In the long corridor, Bokushin seemed to have bounced back after hitting rock bottom. Contrary to her usual behavior, she stayed close behind Dio.
Just as Dio was wondering whether she was getting so close because she wanted to ambush him,
a surge of Ripple instantly put him on alert.
Dio stopped without hesitation, pulled Bokushin behind him, and turned to hide around a corner shrouded in dense mist.
His Ripple Radar still showed nothing, but his Ripple senses warned him that an enemy was in the mist ahead.
After a moment's thought, Dio suddenly pulled Misty out of his hair, turned around, and stuffed it into Bokushin's arms.
This was little Bokushin's first encounter with the strange creature. Curious, she instinctively gave it a squeeze, making it let out a soft "Misty~"
As a conjured Nen Beast, [Atmosphere Creator] was still only in its juvenile form, but it could at least save Bokushin in a pinch.
Dio gestured for her to move farther away.
Then, leaving the girl and the cloud behind him to their own devices, Dio slowly extended his Stand around the corner and stared intently into the dense mist ahead.
Those floating monsters, huh? I didn't get a chance to figure out exactly what they were before. If there aren't too many this time, I can take the opportunity to study them...
The dense mist churned before his eyes, and a huge, hideous fish head slowly emerged.
"Is that... a catfish?"
Dio's eyes widened. The monster before him was unmistakably an enormous black catfish, just rather more vicious-looking than an ordinary one.
Judging by the size of its head, its body was probably around five meters long!
Fortunately, there was only one. Catfish were known for their tenacity and prolific breeding, so it was actually surprising that they hadn't appeared in a swarm.
Dio focused and held his breath. The 9mm Pistol in his hand had already been silently aimed at that enormous, vacant pupil.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots thundered. The monstrous fish reacted almost instantly, whipping its whole body around and lunging toward Dio to bite him, utterly ignoring the high-speed bullets hurtling toward its eye!
The bullets pierced the monstrous fish's eye without resistance, blasting three enormous holes into it and completely shattering its left eyeball.
They continued toward its brain almost unimpeded, finally lodging in its hard skull.
Yet the monstrous fish seemed to feel nothing. Its movements faltered for only a beat before it doggedly continued toward Dio's head.
Dio ducked and darted forward, neatly slipping beneath the monstrous fish to avoid its bite, then spun around and fired again!
Bang! Bang!
Two more shots rang out, shattering the monstrous fish's left and right fins. At last, it showed a clear reaction.
It rolled wildly and let out a strange roar, then turned and lunged at Dio again with reckless abandon. This time, however, it was much slower.
Even so, Dio didn't relax in the slightest. At this close range, things that had been unclear before were now perfectly visible.
A thin layer of Nen aura was unmistakably floating over the monstrous fish's body!
It had been hard to distinguish from the dense mist before, but at this distance, Dio could almost clearly see his [Metallic Ripple Nen] breaking down that aura.
I shattered its left eye, yet it can still pinpoint me behind it on the left. Why?
Dio nimbly sidestepped the now-slowing bite, a question forming in his mind:
And even with injuries this severe, it can still move. Its brain is protected by that hard skull, too.
Although Dio figured that simply destroying its body would also defeat it, that would consume far too much ammunition.
Besides, that wouldn't reveal the logic this monstrous fish used to locate its prey.
This Nen Beast was undoubtedly an [Automatic Type]. A Nen Beast like this had to follow some sort of rule.
Dodging its attacks, Dio began recalling what he had done before each of the monstrous fish's two attacks:
Was it firing the gun? Does that mean the gunshots attracted it?
Dio narrowed his eyes as he studied the monstrous fish's smooth sides.
It didn't even have ears. Could sound really be what attracted it?
He inwardly shook his head. Suddenly, a possibility occurred to him:
Could it be [that]? If so, it really wouldn't need ears.
Dio swiftly leaped backward to put some distance between them, casually pressing his palm against the wall.
A subtle Ripple was sent into the wall.
"The World!"
Color abruptly drained from the world. Everything froze the instant Time Stop activated, and Dio decisively jumped backward to widen the gap again.
Time began flowing once more!
Clang!
A gaping maw appeared where Dio had just stood, its teeth crashing together with the ringing of metal!
The monstrous fish's jaws snapped shut on empty air again. Just as it was about to lift its head and lunge once more,
something strange suddenly happened. For no apparent reason, the monstrous fish turned and lashed the nearby wall with a powerful sweep of its massive tail.
Its tail struck the wall with a dull thud, leaving the wall entirely unscathed.
When that strike failed, the monstrous fish didn't give up. Instead, it bizarrely changed direction again, charging upward and slamming hard into the ceiling!
Not far away, Dio coldly watched the monstrous fish's frenzy. At some point, he had pressed his right hand against the wall, and he now understood:
Just as I thought... this thing has neither sight nor hearing. It detects enemies through...
Vibrations! And the higher their frequency, the higher their priority!
Lakshya casually tossed out a delayed Nen Bullet. After leaving his body, it traveled some distance before striking the wall and exploding.
But the Nen Bullet didn't produce the expected thunderous bang. Instead, it burst silently, as though some sound-absorbing substance had swallowed the noise.
Yet the instant the Nen Bullet exploded, several three-meter-long monstrous fish swarmed over, savagely gnawing at the wall like feral dogs spotting a pile of excrement by the roadside.
Under the influence of my ability, [Snowfield Silence], the Nen Bullet made no sound. At the same time, I deliberately spoke aloud.
The Nen Bullet couldn't damage the wall, but its impact instead produced high-frequency vibrations that couldn't be canceled out.
That's why these Nen Beasts didn't come for me. They attacked the wall where the Nen Bullet exploded instead!
Putting these observations together, Lakshya had already determined the fixed mechanism governing these fish-shaped Nen Beasts.
With that in mind, he turned and beckoned the motionless Marol to enter
the area enveloped by his ability.
His [Snowfield Silence] could create a spherical field of silence extending five meters from his body, with him at its center. It had originally been an ability meant for assassination.
He hadn't expected it to counter these monstrous fish so effectively.
As everyone knew, sound traveled through vibrations in the air. The principle behind [Snowfield Silence] was probably to use Nen to cancel out those vibrations.
Lakshya quietly edged along the wall, tossing out Nen Bullets from time to time and taking care not to tread too heavily.
All because, beside the two of them, monstrous fish formed a long line, like people queuing overnight to buy tickets, and silently swam deeper into the third floor...
Before you continue