Chapter 6: Making him Bleed
"Dammit, dammit, dammit!!!" Ume cursed as she banged her fist against the wall.
"I'm sorry, Ume, I couldn't do it." Kenji said through gritted teeth. There was a red mark on his face, courtesy of Zac's belt. They had been soundly beaten. Despite everything Ume had tried and Kenji's abilities, they were still toyed with. Ume looked at Kenji and then looked over at Zac as he stood in the middle of the room. It had been 10 minutes since their defeat, and no one else had the nerve to take a turn.
"It's not your fault. It's mine. I purposely overestimated him as much as I could when planning, but I still underestimated him. He can't be human." Ume said as she sat down.
"No kidding, he's not even tired." Genkei spoke, while rubbing his left arm.
"It's impossible with just 4 of us. We'll need at least 5 or 6." Ume said with a scoff.
"You think he thought that far ahead and put us in an impossible position to win?" Akiko asked as she sat down and slumped over. Kenji had displayed swordsmanship on par with her and, in some cases, surpassing her; he even seemed to duplicate Zac's swordsmanship. Even then, the 4 of them were toyed with.
"No, they wouldn't give us an impossible assignment; they want to evaluate us, not break us. I'm sure he just increased the difficulty because of me." Watabe said with an annoyed expression on his face.
"What are you talking about?" Kenji asked.
"Remember when he said he'd have to find his fun 'elsewhere'?" Watabe asked as he looked at the group.
"Dammit. You gave away the answer to this lesson. So he changed the lesson." Kenji grumbled.
Watabe nodded his head in confirmation.
"You mean he would let us win if we decided to work together, on our own?" Akiko asked.
"I doubt he'd let us do anything, but he'd probably just be going through the motions rather than… that." Ume sighed as she pointed at the next group that finally decided to try their hand. They were beaten back in a matter of moments with disheartened looks on their faces. Zac rested that damned belt around his shoulders as he called for the next group.
"Yeah, this is all just a game to him." Kenji clenched his fist as he stared at Zac. He wanted to punch him in the face at least once.
"So, you're saying since you ruined the game he had in mind, he switched games, and now we don't even know the rules?" A recruit who had been eavesdropping said with a frown on his face.
"More or less." Watabe nodded.
"Dammit! What do we do now?" The recruit asked.
"You do nothing. The 5 of us will figure something out." Watabe said sternly.
"The five of us? Are you willing to work with us?" Genkei said curiously.
"Unlike my cousin, I will only believe what I can see. From your display, I have determined that you 3 are competent enough to trust my back." Watabe answered.
"Oh, I'm so honored." Kenji responded sarcastically.
Regardless of how annoyed Kenji was about Watabe's insertion, he wasn't going to deny his help.
The others looked over at Ume, silently staring at the next group of 4 that had gone up to attack Zac. She hadn't said anything since Watabe began to give his take on what was going on. It seemed that she agreed with his assessment of the situation.
"There are 30 recruits, correct?" Ume asked.
"From my account, that is correct," said Watabe.
"And he asked for groups of no larger than 4?" Ume's question was rhetorical, so no one answered. Instead, Kenji asked,
"What are you thinking?"
"Are any of you aware of the number of people needed for a team to perform optimally?" Ume asked.
"There are studies that state teams of 4-6 are optimal for most issues." A random recruit who was listening answered.
"Exactly, so why ask us to form a group no larger than 4 when there are 30 of us?" Those numbers wouldn't add up, and as things stood, there were a lot of mismatched groups. And none of them outside of Kenji's group had any synergy.
"Because he never asked us to form groups of 4 in the first place. Dammit!" Kenji said with an annoyed look on his face, and then everyone else's expression lit up with realization.
Zac told them they could "attack" him in groups no larger than 4. He never said anything about forming teams that consisted of more people. There were 30, the perfect number for 6 teams of 5. Adding to the fact Ume felt they were just one person shy of success, the full picture came to mind.
"He's teaching us how their Chasers work. They work in teams of 5, 4 as the main attacking force, while one coordinates the group's action." Ume said as she folded her arms.
"He played us from the start, then. Watabe never fully figured out his game." Kenji said as he looked over at Zac, standing in the center of the room, looking at his phone. No team had stepped forward, and most of the room was huddled over where Kenji and the others were.
"Deception on top of lies, wrapped in illusion." Watabe started to chuckle darkly as he stared at Zac.
"Everyone should reform your teams. You've all seen each other fight by now, so finding those you synergize with shouldn't be too hard." Watabe said.
He didn't have to explain things in detail. Everyone here was recruited because someone within Renegade Technologies thought they were exceptional. He felt he wouldn't need to hold their hands.
"Let's make this bastard bleed," Genkei said as he smashed his fist into his palm.
"So, who should act as our team leader?" Ume asked.
It was a question every group would need to decide, and they were no different. Watabe had already inserted himself into their group; they needed a leader. However, everyone just looked at Ume as if the question was unnecessary.
"Weren't you already our leader?" Kenji said with a chuckle.
"I didn't want to assume," Ume responded.
"What? Do you think the meathead or the hothead could be a good leader? Or maybe the naive freak instead? And we all know none of you will be willing to follow my lead." Watabe said, not willing to spare anyone's feelings. Much to everyone's annoyance.
"Very well, I will give commands; you 4 will do the fighting." Ume looked over at Zac and motioned for the others to come closer as she ran through their battle plan again. Zac saw the change in the recruits and smirked. He didn't immediately call for the next group to come; he knew well what they were doing.
"About time." Zac chuckled as he sat on the floor, waiting for the "Tiny Tots" to finish their preparations.
Half an hour passed. Team Kenji had been waiting for Zac to call up the next group, but he had just been sitting there without saying a word. He'd just glance at the recruits before turning his attention back toward his phone. Finally, he tucked his phone into his pocket and looked at the recruits.
"It looks like you guys finally figured it out? Good! Then this will be your last chance. Pick a team to try and make me bleed." Zac said with a smile.
"What happens if we can't?" A nervous recruit asked.
"You don't get the reward for completing the Day 2 mission. Resulting in Day 3 becoming significantly more difficult. This means you may not be rewarded for successfully completing tomorrow's task, resulting in a snowball effect. That will ultimately affect your overall evaluation." Zac answered with a glib smirk.
He made it sound like nothing. But these words meant that if they failed today, the possibility of failing the evaluation was extremely high. Meaning death .All of the recruits instinctively looked over at Kenji's group. They all understood that individually, the 5 were somewhere at the top of this recruiting class. Now they have formed a team. Everyone else was fighting for 2nd. If they were going to succeed, it would hinge on these 5.
"This changes nothing. Let's do it." Kenji said with determination.
The others nodded their heads in agreement. As Kenji, Watabe, Genkei, and Akiko moved forward, Ume hung back and smiled at Zac. She knew that Zac was a brilliant and crafty man. Trying to outthink him while fighting him was outside the scope of what she was capable of. But if she could just sit back and observe, she was sure to keep pace. Kenji held the katana in his hand; Akiko gave it to him to use as she would use the Wakizashi and Tanto combo. Genkei instantly began to charge towards Zac as Watabe threw his daggers out on the sides of Genkei.
This cut off Zac's number of escape routes; he could only back away or take Genkei head-on. Ume noticed that Zac likes to stay on the move. It made sense; he constantly fought people with superhuman strength; one blow could mean his death. He had developed a habit of evasion over the straight-on defense and had perfected this craft. There was no way to ultimately hold him down; the best they could do was limit his options.
"Not bad!" Zac shouted with excitement.
The belt on his shoulder whipped out and smacked the dagger that threatened to cut off his right escape route, out of the air. He then moved towards the right, avoiding Genkei's charge, but not before wrapping the belt around Genkei's front leg. He pulled Genkei off his feet. Zac saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked to see Kenji there in a drawing posture.
"Shit!" Zac cursed.
His belt was in his left hand, leaving his right exposed. He'd have to dodge. The drawing of Kenji's blade was fast, faster than a typical human's. Still, Zac dodged, leaning backward into a crab walk position using his left hand for support. A shadow hovered over him as Akiko came crashing down from above with her two blades. Zac quickly dropped on to his butt and pushed off the ground, sliding backward. Akiko landed after hitting nothing and looked up to see Zac flipped off the ground.
They gave him no time to breathe as Watabe made a pulling motion. The blade flew towards Zac on his left. Zac used his belt to slap that dagger out of the air. Ume smiled, Zac was right-handed, and she noticed his effectiveness when using that belt in his left hand was reduced. It was hardly noticeable, but any advantage they could take was valuable. She wanted to ensure that belt stayed in his left hand as much as possible. The key to this strategy was Watabe and Kenji.
"I'm here!" Kenji shouted. Zac was still in motion of deflecting the dagger as Kenji's inhuman speed closed the gap in a flash. He was once again in a drawing posture. But before he could draw the blade from its sheath, Zac's right palm thrust onto the top of the blade's sheath, keeping it stuck in its sheath, much to Kenji's surprise.
"You're so annoying," Zac mumbled as that same hand punched Kenji across the face, sending him stumbling onto the ground.
Genkei and Akiko caught up to the action and began their assault. Akiko attacked from Zac's left, while Genkei from his right. The belt wrapped around Zac's left arm with the buckle at his knuckle, acting as a brass knuckle, making a makeshift gauntlet on Zac's arm. With it, he parried and blocked Akiko's attacks without suffering damage. The two attacked in a semi-stagger pattern. They didn't want to get in the way of the other.
"A bit clumsy, but there's potential." Zac thought to himself.
It was only their second time fighting together, so he didn't expect a perfect sync. But their chemistry was evident. He subconsciously looked over at Ume for a moment. She was even more impressive than Kenji, at least in his eyes. This was her doing.
"Don't disappoint me." Zac mused to himself.
Zac's eyes widened as he looked down and saw a dagger lying between his feet.
"When did that happen?" Before he could finish his train of thought, the dagger leaped off the ground, and both Genkei and Akiko disengaged and jumped backward. Zac retreated backward as the dagger shot into the air before him. He looked to see an airborne Kenji catching the dagger and throwing it at Zac, who was still off his feet. Zac backhanded the dagger with the buckle of his belt. He twisted his body horizontally to avoid the second dagger coming from his left.
He gracefully came out of his spin, landing on his left leg; his right foot swung down, knocking away the blade Kenji held, who tried to use this opportunity to attack. That was followed by a sidekick to Kenji's forehead.
"Why only me?!" Kenji shouted as he stumbled back again.
It was apparent that the only one in the team Zac seemed to want to actively deal damage to was Kenji. Zac chuckled as he punched out with his left-buckled fist. It collided with Genkei's fist, and Genkei reeled back in shock. Genkei was always proud of his physical strength, but Zac seemed several times stronger than him. Up to this point, he never clashed directly with him. He rubbed his numb hand as he looked over at Kenji, rubbing his forehead.
"How the hell is he still conscious?" Genkei thought.
If Zac's casually thrown punch was that strong, that kick should have nearly killed Kenji, but it looked like it just left a bruise. Genkei refocused when he saw Akiko attacking Zac.
"It's about what I expected. Start Papa Protocol!" Ume called out from the crowd of recruits as she started to walk toward the other side of the room where the fight was taking place.
"Papa Protocol? What the hell?" Zac said with a chuckle.
The fighting continued for several more minutes, with similar scenarios taking place. The coordination of the 4 of them was becoming tight, and Zac was pressed more and more. Surprisingly they shifted their patterns constantly. Watabe and Kenji became the more aggressive pairing, while Akiko and Genkei attacked whenever there appeared to be an opening. Then they switched to Akiko and Kenji, then Watabe and Genkei. Each combination had a different flow and synergy that Zac had to evaluate.
"Very impressive, my Tiny Tots." Zac thought to himself.
Zac then looked over his shoulder and frowned a bit. He noticed that he was getting uncomfortably close to the watching recruits. A thought then flashed into his mind,
"Papa Protocol! You little shits!" Zac said with a laugh.
They had noticed that he'd take extra care to avoid the fight spilling over onto the watching recruits. They wanted to further hinder his movement by drawing him closer to the edge.
"Move out of the way! That's an order!" Zac shouted.
The recruits all scurried out of the way except for one. Ume stood there with a smile on her face. Zac began to chuckle. Kenji, Watabe, Akiko, and Genkei stood before him, cutting off his escape routes. Fighting through them wouldn't be a problem. However, with Ume behind him, the various attacks sent his way would no doubt risk hitting her. While she was part of their team, she was not a part of the attacking group. Zac had an obligation to protect her as an observing recruit.
"Not bad Ms.Chiba. Not bad at all." Zac nodded his head in approval.
"What are you guys waiting for? Attack!" Ume shouted with confidence.
Zac closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Protecting someone wasn't hard. Protecting someone who wanted to get hit was a completely different story. If Zac moved from this spot, Ume would get hit; even if she didn't, and he changed location, she would just try and shadow him.
"You changed the game, how fun. Let's play!" Zac said eerily, opening his eyes. The 4 of them attacked together. Kenji was the first there as he sent a drawing slash with everything he had. Zac sent out a belt-wrapped punch to meet the slash. Kenji was shocked to see the blade shatter with the power of Zac's punch. That punch continued until Kenji was struck across the face. He barreled onto the ground, knocked out.
Genkei wasn't far behind Kenji as he went to attack. Before he could do anything, the belt wrapped around his neck and pulled him down. His face was met by Zac's knee as Genkei was taken out. In a flash, that belt whipped out like lightning and struck all four limbs of Akiko as she tried to make her approach.
"Argh!" She crumbled to her knees as she dropped her weapons.
The belt then wrapped around Zac's left arm again as he slapped away a dagger flying towards him from the left. Zac's eyes widened as he saw the second dagger was not aimed at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Ume had walked out from behind him, and that dagger was headed straight for her. Zac started to laugh.
"Alright, you Tiny Tots did well. I'll give you this one." Zac thought to himself.
He reached his bare right hand and grabbed the dagger by the blade. The blade was inches away from Ume's forehead. Finally, a red drop of blood leaked from Zac's hand and fell onto the floor. The recruits began to cheer as Watabe and Ume both let out a sigh of relief and crumbled to the floor themselves. Kenji and Genkei slowly started to recover as they were roused by the cheers of the recruits.
"Yeah, yeah… congratulations, Tiny Tots. You have completed the Day 2 Mission. You guys have about 7 hours until Day 3 starts. So you can either check in with whoever you need to and use the barracks here to get some rest. Or head home, and make your way back here." Zac poured cold water on everyone's celebrations as he walked out of the training room.
It was 9:00 am Sunday morning. They had been here since 7:00 pm the previous day. They had been at this for 14 hours, and Zac didn't even appear tired. It finally sunk in what a monster that man was. He had perfectly calculated everything, even up to the end of the evaluation, to give them enough time for a decent sleep. Did Kenji's team actually win? Or did Zac let them after having his fun? What did he have planned for them for Day 3? Regardless of what had Zac said, the recruits still saw him as a Chaser. But he was one without a Program for some reason and could do this. What would they be capable of in the future? The recruits all left battered and beaten but surprisingly looking forward to tomorrow.
Three people stared at a screen showing the events during the recruits' evaluation.
"Wow, I can't believe they actually managed to make that slippery little snake bleed." A blonde-haired, green-eyed woman said while giggling.
"Please, he had at least 5 other ways to stop that dagger. He let those kids injure him." A black-haired Japanese man spoke.
"That makes it even more unbelievable! He must really like those 5." The blonde said.
"I can agree with that much. They are impressive." The black-haired Japanese man responded
"Well, it's good for us either way. We get first dibs this time!" Franky said with excitement in his voice.
The door behind them opened, and Zac walked in with Devin.
"I can see why you asked us to come. These 5 are indeed impressive." The black-haired man said with a stern expression.
"I assume you all found someone you fancy?" Zac smiled.
"Hanabi Akiko, she is very much to my liking." The Japanese man said with a smile.
"That Genkei guy is a cutie. I'll teach him well." The blond woman spoke.
Devin and the others shuttered a bit. Poor Genkei. Helena put herself through some hellish training. They couldn't imagine what her idea of "teaching" someone was.
"So you're taking Kenji, right Devin?" Helena asked.
Out of all these recruits, Kenji had the most potential by far. It made sense for Devin to mentor him.
"Nope," Devin said with a smile.
"Don't look at me. Ume is way more my style." Zac said as everyone looked his way.
"I'm taking Kenji," Franky said with a smile.