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. Use that seven-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. Electric currents tore through water and steam, swallowing the wizards whole. Their screams were cut short as tiny explosions burst across their cloaks one after another.
"Bingo," the White Bolt said and relaxed his Ki flow.
The wizards collapsed into the shallows, smoking, stunned, and stripped of their defensive charms.
Camille observed wide-eyed and silent, staring at the smoking bodies scattered across the water. 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 conjured demonic energies chanting, "ZIFTUM-SANSKI…"
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, "Did you really think you could 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 matched the flames that had injured him. Then, he stood up. The wizards stopped.
"What was that?" she asked telepathically, 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 forehead 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 and completely immobilised.
"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 widened as they gazed at the ice ball. Hugo was no longer visible inside. Then, 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 landed beside 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 enchantments,' he thought. 'But he couldn't speak. It was a thought-spell. He must know high-level magic. This guy's 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 and smiled. "Oh, I'm just getting warmed up…"