Two antennas: one in the open, one hidden.
Kortopi dodged the antenna in plain sight but failed to avoid the one hidden in the shadows.
The most unreasonable aspect of Manipulation Abilities is that once the condition is met, the battle ends instantly.
Kortopi understood something, and the next moment, he became a puppet entirely under Law's control.
Law fiddled with the phone, controlling Kortopi to move around, familiarizing himself with the operation as if playing a mobile game.
Then, Law controlled Kortopi to go find Hisoka.
Elsewhere, Hisoka stood before a corpse.
The corpse was that of Hedgehog from the Shadow Beasts. Both his neck and chest were pierced by playing cards, the cause of death being severe trauma to the neck and heart.
Hisoka had an unsatisfied expression. He had held some expectations, but the opponent was so weak they couldn't even last through the foreplay.
He casually flicked away the three playing cards he had been toying with. With three consecutive thud sounds, the cards embedded themselves into Hedgehog's corpse.
After venting a bit on the corpse, Hisoka continued towards the Cemetery Building, not even considering checking on Kortopi's situation.
In his view, if Kortopi dealt with his opponent, he would catch up on his own. If Kortopi was dealt with by his opponent, then that opponent would come to die as well.
There was no difference between the two outcomes.
After walking a hundred meters, Hisoka suddenly stopped and turned his head to look at Kortopi emerging from the shadows.
His gaze briefly swept over Kortopi's hands. Judging by the visible injuries, it didn't seem like a difficult fight.
"Finished?" Hisoka asked, going through the motions.
"Yes."
Kortopi responded tersely and walked towards Hisoka.
Hisoka didn't detect anything amiss. He withdrew his gaze and continued towards the Cemetery Building.
All obstacles along the way should have been cleared. The next task was to kill everyone in the building.
Secretly, Law controlled Kortopi to come to Hisoka's side. Once the distance was sufficient, he immediately commanded Kortopi to attack Hisoka, going straight for the kill.
"Oh?"
Perhaps because he had just finished a battle, Hisoka's sharp senses hadn't completely faded. The moment Kortopi moved, he noticed immediately.
His upper body suddenly leaned backward, avoiding the fist Kortopi aimed at his neck.
"This is just wonderful..."
Hisoka stared flatly at the fist passing over him, his golden pupils filled with a fierce killing intent.
He wouldn't ponder why Kortopi was attacking him. He only knew that at that moment, he had a legitimate reason to kill Kortopi.
Kortopi's punch missed. He turned his hand into a chop, striking towards Hisoka's chest.
Hisoka immediately crossed his arms in front of him, forcibly blocking Kortopi's palm strike. The force transmitted through, bending his body into an [L] shape.
Maintaining this posture, Hisoka lifted a leg and kicked Kortopi away.
Then, from this bizarre stance, he swiftly straightened his upper body, raised his right hand, pulled it back slightly, and activated the retracting property of [Bungee Gum].
Just moments ago, when he blocked Kortopi's palm strike, he had already attached his Nen to Kortopi's hand.
This pull yanked the flying Kortopi violently back towards him.
Hisoka grinned, stepped forward, and reached out with his right hand to grab.
Crack!
As they intersected, he tore off Kortopi's head with his bare hand. Kortopi's body flew backward, crashing to the ground and spraying blood everywhere.
Initially, while controlled by [Black Voice], he was still technically alive. Now, he was completely dead.
At this moment, the Spider had lost three legs.
"As for the reason... I'm not interested in knowing."
Hisoka held Kortopi's head in one hand and muttered to himself.
He wasn't interested in why Kortopi had attacked him.
His narrow pupils were filled with a crazed killing intent, like a murder addict whose cravings had been triggered, urgently needing to kill to relieve the symptoms.
"Huh?"
While his killing intent overflowed, Hisoka's nerves and senses became extremely sensitive. He suddenly sensed danger, took a step back, and instinctively raised his hand to defend.
Swiish!
A blade light flashed past. Most of his right hand, along with Kortopi's head, fell to the ground.
Law's posture from swinging his sword thus barged into Hisoka's line of sight.
"Law!"
Hisoka's pupils constricted sharply. The Aura gathered at the soles of his feet tightened like springs.
Bang!
The Nen with elastic properties erupted at this moment, propelling Hisoka instantly away from his original position by a full fifty or sixty meters.
That speed was comparable to Law's [Instant], preventing Law from launching a second attack.
'What was that just now...'
Law noticed the method Hisoka used to retreat. It didn't seem to fit purely into either the gum or rubber properties, and it seemed to be a fusion of the two...
'Had he already reached this level? It seems he's become stronger.'
Law thought to himself, then raised his foot and stepped on Hisoka's severed hand.
The moment he stepped on it, the severed hand twisted into a ball, and blood, bone, and flesh subsequently exploded. Simultaneously, blood began to flow from the stump on Hisoka's hand, who had retreated to a safe distance.
'Self-destruction...?'
"Not bad, you've learned to be smarter."
Law couldn't help but look at Hisoka's half-hand, which was continuously oozing blood, acknowledging the incredibly decisive act of self-mutilation.
"Are you praising me... Law."
Hisoka's grin stretched wide, his voice actually trembling slightly. Even he himself couldn't tell if the tremble was due to fear or excitement, or perhaps both.
Within the Aura emanating from his entire body, extremely complex emotions were filled.
There seemed to be fear, but more so excitement.
Law appearing in this manner completely exceeded his expectations.
But it didn't matter. For years, he had continuously refined himself precisely to welcome this moment.
Would he destroy Law, or be destroyed by Law?
He didn't want to know the answer in advance.
[Bungee Gum]
Hisoka gathered a sufficient amount of Aura at his feet. After transforming its properties, it was in a tense state.
After completing his defensive preparations, he raised his right hand, also gathering a surge of Aura. He used Aura transformed into gum-like properties to mold the shape of half a hand, forming a perfect hand.
"Using gum for shaping, then using [Texture Surprise] to conjure the skin."
In a moment, Hisoka's severed hand was restored perfectly.
If not for the bloody, mangled mass still by Law's feet, one wouldn't be able to tell that Hisoka's hand had been cut in half just moments ago.
"Compared to using adhesion to reattach the part you cut off, this method of self-destruction and re-shaping is more practical."
Hisoka's entire body was enveloped in an Aura that made one's hair stand on end. He raised his perfectly restored hand and twisted it a few times towards Law not far away, as if showing off.
"This is a change I made specifically to counter you. To be precise, my Nen has become stronger."
Having suffered several losses at Law's hands before, he was well aware that Law's Nen possessed greater offensive capability at equivalent levels. Coupled with that characteristic of shaving away Nen, once any part of his body was severed by Law, it could become the fatal flaw deciding the outcome.
Although using the gum's stickiness could reattach severed limbs, that method couldn't avoid the risk of Nen being continuously shaved away.
Therefore, to overcome this risk, Hisoka made some changes. One could also say he became stronger, so his Nen was refined as well.
Using the gum property for shaping, from soft to hard, then using [Texture Surprise] to construct the skin. This way, even if an entire arm was severed, it could be restored immediately.
This characteristic, different from regeneration yet comparable to it, was the key to countering Law's Nen Ability.
Also, Law's left arm...
Hisoka's eyes flickered.
"Counter?"
Law, however, let out a light laugh.