On the second floor of the house, Alex was hiding in the hidden room, with his little flashlight providing lighting. All the while, he was still trying to get in touch with the police with his cell phone. And yet, he could not get through even once.
"Boom!" the door to the walk-in closet was busted open, and someone with a heavy footstep came into the room.
"Come out, little friend." the person that came in spoke with a low and intentionally intimidating voice: "Alex? That's your name right? I can already smell you in here. Come out so I won't have to tear this room apart!" Then came a loud tearing sound, seemed like the man literally broke one of the hangers still with some clothes hanging on it.
"Found you, you little maggot." a strong hand banged on the hidden door, and with a flicker of bright orange light, the door remained unshaken, which made the man more aggravated and starting banging on the hidden door repeatedly: "Looks like someone's being clever! Come out! Come out you little maggot!"
Eventually after the 10th or 12th bang, the strong masked man with sharpened fingernails and busted through the hidden door and grabbed Alex by the shoulders. Alex screamed and threw his full hand of folder Demon Suppression Sigil at the man, the paper sigils burst into flames the moment they touched the face of the man and somehow lit his face and shoulders on fire.
The man was struck with surprise and started growling in pain, he retracted his hands trying to put out the fire on his body and in turn let Alex loose. Alex ran through from under the man's crotch, but not forgetting to turn back and stab the man in the back of his knee with his mini wooden sword.
The mini wooden sword released a small electric shock that caused Alex to let go of the wooden sword, yet its edge still was buried deeply into the man's leg. As the man writhed in pain, Alex took the chance and ran out of the walk-in closet and towards the staircase, where he was caught by Kane.
"Dad!"
"Oh my god Alex, you alright?"
"Yes. I stabbed the bad man, what is happening?"
"We'll talk later, let's get outta here."
Downstairs, Caroline was simultaneously fighting against two cultists - only one of the two masked men shot by her Xuanli infused bullets sustained debilitating injury, the other got up from the ground and lunged at Caroline with his arms extending forward. And without a hint of shame, Simon joined in on the assault against Caroline.
The cultists, while under the influence of some unknown hex or magic, not only had superhuman resilience, they also had superhuman strength aside from the smell from their body and black and green blood.
Caroline tried to block a heavy tackle from a masked man with two bullet wounds on his left shoulder and chest. Orange flames exploded from the shield and lit the man's arms on fire, yet Caroline was knocked back and bumped her back against the wall.
"Your self defense class is paying off!" Simon laughed loudly and lunged at Caroline with the giant knife dropped by the first woman in the room. And with a forceful full swing, the knife cut into the wall where Caroline's right hand was and almost got stuck. Caroline took the chance, lowered her body and dished out a sweeping kick targeting Simon's legs.
Simon was clearly inexperienced with hand to hand combat, and was swept off his feet by Caroline's kick, and before his body fully fell to the ground, Caroline's backhand shield bash already landed on his face.
With a loud thump, Simon's body was sent flying and flipping in the air. But before Caroline could reorganize her pose, the other male cultist rushed to her side, grabbing her by the waist and violently throwing her to the wall.
Caroline felt the shock rocked her entire body and the wall behind her caving in, the dizziness from the shock did not stop her from instinctually blocking the upcoming attack with the shield on her left arm. But this time she was not able to hold onto the shield, as the male cultist's claw swung upwards, her shield also flew up and out of her hand.
This male cultist was not able to maintain the upper hand for long, however. Right after he knocked the shield away from Caroline, Caroline jolted forward and kicked him in the chest with full force.
The fiery kick burnt through this cultist's clothes, crushed his chest cavity and left a burning footprint embedded on his caved in chest, his body flew back and dropped on the coffee table, smashing it to pieces. This kick was obviously devastating enough to severely wound or kill the man, as black smoke started coming out of his body and from under his mask. But instead of forming into a shape in mid air like the first woman, the smoke was absorbed by Simon, or to be more specific, absorbed by the sinister symbol on Simon's chest.
Simon let out a loud roar, with the sound of bones cracking, his body grew in size and dark spider-web like veins crawled through all his upper body, his fingernails becoming thick, sharp and long, just like a humanoid monster. Caroline swiftly picked up her wooden shield and took out the rest of her Demon Suppression Sigils, and was about to strike Simon while he was still undergoing that mysterious transformation.
Another similar roar came from upstairs, Kane rushed downstairs through the staircase while holding Alex's hand: "Go go go! Caroline, are you okay?"
Simon was non-responsive due to his transformation, but Kane and Alex's movements attracted his attention. His head slowly turned towards the staircase, then started rushing towards it while growling like an animal.
Kane opened fire on Simon, one full shot of pellets on the chest just barely stopped his charging. The next moment, Caroline's tomahawk landed on Simon's shoulder.
A wave of green energy exploded from Simon's body the moment Caroline's tomahawk cut into his body. Caroline was immediately knocked back down and was somehow paralyzed by the green energy.
Kane and Alex were further away from the center of explosion, but they were still affected and were paralyzed on the ground.
Simon slowly and painfully removed the wooden tomahawk from his shoulder - even though the explosion stopped Caroline's swing attack, the tomahawk still struck true and broke his collar bones, the orange fire on the tomahawk started burning him from inside of the wound. This made Simon even more aggravated, so he turned to Caroline, held up the giant knife in his hand, and stabbed at Caroline's heart without any hesitation.