“Watch out!” Gloria called out to Marcus, and a moment later he sensed fatal danger coming his way. He activated his Qi and hopped to his right. A flurry of thin, sharp throwing blades pierced through the wall behind him and shot into the forest. Another shadow lunged at Marcus from the side, metal claws on both hands and ready to slash into Marcus’ throat and abdomen.

Gloria launched herself to behind a corner of the half ruined wooden house to evade the attacks from a shadow wielding a long metal whip. The metal teeth on the whip tore a long gash on the wooden wall.

Two shadows were onto Marcus, one slim shadow throwing daggers and needles at him, and the other was wielding a pair of metal claws. The two were clearly trained as some kind of assassin duo, as they were flanking him from both sides and were attacking with a rhythm. The one with the claws lunged at Marcus with quick and lethal strikes a few times, each time the one throwing daggers would coordinate with him and attempt to block his room for escape. With this tactic, they almost got Marcus a few times. The blades on the metal claw glowed in a strange light, appearing to be laced in some kind of poison.

“Who are you?!” Marcus jumped into the corner of one almost completely leveled house, with a handful of wooden splinters in his hand. His gun was inside of his pocket, but with formidable foes like this, it would only be useful when used at the most opportune moment. “Why are you attacking us?”

“No reason.” The shadow using two claws said to Marcus: “Just your time to die.” Before Marcus could say anything back, he shot at Marcus with one claw up high and one claw low. His Qi concentrated on the claw, making the claw glow in light green, ready to tear a few holes in Marcus’ body.

The shadow at a distance unleashed a flurry of three throwing blades at Marcus from the side, all of which in a wide angle, attempting to preempt his evasion.

Marcus lowered his body like a crouching tiger, his Qi coursed through his meridians and flowed into his muscles. It had been quite a while since his last fight, and since then, he had been practicing with much more effort than before. Even though right now it was a situation of life and death, he could not help but feel somewhat excited - only in moments like this, would his true skills be tested.

The shadow’s two claws swung at Marcus’ head and his legs. Marcus’ sudden lowering of his body made the other shadow’s effort at blocking his path completely futile. Right now, the posture of this Poison City Police Department detective appeared to be way more threatening than he expected. This was a more difficult target who was much more experienced in fighting. The intelligence he got from his employer might not be fully accurate. With this idea in mind, he pushed his Qi harder. They needed to end this fight as soon as possible.

The two claws made a loud clunk when they collided with Marcus’ arms. The actual claws or the blades on them did not make contact with any part of Marcus’ body. Instead, it was the backs of his fists blocking their dull section extending from the shadow’s knuckles. Marcus twisted his arms and held onto the shadow’s wrist, spreading his opponent’s arms apart and thrusted his left knee forward at the shadow’s abdomen.

It was as if he was kneeing an inflated mattress, the shadow broke free from Marcus’ grasp and glided backwards riding the impact from the strike. Marcus stomped the ground and kicked the wooden floor, sending pieces of broken wood panels the shadow’s way, along with the wood splinters in his hand. The shadow swung the claws in front of him, blocking them, shredding them in pieces but almost lost his balance when landing on his feet.

One single blade shot at Marcus’ face, forcing him to lunge to the side and give up on following up with an attack. Marcus scanned the area around before fixing his eyes at the two shadows again. If given the chance to go one on one, he was certain he could take either of the shadows. But right now, it seemed there was no easy way to defeat both of them, with their well trained coordination and poisonous weapons.

On Gloria’s side, her opponent was a shadow in a black cloak, a silver metal mask and wielding a long metal whip and a short dagger. This shadow’s attacks were swift and sharp, all of which were aiming to maim or kill her. And before long, she found herself separated from Marcus.

The metal whip made of at least dozens of mini-sections cracked in the air and struck again. Gloria lunged forward right after shifting to the right with her hands inside her pocket. While the shadow was retrieving the whip, she swung her left hand in front of her, releasing a handful of small throwable items.

The shadow’s figure shifted to the right with a quick side step, evading the Qi infused flying objects - sugar packets. And in this moment of confusion, Gloria swung her right hand at the shadow, launching another handful.

This time the shadow did not dodge but thrust the dagger forward. Gloria forced herself to lean left while charging to stay away from the tip of the blade, and continue ramming into the shadow’s embrace barely losing any momentum.

Gloria’s shoulder crashed into the shadow’s chest. Even with her Qi circulating at full speed her socket still almost dislocated. The sharp pain made her gasp and stop where she was, while the shadow flew backwards from taking her attack.

A plate, or body armor.