Beyond Notions

(Chapter 61)

....

A very loud noise interrupted William's thoughts, and as he tried to trace where the sound emanated from, he saw a very large fog ahead of them. In the blink of an eye, the enemy was now closer than they had expected, but that wasn't the main problem.

"Tsk! Those two, I never knew they also had people who are this strong." Nazumoto thought, as he came to a halt.

"The general has stopped moving!" William noted as he also came to a halt.

Still staring at the fog that was still dissipating, William was quite confused as the battle had already started.

"The battle has started, why isn't the general moving? And it seems like the enemy's simply ignoring I and the general." William mused, as battle cries began to echo from behind.

Half of the enemy had passed them already, and instead of charging like normal soldiers would do, they were splitting their forces to the left and right flank as soon as they got to were the general stood. Leaving the middle desolate.

Still in the middle, with half of the enemy behind them already, the fog ahead began to clear.

Two individuals could be seen walking down the middle, with a huge grin on their faces respectively.

"He he he he! It's showtime." Du Chang said while he cracked his knuckles and neck excitedly, as he and his brother walked towards the general's direction.

"Will, just make sure you beat every single one of them charging through the middle, I will take this two nuisance on." Nazumoto said.

"Yes sir!" William replied as he charged further away from General Nazumoto, and the two brothers. "Even though half of the soldiers are past us, I'll still play my part till the end. If I end up dying, I did as a warrior. Time to evolve!" He muttered, as he dashed towards the enemy.

"Kah! Where do you think you are going to?" Du chang asked, before viciously charging towards William. In the blink of an eye, he appeared at William's front.

"That's very quick!" William exclaimed inwardly. "Would I still be able to block this if I activated my energy?" William pondered, as he stared at Du Chang's jungle green eyes, everything happened in a split second. Everything seemed to move at a slow pace for William, but he definitely knew nothing had.

"An attack from a point blank range, it's useless even if I use it now." William thought as he readied his arms to parry Du Chang's attack while closing his eyes halfway.

**Boom!**

"Eh?!" William said with a baffled look, as he opened his eyes. Another hand had held Du Chang by the wrist. The force of the impact blew unto William's face gently.

"G--General?!" William yelled with a voice that filtered out gradually.

"Just keep going, I thought I had told you not to wait even if your life's at stake? Scram!" General Nazumoto ordered as he held unto Du Chang's wrist tightly, before using a portion of his strength to toss Du Chang a few meters away.

"Roger that!" William said inwardly, as he dashed further. "I might have to use that technique." His eyes began to glow yellow as soon as he finished his statement.

"That's one hell of a yank!" Du Chang thought, as he readied his feet to attack.

**Bang!!!**

"Krrk!" Du Sung groaned as he fell on one of his knees.

"You had better stay put!" Nazumoto advised, as smoke started to emit out of the muzzle of his gun.

The loud sound was from the general's pistol-like gun, and Du Sung was the victim of the gunshot, as a massive amount of blood began to trickle down the left side of his face. Nazumoto had caught Sung trying to make a big move against him.

"Brother!" Du Chang cried out.

"I had made sure to attract his attention. How the hell did he spot Du Sung? And where did that gun appear from?" Du Chang wondered.

"A measly and cheap attack like that, would never work on me. I General Nazumoto, is way beyond your notion." Nazumoto boasted, as an enormous amount of steam began to emanate from his body.

"You guys are chi users from my hypothesis, I wouldn't waste my time and energy on opponents with infinite energy. I'll end this as soon as possible."

"Impossible! He guessed correctly at first sight." Du Sung acknowledged inwardly.

"H--How did you know?" Sung asked subconsciously.

"How I knew you two were Chi users?" Nazumoto taunted. "Get a clue!" A wide grin surfaced on Nazumoto's face.

"He! Ha! He! Ha! He!" Du Chang laughed hysterically as he held unto his stomach, while bending slightly. "Who cares about information? No matter how strong you are, you can't beat two high classed fighters. Can you?" Du Chang asked, as he stretched both palms towards Nazumoto's direction.

"You think so?" Nazumoto asked with a sneer. "Ah! You guys might be strong, but comparing me to both of you: is like comparing a truck to an ant." He added as his gun began to disappear into the thin air.

"Where's Linton? He's supposed to have arrived already." Du Chang noted inwardly. "Not like it matters anyway, getting rid of him has been one of my plans since a long time. Perhaps after this battle, I would put an end to him."

*^^*

In a hidden lair, preparations for the summoning of the fifth person in Joe's group, and last member of the Nefarious team was finally complete.

"This puppet carries forty to sixty percent of his (the fifth person's) power." Genk said, as he stared at the puppet with a smile.

"Summon complete." Bexol muttered.

"This person's like the dust in the wind." Genk added and almost immediately, a numerous amount of mist began to surge in from a particular direction.

"He's here." Joe mumbled.

As the mist began to reside, the silhouette of a person could be seen. Since his back was turned against the others, they could only see his purple hair as he was a little out of sight, due to the mist that engulfed his whole body.

"Welcome back Asumoto Kenji!" Joe said humbly, as he got on one knee to show his respect.

The last and strongest member had finally arrived.

"Thanks for your hospitality but, who the hell summoned me?" Kenji asked as he used his hand to brush through his hair gently.

"What?!" Neveda muttered, as he fell to his knees.

"Oi! What happened?" Kabuchi asked, while he reached for his enormous blade that was hung at his back. His instinct was telling him danger was lurking, but since he had no clue or suspicions; he had decided to stay put for now. Although his hand was still on the hilt of his sword.

"I'm okay, it's just that I got too tired of standing." Neveda lied.

"This....This.....This person's power is insane!" Neveda said to himself as beads of sweat began to form on his face, eventually dropping on the floor one after the other.

"Is he okay?" Arianne asked.

"I'm not sure, maybe the room is too stuffy and stale due to our numbers, I'll open all the windows now." Joe uttered as he stood up, before pressing a button on a remote that had appeared from nowhere.

........

"Now that's better!" Laina said, as she inhaled the fresh air that swept in through her nares (nostrils).

"This girl surely has ADHD!" Kabuchi concluded in his mind, as he stared at Laina irritably.

"Ahem!" Kenji cleared his throat in a loud manner, to attract everyone's attention.

"I'm sorry. You see, we seem to have reached the climax of our plans, and are ready to set out. We need your strength, and opinion on this matter before we make the next move. I'm quite sure you have extracted a few reasonable amount of information from the army." Joe said with respect, as he bowed slightly.

"Yes, a lot of information." Kenji answered, as he sat on the floor with his legs crossed.

"But first, who are these guys? They look really new, are they new members?" Kenji inquired. "And if they are, what are they doing here? Because if they are here with you, that means they are one of the strongest of the group. Could you shed light on this matter Joe?"

"Yeah I will!" Joe replied, with a nervous smile on his face. He was quite worried that Kenji might be against everything they had planned.

"You see......."

Joe had explained what happened at first, right from the incident with Nazumoto and his squad in the endless pathway, Nate Schäfer's death, which was his brother, how he had exposed sangatoro's impending ambush to the W-5 in exchange for a few military men. And how the headless rebel formed an alliance with the Limo clan. Thus creating a new group called the nefarious.

The only thing which Joe has skipped was the mission given to them by the unknown master, to find a legendary curse user who went into hiding. To be appropriate; who confined himself from the eyes of the whole world. And that the lead they had to the man was probably William.

Joe had decided to tell Kenji about that later, not in front of Neveda and his men, because he didn't want unnecessary questions and doubts from their new members who didn't know of that mission.

As soon as they had completed the 'takeover' mission, Joe would tell them about it. But for now, he wanted them to be solely focused on achieving their goal.

"I see..." Kenji muttered, as he digested the information that was passed to him gradually for a few seconds.

"I just want to get out of here." Kenji thought.

"I'm sorry but could you excuse me for some days, I've got some important things to do." Kenji said as he racked the back of his head with his index finger.

"No problem then, we would continue with our plans. You have all the rights to be excused." Joe stated as Kenji began to disappear progressively, his body was now coated in mist.

"You all should take care of yourselves, Joe I leave the Nefarious team in your hands for now. Till we meet...." Kenji's voice filtered out, as he finally vanished out of sight.