Leo vanished into the night at the end of the street.
Hisoka slowly rose from the rubble and brushed the dust from the torn hem of his clothes.
He stared in the direction Leo had gone. The desire that the fight had briefly suppressed—a desire so fierce it nearly burned away his reason—blazed in his eyes once more!
"So... so captivating!"
Leo had fully awakened his lust for battle. His body trembled with excitement, and his fingers twitched beyond his control.
He licked his dry lips, his voice trembling despite his efforts to steady it.
"Mmm~ The way you are now... I can't get enough of you!"
Hisoka closed his eyes and drew a deep breath, savoring every detail of their brief clash—Leo's strength, his speed, the sheer beauty of his violence.
"I want to... fight you... right here... right now!"
He opened his eyes, his golden pupils narrowing to dangerous slits.
"But..."
Hisoka tilted his head, a sickly yet strangely lucid smile crossing his face.
"You looked ready to collapse, too~ It would be such a waste to kill you now!"
Hisoka had arrived while Leo was using "Instant" to fight multiple opponents. He had watched from the roof of a nearby building.
When Leo overwhelmed the Phantom Troupe, Hisoka could no longer hold back. He rushed in and attacked.
But after a few exchanges, he sensed that Leo was already in poor shape. His breathing had grown ragged, and his Nen Aura fluctuated unevenly—clearly the side effects of some explosive ability.
Hisoka wanted a one-on-one fight with Leo at his best.
Crushing a fully ripened fruit and tasting its sweet juice—that was the ultimate pleasure he sought.
He turned toward the Phantom Troupe members struggling to their feet.
In the distant rubble, a battered Machi helped Nobunaga up. He was pale and barely had the strength to stand.
Pakunoda struggled to pull the bleeding Bonolenov from the wreckage and checked whether he was still alive.
When Omokage regained consciousness, he staggered upright and looked around. Leo was long gone.
Humiliation surged through him. Leo had choked him unconscious and kicked him away without even giving him a chance to fight properly. It was an unbearable disgrace!
"Damn it... How dare he look down on me!"
Because Leo had knocked him out and kicked him away, Omokage had missed the blast from the subsequent Super Destruction Punch. He was the least injured member of the Phantom Troupe.
Hisoka looked at Omokage, who was still in decent shape, and smiled with satisfaction.
"Mmm—you'll do~"
He sauntered toward Omokage with a sway of his hips, as though he were walking a runway.
"Your death... will calm this excitement of mine~"
Omokage heard him and whipped around.
His face darkened the instant he saw Hisoka approaching.
"You want to kill me too?"
Omokage gritted his teeth, a vicious glint in his eyes.
"Then die, all of you!"
He activated his ability! Three dolls emerged from the shadows beside him: the heavily muscled Uvogin, Phinks wearing a pharaoh's headdress, and a sword-wielding Nobunaga.
The dolls looked lifelike. Though their eye sockets were empty, each gave off a trace of its original counterpart's presence.
Hisoka's golden eyes fixed on him like a snake watching its prey.
Omokage roared.
"Doll Catcher!"
The dolls of Uvogin, Phinks, and Nobunaga became three dense masses of Nen Aura and poured into his body like liquid!
Doll Catcher allowed Omokage to merge with three dolls and use their Nen Abilities.
Hisoka's eyes gleamed with fierce excitement as he locked onto Omokage, whose aura had surged.
"Good... Now this... should be fun!"
Before the words had left his mouth, a playing card appeared between his fingers. He became a red blur and charged straight at Omokage!
Omokage advanced to meet him. His right fist, empowered by a portion of Uvogin's strength, slammed forward, its force tearing through the air!
Card met fist!
Clang!
The clash rang out like metal striking metal!
Hisoka's card went flying, but he turned with the blow and swept another card in his left hand toward Omokage's throat.
Omokage raised his left arm. It rotated with a rudimentary version of Phinks's Ripper Cyclotron, stirring a spiral of air that deflected the card.
They locked into a furious melee!
Omokage attacked with savage, erratic force. He mixed Uvogin's immense strength, Phinks's rotations, and the beginnings of Nobunaga's swordsmanship. The combination lacked coordination, but its power was terrifying.
Hisoka wove nimbly through the attacks, cards fluttering between his fingers like butterflies. Every strike came from a vicious angle and aimed to kill.
A tremor ran through the distant mound of rubble.
Franklin shoved the stones off himself and struggled free. His waist was visibly caved in; he was badly hurt.
Machi, Nobunaga, and Pakunoda watched helplessly as Hisoka and Omokage fought to the death in the distance.
They did not intervene.
It was not that they did not want to. Every one of them was badly injured; even standing straight was difficult.
Pakunoda gritted her teeth and muttered.
"That idiot Omokage... Still trying to show off at a time like this..."
Machi said nothing. She used Nen threads to tend to Nobunaga's and Bonolenov's worst wounds.
Now and then, she glanced toward Hisoka and Omokage's fight, her expression conflicted.
Franklin walked over to them and said grimly.
"Let's wait for the leader to return."
No one objected.
At the same time, three blocks from the Xilirike Auction House...
Leo sprinted away, quickly putting the battlefield behind him.
The instant "Instant" ended completely, a crushing wave of weakness swept over him!
"Ugh..."
He grunted and nearly fell to his knees.
Every muscle ached as though it might tear. Every bone protested.
His limbs were heavy and weak, as if filled with lead.
His vision blurred, his ears rang, and even breathing became a struggle.
Leo braced himself against a wall and gasped for air. Cold sweat soaked through his torn clothes.
"Looks like... I overestimated my current limits."
He gave a rueful smile, feeling the Nen Aura nearly drained from his body and the strain in his overworked muscles.
"The burden of boosting my abilities... was greater than I imagined."
He rested until his breathing steadied and his vision cleared, then continued on his way.
His pace was much slower now. Every step felt as though he were walking on cotton.
Then the tattoo on the back of his hand grew warm.
[Level: 44 (2%) → (36%)]
Leo was startled. Someone had died. He wondered which unlucky member of the Phantom Troupe had fallen to his Super Destruction Punch.
After he crossed another block, a familiar voice called from the mouth of an alley ahead.
"Master, over here!"
Sophia ran out of the shadows, worry written across her face.
She looked Leo over, taking in his battered state, and her eyes reddened at once.
"Master, are you all right?"
Leo waved a hand and managed a smile.
"I'm fine. Just exhausted."
Sophia breathed a little easier, though the worry did not leave her eyes.
She spoke quickly. "Master, I caught Mores."
Leo raised an eyebrow.
Sophia explained further.
"I spotted him while he was escaping. He was badly hurt, so I followed him. Once he let his guard down, I ambushed him. He's unconscious now. I left him around the corner up ahead."
Leo was surprised.
He had assumed Mores had gotten away. The crafty man had quietly withdrawn during the chaotic fight, then vanished altogether amid the blast from Super Destruction Punch.
He had not expected Sophia to intercept him.
"Not bad. Well done."
Leo patted Sophia on the shoulder. This time, his smile was genuine.
"Bring him along. We're leaving by airship immediately."
They headed deeper into the alley.
Sophia had bound Mores securely and stuffed a wad of cloth in his mouth. He remained unconscious.
He had several wounds. The worst was a slash across his left shoulder deep enough to expose bone—probably Nobunaga's work.
Sophia picked Mores up with ease, and Leo followed behind her.
He was weak, but not so weak that he needed help walking.
They took side streets to avoid the main roads and reached a small airport on the outskirts of Kirok City half an hour later.
The Hunter Association's private airship was already waiting.
Once aboard, Leo all but collapsed into a seat. Sophia locked Mores in an isolation cabin, then returned to the passenger compartment.
The engines started, and the airship slowly lifted off.
Through the window, they could see Kirok City at night. The area around the Xilirike Auction House was still brightly lit, though a haze of smoke and dust hung over that district.
As Sophia disinfected and bandaged the wound on Leo's arm, she asked softly.
"Master, the Phantom Troupe..."
"They took a serious beating."
Leo kept his eyes closed.
"They probably won't find us anytime soon."
Leo smiled but said nothing more.
The airship passed through the clouds and headed toward Hunter Association headquarters.
The tattoo on the back of his hand glimmered faintly in the dim cabin.
He had killed only one person in tonight's battle, but he had gained far more than that.
Facing the Phantom Troupe, clashing head-on with Hisoka, and pushing past his limits when cornered—those experiences were worth more than life energy alone.
Leo closed his eyes and began regulating his breathing to recover.
Meanwhile, back in the ruins of Kirok City, Hisoka had just snapped Omokage's neck.
He stood beside Omokage's body, licked the blood from his fingers, and looked up at the night sky.
The airship had long since disappeared above the clouds.
"You got away~"
Hisoka chuckled, an even fiercer light burning in his eyes.
"But that's all right... I'll wait for you~"
"I'll wait until you're fully ripe... Then I'll pluck you myself."
His laughter echoed through the ruins, eerie and delighted.
Chrollo returned to the auction house then. He saw Hisoka laughing wildly and the Phantom Troupe members amid the ruins nearby. His eyes turned icy at once!
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