A small airplane appeared in the air and slowly flew toward Ronin's position.
At the same time, Nen threads kept shooting out from Machi's hands, carrying both her and Chrollo through the air in a series of rapid movements. From the look of it, they were also heading toward the area above Ronin.
After the repeated battles, the villa was already in ruins.
Especially after the shockwave from Franklin's explosion swept through, the place had been reduced to something that looked like complete wreckage.
Now, Ronin's Susanoo had already vanished, but the falling stone pillars from above had not decreased. In fact, they were now crashing down even more densely toward his position.
But after casting Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears, Ronin changed the hand seals, and his body immediately sank underground.
Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu.
Although he had no target, it allowed Ronin to move quickly underground, return to the surface elsewhere, and avoid Kortopi's attack.
Kortopi was exactly as Ronin had imagined at this moment, standing higher and higher as stone pillars piled up beneath him.
Under the effect of his ability, every stone pillar that smashed downward carried the effect of his En, which was the key that allowed him to lock onto Ronin and attack.
But now, as the stone pillars fell, he could no longer sense where Ronin had gone.
Even so, Kortopi did not panic.
Because he had known long ago that Ronin could burrow into the ground.
So the stone pillars he created began to change. They became thinner and sharper, no longer limited to the spot where Ronin had previously been, but thrown down across a much wider area, stabbing into the ground.
But once he did that, Machi and Chrollo, who had been using the stone pillars to move through the air, had no choice but to descend toward the ground.
The small plane in the air slowed its movement. Since Ronin had disappeared, bombing the spot where he had been was no longer meaningful.
Chrollo's bookmark was placed on the page for Super Fortress, while the book itself turned to a new page.
The instant he landed, Chrollo, just like Ronin using Earth Release, pressed both hands to the ground.
But at that very moment, the ground suddenly shattered. An arm burst out and grabbed toward his hand.
It was Ronin.
Chrollo had no chance to dodge, but he had no intention of dodging in the first place.
Because before Ronin's hand breaking out of the ground could touch him, an antenna had already extended from behind Chrollo and stabbed toward Ronin's arm.
It was Machi.
At the same time, the ground touched by Chrollo's hands hardened in an instant.
Ronin's arm, which had been bursting out of the earth, was sealed halfway through its movement.
The antenna pierced Ronin's arm without obstruction, but at that moment, neither Chrollo nor Machi showed any joy of victory.
On the contrary, how smoothly it had gone made both of their hearts tighten.
Chrollo moved with incredible speed. His hands left the ground, and with a push of his feet, he shot backward.
And in that instant, the Ronin pierced by the antenna suddenly exploded.
It was a shadow clone.
At Machi's position, the ground abruptly bulged upward, forming a swelling mound in an instant. Machi failed to escape before it sealed shut around her.
Earth Release Barrier: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness.
At some point, Ronin's real body had appeared less than ten meters away from Machi and Chrollo.
His first target was not Chrollo, but Machi, who had already used the antenna.
From the moment Chrollo began using teleportation, Ronin knew he temporarily no longer had a way to break shadow clones.
So while using Headhunter Jutsu, he had also cast the Shadow Clone Technique.
Underground, he used En and accurately sensed where Chrollo and Machi would land.
His shadow clone acted instantly, launching an attack toward Chrollo.
Meanwhile, Ronin himself did not get too close. Instead, he quietly emerged from another spot and finished his preparations.
While Chrollo and Machi were both distracted by the shadow clone, he activated the Earth Release barrier and trapped Machi inside it.
Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness was the technique used by Jirōbō of the Sound Four. It could not only trap a target inside a prison created from Earth Release, but also absorb the chakra they released when they attacked the prison.
The only troublesome part was that Ronin needed to be touching the earth prison.
So once Machi was trapped, he moved near the dome. But before touching it, he first used the Shadow Clone Technique again.
The clone he created gave Chrollo, who was not far away, no chance to act. It formed hand seals with both hands, then sank straight into the ground.
Chrollo knew very clearly that Ronin's goal was to eliminate Machi first.
But that also gave him an opportunity.
His eyes flickered, and the pages of the book in his hand changed again. The small plane cruising in the air suddenly vanished, and the three Nen monkeys reappeared, pouncing straight toward Ronin.
Chrollo had also figured it out. Ronin seemed to need physical contact to maintain the existence of that earth prison.
That was an opening.
The only thing he needed to confirm was whether the one touching the prison right now was truly Ronin.
So the phone reappeared in Chrollo's free hand, and he aimed its camera toward Ronin's position.
But Ronin gave him no chance to take the photo. His body shifted, and he directly used the earth prison as cover, preventing Chrollo from getting him into the camera frame.
There were still sharp stone pillars falling from the sky, but they did not dare strike the earth prison.
Instead, they targeted Ronin's position precisely. From the look of it, Kortopi was trying to cooperate with Chrollo and force Ronin into the camera's view.
But in the next instant, the falling stone pillars suddenly stopped.
A bad feeling rose in Chrollo's heart. Under normal circumstances, Kortopi would never stop throwing stone pillars.
But right now, he had no energy to spare to support Kortopi.
Because under the pressure of the stone pillars and the camera, the Nen monkeys had finally closed in on Ronin's position.
Regardless of whether the one touching the earth prison was Ronin's real body or not, Chrollo had to make the Nen monkeys attack.
The area around Chrollo's mouth suddenly changed.
And among the three Nen monkeys, the one with a zipper over its mouth also raised its hand and grabbed the zipper.
But before the Nen monkey could pull the zipper open, Ronin, forming a seal with one hand, launched his attack first.
Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!
A large number of wind blades sprayed from Ronin's mouth, rushing straight toward the three Nen monkeys.
The hear-no-evil monkey made its choice in an instant. It stepped forward and blocked in front of the speak-no-evil monkey.
The wind blades sliced into the hear-no-evil monkey's body, cutting it to pieces in just an instant.
But that instant of obstruction gave the speak-no-evil monkey the chance to pull open its zipper.
And most importantly, in that same instant, Ronin's field of vision caught a Nen thread shooting out from Chrollo's position, wrapping toward him.