When Gloria reached Marcus, the shadow he was facing was just blasted to the bottom of a tree by a full force palm strike to the chest. The detective endured some injuries on his arms, shoulders and chest, but none look too serious.

“NOOOO!” The shadow chasing Gloria screeched as he shot one more round of throwing blades at Gloria and Marcus from behind.

Gloria leapt to the side while kicking Marcus’s shoulder from the side, pushing both of them out of the way of the blades. Two blades grazed through her leg, leaving two slashing wounds on them.

“Fuck you!” Gloria turned in midair, unleashing a handful of three of her own throwing blades at the shadow behind them. This time, the shadow was still in midair and had to hand to take the blades with his arms and chest. “Go!” After standing back up, Gloria grabbed Marcus by the arm, and started rushing towards the direction from whence they came here originally - if they made it to a more populated area, they would be safe.

But it was not very long before they saw people coming their way, groups of individuals carrying weapons with their faces covered, led by another shadow in black cloak coming right their way from the angle. Apparently, whoever set up this trap had considered the possibility of them attempting to escape.

“No - we can’t get through that.” Marcus’ breathing was getting hoarse, and his skin began burning, as if he was having a fever: “Not while I’m fighting this poison - ”

“Alright.” Gloria took a deep breath, different options flashed through her mind, eventually she said to Marcus: “We’ll need to go into the Old Ruins. It’s our only chance.”

“... alright, fuck it.”

Two of them changed course. Gloria started leading the way while helping Marcus catch up with her as they dived through the thicker and thicker forest and circled around the abandoned community from decades before.

”I’ll kill you! I’ll tear you limb from limb, and cut out your heart!” The shadow who fought using throwing blades let out a throaty and desperate scream: “You’ll pay for this! You’ll pay in blood!”

Neither Gloria nor Marcus had any time for this loud vow of revenge. They just pushed their Qi to speed up and run in this unfamiliar terrain, keeping each other on their side and making sure they don’t fall behind.

Blades shot from afar, brutal, uncalculated and full of rage. The shadow shot more blades at them, but as his rage burnt higher his aim got more scattered and unfocused. His footsteps were right behind Gloria and Marcus’. He was burning his Qi trying to catch them, and he was getting closer by the seconds.

A piece of rock shot at Gloria and Marcus from behind on their left. Gloria pushed Marcus and rolled to the side. The poison laced on the blades had seeped into her legs. And with all that running, her leg muscles became numb and somewhat unresponsive. The push and dodge roll exhausted all the strength she could muster.

“You are going to pay!” The shadow ripped off his mask and looked down at Gloria with a twisted grin, revealing his blackened teeth and fully tattooed face. In his right hand, he held a long crooked blade, the edge of which was glimmering in a dark red glow. He took a look at Gloria, then pulled out another crooked blade: “You could have just died a peaceful, painless death. But you just had to - had to do all of that - ”

Marcus burst up from the ground and tried to tackle the shadow from the side, but it appeared that the run here and his wounds were taking over him as well. The man whipped his leg from the side and delivered a powerful kick to Marcus’ left waist, sending him rolling into the dirt.

Gloria threw two of her own throwing blades at the shadow, but they were instantly caught by his bare fingers.

“Pathetic.” The shadow swung his hands and shot the blades back at Gloria.

Gloria tried to dodge while protecting herself with her arms and got hit on her shoulder and her left forearm. She let out a scream from the cold, sharp pain as she fell onto the ground.

The shadow turned around and started walking towards Marcus. But just when he was only halfway, leaves and tiny twigs and branches blew at him. Winds howled, carrying droppings from trees, dirt and tiny rocks with each stream and gust.

Fog poured from the depths of the forest. Before any of the three could do anything, they were swallowed by a sea of white.