“Shit! Back away! Back away!” der cried as he pulled Bolt with him to escape the spreading blood fog. Many of their colleagues were simply one or two seds too slow and suffered the same fate as the two men in robes.

  They ran. They looked bace or twice, all they saw was the colpsed and drenched clothes of the others. Their vehicles seemed intact, but a few of those present did lose their lives while they were in them.

  “How dare you! You foul spirit!” A powerful roar exploded. der and Bolt looked, it was a muscur bald man jumping from the top of a speeding jeep.

  Golden light exploded from the bald man’s palms, glowing are symbols maed in the air behind him. With solemn and sonorous ting of an unknown buddhist scripture, he unleashed two palm strikes using both his palms at the cloud, aiming at the woman’s face.

  The eyes on that giant face glowed red as it screamed again. Shockwaves from her eardrum pierg screams crashed against the golden palm strikes. An explosion as deafening as a full force thurike cleared the dark fog surrounding the mansion as well as the outward spreading blood fog.

  der and Bolt finally had a moment to breathe. With haste, they found a safe pce to rest and watch how the battle was going. To Bolt, it robably a good time to leave and find safety, but to do so would only bring them trouble. Maybe, he should just stay a bit longer and only escape when they absolutely have to.

  “Don’t.” der grabbed Bolt, seemingly having already figured out his thoughts: “The moment we’re here, we’re already marked. And even if we make it outta here, the curse would follow us and she, whatever ‘she’ is, will also follow us. It’s best to stay here and ask those who to resolve it for us after.”

  “But what if they ’t win?” Bolt asked, taking one deep breath after another.

  “Then we’re better off dead, preferably right away.” der shook his head with a wry smile: “Because there’s more to this - this end of our lives thah. And often they are way more horrifying.”

  “Boom!” The bald man and the woman in a dark cloud cshed once more, the shockwave broke what looked like all the windows in the mansion. The bald man was thrown onto the ground, almost crashing the jeep he came here in, while the dark cloud ushed bad shrunk visibly in size.

  “Fire!” A male voice came from the jeep, as one man jumped out from the driver’s seat and one man stood up through the jeep’s roof and fired two grenade unchers at the mansion at the same time.

  The grenades arced in the air and exploded at about the sed floor window’s height. Bright e burning liquid spshed from the ters of explosion onto the mansion and lower portion of the dark cloud. Dozens, if not hundreds of voices screamed at the same time, a darkness was lifted off the mansion. But at the same time, the dark cloud h above had beore intense.

  A male void a female voice screamed at the same time. Two individuals in ragged clothes and whose bodies were covered in blood and grevious wounds leapt from the roof of the mansion. The man with at least three open wounds on his chest was wielding two swords made of ribs, one short and one long; the woman had a very visible gash on her neck, as if her head was cut off then stitched together by some gray threads. She was wielding a sword as well - a crooked sword seemingly made of a full human spine.

  der almost jumped: “Those are the watchers - how could - ”

  “You foul filth!” The bald man opened his eyes wide and growled through his teeth: “Who could have made you - this is - ”

  The two watchers lu the jeep, their ons in hand, ready to swing at the two men in the jeep. The bald man darted over with his hands glowing in golden light. Before he would collide with the two watchers, his index fingers poi the watchers and bsted two densed beams of Qi at them.

  The Qi beams peed the two watchers’ chest, exploding them from the inside and bsting them into ks. At the very moment, two puffs of dark smoke shot at the two men in the jeep, pletely catg the bald man and their targets by surprise.

  “k! ” “k!” Some metal objects owo men’s chests burst into pieces. Dark handprints crawled all over their hands, chests and faces, before their eyes shrunk, melted a only two dark holes in their sockets.

  The man in the driver’s seat sat bato the car, spueering wheel while stepping on the gas pedal. The jeep swerved at the bald man, almost swiping him with its back.

  The bald man grunted as he nded barely on his feet after dodging that vehicle attack. He could not even spare a moment to breathe before having to turn bad block a stream of dark smoke shooting his way with his palms. This threw him backwards a few steps and gave him some space.

  Without a moment of hesitation, the bald man reached into pockets and brought two copper s ed ialismans. His Qi cut thin sshes on his own middle fiips ahe blood soak the talismans. After a few quinunciations of are, obscure words, he swung both his hands and shot the s at the dark cloud. Thin golden threads ed in thinner blood red threads ected the s and his palms.

  Dozens of hands of various sizes poked out of the dark cloud, attempting to block or catch the s. But the s curved and turned in the air while ing around the cloud like two boses.

  In a moment’s time, the two s and the golden ahreads had ed around the cloud by a few ps. The bald man pulled on both threads, sweating bullets and pale in the face. Frustrated and furious screams exploded from ihe cloud, but it could not do anything, not even jure hands or spirits or spread the dark fog at the moment.

  “Someone e here! Someohe bald man raised his void yelled: “I know some of you are still alive! Quick! This is our st ce!”

  der and Bolt exged looks, they could both see the pani each other’s eyes.

  “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you if you dare!” An echoey female voice exploded from the dark cloud.