When Shalnark and his group appeared at the Semetary Building, the ordinary mafia members were the first to open fire.
But their firepower was nowhere near enough against the five members of the Phantom Troupe.
First, Feitan and Phinks used their ghostlike speed to swiftly slaughter the gunmen. Then the mafia members fitted with antennas turned their guns on their companions and sprayed them with bullets.
Finally, after the Troupe members crossed the barricade and entered the building, Kortopi copied wall after wall, sealing off the entrance.
The mafia's rank and file were blocked outside and could only circle around to another entrance.
But the first thing the five Troupe members encountered inside the building was a huge cloth falling from above.
It was the Shadow Beasts, who had long been waiting inside the building for the Phantom Troupe to appear.
The one wielding the huge cloth was Owl, the Shadow Beast member who had taken all the auction items from the vault to relocate them.
But the falling cloth failed to catch anyone.
The building's lobby was spacious enough that, however well concealed Owl's ambush had been, it still gave the Troupe plenty of room to dodge.
Instead, before Owl could take another action after landing, a figure appeared beside him like a ghost.
It was Feitan.
By now, Feitan had drawn the handle from his umbrella, revealing a sharp sword.
The blade went straight for Owl's throat, with no intention of leaving the attacker alive.
But before the blade could pierce Owl, an arm emerged from beneath the marble floor and grabbed for Feitan's ankle.
Bang!
The floor shattered, and a gaunt figure knocked Owl away. Feitan's blade drew only a few beads of blood, failing to kill him in one strike.
"Tch." Feitan tugged at his collar and looked toward Owl and the gaunt young man.
As for the hand reaching for his ankle, it never managed to catch him. Phinks, following close behind Feitan, smashed the arm apart, shattering the marble floor along with it.
Blood seeped through the cracks in the broken floor, while the broken arm lay limp against the ground, stuck there in its own blood.
"You go on up. Leave this to me." Feitan loosened up his body.
He had wanted to go on a killing spree for a long time.
Now that someone had come practically begging for it, he had no reason to let them go.
Flicking the slender sword in his hand, Feitan paid no mind to how many Shadow Beasts had yet to make a move.
"Be careful," Shalnark reminded him, then sped up and led the others toward the stairs.
But two figures, one tall and one short, stood in their path.
The tall man had an extremely conspicuous beer belly and a face full of confidence beneath his center-parted hair. He was Leech of the Shadow Beasts.
The short one was Porcupine, dressed in a tracksuit. With both hands in his pockets, he faced the charging Troupe with all the bearing of an expert.
Before Shalnark and the others could reach the pair, spikes suddenly shot at them from the side.
A turn of the head revealed a wrinkled old man with blue-green skin standing there. His body was covered in gleaming spikes; he was clearly the one attacking.
But before the spikes could get anywhere near Shalnark and the others, a slender sword intercepted them in midair and knocked every last one down.
It was Feitan, who intended to stay behind and deal with all the Shadow Beasts alone.
But just as he knocked the spikes down, something tightened around his ankle. Looking down, Feitan's face showed surprise. A red arm had actually emerged from the marble floor and seized his ankle.
Phinks had failed to finish the man with one blow!
Feitan's expression shifted slightly, and he moved to stab the wrist gripping him with his slender sword. But a tremendous force suddenly erupted from that wrist, pulling him down toward the floor.
At the same time, the gaunt man who had saved Owl-Rabid Dog, the dog-faced member of the Shadow Beasts-let go of Owl. Nen aura erupted from his body as he charged at Feitan at tremendous speed.
Since the man wanted to play the hero and face the Shadow Beasts alone, they would finish off this arrogant bastard first!
Feitan felt the pain in his ankle, but before he could be pulled over, he drove his slender sword into the man's arm, pinning it to the floor.
Unless the man was willing to have his entire arm sliced down the middle, he would have to stop pulling.
Meanwhile, Feitan had already noticed Rabid Dog charging toward him.
Just as he hesitated over whether to deal with the man underground or the one charging him first, Phinks, a step behind him, arrived at his side. Feitan clearly saw that Phinks had already rotated his right arm once!
Phinks gave Feitan a smile, then slammed his fist into the floor a short distance in front of him.
At that moment, beneath the marble floor, a Shadow Beast member with a severed arm hung from the ceiling of the building's first basement parking level.
He had bright red skin, an oval head, and a protruding belly. His whole body looked decidedly out of proportion, nothing like a normal human.
After discovering that his first attack had failed and sensing that his arm had been completely crushed by his opponent, he had abandoned the severed limb.
The pain did not change the expression on his ugly face at all. As a member of the Shadow Beasts, Worm had his own pride.
His opponent's sword had pierced his arm, and all sorts of thoughts flashed through Worm's mind.
But before he could do anything, the floor above his head shattered, and a fist slammed straight into his egg-shaped head.
The tremendous force instantly crushed his protective Nen. His arm, hanging from the ceiling, became the most crucial factor in his death.
Phinks had charged this punch once. Its tremendous force compressed and deformed Worm's head, and in the next second, a tearing sound came from the shoulder he hung by. Then blood burst out, and Worm's body tore apart at the shoulder.
One half remained hanging from the ceiling, while the other crashed to the ground, becoming a heap of mangled flesh.
Above, Phinks was very satisfied with the power of his strike.
As he stood and turned, he saw that Feitan behind him had already pulled his sword from Worm's arm and thrust the slender blade straight into the mouth of Rabid Dog, who had charged in to bite him.
The slender sword pierced through Rabid Dog's head. His poisoned teeth were less than ten centimeters from Feitan's sword hand, but those ten centimeters had become an insurmountable gulf!
Rabid Dog's eyes held unwillingness and disbelief.
But Feitan had already flicked his sword, flinging Rabid Dog's corpse like a piece of
trash off to the side.
As for Leech and Porcupine, who stood directly in Shalnark and the others' path, neither was stopping the three of them now.
Instead, Leech had bitten into Porcupine, while a mass of hair erupted from Porcupine's body and pierced through Leech.
Porcupine looked grim, because a large number of white eggs had appeared in his wound. Leech had left them there by activating his ability after biting him.
Having rushed past, Shalnark glanced at the fallen Leech and reached back to take another two antennas from Kortopi.