Chapter 35: A severed arm × and × a severed hand
Kite had failed to pull the trigger, but he noticed that the flesh around the hole he had blasted through the crocodile's head was now healing at an astonishing speed.
That healing, however, seemed to consume a tremendous amount of resentment.
The resentment coiling around the crocodile was visibly diminishing.
At the same time, Kite heard the crocodile muttering, "Kill... kill all humans... eat all humans!"
Clearly, the price this creature had paid to revive through resentment was not merely its intelligence. It had also made vows to kill and eat humans.
Killua appeared beside Joey in a flash and grabbed him.
The next second, Joey's vision blurred, and the crocodile was suddenly far away.
He could still hear the roar from the Skeleton Chariot's mouth, but a moment later, a small mushroom cloud rose into the sky with the crocodile at its center.
Once Kite saw that the incredibly fast Killua had rescued Joey, he had pulled the trigger of his hand cannon.
But Joey noticed that the Skeleton Chariot had not stopped moving when the mushroom cloud rose. It still charged straight into the explosion.
"Watch out! That damn thing isn't dead yet!"
Kite seemed not to hear Joey's shout. The hand cannon marked with the number seven rapidly transformed, while the numbers in the clown's mouth flickered before settling on six. In an instant, the cannon became the katana that had appeared earlier.
Standing with his sword in hand, Kite looked past the flames of the explosion toward somewhere farther away. If Joey was not mistaken, that was roughly the direction of the Chimera Ant nest they had discussed.
"You three, get out of here!"
The instant Kite finished speaking, a figure flashed through the explosion.
At the same time, an enormous head flew out of the blast and hit the ground, rolling a long way before finally coming to a stop.
Before the figure could get far, however, Kite caught up with it, kicking the stunned Gon away as he went.
But in that brief delay, even as Kite slashed with his sword, his left arm suddenly flew off.
Gon screamed, his aura surging.
Before he could lash out, however, Killua leaped up, clasped his hands together, and brought them down hard on the back of Gon's head.
"Hm?"
Only then did the slender Chimera Ant with feminine features and a feline appearance stop in front of Kite, facing him with a soft sound of surprise.
Kite's slash had cut through the skin of her arm!
At her feet was a strange Skeleton Chariot, shouting, "The roast chicken's getting away!"
Boom!
The Chariot exploded the instant the catgirl looked down.
Flames and black smoke engulfed her, but as the Chariot tried to rush out, a claw clamped down tightly on its shell.
Boom!
Without the slightest pause, the Chariot exploded again the instant the claw touched it.
As the Chariot exploded, Joey caught up with Killua, who had hoisted Gon onto his back, and they raced toward the checkpoint together.
They had barely covered a hundred meters when blood suddenly burst from the back of Joey's left hand.
The Skeleton Chariot had been damaged!
Joey understood instantly. At the same time, Killer Queen flashed into view beside him, held its fingers together like a blade, and chopped straight through Joey's left wrist.
With a wet slicing sound, blood sprayed, and Joey's left hand fell to the ground.
His face went deathly pale. Killer Queen bent down, scooped up the severed hand, and tucked it against Joey's chest. Then, with its remaining right hand, it tugged at the cloth bag on Joey's back, shaking out its contents before swiftly bandaging Joey's left arm as they ran.
Beside him, Killua's brows twitched. He had not expected Joey to be so decisive.
But he had no room to ponder why Joey had done it. His mind was filled with the crushing pressure he had felt the instant the catgirl, Neferpitou, appeared.
It was a terror unlike anything he had ever experienced!
As he ran, he also understood at once that, in the catgirl's judgment, he, Gon, and Joey combined were less of a threat than Kite even after he had lost an arm.
Had the three of them not been there, had Kite been alone against the catgirl, he probably would not have lost an arm in their very first exchange.
We're too weak, and we were all too full of ourselves! Killua reached his final conclusion.
Joey, running beside him, had no idea what Killua was thinking. He only knew that events had gone completely beyond his expectations.
Neferpitou appeared at the wrong time and in the wrong place!
This place is nowhere near the Chimera Ant nest. It should even be outside the range of Neferpitou's En.
Yet she came straight for us. Could Kite's earlier Death's Waltz have prompted the Chimera Ants watching us to report to Neferpitou?
Damn it!
What's happening now?
Is Kite going to die?
And what am I supposed to do about my severed hand?
Can I still leave NGL safely, the way Kite arranged?
Once I'm out, will anyone still be able to protect me and let me live safely in the outside world?
No, it's too early to think about any of that. Right now, I need to get out of here and reach the area near the checkpoint.
As for my hand, I can always go to Greed Island later and look for a way to restore it. I wonder whether [Angel's Breath] could heal me.
Joey also had another idea. If it worked, the problem of his severed hand might resolve itself.
Boom!
Explosions continued in the distance. Clearly, once the Skeleton Chariot was freed from Joey's restraint, it had unleashed its full power.
The force of those explosions seemed greater than when Joey had been controlling it.
And judging by the direction of the blasts, it seemed to be moving toward the base.
Is Kite trying to lure the catgirl into the base to fight?
Wouldn't such a cramped place put him at an even greater disadvantage?
Joey and Killua exchanged a glance, each seeing the gravity in the other's eyes.
Neither spoke. They simply raced toward the checkpoint as fast as they could.
But over half an hour later, a thunderous blast sounded behind them, and half the sky in the direction of the base turned blood-red!
"Kite..." Frustration and unconcealable grief flickered in Killua's eyes.
They had both guessed that an explosion of that magnitude could only mean Kite had detonated the base's ammunition depot.
Surviving a blast like that would be far too difficult!
After another hour or so of racing onward, the two returned to the vicinity of the checkpoint beneath the rising sun.
Pale-faced, his forehead covered in sweat and his breath coming in ragged gasps, Joey stopped well short of it and sat down by a rocky hill.
He could go no farther. All he could do was stay here and wait for Killua to bring help.
Killua nodded to him, then accelerated toward the checkpoint.
Joey gazed at the great tree in the distance, his eyes full of longing. But when he lowered his gaze to his severed wrist, he felt like crying, yet no tears came.
He had thought that escaping the village would eliminate the risk of losing his hand. Now it seemed he had been far too naive.
That damned crocodile! If it hadn't kept targeting me, why would I have unleashed Heartbreaker Attack when it was so hard to recall?
Joey made up his mind. If he ever truly had a chance to reattach his hand, he would never let Heartbreaker Attack leave it again unless he could control it perfectly.
I didn't sleep well last night and have been out of it all day. Every time I write for a bit, I start getting groggy. (_)
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