Poison City

The edge of the short sword was sharp. The man had a lot of physical strength. But lucky for Gloria, he did not use any Qi. The two edges sunk into the skin on her left hand fingers and her palm, but they were not able to get any deeper. While at the same time, her right hand fingers sunk into the man’s chest, her Qi concentrated on her fingertips punctured through skin, muscles even injured some of his rib bones.

“Ah!” The man moaned and yelled as he was sent flying backwards from Gloria’s kick.

Right after the kick, a sharp throwing dagger left Gloria’s grasp and shot right at the head of the man who was holding Turner Ouyang hostage. The man gasped, ducked lower and pushed his poor hostage forward. Gloria lunged forward, grabbed Turner Ouyang by the front of his shirt and threw him backwards in Sue’s direction.

“Sue! Get outta here!” Gloria yelled, as she sidestepped in front of the last man standing. The man was lunging at Turner Ouyang, but had to redirect his hands at Gloria.

This man was wielding a pair of spiked brass knuckles and was in a black studded leather jacket. Gloria had to push the man’s arm to the side in order to not get hurt by the metal spikes. Before she could do anything else, the man took advantage of his forward momentum and slammed his body, especially his shoulder with various metal nails into Gloria’s chest.

The nails left two lines of bloody spots and round marks on Gloria’s right chest. It was quite a forceful tackle, but Gloria’s Qi protection and her riding the impact lessened the blow. Before she landed on her feet, she pulled out another throwing dagger and shot it at his man. Her Qi was concentrated on the tip, and combined with the speed in which she threw it would be able to strike a giant hole in the man’s chest if it was only protected by the jacket.

“Thump” The dagger made only a dull impact noise upon contact and bounced off. Something caved in on his chest, but not a piercing wound. The man stumbled a few steps backwards before he fell on his back.

“Get ‘em!” The leader of the three men yelled as he leapt forward with his body lowered in an attempt to grapple Gloria by her waist.

Gloria shifted to her side as she took a quick glance at Sue and Turner Ouyang. They were holding each other and rushing at the entrance of the archive. But at the same time, two more men appeared right outside of the door and rushed in.

“No!” Gloria called out, as Sue pulled out a knife and a can of pepper spray. “Run!”

Sue sprayed one man, making him flinch and yell. But her hand holding the knife was instantly grabbed by the other. Turner Ouyang tried to tackle the man, but was sent onto the ground by a kick in the chest.

Just when she turned back, a fist was already swinging right at Gloria’s face. She had to arch her body backwards while taking a few steps to avoid being struck directly. The Qi infused in this man’s fist left a long red scratch on her face and her nose.

Before she could do anything else, the man’s idle left hand formed a fist and jabbed at Gloria’s stomach. Her two hands overlapped before the strike. The man’s Qi was explosive and fierce, even more so than Marcus’.

Gloria glided backwards from the momentum. The man shot forward and threw his right fist at Gloria. With her Qi concentrated on both her arms, Gloria swung her left hand in a chopping motion at the man’s right wrist while poking at the man’s throat with her right index and middle fingers.

The man’s fist was pushed to the side, joint snapping sounds exploded from his wrist. The man thrust his left forearm up and pushed Gloria’s right hand upward and to his left. The sharp stream of Qi shooting from Gloria’s fingertips slashed through the left side of his face.

As the man gasped from a sudden lightness on the left side of his face, Gloria’s right shin made contact with his soft parts between his legs.

The leader felt down, gasping and vomiting from the intense anguish. Gloria turned back to catch up with Sue and Turner Ouyang, yet just in time to see them captured and held by the two men.

“Stop!” The man who held Sue yelled, at Gloria and seemingly at the three men behind her as the same time.

“Bitch broke my hand and cut my ear off!” The leader of the three men growled from behind: “I’m gonna slash her to pieces!”

“No! We need them alive. You know someone higher up wants to know this.” The man holding Turner Ouyang narrowed his eyes.

“Then I’ll cut her fucking hears off! She doesn’t need those!” The leader of the men came in closer from behind, twiddling Gloria’s own throwing dagger: “I’ll cook her fucking ears, and I’ll fucking eat them!”

A sudden female cry echoed in the empty building. “It’s you!”

“What the - ” All of the men started looking around.

“It’s you! It’s you!” The voice was horse and shaking, and it originated without any definitive direction - it was coming from everywhere, like an echo bouncing between wall to wall, beam to beam, door to door.

“Ah!” One of the men behind Gloria gasped and fell on the ground. Following his sight, the other saw two women’s heads conjoined together at the cheeks rose from behind the reception’s desk.

“It’s you! It’s you!” The two heads spoke at the same time, emitting one voice. Their eyes were wide open, their faces were pale, their mouths stretching into wide, gaping smiles revealing their dark, crooked teeth.

“It’s you! It’s you!” More of these conjoined heads popped up from different corners of the room. It was not just the heads coming from certain patches of shadows. It was also their upper bodies, conjoined at the shoulders that began emerging as well.