It was a Nen beast.
And right then, the sound of fighting came from behind. In the corner of his vision, Ronin saw the entrance being flooded by one grotesque figure after another.
Seeing them, Ronin understood: Ryan matched Ronin's first guess.
A Manipulator-type user.
All those ability users were being controlled—and the mechanism of control was that strange blood-vessel/blood-tumor thing, something tied to blood.
As for the Nen beast…
Ronin watched the blood-red slime churning like a storm inside and felt a wave of disgust.
The thick stench of blood made it obvious: the beast was made of blood.
And within its roiling mass, he could even see corpses—some of them still in the middle of being digested.
Ryan was hiding behind the enormous slime.
His face was dark. If the slime hadn't blocked Ronin's lethal strike, he might already have been smashed to death.
Because in the instant Ronin's fist neared him, Ryan had almost seen an old, white-haired, shadow-faced woman reaching for him—
his great-grandmother, dead for years.
Ryan stared at Ronin warily. What truly worried him was the flame ability.
The reports that came back hadn't mentioned fire at all—only that Ronin's body was terrifyingly strong, that he could bend a tank barrel with a single punch.
Normally, someone who had pushed their physical power that far wouldn't also possess another elemental-type ability.
Now it was clear: this outsider was a genuine genius.
If Ryan could turn him into a blood-tumor puppet… it would be perfect.
Ronin didn't know Ryan's thoughts, but he did know Kurapika's.
Kurapika wanted to leave a force behind in Meteor City.
Not necessarily something that ruled the city—but like a nail driven into its flesh: something that would make the Troupe uncomfortable, and provide more intelligence on them.
And for that role—
Spence wouldn't work. Ronin had already slaughtered his entire manor.
Theodore wouldn't work either. Too extreme—and judging by his rags, he had no money. His identity wouldn't bring much intelligence.
But Ryan was different.
His tailored style, the "charitable benefactor" persona, his flashy arrogance, his proper butler, and—most importantly—his villa hadn't been massacred.
If they killed Ryan and replaced him, then bought off the butler, they could keep this trash-mountain operation running.
Ronin's group had no interest in mindless killing, but they wouldn't mind cultivating some usable people here.
Those people might not help much, but they could become a real nail in Meteor City.
And if it ever grew large enough…
A thought surfaced: maybe they could build an Infinity Castle in Meteor City.
But that was far away. Even if it happened, it would be years and years later.
Would there be a "Thunder Emperor" and "Scarlet Eyes" man by then—?
His eyes, lost in thought, shifted into Mangekyō.
To Ronin, the best thing to feed that disgusting slime was Amaterasu.
"Amaterasu!"
With the line he'd wanted to say for ages, black flames erupted across the massive slime.
The crimson slime writhed violently, an nauseating spectacle filling the hall.
But the entrance had already been breached.
Or rather, it was being breached: Kurapika's trio was being suppressed by more and more fighters with grotesque blood-tumor heads, which created an opening for additional blood-tumor puppets to rush in and reinforce Ryan.
"Maybe we can talk," Ryan said, his face now ugly with strain.
The churning slime couldn't smother the black flames with flesh. As it shrank smaller and smaller, panic finally crept into Ryan's eyes.
It wasn't that he was weak—
it was that Ronin's ability hard-countered him.
"Talk about what?" Ronin formed a cross seal.
Another Ronin appeared beside him—a shadow clone.
The main body stepped forward, pressure rolling off him as he advanced on Ryan.
The clone turned to face the onrushing blood-tumor puppets.
Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu.
A barrage of phoenix-flower-shaped fireballs poured from the clone's mouth, slamming into the charging puppets.
The puppets' weakness was obvious: the blood-vessel "head" jutting from the host's body.
But Phoenix Sage Fire wasn't a precision attack.
And Ronin had no interest in "reclaiming" these people anyway. If he wanted workers or manpower, he could always create them with Edo Tensei.
Those things could work 24/7, never needed wages, never ate, never drank—perfect steel-bodied laborers.
The only downside was the sacrifice: creating one required a living person.
Otherwise, no drawbacks.
The flames swept over the puppets in saturated waves.
But the puppets weren't all trash. Among them were some truly strong ones—people whose potential had been forced open by the blood tumor, giving them frightening life energy.
Some dodged with speed. Others brute-forced through Phoenix Sage Fire head-on and closed in on the clone.
Waiting for them was the clone's hands—chakra condensed into surgical scalpels.
Ryan waited.
Ronin didn't rush.
The blood-slime beast was the first thing to be erased. Only after it burned down to nothing did Amaterasu's flames fade away.
Ryan still couldn't see any puppet break through the clone's line.
The gap in strength was blatant.
A massive needle appeared in Ryan's hand—his last hope of turning the tables.
Ronin looked at the conjured needle and immediately understood Ryan's build:
Primarily Manipulation, with Conjuration and Emission as secondary paths.
A fairly "textbook" training approach.
He had attack power through blood-controlled puppets, and defense through the slime beast that could block even Ronin's full-force punch.
The flaw was also obvious: the blood-tumor puppets fought like crude Enhancers only.
Their personal Hatsu had been stripped away, meaning most of them couldn't even use a tenth of their true potential.
That was why they couldn't break through a single clone using only taijutsu and chakra scalpels.
Close combat—
Ronin was the expert.
Still, Ronin could tell Ryan's ability wasn't weak. With years of accumulation behind it, this fight wouldn't have been so easy if Ronin couldn't simply erase the slime with Amaterasu.
For most people, cracking that slime's defense would be difficult.
But Ryan had run into him.
A Mangekyō Sharingan user who could cast ninjutsu.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!