Bolts of static rushed at the wizards. They leaped in the air to avoid getting electrocuted and landed several meters back. Vincent smiled mockingly.
"Why are you wasting Ki?" Camille asked, standing just behind him. "Keep using your speed attacks. I'm sure we can take 'em out that way."
He straightened himself and spun his sword once. "It doesn't use that much Ki."
Looking back at the Sokidu, the bounty hunter instructed, "Stay behind me. They'll attack again and I'll try to break their formation. The moment you find an opening, take a direct kill shot. Alright?"
She looked at him with a narrowed gaze and, ditching Faris's telepathic link, said, "You're trying to protect me more than you're trying to attack them!"
He shook his head and looked back ahead. "Just shut up and fight."
She wanted to snap back. She was a Sokidu, not cargo to be kept out of harm's way. But the worst part was that his formation worked.
As the wizards came rushing in, Vincent closed his eyes. It surprised them. But they attacked unfazed. He avoided with dismissive ease and countered with poised authority. One wizard attempted to avoid him and attack Camille directly. Somehow, he found his fist blocked by Vincent's sword.
The White Bolt was not merely moving fast. He was simultaneously engaging all six of them, noticing every movement, countering their strikes, and avoiding those he was unable to counter. It was frustrating. But the sextet could not get a clean shot, nor could they break through to Camille.
His astute, battle-honed senses read every twitch of muscle before it even became a strike. And it was not only surprising his adversaries. Even Camille was in absolute awe, not only at how well he was countering the wizards but how well he had understood her strengths and limitations as well. Her chest was thumping with a strange exhilaration – terror and thrill woven together – as Vincent moved like he had known her rhythm for years. Following the battle from close behind, she held her glaive tightly waiting for her chance to strike.
It came soon. With his speed increasing slowly, Vincent began to break the miscreants' formation. One of them, when pushed back, tripped over a tree root. Camille rushed ahead and swung her glaive at him. He forged a forcefield using his magical bracelet. It broke. He was dragged back and slid for several meters along the wet ground. But he was able to protect himself from being sliced in half.
All the wizards had now realized – they were in trouble. Despite never having worked together before, Camille and Vincent were fighting in a fluid, instinctive rhythm. He struck like lightning, and her reach filled the gaps, their partnership flowing as if it had always been there.
On a different front, amidst trees and rocks, a single pulsating wave of Ki shattered the demonic defensive barriers of three wizards. They stared wide-eyed at the fast-approaching Faris Naji. He was no Ella Clay. He was far stronger. And he was no longer playing around.
Faris had sensed the trouble Zeta Squad was in and was trying to end his bout as quickly as possible. But the wizards were not about to give up easily. Commanding trees and vines, the rocks to their right, and the water from the stream to their left they countered the Mystic.
Rocks broke off from the mountain and rushed at Faris. He simply phased through and engaged one of the wizards. They had merely exchanged a few hits before many vines came at him. The wizard jumped back, and the vines caught Faris's legs. He concentrated Ki into his hands and cut them off but was surrounded by plenty more.
He whispered, "UNZAMA-DOHAFEN-ZEEFA-JANSIN!"
The wizards' control over the forest broke immediately. They smiled. Faris looked up and chuckled. Their smiles slowly disappeared.
The Mystic stood arms akimbo and shook his head smiling. "You guys really don't know who I am, do you?"
The trio had used the same demonic failsafe with their spell that had injured Ella. And all three had used it concurrently making it much stronger. But Faris easily blocked the demonic Ki from getting into his system.
The Devil's Hearth trio was sweating. They were unsure of their next move and stood in place waiting.
Then slowly, they spread wide. Faris observed standing still. They charged their Demonic Ki and sank their magic into the forest.
The grass beneath the Mystic's feet tightened. The tree beside him bent like a living spear. Behind him, a slab of stone broke from the mountainside and hovered, ready to crush him.
Faris's smile faded.
He brought both hands up slowly. His Ki surged outward, heavier than before, spreading through root, bark, stone, and soil. The wizards pushed back. Their maroon glow deepened, and the forest between them trembled under the strain.
For a moment, nothing moved.
Then Faris exhaled.
"One with nature," he said. "That is a true Mystic."
His stronger Ki snapped through their spell. The grass twisted around the first wizard's legs and climbed his body. The slab of stone crashed down onto the second. The tree behind the third split open and drove a jagged spear of wood through his back.
The three died before their own magic fully left their hands.
Faris lowered his arms, breathing harder now.
With all his adversaries killed, the Mystic took a minute. That final trick had cost him more Ki than he liked. But the job was not done yet. So, instead of taking too much time to rest and recuperate, he rushed to the aid of his juniors.
Elsewhere, Derek, the Alchemist, had blended into the natural elements completely vanishing from sight. A swift invisible jab struck Hugo who tumbled aside. Regaining his composure, the Zaatsu stood up and closed his eyes.
A voice echoed in his ears. "Give up, Zaatsu!"
Hugo stood silent and still. His sensory abilities rivalled the best in the business. With his eyes closed, the Zaatsu observed his surroundings through every other sense. He was listening for any sound out of the ordinary like the irregular movement of leaves, the flow of water, unusual animal sounds, any smells other than those of the forest, and most of all, any Ki movement in the area surrounding him that resembled the Alchemist.
But Derek was confident. His abilities were not like those of a wizard. He was a Ki Manipulator and an Alchemist. He had the ability to blend in with his surroundings changing the very nature of his existence and the form of his body. He could have been a tree, dust particles in a gust of wind, water flowing in the stream, a bird in the air, or an animal on the ground – his consciousness lingering, waiting to reappear in its original form and pounce on his foe.
Hugo, however, was not looking for the body. He was looking for the soul, the Ki. It may have blended into the surroundings, suppressed and mimicking its neighbour, but the Zaatsu's heightened senses were not easy to fool.
Very quickly, Hugo turned around and punched the air. A spiralling wave of fire rushed at a tree. It burned away but no ashes were produced. It was merely the Alchemist's Ki. He had moved away.
'How will he attack?' Hugo wondered as he steadied himself once more. 'It'll have to be a combo. Hide in one place… attack from the other…'
A sudden gust of wind rushed at him. Hugo rolled aside barely avoiding the attack. But he merely avoided it. He did not retaliate or return fire and then steadied himself once more.
"What's the matter, Baylis?" Derek's voice echoed in his ear again. "Don't tell me you're giving up already?"
Hugo smiled but did not reply.
A few seconds later, many stone needles came flying towards him at great speed. Hugo jumped to his right to avoid getting impaled but was not fast enough. Two of the needles grazed his left arm, one left a slight cut on his thigh, and one got lodged in his shoulder.
'Gotcha…'
Down on one knee, Hugo turned and unleashed a strong, concentrated Ki beam. It was fast and used up a sizable amount of Ki. But it was not aimed at the stones nor at the place where they were coming from. And before the needles could even stop coming, before Derek could even recalibrate his focus, the beam was already upon him.
It struck Derek while he was disguised as a boulder.
A direct hit.
Result – an explosion.
The Alchemist returned to his original form and fell on the ground panting – his burned body fuming like a piece of charcoal on a grill.
Hugo stood up slowly and looked at Derek lying nearly twenty meters away. He took a deep breath and then ripped out the stone needle from his shoulder with a suppressed grunt. Throwing it away, he placed a hand over the wound. A little patch-up Ki work and the blood stopped flowing in seconds.
"You're good, Derek," the Zaatsu said as he began walking towards the Alchemist. "But I think I can understand now what you're all about. You've read the books, and you've practiced the moves and the spells and all the techniques. But you've never been in a real battle. You don't have the experience to be a worthy combatant."
He stopped just six feet from him. "Get up," he said. "Get up and show me what you've got left in the tank." Crossing his arms, he added, "And also tell me... who've you been in contact with at the Palace?"
Derek's body suddenly turned to smoke and disappeared.
Hugo shook his head as he whispered, "He really doesn't know when to quit."