“The land’s overheating,” someone said. “Too much residual Ki moving through it.”

  Ki surges around the western gate of Ayn had caused both surface and air temperatures to rise. The undergrowth wilted and leaves yellowed – even birds had gone silent or had flown away. And the carcasses of animals killed in the crossfire were drying unnaturally fast.

  Even the Lake Baikal behaved unnaturally. Vincent followed Derek to the shore and felt it – the shoreline water was lukewarm.

  Fiona, along with several other Parliamentarians, arrived at the wall extending south of the western gate. Demonic attacks were concentrated on this area. They began neutralizing Demonic charms immediately. But they were outnumbered. So, multiple contingents of Zaatsus and Sokidus intervened and provided cover.

  The harsher environment and contaminated air made fighting more difficult for the Martial Artists. They found it harder to breathe, felt a sting in their Ki Clusters, and found the ash, snow, blood mist, and warped air interfering with their senses.

  But they were not about to back down. The silent defenders of Spirituality warred on.

  On the western side of the gate, a Zaatsu unleashed a powerful Ki wave. It deflected the incoming Demonic Ki attack of the wizards. A rogue string of Ki discharged from the collision shot directly towards Hugo duelling it out with Ambris.

  The Zaatsu noticed it just in time and ducked to avoid getting hit. Ambris too leaped out of the way. And then they rushed at each other once more.

  Ambris struck Hugo’s shoulder – Hugo got a clear shot and punched Ambris’s jaw. Both were pushed away.

  They turned ahead once more and rammed into each other before leaping back.

  The Basilisk nodded. “You’ve trained well, Baylis.”

  Even after getting weakened while fighting the beasts, Hugo was putting up a good fight. He was defending well enough and some of his attacks were even getting through the brute’s defences.

  “Your close combat skills are quite commendable,” Ambris continued. “But I’m afraid they won’t be enough to defeat me.”

  Confident as he was, the leader of the Serpents was finding it hard to bring Hugo down. The Zaatsu was nimble and his movements were fluid. Moreover, with his vast array of Martial Arts knowledge and wizardry skills, there was nothing the Basilisk could do to surprise him. After all, they were both trained by the same legends of the Eye.

  Hugo was taking damage, yes. But Ambris’s plan was to keep the Eye occupied long enough to infiltrate the Palace. The clock was ticking – he was running out of time.

  Ambris’s attempts to create distance between himself and Hugo remained unsuccessful. He created shockwaves, shot small bursts of Ki, and even used Demonic spells, but none of it worked. Hugo avoided the attacks and always remained in close proximity.

  “You’re persistent,” the Basilisk said and summersaulted back.

  It took less than a second before Hugo was at him once again. It was starting to become frustrating. But not just for Ambris…

  ‘I can’t keep this up.’ Hugo wondered, panting. ‘I haven’t done that much damage at all and I’m already this tired. This bastard’s at least three times stronger than Derek.’

  Avoiding the incoming strikes was tiring while getting shots in was draining. And then there was the damage received. How much more of it could he survive?

  Ambris served the Eye as an expert Zaatsu on par with the likes of Hugo, Obadiah, or Renekom. He then adopted wizardry bringing versatility into his fighting style. But his research and experimentation with Demonic Ki was what pulled him far above any of his peers. He became a lot stronger than Zaatsus. Only those who could undo his advantages ever stood a chance against him. He had achieved the status of legends – a modern equivalent of the likes of Warren Ford, Mustaqeem al Gohari, and Marion Von Bergen.

  With every hit, Hugo was receiving more damage than his hits were inflicting. He had understood. He knew that there could only be one outcome…

  ‘I will lose this fight, one way or the other.’ He fought with as much strength as he could. ‘It’s only a matter of time. But I’m not gonna let him get to the Palace easily…’

  Ambris came running in and threw a heavy punch. Hugo blocked it by raising his right wrist, bracing it with his left fist.

  But Ambris did not let up. Even though the punch was blocked, he kept pushing. Ki surged through the strike dragging Hugo back nearly twenty meters before he finally shifted his weight and suddenly leaned back.

  Ambris could not pull his punch in time. With his face dropping into range, Hugo pivoted on his planted foot and kicked Ambris right in the face, launching the brute into the air.

  ‘Direct hit!’ Hugo quickly steadied himself, then jumped after him and unleashed a barrage of punches into Ambris’s midriff. He finished by grabbing hold of Ambris’s legs, spinning him like a fan, and driving him straight into the ground.

  Hugo hovered in the air, body perfectly still. He whispered, “Die, you bastard!”

  With closed eyes, he opened his balled fists and stretched his fingers. Ki began racing throughout his body. Stones groaned below, air thickened churning above. Moisture gathered, clinging to his Ki, while heat shimmered faintly around his skin.

  Then everything aligned.

  He opened his eyes, white and glowing – a sharp crack split the sky.

  Lightning collapsed downward in a single, massive bolt! It struck upon Ambris, engulfing him in blinding white as thunder detonated across the field! The ground ruptured beneath the impact.

  The strike was similar to the one Hugo used to trap Vincent in Australia – just ten times stronger and far more focused.

  The Zaatsu landed back down. Bent forward, hands braced on knees, and chest heaving – he observed the crater. It was engulfed in a smoke cloud filled with faint crackles and static. ‘This should slow him down a little…’

  Straightening himself, he extended an arm and recited, “BOROM-EXTANFER-ZIMMER-SOLO…”

  Several small bursts of Ki left the palm of his hand and struck the smoke cloud. Layers of blue and black energy appeared, enclosing the crater, trapping Ambris inside. The static current got amplified and sucked into the layers making it even more difficult to break them down.

  ‘Renekom’s prison won’t break until this guy’s put down,’ Hugo thought, trying to decide his next move. ‘But to be fair, I can’t turn my back on him anyway. No telling how long this holds him… he’s Ambris Ferrer for goodness sake! So, what’s my move here?’

  Frustrated, he looked to his left. “Where the hell are you Vincent?!”

  He charged his Ki as much as he could manage. It hurt. His body was in bad shape, but he had to try. The Zaatsu knew there was no one else standing in the Basilisk’s way. He waited impatiently.

  Vincent, on the other hand, was in pursuit a few miles away at the edge of the Lake Baikal. Derek, the Alchemist was no longer interested in facing him in battle. He had seen enough.

  Giving Vincent the slip, he blended into the water and vanished.

  ‘You’re not getting far, trickster,’ the White Bolt thought. ‘Time to fish you out.’

  He came and stood firm atop the water, steadied himself. His radiating Ki produced subtle ripples on the lake. With closed eyes, the bounty hunter exhaled slowly – maroon smoke began rising from the water around him.

  “Master Bennett!” a Zaatsu exclaimed. “The lake… I can sense a disturbing energy there. Can you see anything?”

  Fiona’s evocations were already witnessing the battles. “Don’t worry,” she quickly replied. “For now, he’s on our side…”

  The Lake’s water bubbled as temperatures soared fast. As Vincent opened his eyes, Derek shot out of the water and fell on the shore. Fumes rose from his body as if he had been burnt.

  The smoke began to die down and the temperature of the water cooled down as well. The bounty hunter walked up and stood still at the Alchemist’s head. Derek was panting and coughing. Using alchemy, he had blended into the Lake’s water to hide and sneak away. By burning the Ki inside, Vincent burned him and forced him to materialise and jump out.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Did you really think you could get away, tongue-man?” the bounty hunter taunted. “You puny-man…”

  Derek attempted but his aching arms could not push him off the ground. As he tried some more, Vincent’s foot drove into his stomach folding him in half and sending him flying. He smashed into a tree trunk and fell face down on the ground.

  The bounty hunter looked away. ‘My my…’ he thought, smiling. ‘The Zaatsu’s still holding on. But he’s not winning this… not in his condition… I have to wrap this up quickly.’

  By the time he looked back, however, Derek had vanished once more.

  “Blast this trickster!”

  His Ki signature was weak. Vincent walked closer but still could not pinpoint it. So, he moved back into the covering of trees.

  “Gotcha!”

  He had found a trace.

  The Ki was faint but enough for the White Bolt to recognise it. He gave chase deeper into the forest. Pulling the Alchemist out of the elements was not difficult – he had already done it before. But pinpointing his location took time. And time was of the essence.

  He eventually fired a Ki wave at a tree in an attempt to push Derek out. The tree trunk exploded, its branches fell, but the Alchemist was not there.

  Suddenly, a root protruding from the ground grabbed a hold of Vincent’s foot. Before he could cut himself free, vines rushed at him and grabbed his right arm. Then branches on the trees around him sagged unnaturally as their hardness dissolved. They surged forward coiling around the bounty hunter in a sudden, grasping rush.

  Derek appeared in front of him. His laugh was subdued, eyes wide-open, and breath racing. He had spent a lot of Ki to make his constructs strong enough to contain Vincent.

  “I finally caught you, boy!” He began gathering the last bits of Ki he could muster into the palms of his hand. “If wizardry won’t work, I’ll simply blast you dead!”

  Elsewhere, Hugo felt a shockwave. Even the ground rumbled.

  ‘That’s one more layer of shielding down,’ he thought.

  Ambris attacked again, producing yet another strong shockwave.

  The Zaatsu widened his stance to steady himself. His jaw tightened, eyes narrowing as disbelief curdled into frustration. The fingers on both hands curled unconsciously at his side.

  ‘Touching those shields should have electrocuted him!’ Hugo shook his head as he watched the shields strain. ‘If he’s not punching or ramming into them then the only other option is direct Ki blasts… but… how much Ki does this guy have?!’

  The next strike sent shards of Ki flying away accompanied by trails of static rushing outward along the ground. And then he punched again. Each hit was stronger than the last and felt like a charging behemoth ramming into the layers of Ki.

  Ambris was not going to remain contained for long. Hugo leaped back and waited. As soon as the last layer was brought down, half a dozen Alicantos broke out of the ground and rushed at Ambris. Evocations of Hugo, each of the birds stood four feet tall and were strong, carrying Celestial Ki in their wings. They attacked and engaged Ambris who had emerged with his clothes burned and skin torched in places.

  He punched one of the birds away. “Your only buying time, Baylis!” the Basilisk screamed. “No use in delaying the inevitable!”

  One by one the birds began to lose and wither away. But they were buying time indeed and that was all Hugo wanted. Hidden safely behind a tree, he exhaled slowly as he crossed his arms at his chest.

  “KORO-SIKO-CHORNIS-Ambris-Ferrer,” he whispered, pronouncing each syllable slowly and carefully. One mistake and the spell would tear him apart before it even touched Ambris.

  A weight fell on his body and the Zaatsu grunted before closing his eyes. ‘If this fails, I die,’ he thought calmly. ‘If it works… we live a little longer.’

  “KAMAR-TROVOS-NAVUM-POVUM,” he added.

  His Ki bled out of him, fast – too fast. And it bled in heaps. But any less and it would not be effective, not when his target was so strong.

  Establishing a subtle link with the Basilisk’s Ki, he smiled and opened his eyes. “TOKO-TROVOS-NAVUM-POVUM-SAVAR…”

  Taking the Alicantos down, Ambris felt a twitch in his spine. He unleashed a large Ki beam. It swerved and swayed, hitting all the birds one by one, killing them instantly.

  “You Zaatsu filth!” Ambris exclaimed and shot a Ki wave aimed right at the trunk Hugo was hiding behind.

  Ki connections worked both ways. He could tell exactly where the Zaatsu was.

  “Die!” he screamed.

  But Hugo jumped down and out of the way. The tree was destroyed. Ambris prepared another attack.

  “Time-warp,” the Zaatsu whispered.

  The Basilisk’s arm went back to unleash another Ki blast. But half way through, everything paused.

  Half-motion. Half-breath. Ambris stood still.

  Hugo collapsed, drenched in sweat.

  “Yes…” he whispered.

  The forbidden entrapment spell had taken its toll on him – his Ki had been nearly completely drained. He had nothing more left in the tank, but he did not need anything more.

  “I can’t believe I used that – I can’t believe it worked.”

  Hugo looked up at the paralyzed Ambris thinking, ‘That should hold him for at least another ten minutes.’ He slid back and sat cross-legged. ‘I should be able to gather enough for a single kill shot by then…’

  Near the Lake Baikal, amidst gathering Ki, Derek suddenly stopped.

  Darkness engulfed the White Bolt.

  The Alchemist panicked once more and leaped away. ‘What the hell is this man?!’

  He shot a Ki blast at him – as it approached its target, it vanished.

  All the tree branches, the vines, and the roots then got sucked into the darkness and then a bright light flashed.

  Derek took his hand off of his eyes and stared wide-eyed.

  Vincent walked forward calmly.

  “What was that?” The Alchemist was sweating, panting, and terrified. His shivering legs did not want to move. As the bounty hunter walked closer, he began taking steps back. With hands raised in front, the orchestrator of the war began to plead.

  “Stay away from me!” His voice was shaky and subdued. “Stay the hell away!”

  Immune to wizardry, countering alchemy even better than Hugo, using Ki Manipulation as good as the best Zaatsus, and now even showing snippets of effective Dark Ki usage – Derek was not fighting a mere bounty hunter… he was up against a living, breathing contradiction.

  “Did I scare you back there, tongue-man?” the bounty hunter asked. “You’re not so tough when clandestine operatives aren’t assisting you, are you?”

  Before the Alchemist could move any farther or respond, Vincent’s fingers twitched – stone spikes tore up from the ground, punching through Derek’s body and leaving him impaled.

  As fast as they rose, the spikes then retracted. Blood gushed out of the holes left in Derek’s body as he folded and fell to the ground.

  Vincent looked down at him – lips curled and nose wrinkled. He whispered, “Rot in hell, you bastard.”

  The Alchemist was no more. But the terrors that he had unleashed upon the arcane world were raging on.

  The White Bolt looked over. ‘What’s he up to?’

  He sensed Hugo’s waning spirit still holding on. And then he sensed the Basilisk stuck in place.

  “Ambris’s not moving,” the bounty hunter whispered to himself. “But wait a minute…” His eyes opened wider. “Who’s that?”

  It was behind Hugo.

  Vincent broke into a sprint.

  Before he could get far, however, a creature came rushing towards him. He spun swiftly.

  “Oh, what now?!” He looked at his side. His shirt had been torn and there were raking claw marks with skin split just enough to sting and bleed.

  “Fuck it!” He shook his head. “I left a spot.”

  Lee, the crippled Serpent, was not yet dead. And although his crippled body was not moving, he had used his Ki to summon an evocation – a Cerberus stood growling at the bounty hunter.

  “Dammit!” He pressed a hand against the cuts. “I don’t have time for this!”

  The beast in front of him, with its three heads and serpentine tail, stood five feet tall and moved with blinding speed.

  ‘That thing is fast… but I can take him… but I don’t have the time.’

  Deciding not to waste any more time, the bounty hunter chose to do the logical thing instead…

  ‘I’m gonna have to find the cripple and kill him. That should send the beast away…’

  Elsewhere, Hugo sat relaxed, trying to catch his breath. ‘Wish I had a glass of water right now,’ he thought then looked at Ambris frozen in time. ‘I can’t believe this worked. I thought my Ki was never gonna be enough for this… but it actually worked…’

  He had his guard down. Unbeknownst to him, something, someone had crept behind him. A strong Ki wave suddenly rushed at him…

  The Zaatsu felt it at the last moment and tried to put up a Ki shield. He was quick and was actually able to put his defences up, but they were not nearly strong enough to stop the incoming attack.

  It struck.

  “No!” Vincent exclaimed, sensing the Ki strike.

  Hugo got dragged along the ground for thirty meters before finally stopping.

  With gaping wounds and heavy burns all over his body, he lay helpless, unable to move. He grunted in pain before opening one eye – Ambris Ferrer was walking towards him.

  With much effort Hugo turned his head slightly – the Ambris he froze in time was still frozen.

  He understood immediately and closed his eyes – the one walking towards him was a clone.

  The Basilisk’s clone came and squatted next to him. Before saying anything he shot a Ki blast back at the frozen one. The Ki got absorbed and he broke free from the spell. He quickly walked over and got fused back into one.

  “That was a bloody good move, Baylis,” Ambris said, looking ahead at the Zaatsu once more. “But you underestimated me. Only a fool fights unaware of their surroundings. You busied me with those birds and hid yourself away. I knew you weren’t hiding to recuperate… you were setting a trap. So, I dug a clone into the ground.”

  He placed a hand on Hugo’s head gently. “You should be proud of yourself,” he quietly said. “You didn’t just fight like a Zaatsu, you fought like a survivor. You stopped fighting like an operative. No. You fought like a man who knew he’d lose.”

  Hugo was waiting for the inevitable – a decapitating Ki strike, an explosive spell, a brutal kill shot. But it never came. Ambris removed his hand and stood up.

  “You’re an admirable foe, Baylis, and my brother in discipleship.” The Basilisk nodded. “And you’ve put up a better fight than most. So, I will let you decide. Tell me, should I leave you alone or end your suffering right now?”

  Hugo grunted in pain as he looked the other way. With much effort, he whispered, “Leave me…”

  Ambris bowed and quietly walked off. After taking a few steps, he simply vanished, teleporting away…