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Chapter 113: Escape
Illumi's calculations were dead on. The wall violently exploded inward, showering the room in debris as a massive, skeletal hand cloaked in sinister crimson chakra lunged directly at him.
Simultaneously, the shadow clone, supercharged by its Lightning Style armor, materialized less than two meters away. Aided by blinding speed, the clone adjusted the trajectory of its [Chidori], aiming dead center for Illumi's heart without the slightest intention of holding back.
The sudden, overwhelming pincer attack managed to force a rare flicker of surprise onto Illumi's perpetually stoic face. Reacting instantly, he unleashed a massive volley of silver needles at the clone while his feet blurred into a bizarre, rhythmic shuffle, generating a swarm of afterimages around him.
The skeletal hand of the [Susanoo] tore through the illusions, crushing them into dust as it relentlessly swiped forward.
Meanwhile, a chaotic chorus of metallic clangs echoed as nearly a hundred needles pelted the shadow clone, violently halting its forward momentum. However, the needles entirely failed to pierce the dense layer of lightning chakra shielding its body. Recovering instantly, the clone turned its head, immediately locking back onto Illumi's true position.
The Rhythm Echo was an excellent assassination technique, utilizing a specific cadence of slow and rapid steps to manifest optical illusions that thoroughly disoriented targets. But against Ronin, it was utterly useless. The Sharingan effortlessly pierced the deception, pinpointing Illumi's exact location. In fact, by closely observing the erratic footwork, Ronin's eyes were already breaking down the mechanics, making it entirely possible for him to replicate the technique himself.
The shadow clone surged forward once more, chasing down Illumi with a velocity that eclipsed the assassin's own speed. The [Susanoo]'s arm, having extended to its absolute limit, abruptly halted before rapidly dissolving into thin air.
At that moment, Ronin's true body stepped out from the adjacent room. But Illumi was already vaulting out the shattered window, landing lightly in the villa's courtyard. The shadow clone was right on his heels. The crackling blade of the [Chidori] had vanished from its hand, replaced by four fingers held tightly together in a spear-like formation. It was the lethal opening stance of the [Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite].
Ronin's main body strode quickly to the window. Channeling a massive surge of chakra into his left eye, he locked his unyielding gaze onto the fleeing assassin. In a fraction of a second, he activated [Ama-no-Tokotachi].
Illumi felt a soul-crushing wave of mortal danger wash over him, though he couldn't immediately identify its source. He knew with absolute certainty that the threat wasn't emanating from the lightning-clad clone bearing down on him from behind. That left only one other possibility.
Illumi snapped his head toward the window, locking eyes with Ronin. Even in the gloom of the night, the dense aura concentrated around Ronin's eyes made them impossibly bright. Bathed in the pale moonlight, those glowing, crimson eyes looked exactly like the gaze of a true demon.
Driven by pure, instinctual dread, Illumi jerked his body to the side. A split second later, an invisible, crushing force clamped down on his shoulder, completely freezing it in space!
The horrific spatial anchor violently arrested his momentum, trapping him right where he stood. Yet, a morbid sense of relief blossomed within Illumi's chest. He knew full well that if he hadn't executed that split-second, miraculous evasion, the invisible vise wouldn't have locked onto his shoulder—it would have seized his head.
Did I miss? Ronin narrowed his eyes slightly. He hadn't missed; Illumi had somehow managed to dodge the instantaneous spatial lock. Was it god-tier predictive combat analysis, or the raw, terrifying intuition of an elite killer? Ronin leaned toward the latter. Through the Sharingan's hyper-analytical lens, Illumi's sudden flinch possessed absolutely zero logical pattern or telegraphing.
Even if the spatial lock was slightly off-target, it ultimately didn't matter. The shadow clone had already closed the gap. Its [Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite] viciously plunged toward the center of Illumi's back.
Blood sprayed into the cool night air as the piercing strike tore completely through Illumi's body. However, the trajectory was off. Instead of obliterating the heart, the blow had sunk into the assassin's side. The clone hadn't missed its mark. In the microsecond before impact, Illumi had violently altered his own physiology. That grotesque anatomical shift wasn't limited to his torso; it also affected his frozen shoulder.
With a sickening tear, Illumi forcefully ripped his own flesh and bone free from the spatial lock. Completely ignoring the agonizing hole through his flank, he clamped a vice-like grip onto the clone's penetrating arm.
High-voltage electricity surged directly into his body, but Illumi's expression remained terrifyingly blank. He slammed his free palm against the clone's chest, driving a single, reinforced needle through the lightning armor and deep into the clone's body. The moment the needle pierced its core, the shadow clone erupted into a thick cloud of white smoke and dissipated.
Illumi's dark eyes shifted, catching a fleeting glimpse of Ronin's true body vaulting from the second-floor window. Pushing off the ground, the assassin vanished over the villa's perimeter wall, leaving behind only a trail of spattered blood and a grisly, severed chunk of his own shoulder eerily hovering in mid-air.
"Interesting," Ronin muttered, having witnessed the entire sequence clearly.
In the exact moment the clone's strike landed, Illumi had driven needles into his own flesh, forcefully shifting his internal anatomy to dodge a fatal blow. As for ripping his own shoulder off to escape the spatial lock—that was just sheer, ruthless insanity. Even so, the lack of arterial spray from the gruesome wound suggested Illumi had manipulated the blood vessels and muscles around the severed joint to immediately staunch the bleeding.
That the lightning failed to incapacitate him wasn't entirely surprising either. Coming from a legendary family of assassins, he had probably been subjected to high-voltage torture training since childhood, just like Killua. Should I try using [Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu] next time? It was a technique potent enough to temporarily trap Kakashi; in a strictly one-on-one scenario, its effectiveness could be devastating.
Would Illumi come back for round two after this botched attempt? Ronin was genuinely curious to find out. Furthermore, he couldn't help but wonder if Illumi's target had been him specifically, or just the disguise of Ryan.
"It seems Chrollo has made his move," Kurapika said, emerging from the darkness behind him. The chaotic clash had started and ended in a matter of seconds, giving him absolutely no opening to intervene.
"What makes you say that?" Ronin asked, though he already had the answer in his head.
If Chrollo hadn't orchestrated the hit, there was absolutely no logical reason for Illumi to suddenly show up in Meteor City to assassinate Ryan—especially considering Ryan had only just made contact with them.
Kurapika's deduction perfectly mirrored Ronin's thoughts. "However, it looks like Illumi was set up. Chrollo knows you have the ability to create perfect clones, and he knows you used that exact strategy against Raymond. I refuse to believe he wouldn't anticipate you pulling the same trick here."
"If we managed to kill Illumi here tonight, would the entire Zoldyck family come after me in full force?" Ronin asked curiously.
"I have no idea. There's no precedent for it. At least, nothing like that has ever surfaced in the intelligence I've gathered," Kurapika said with a slight shrug.
Despite the Zoldyck estate sitting prominently on Kukuroo Mountain—a famous tourist attraction, no less—the internal workings of the family remained an absolute mystery to the outside world. The only concrete information available was that their lineage had occupied the mountain for millennia. It was highly likely the ancient clan was harboring a terrifying amount of unknown secrets.
"Are you eager to fight the heavy hitters of the Zoldyck family?" Kurapika asked, easily reading the glint in Ronin's eyes.
"Yeah, a little bit. But I'm in no rush, and I definitely don't want it to escalate into a blood feud," Ronin admitted.
Silva and Zeno were monsters of an entirely different caliber. Judging strictly from his brief exchange with Illumi, Ronin could confidently say the eldest son was still leagues away from his father's level. Illumi's strength was roughly on par with a high-tier Phantom Troupe member. If Silva went one-on-one with a Spider, however, the patriarch likely possessed the overwhelming power to end the fight in a single strike.
Ronin knew his raw aura reserves were still dwarfed by Silva's, but his vast, versatile arsenal of ninjutsu meant the head of the Zoldyck family wouldn't have an easy time killing him either.
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