Down the stream, Neil, Gina, and Ben were being pushed back. They were outnumbered. The wizards were landing many clean hits and hurting the Martial Artists.
Eventually, Neil provided an opening. He gathered a needle-fine surge of Ki into his fingertips and drove it into their chest cluster – one of the three central Ki Clusters that governed the soul's energy like a heart pumping blood, alongside those at the temple and the core. The strikes disrupted the flow instantly. The wizards staggered as if their bodies had betrayed them, their Ki scattering, their limbs refusing to obey. A technique this sharp could cripple nerves, rob senses, even strip a person of movement altogether. Reckless though he was, the precision of the strike was proof enough: Neil Baylis was still a Zaatsu, and his mastery of Ki Manipulation was undeniable.
The strike had distracted the wizards, and their otherwise compact formation was broken. Neil smiled and clapped his Ki-filled hands together producing a strong Ki wave that pushed all the wizards away.
Gina saw the opportunity, leaped ahead, and kicked two of them away. Ben whipped out two daggers from his umro bag and rushed at the immobilised ones.
He struck.
The blades pierced through the eyes of one of the wizards and dug into his brain.
The young Sokidu retracted the daggers and watched as the Cultist crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
An apt manipulator of both the earth and water elements, forging mud and manipulating it were a part of Gina's arsenal. Before the Devil's Hearth could respond to the sudden attack, she smashed her foot into the damp ground at the edge of the stream and kicked a large amount of mud at them.
The wizards leapt out of the way bringing one of their immobilised comrades along. But the other one was brought down to the ground by the force of the mud strike.
Neil came somersaulting with dual blades in his hands and landed on his legs. The weakened wizard grunted in pain. The Zaatsu's sharp blades pierced through his heart.
Leaping further away, one of the wizards chanted, "TOROSIS-MAFAR!"
Two large sticky webs came at the trio from both sides. But they were ready. Pulling out daggers from her umro bag, Gina joined her partners in attacking the webs. Their sharp blades should have cut right through. However, instead of going through, their weapons simply got stuck. They tried hard but could not get them loose. Quickly then, the trio rushed away. Otherwise, the web would have caught them as well.
The wizard laughed and jerked his arm. The web came rushing towards him.
"Not like that, you Eye filth!" he said with a grin. All the weapons came and dropped at his feet and the web disappeared.
At the centre of the commotion, the Alchemist picked up a broken tree branch. It slowly morphed into a sabre. He then picked up two more and threw them to Jiro. These turned into sabres as well.
Hugo smiled and stood tall. "Alchemical morphing," he said. "I must say, I'm impressed. You truly are an amazing Alchemist."
The Zaatsu extended an arm out in front whispering, "KINOSHAN-WALA-POL…"
A sword appeared in his open palm. He swung once and got ready.
"Yataghan?" Derek said, looking at the sword. "I thought Zaatsus only used katanas or those twin blades."
"I'm not just any Zaatsu…"
The Alchemist and his general attacked. Their weapons had the better reach. They attacked from either side. Jiro led the offensive with his dual sabres keeping the Zaatsu under relentless pressure while Derek remained at a distance, probing with precise thrusts and slashes.
Hugo's strength was in his superior speed and sharper reflexes. He was dancing between the triple blade threat of the leaders of the Devil's Hearth. However, because of the distance and his shorter blade, he was unable to get close enough for a meaningful hit.
It was Jiro who landed the first strike. A thrust of his blade put a gaping cut in Hugo's thigh. He grunted in pain and spun around to avoid his other sword.
"Round 2," he said. A subtle Ki charge surged through his arms and vanished. The wizards sensed it but could not understand what the Zaatsu was about to do. Ki Manipulation was not their forte.
With each parry, each sidestep, he bled tiny amounts of Ki into the air forming connections with the natural elements – fire to stir heat, air to carry it, water to bind, and earth to ground. Ion by ion, he built the foundations of a storm. And it was so subtle that his opponents could not notice it.
When the surge came, it was not just speed that drove him past their sabres. A crackle leapt through the air, snapping against Derek's arm and jolting Jiro's grip for half a heartbeat. The shock was not enough to wound, but enough to rattle their composure – and to remind them Hugo Baylis was fighting on more fronts than they realized.
And the second surge pushed Hugo past their defences and left the Cultists stunned.
An elbow dug deep into Jiro's midriff. He doubled over, eyes and mouth frozen wide, the breath knocked from him. Hugo took a swing of his Ki-strengthened yataghan at one of his sabres shattering it from near the guard.
Derek moved closer to strike. But the Zaatsu dropped low, braced with one hand, and swept Derek's legs out from under him.
Jiro leaped back. Hugo swung at Derek, but the trickster melted into the ground and resurfaced next to his general.
In an instant, Hugo was back on his feet. "No sleeping on the job," he said running at the duo.
"Come on!" the Alchemist yelled.
But Derek and Jiro's formation had a hole in it now. The general only had one sword left. Using his signature Instantaneous Charge technique, Hugo kept slipping bursts of Ki into his sword. Every swing felt like a hammer striking at the sabres of the Cultists.
Derek and Hugo's blades met. "You wanted a close fight?" the Zaatsu said, pushing in. His voice was steady, almost amused. "You've got it."
The Devil's Hearth had miscalculated like many before them. Information from the Eye's offices was leaking. Stalkers of the underground had an eye on it. But what no one anticipated was how even the Eye's own systems of rating failed to provide an accurate assessment of this highly versatile Zaatsu. The battle rating assigned to Hugo after every test was a mere 2200 – even Neil had a rating of 2300.
As the sabre and yataghan pressed against each other, Derek's eyes narrowed. "You mask weakness with theatre, Baylis. I can read men better than numbers."
But, just as Derek and Jiro were realizing, a confrontation with Hugo Baylis was never about strength. He was in the habit of taking down opponents far stronger than him. So much so that even someone like Obadiah, who had a rating of 3000, always seemed reluctant to spar with this man.
Because it was not about his strength.
It was about the vast array of skills he possessed, the way he manoeuvred the battlefield, and the way he used his opponents' strengths against them.
"You dragged me into your game, Derek," the Zaatsu said with his next strike. "But I'll beat you at it with my own steel."
Hugo was now getting in close, adapting to the situation. The Cultists were finding it hard to strike at him. Short, snapping chops of the yataghan were now getting through. They were getting cuts on their bodies everywhere.
Plus, Hugo had snuck in the middle. The duo had to be careful with their thrusts and avoid hitting each other.
Eventually, realising they needed a new strategy, they tried to break formation and move away. But that was exactly what Hugo was looking for. He followed Jiro, rushing at him with brutal speed. Slipping past the thrust of his sabre, all it took was one clean strike to sever the wizard's sword wielding arm right off.
"Jiro!" Derek shouted.
But it was too late. The next chop cut through the retreating wizards guts. Blood gushing out, he fumbled back and fell. Hugo raised an arm up in the sky and brought it down like a judge's gavel.
"No!" The Alchemist's screams were as useless as his attempts to intervene. His alchemical control of the elements was unable to undo Hugo's Ki connection.
A lightning bolt dropped down on the hapless wizard.
Hugo was not holding back.
This lightning bolt was not meant to subdue – it was meant to erase.
The wizard was blown into bits instantly.
The Zaatsu turned around and pointed his yataghan at the Alchemist. "Just you and me now, Derek."