As the battle between Qiao Lun and Uvogin reached a fever pitch, Kurapika made his move against Machi.
Chain met Nen Threads, their exchanges filled with calculation.
But as Uvogin suffered setbacks and Qiao Lun gradually gained the upper hand in their head-on melee, Machi's Nen Threads left her battlefield and swept toward Uvogin in an instant.
Kurapika frowned. Without a second thought, he sent his chain attacking the threads that had branched off.
He would never give Machi a chance to interfere with Qiao Lun.
He could tell that if the battle continued, Qiao Lun would win.
And once Qiao Lun was free to act, their combined assault would give them a better chance of keeping Machi there.
But before Kurapika's chain could strike the Nen Threads, a massive hoof stamped the approaching threads into the ground. It was Round Deer!
Round Deer had more than just the ability to heal Qiao Lun with Reverse Cursed Technique. It also possessed formidable combat ability.
Qiao Lun had not let it attack Uvogin partly because he wanted to overwhelm Uvogin completely with hand-to-hand combat, and partly because he was guarding against Machi.
Qiao Lun was not worried in the slightest about Uvogin's headlong, charging style.
Machi's Nen Threads, however, were a threat. He did not want to give anyone a chance to rescue his prey.
As though completely unaffected, Qiao Lun kept raining attacks down on Uvogin.
But Uvogin, now in poor condition, had shifted entirely to passive defense. Against him in this state, Qiao Lun's damage output seemed somewhat inadequate. At the very least, breaking through Uvogin's defenses had become difficult.
But Qiao Lun was in no hurry. He was waiting.
Waiting for a chance to land a critical hit. That was his greatest killing move in close combat.
His fists struck Uvogin like raindrops. Uvogin held both arms up to defend himself, boundless fury smoldering in his eyes.
Of his countless battles, this was the most stifling. It was not that he had never suffered setbacks before, but this time, his opponent was even crazier and more unrestrained than he was in close combat.
Most importantly, Round Deer's presence gave his opponent an absurdly high margin for error.
But Uvogin had not given up.
He still had a chance.
Qiao Lun's attacks lacked power. As long as he could hold out, his body could recover quickly. Even if he could not match his opponent's recovery speed, he could still stabilize his injuries.
And once his injuries stabilized, it would be time to counterattack.
Killing Qiao Lun was not his first priority. Eliminating Round Deer, which followed behind Qiao Lun, mattered most.
Their sustained fighting had already made Round Deer's role clear to him: extraordinary healing.
As long as that thing existed, he could kill Qiao Lun in only two ways: blast his head apart in an instant, or punch straight through his heart.
But neither was possible.
Although Qiao Lun's offensive was frenzied, his defense of his vital areas never slackened in the slightest.
Such a rigorous fighting style required extensive actual combat experience to develop. The elegance in his opponent's movements, even amid his frenzied attacks, weighed even more heavily on Uvogin's heart.
Those moves, with their elegance and restraint amid the frenzy, were not something one person could develop alone. They were an inheritance.
Perhaps while he was still running through heaps of garbage, his opponent had already begun receiving an elite education.
Talent, effort, experience, temperament-his opponent lacked none of them.
In fact, by now, Uvogin had slowly realized that his opponent still carried himself with effortless composure amid the frenzy. That could mean only one thing: his opponent had yet to use his full strength!
Damn it!
Rage built in Uvogin's heart. The pain around his heart began to ease, and his circulation began to stabilize with the supplementary healing of Enhancement Nen.
But just as Uvogin prepared to find an opening for another counterattack, black lightning suddenly erupted from Qiao Lun's fist as it struck his arm. The next second, Uvogin watched the arm he was using to defend with all his strength snap clean apart with a crack.
For that instant, Uvogin was utterly stunned as he watched half his arm fly away!
Then tremendous force exploded from Qiao Lun's fist, sending the one-armed Uvogin flying like a kite with its string cut.
Black Flash!
This was what Qiao Lun had been waiting for.
When the time lag between a physical strike and the release of cursed energy was less than 0.000001 seconds, the cursed energy would erupt as black lightning.
That was Black Flash, a means of increasing an attack's power exponentially, and the trump card Qiao Lun had prepared for Uvogin.
Round Deer's presence not only healed Qiao Lun but also created the conditions that allowed him to focus on killing Uvogin.
That ample sense of security, coupled with the exhilaration of venting his emotions through explosive attacks, brought Qiao Lun into a focused state in which landing Black Flash became easier.
It could be said that landing this Black Flash was inevitable.
But even so, it had taken him this long to land one, all because Black Flash had a fatal flaw: it could not be deliberately unleashed with consistency.
Even Sukuna, the strongest in history, and Satoru Gojo, the strongest of the modern age, could not unleash Black Flash at will. Influenced by multiple variables such as body temperature, humidity, and the user's own condition, Black Flash was an ultimate critical strike that could only be encountered, never sought.
But the instant Black Flash appeared, the outcome between them was already decided.
Black Flash had not only raised the power of Qiao Lun's attack to the power of 2.5, directly breaking the balance between his offense and Uvogin's defense, but would also bring Qiao Lun into a "selfless state of lucid cursed energy" afterward.
In this state, controlling cursed energy would become as natural as breathing, requiring no deliberate concentration. His understanding of the essence of cursed energy would undergo an instant transformation, and even landing Black Flash would become easier.
In addition, while in this state of lucid cursed energy, his physical abilities, reactions, and anticipation would all improve, and he could even unleash 120% of his body's potential.
The reason Qiao Lun had been unable to defeat Uvogin quickly before was his insufficient damage output.
But now Uvogin's arm had snapped off, his stabilized circulation had collapsed again, and his injuries were even worse than before.
When Qiao Lun flashed over, Uvogin had not even managed to get up.
Not far away, Machi's gaze sharpened. Vast quantities of Nen Threads erupted, some sweeping toward Kurapika, while others tried to carry Uvogin away before Qiao Lun could reach him.
But the same problem remained.
To save Uvogin, Machi first had to get her Nen Threads past Round Deer.
Boom!
Round Deer blocked the path the Nen Threads had to take, raising its forehoof and bringing it down heavily.
The descending hoof stamped every incoming Nen Thread into the ground.
At the same time, positive energy converted through Reverse Cursed Technique shone down from above Round Deer's head. As it shone onto the Nen Threads, the threads, created entirely from Machi's aura, actually began to disintegrate.
And at that instant, Qiao Lun arrived directly above Uvogin.
Black lightning erupted once more around his clenched fist. This time, however, Uvogin no longer had an arm in front of Qiao Lun's fist to defend himself.
Under Uvogin's despairing gaze, the consecutive Black Flash slammed into his chest.
At that moment, Uvogin's defenses broke completely, both physically and psychologically.
When he mobilized all his Nen for defense and still failed to stop Qiao Lun's attack, he knew clearly that the man fighting him was not merely killing him, but crushing his spirit too!
Qiao Lun clearly saw the expression on Uvogin's face: intense unwillingness, humiliation, and despair. But that would not make him hold back. It would only delight him in body and mind.
Boom!
The fist erupting with Black Flash pierced Uvogin's chest and smashed into the ground. Amid the thunderous roar, dust and debris flew, and the ground split apart!