Materialization vs. Transformation

The examinees being tossed around let out screams, but Hisoka paid them no mind. 🎉✌ 👻💲

"However, I have a rough idea of the power of the weapons you materialize. Guns are firearms, and knives are sharp weapons. Their weaknesses are the same: range."

Hisoka used Elastic Love to grab the examinees, rocks, and dirt, flinging them in front, behind, left, and right towards Gelman.

Gelman's Vitality Constitution and Stamina Aura were vastly different from over a month ago. Not only had his body's agility and strength been modified, but his ability to sustain combat had also been enhanced.

He continuously leaped backward, and Hisoka's "meteor hammer" missed time and again, smashing into the ground.

"If range is the weakness of my handgun and meat saw..." Gelman suddenly stopped and said, "It's the same for you."

The Elastic Love connecting one of the examinees Hisoka had grabbed suddenly snapped, and the examinee was directly thrown at Gelman.

Gelman dodged to the side, gauged the distance again, and deduced, "About 10 meters. Beyond this distance, your Elastic Love loses its stickiness."

"Bingo." Hisoka snapped his fingers crisply, showing no sign of embarrassment at being figured out. "However, this makes things troublesome. At this range, neither of us can fight."

"I must obtain a Hunter License," Gelman declared. "Not next year, not the year after, but this year."

A cunning smile, like a prankster who had succeeded, appeared on Hisoka's face. "Then I'll have to find every way to stop you. You must get my 'approval' to proceed to the next stage of the exam."

After a moment of silence, the two surprisingly dashed towards each other at full speed, intentionally closing the distance between them.

"As expected, we're 'partners'!" Hisoka shot Elastic Love towards Gelman, his hand gesture resembling Spider-Man's.

Gelman dodged to the side, his meat saw transforming with a clack, its length doubling. The sharp serrations swung towards Hisoka.

Hisoka was equally agile, dodging by tilting his head back. The meat saw's blade almost grazed his nose. "When I saw the design of this weapon, I anticipated this possibility."

"Is that so?" Gelman seized the opportunity, covered his handgun with his Hunter cloak, aimed the muzzle at Hisoka, and fired with a bang.

The scattered bullets shattered the cloak and flew towards the close-range Hisoka.

Hisoka narrowed his eyes. Several fingers, already prepared, moved. Elastic Love attached to the ground simultaneously exerted force, flipping over an entire chunk of dirt.

"I saw that," Hisoka said, laughing from behind the dirt wall.

Puff puff puff puff, all the scattered bullets hit the dirt.

Gelman dodged to the side, coincidentally meeting Hisoka, who was also dodging in that direction.

They exchanged glances. Instead of increasing the distance, they took another step closer to each other.

"I have a good grasp of the handgun's shooting range and spread," Hisoka said with a smile. "I've also figured out the range of your meat saw after it transforms."

Hearing this, Gelman looked down and realized three strands of Elastic Love were attached to his meat saw.

"They got stuck when you swung it just now," Hisoka explained kindly, moving towards the meat saw while calculating the range the handgun could hit.

Gelman, however, directly dispelled the materialization, easily breaking free from the entanglement of Elastic Love.

"This is so troublesome..." Seeing this, Hisoka didn't give up on close combat. Instead, he lunged at Gelman even faster. "That's why I dislike Conjurers."

He produced a stack of poker cards from his fingertips, infusing them all with Nen. They immediately became as sharp as small knives and shot towards Gelman, who had no more room to dodge.

Since Enhancement is a neighbor to Transmutation, Hisoka could occasionally use Enhancement abilities.

Gelman, however, was quick-handed. He raised his right hand, the transformed meat saw back in his palm, and clang clang clang, blocked the vast majority of the poker cards.

Still, two poker cards embedded themselves in Gelman's left arm, and undoubtedly, Elastic Love was attached to them.

Hisoka gave him a crazed smile.

"Ahhh, you can't raise your left hand freely for now, so you can't shoot your handgun at me... I can't wait to see your expression next... Huh?"

Gelman's meat saw in his right hand vanished before Hisoka's eyes, replaced by a strange canned metal object with a nozzle. The nozzle was aimed at Hisoka.

With a whoosh, a large spray of flames shot forward from the flamethrower, engulfing Hisoka in an instant.

Amidst the raging flames, Hisoka quickly retreated, then unhesitatingly rolled on the ground.

After a few clumsy rolls, he finally managed to extinguish the flames on his body in time.

However, by the time he stood up, his clothes were completely burned off, leaving him standing there naked.

Not only that, but there were also many burn marks on his body. A large chunk of his fiery red hair was singed, and much of the powder on his face had been rubbed off.

Hisoka stared at the flamethrower in Gelman's right hand for a moment before calmly saying, "So that's how it is. Materialized weapons aren't limited to the left or right hand, and there aren't just two weapons. I fell for it..."

Gelman retracted the flamethrower, then reached out and pulled out the two poker cards. He tossed them aside, letting his arm bleed profusely, dripping onto the grass.

"Rather than a Conjurer, you're more of a Specialist, like Leader Chrollo," Hisoka speculated. "After all, it's a neighboring category, so you can achieve this effect. I should have realized."

"If I'm not mistaken, the gun, the knife, and the flamethrower aren't the true nature of your Conjuration. What you're truly materializing is hidden on your body, and you operate everything through it."

Although Hisoka spoke seriously, given his current naked state, it was difficult to make the scene feel solemn.

"Perhaps," Gelman blinked his dark eyes and gave an ambiguous answer.

Hisoka was silent for a moment, then chuckled softly. "To this extent, you're still unwilling to tell me if I guessed correctly? Fine, you're 'qualified.' I won't bother you further in the next exam."

"Hm?" Gelman tilted his head. "You wouldn't be able to bother me further anyway, right? Firstly, you attacked an examiner, so you'll most likely be expelled. Secondly, do you plan to continue fighting me completely unclothed?"

Hisoka froze for a moment. For his temperament, he was surprisingly unable to refute Gelman's words.

Suddenly, a burst of laughter echoed from the forest.

Gelman and Hisoka simultaneously looked in that direction with vigilance, both somewhat surprised that someone could approach them so closely without their awareness.

Emerging from the trees was an old man and the Beanpaste Man who had previously distributed their numbered tags.