Invitation X Nostrade Family X Elder
Dodge's gaze grew grave.
He clearly remembered being told that more than a dozen of his men had been torn apart by two giant wolves.
Now it seemed the report had been true!
And for Nen beasts to fight at this level meant their controller was no weakling.
He drew a deep breath and thrust both hands into the rubble beneath his feet.
"Earth Spear!"
Boom!
The ground burst apart as dozens of sharp earthen spikes surged from the rubble, sweeping forward in a fan.
Jiang Ye immediately recalled the black and white Divine Dogs. The spikes skimmed past the fading silhouettes of the dogs and pierced a ruined wall behind them.
Dodge lowered his stance and scanned his surroundings for Jiang Ye.
His breathing was heavy but still steady. Even injured by the explosion, he still radiated the ferocity of a man who had fought his way up from the bottom of Meteor City.
Suddenly, his brow twitched.
Behind him, off to the side, the air was moving!
Without time to turn, he pulled a broken earthen spike from beside his foot and flung it backward!
The spike cut through the air, but struck nothing.
The shadow there rippled gently, and Jiang Ye's figure dispersed like melting ink before reforming ten meters in front of Dodge.
"You're finished."
Jiang Ye spoke calmly.
Dodge froze at his words.
The next second, the black and white Divine Dogs appeared at his sides.
Close-range bites, claw strikes, explosive charges.
Every attack carried the vibrations of shadow Nen, and when their claws and fangs struck the earthen armor, they produced a muffled sound of crumbling earth and stone.
Dodge struggled to block two blows with what remained of his Earth Armor, but Black Dog's next swipe tore away half his breastplate. White Dog clamped onto his lower right leg and shook its head violently, yanking him off the ground and slamming him to one side.
Dodge rolled twice across the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with dirt.
He panted as he pushed himself up and looked at the twelve-year-old boy in the distance.
The boy had never directly attacked him from start to finish, and maintaining the Nen beasts cost him far less than Dodge spent maintaining Earth Armor and Earth Spear.
If this dragged on for another three minutes, his aura would be completely depleted.
He had to finish this quickly!
Dodge wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and slammed his right palm against the ground.
"Earth's Support!"
A wave of earthy yellow aura instantly covered the ground beneath his feet. The surface turned into an extremely smooth stone track, and Dodge shot forward as if skating, reaching Jiang Ye in the blink of an eye.
His right fist, wrapped in the last fragments of his earthen armor, smashed toward Jiang Ye's face!
The wind from the punch rushed at his face.
Jiang Ye's pupils contracted slightly.
As expected of someone who had risen to a leader's position in Meteor City. Even after being blown up this badly, he could still move that fast.
"Unfortunately, your defeat is inevitable."
He first recalled Black Dog, then quickly crossed his right hand in front of him, joining his thumb and index finger into a ring and holding the other three fingers upright.
A rabbit hand shadow instantly took shape.
"Rabbit Escape."
Thousands upon thousands of black rabbits poured wildly from the shadows, covering the entire battlefield in an instant!
Dodge's fist plunged into the tide of rabbits and was knocked off course by dozens of Rabbit Escape clones at once. Black shapes filled the air, completely blocking his vision.
Enraged, he retreated two steps and slammed both palms into the ground again, launching Earth Spear over an even wider area than before!
But this time, the sharp earthen spikes pierced nothing but densely packed Rabbit Escape clones.
The real Jiang Ye had already melted into the shadows the moment the rabbits emerged, vanishing without a trace.
Dodge stood where he was, panting heavily, his eyes full of disbelief.
After fighting for so long, he had not even touched the hem of Jiang Ye's clothes.
"Who the hell are you?"
His aura was nearly exhausted.
The injuries from the explosion continued to sap his life force. Half his body was numb, and his vision was beginning to blur.
He used his last breath to demand an answer.
"Why are you targeting me!"
Jiang Ye emerged from the shadows again, standing ten meters away and looking at him.
"I'm under no obligation to speak to a dead man."
Dodge's expression froze.
Then a searing pain shot through his neck, as if something had bitten savagely into its side.
He looked down but saw nothing.
But from Jiang Ye's perspective, White Dog had its jaws clamped around Dodge's carotid artery. Its fangs cut through flesh, and warm liquid gushed out.
Dodge swayed but did not fall.
He merely raised his head slowly, his expression surprisingly calm.
Blood ran down his neck to his chest, staining his worn vest red.
He looked into Jiang Ye's eyes. His voice came haltingly through his damaged throat, but it was still clear.
"You're... strong."
He grinned, his mouth full of blood and shredded flesh.
"Join the Rust Bone Gang... I can show you what life is like in the upper echelons of Meteor City."
His voice grew fainter and fainter, yet it carried a strange certainty.
"You probably don't know yet... the Nostrade Family is backing me."
"They're preparing to put me in an elder's position in Meteor City... in charge of District 13."
Jiang Ye's eyelid twitched slightly.
The Nostrade Family!
A titan of the Hunter world's underworld, second only to the Ten Dons.
Its head's only daughter had been born with the Specialization Nen Ability to predict the future, Lovely Ghostwriter. Even the Ten Dons came to her for fortunes.
The Twelve Elders of Meteor City, meanwhile, controlled the six-thousand-square-kilometer garbage wasteland by district, holding authority over resource allocation, border control, and the enforcement of rules across all of Meteor City.
Once Dodge was installed as an elder, he would leap from the leader of a mid-sized gang in Meteor City to one of the highest rulers of this wasteland city.
"Follow me."
Dodge gave his final warning.
"What you can get... is far more than you can imagine right now."
Jiang Ye fell silent for a moment, then a smile appeared on his lips.
"Do you think I'm that naive?"
"You don't think I'd believe you that easily just because you said a few words, do you?"
He took a step forward, his voice as calm as if he were reading a eulogy.
"So what if you have the Nostrade Family behind you?"
"So what if you're going to become an elder?"
"I said I'd kill you... and I will kill you today."
His shadow suddenly expanded beneath his feet, the ink-black darkness splitting open like an abyss. White Dog's teeth sank a little deeper.
"Because if you don't die, I'll be the one who does."