Shalnark: This Kid is Ridiculously Weak

Under Shalnark's persuasion, Uvogin finally agreed to fight Su Wu.

"Fight on the open ground. Don't damage the Church in District 12 or the houses nearby." Sid crossed his arms and called out to the two of them.

The pair moved to an empty lot. Sid and Shalnark stood at a distance, watching.

"Relax, Uvogin knows his limits." Shalnark smiled and waved a hand to reassure them.

The moment he finished speaking, Uvogin raised his fist and slammed it toward the white-haired boy. A red glow flickered around his knuckles.

The two-and-a-half-meter-tall man had a massive, beast-like build—muscles bulging like iron walls, fists like small missiles.

Just as the blow was about to land, the boy's figure vanished in an instant. The heavy punch struck the ground with a roar, kicking up countless fragments of stone.

Sid glanced at Shalnark.

That's your idea of "knows his limits"? You're telling me an Enhancement-type has limits?

Enhancement-types are single-minded idiots—once they start fighting, all they think about is winning or losing!

"Ahaha, Uvogin takes fighting pretty seriously. Don't worry, he won't really go for the kill—you're here, after all." Shalnark replied unhurriedly, flashing a cheerful grin.

But beneath that smile was a perfectly composed expression. His eyes didn't blink as he watched the two fighters, trying to figure out Hill's ability.

Yet... he saw nothing.

The kid's aura was completely normal—so normal he looked like an ordinary person who couldn't even use Nen.

His attacking stance, his standing posture—every move was full of openings.

He didn't look like someone who could fight at all. Even a random kid from Meteor City would have better form.

From what Shalnark could see, the boy only used a flash-step to dodge Uvogin's attacks.

Every now and then, he'd pop up and land a punch on Uvogin, but it did no damage—only made Uvogin more irritated.

And the longer it went on, the more injuries the white-haired boy accumulated.

But Uvogin hadn't even hit him once.

So why was the kid bleeding more and more, looking worse and worse?

"Hey, is your Church planning to have him pull a scam on us?" Shalnark's smile stiffened, as if a silent bead of sweat was sliding down his forehead.

Are they not satisfied with the annual donations and trying to extort us this way?

Sid's face flushed red, seemingly from anger. "The Church would never do something like that!" he retorted, annoyed.

The two fighters, however, paid no attention to Shalnark and Sid's exchange. Uvogin was getting fed up with this guy he couldn't catch, who kept popping up to punch him.

Each punch landed harder than the last, kicking up piles of rubble and dust like a small earthquake.

When Su Wu used Blue to flash-step, he sometimes got hit by the flying debris. Almost all his injuries came from those stones—because while using Blue, he couldn't dodge the rocks in such a tight space. Instead, he crashed straight into them.

To avoid them, he'd have to give up attacking. But his goal in fighting Uvogin was to practice close-combat reactions, fine-tune his Cursed Energy control, and... the legendary Black Flash.

The principle behind Black Flash was roughly this: when a physical strike and a Cursed Energy impact occurred within 0.00001 seconds, it created a spatial distortion, resulting in a critical hit.

A critical hit—usually one in every thousand or hundred normal attacks.

But by manipulating Cursed Energy to reduce its delay, you could increase the chance of triggering Black Flash.

For Gojo Satoru, who had the Six Eyes, it was probably simple. But it was said that no Curse User or Curse Spirit had ever fully survived a single Black Flash from him.

Right now, Su Wu's skill level in every area still fell short of Gojo Satoru himself. Even with the Six Eyes assisting his Cursed Energy control, he was still a bit clumsy.

So he abandoned all other attack methods, using only Blue to dodge. Again and again, he tried. Again and again, he clenched his fist, gambling on a Black Flash.

If he could land it just once, he'd grasp that feeling.

Eventually, even Uvogin gave up on attacking and focused solely on catching the kid with his movements.

Just as the fight was about to turn into a game of tag, Shalnark clapped his hands and called a halt to the farce.

"Alright, alright. I just asked you to play with Hill for a bit. We've had enough time—we should head back." The blond, blue-eyed young man said with a sunny smile.

Uvogin stopped. The expression on his scarred face was nothing short of ferocious.

"Kid, that's not how you fight." He tossed out the words and walked over to Shalnark.

The white-haired boy stopped using Blue as well. Standing among the rubble, he looked down at his own fists.

Blood flowed from wounds on his forehead, cheeks, and limbs. Blood also kept streaming from his nose. He looked utterly miserable—yet he only clenched his fist and said in a regretful tone:

"Failed. Didn't manage to pull it off..."

Black Flash really isn't easy to land.

Even professional Curse Users had to rely on luck for that skill. How could he, someone who'd only had Cursed Energy for two days, pull it off so quickly?

Still, using the Six Eyes to fine-tune his Cursed Energy during combat had given good feedback.

Before, using a few skills would instantly drain his Mana Bar. But after trying Cursed Energy control, he could activate skills with the minimum amount of energy needed. It saved a lot of mana, letting him use skills several more times in a row.

Overall, this fight with Uvogin was a small gain—a free spar, no loss at all, and actually a profit.

After all, finding a training partner at the level of a Phantom Troupe member isn't something you can just stumble upon.

Besides, now both Uvogin and Shalnark would think his strength was completely ordinary, nothing special about his abilities, so he didn't have to worry about the Troupe targeting him.

Killing multiple birds with one stone.

With that thought, Su Wu lifted his head and called out to the figure already a hundred meters away, back turned:

"Come play again next time, Uvogin."

The two figures didn't even pause, as if they hadn't heard him at all, walking away without hesitation—if anything, they seemed to speed up.

Sid, however, stood still with his arms crossed, his face expressionless as he watched the kid covered in blood yet seemingly unfazed. Finally, he tossed out a "Follow me" and turned to walk away.

"Huh?" Su Wu was a bit confused but still followed him into the church.

Then he was pushed into a seat to have his wounds treated.

"You..." Sid wrapped a hemostatic bandage around the boy's head, his tone full of hesitation as he looked at him.

"What?" Su Wu had two wads of cotton stuffed up his nose, bandages wrapped around his head, but he was already munching on an apple.

"How did someone with your strength even join the Church?" Sid asked, his tone sounding utterly baffled.

Just based on the fight with Uvogin alone, there were plenty of things to criticize.

Especially the fact that Uvogin hadn't even touched him, yet the kid had been reduced to such a mess by the gravel kicked up by Uvogin's punches.

Sure, he landed a hit with every punch he threw, but... it didn't do any real damage to the guy, did it?

With strength like that, he shouldn't have been able to join the Church. And he'd heard that Pampas himself had personally invited him...

"Pampas isn't your dad, is he? If Pampas had a kid, your age would make sense... though you've got white hair and he's got blond—maybe you take after your mom?" Sid started spinning wild theories about his boss Pampas's romantic escapades.

Mainly because the strength the kid had just shown made it impossible for Sid to believe he'd gotten in without Pampas pulling strings.

"You really are an Enhancement-type," Su Wu commented in response.

As everyone knew, Enhancement-types weren't exactly known for their brains.

In other words, he was indirectly calling Sid not too bright.

"You're the Enhancement-type!" Sid shot back loudly.

Oh, not an Enhancement-type, huh. Didn't look like a Manipulation-type or Transmutation-type either. So was he a Specialization-type, Release-type, or Conjuration-type?

Felt more like a Release-type, since Release-types and Enhancement-types were practically brothers.

Su Wu kept chewing on his apple while silently pondering.

Shalnark/Uvogin: So weak.

Su Wu: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm (eyes closed, nodding vaguely.jpg)

If I were writing a story where the protagonist starts off invincible and steamrolls everything, the development would be Shalnark and Uvogin utterly shocked—this kid is terrifyingly strong (?)

But I prefer the slow-burn growth type, hahaha.