Worm had way too many ideas.
That was Ronin's most honest thought as he hurled the stone into the sky.
He'd already said he was taking on two of them—so how could he possibly allow Worm to harass Kurapika and Neon?
The Sharingan's sharp perception let Ronin clearly see the dense aura lurking underground.
As his throwing hand came back, his other hand formed seals in front of him in one smooth motion.
Earth Style: Opening Earth Rising Excavation!
Ronin slammed his hands to the ground, chakra flooding into the earth. Not far away, the road suddenly bulged upward!
The bulge swelled larger and larger—like a tiny volcano forming in the middle of the street. In the next instant, Worm—who'd been "swimming" underground toward Kurapika—was blasted out of the "crater" by a violent upward eruption.
This B-rank jutsu, in the anime, was used by Kitsuchi and Kurotsuchi together to blast White Zetsu out from underground.
Now Ronin used it in a scaled-down form, purely to eject Worm—perfectly "fit for purpose."
Worm never imagined he'd be launched into the sky by a sudden force.
With his vision suddenly wide open, he froze in complete confusion.
But Ronin was already moving. The moment the mini-volcano formed, he had dashed out.
Now that Worm was airborne, Ronin appeared beside him as if he'd known exactly where he'd be launched. A fist packed with powerful aura smashed straight into Worm's lower back.
Bang!
Still stunned, Worm fell like a ball, plummeting and slamming into the ground.
The pose he landed in was the classic Yamcha sprawl—so classic that even Ronin, dropping down after him, felt oddly satisfied.
Up in the air, Bat couldn't dodge the stone. His wing was punched through with a hole.
But he could still barely keep himself hanging in the air.
The moment a five-meter-wide "mini volcano" rose from the street, Bat knew something was wrong.
When he arrived at Gordeau Desert, he had seen Ronin use flight to escape the Troupe's pursuit.
To Bat, anyone hunted by the Troupe had to have value—so he set his sights on Ronin.
But now it was obvious Ronin wasn't a soft target. Which meant… they could actually be partners instead.
With that thought, Bat swallowed his Shadow Beast arrogance.
"We can talk!" He spoke from above, but his tone was full of concession.
Because Ronin's demonstrated strength made the gap painfully clear. Bat even felt that escaping now would be wishful thinking.
Maybe he shouldn't have shown hostility in the first place—much less attacked first.
Ronin didn't even bother looking at Worm anymore. That punch was enough to shatter Worm's spine. If Worm could still live after that, Ronin would have to question whether Worm really had "worm blood."
As for Bat's suggestion, Ronin scoffed inwardly.
Oh—now you can't win, so you want to negotiate? A little late.
No wonder he was an Emitter—charging in recklessly without thinking. Did he never wonder how Ronin had escaped the Troupe's encirclement so calmly?
That kind of impatience and bluntness really did match Hisoka's stereotype of Emitters.
From the start, Ronin's goal had been to extract Ten Dons intel from the Shadow Beasts.
Bat offering himself up actually suited Ronin's needs—but he only needed Owl. Bat still had to die.
"Come down," Ronin said to Bat, briefly sweeping his gaze toward the other two battlefields.
Those two fights, unlike Ronin's, weren't nearly as effortless.
Owl swung his huge wrapping cloth with fierce momentum. Each sweep threw off Kurapika's chain attacks, ruining their accuracy.
And the distance between them kept shrinking—Owl looked ready to throw the cloth down over Kurapika at any moment.
Yet Kurapika acted as if he hadn't noticed. He kept "sparring" with Owl using only the chain from his pinky.
But when Owl took another step forward, he suddenly felt a binding force clamp onto him.
Something's wrong—
The thought had barely surfaced when his whole body froze. The cloth fell from his hands because both arms were forcibly pinned at his sides.
A chain finally revealed itself—connected to Kurapika's middle finger.
It had been hidden under In.
Kurapika had laid that restraining chain silently in the area while moving.
As long as Owl closed in, if he failed to detect the chain concealed by In, he would inevitably be bound.
In that brief exchange, Kurapika had already identified Owl's weakness.
Owl had Nen and even developed a Hatsu, but his use of Nen in combat was crude.
The aura around his body was only the basic Ren, not even full Ken.
His eyes weren't consistently maintained in Gyo either, meaning the useful information he could gather in battle was minimal.
That made In the perfect finishing move.
This was what nii-san Ronin called "half-baked"—someone who knew Nen existed but had no systematic grasp of it.
No training. No understanding of how crucial Gyo, In, Ken, and Ryu were in real combat.
Against someone like that, a little thinking was enough to win.
Kurapika raised his index finger.
The chain on his index finger ended in a syringe-like tip. Under Owl's horrified gaze, the needle stabbed into Owl's body.
A wave of weakness swept through Owl.
His aura was being pulled out of him.
The Index Finger's Steal Chain.
Kurapika had chains on all five fingers:
Thumb: Healing Chain — produces healing effects. It can heal himself or others, and the effect is doubled in Scarlet Eyes state.
Index: Steal Chain — steals the target's Nen ability and can continuously drain their aura, forcing them toward Zetsu.
But it must be used together with the middle finger's restraining chain; only a bound target can be stolen from.
In Scarlet Eyes state, Kurapika can pass the stolen ability to someone else, but the cost is enormous.
Middle finger: Restraining Chain — stronger restraint in Scarlet Eyes state.
Ring finger: Tracking/Interrogation Support Chain — uses a dangling ball to indicate a target's direction and detect lies.
In Scarlet Eyes state, it's enhanced: wider detection range, and it can judge lies just by hearing the target speak, even without facing them.
Pinky finger: Recovery Chain — normally used to help restore stamina faster for himself and others, but it only functions in Scarlet Eyes state.
The chain contains many tiny needles that stimulate acupoints to relax the body.
The pinky chain is also Kurapika's most common offensive partner for the middle finger's restraint, because those needles can slice many small wounds and can also block a target's "nodes," disrupting their aura flow.
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