Deep in the dense forest, the light became ambiguous.
The canopy of ancient, towering trees was layered, almost completely blocking the sky.
Occasionally, a few rays of sunlight managed to pierce through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled, swaying light spots on the ground, which instead made the surroundings appear even gloomier.
The air was humid and heavy, filled with the mixed scent of rotting leaves and fertile soil, but within this, there was also a faint, elusive metallic sweetness—like the smell of rust mixed with overripe fruit, making one feel instinctively uneasy.
Leo walked in front, his footsteps falling on the ground covered in fallen leaves and moss, almost without a sound.
His senses were fully expanded, alert to every subtle movement in the surroundings.
But he always felt uncomfortable behind his back.
Turning his head, Hisoka was following three steps behind him, those golden pupils staring unblinkingly at his back, the corners of his mouth curled into a delighted arc.
That gaze was as sticky as substance, as if examining, tasting, and rehearsing some kind of violent ritual.
Leo frowned slightly.
"Hisoka."
He stopped and turned around.
"You go to the front."
Hisoka curled his lips, making an exaggerated expression of disappointment.
"Eh Can't I continue to admire Captain's back? What a pity"
Despite saying that, he still walked a few quick steps and passed Leo.
After the two swapped positions, Leo felt the discomfort of being licked by a gaze finally disappear—although replacing it was the unavoidable sight of Hisoka's wriggling waist, which was also quite an eyesore.
The two walked on for about five minutes.
Almost simultaneously, they stopped.
"Something is very wrong~"
Hisoka's voice was kept very low, but the tail of his tone still carried that frivolous arc.
"Since a minute ago, it has been too quiet around here."
Leo did not speak, only slowly turning his gaze, scanning the dense forest around them.
It was indeed wrong.
Just a moment ago, one could still hear the faint chirping of birds in the distance, the flapping of insect wings, and the rustling of leaves.
But now, all sounds had vanished.
The entire forest fell into a deathly silence, even the wind had stopped.
The metallic sweetness in the air, however, grew stronger, as if silently announcing the approach of something.
"Something is watching us."
Leo lowered his voice.
"Be careful."
Hisoka turned his head back, revealing a bright smile.
"Oh~ Are you worried about me, Leo?"
Leo was expressionless.
"Can you not be so disgusting, Hisoka."
Before the words fell, both moved at the same time!
Leo lunged sideways, his right hand grabbing backward like lightning!
Almost at the same instant, a dark red shadow pounced from the bushes on the side, its speed so fast it left only a blur on the retina!
It was a creature shaped like a lizard, but several times more ferocious than an ordinary lizard.
It was about a meter long, its body covered in rough, dark red scales, its limbs short and powerful, and its claws like hooks.
The most horrifying thing was its head—it had no eyes, only a giant mouth that split almost to the ears, filled with layers of sharp teeth, dripping with viscous saliva.
The monster lunged at the back of Leo's neck!
But Leo's hand was already waiting there.
He grabbed the monster's lower jaw, his five fingers tightening like iron pliers!
At the same time, he used force from his waist, an over-the-shoulder throw—Boom!
The monster was slammed hard onto the ground, splashing leaves and mud everywhere!
A shallow pit was smashed into the ground!
On the other side, movement also came from Hisoka's side.
Another identical monster pounced from behind a tree, aiming straight for Hisoka's throat.
Hisoka did not retreat but advanced, his body sliding sideways as lightly as a piece of paper, while his right hand already held a playing card between his index and middle fingers, tracing a precise arc—Swish!
The edge of the card cut into the monster's side neck, but it only sliced through the skin, failing to sever the cervical vertebrae.
The monster felt pain, emitting a low roar that seemed to be squeezed from the depths of its chest, and its thick tail swept over!
Hisoka leaned back to avoid it, stepped back several meters on his toes, and looked at the creature in front of him with interest.
On Leo's side, the monster that had been thrown to the ground had already scrambled up.
It shook its head, seemingly having suffered no substantial damage, and that giant mouth filled with sharp teeth opened again, emitting a threatening hiss from deep in its throat.
Leo's eyes narrowed.
That throw just now, he had used thirty percent of his strength, enough to break the spine of an ordinary beast.
But this monster looked only a little dizzy.
And... he noticed that under the dark red scales on the monster's body, something seemed to be squirming.
No, not squirming, it was "growing"—where a few scales had fallen off during the impact, the subcutaneous tissue was proliferating and keratinizing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and soon it was covered by a new layer of darker scales.
"Regenerative ability?"
Leo pondered inwardly.
The monster pounced again!
This time it was faster, leaving deep claw marks on the ground as its limbs pushed off!
Leo no longer held back.
He pulled his right fist to his waist, compressing Nen on his fist—Straight punch!
Bang!!!
The fist hit the monster's waist and abdomen squarely!
A dull impact sound accompanied by a clear, crisp sound of bone fracture!
The monster's body was folded in half, dark red blood sprayed from its mouth and nose, and its whole body flew sideways, breaking a small tree as thick as a bowl before stopping.
It fell to the ground, its waist visibly sunken, its spine broken.
Dark red blood gushed from the wound, soaking the fallen leaves beneath it.
But the next second, Leo's pupils shrank.
Around that terrifying wound, the muscle tissue began to squirm.
The broken bones were pulled and reset by some force, new granulation tissue proliferated and covered it at an unreasonable speed, and the bleeding soon stopped.
In just seven or eight seconds, the wound had mostly healed, and although the monster had not yet been able to stand up, this resilience was far beyond that of a normal creature.
"What kind of ghost is this..."
Leo muttered to himself.
The Dragon recorded in the data had grey-brown scales, a larger body, and eyes.
This thing in front of him was more like...
"Hmm It seems the weakness is not there"
Hisoka's voice came.
Leo turned his head and saw Hisoka using a playing card to tentatively cut at the other monster.
The card edge swept across the neck, chest, and limbs, only leaving shallow wounds that healed quickly.
The monster attacked crazily, but Hisoka dodged easily as if playing, seemingly enjoying the process.
"Hisoka, stop playing."
Leo said in a deep voice.
"Alright!"
Hisoka curled his lips, but his eyes turned cold.
He dodged the monster's lunge and bite, his body appearing on the monster's side like a ghost, his Nen condensing into "Hard" on the card—Slash!
Puchi!
This time it was no longer a shallow wound.
The hand blade cut into the monster's back neck like a hot knife through butter, precisely severing the connection between the cervical spine and the brainstem.
The monster's body stiffened instantly, then went limp on the ground, no longer moving.
Dark red blood gushed from the wound, but this time, the wound did not heal again.
"It seems the weakness is in the head~"
Hisoka shook the blood off his hand and said with a smile.
Leo nodded and walked to the monster that was still struggling to recover.
The monster seemed to perceive the crisis and struggled to crawl up, but the bones in its waist had not fully healed, and its movements were slow.
Leo did not hesitate.
He raised his right foot, infused it with Nen, and stepped down—Crack!
The skull exploded like a watermelon.
Red and white matter splattered, the monster's body twitched violently a few times, and finally, it stopped moving completely.
A warm feeling came from the tattoo on the back of his hand, but it was much weaker than expected.
[Life Energy +20] [Rank: Level 48 (31%)]
"Only 20 points..."
Leo frowned.
The strength of this monster should not be weak, yet the energy provided was only equivalent to an ordinary medium-sized beast.
Something is wrong.
Hisoka squatted beside the monster he killed, flipping the corpse with a playing card.
"Hmm~ The physiological structure of this thing is very strange."
He used the tip of the card to pick off a scale.
"The subcutaneous muscle tissue is abnormally developed, but the internal organs are somewhat... atrophied? And look here—"
He used the edge of the card to cut open the monster's chest.
Under the dark red muscle tissue, one could vaguely see some deep black veins, coiled like tree roots.
"What is this?"
Leo squatted down.
"Don't know~"
Hisoka tilted his head.
"But it feels... not like a product of natural evolution. It's more like..."
He didn't finish his sentence, suddenly looking up towards the depths of the dense forest.
Leo also sensed it.
Something else was approaching. More than one.
The two stood up, back-to-back, on guard.
In the surrounding dense forest, rustling sounds came, getting closer from far away, surrounding them from all directions.
Dark red shadows flickered in the tree shadows.
Three, five... at least six or more of the same monsters were quietly closing in.
"It seems we have trespassed into their territory~"
Hisoka licked his lips, his fingertips flipping, and several playing cards danced between his fingers like butterflies.
"Shall we kill our way out, Captain?"
Leo scanned the surroundings.
The monster's encirclement was tightening, but they didn't seem to be in a hurry to attack; it was more like they were driving and forcing them to move in a certain direction.
"No."
Leo made a decision.
"Follow them first. Let's see where they want to force us to go."
"Oh?"
Hisoka's eyes lit up.
"An interesting choice~"
The two began to move slowly, heading towards the gap in the monster's encirclement—which was deeper into the dense forest.
The monsters indeed did not attack immediately, just keeping their distance, following like shadows, completely sealing off their retreat.
The metallic sweetness in the forest grew stronger.
And shortly after they left, a large, dark red monster with eyes emerged from the shadows and came to the side of its companion's corpse.
It lowered its head, looking at the two corpses on the ground.
Then, it opened its giant mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Bite down.
Not tearing, but "swallowing".
Its oral cavity expanded in a way that violated physiological structure, slowly swallowing the entire corpse.
During the swallowing process, the color of its dark red scales became deeper, its body size expanded a circle at a speed visible to the naked eye, and its aura also became significantly stronger and more violent.
In less than three minutes, the two corpses disappeared completely, and even the bloodstains were licked clean.
The now stronger monster raised its head and looked in the direction where Leo and Hisoka had left.
But it did not chase.
Instead, it turned around and began to walk with heavy steps in another direction of the dense forest.