The Shadow Beast Who Was Killed in Turn

Porcupine rolled over, and fine, needle-like spikes sprouted all over his body except around his eyes. He became exactly what his name suggested: a porcupine!

"I'm guessing you can't keep up with my movements, right? I'm one of the fastest among the Shadow Beasts."

He gave two confident little "hmphs" and, as a matter of course, flashed behind Shizuku at incredible speed, lunging for her back.

Porcupine's embrace would leave countless bloody holes, killing his victims amid a storm of pain.

But he had underestimated Shizuku.

Shizuku suddenly turned around and stared at him with her big eyes, startling him.

"I can see you."

Porcupine was stunned. "Huh?! You can follow my movements? How?"

Before he could react, the gaping maw of the Evil Tenderfoot in Shizuku's hand had already turned to face him.

"Pfft—"

The Evil Tenderfoot spat out a huge mouthful of blood it had sucked up beforehand, spraying it all over Porcupine's face like a squid shooting ink.

"My eyes!"

Porcupine couldn't dodge in time. A few drops got into his eyes, and the pain made him shut them instinctively. His whole face was covered in blood.

But the moment he closed his eyes, he realized what Shizuku was planning. Terror gripped him, and he snapped them open again.

The Evil Tenderfoot's mouth filled his blood-red vision.

It shot out a long tongue, the tip like an arrow, and stabbed the one part of Porcupine's body not protected by stiff bristles: his eyeball!

With a squelch, the tongue tip drove in like a small knife, bursting the eyeball and reaching deep into his soft brain.

The Evil Tenderfoot drew its long tongue back.

"You..."

Porcupine opened his mouth wide and clawed at the air in front of him, but grasped nothing.

In an instant, his bristles drooped, leaving him looking like an unusually hairy wild man.

Shizuku raised the Evil Tenderfoot and gave Porcupine's body a push.

Porcupine fell backward with a thud. One eye socket was filled with dark red blood, while the eyeball in the other stared wide with sheer terror.

Meanwhile, Sick Dog, who was even faster than Porcupine, used a similar afterimage tactic to confuse his opponent.

As he darted about, he kept his eyes on Gelman's movements.

The moment Gelman showed an opening, he would rush in and bite him.

The poison on his fangs was enough to paralyze Gelman in an instant and kill him soon after.

"Come on, Gelman. Let me take a bite. I guarantee you won't see tomorrow's sun."

But no matter how much Sick Dog increased his speed or searched for an angle, he couldn't shake the feeling that the moment he stepped into Gelman's En, he'd be dead.

"This is so strange... Why... Why do I feel this way?"

Fine beads of sweat began to appear on Sick Dog's face. This instinctive sense of danger stopped him from attacking again and again.

"Are you still not going to make a move?"

Gelman's voice turned cold as he urged Sick Dog on. He'd been watching him leap around for quite a while.

"If you don't attack, then it'll be my turn."

Just then, Shizuku finished off Porcupine.

Porcupine's sudden fall threw Sick Dog into even greater disarray.

"What's Porcupine doing?! How did he lose to that woman?"

Sick Dog had no time to observe what was happening over there. He only knew that if he didn't act now, he'd soon be facing two opponents alone.

So he steeled himself and charged at Gelman, mouth agape, fangs aimed at Gelman's neck.

"One hit to kill. I have to kill him in one hit!"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, he had already entered the range of Gelman's En.

"Whoosh—"

He tried to take another step, but for some reason, he could no longer feel his legs. They wouldn't respond at all and remained rooted to the spot.

Sick Dog's upper body alone hurtled toward Gelman, carried by its momentum.

At some point, Gelman had raised his Meat Saw. He casually swung it, catching Sick Dog's falling upper body.

Sick Dog stared blankly, then looked down and began to tremble.

"What... So I've been cut in half..."

Only then did he realize how terrifying Gelman was.

He hadn't even seen the slash. The fight was already over.

Gelman shifted the Meat Saw and let Sick Dog's upper body fall to the ground. It twitched a few times, then went still.

Still, Gelman wasn't reassured. Nen users in this world had astonishing vitality. Even with only half their bodies left, they didn't necessarily die right away.

He could either finish Sick Dog off or wait patiently.

He chose the latter and waited quietly for a minute. Sick Dog made no attempt to strike back, and only then was Gelman certain that the Shadow Beast was truly dead.

Shizuku came over, still holding the Evil Tenderfoot. Its long tongue hung out.

"You're even more cautious than I expected. Do you need my Evil Tenderfoot to eat them all? That would make you even more cautious."

The people who had been alive moments ago were now all corpses. That satisfied the conditions for Shizuku to use her ability.

Gelman shook his head.

"There's no need. They were after me, and every gang member in Yorknew City knows roughly where I am now. There's no point in cleaning up the scene."

He turned to Shizuku.

"Sorry for dragging you into this."

The Evil Tenderfoot vanished from Shizuku's hand. Her expression didn't change at all.

"True, you dragged me into this. It wasn't intentional, but it was your fault. At the same time, they were far more at fault. They didn't bother to figure out who was friend or foe before attacking me."

She raised both hands, holding up three fingers with her left and seven with her right.

"Your shares of the blame are about three to seven. Now that things have come to this, I can't go back half an hour and make a different decision. I can only judge the situation and act based on reality."

Shizuku accepted the fact that she'd unexpectedly been tied to Gelman's cause. She lowered one hand and pointed at him with the other.

"Working with you might still be profitable for me. If I go explain things to the gang members, they won't listen. They'll probably try to capture me and torture me until I tell them what I know about you."

Gelman nodded. "A reasonable assessment."

Shizuku glanced at the mess around them. "Are we leaving now?"

"Wait a moment."

Gelman crouched beside Sick Dog's corpse and searched him. He quickly found the wallet with practiced ease.

This time, he took only the cash and left all other valuables behind.

After searching Sick Dog, he moved on and crouched beside Porcupine.

Shizuku adjusted her glasses and watched Gelman's every move with curiosity.

"Are you short on money?"

Without looking back, Gelman continued with his practical task.

"My expenses are fairly high. I like staying in nice hotel suites and eating whatever I feel like... In short, I don't go out of my way to save money."

He searched several more corpses. The stacks of Jenny he collected nearly filled every pocket of his Hunter Robe.

"But fortunately, whenever I feel like I'm about to run out of money, someone comes along and hands me more. So far, I've been in the rather unusual position of having more money than I can spend."