Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 46 - Lock-On — Steel and Blood

Just as Wayne had expected, the four Adjuchas-class Hollows that had entered the cave earlier couldn't defy fate either. Jekain sealed the space, Nel pinned them down, and by the time Wayne arrived, she had already killed one initial-stage Adjuchas on her own.

In the end, all four became nourishment for Wayne and his three companions.

"My king, we've eliminated ten of Peromon's Adjuchas-class subordinates. According to our earlier intelligence, he can't have many left to command."

"Ah." Wayne nodded. "Time to go reap them."

"Head back to camp, all of you. I'll scout the situation alone. Jekain, once you're back, mobilize over ten of our Adjuchas to raid Gillian-level resources in Peromon's territory. Use summoning as much as possible — draw the Gillians toward a location safely away from our own borders.

At the same time, have the remaining Adjuchas push harder on cultivating Gillians and lower Hollows with special abilities. We'll have new territory soon. Don't worry about burning resources — begin full-power advancement. Exhaust every last reserve if you have to."

"Yes, my king." Jekain accepted the order.

"Lord Wayne, let me come with you." Nel stepped forward.

"No." Wayne thought it over and shook his head. "A handful of Adjuchas can't pin me down, and my abilities are better suited for going in alone."

"Nel, go back with Jekain and the others. Help channel the Gillians from Peromon's territory into our region. Wait for my signal — when you see the Bala I fire, launch the general assault."

"Yes, my lord. Please be careful." Nel inclined her head slightly. Only after Wayne nodded and turned to leave did she fall in behind Jekain and the others.

The moment he was clear of his squad, Wayne vanished into thin air.

In the entire Forest of Menos, fewer than one in ten Hollows could pull him out of concealment. And even then, his spatial abilities meant he could be gone before anyone laid a hand on him.

He moved alone, pushing deep into the core of Peromon's territory. The Gillian count was still thin here, Peromon had probably burned through a wave of resources chasing aggressive expansion into new land.

Wayne didn't dwell on it. He headed straight for the densest concentration of Reiatsu in the core region. That was where Peromon's domain would be.

"Lord Peromon, the men we sent out. Their Reiatsu has gone dark. All of them."

Several hours later, Wayne arrived to find Peromon inside the lord's circle, receiving exactly that news.

"The Reiatsu source has been confirmed. It's Yinfeng's signature."

"And those other two — the sudden spikes at an extremely high level?"

"Uncertain, but the Reiatsu signature closely resembles that of two Adjuchas from Yinfeng's ranks, Ace Wayne and Nelliel. Most likely, they were hiding their true strength all along."

"So." Peromon's eyes narrowed beneath his Hollow Mask. "Given that kind of sudden eruption and their concealment ability, it really was them going around provoking and picking off the other Adjuchas this whole time."

"My lord, we've already lost far too many Adjuchas-class Menos. The sub-class forces we have left amount to only the six of us here."

"You're suggesting..." At the cautious words from his seated perception-type Hollow, Peromon's gaze sharpened to something unfriendly.

"This subordinate was thinking, since we belong to the same alliance, could we not request reinforcements from the other lords? Now that we've identified and locked onto the instigators behind all of this, shouldn't we consolidate our strength and eliminate them first?"

"My lord, this subordinate believes that would be inadvisable." Another subordinate spoke up.

"Our relationship with Gatmont's faction is already beyond repair. If we invoke the pretext of eradicating the masterminds now, it will only breed suspicion among our allied factions.

What's more, these two culprits are hiding right under Gatmont's nose and moving about freely. Under those circumstances, we have no leverage to make anyone believe us."

"Mm..." Peromon was silent for a long moment. "Forget the politics. Request reinforcements directly. Tell them we were attacked by Yinfeng's forces and need the alliance's aid. Giantris, take men and handle it."

"Yes, my lord." The Hollow beast called Giantris was the very one who had offered that second cautious word to Peromon. He took one other Adjuchas and departed immediately, heading for the alliance headquarters.

"Well, isn't that generous of him." Wayne tilted his head, silently grateful for Peromon's gift-wrapped delivery. A single Air Flash and he was right behind them.

Half a moment later, a pulse of pale-gold Reiatsu erupted in the direction Giantris had gone. Then both his Reiatsu and his companion's disappeared from Peromon's perception entirely.

"ACE WAYNE!"

Peromon's fury detonated. He knew exactly whose pale-gold Reiatsu that was.

"After him! Kill that bastard!" He threw his head back and roared, then led his dwindling Adjuchas in pursuit.

Whoosh whoosh! BOOM!

Two pale-gold Balas streaked into the sky and burst in midair, pale-gold fireworks against the dark expanse above.

"That's Lord Wayne's signal." At the outer edge of the territory, Nel saw the pale-gold blossoms bloom across the sky and immediately called for Jekain and the others.

They had spent several hours in preparation. Over ten of Wayne's Adjuchas subordinates activated their summoning simultaneously, pulling roughly half the Gillians from the adjacent bordering territories into motion toward Wayne's domain. That single coordinated summon brought in approximately three thousand Gillians.

"Lady Nel, do we attack?"

"Mm. Leave a few Adjuchas who can't use Sonído to keep driving the Gillians. Everyone else, with me."

"Yes!"

Over ten Adjuchas-class Menos acknowledged the order in unison. Sonído cracked through the air as they fell in behind Nel and surged toward Wayne's position.

Now, killing Peromon directly wouldn't have been difficult, not with Wayne's concealment ability. But Peromon plus four underlings was another matter entirely. Five mid-class Adjuchas at once was a genuine problem.

Even with a perfectly timed ambush, he could maybe drop two in one breath. After that, facing the remaining three head-on carried real risk. He could maneuver around them all day, but whether he'd come out clean was anyone's guess.

Not that it mattered. Wayne had no intention of maneuvering with them at all. The moment he fired the signal, he slipped back into concealment.

Half a moment later, Peromon arrived at the spot where Wayne had just been standing. He surveyed the area and found two sub-class corpses, their Hollow Masks already stripped away.

"Damn it. Damn it!" Peromon's knuckles cracked as his fists clenched tight.

"Gustav, can you lock on?!" He turned and roared at an Aberrant Hollow beside him.

"This subordinate will try." The Aberrant Hollow called Gustav's eyes bloomed with a deep orchid glow. A strange light wave drifted outward toward the spot where Wayne had last released his Reiatsu.

From a branch above, Wayne watched the bizarre ability unfold below, and his chest lurched. He raised his hand immediately and began condensing a Concealed Cero.

Then the purple ghostly radiance flared. The light wave suddenly coalesced into the shape of Wayne's silhouette. A brief stillness, and that purple figure launched itself straight toward him.

"Shit!"

Wayne fired the Cero before it had fully charged and flashed backward in the same motion.

BOOM!

The blast detonated near Gustav. Peromon took it across both arms, blocked it cold. The undercharged Cero left nothing but a smear of scorched black on his forearms. No real damage.

Peromon shook out his thick arms and fixed his gaze on Wayne's position. He couldn't see him, but the purple lock-on Reiatsu didn't lie. The halo had already settled over Wayne, throwing an invisible silhouette into relief and exposing his form to every Hollow present.

"Kill him!" Peromon drove both fists into the ground. The earth cracked open in a massive fissure, and the recoil launched his entire body straight at Wayne.

"Tsk." Watching five Hollow beasts charge toward him at once, Wayne felt no urge to fight. He activated Sonído and put distance between himself and all of them.

His spatial-flash Sonído was faster than anything they had. He was confident they couldn't catch him.

"Ranged harassment!"

WHOOM!

Two Ceros blasted toward Wayne the instant Peromon's order left his mouth.

Wayne felt the Reiatsu closing from behind, killed his spatial flash, and cut sideways. Both Ceros streaked past.

These Hollow beasts were smarter than he'd given them credit for. Peromon and his subordinates were running this harassment tactic with real precision. The Ceros hadn't hit, but they had successfully broken Wayne's stride. Peromon could see the gap closing.

"Keep going!" Peromon stretched a hand forward. An earthen-yellow Cero shot toward Wayne.

No time to dodge. Wayne raised his sword. The Sky-Rending Greatsword cleaved a rift in space, and the Cero vanished into it. Wayne swung again, and the Cero shot back out beside him, detonating against an empty patch of ground with a massive blast.

"Spatial ability and invisibility both? Or is he using space to achieve the invisibility?" Peromon's expression grew heavier. In Hueco Mundo, at least out in the outer circle, spatial abilities were exceedingly rare. He couldn't afford to treat this enemy carelessly.

"Continue the harassment." He made his call and kept pushing forward. His perception showed only Wayne in the surrounding area.

Those Balas fired skyward hadn't escaped his notice. A signal, a call for reinforcements. So the math was simple: kill Wayne before help arrived. Leaving someone this skilled at assassination breathing was a risk no one in their right mind would accept.

On Peromon's order, his four Adjuchas subordinates opened up simultaneously, Ceros and Balas in a combined barrage that indirectly sealed off Wayne's escape routes.

"Coward." Behind Wayne, Peromon fired Balas and kept talking. "Is scurrying away like a filthy bug the only thing you know how to do? A Hollow beast who can only grow by ambushing others, I truly don't know how blind Gatmont must have been to keep something like you under his wing. Oh, right, you're one of Yinfeng's. Heh. That bastard operates the exact same way. Truly worthy of being bugs from the same rotten nest."

"Lord-class, all right." Dodging between attacks, Wayne kept his analysis running. "Intelligence, command, and trash-talk, far ahead of the garbage in the Northern Forest."

It probably came down to composition. Most of the Hollow beasts in the Central Forest were humanoid, and their combat IQ ran considerably higher than the swarm of insects up north.

Territorial barriers had kept Wayne from learning the full capabilities of Peromon's subordinates. He had a deeper read on Peromon himself, but the four around him were still largely unknown variables.

"Still." Wayne's tone stayed easy. The fire building in his chest was anything but. "Getting chased and harassed like this, it's infuriating."

From what his own perception told him, though, those four subordinates were mid-class, yes, and their abilities were distinct. But the quality of their Reiatsu condensation didn't come close to matching his.

Which meant this fight wasn't one he had to run from.

➤ Next: Battle