It was night, midnight. The world in the mountains was quiet, almost completely silent. The moon shone with its pale silver light as the stars continued their existence in the sky. Though this night wasn’t one where those could be experienced as the whole sky was covered by grey clouds. The already dark night lost even that light as the world in the mountain turned completely black.

Twenty men each with flashlight and gun in hand walked in files as they went up the dirt path leading to their targets. The path wasn’t wide enough to fit them all so they stood in pairs as they walked straight.

Their formation may look organized but they were only simple policemen. Not trained military or anything of that sort. Some felt that their superiors were asking too much form them and they would be right but they couldn’t even say anything like that.

They had heard Lao Qing’s report about their targets but no one really believed it. They all thought he was exaggerating and so he was forced to stand in front of all the others as he went into this mission without any of his men.

They were now getting closer to the locations their targets stayed at and so they grew quieter.

Lao Qing though noticed something weird. He was the only one who had walked up this dirt path, he had only done it today and so he remembered, but the path was actually supposed to be a dirt path, instead what they got was a path filled with tall grass, bushed and roots. Even branches from the trees stretched all the way to the middle of the path.

He didn’t need anything else to be alarmed as he knew that the two were inhumanly strong for their body sizes, so to him, it didn’t sound crazy and impossible if they also had supernatural powers like magic.

“Everyone…. Stay close to each other now that the path gets hard.” He said hoping that everyone would really listen to him and take things seriously.

It took more than an hour for them to finally pass through the mire that was the vegetation infested path. They had to break and cut hundreds of times to manage it and even then their formation had shifted to a straight line.

As they reached the end though in front of them sat a man on a plastic chair, his legs folded as he looked at them without saying a word.

Two big lights opened behind him, blinding everyone for a little from its suddenness. Some panicked as they were completely defenseless and started yelling as they pointed their guns to where they thought the man was sitting and turned the safety off, waiting for their eyesight to return.

It was unfortunate for them that as a result, they missed the soft green light that lit up the path they had just come out from as the obstructions regrew to block the path and the officers away from the world along with Ed and Adel.

“Welcome everyone!” The man put on his confident façade as he got up from his chair and spread his arms wide. “We didn’t expect any guests, but we still welcome everyone.”

Lao Qing didn’t like how the man was acting, a bad feeling spreading in his stomach as he aimed his gun straight to his head.

“I would appreciate it if you surrendered willingly.” He ordered in an almost pleading voice.

“Arrested? For what crime?” The man placed an arm on his chest as he asked, as if thunderstruck from Lao Qing’s demand.

“You are a threat to the Nation and its people. You and your sister are going to be coming with us.” He continued as he took two steps forward, trying to pressure the man into giving up.

“I think I heard that wrong, mister police captain. Did you say because Sichuan’s Head of police is a greedy inhumane pig? If yes, then you are correct! We have a winner!” The man laughed as he finished his sentence.

The laugh sounded angry at Lao Qing’s ears, anger from indignation, but to the 19 other officers, it sounded more like a threat. A first shot was fired.

The bullet left the gun shooting fast at the spot where the man had been standing on. It smashed into the chair destroying it and sending bits flying everywhere.

In their panic, none of the untrained men had noticed that the man had already left his previous spot. He was now a few meters to the side. A red ball in front of his chess lit up his face and the whole area as it was sent flying forward.

It seemed to miss as it floated and exploded right above their heads without directly hitting anyone. The heatwave that spread from it though was enough to terrify everyone there.

A terrified scream broke the dead silence when the one who had fired the shot dropped his gun and turned around and started sprinting to the path they had come from. In sheer panic, most others followed, as their guns were dropped on the ground one after another.

“So you won’t run with them?”

“I have a job to do.”

“What is your name?”

“Lao Qing.”

“Good!” Edward said before throwing the prepared ammunition straight at Lao Qing and jumping to the side.

He expected a gunshot to ring out but instead, all he got was Lao Qing falling to the ground as the rock he had thrown smashed him right in the stomach.

Without wasting any time Edward rushed past the man convulsing in his throw up and unleashed the rain of rocks at the retreating men.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!”

Edward heard that frightened scream and grinned as he knew that the first of the runners reached the closed up path. With their only escape root close, the men fell into despair. The only few with the presence of mind to turn around and try to shoot the monster chasing them where incapacitated before they could do anything. Either from flying rocks or from a wooden club smashing them in the head.

The few that were left simply surrendered as they begged to not be killed.

Edward and Adel now done with the first part of the plan gathered all twenty of them and tied them up in groups, close to each other. Olly after stripping them of their equipment.

Next, it was time to send their little gifts to the Head of Police.

Edward and Adel sat down and talked about what had happened as well as went through a small introspection session before going down the mountain.

“I must say that closing the path completely while they were coming up wasn’t smart. It took too much out of me.” Said a pretty much completely exhausted Adel.

“I…. Burned a few of them. I couldn’t really control the explosion as I wanted. If I knew of any other spell than… but even then... Fire is too dangerous.” Edward said while sniffing the faint smell of burnt meat coming from two of the Police officers.

 It was pretty bad and so they had put those two in a basin filled with diluted spirit water to help them….. not die.

“That isn’t true. We have read much about paths and you should know better than to think that way. Everyday we use fire at least three times a day just to survive. The Fire’s nature depends on your thoughts and feelings about it, in the end, it is the attribute of Your Qi. Not someone else’s.” Adel lectured at her brother’s comments. She knew that he didn’t actually mean what he said and that he was just sad that he had caused so much pain to the two men, but those thoughts had to be uprooted from the very beginning. 

“Yeah…. You’re right. And in the end, they pointed guns at us, it wasn’t as if they weren’t threatening out lives…” Edward let that out before getting up.

“It’s time, we go down.”

{Bzzzzzzzzt}

“Sir, Personnel from the mission returned.”

“Let them in.” Said the man as he pressed on the big red button to inform his secretary, that ha had just left his office.

“Sir!” An officer came in and saluted.

“What is the report?”

“Sir……. Not very good. This….” The officer placed a video camera and a letter addressed to him in his office. “… has been delivered to you by the siblings.”

The Head of police was about to start reprimanding his officer when he saw those items and stopped himself.

He left the letter for later and opened the camera to look at the footage. The moment he heard the first word he looked up at the officer.

“Leave.” One word and the officer bowed and left immediately. Sweat dripping from him the moment he closed the door behind himself.

The Head back inside his office continued the clip. The more he saw the angrier he got. The clip cut from observing the officers talking about him to a dark spot that nothing happened for a while, he pressed fast forward and waited till one hour passed in the recording.

Finally as if out of nowhere the whole screen lit up as the camera adjusted to the new lighting, the moment it readjusted the scene in front of him shocked him as he saw and heard the conversation between the target and one of his men.

The last straw was drawn when the gunshot was heard. The clip ended right there and it didn't show anything afterward but that was more than enough. The party would probably take his position away only for the unauthorized access to weapons his men had, but the holder would probably lead him to court. If the clip spread or the newspapers focused on this then...

Dong Wang new that the moment these clips hit the internet he would be done.

“I’ve been done in…..” Dong Wang said as he closed the Recorder and went on to read the letter. He was even more devastated to know that 20 of his men were being held hostages up in the mountain. Essentially, he could do nothing but listen to their demands.
“Naïve!... I should bide my time for now and maybe in the future…..” Dong wang grinned slightly as his broken dignity and pride didn’t let himself go completely under.  

The next morning up in the Mountain they had claimed Adel and Ed were just waking up. They got out of their extremely comfortable beds and cooked some food for themselves. They walked out and went a little ways away from the house, to the south of it, where the path began as it forked to the left. A little out of sight from the house under some trees 20 men were tied up.

They were all awake, as they drank water from the water bottles placed in front of them. The moment the pair of… monsters appeared they all went silent as they looked at them with fear.

“Are we that scary sis? Is there something on my face?” Edward said to Adel as he crouched in front of Lao Qing.

“So… How is your stomach?”

“….. Better.”

“! I’m glad, I out a little too much force because I was scared of the gun, sorry about that.” Ed said as he smiled widely after Lao Qing Answered.

On the other hand, though Lao Qing was caught by surprise by how different this supernatural monster seemed to be compared to the previous night.

“Scared?”

“Obviously! Wouldn’t you be? Up until a month ago, I’ll have you know I lived a pretty normal life.” Edward went forward and untied Lao Qing’s ropes, letting him get up.

“Come with us, we are gonna bring some provisions for you guys.” He continued to say, turning around living his back completely exposed to him as he walked up to his sister and they started talking.

‘Maybe…. I was mistaken…. Completely.’ Though Lao Qing as he stumbled