"Your guards have all been dealt with. If you don't show yourself... we'll just take the jewels and leave."
Feitan issued a cold warning toward the exhibition hall's entrance.
A Luo and Shizuku exchanged a look.
The people in the hall had realized this was a robbery as soon as Feitan and Shizuku started fighting, and every last one of them had fled for their lives.
The remaining guards had also been turned into motionless corpses at the hands of the two Spiders.
There was nothing left in the empty hall except them and the crown... yet Feitan was warning someone at the entrance, as though someone else were still here.
While Shizuku and A Luo were still puzzling over this, someone actually appeared at the entrance.
He was a young man with yellow hair, dressed in casual clothes. The moment he appeared, he looked at the guards the Spiders had killed with an expression of anguish.
"I busted my ass for years to finally make these precious things, and now one lousy job guarding an exhibition hall has wiped out everything I had."
He looked at Feitan and Shizuku inside the hall.
"Who the hell are you people? Having the guts to rob the Treasure Festival is one thing, but taking out all my guards in such a short time... you're not ordinary people, are you?"
Feitan was a combat-oriented Spider who had always believed in fighting rather than wasting his breath on bullshit.
He was different from the Boss and Shalnark, who liked analyzing their opponents and using words to undermine them.
As far as Feitan was concerned, beating an opponent meant being faster and stronger!
So the instant the man at the entrance finished speaking, Feitan drew his flexible sword and shot toward Blondie like an arrow.
But when Feitan came within a meter of him, he suddenly felt as though he had plunged into quicksand. The air pressed in on him from every direction.
Forget moving forward-there was now a strange suction beneath his feet, too.
The suction was so powerful that Feitan lost control, dropped straight out of the air, and found himself unable to move.
Blondie planted his hands on his hips and laughed.
"Nobody can move once they're inside my Nen Force Field. Stay right there like a good little runt!"
Feitan was furious.
Especially at that insulting name!
A runt?
He dared call me a runt?!
In his fury, Feitan actually fought against the tremendous suction, let out a roar, and lifted his foot to take another huge step toward Blondie.
Now there were less than ten centimeters between them.
Feitan's explosive burst scared Blondie half to death.
Not wanting this runt to rush him and slice through his neck, the man immediately squeezed a little more Nen out of his body and increased the suction again, pinning Feitan firmly in place so he could no longer move.
Shizuku and A Luo watched from inside the hall, dumbfounded.
Everything had taken such a sudden turn!
Feitan had abruptly said there was someone else in the hall, and then Blondie really had appeared. Next, Feitan had charged over to beat him up, only to end up restrained by him instead.
And the entire sequence had unfolded in just a minute or two.
"Feitan, are you okay?"
A Luo ventured to ask.
Feitan: "..."
After struggling every way he could without success, the short Spider who had suffered a crushing defeat today finally confirmed that he couldn't bridge that last tiny gap between himself and Blondie. He closed his eyes, lowered his head, and fell silent.
As for A Luo's question?
Of course Feitan had heard it.
The exhibition hall was only so big, and she was asking from so close by. He wasn't deaf-how could he possibly not hear her?
Yet Feitan remained silent.
He simply didn't want to answer such a stupid question from A Luo.
Was he okay?
They were so close together. Couldn't that brat see for herself whether he was okay?
She was asking on purpose, just to watch him embarrass himself!
Once he could move again, he would make that little brat A Luo pay.
When Feitan still failed to respond, A Luo looked up at Shizuku.
"Shizuku, be careful. That Blondie's Nen Ability seems to trap people in the area around him. Oh, right! Feitan hasn't answered me at all. I suspect the man at the entrance might be able to block sound, too."
Hearing the little girl spouting nonsense behind him, Feitan tried to endure it.
He held back again and again, but finally couldn't take it anymore.
The man who had stubbornly refused to speak just moments ago finally spoke through gritted teeth.
"Shut up, A Luo!"
"And Shizuku, listen. Don't believe A Luo's nonsense. A Nen Ability that blocks sound? This guy isn't nearly that capable."
Having given up struggling and accepted his failure this time, Feitan calmly looked at Blondie at the entrance.
"The more powerful a Nen Ability is, the more restrictions it comes with. From the look of things, just trapping me is already straining him. As long as you stay at a safe distance and launch ranged attacks at him, there's nothing he can do."
Blondie gritted his teeth.
The runt had guessed exactly right!
He had already used up a great deal of his Nen making those guards.
Normally, when he used this move, the guards only had to keep his opponents occupied, buying him time to set up his trap. Once his preparations were complete, he could immediately reclaim the guards.
Then he would have enough Nen to hold his opponents in check.
Who could have known those two in the hall would wipe out every guard right at the start this time?!
He hadn't even finished setting up the trap then, much less had time to reclaim the Nen in the guards.
Honestly, if these people hadn't wanted the jewels, then arrogantly stood in the hall warning him to show himself and bought him a little more time...
He might not have managed to finish the trap at all.
In that case, when this hot-tempered runt had charged at him just now, he would most likely have been killed.
Blondie now had nowhere near enough Nen left in his body to set up another Nen Force Field, let alone restrain another person.
Worse still, once his Nen Force Field was activated, he couldn't move from his position.
The moment he moved, the force field would vanish.
So Blondie neither dared to move nor had the means to set another trap for the two people in the hall.
He could only watch helplessly as the two girls, one older and one younger, fired an enormous Nen projectile at him from a distance?!
With that much energy packed into it, wouldn't he be utterly dead if it hit him?
The instant fear struck, his survival instinct took over. He involuntarily released his hold on Feitan and dodged the Nen projectile with a sideways movement.
Shizuku and A Luo happily high-fived.
"Great! He really can't move once he activates his ability!"
Before you continue