Offense and Defense

The enemy was far stronger than expected.

At a time like this, the most rational choice was to grease his heels and run first.

So even under pressure from orders above, after a bout of inner struggle, the sinister young man decided to avoid the enemy's edge for now.

Tonight's sniping operation would simply count as gathering intelligence...

The sinister young man named Vaughn convinced himself with that reasoning.

Then, his will to fight receded like the tide, and he turned to flee.

When facing a powerful enemy he believed he could not defeat, choosing to follow his heart and avoid battle was nothing shameful.

Only by staying alive could the hands of time keep moving forward.

Only by staying alive could one have another chance.

Seeing Vaughn flee, a strange look appeared in Moro's eyes.

But now that things had come to this, having already nurtured the beginnings of fighting spirit, how could he let Vaughn leave? Staying alert, he gave chase at top speed.

Around three hundred meters—

As he pursued him, Moro estimated the distance between them by sight.

It was far, but not a problem.

Flying Star: Swallow's Return

While sprinting at high speed, Moro fired two Flying Stars backward with both hands. Without even looking behind him, he kept his gaze fixed firmly on Vaughn ahead.

The training principles he had consistently followed now showed their worth.

While adjusting his position, Moro relied on instinct to seize the right moment and easily dodged the two Flying Stars coming from behind.

Whoosh, whoosh—

Accompanied by sharp whistling through the air, the two Flying Stars passed Moro and shot straight toward Vaughn ahead.

Vaughn had already witnessed the Flying Stars' long-range striking power, so he had been prepared.

When the two Flying Stars came at him, he narrowly evaded them. Then he watched as they carved two trails through the night and struck a rock in the wilderness.

Bang!

In an instant, the energy contained within the Flying Stars erupted, and the seemingly solid rock shattered into pieces.

To dodge those two Flying Stars, Vaughn had inevitably slowed his escape.

At the same time, he caught a glimpse of Moro's determination to keep him here.

And once this battle became unavoidable, fleeing instead became the worst choice.

Vaughn cursed inwardly, but swiftly adjusted his mindset and prepared himself to fight.

Yet even though his decision had shifted from avoiding battle to engaging in it, he did not stop running outright.

As the distance between them steadily shrank, Vaughn actually risked continuing to expose his back to Moro and forced Moro to waste several Flying Stars on the pursuit.

That tactic had, to some extent, drained some of Moro's potential aura.

It was difficult to say whether such a risky act of dancing on a knife's edge could bring him any advantage...

But if Vaughn had understood the Flying Star's mechanics, he definitely would not have risked doing this.

Because the Flying Star's unique second-stage power-doubling mechanism used one point of consumption to produce two points of output.

Thus, Moro's aura expenditure on the pursuit was nowhere near as much as Vaughn had imagined.

Under those circumstances, as Vaughn dodged the Flying Stars fired at him one after another, the rhythm of his movements was inevitably affected.

And just like that, an opening appeared—

Of course, even if the rhythm between running and dodging had gone wrong, as long as Moro could not instantaneously fire Flying Stars, Vaughn could use that gap to regain his rhythm and close the opening.

However, things did not go as he wished.

Vaughn had risked action to carry out his tactical idea of reducing Moro's aura, while Moro's reason for being so unsparing with his aura expenditure naturally was not solely due to the Flying Star's mechanics.

Creating an opening and striking that opening—

That was the outcome Moro wanted.

At his current stage, his Hatsu truly could not support a seamless offensive barrage, but he had another weapon.

Seeing Vaughn's aura distribution fall out of balance under the Flying Star assault, while the rhythm of his running movements became disordered—

Moro decisively drew his handgun.

Marksmanship was something fed by a vast number of bullets.

And in this world, as long as one had enough money, there was no need to worry about being unable to buy bullets.

Moro had both money and initiative, so his marksmanship was excellent.

Bang, bang...!

Moro raised his gun and pulled the trigger, emptying the magazine in an instant and filling the gap that should have allowed Vaughn to catch his breath after the Flying Stars missed.

In the blink of an eye, bullets left the barrel trailing heat, spinning at high speed as they crossed sixty or seventy meters and aimed straight for Vaughn's weak points.

Faced with the sudden gunfire, Vaughn's pupils contracted sharply. He abruptly stopped and turned around.

Fireplace

Ability activated!

Vaughn's abdomen transformed into a fireplace with flickering flames, while he allocated his remaining manifested aura in front of himself.

Twelve bullets arrived as expected.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—

Blood sprayed from Vaughn's cheek, shoulder, and side of his leg as bullets grazed him and tore open wounds.

Of the remaining bullets, several missed, while several flew into the fireplace on his abdomen.

Whoosh!

Those bullets instantly acted as fuel, causing the flames in the fireplace to blaze violently and become a mass of fire.

Though the flames were not particularly fierce, they still caused Vaughn's manifested aura to visibly increase.

"Now!"

Empowered by his ability, Vaughn made a snap decision. He pushed off the ground and charged forward, attacking Moro directly.

From Vaughn stopping to block the bullets to suddenly switching from defense to offense—

The entire process took no more than a second.

But that brief instant was enough for Moro to clearly see the changes in Vaughn.

The conjured fireplace, the flames that flared after swallowing bullets, the obvious increase in manifested aura—

The information laid bare before him undoubtedly pointed to one answer—

A Nen ability that converted damage into beneficial effects!

And judging from how the flames manifested, that enhancement definitely had a time limit.

Realizing this, Moro immediately reined in his offense and shifted his focus to defense.

The opponent's ability was now out in the open, reducing its threat to some extent.

"What a fast reaction..."

Seeing Moro respond so quickly, Vaughn was startled inwardly, but his attack did not pause in the slightest.

Relying on his temporarily enhanced explosive power, he closed into Moro's reach.

Then Vaughn threw a straight punch at Moro's face.

Moro dropped his handgun and raised an arm to block the attack.

At the same time, Vaughn stepped forward and pressed in, driving his other hand upward toward Moro's chin.

Moro found it difficult to defend and could only push off backward to evade the uppercut.

But Vaughn pressed his advantage without mercy. At the same moment Moro retreated, he twisted at the waist, turned, and lashed out with a kick that struck Moro in the abdomen.

Bang!

The kick sent Moro flying.

Despite being violently suppressed by Vaughn, Moro remained calm.

Once the flames in that fireplace weaken, it will be time to counterattack...

He clearly knew that was the safest approach.

Yet he also felt he could not simply defend passively.

That would be too rigid.

While suspended in midair, Moro's thinking changed, and he immediately put the idea into action.

Before landing, he endured the pain and raised both hands to fire two Flying Stars at Vaughn.

Then, while Vaughn focused his attention on those two Flying Stars, Moro kicked a Flying Star no larger than a marble backward with his heel before landing steadily.

Making the rather risky move of planting a hidden follow-up during a turn when he should have been defending desperately...

Had it been Moro before his death and rebirth, when he had rarely experienced actual combat, he certainly would not have made such a choice.

Now,

Repeated real battles were filling the blank spaces he once had, serving as nourishment.

This was the most crucial and important first step in the growth of his combat ability.