The woman’s arm swung forward at Gyuu Park, the blade slicing through the air, aiming to cut open Gyuu Park’s neck.

Even with the sharp, presumably poisonous nails embedded inside Gyuu Park’s chest, he was still able to make a swift move. With a quick twist and pull of his wooden stick, a slender long blade unsheathed from the stick.

A loud clunk exploded from the impact. The two razor-sharp blades bit into each other slightly. Their Qi collided against each other, pushing both of them away from each other. Gyuu Park raised his left palm and attempted a palm strike at the woman. The woman raised her right knee and bumped at his palm directly. Both of them were powerful attacks, and both of them were thrown back further.

“Now!” The woman raised her voice as she rode the force and adjusted her posture in the air. The man wearing a gorilla mask lunged at Gyuu Park from the side, his spiked flail swinging from overhead at Gyuu Park’s shoulder.

Gyuu Park tried to hop backwards in order to evade the attack. But the moment he attempted to move his legs, he felt a wave of numbness pulsing through his meridians and muscles. He moved, but at a pace slower than he’d expect, and slower than he needed.

The cold hard spiked head of the flail clashed against Gyuu Park’s shoulder. He could feel the spikes piercing into his muscles, and the rough and hardened head made of dense metal breaking the bones in his left shoulder and his upper left arm.

Gyuu Park grunted and rode the impact to slide on the ground away from the man. The pain almost made him scream, but he simply bit the tip of his tongue to keep himself calm. With his right arm still usable, he swung his slender blade as he bounced from the ground. A thin crescent shaped green energy blade was unleashed at this man.

The man with a gorilla mask was in the middle of attempting a follow up attack. And at this close a range he could only put the shaft of the flail in front of himself to defend himself.

The energy blade sliced through the metal shaft of the flail like a hot knife through butter. And in but a moment, the energy blade cut through his entire left arm and then the metal plate on his chest.

The man let out a pained moan and tried to back off. But Gyuu Park lunged at him with the sword thrusting forward. The woman circled around the back of the man and tried to stop Gyuu Park by swinging her curved blade at the back of his neck once again, but she was not fast enough.

The long slender blade, now glowing with an ethereal green, impaled the man on his left chest. Hot blood jetted out of the man’s body, this strike just destroyed his heart. And in the next moment, the curved blade sunk into his back instead of his neck, and he could feel his blood rushing into his lungs.

Gyuu Park twisted his blade, leaving the majority of it in the man’s body and violently turned back to swing the broken blade at the woman. The woman chuckled and hopped back, leaving the blade still in Gyuu Park’s back. This desperate strike did not land at all, and Gyuu Park fell down on his rear, almost pushing the blade on his back deeper.

The man in a gorilla mask was already gone, his blood poured all over the floor. Gyuu Park panted as he scooted himself closer, his dangling left hand dipping into the pool of blood.

“I can see why we were so well paid.” The woman scoffed and approached Gyuu Park step by step, just in case he had anything else up his sleeves. “It was quite a discount. Viridian Jade Manual, who would’ve thought?”

“So you know.” Gyuu Park’s voice was getting weaker by the moment: “And guess today is the day for me. What can I say.”

The woman did not respond, still inching in step by step, and had another thin blade tucked in her right hand fingers.

“Now - now that I am on my way to the bridge. How about you let me die a regretless death?” Gyuu Park’s face became pale, the broken blade fell from his fingers, the blade slicing a few small cuts on his palm and wrist. “How about you tell me who you work for?”

“Maybe.” The woman scoffed, her breathing patterns began to calm down: “Thank you for the good fight. I learned quite a lot. So - I am indeed feeling gracious today. So, maybe I’ll let you know - ” But before she could finish, she swung her right arm across the space in front of her. A small blade shot through the air, aiming right at Gyuu Park’s throat.

Gyuu Park’s right palm stopped the blade, at the cost of his palm being completely impaled by the blade. The sharp tip left a single red dot on his skin, but that was all its momentum could do.

“Thanks.” A chilling smile spanned across Gyuu Park’s face: “Too bad you had to stab me in the back.” Before he even finished his sentence, his skin started shriveling and decaying at a visible pace, his blood on the ground began reeking of rot and death. The woman took a step back, even with a mask on her face, she was visibly shaken.

“A word of advice.” Gyuu Park’s voice was heaving, barely audible. His face was still smiling, even though his entire body was almost completely dried up and almost crumbled under its own weight. “Some things are just not worth… the money.”

Gyuu Park’s glowing eyes were the last thing to succumb to the decay. Strangely, even though his flesh and blood was completely gone, his bones remained. And under the moonlight, they gave off a chilling green shine.

The woman’s body shook and trembled, her knees almost gave out. The reason was simple, for she felt a daunting presence looming over her.

A curse. A curse by and through blood.