Iron Man X Aura Reserves X Shu Mu's Trump Card

"I'll fight you to the death!"

Tie Liao's roar was still trembling in the air when the aura around him exploded.

Nen Ability: Iron Man!

The next second, his aura surged without warning. The hardened Nen coating his skin abruptly compressed and reshaped itself, and the color of his flesh gave way to a bluish-gray metallic sheen.

A cold iron gleam spread across his skin, his muscles hardened into lines like cast iron, and the bones in his fist began to deform beneath the Nen wrapped around them.

His five fingers pressed together, their edges lengthening and hardening into a blade, like a one-handed battle axe growing from his wrist.

Tie Liao stood on the rubble-strewn ground like an iron statue pulled from a furnace.

The scar on his face looked even more vicious as his metal skin pulled at it, and his half-missing teeth looked like rusty iron nails against his bluish-gray face.

He raised his right arm, now a battle axe, to meet the charging Divine Dog: Totality head-on.

Clang...!

The sharp ring of colliding metal burst across the rubble. When Divine Dog: Totality's fangs bit down on his arm, Tie Liao's wrist didn't budge.

Sparks flew where fang met metal skin. The teeth slipped, failing to pierce the iron coating.

Tie Liao grinned, revealing metallic gums. Even his tongue had turned grayish-white.

"See that?!"

His voice sounded like two iron plates grinding together, low and grating.

"I've been the leader of the Shattered Iron Group all these years because of this Iron Man body!"

"You think you can use the same trick on me just because you got lucky and killed Dodge?"

He swung his arm, the one-handed battle axe cleaving sideways toward Divine Dog: Totality's flank with a heavy rush of air.

Divine Dog: Totality nimbly lowered its body to dodge, kicked off with its hind legs and sprang three meters away, then lowered its front end again and locked onto its target.

Instead of retreating, Tie Liao advanced, striding after it. Every step left a shallow dent in the rubble.

Clang! Clang! Clang...!

Axe blade, dog claws, fangs, and iron body clashed again and again. Sparks scattered, and the sounds echoed through the scrap area.

Shu Mu's eyes lit up.

He stood where he was and watched for a moment. When he saw that Tie Liao had actually stopped the Nen Beast's relentless attacks, he immediately shouted.

"Well done, Tie Liao!"

His voice carried an irrepressible trace of laughter.

The situation was finally starting to turn around.

Jiang Ye wasn't surprised at all.

After all, Tie Liao had been around Meteor City for a long time. Naturally, he couldn't be defeated so easily.

Jiang Ye stood more than ten meters from the battlefield. Rabbit Escape's main body, perched on his shoulder, swayed its head slightly, its crimson eyes fixed on the movements of the clashing iron statue and giant dog.

His expression was so calm that when Shu Mu's words reached his ears, he merely reached up and casually picked at one.

"You don't really think you can do whatever you want just because you've turned yourself into iron, do you?"

His voice wasn't loud; it was even a little lazy.

"The way I see it..."

"All you did was get angry for a moment."

Tie Liao's face darkened.

"What did you say?!"

He took a step, raised his iron one-handed battle axe high, and charged straight at Jiang Ye.

He meant to get past Divine Dog: Totality's blockade and chop the sharp-tongued brat to pieces.

Jiang Ye didn't dodge. He merely pointed a finger gently in Tie Liao's direction.

"Totality."

The moment the word fell, the aura around Divine Dog: Totality abruptly changed.

The thin film of aura covering its body suddenly contracted and condensed, gathering at its limbs and the tips of its claws.

The grayish-white aura condensed into a fine layer of black shadow along the edges of its claws, as though its blades had been dipped in ink.

Divine Dog: Totality lowered its body and kicked hard off the ground. Its enormous form shot forward like an elongated black shadow, crashing head-on into Tie Liao's Iron Man body.

Crack!

A sharp snap was followed by the sound of metal being forcibly torn apart.

Divine Dog: Totality's claws raked diagonally across Tie Liao's Iron Man body from his right shoulder to his left waist, like a red-hot knife cutting through a cold iron plate.

The gash was deep enough to expose bone. Bluish-gray metal skin curled inward from its edges, revealing dark red flesh and broken bones beneath.

Blood welled from the gash and clung to the iron-colored skin that had yet to fully fade.

The black shadow coating Divine Dog: Totality's claws was slowly fading. It had been a defense-breaking strike made with concentrated shadow Nen.

To sustain that strike, Jiang Ye had used nearly thirty percent of his aura reserves.

For him as he was now, that was already a considerable expenditure.

Tie Liao's body froze for an instant, then toppled sideways like a statue being pushed over.

The hand that had become a battle axe returned to flesh and blood before it hit the ground. Its wrist twisted at an unnatural angle, and its five fingers splayed limply.

He knelt on the ground, his body tilted sideways, staring in disbelief at the horrific wound running down the side of his chest from his collarbone to his waist.

"No... impossible..."

His voice had regained the weakness and rasp of human vocal cords.

"I'm the leader of the Shattered Iron Group... I've been the boss for so many years... how could this..."

He gasped for breath. His Iron Man state had completely broken down, his skin had returned to the color of flesh, and blood was pouring from the wound, staining the rubble red on one side of him.

His pupils contracted violently, as though he were desperately trying to hold on to something slipping through his fingers.

"How could I be defeated just like that?!!"

Jiang Ye didn't look at him. He merely lowered his eyes and felt the flow of aura within his body.

More than half had already been used up.

Maintaining Divine Dog: Totality and Rabbit Escape at the same time, along with that defense-breaking strike imbued with shadow Nen, had taken a large chunk out of his reserves.

And that was after his reserves had increased somewhat when he tamed Toad.

If he encountered a slightly stronger opponent, or needed to maintain two powerful Shikigami in battle at once, his current reserves wouldn't last long at all.

"I need to increase my aura reserves."

Jiang Ye murmured to himself.

As the number of his Shikigami continued to grow, the demands for combat intensity and endurance would only increase.

If he couldn't even sustain two or three rounds of high-intensity expenditure, then even with all the Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique, he would be nothing more than a powder keg that burned out after a brief burst.

Unable to blast through a true enemy.

He pushed the thought to the back of his mind and raised his head again.

Tie Liao could no longer stand.

He lay on his side on the rubble, blood still pouring from the wound across his chest, his gaze beginning to lose focus.

His lips moved, as though he still wanted to say something, but he no longer had the strength to force a sound from his throat.

Watching Tie Liao fall, Shu Mu opened his narrow eyes wide.

But his expression was neither shocked nor afraid. It was frustration at Tie Liao's failure, mixed with disappointment and disgust.

"Idiot."

He cursed under his breath, forcing the word through his teeth.

"All that ability, and he didn't even know how to use it... pig brain."

He raised his eyes and fixed them on Jiang Ye.

The small, skinny figure stood ten meters away, his shadow stretching long at his feet, a rabbit-like thing with crimson eyes crouched on his shoulder.

He couldn't see Rabbit Escape's main body, but he could feel something pressing down on him from that direction.

Shu Mu took a deep breath.

He spread his ten fingers again, but didn't rush to shoot out his fine threads.

He turned his head slightly and spoke in a hoarse, slow voice.

"I'm not like that idiot, with all that strength and no idea how to use it."

He looked at Jiang Ye, his tone carrying a confidence out of keeping with his current situation.

"I suggest you leave quickly."

His fingers trembled slightly, and the aura at their tips began to condense into something more dangerous.

"Otherwise, this next move..."

He paused, the corners of his mouth curving upward.

"Even I would be afraid of it!"