A day passed in the blink of an eye. By the following afternoon, everyone, including a large crowd of spectators, had boarded Hunter Association airships and arrived at a barren canyon clearing. To the sides lay an endless expanse of primeval forest.
The two protagonists didn't wait for the airship to land. From a height of over a hundred meters, Netero and Allen leapt simultaneously.
BANG! BANG!
With two deafening thuds, neither used any abilities or flashy tricks to slow their descent. They slammed into the ground like two cannonballs, creating two massive craters.
"Heh! Quite the aura! I can feel your vigorous fighting spirit and desire for victory!" Netero grinned.
"That's only natural. No one goes into a fight believing they'll lose. Besides, a vigorous spirit is the minimum respect one owes an opponent."
As the words left his mouth, Allen instantly conjured three Philosopher's Stones representing Earth, Water, and Wind. He crushed the Water and Earth stones with his fists and stepped on the Wind stone to sense the air currents, simultaneously boosting his movement speed and mobility.
Netero's expression shifted. "Are you not going to use your best weapon, your bow? Also, if I recall correctly, that giant silver wolf should be part of your strength, shouldn't it?"
Allen nodded. "You're right. That would be my full-power state. However, in that form, I can't control the lethality. Let's start with a warm-up. If you show me overwhelming power, I will give you everything I have."
"In other words, you don't think I'm enough to make you go all out yet?" Netero's gaze became fearsome.
"No. In my eyes, this is a sparring match. It's not worth you gambling your life. Furthermore, the Association still needs you as Chairman. I don't want to be the villain who took you away from them."
With that, Allen conjured the Heartbeat Watch. He instantly triggered an Aura Burst, launching an attack at speeds nearly invisible to the naked eye.
But in the next second... even at supersonic speeds, he saw the Chairman complete a prayer-like gesture with his hands!
100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva! First Hand!
BOOM!
A massive golden palm descended from the heavens, slamming toward Allen's position. Because the speed was so extreme, there was no time for dodging or parrying.
At that critical moment, a massive rampart of solid rock suddenly erupted from the ground, completely shielding the sky above. The golden palm smashed into the rampart with a deafening roar. Although the rock wall couldn't stop the 100-Type Guanyin completely—it was shattered into fragments almost instantly—it bought him precious time.
As Netero prepared the Second Hand, he suddenly felt his heart rate slow to a crawl, causing his entire body's movements to sluggishly lag.
In that briefest of windows, Allen broke through the blockade. Using Ryu, he concentrated 90% of his aura into his fist and struck Netero's undefended abdomen with lightning speed.
BANG!
Powered by his immense aura, the punch sent Netero flying dozens of meters. The old man coughed up a spray of blood.
"He... he coughed up blood? The Chairman is injured! How is that possible?!" Cheadle, watching from the airship, widened her eyes in disbelief. To be precise, she hadn't even seen what happened during the split-second exchange.
This was the feeling shared by most spectators. Everything had happened in less than 0.1 seconds. Those with lesser vision only saw the final result: the Chairman being sent flying and spitting blood.
"It was anticipation! That young man anticipated the old man's movements! The moment he charged, he had already used some power to summon that rock rampart to block his head, buying himself a sliver of breathing room. It was that tiny gap that allowed his supersonic speed to break through the Guanyin's blockade and hit the old man's belly. Though, strangely, the old man should have been able to make a second move, but his movements suddenly slowed down. I suspect it's the ability of that peculiar pocket watch."
Ging Freecss stepped forward to offer a detailed description. He was a busy man, but he had traveled a long way specifically to witness this fight.
"You mean... Allen judged the Chairman's next move from the start, prepared everything in advance, and caught that fleeting opening?" Cheadle stared in shock at the silver-haired boy below.
"Yeah. There are probably fewer than five Nen users in the world who could pull that off. That kid is a genuine monster. But it won't be that easy from here on out. The old man is finally going to get serious. Don't blink, or you'll miss the best part," Ging said, a trace of expectation appearing on his calm face.
Down on the ground, Netero spat out the remaining blood. In a tone eerily similar to Hisoka's, he said, "Excellent! Allen! That strike was perfect! Whether it was the anticipation, the rock wall used to buy time, or the discomfort caused by manipulating my heartbeat."
"No, at most that was an ambush where the prepared caught the unprepared. And if I'm not mistaken, I won't be getting a second chance like that, will I?" Allen had not let the success go to his head; instead, he became more cautious. He knew the 100-Type Guanyin wasn't just for single strikes; it could unleash continuous, non-stop carpet-bombing attacks.
"Hahaha! You are indeed clever! Come! Unleash everything! Cast aside all your restraints! It doesn't matter even if you kill me!"
With joyous laughter, Chairman Netero clasped his hands again, radiating a confidence and aura so powerful it was hard to look at directly.
"Sorry, but I have my own plans for this fight."
Allen refused the old man's proposal without a thought. He instantly pulled a handful of Thorium Arrowheads from his pouch and imbued them with a triple Nen stack: High-speed Rotation, Aura Burst, and Enhanced Velocity.
The moment Netero swung the great hands of the Guanyin to attack again, Allen relied on his neural reflexes, many times the human limit, to dodge the descending palm. Under the gaze of countless eyes, he seized the flickering gap and threw all the arrowheads at once.