“Hmm, yes. They requested for back up.”

  Hedish Norma was explaining the situation to Renekom. However, neither one of them were completely aware of the trouble the Zeta Squad had found themselves in.

  The Seear nodded. “Hugo himself and then they should have found Faris there,” he said. “Anyone else at the Outpost? Have them join in as well.”

  Hedish shook his head. “I’m afraid there isn’t much help there. The Outpost is undergoing a shift change. Personnel were shifted to an Asian Outpost because of the Cult activity of the last month.”

  “Did no one take their place?”

  “We sent two Sokidus to assist incoming operatives. And Faris is there also.”

  “Well, then they should be fine. Even if there are three dozen wizards, Zeta Squad and Faris would be more than enough for them.”

  “Are you sure, Renekom? I think we should spare a backup squad to assist.”

  Renekom sighed. “Fine, fine. Do as you wish. In fact, I think a squad was sent to Ukraine two days ago. Have them join in.” After a pause he looked away saying, “You know how short on personnel we’ve been ever since the Outsider-Basilisk mess.”

  The senior Mystic nodded as he took a deep breath. “I’ll send in the orders right away.”

  In the Hueznar Cascades, the wind smelled like sulphur and mercury. Gusts of wind gathered earth and mud ten meters above the wizards’ heads and began to form a cylindrical solid mass.

  A shaky voice whispered, “You’re one gullible bunch…” into the ears of the Zeta Squad and friends.

  “Who said that?” Camille asked.

  Faris pointed up. “There he comes…”

  The earth, dust, and the smells of sulphur and mercury all culminated, and a human body formed. It landed in front of the wizards. Trilby hat, Hawaiian shirt and shorts, and tanned brown skin – the man looked familiar. Then, he looked up. The squad saw his French cut beard.

  “Derek, the famous tongue-man,” Hugo said.

  He smiled. “In the flesh…”

  Faris glanced at Hugo and Vincent standing next to each other. “You eggheads had no clue, did you?” he remarked.

  With a frown, flared nostrils, and tightened fists, the bounty hunter grinded his teeth. “Take these damned braces off,” he said, “And I’ll tell you exactly all the clues I have!”

  “This is too good!” Derek exclaimed. “All the thorns in my side have gathered together. And none of you will leave here alive!”

  While he laughed maniacally, Hugo looked at Faris. With the roll of his eyes, he pointed at Vincent. Faris established a telepathic link just between the two of them.

  “What?” he asked.

  Hugo asked, “Do you think Vincent was involved?”

  “No, no. The kid’s clean. He got played just like the rest of you.”

  The Zaatsu pressed his palms together. The White Bolt felt the grip of the Ki limiting bracelets loosening. He looked over.

  “Don’t get too comfortable,” Hugo said. “You’re still not at full strength.” He looked at him and added, “Assist the squad.”

  “Not before I fry the pig!”

  “He’s an alchemist.”

  “I can handle him.”

  “I’m sure you can. But they need you more. I will take care of Derek myself.”

  “You sure?” asked Faris.

  Hugo nodded.

  Derek spread his arms wide open and called, “Devil’s Hearth… Attack!” Pointing then at him, he added, “But leave this Zaatsu for me.”

  The wizards – half floating, others sitting in tree-boughs or standing on the ground – began to move closer to the Eye compatriots.

  “Jiro,” the Alchemist called his general. “You’re with me.”

  Faris and Hugo moved a step ahead and stomped their right feet on the ground, sending a Ki tremor towards the Devil’s Hearth. While Derek and his aide blocked it and stood firm, the rest of the wizards were forced to spread out.

  “Engage!” Faris screamed and the battle began. Using his mind link, addressing all his allies, he said, “Use caution. Assess them before showing your cards.”

  Neil rushed to his right and attacked two wizards who had steadied themselves on a rock at the edge of the stream. Within seconds, nine more swarmed him. Gina moved in to assist, dragging Ben and Riley along.

  Further down the stream, Vincent engaged three witches and was followed by eight wizards. Camille gave chase to assist him.

  To the left, Marcus clashed with the rest beneath the trees with Ella at his side.

  And with that, each of the three groups of Martial Artists was now beset by eleven wizards.

  “Need any help, buddy?” Faris asked, smirking.

  Hugo smirked back. “Nah, I can handle ‘em. You got a lock?”

  “Oh, I got a lock…”

  Derek’s narrowed gaze got instantly widened when astonishingly, Faris vanished. He teleported nearly 200 meters away from the commotion. But he did not go alone – six wizards were ripped out of the fray with him. Three had been pressing Vincent and Camille, three hounding Marcus and Ella. Faris had left Neil’s foursome untouched. Four against eleven was survivable. But two against eleven? That needed fixing.

  “You won’t save them, Mystic,” a wizard said as the sextet moved in position to attack. “You’ve only delayed the inevitable and doomed yourself.”

  Faris smiled. “We’ll see about that.”

  As the soldiers clashed, the captains too rushed at each other. Derek’s charmed fist struck Hugo’s. A shockwave was produced. The wizard general was pushed back.

  “You’re full of tricks, Zaatsu,” Derek said as he jumped back. His fist was charmed with alchemical magic. Rearranging the composition of the internal elements, it should have melted Hugo’s arm off. But somehow, the peculiar magic was repelled. “You’re not an Alchemist, are you?” He smiled. “That was quite an impossible trick you pulled off there.”

  Hugo scoffed. “Not at all. But if that’s the best you can do, then I suggest you should surrender.”

  “Oh, we won’t disappoint.”

  As his smile slowly faded, the Zaatsu asked, “So, this is the fabled Devil’s Hearth?”

  Derek chuckled. “Indeed,” he said. “But let’s not stand and chat. After all, this isn’t a spectator sport…”

  Assisted by his general, the Alchemist once again attacked, and a fierce battle began.

  Elsewhere, the Zeta Squad began their struggle against the wizards with mixed results. While Vincent, assisted by Camille, was content with testing his opponents, disorienting them using his abnormal speed, the other groups were far less composed.

  Under the canopy to the left, Marcus and Ella were already locked in their own storm of fists and sorcery, wizards swarming them like wolves in the dark. But to the right, Neil had pushed the wizards into a defensive mode. His brute strength, just like Marcus’s, was on full display. However, where the fire-breathing Bernthal was being assisted by a young Mystic, the young Zaatsu was carrying some inexperienced aides.

  Riley charged at a wizard. His senses were not sharp enough to recognise the body for a clone. By the time Gina screamed to warn him, his fist had gotten stuck. The clone had sucked the Sokidu’s fist inside.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “What is this?!” he exclaimed, trying hard to free himself.

  The clone quickly turned into mud and dragged Riley down to the ground. He was trapped. Neil was already surrounded by five wizards. Gina tried to help but was stopped by four of them. Ben was engaged by the remaining two.

  Very soon, one of Neil’s opponents backflipped onto a tree branch and turned to face Riley lying in a puddle of sticky mud. He extended both arms out. A bow appeared in one and an arrow in the other.

  Ben shouted, “Riley!”

  The wizard took aim and chanted, “KARAMASH-TEFAM…”

  The arrow began to glow.

  It travelled fast.

  Neil shot a Ki blast at it mid-battle.

  It missed.

  The arrow pierced through Riley’s heart!

  Ben shrieked in anguish. Neil unleashed a Ki shockwave with extended arms and finally pushed the wizards away. But it was no use. The young Sokidu was already dead. He could do nothing but reengage his opponents.

  The tactics were odd. Gina was experienced. She had worked in the field for some years now but had never heard of a group of Cultist wizards who preferred close range combat. These members of the Devil’s Hearth were not just willing to trade fists; they were actually quite good at it. They were matching the Zeta Squad members move for move. And whatever they lacked in strength, they were more than making up in numbers.

  Finally breaking free from the tight grip of her opponents, she whispered, “MASAYA-NUMA-POL…”

  Her body became transparent for a few seconds, and she was able to get past the wizards. She rushed towards Ben. Grabbing him by the arm, she dragged him back and blocked a witch’s blow.

  “Conserve your strength,” she said. “You cannot defeat them like this. Do not engage them alone.”

  “I’ll kill them!” he screamed. “I’ll kill them all!”

  “Back us up! And you just might get the chance.”

  Thereafter, Neil and Gina decided to try and converge the two battles into one. Only then could they think of inflicting any damage.

  Vincent’s eyes crackled with electricity. Then, static bolts began to shoot out of his body. He had his back towards Camille who looked over and asked, “Should I be worried about the current?”

  All eight wizards surrounding them moved back a little and observed the Martial Artists standing atop the water in the stream.

  “The current makes temperatures rise,” he told Camille, telepathically via Faris’s mind link. Steam began to rise from the stream. “Visibility goes down and we attack. Got it?”

  “Understood.” Camille pulled out a glaive from her umro-bag.

  “Nice,” the White Bolt said. “Do you have a katana in there?”

  She gave him the sword and within moments the battlefield went blind.

  The wizards had lost their line of sight. They moved to surround the steam covered area.

  “Watch out for the bounty hunter,” one of them said. “He’s fast.”

  The White Bolt had been showing glimpses of his pace in short bursts to disorient his opponents and keep them at bay. But now, it was time for an all-out attack. He charged. Camille was stunned for a moment then thought, ‘Yup. That’s how I remember him… at his terrifying best.’

  Two wizards saw a blur move past them. A witch felt a gust of wind. The man farthest behind, standing on a tree branch, noticed a blade protruding through his body.

  He looked down.

  Blood dripped from the tip of the blade…

  That was when he realised – Vincent was standing behind him and his katana had gone clear through the wizard’s belly. He grunted. All the wizards looked over, but before they could move to him, the White Bolt cut their ally in half and vanished once again.

  “They don’t call him the White Bolt for nothing!” a wizard exclaimed. “They may have given him a rating of low 2000s but even Zaatsus couldn’t bring this man down alone. Keep your guard up!”

  Battle Ratings were one of the most effective systems the Eye could ever develop to rate an arcanist’s battle prowess. High level Zaatsus like Hugo achieved ratings of mid to high 2000s. But people like Vincent broke the system because his rating on paper was not very flattering. In the field, however, it took the combined might of two Zaatsus, three Sokidus, and one Mystic to finally bring him down.

  A witch screamed, “He’ll stay in the steam and attack suddenly! Charm the cloaks!”

  All of the members of the Devil’s Hearth reinforced their defences by charming their cloaks using strange orbs. Neither Camille nor Vincent could recognize what they were.

  ‘Time to test them again,’ the White Bolt said.

  Some of the Cultists slowly began to move into the mist. The glaive halted their movement first. Many of them were struck by Camille and were pushed back. However, because of the charm on the cloaks, they remained unscathed.

  Vincent too then struck a few of them but to no avail. He came and stood pressing his back against Camille’s.

  “Any ideas?” he asked, through the mind link. “They’re moving inside to undo the steam and force us out into the open.”

  She shook her head. “I think the defensive charms are a slightly bigger threat than that right now. Do you have a way of undoing them?”

  “Not really. I can attempt a break, but it will use too much Ki.”

  “Not worth it…”

  Suddenly, a jet of water came rushing from in front of Camille and went past them merely two feet from her right. Within seconds, many such jets came rushing in one after the other. The wizards were shooting blind. Vincent and Camille had to move to avoid the hits.

  “Hey, Camille,” Vincent said. “I’ll push them in. You use that 7 foot stick of yours to keep them on the water.”

  She understood immediately what he was up to. Vincent rushed behind the enemies, shoving them into the stream one after another, while Camille kept their focus inside the steam cloud.

  Once all eight wizards were inside and engaged against Camille, a shadow ripped past them – fast as a bullet’s trace. Vincent. He snatched Camille clear of the water and carried her out of the mist.

  Sparks hissed along his skin as he charged his Ki. “Time to burn the motherfuckers…”

  By the time Camille turned back, the stream was lit with violent crackles. Hundreds of amperes tore through water and steam, swallowing the wizards whole. Their subsequent screams were cut short as tiny explosions engulfed each and every one of them.

  “Bingo,” the White Bolt said and relaxed his Ki flow. The explosions indicated that the charms on their attire had been broken.

  Camille observed wide-eyed and silent. She just stood there staring at the carnage. This was the bounty hunter she had heard of. This was the ruthlessness everyone talked about. And this was when his strength was still limited by Hugo.

  She could not help but notice the contrast – his politeness and kindness towards her when they first met and his ruthlessness and brutality here towards the Devil’s Hearth.

  ‘Why didn’t you kill me?’ she wondered. ‘Did you really mean it?’

  Vincent was cooling off and taking a breath while Camille was focused on him. The wizards noticed. Their defensive charms may have been undone, but they were still standing. Two of them chanting, “ZIFTUM-SANSKI…” and then conjured demonic energies to strengthen the spell.

  A dark maroon burst of flames rushed at the duo. Vincent was closer to it. He tried to avoid it but was hit on his left arm. However, Camille used her glaive to deflect the flames and move out of the way. A wizard rushed at her from behind.

  “Die!” he screamed and raked at her with clawed fingers. But the Sokidu’s body turned to water and melted away. “What?” he said, staring at his own hands, wide-eyed.

  Camille’s glaive pierced his back and went right through his chest. She whispered, “Just because we weren’t focused for a minute doesn’t mean you can get away with a lacklustre move like that.”

  She looked over at Vincent. He was clutching his left arm with his right hand. She noticed the wizards mobilizing again so she rushed to protect him. But just as she came and stood beside him, his injured arm got covered in a subtle dark maroon tint. The colour was similar to the colour of the flames that had injured him. Then, he stood up. The wizards stopped.

  “What was that?” she asked looking at his healed arm.

  Vincent stretched his arms. “You don’t wanna know.”

  Elsewhere, beyond the mist and screams, the real clash of titans was unfolding – Hugo Baylis against Derek, the Alchemist, and his general. They had kept him busy, and he had noticed exactly what Gina had felt as well. Wizards never preferred close range combat. While Derek’s reliance on close range combat was somewhat understandable, Jiro’s effectiveness with his fists was troublesome.

  Hugo was being pushed back. The duo was strong and complementing each other well. It was as if they had trained to fight together.

  The Zaatsu eventually caught Derek’s incoming fist in his left hand and pushed his right knee into his ribs. As the Alchemist bent down, a swift right hand jab to his head sent him flying. But, as Hugo then engaged Jiro, the leader of the Hearth found time to steady himself.

  Forging a link with the stream flowing just behind Hugo and Jiro, Derek raised a towering surge of water and made it rush at the Zaatsu. Preoccupied, he could not avoid it and was trapped inside a ball of water much like the one created by Faris earlier.

  Derek laughed. “Any last words, Zaatsu?”

  Hugo tried but he could not move an inch. He was stuck.

  “Jiro!” the Alchemist called. “Finish him off!”

  The wizard’s hands glowed dark maroon. He was preparing a final fatal blow. But before he could take the shot, the water began to freeze.

  He looked back. “Sir? Is this your doing?”

  Derek stared wide-eyed. “No,” he said. “Hurry! Just take the shot!”

  Finally, he took the shot. A broken beam of dark maroon Ki rushed at the water prison. But the surface of the ball had already frozen solid. It repelled the attack.

  Their eyes were left wide open as they gazed at the ice ball. Hugo was no longer visible inside. However, quicker than it froze, the ball melted back into water which then fell down. And Hugo landed safely on the ground, albeit a bit out of breath.

  He looked up at the duo saying, “Your cheap tricks are really starting to annoy me…”

  Jiro leaped back and came and stood with Derek. Both of them were shocked and intimidated. The water ball was not only limiting Hugo’s physical movements; it was also limiting Ki flow within his body. Ki Manipulation and Magicism were nigh impossible to perform inside. So, how did Hugo undo the water prison? How did he freeze and unfreeze it without using his own Ki or forming a Ki connection with anything around him?

  It was wizardry. Derek recognized it. ‘Wizard magic requires the sixth sense and enchantments,’ he thought. ‘But he couldn’t speak. It was a thought-spell. He must know high level magic. This guy is tough…’

  But what the Alchemist could still not understand was how a Martial Artist from the Eye knew such a nuanced technique that only expert wizards knew and used. Wizardry in the eyes of the Martial Artists was nothing short of blasphemy.

  “You surprised me, Baylis,” the Alchemist said. “I didn’t know you could use magic like that…”

  Hugo straightened himself. He smiled and said, “Oh, I’m just getting warmed up…”