It had been six months. The Eye had been following the rogue bounty hunter known as the White Bolt, but every attempt to capture and stop him had been futile. He was a shadow they could not trace, a miscreant they could not stop, and a conundrum disrupting the arcane harmony of the modern world.
Rumours and unverifiable intel suggested that his name was Vincent. Yet, no one knew for sure. Reports said that he wore different masks to hide the bottom half of his face. His eyes were described as grey and lifeless. And his weapon of choice – a silver-coloured katana which radiated electric charge, appeared unlike any known weapon. Most astonishingly, however, when his antics were compared to all historic records of the Eye, he was adjudged one of, if not the fastest man the arcane secret society had ever come across.
However, the enigmatic bounty hunter avoided confrontations. Just once, two men were able to force him into a battle and come out alive. Both of them were high-ranked arcane Martial Artists of the secret society of defenders. Their given rank was Zaatsu – the highest achievable designation and rank within the spiritual order of the Eye.
The duo met the White Bolt in battle together. The showdown lasted nearly half an hour but the bout remained evenly contested. The bounty hunter only retreated when a backup squad arrived to assist the Zaatsus.
That battle proved to be the single greatest source of information the Eye could gather on the White Bolt. The Zaatsus were able to study him thoroughly. His battle awareness and prowess rivalled theirs. Yet they felt his Ki Manipulation abilities superior to even theirs. It was astounding. They informed of his ability to charge and discharge Ki in a matter of milliseconds. They even saw him forming Ki attacks and casting spells quicker than even they could manage. He fought focused, poised, and without any hesitation.
By all means, the White Bolt seemed to be someone who was well trained in the arts of Ki Manipulation and Magicism. But his expertise extended far beyond that. He utilised wizardry and even black magic to upset and unsettle his opponents, much more effectively than even the strongest Cultists.
He was well versed in many different styles of combat and countered everything thrown at him with ease. All the while his speed remained his greatest asset. But he was not just fast on his feet – the bounty hunter showed heightened sensory abilities. His senses were so well attuned that he could read and judge his opponents' tactics almost instantly. He was casting counter spells almost concurrently with the Zaatsus' attacks making them feel as if he had developed some sort of precognition.
But who could have trained him? The Eye had no record of ever training a man like that. In fact, they were unsure of how someone could have learned what the White Bolt knew. Moreover, even the Order, sister organization of the silent defenders, denied any involvement with the mysterious man. People around the world had completely denied any involvement with him.
In the six months, many Spotters, Eye's specially trained spies, had also been deployed to gather information but the reports that were turned in were few and far in between and were conflicting at best. Some suggested that he was nothing more than a smart wizard or a Cultist gone rogue. These were easily rejected. But then what was anyone to believe? There was nothing else to go on.
One common thing in every report about the White Bolt was that his Ki was nigh impossible to track. Spotters would almost always use other methods to find traces, mostly through the bounty hunter's employers. But the bounties he took were just as random as his methods of completing them, which made matters tougher still.
What placed the White Bolt on top of the Eye's priority lists, however, was the fact that he had begun collecting remnants of the Xoitique Diamond, one of three Celestial stones of immeasurable mystical powers. These stones were once broken down by Mysticsof the Eye and secured in secret safehouses around the world to keep from falling into the wrong hands.
Furthermore, he was seen utilizing the Dark Ki on multiple occasions. The only way to learn Dark Ki Manipulation was through the infamous Scriptures of Dark Arts written by Rasalhague himself. These banned works of unholy research had been hidden away in the deepest corners of the world. No one knew where they were. It was believed that the only ones who could know the locations of the Scriptures of Dark Arts were the Keepers – spiritually heightened beings tasked with keeping the natural balance of both the physical and the metaphysical planes of existence.
So, then how did the White Bolt learn to use Dark Ki? Did he somehow steal the Scriptures? There was no known way of finding a Keeper let alone the Scriptures.
Stolen remnants of a Xoitique Stone and effective utilization of the Dark Ki – the White Bolt's antics had left the Eye's leadership scratching their heads.
It was still uncertain who the enigmatic bounty hunter was completing these tasks for. Maybe, it was not a bounty at all. But nevertheless, the Eye was not about to let him have his way. Therefore, they had now deployed their best – a special hunting party called the Zeta Squad, led by the famous Zaatsu, Master Hugo Baylis.
The 32-year-old master tactician was ranked as the third most valuable asset of the Eye. He had been trained by and served under some of the very best. And the time he spent on Outposts bringing down miscreants and dealing with skirmishes within Cults around the world allowed him to acquire a wide array of skills and knowledge. This very varied skillset made Hugo deceptively strong in battle situations. So much so that even his seniors at the Eye shied away from sparring with him to save themselves from the embarrassment of losing to a skinny junior arcanist.
The squad he led was comprised of hand-picked experts, many of whom had remained under his own tutelage, making the Zeta Squad a perfectly coordinated attack squad.
Predicting the bounty hunter's next target, Hugo and his team acquired three remnants of the Xoitique Diamond from a hidden safehouse in Tallebudgera, a suburb in the city of Gold Coast, Australia. It did not take long for the bounty hunter to arrive looking for them. This resulted in a prolonged cat-and-mouse struggle that began to wear even him down.
After several attempts, the bounty hunter realized that his opponents were more than a handful, even for him, and were not about to back down easily. With depleted strength and the fear of an impending defeat, he decided to retreat, hide, and rest till he could fight again. He hid himself underneath a thick line of trees on the bank of the Tallebudgera creek. Realizing his intentions, Hugo divided his squad into multiple smaller groups and the hunt began.
But somewhere in the darkness, the White Bolt was waiting too…