*

            *You received x500 crystals*

            *You received x10 small healing potions*

            *You received x10 small magic immunity potions*

            ~Small Magic Immunity Potion makes you immune from any type of magic for three minutes~

            *You received x10 small Invulnerability potions*

            ~Small Invulnerability potion makes you invulnerable from cuts and wounds for three minutes~

            *You received x10 small invisibility potion*

            ~Small invisibility potion makes you invisible fore three minutes~

            *You received x10 small deflector potions*

            ~Small deflector potion makes you deflect any bullet attacks for three shots~

            “Now… off you go, my daughter can’t wait forever. My daughter lives in the same nipa hut structure as mine, you’ll easily recognize it” Nunong Banoy added then we all walked outside his nipa hut. I realized how his nipa hut differs from other nipa huts here.

            It’s like his nipa hut has terrace, unlike the others. This is where we slept last night, in his terrace. And above all, his nipa hut is quite bigger than the others. We walked outside as Elliot grabbed the maps from his pocket and started studying it. I just looked at him waiting for him to tell us the direction.

            “The map shows that the way to the next village is there…” Elliot said pointing towards the pathway into the forest holding the larger maps which must be the map of the whole B2A1 “And it says here that the shortcut is this way…” he said pointing at another direction holding the smaller one.

            “Let’s go here…” he said as he started walking towards the trees ahead. There were no tracks nor pathway that we’ll follow since this is not the original path that we have to follow. It’s just a shortcut to get to the next village quickly. All we can see are trees everywhere.

            “Here, let’s make a left here” he said as pointed at a tree that has an arrow posted on it. that must be the sign that points which way to go, since this is a shortcut and there were no tracks, the villagers must have put on signs to tell them which way to go in this untracked path.

            After a few minutes, we saw some other trees that had signs on them, and we follow where they are pointing. Elliot says so that it’s where we will take turns and it would probably lead us to the next village.

            “Watch where you’re going!” we heard someone spoke, it sounded like an old woman whom we bumped along the way.

            “I’m so sorry…” Elliot said apologizing to the old woman covered in her cloak with a basket on her arms, the old woman suddenly disappeared into the woods “Gosh I didn’t see her, she suddenly appeared causing me to bump into her…” Elliot added as the old woman disappeared

            “What do you mean? You must have been so busy looking at your map that’s why you haven’t saw her coming” Scarlett said

            “I don’t know… let’s just go, we’re almost there” Elliot said shaking his head and continued to walk following what’s written on the map. Soon after, we found nipa huts a few steps from us, there were a lot of them compared to the other villages we came through.  

            It seems like their population has increased thirty percent from the population of the previous village. We continued going to the village and saw some busy people. Since it’s still morning we can clearly see people doing their own businesses. I wonder what kind of monsters we would encounter here.

            “Excuse me…” someone came approaching us as we entered the village “Are you people new here?” she asked as she walked towards us waving us hello

            “Yes, we are…” Darxi answered her nodding his head

            “Ok… be careful with anyone you meet, bye!” she said as she smiled and went on

            “What do you mean?” Darxi asked, the woman suddenly stopped and walked back to us as if she’s being hypnotized. Gosh! What’s going on!? “Tell me, why do you want us to be careful?” Darxi repeated as his voice sounded so deep and threatening giving emphasis to each of his words

            “This village is filled with witches… be careful with who you interact with. People looks nice on the outside but does black magic when no one sees them” she said slowly as her eyes were fixed with Darxi

            “Ok thank you” he said snapping the woman out of his power. The woman walked back to the village as if nothing had happened

            “What did you do?” Enzo asked Darxi after what happened “I thought something bad is already happening” he added ahahaha same with me bro…

            “Nothing, I just made her speak… it’s my ability” Darxi answered and smiled at us boastfully… gosh, look at this guy. No wonder Lucy hates him so much…

            “Let’s go” I said as I walked forward yet Elliot stood there thinking about something “Why? What’s wrong?” I asked as I stopped and went to him holding his hand

            “That old lady… she must be a witch… oh my gosh” Elliot said fearfully as he tried to remember it

            “No… it’s probably not” I said as I pulled him so that we could start walking towards Nunong Banoy’s daughter’s house. Yet he stopped me from walking as he pulled my hand…

            “No, I’m sure she is… as I bumped on her, she pulled a strand from my hair then quickly left, if she’s not a witch then what was that for?” Elliot said as he looked straight into my eyes

            “Maybe she accidently pulled one as you bumped on her…” I said consoling him

            “No… she intentionally did that, her face looked so angry as if she wanted to kill me” Elliot said as his hand held mine tighter convincing me that it is true

            “Ok… if you guys allow us, you can go ahead and find that house while Elliot and I look for that old woman around, she must live in one of these houses here” I said as I looked at he others looking intently at us

            “Let’s all look for that old woman together…” Avery said “She’s either a mambabarang or a mangkukulam” he added

            “Mambabarang or a mangkukulam, aren’t those two similar?” Lucy asked Avery about what he just said. I think so too, the names are just different but they’re both witches.

            “They’re almost the same but their difference is that mambabarang uses insects for their practices while mangkukulam casts spells… you understand?” Avery briefly explained to us “We need to find that old woman before she could do anything to Elliot, these people are vengeful and they’d do everything to make you suffer”

            “And Vic looked so worried too…” Raizen said as he chuckled meaningfully pertaining to me

            “What do you mean?” I asked as I looked at him intently

            “Nothing, don’t mind me…” he said as he looked away trying to avoid my gaze “I’ll just pretend here that I didn’t notice how you held Elliot’s hand…” he added then I immediately remembered our hands. I automatically took mine and stepped away a little

            “Shut up” I said as I looked at him while he just smiled at me weirdly as well as the others “We’re both men, and we both have balls” I added that made them all laugh

            “Yea, that hand used to land on my face hard…” Elliot added rolling his eyes

            “Oh my gosh… I’m so sorry. Let’s just go ok?” I said as I looked at him convincing them to move and divert the topic to another

            “Ok, let’s go…” Darxi said as he led us the way to the village “Gosh, there are so many houses here. Which way should we go?” he asked as we saw a lot of nipa huts in this village and we don’t know which house we would go

            “If only we had something from that old woman, I could use my ability to locate her…” Elliot said shaking his head slowly

            “If we’re going to check each nipa hut one by one, it would take us a long time before finding her… she might do a lot of things by that time… let’s hurry” Reiven said making us do it already

            “Yea as if we had our choice though… let’s go” Elliot said as he started to go to each houses. Gosh, it would take us ages to see where that old woman lives.

            We started knocking at each door asking if ever they know this old woman that Elliot is describing to if ever that old woman lives in that house. We’ve been going around like that for a long time now and we still haven’t found her yet. But we don’t want to give up.

            “Wait a minute… that old woman? I think I know her” one of the villagers answered as he recognizes Elliot’s description “Come in… let’s talk about it” he said as he let us all come inside his house “I’m Kabli… I lived here in this village since I was born, and I already know each villager here”

            “I’m Elliot… I need to find this old woman. Earlier, as we were walking towards this village, I happen to bump on her, she intentionally took a strand of my hair as she bumped on me. She shouted at me and then left” Elliot retold what happened “One of the villagers warned us about witches, so I’m worried…”

            “If she’s one and do something with your hair?” the man asked continuing what Elliot had said

            “Yes…” Elliot shortly answered nodding his head

            “This village has been filled with witches for a long time now, and there had been numerous reports about being a victim of those witches but no one knows who those witches are…” the man said as he looked at Elliot intently “So I am asking for your help to eliminate them from existence” he added

            There we go with some people asking for our help then it turns out that they’re one of the monsters ahahaha just kidding. There’s no way he’s one.

            “But how are we going to do that? We don’t know which people to point as witch. We don’t even live in this village to have suspects to investigate” Darxi said as if he’s willing to accept the task

            “I know nothing about them, but my father… who’s also a victim of witchcraft told me that these witches stay up all night and does not sleep…” he said whispering to us so that his neighbors won’t hear us including those witches. We just listened to him carefully

            “Does that mean we have to wait until evening until we find that old woman?” Elliot asked as he looked at the man

            “That’s when you investigate which houses that still have their torches light up, then try to investigate to know if those people live there are witches or not…” he said giving us advice how to do it

            “Ok… whatever” Elliot said rolling his eyes “That old woman must have done the curse already by now… whatever happens, save me ok?” Elliot said asking us