Lin Yan pushed aside the last layer of thorny bushes, and his pupils narrowed slightly at the sight before him.
In a relatively open patch of mud, Leorio was waving the short blade he kept hidden in his briefcase, hacking wildly at the air without any technique. All the while, he shouted, "Stay back! You damn bugs! Get away!"
He was clearly deep in a hallucination, his nostrils flaring as he gulped down the deadly air around him.
Not far from him, Kurapika was hardly any better off.
He held his twin blades in a defensive stance, but his steps faltered, his gaze was unfocused, and his breathing had grown rapid. He seemed to be struggling to stay lucid, but his body refused to cooperate.
Above the two of them, more than a dozen brightly colored butterflies circled gracefully.
Their wings were covered in eerie, eye-like patterns. With every beat, glittering wing dust drifted down, forming a shimmering halo in the mist. It looked beautiful, yet there was something indescribably sinister about it.
"Hypnosis Butterflies!" Killua recognized them at once, his brow furrowing. "Their wing dust has powerful paralytic and hallucinogenic effects.
"That idiot Leorio has inhaled too much. If this keeps up, the overstimulation of his nervous system will cause heart failure, and he'll die."
"Leorio! Kurapika!" Gon cried out anxiously, raising his fishing rod as he started to rush forward.
"Stop!"
Lin Yan and Killua reached out almost simultaneously, each firmly grabbing one of Gon's shoulders.
"What do you think you're doing?" Killua shot him an irritated look. "The worst thing about these butterflies is their wing dust. Charging in like that will only stir it up even more. Then all three of us will be in trouble too!"
"Then what do we do? We can't just watch something happen to them!" Gon stamped his feet in frustration.
Lin Yan quickly surveyed the battlefield.
Charging straight in to fight would be the worst possible option. The butterflies themselves were fragile, but the environment they created was deadly. Their wing dust spread with the wind. As long as they kept flying, that whole area was off-limits.
He needed a way to drive the butterflies away without coming into contact with their dust.
Lin Yan's mind raced. He immediately lifted his head, sensing the faint movement of air through the mist.
"I've got it!"
He turned to Killua and Gon. "We can't fight them. We need another way."
"What way?" Killua raised an eyebrow, his hands in his pockets and his catlike eyes fixed on Lin Yan.
Lin Yan said nothing. Instead, he took his water bottle from his backpack, unscrewed the cap, then tore a strip of cloth from his clothes and soaked it.
"Killua, you're fast." Lin Yan handed him the wet cloth. "Find a way to get this to Kurapika and have him cover his mouth and nose! Remember, hold your breath and move fast. Come straight back once you've handed it over!"
Killua glanced at the wet cloth and immediately understood what Lin Yan intended. The wing dust was a powder, so a water-soaked cloth could effectively filter it out.
"Got it!" Without the slightest hesitation, he took the cloth and drew a deep breath. His entire bearing changed abruptly.
An instant later, he vanished from the spot like a ghost.
Rather than taking a straight path, he traced an arc through the trees, circling around to the side of the battlefield.
His movements were so light they barely stirred the air. Like a falling leaf, he approached Kurapika without a sound.
"Catch!"
When he was still three or four meters from Kurapika, Killua flicked his wrist. The wet cloth flew toward Kurapika with the precision of a throwing knife.
Although Kurapika's consciousness was clouded, his combat instincts remained intact. He instinctively reached out and caught the wet cloth in his hand.
"Cover your nose!" Killua called.
Kurapika instinctively raised his hand, and the wet cloth landed squarely in his palm. Its cold touch jolted his nerves, clearing his head a little, and he immediately pressed it tightly over his mouth and nose.
A cool sensation washed over him, bringing a little clarity to his muddled mind.
After throwing the cloth, Killua lightly tapped his toes against a tree trunk and used it to propel himself back to Lin Yan and Gon in a blur. The entire sequence was fluid and seamless, without a speck of wing dust touching him.
"Nicely done!" Lin Yan praised him.
"Now what? That idiot's still in there!" Killua pointed at Leorio, who was still flailing madly in place.
"Don't rush." Lin Yan turned his gaze to the other side, pointing at Kurapika as he shouted, "Kurapika! Can you hear me? Come toward us! We're upwind!"
Upwind?
At those words, Kurapika immediately raised his head to check the wind's direction. Sure enough, the faint breeze was blowing from where Lin Yan and the others stood.
Without further hesitation, he kept his mouth and nose covered and staggered back toward them.
The Hypnosis Butterflies seemed unwilling to let him escape and immediately pursued him.
"Gon!" Lin Yan called.
"Here!"
"See those butterflies? Use your fishing rod to throw stones or clumps of mud into their flight paths and drive them toward Leorio! Remember, don't hit them directly!"
"Got it!"
Gon immediately swung his fishing rod. The hook at the end of the line whistled through the air, scooping up small stones and clumps of mud from the ground with precision before flinging them one by one around the butterflies.
Gon's aim was astonishing. He didn't injure a single butterfly, but the flying stones effectively disrupted their flight paths.
They scattered in all directions, with most instinctively flying toward the higher concentration of wing dust-toward Leorio.
"Leorio! Get down!" Kurapika had already reached safety. Seeing all the butterflies closing in on Leorio, he shouted in alarm.
But Leorio could no longer hear any of them. He was still fighting the enemies in his hallucination.
The butterflies were about to engulf him completely.
"Now!" Lin Yan barked. "Let's go! Circle around this way and wait for him upwind!"
With that, he took the lead and ran in another direction.
Killua and Kurapika immediately followed. Though Gon was worried, he knew this was no time to hesitate.
The four quickly made a short detour and reached the other side of Leorio's position. This spot was directly upwind of the entire area.
Standing there, they were beyond the reach of even the slightest trace of deadly wing dust.
Having lost Kurapika as a target and been driven away by Gon, all the Hypnosis Butterflies instinctively gathered around Leorio, their only remaining "heat source."
As a result, the wind blew all their wing dust back toward them.
Flutter... flutter...
In such a dense cloud, the Hypnosis Butterflies inhaled the toxins they had released themselves, and the wing dust directly clogged the breathing holes on their abdomens.
Even these graceful creatures couldn't withstand it. They struggled in midair a few times, then rained down onto the ground, their wings still twitching faintly.
They had been completely suffocated by their own "weapon."
Before long, every Hypnosis Butterfly had fallen.
And Leorio, having inhaled an enormous amount of wing dust, finally toppled stiffly to the ground with a thud, unconscious.
Without a single head-on clash or much physical exertion, they had easily resolved the crisis.
Gon and Kurapika stared in amazement.
Killua, meanwhile, looked at Lin Yan with a complicated expression.
How... did this guy's brain even work?
Fighting didn't always mean using your fists. You could use the environment and the enemy's own traits to solve a problem with the least effort.
That was a lesson his father had taught him. Yet today, he had seen its most perfect demonstration in someone his own age who looked too weak to hurt a fly.
"All right, the danger's over." Lin Yan clapped his hands and let out a long breath. "Quick, drag Leorio over here. We need to get moving."
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