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

  Gloria unched herself to behind a er of the half ruined wooden house to evade the attacks from a shadow wielding a loal 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 cws. The two were clearly trained as some kind of assassin duo, as they were fnking him from both sides and were attag with a rhythm. The oh the cws lu Marcus with quid lethal strikes a few times, each time the ohrowing daggers would coordih him and attempt to block his room for escape. With this tactic, they almost got Marcus a few times. The bdes oal cw glowed in a strange light, appearing to be ced in some kind of poison.

  “Who are you?!” Marcus jumped into the er of one almost pletely 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 whe the most opportune moment. “Why are you attag us?”

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

  The shadow at a distanleashed a flurry of three throwing bdes at Marcus from the side, all of whi a wide atempting to preempt his evasion.

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

  The shadow’s tung at Marcus’ head and his legs. Marcus’ sudden l of his body made the other shadow’s effort at blog his path pletely futile. Right now, the posture of this Poison City Police Departmeive 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 emplht not be fully accurate. With this idea in mind, he pushed his Qi harder. They o end this fight as soon as possible.

  The two cws made a loud k when they collided with Marcus’ arms. The actual cws or the bdes on them did not make tact with any part of Marcus’ body. Instead, it was the backs of his fists blog their dull se extending from the shadow’s knuckles. Marcus twisted his arms and held onto the shadow’s wrist, spreading his oppo’s arms apart and thrusted his left knee forward at the shadow’s abdomen.

  It was as if he was kneeing an infted 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 pahe shadow’s way, along with the wood splinters in his hand. The shadow swung the cws in front of him, blog them, shredding them in pieces but almost lost his bance when nding on his feet.

  One single bde shot at Marcus’ face, f him to luo the side and give up on following up with an attack. Marcus sed the area around before fixing his eyes at the two shadows again. If given the ce 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 ons.

  On Gloria’s side, her oppo was a shadow in a bck cloak, a silver metal mask and wielding a loal 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 miions 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 fusion, Gloria swung her right hand at the shadow, ung another handful.

  This time the shadow did not dodge but thrust the dagger floria forced herself to lea while charging to stay away from the tip of the bde, and tinue ramming into the shadow’s embrace barely losing any momentum.

  Gloria’s shoulder crashed into the shadow’s chest. Even with her Qi cirg 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 takitack.

  A pte, or body armor.