It was not difficult to determine exactly which building the people left behind were in.
"I killed Uvogin! You trash from the Phantom Troupe, do you dare come out and fight me?"
Qiao Lun shouted at the top of his lungs. Amplified by Cursed Energy, his arrogant voice carried from the sky across the entire area of abandoned buildings.
At that moment, three people faced off inside an utterly ordinary storage room in one of the abandoned buildings.
One was Nobunaga, who sat by the door with a long sword in his arms, alert at all times.
The other two were Gon, who sat on the floor with an injured hand, muttering things like "the Xian school" and "three methods," and Killua, who had already stood up, his expression grim as sweat kept trickling down his face.
Killua was in intense inner turmoil. A voice told him that he simply could not do it, that he must never fight a battle he was not sure he could win...
But another voice told him that this was wrong!
Nen rose around him, forming Ren, and his eyes brimmed with killing intent.
Nobunaga sprang to his feet as though electrocuted. At the same time, he held his long sword at the left side of his waist with one hand, assuming the opening stance for a quick-draw slash.
"Your face is full of killing intent. Let me warn you: once you enter my attack range, I will cut you down!"
The Nen around Nobunaga also entered a state of Ren, indicating that he, too, was ready to fight.
His surging Nen conveyed his resolve even more clearly. He meant what he said.
Just then, however, Qiao Lun's voice thundered across the entire area. Even the three hiding inside the room heard it without exception.
Nobunaga's aura abruptly changed.
Arrogant!
He heard overwhelming arrogance in the challenge, but more importantly, his reason was telling him that he could not go outside.
The best course of action now was to pass on the news that the enemy had appeared here.
"What? I came here alone, and all you can do is hide like a turtle, you gutless coward?"
The crude taunt reached Nobunaga's ears again. His eyes blazed with killing intent, but the hand he had kept ready to draw his sword at any moment reached inside his clothes.
The instant he made that move, Gon and Killua exchanged a sharp glance.
"I remember now! It's [switching things out from the side]!" Gon shouted, moving straight away from Killua. Nen gathered around his raised foot, and he kicked straight at the wall.
Killua was half a beat slower, but he instantly understood what Gon meant. He moved farther away from Gon as well and slammed a fist into the wall.
Nobunaga's head buzzed.
High in the sky, however, Qiao Lun, who had gathered Nen around his ears to use Gyo, curled his lips into a handsome smile.
"Found you, coward!"
The next second, electricity crackled over Nue's body. Its enormous wings abruptly folded, and it dove headfirst toward the source of the sound!
Thick walls were no obstacle at all to a Nen user.
Until then, Killua had been trapped in a fixed way of thinking, believing that they could only leave the room by breaking through the doorway Nobunaga guarded.
The moment Gon said "switching things out," he understood what Gon meant.
If the exit was blocked, they could simply leave somewhere else, just as they had back at Trick Tower!
Nobunaga's expression turned extremely ugly as he watched Killua and Gon burst out in different directions, but he did not immediately pursue them.
He knew what mattered most right now. It was not catching those two brats, but informing the others that the enemy had arrived.
He took his phone from his pocket, but his unease deepened.
The two who had broken through the walls made no further sound, but a sudden rushing noise reached Nobunaga's ears.
The sound came from above. He had only just dialed, and the phone had not even started ringing when the room's wall shattered.
The strange flying bird he had glimpsed once before at the Semetary Building appeared ferociously inside the room, its sharp talons already raking toward him as though to tear everything apart.
More importantly, Nobunaga saw lightning coiling around the giant bird.
With no time to release his phone and draw his sword, Nobunaga could only raise his left hand and hold the sword's hilt in front of himself.
The next second, a savage force blasted Nobunaga backward, sword and all.
With a succession of crashes, he smashed through wall after wall.
Nue vanished after its attack, while Qiao Lun dropped into the room with the momentum. He crouched and reached into his shadow, pulling out a katana similar to the long sword in Nobunaga's hand.
It was a weapon that had become a Cursed Tool after prolonged saturation in Cursed Energy, though it was only grade 2. Its ability specialized in sharpness, and, like Kento Nanami's blunt blade, it was suited to Black Flash.
As for swordsmanship, Qiao Lun not only sparred frequently with Kasumi Miwa, but had also fought Yuta Okkotsu. Even the Zenin Clan had quite a few skilled swordsmen, so overall, his swordsmanship was not weak.
Of course, he might fall a little short compared with someone like Nobunaga, who specialized in swordsmanship. But Qiao Lun did not care, because he had no intention of beating his opponent with swordsmanship this time. The focus of this operation was to finish him quickly with the help of Shikigami.
As for Black Flash, he would have to find another opportunity.
Holding the sword in one hand, he formed a shadow puppet with the other, casting the shadow of an enormous snake's head onto the ground.
The next second, a giant python with white scales, black markings, and a jade pattern on its forehead shot out of the shadow, charging straight in the direction Nobunaga had been blasted.
Qiao Lun could sense Cursed Energy within a range of about four hundred meters, but this sensory ability had little effect in the Hunter world.
The Divine Dogs' method of detecting targets had also shifted from sensing Cursed Energy to smell and sight.
People without Cursed Energy were simply empty space to Cursed Energy perception. But if he added Nen to his Cursed Energy, the Nen carried along and spread over a larger area by the Cursed Energy could allow Qiao Lun to vaguely detect something.
This was an experiment of Qiao Lun's.
It was simply too crude, making his perception extremely blurry.
Even so, the information relayed by that thinly spread Nen told him that Nobunaga was not dead.
Great Serpent's attack was aimed at Nobunaga's location, as determined by this variant of En created by combining Cursed Energy and Nen.
Boom!
Great Serpent slammed straight into Nobunaga, knocking him out of the building.
They were on the fourth floor, which was high for an ordinary person, but nothing much for an ability user.
Nobunaga held Great Serpent's jaws open with his sword, but he was in an extremely sorry state.
Nue's surprise attack had left quite a few charred patches on his body, the result of the lightning power coursing over Nue.
Qiao Lun took a step forward, planting his foot on a phone with a call already connected.
He pressed down slightly, and the phone burst apart.
At the same instant the phone burst, he leaped onto Great Serpent's body and accelerated toward Nobunaga, who was pinned in front of Great Serpent's mouth.
As he charged, Qiao Lun pressed his right hand onto the hilt of the sword in his left. His stance was actually the same quick-draw slash as Nobunaga's!