Poison City

“Taoist exorcists!” The man in a robe that was trying to attack Marcus with the smoke hand yelled as he held his right arm. Dark veins were crawling all over his palm and wrist, the aftermath of the interrupted spell. “Stop them! Stop them now!”

The rest of the men that came to the docks with the children and remained after Marcus showed up were even more shaken and most started scattering and fleeing. For they remained not because they wanted to fight Marcus, but because they thought that the higher ups in their ranks could defeat him. And right now, with their advantage of numbers gone, many of them were no longer willing to stay.

A few of the men with lesser skills were instantly subdued and apprehended by the team that came. Those with stronger mystic martial arts masteries were not as easy, and they decided to run instead of fight.

The three men in robes all started scattering at the same time, all of them started going in different directions and tried to break out of the enclosure of the team that came at them.

“Fucking Taosists!” One of the men in robes grabbed a young boy from the ground and used him as a human shield in an attempt to prevent himself from being attacked by any of the men that joined the fight. This worked, as two men in Taoist Robes and the special hats that looked like miniature straw temples instantly backed off from him, holding their swords made of copper coins and peachwood back.

With the opportunity and room provided by this small human shield, this man in a robe laughed and jumped towards the roof of a building nearby. With any luck, he would be away from danger in no time.

But just this moment, a chubby man wearing a chef’s hat appeared in mid air right in front of him. And within mere moments, at a speed to which his eyes could barely catch up, this chubby man tossed a cleaver with a long blade from his right hand to the left, then swung the cleaver horizontally. The blade went straight through the hand holding the young boy without any hint of hindrance. The next moment, the young boy was in the chubby man’s hand, along with a severed hand on his back collar.

Blood gushed from the clean wound, and the man in a robe that tried to escape was sent to the ground by a forceful kick to the chest.

On the other hand, the other two men in robes had to face their own interceptors: the one that tried to kill Marcus was faced with a short man wielding a chained scythe, while the other one was faced with a female Taoist with a jade bracelet as her weapon.

The two remaining men in robes yelled almost at the same time. Smoke came out of both of their bodies, and both became the shapes of giant skeletons with weapons in their hands. Their opponents, on the other hand, unleashed their own attacks at almost the same time. The short man swung his chain up high and slung the now glowing scythe downward into a devastating slash. The female Taoist, on the other hand, formed a hand seal and her copper sword rose into the air by itself.

Marcus watched from afar, with wonder in his eyes. His Qi had burned away most of the cold energy that invaded his body, especially the portions that were on his face and near his heart, so he was quite certain that he was not hallucinating. These people that came with Chef Tang, they also possessed similar powers to the three men in robes. Similar, but not the same - the power the Taoists displayed seemed to be brighter and warmer. It was a power similar to Qi one could obtain from practicing mystic martial arts, but Marcus had never heard of any kind of usage like this, nor capability.

The female Taoist pointed her hands forward at the smoke skeleton, the glowing coin sword spun in the air like a drill bit. Within the blink of an eye, it shot at the smoke skeleton’s forehead. The smoke skeleton screamed, as a hole appeared on its forehead and its entire body imploded with it as the center. A small copper mirror in the female Taoist’ hand unleashed a beam of light onto it, and before long, it was completely consumed.

The chained scythe wielded by the short man, on the other hand, was slung downwards in a curved trajectory and left a long, deep and burning gash at the center of another smoke skeleton’s body, almost completely slicing it in half. This smoke skeleton did not even get to make a sound, before its entire body was burned into ashes and dissipated with the night wind.

The two men in robes cried in pain as they fell down on the ground. The one that tried to kill Marcus before was still a few steps away from him. He was screaming and writhing in pain, black veins crawled all over his face and his arms. It seemed that the smoke spells he used were not without their prices, and especially costly when they could not be completed.

The other man in a robe was also struggling on the ground when his smoke skeleton was destroyed, and he was immediately subdued. The one that tried to run away with a child as his human shield was dragged away with his wrist crudely bandaged - it did not look like he would have a good chance of survival.

“Detective Cai.” The chubby man, or as everyone knew him, Chef Tang, came to Marcus, wiping his long bladed cleaver: “On behalf of my restaurant and the people of this district, I thank you.”

“Yeah. ” Marcus coughed and could barely move a muscle: “Can you help me up? And maybe - help me find my gun?”

“Ling?” Chef Tang looked at the female Taoist.

The female Taoist nodde and took out a small gourd. She poured two red, round pills from it and said to Marcus: “Take these, they were made of sticky rice, ashes from incense and dried dates. They should help replenish your Qi and protect your meridians.”

“Thank you.” Marcus hesitated for a bit, but then still decided to take the pills.

“I’d imagine you have also sent the same message to your people?” Chef Tang asked as he helped Marcus stand up straight, while his men pulled the last man in a robe away.

“Yes, I sent it to everyone.” Marcus sighed and nodded. The pills melted the moment they got into stomach, and turned into warm streams of energy flowing into every corner of his body. The residual cold energy that remained in Marcus’ body was consumed and burned away in full during the process. Shortly, one man wearing a cloth martial arts practicing uniform handed him his gun. Like he remembered, it endured some damage from the fight.

“Okay. ” Chef Tang lit up a cigarette in his mouth, eyeing his men unchaining the young children taken here: “Before we send you to the care center, one more favor if you could: have we missed any thugs?”

“I think there might still be a man in the water.”

“Chef?” One of the men who checked on two of the children looked up at Chef Tang and Marcus: “I - I don’t think we could help them.”

These two children were lying on the ground, not crying, nor speaking. Their faces were completely gray, with dark veins on their faces and necks.

Chef Tang knelt down and checked the pulses, breathing and heartbeats of the two children, then after a while, he let out a long sigh: “Find out who their parents are.”

“Yes, chef.” The man nodded and carried the two children away.

“Someone help Detective Cai, his wounds need to be dressed.” Chef Tang ordered another man that came with him.

Just this moment, the previously tranquil and quiet water was disturbed by something, as more and more bubbles rose from the depths, and along with them came faint cries and moans, which seemed to be getting louder and clearer by the second.

Cold wind blew from the water onto the ground, and Marcus shuddered as it took to the disturbed waves. To his horror, even with the dim lighting on the platform, he could still see the pale faces that were flooding over to his position.