Everyone in the group turned to Stellis.

She kept her eyes forward while offering an explanation.

"Marcus is... troublesome. He's a great fencer but honestly his Notch is what makes him a real pain."

"Well don't keep us in suspense!" Bell whispered.

"He can influence the mind... make others obey his will. If you look closely, you'll see that only members from other Houses are in his mob... looks like some of ours, House Beast, and House Lightning. They're weaker than him, so that's why so many are under his control."

"Can we wait for him to run out of energy?" Ace asked, his tone filled with desperation. "Keeping that many people under his control has to be taxing."

"No..." Stellis said while shaking her head. "His reserves are unnaturally large. We will have to fight him here. So... what's the plan?"

At her words, everyone looked at Ace expectantly.

'Jeez... Being the plan guy sucks...'

Grabbing the bridge of his nose in concentration, he began to think aloud.

"Alright, we have time, at least they don't know where we a-"

Just then, three dark figures burst from the tree line and ran unperturbed into the circular formation. They stopped in front of the Marcus, conversing briefly with him.

Shortly after, everyone in Marcus's team turned their heads simultaneously, looking right at Ace and his team.

With a wave of Marcus's hand, the archers in his retinue knocked arrows on their bows.

Running out of time, Ace turned to his teammates.

"Everyone quick! Hit Stellis as hard as you can!"

***

Marcus was confident.

His preparations had paid off greatly, resulting in him being surrounded by dozens of minions.

He wasn't a slouch with a rapier, but this is where he truly excelled.

A battlefield with dozens of people weaker than him was almost too easy to take advantage of.

All he had to do was touch someone on the head while infusing Sever energy into them. It was that easy. With his large reserves, he had ambushed over a dozen enemy teams and added them to his forces.

'This is good, very good! With this many minions, I can leave the other 14 teams from House Mind to focus their attention on... him. In the meantime, I'll have to take care of Stellis and her team! Three of them are Lawless so I made the right move in gathering this many people! If I play my cards right I might even be able to put one of them under my control!'

Focusing his attention back on the tree line, Marcus mentally projected an order to fire a volley of arrows. His minions obeyed immediately and without hesitation. In spite of his mental control, they still retained mastery over their weapons.

It was perhaps the largest boon granted by his Notch. All he had to do was give direction. His minions would follow.

After only a few seconds, a storm of arrows rained down on the tree line.

Still seeing movement in the shrubbery, Marcus ordered another volley. His enemies would have to step out into the open eventually. If not, they would be forced to do so by the barrier. He only needed to wait.

Occasionally, his scouts would dive back into the trees to relay the position of Stellis and her team. Shortly after, another rain of arrows would fall on their position.

This cycle repeated until something caught Marcus's attention. It was a loud and sharp twang, as if someone was beating down on metal. It resonated 3 times rapidly before repeating after a brief pause. Marcus squinted his eyes but couldn't see anything.

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'What are they doing in there?'

He signaled for his scouts to go investigate but the banging sound stopped.

Wasting no time, he fired another volley of arrows into the shrubbery. This time though something was different. As the arrows touched down, the sound of trees being felled echoed out from the tree line.

'What the- OH SHIT!'

"Defensive formation, shields up!"

He was too late.

Similar to the rain of arrows from earlier, tree trunks shout out from the forest like ballista. Each one that struck Marcus's formation scattered his troops and even took some of them right out of the fight.

They flew in one by one, without pause.

To make matters worse, large clouds of dirt and dust were being thrown up in front of his small army. With the cover, he was having a hard time directing his troops.

Shielding his eyes with his hands, he peered through the debris and saw three 3 glints of light as Stellis's team burst from the tree line.

In an instant, he directed his troops into a v shaped wedge, using the teams from House Steel as the base.

In that split second however, he hesitated.

"Wait... where's the fou-"

Out of nowhere, a hand grasped Marcus's collar. In the next instant, he was ripped from his feet and dragged into the air. Carried by an unknown assailant, he continued to fly over his army. The moment he cleared the perimeter of his formation, the hand grasping the scruff of his collar whipped around and threw him down.

Unwilling to switch off his notch ability, Marcus took the impact in its entirety, hitting the ground with enough force to make a crater. Just barely, he managed to hold onto consciousness

***

After throwing Marcus into the ground, Ace braced for a rough impact of his own. Landing without much issue, he looked towards the crowd of mind controlled enemy teams. They were still in a daze, fighting his teammates.

His plan had worked well so far.

By hitting Stellis, his team charged her Notch ability, slowly growing her strength in between waves of arrows. When the time was right, they chopped down trees and launched them into the crowd. The last thing to fly was Ace himself, thrown by both Silas and Stellis.

Their expert aim had allowed him to soar over the army and isolate Marcus.

Eager to finish the job, Ace tip toed towards the crater with his sword drawn.

'Time to finish the job!'.

In a few seconds he reached the perimeter of the dirt cloud. Because of the debris, he couldn't see inside of it. Left with no choice he waited.

Then, suddenly, a blade pierced through the obscurity, aimed for his heart.

With only inches to spare, he leaned backwards at a 90 degree angle, letting the blade cut through the air above his chest.

Following up the attack, Marcus leapt through the dirt cloud, unleashing a barrage of quick thrusts. Ace maintained a healthy distance, trying to find his opponent's rhythm.

With Marcus using his energy for his Notch, Ace knew he could use enhancement to hold the physical advantage. Because of this, Ace knew that the battle was already over. He just had to get in close and land one enhanced strike. That would be enough.

Still, being hasty wouldn't end well. A Lawless physique, even without enhancement, was something to be respected.

In light of that, Ace started to retaliate against Marcus, using his longer reach to force him into defense. He used the Basic Steel Style, melding various moves into a continuous stream of attacks. During the combos, he could see sweat forming on Marcus's brow. Without enhancement, he was forced to perfectly parry every strike or risk being grievously wounded.

After being parried again, Ace broke off the largest piece of heart shell he could contain within his arm. Stepping forward on his strong foot, he swung upwards.

Just like in previous exchanges, Marcus attempted to parry his strike. Unprepared for the increased power, his sword arm was knocked upwards, exposing his upper body.

Capitalizing on the opening, Ace prepared to stab through his opponent's chest with his sword. That was when he met Marcus's eyes. They weren't full of fear like he expected them to be. Instead they looked... triumphant?

Just before Ace's blade could reach him, Marcus uttered a single word, except his mouth didn't open. The voice instead resonated in Ace's head.

"Fall"

As soon as he heard it, Ace's muscles temporarily froze up, sending him tumbling into the ground.

When he regained control of his body, Marcus's rapier was already plunging towards his chest. Abandoning his sword, Ace caught the blade in his hand, splattering blood everywhere.

While he held off the plunging blade, Marcus doubled down in his efforts, using both hands and leaning into his weapon. With the extra leverage, the blade resumed its descent towards Ace's chest, even while he was enhancing his arm.

Recognizing the inevitable, Ace resigned himself to take damage. With a strong push, he redirected the blade towards his shoulder, wincing in pain as it pierced muscle fiber and bone alike.

Before Marcus could retract his blade, Ace reached out and clutched his ankle.

Stuck on the ground, Ace looked up at Marcus. This time his eyes held something different. Fear.

Grinning maniacally Ace spoke one word.

"Fall!"

Following his triumphant remark, he moved Marcus's balance point to his non-sword hand, making him hit the ground hard. While he was disorientated, Ace clambered up to a knee and winded a bloody fist back.

Pouring a sizeable chunk of his energy into his arm, he sent his fist careening into Marcus's cheek, feeling something crack beneath it.

Upon connecting the strike, a loud canon blast echoed into the air.

The announcer's voice followed soon after it.

"Team Marcus, the premier team for House Mind has fallen! A battle report is now available in the sky!"

After the notice, Ace looked back towards the small army that Marcus had gathered.

Much to his delight, the large crowd of minions had stopped fighting his teammates and were instead standing around awkwardly. It didn't take long for everyone to realize they were surrounded by enemies.

Shortly after, a massive brawl broke out.