Marcus only brought two sets of handcuffs with him before coming here. And in the fight, he lost one set. So they could only choose to cuff the two strongest and most in shape men together, while forcing the rest of them to sit down by the foot of a tree side by side. Their weapons were all stripped from them, including several knives and even one machete and one taser. They also found what these people’s “seals” were - small copper mirrors hanging by a red thread around their necks. Out of caution, they left these mirrors on these men’s necks.

After patting and sitting these men down, Gloria opened her backpack and brought out a lidded incense burner, some bamboo strips with red stripes on them, several talismans and a few thin straw ropes with red ribbons on them. It was to build a simple protection array, not for her or Marcus, but seemingly for these five men.

“Time to talk. You fuckers.” Gloria took a deep breath before could calm her voice down. “Who sent you? And where the hell are they? And where are the kids you snatched?”

The first man on the left, whose nose got broken by Gloria, groaned and mumbled something, his eyes staring daggers at Gloria and Marcus.

“We’re not saying anything.” The man sitting behind the man with a broken nose grunted: “You’re not getting anything from us.”

“Oh? Really?” Marcus shrugged: “How about - if you spill, we don’t cut off the chains on your neck?”

“You wouldn’t dare.” The man in the middle spat: “You know it’s an artifact. And it contains powers beyond your imagination. If you tried to - ” Before he could finish, Gloria just came over and slapped him across the face.

“Shut the fuck up if you don’t have anything useful to say.” Gloria narrowed her eyes: “I know what that is. We kept them on your necks because we want you alive, for now. Same reason we’re putting you in this circle.”

“You think this is the first day we’re on the job? You think we would buy this shit?” The fourth man from the left coughed, he was still recovering from Marcus’ palm strike. “You don’t know who you’re messing with! You don’t know WHAT you’re dealing with! You - ”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“We know about the ritual. We know why you’re doing it.” Marcus’ voice was stone cold: “You didn’t think the people who sent you here just to capture some random fugitives, right? You don’t think THEY know we know something?”

“That’s - you’re bluffing!” The second man on the left raised his voice: “If you know already, why’d you ask us, huh?!”

“Maybe we just want to know whose fucking house we want to raid next.” Gloria kicked this man in the chest: “And it doesn’t matter for you, does it? We can wait all day here. Do you think you still have any chance once they find you here?”

“And you, my friend there.” Marcus turned to the man with a broken nose: “You’ve been saving up to leave the city, huh? You wanna let all that go to waste? You wanna take that chance? How about this - if you give us a satisfactory answer, we’d let you go so you can start packing up early? The exit toll of the city can be paid directly with cash, you know.”

The man with a broken nose did not answer, and just groaned.

“Motherfucker - don’t you dare!” The first man from the right cursed: “Don’t you speak a word!”

The man with a broken nose coughed and rubbed some blood off his face. Then he turned to Marcus and spoke with a heavily nasal tone: “These people - okay? These people bring death to anyone, even those who work for them. You think you can stop them? You think you can change what happened and go against them?! You’re just two fucking nobodies!”

“Then deliver us onto our death then.” Marcus raised the corner of his left eye: “Our offer still stands. You see, if you’re correct, we’d be dead anyway, right?”

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking dare speak a word!” The rightmost man tried to rush to the left and choke the man with a broken nose, but he was constrained by the cuff on his right wrist and was kicked onto the ground by Gloria.

“I’ve gotta do good by me! You know they wouldn’t let us live after this! Where do you think those missing people go?” The man with a broken nose almost jumped up, blood dripped all over his lower jaw and his lower cheeks: “They sent us here! They must have people watching already! They - ”

Before they could say anything, a semi-transparent wall of energy appeared around them, along the edge of the protective array. And right outside of the wall, was an entity with a long umbilical cord-like tail on its lower body, three arms, one giant crooked head with a horn on its forehead. The creature’s horn was against the energy wall, it just tried to break in

“What the fuck!” The five men jumped together, ready to run away. Marcus and Gloria acted at almost the same time, each pushing two men down. But the man in the middle, due to not being cuffed and being in relatively good shape, took advantage of the chance and burst through the space between Gloria and Marcus. With two steps, he made it outside of the array.

The creature turned and disappeared. And the next moment, before neither Marcus nor Gloria could call to him, his body tensed and fell onto the ground. He grabbed onto his own throat, croaking and kicking. But all that was no use, as an invisible spike impaled his hands and his throat, leaving a gaping hole right at the center of his neck.

The man wheezed, as the invisible force pulled his tongue out from his mouth and ripped it completely off.

“Hide in this array, now!” Gloria yelled at Marcus.

The wall of energy flashed again just as Marcus jumped into the array with the two men he held. Cracking sound came from the point of impact from the creature’s horn - it just tried to attack the array and break in again.