Marcus roared and lunged forward at the shadow. Veins popped on his forehead, and his Qi was almost burning in the air around him from his rage. The shadow thrust the dagger at Marcus’ neck. The attack missed. They immediately followed up with an uppercut using the brass knuckles.

Marcus karate-chopped the shadow’s upwards swinging hand right at the wrist to stop the uppercut midway. He grabbed the shadow’s right wrist using a claw attack. As the shadow tried to slide away, he pulled the shadow’s arm back while unleashing a knee strike against the shadow’s chest area.

“Bong!” Marcus’ knee crashed into a metal chest plate. The chest plate caved in, the impact broke through and delivered a powerful shock to the shadow’s internal organs.

The shadow coughed and tried to get away by pulling on the arm grabbed by Marcus and redirecting the arm with brass knuckles. This was an attempt to attack Marcus and force him to let go. But Marcus just pulled the shadow closer. With Qi concentrated on his forehead, he bashed the shadow right in the nose with a headbutt.

The shadow’s nose bones and cheek bones cracked, even the upper cheek fell in slightly. Blood shot out from the mouth and the flattened nostrils. The spikes on the brace knuckles tore three holes in Marcus’ jacket, but at this very moment Marcus’ back and waist were hardened by his Qi, and it left only three white marks on his skin.

Sensing this shadow had lost any ability to fight, Marcus grabbed the blood stained face covering and ripped it off. The shadow was a woman, one whose face was completely ruined by his earlier headbutt. Right now, the shadow’s breathing was weak, and she might have fainted.

With an extra eye on the shadow’s movements, Marcus patted the shadow down to remove any remaining darts and other weapons. In total he found around twenty metal darts and throwing blades, as well as a long, sturdy metal string. After a short moment of consideration, he tied the shadow to a tree, using the metal string and cloth from her cloak, before heading back to check on the men who were hit by the shadow’s darts earlier.

The two men cuffed together laid on the ground, foaming at their mouths, dark veins all over their faces, necks and arms. Their necks and tongues remained mostly intact, without any grievous wounds made by the deliverer. It seemed that since they were gone, the deliverer stopped its task.

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Looking at his palms, Marcus fixed his eyes on the few shallow scratches made by the deliverer’s tongue. Lucky for him, there were no signs of any residual negative or unknown energy on him. He took another look at the two cuffed men on the ground in front of him, then gazed upon the other two dead bodies with their throats impaled. His knees gave out, and almost all of his energy was drained from him.

The thought of him not being able to protect any of the witnesses or perps that could be of help to him filled his mind. He wanted to capture someone inside with access to intelligence. He did more than he previously thought he would or could. And to lose another opportunity from the same snuff these people used time and again, he wanted to give himself a slap on the face. Maybe even more.

Gloria shot back to where the protective array was, just in time to see Marcus kneeling on the ground with two bodies in front of him. Without a doubt, the deliverer and the cloaked figure tied under a tree behind him were responsible for this.

“Marcus.” Gloria went over and patted the detective on the shoulder: “It - it’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Marcus looked up at the starry sky and sighed: “I just - this happens everytime. Everytime we capture some perps who might know something, they get killed. And it just makes me angry with myself, if I didn’t go on that stakeout with Sitch, he’d still be alive - ”

Before he could finish, many rushed footsteps came from afar through the ground. Gloria jumped up onto a tree and looked into the direction from which the footsteps came - a large group of people were coming their way. Similar direction like the five men they defeated.

“We’ve gotta go.” Gloria pulled Marcus up: “They’re coming our way. I think - if we bypass them and go the way they came from, we’d get outta here and maybe into the main road.”

“Okay. I see what you mean.” Marcus took a deep breath and shook his head, pushing away any unhelpful thoughts he was having at the moment. “Let’s go.”

The group incoming was one of at least eight individuals. They swept through the area in no time. The bodies of the two shadows were collected, while those five men were simply gathered in a barren area and set on fire in a pile with gasoline.

“Here.” While they were going through the forest, Gloria handed Marcus a small copper mirror - the “seal” on the men, helping them fight off whatever influence or effect that might be acting against them. “I got these off their bodies - I figured they could help us.”

“Thank you. If not for you I’d miss it. ” Marcus looked the mirror up and down, front and back. It was in a rough octagon shape, with bagua symbols carved on each edge. A crude bagua mirror, it seemed.

“Bagua mirror? I think not.” Gloria shook her head: “They need to be made into a round shape, in a wooden octagon case. And to make a curse repelling bagua mirror, the surface needs to be flat or curved outward. But this one? It’s concave. It’s something else.”

Before long, they saw a small camp in a slightly open area. And beyond the camp, they saw the corner of a road, with some cars parked nearby.