The three monkeys caught directly in the blast vanished the moment the explosion was about to engulf them.
Chrollo had canceled the Nen beasts' existence.
At the same time, the pages in Chrollo's book finished turning. His figure flickered, and he appeared farther away.
It was a teleportation-type ability.
Ronin, however, was protected inside Susanoo. Even a point-blank explosion hadn't directly shattered the third-stage Susanoo, so an explosion from a slightly greater distance was even less capable of shaking it.
What truly threatened Ronin at that moment was the stone pillars continuously falling from above.
Susanoo was already attacking with one arm, smashing the stone pillars one after another, but it was as if there were an infinite number of them. Even as they shattered, more kept crashing down toward him.
Susanoo was being driven into the ground.
That was caused by the kinetic force carried by the stone pillars.
With the Sharingan's insight, Ronin managed to see Chrollo's movements before his vision was gradually blocked by the ground.
But that teleportation ability didn't surprise Ronin.
After all, Chrollo had already revealed that ability in the manga. Since Ronin's goal was to eliminate Chrollo, he had naturally reviewed all the abilities Chrollo might possess long ago.
What he still couldn't figure out was the meaning behind Chrollo's earlier series of actions.
With Susanoo present, even if those three monkeys got close to him, there was no way they could steal any of his senses.
But Chrollo wouldn't do anything meaningless.
So somewhere in that sequence, there had to be something Ronin had overlooked—or something he simply hadn't thought of.
Ronin replayed every scene from the start of the battle until now in his mind, but he still couldn't figure out what he had missed.
That left only one possibility: the reason Chrollo had done it lay within Bandit's Secret.
Chrollo had flipped the page once very early on, and the ability he had gained from that page had never been used.
What was it?
All kinds of guesses flashed through Ronin's mind, but his hands had already begun forming seals rapidly.
As for the stone pillars, he wasn't especially worried.
Besides, the current situation was actually favorable to him, because Kurapika still hadn't appeared even after the battle had reached this point.
With such a huge commotion outside, there was no way Kurapika didn't know what was happening.
And if he still hadn't shown up, there was only one possibility:
he was looking for an opening.
Ronin trusted Kurapika deeply, and he understood him well. It was exactly because of that understanding that he knew once Kurapika made his move, the Troupe members involved in this operation would definitely suffer losses.
And Kurapika didn't have many possible targets.
There was only Shalnark, whose hiding place was unknown, and Kortopi, who would definitely have to raise himself into the air.
Ronin completed his hand seals, and by then, Chrollo and Machi were no longer visible in his field of vision.
The exposed parts of Susanoo's body were still being struck by the impact of Franklin's explosion, and cracks had already begun appearing under that force.
At this rate, Susanoo would probably shatter soon.
Franklin's life-powered explosive ability did have decent power.
That was Ronin's evaluation of Franklin.
But in terms of threat level, Franklin was, in Ronin's eyes, not even as dangerous as Nobunaga. Nobunaga had at least required Ronin to scheme against him.
Franklin's self-destruction, on the other hand, could even be turned around and used by Ronin.
Before the explosive impact could completely destroy Susanoo, Ronin dismissed it of his own accord after finishing his hand seals.
Then he bent down and pressed both hands to the ground.
Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears.
Faced with the explosion, Chrollo's plan was to quickly leave its range. Machi, beside him, had the same idea.
Chrollo used a teleportation-type ability, while Machi was pulled rapidly backward by her Nen threads.
But merely retreating like that wasn't enough to dodge everything.
Fortunately, Kortopi's falling stone pillars were still there above them, helping Chrollo and Machi block the explosive shockwave.
However, once the stone pillars were blasted apart, chunks of stone also flew toward them. In response, Chrollo made the three giant monkeys appear again, using them as the key defense against the flying debris.
Even if their bodies were pierced through by the stones hurled by the explosion, to Chrollo, that would only consume a little Nen.
Nobunaga's rapid death and Franklin's self-destruction were both completely outside Chrollo's expectations.
Franklin's self-destruction in particular had never been discussed with him at all.
If Chrollo had known Franklin intended to fight with that mindset, he would have created a much better opportunity for him no matter what.
Still, through the gap between the stone pillars and the explosion, Chrollo saw Susanoo disappear again.
In that case, Franklin's death couldn't be considered completely wasted.
As long as they could seize the chance to get within a certain range of Ronin, Chrollo could complete his plan.
But just then, Chrollo's pupils shrank slightly, because in his line of sight, the ground beneath his feet suddenly changed.
Sharp stone spikes formed in an instant, and without caring whether they would hit or not, they stabbed rapidly toward Chrollo and Machi.
In that instant, Chrollo and Machi both came to the same judgment:
these spikes had no pattern at all. They were purely an area-of-effect attack.
And the two of them had only one choice.
As Machi accelerated backward, Nen threads shot from both of her hands at once. Some wrapped around the falling stone pillars above, while the others wrapped around Chrollo.
The taut Nen threads pulled tight as Machi exerted force, directly dragging both herself and Chrollo into the air, completely avoiding the fate of being skewered by the stone spikes from below.
But the three giant monkeys below, which had been blocking the flying debris for them, were not so lucky.
In an instant, stone spikes erupting from the ground pierced through their bodies. With three explosive pops, the giant monkeys burst apart and vanished.
The page in Chrollo's book had already turned to a new one.
Since he temporarily couldn't cooperate with the teleportation ability to send the three Nen monkeys to Ronin's side and attack him, he would use direct offense to force Ronin out first, then look for another opportunity.
That was right.
Chrollo's earlier plan had been to wait until the three Nen monkeys were within a certain distance of Ronin, then activate teleportation on them, allowing them to appear directly near him.
His teleportation didn't only work on himself. It also worked on Nen beasts.
After all, Nen beasts were made from his own Nen, so they naturally fell within the range of his ability.
That was the kind of ability combination made possible by using two abilities at once.
However, that teleportation had a limited range.
Ten meters.
The farthest he could teleport anything instantly was ten meters.
And earlier, before the three Nen monkeys could get within ten meters of Ronin, they had already been swept away by the fire dragon.
Now, because of Franklin's self-destruction, the distance between him and Ronin had widened even further, so naturally there was no way for him to immediately send the Nen monkeys to Ronin's side.
That meant changing strategy was now his only option.
~~~
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