Like a fierce and cunning snake, the metal chain curled in the air, passing the falling sleeveless man yelling in pain while shooting at Marcus’ left shoulder. Marcus turned his body sideways and jabbed at the chain behind the sharp tip with his Qi concentrated on the tips of his fingers. With a loud and pleasant clank, the sharp tip of the chain was severed from the rest and flew into the water.

A sense of danger exploded in Marcus’ guts, and without a moment of doubt or hesitation he crouched down and hid behind the fallen sleeveless man’s body. And before he was ready, a much bigger flurry of smoke spikes and spears flooded at him. The sleeveless man did not have a chance, and was instantly impaled by the majority of these smoke spikes and spears.

The body of the sleeveless man and his Qi deterred and chipped away part of the spikes and spears of smoke, yet it was not enough to block or stall all of them. Marcus had to take these attacks head on, not just because he barely had any time and room, but also because there were two children who tried to crawl away and wound up behind him.

Familiar cold energy started invading his body again, and he had to back off a few steps to leave himself some more room. The sleeveless man, on the other hand, was not able to fight against the corruption of the smoke spikes and spears. His skin turned pale, dark spider web-like veins crawled all over his face through his neck, and he lost the ability to move or even breathe within a very short period of time.

“You’re not gonna make it, cop.” The three men in robes came closer to Marcus, with two other men wielding weapons in an enclosing formation, the one speaking to Marcus was coughing, clearly still recovering from the strikes Marcus landed on him: “Any last words?”

“Yeah.” Marcus tried to straighten his body, while still fighting with his teeth clenched to get rid of the cold energy in his body. But hard as he pushed his Qi, the speed in which he burned away the influence of cold energy was just not fast enough for him to get back to a fight-ready state right now. “How about you leave these children the fuck alone and think about your life choices, huh? Maybe learn to cook or make coffee?”

The man wielding a metal chain thrusted his hand forward, and the chain whipped Marcus on his right shoulder and pushed him backwards. Marcus felt a sharp pain from his shoulder and heard a light cracking sound - this strike might have cracked his collar bone. But luckily for him, he felt that he could still move his right arm, and his meridians were mostly intact. The Qi rushing into his body from the metal chain was slowly absorbed, yet the cold energy still lingered, and his movement was still hindered.

“I guess, I can only expect this from you.” Marcus crawled up again, just in time to take a look at the children with their hands tied and not able to move. They were terrified, and almost all of them were crying. Only a few of them were looking at Marcus with terrified, but still encouraging looks. “What would a bunch of kidnappers do, fight with honor? ”

“So you wanna die slowly and painfully, I see.” The man in a robe that was coughing let out a hoarse laugh and raised his right hand, his arm still trembling and his voice still shaking: “Good, I would enjoy this.” Right after he spoke, another cloud of smoke came out of his palm. And from this cloud of smoke, manifested a skeletal hand with long, sharp fingers and long, curved nails.

Marcus did not know what this skeletal hand could do, nor did he want to find out. While slowly crawling on his hip backwards, he sunk the fingers on his left hand into the platform. Just when all the men closing in on him got close enough, he swung his left hand upwards and fling a handful of broken stones and pellets at them.

The man with a metal chain in his hands was the quickest one to react and leapt to the side, while one man in robe standing furthest away from Marcus was the second fastest to backstep and dodge. All other three men closer to Marcus were hit by these stones and pellets at a point blank range. Though all of them were prepared, they were still not able to fully block off everything. While all of these three men were incapacitated, the man wielding a metal chain lunged at him from his left while spinning the chain, ready for an attack.

Marcus stomped the ground with his right foot and launched himself right at the man wielding the metal chain. His opponent apparently was not expecting him to charge right on, and had to shoot the chain at Marcus while trying to redirect his own movement. But Marcus had his sight locked onto this man, and he was not planning to let him get away. Utilizing the step technique he recently learned, he rushed onward and got to but an arm’s length from this man. The chain struck him on his right chest and part of its end sunk into his right chest, sticking into his muscles. The shock and impact from the Qi infused shocked his ribs and his lungs, sending a bloody taste up his throat. But this was all worth it, as his palm struck true, right on his opponent’s chest.

The man’s chest caved in and blood spilled from his mouth. He flew backwards in the air for a brief moment before he landed on the edge of the ground then fell into the water, leaving the chain dangling from Marcus’ body. The man in a robe not hit by pellets and broken stones lunged at Marcus from his back, and Marcus just wrapped some of the chains on his left hand and turned around to face him.

A puff of smoke exploded in the air, aiming at Marcus’ head and shooting out a few sharp shards made of smoke. Marcus lowered his body and quickstepped to the left, trying to get away from the majority of the blast. Fighting through the sudden numbness on his right face and loss of sight in his right eye, he struck this man on the waist, with the metal chain wrapped around his fist.

This fist attack created a circular tear on this man’s robe, and landed right on his abnormally cold skin. His muscles were stiff and dense, and Marcus felt as if he just punched a high density gel dummy.

While this man stumbled backwards in pain, both from the punch and from the invasion of Marcus’ Qi, the man in robe first struck by Marcus’ claw attack clapped his hands, launching the skeletal claw at Marcus like a homing missile. Marcus was already at the end of his power and might, so all he could do was prairie and hope the last talismans in his jacket pocket would activate to protect him.

They did not activate, even as the skeletal hand got close and Marcus could sense the coldness radiating from the nails. It could be due to the water soaking through his jacket, or it could be that this skeletal hand with sharp nails was not paranormally related. But nevertheless, it seemed there was nothing to stop it.

Something shining with golden light came from afar. And just when the sharp nails were about to impale his face, it crashed into the hand made of smoke and pushed it to the side. It was a sword, made of copper coins and red threads.

Another group of men came, about six to eight of them, Marcus couldn’t tell how many it was. But what he could tell was that this was a team led by someone he knew personally: Chef Tang, the owner of the restaurant and semi-underground intelligence dispenser, Chef Tang’s.