Something was wrong with that presence.
Very wrong.
The smell of blood had yet to fully clear from the air.
A pressure ten times heavier than that of all the previous ants combined pushed brutally out from the deepest part of the forest, like an invisible wall.
The leaves stopped rustling.
The pebbles on the ground began trembling beneath that pressure.
Kite stood where he was.
Sweat seeped into the palm of the hand gripping his rifle.
Beneath his cap, his expression was thunderous.
The situation he had dreaded most had finally arrived.
"Fall back."
Kite gave the order without turning his head, his voice taut.
"Gon, Killua."
"Take those two badly wounded men at least fifty meters back."
Gon froze for a moment.
He could sense how powerful the approaching presence was, but he had never imagined it could make Kite this tense.
"Kite, what's going on?"
Killua's nails had already lengthened, but he did not charge forward.
His assassin's instincts warned him that whatever was approaching was on an entirely different level from the grunts whose heads Luo Ye had just crushed underfoot.
"It's Nen."
Kite forced the heavy words out through gritted teeth.
"These man-eating insects... they really have opened their Aura Nodes and mastered Nen."
At those words, Gon's and Killua's hearts skipped a beat.
Monsters with bodies as powerful as wild beasts, combined with the Nen Ability system humanity took such pride in-this was an absolute disaster.
Lu Renjia and Lu Renyi were supporting each other, and hearing that made their knees buckle in terror.
They had just seen firsthand how difficult those monsters were to handle even without Nen. Now one with Nen had shown up... this wasn't a hopeless situation anymore. This was the deepest pit of hell!
The atmosphere was so oppressive