That night the moon hung high.
Beneath it, the three beefy brothers struck their flamboyant poses as they stepped onto the island.
"According to my intel, the Super Aja is here."
Esidisi spoke. As the brain of the trio, he was first to pick up the trail. He had meant to check alone and take the stone, but when he traced the source, something felt off. Instinct, tempered by ten thousand years, whispered trap. He still came, bringing Kars and Wamuu.
"Hey, Wamuu. Want the Super Aja? Come on. Beat me and it is yours."
To the northwest, Joseph appeared, brandishing a fake Super Aja.
Behind him, Caesar stared at the three Pillar Men, fists clenched, Ripple shining. He was ready to fight.
"Kars, you want the Super Aja, right? Think the one in my hand is real or fake?"
Lisa Lisa and Shiratori Riku showed themselves to the southwest, Lisa Lisa deliberately flashing the gem's full face.
"We have one too. Do you want it?"
Messina and Loggins appeared as well, each holding an identical Super Aja.
After showing their stones, the three teams turned and ran. As they fled, hearts hammered, THUMP THUMP THUMP. Prepared as they were, nerves still spiked. That was human instinct.
...
"Lord Esidisi, shall we split up to chase?"
Wamuu watched the fleeing directions. He was itching for another bout with that kid.
"Heh heh heh."
"Wamuu, long ago I visited the lands of Yan and Huang. A clever man there was named Sunzi."
"He said:
'When ten to one, surround. Five to one, attack. Two to one, divide. Equal, be able to fight. Less, be able to flee. Outmatched, be able to avoid.'"
"They are using division to separate us and crush us one by one."
"If I am right, the routes ahead already bristle with traps and secret ways. This is not six on three, nor two on one, but one against six."
"Heh ha ha ha. I can even guess whose scheme. That JoJo brat."
Esidisi laughed until he doubled over, clutching his stomach. Kars and Wamuu waited it out, used to him.
When he finally straightened, his eyes were cold and dangerous again.
"Then we move together?" Wamuu asked.
"No. We still split. These ants are not worth moving as one."
"Our target is the Super Aja. At all costs, ensure we get it."
"If not for certainty, I would go alone. Ants are ants. Their defiance is delusion."
Just as Riku and the others predicted, he saw through the plan and still dismissed it. They had once exterminated the Ripple tribe. In their minds, nothing opposed them but the sun. Pride and contempt overruled caution.
As the three prepared to part, a figure stepped from the dark, a Super Aja dancing between his fingers.
"You three. Fight me."
Riku smiled at the trio of Pillar Men.
"Hm."
Kars, Wamuu, and Esidisi frowned. Their deductions should have been right. Why did this man appear alone, stone in hand? What trick was this?
"Did you come to die?"
Esidisi felt irritable. His read had been wrong, and the unexpected man pricked his instincts with danger. The very next beat, anger surged. To feel fear because of an ant was shameful. Pride smothered reason. He lunged to attack.
"Esidisi."
"Lord Esidisi."
Kars and Wamuu sensed trouble and moved to stop him, but too late.
"You called Sunzi clever. I agree. Yet you remember one line."
"Warfare is deception, yes, but the whole book says never fight a battle you cannot win."
Riku stepped once. Shrinking the Earth to Inches, he seemed to blink behind Esidisi.
Before the Pillar Man could react, Riku gathered force with a Baji Fist frame, wove body and spirit, laced it with Ripple, and compressed it into vibration. Then he struck.
The ground shattered in plates under his feet. Esidisi's soul blasted free of his body at the impact.
In the next instant, the roaring force, carrying damage to spirit as well as flesh, erased both body and soul.
This was the technique Riku had used to teach Huang Ming a lesson, but that was a spar. This was war. Only now did its full power show.
Quanzhen inner-elixir practice looks simple, a cultivation of life. Many paths in the Under One Person world temper life. Yet Quanzhen's inner elixir became famous because the life it forges is dense and unyielding.
Bind flesh and soul into one, thread them through Conqueror-like infusion and vibration, and one punch can annihilate a foe in body and spirit.
It is far fiercer than a wandering-soul strike, though far more dangerous. A slip, and you shatter your own soul.