Alex stabbed the Bloody Blade into the floor, leaving it standing upright, and he wiped his hands off on his pants.
"I slashed the tendons in your arms and legs clean through," he said as he watched Drew writhe on the floor. "You'll be lucky to ever walk again, and you certainly won't be doing any more martial arts. But don't worry. I won't kill you. As much as I would love to, I've been having such a good day today, and having to clean up the mess would really sour my mood."
Alex lazily waved his hand at Art, who had been watching the fight from the side of the hall. "Deal with the rest of the Ghosts," he said.
Art gestured to one of his men, and the man sauntered over to Marie with an ax in his hands.
"Stop!" Marie pleaded. "Don't kill the messenger." She pulled an envelope from her pocket and handed it to Alex.
"Our master wants to arrange a fight," she said, her hands trembling with fear as the color drained from her face.
"Oh, does he now?" Alex replied with a faint smile. "What does he have in mind?"
"He wants to fight you one week from now, on the night of the full moon, in the Canfield Arena," she replied. "It's off season, so the field will be quiet, and there'll be plenty of space for battle. He doesn't want an ordinary duel with you. It'll be an all-out fight to the death."
Alex opened the envelope and read Jacob's message.
Meet me at the Canfield Arena on December seventh for a fight you'll never forget.
***
As the night progressed into the wee hours, the crowd of martial artists sat together in the Baltimore Martial Arts Association headquarters and stared at Jacob's letter.
"So Jacob is behind all this," Rufus said as he looked at Alex, who was kicked back on the sofa. "Jonah must have been really important to him for him to come after us like this. The Ghosts are based in California, but they have members all over the world. He's way too busy to fight with anyone himself unless it's personal."
Alex smiled. "I thought he was bluffing when I killed Jonah, but I guess he really does want to fight me. I must have underestimated how much Jonah meant to him."
Kilian Robinson, the head of the Robinson family, hesitated and said, "Alex, we shouldn't agree to his challenge."
"Is Jacob really that scary?" Alex asked, raising his eyebrow.
"Although Jacob hasn't practiced martial arts in a long time, he still teaches swordsmanship to his disciples," Kilian said, and then paused to let out a long breath. "After so many years hiding in the shadows, no one knows how powerful he is now."
"Drew said that Jacob has ascended to a level of skill no one has ever seen before," he continued, nervously fidgeting with his fingers. "He was already a world-renowned master swordsman many years ago. Who knows how strong he's become since then?"
The Baltimore Martial Arts Association was filled with skilled martial artists, but only one or two were worthy of being called masters. Becoming a master took a level of dedication and skill that only the greatest martial artists would ever reach, and there had always been very few masters in America.
Theo had said that he and Alex were the only masters in the country worth mentioning, and Alex saw the chance to fight a master as powerful as Jacob as an opportunity to prove that he was worthy of the title.
Jessop was also familiar with Jacob's reputation, and he worried that Alex might not stand a chance against him.
"Twenty years ago, the Californian underworld was in chaos, and every day there were Chambers of Commerce locked into deadly power struggles with each other," Jessop said. "To end the fighting, Jacob killed seventeen Chambers of Commerce leaders and knocked out all thirty-six masters in the underworld.
"He integrated nearly a hundred Chambers of Commerce into one organization and named it the Cherry Blossom Group. He let his oldest disciple take charge of it for him and ended the underworld conflict for good."
He paused before adding, "So, as you can see, provoking Jacob is very risky. The Cherry Blossom Group later became the Ghosts, so he has hundreds of people ready to fight for him if he just says the word."
"Who's provoking who here?" Alex said, scowling. "Canfield Arena is our home turf. The Baltimore Martial Arts Association has held several tournaments there. It's hard not to see this as a personal attack in his quest for revenge."
"We have hundreds of armed disciples hiding outside," Will Palmer said. "We can't just let the Ghosts get away."
The night of the reception was supposed to be lighthearted and fun, and Will wouldn't let Jacob and the Ghosts ruin everything. Alex's strength had inspired him into action.
The Palmers and the Robinsons had once teamed up to deal with the Ambrose family. Since then, they had turned a new leaf and decided to follow Alex as his disciples.
"Will is right," Clark said. "We have way more firepower than they do. I don't care what Jacob's little plan is. Let's take them out while we have the advantage. We could hide some explosives around the Canfield Arena and blow Jacob up before Alex even has to lift a finger."
Clark was just a step away from becoming a martial arts master himself, and he was a very influential figure in the Baltimore Martial Arts Association. He couldn't bear to see anyone snuff out the organization's biggest rising star on his watch.
"What are you talking about?" a brusque voice asked.
Russell Chapman, the head of the Chapman family, stepped forward with a deep frown on his face.
"Jacob challenged us to a fight, so we should play fair and not use dirty tricks to win," he said. "Even if he's a dangerous man and we have the chance to take him out without getting hurt ourselves, we need to fight honorably, or the whole martial arts world will shun us. Alex's reputation would be ruined forever too.
"And if by some chance you fail to kill Jacob, he'll surely retaliate and use sneaky tactics to take thousands of us out when we least expect it. I think it's best for us to fight him out in the open."
Russell's expression was etched with determination. "Either we fight a decisive and fair battle, or we turn down his challenge," he said.
Everyone was silent as his words sank in, and they realized he was absolutely right. A pleased grin spread across Alex's face.
"I don't think we should accept the challenge," Edward said, turning to Alex. "Jacob has many decades more experience than you, and even though you're very skilled, you don't have nearly the same level of knowledge that he does. He'll destroy you.
"Everyone will understand if you back down, but if you accept the challenge, they'll think that you're overestimating your abilities."
Edward's father, Oscar, was loyal to Alex, but he had never told anyone that he had seen Alex kill Theo, so even his own son didn't know the true extent of Alex's power.
Alex is just a typical master, Edward thought. There's no way he's channeled his inner power to a level that's strong enough to take out Jacob. If he accepts the challenge, he's going to get himself killed.
Kilian's son Jeffrey Robinson said, "Let me write a letter back to him saying you won't be fighting him. I don't want you to get hurt."
All of the martial artists sat together and discussed what to do. Everyone had equal input on the situation, as Alex preferred to make important decisions democratically. Even at his young age, he had the ability to lead an entire association of martial artists, but he knew he still needed more experience to become the best leader possible.
He saw the duel with Jacob as just another chance for him to increase his skills.