Mother and Daughter Butchers might not mean much for those who were o the city, but they were once a symbol of the horror stories cirg amongst the city folks, especially the South-Western District residents. There were several versions to their in story, the most promi one being that they were the victims of a crazed and violent father. Aheory with a lot of supp “evidence” was that they were victims of an anized gang or , where the father of the family made a series of mistakes in messing with their businesses and the mother and daughter paid the price. But whatever the actual in was, ohing remained - that anyone, literally anyone, should run at the first sight of this ghostly spirit duo lest they do not value their life.

  Idea after idea fshed through Marcus’ mind. He too had heard about the stories about this duo - mainly about how the unlucky wanderers and gutful but braieenagers who crossed paths with them ended up dismembered. There seemed to be no solutions or tips to escape an enter, hard as he tried to remember. They might just o fight their way out.

  “Mama, what is that?” A little girl’s voice came from the staircase. The pronunciation was somewhat strange, as if there were wounds ihroat or mouth.

  “That is the smell of men.” A muffled female voice responded: “That is the smell of bad men. Very bad men.”

  Unnatural chills burst from Gloria’s back. Something was ing from behind her. She turned, just in time to see a tiny thin gray thread ing around the neck of Tae Kuo. “Tae, don’t move!” She yelled, leaping over and swinging her hand at the upper se of the gray thread.

  A high-pitched ting needled everyone in their eardrums as the side of Gloria’s palm sshed through the gray thread. Immediately followed was two screams from an adult female void a young girl’s voi unison.

  “They found us! Stick together!” Gloria yelled.

  “Oh my fug god where’s the master?” Mick cursed as he hid behind Marcus.

  “Don’t know, guard yourselves!” Marcus raised his void pushed his Qi. Blood dripped from Gloria’s palms, it was not a serious wound, but it was shrouded by a small puff of dark smoke. This would surely be not a big problem for her, but for any civilian it could be deadly.

  “What are bad men, mama?” The little girl’s voice came from behind Marcus: “Is this one?”

  Marcus turned back, and saw a bloody little girl whose head was almost pletely split in half by a grievous chopping wound oop of her skull. Blood, brain matter and maggots spilled from the crack. Her right eye was only a bloody hole filled with torn and minced flesh, and her left eye was bloodshot. Her left arm was missing and was holding Kevin’s left arm with her blood-covered right hand.

  Kevin gasped, yelled then smmed his left hand on the young girl’s bloody and horrendously wounded face. An unfolded talisman was left on the girl’s face. In but one sed, it burst into fmes and the young girl disappeared after an ear-pierg scream.

  The muffled but still burning furious screams of the mother shocked and stunned everyone for a brief moment. And withihan a sed from the disappearance of the young girl, a shadow made of dark fog shot down from above at Kevin, a hand with crooked fingers and long sharp nails grabbing at his throat.

  Before this shadow could nd this attack, Marcus’ upswing cw attack cut right into its trajectory. A bright e cwmark of Qi shot through the narrow spa the hallway, broke through traces of fog and defaced part of the wall on the side of Kevin. But just as the shadow backed off, Marcus’ right hand unched a palm strike at the dire of its retreat. The bright e shadow of his palm bsted the tail end of the shadow and burned off a k of it.

  “Kevin!” Keryn yelled from behind Kevin and Marcus, before she unleashed a swift kick at the space behind Kevin.

  The little girl, who reappeared behind Kevin and jammed her right arm into Kevin’s lower back disappeared into a puff of smoke after a frustrated yelp. Keviire body ale, frail and sweaty from this brief but still solid tact.

  The shadow circled in the air and shht back at Marcus. It was the headless woman, who did not even fully ma herself before swinging the cleaver his way. In Marcus’ vision, he saw a bde made of gray smoke sshing at him from above, while another bde maed almost immediately after the first aiming at his neck.

  With Qi trated on his arms to the best of his abilities, he stepped to the side to evade the ssh ing from above, while trying to block the bde ing from the side - for simply, if the horizontal ssh was to miss him, it could nd on someone behind. The bde collided with his palms, and he felt the cold bde cutting into his skin. Blood spilled, but that was it - his Qi had stopped the invasion of the bde. Also almost at the same time, Gloria came to his aid, by unleashing tid cw sshes at the space behind the two sshes.

  Sounds of cloth and fabric being torn and ripped came as Gloria’s attaded. The woman growled with frustration and fury as she turned into a puff of smoke once again.

  “They’re too slippery! We o get a solid strike!” Gloria darted baarcus’s side: “How’re your hands?”

  “Not too bad. She didn’t get to the bones.” Marcus shook his head, as he used his Qi to seal the wounds and burn off the lingering dark energy: “We o move to a smaller space, she would then only have a small space to hop around like that.”

  “Kevin! Breathe!” At this moment, Keryn stayed behind Kevin and pushed her Qi into Kevin’s body: “Marcus! We need some help over here!”

  Another, smaller puff of smoke moved to Mick’s side. Yet Mick seemed to have sehe ining danger and jumped to the side, just an arm’s length from Tae Kuo.

  A huge thank you to my patrons:

  mant06

  Jonathan

  Thank you for your support! And happy new year!