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Chapter 123: Maha Zoldyck
The crimson skeletal ribs instantly reappeared. The withered palm was blocked outside Susanoo's exterior.
But in a mere instant, a shattering sound quietly echoed. The withered hand continued forward, only to suddenly freeze mid-air.
"Oh?"
The short, shriveled old man let out a sound of confusion.
This person was none other than the oldest living entity in the Zoldyck family, Maha Zoldyck.
Blood slightly seeped from Ronin's left eye. The moment Susanoo shattered, he activated Ama-no-Tokotachi, confining the space directly in front of the hand, including the space the hand itself occupied.
Strong!
Too strong.
The instantaneous shattering of Susanoo made Ronin acutely aware of the terrifying destructive power behind that sudden attack.
Especially through the vision of his eyes, he saw that all the Nen on the opponent's body was concentrated entirely on the thrusting palm. That meant when the opponent launched the attack, he had executed an all-or-nothing Ko strike!
A flawless, all-or-nothing Ko strike executed with terrifying precision.
Without even taking a moment to think, he prepared to unleash Amaterasu from his right eye, targeting Maha.
But as the black flames birthed, they only scorched empty air.
Maha's figure had already vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a severed hand locked in the frozen space.
Too decisive!
It was as if the opponent didn't even care about losing an arm, cleanly making a choice the instant he sensed danger.
The confined space returned to normal. Ronin raised his hands to form hand seals.
But right at that moment, the withered hand—which should have fallen as the stasis disappeared—erupted with Nen and violently clawed toward Ronin's chest!
The residual Nen within the severed hand had become a crucial element in masking its ability to still move.
Ronin made an instantaneous judgment, but it seemed too late to stop it. The Flying Thunder God Jutsu activated the instant he completed the seals. Ronin's figure, along with the severed hand clutching his chest, vanished completely from the arena.
Maha's gaze snapped around, looking down toward a specific spot below.
Illumi had also appeared in the arena by now, standing exactly where Ronin had been moments before.
He held a fistful of silver needles gripped in his hand, but there was no longer anyone for him to attack.
"Follow me," Maha said, sensing the location of his severed hand. With a flash, he charged straight down the competitor's tunnel.
The referee on the stage, and the audience below, had long been left utterly dumbfounded by this sudden turn of events.
Seeing Ronin vanish from the arena like a living magic trick, everyone erupted into shocked and incredulous gasps. Then, seeing the two figures who had appeared out of thin air flash off the stage, they couldn't help but sweat for Ronin again.
Many people even started loudly condemning the Heaven's Arena administration for their incompetence.
Previously, when Ronin defeated Uvogin, he had been ambushed and blocked right after his victory. Now, after defeating Hisoka, someone was attacking him again.
Were the people at Heaven's Arena dead? They weren't doing anything at all!
The organizers felt deeply wronged. Up in the stands, there were professional Hunters hired specifically by the administration to prevent unexpected situations after the match.
Having Ronin attacked twice at the arena had already infuriated the management. They never expected that even with preemptive arrangements, they still couldn't stop the rampant actions of these attackers.
The two professional Hunters listened to the audience's complaints, feeling the vibration of their phones in their pockets, both wearing bitter expressions.
Come on, when we took the job, you didn't say the person we were protecting was this strong!
The combat prowess Ronin had displayed against Hisoka was already completely beyond what the two of them could match. The assassins who appeared afterward were equally monstrous. They seriously doubted if chasing after them would just be actively delivering their own heads on a platter.
But their employer had already called, clearly dissatisfied, so they could only brace themselves and pursue.
Ronin's Flying Thunder God coordinates were set on the 188th floor.
That was the room he had booked previously. Even though he had checked out, the marker remained.
The moment he reappeared there, he looked down at the severed hand on his chest.
The hand was still gripping him tightly, seemingly trying to tear through his defenses and dig into his body.
Ronin reached up, grabbed the severed hand, and with a violent surge of strength, ripped it directly off his body.
After all, it was an entity that couldn't even pierce his Ken defense; there was still a significant gap in physical strength between it and him.
However, looking at it this way, Maha was highly likely an Emitter paired with Manipulation type abilities. And what he manipulated seemed to be his own body parts.
He fiercely threw the severed hand away, preparing to unleash Amaterasu from his right eye onto it.
But the severed hand simply vanished into the air, as if it had entered another dimension.
This further confirmed Ronin's deduction. Maha had definitely trained in Emission abilities, and had trained them to the point where he could teleport himself.
This was also why he had appeared so abruptly, to the point where not even the Mangekyou Sharingan could track his trajectory.
As for the escaped severed hand, Ronin didn't care.
Although the Nen on the severed hand wasn't exceptionally strong, the best way to quickly dispose of it was to use Amaterasu. But Ronin had already consumed a massive amount of ocular power from continuously using Susanoo, Amaterasu, and Ama-no-Tokotachi.
Risking potential eye damage just to destroy one of Maha's severed hands simply wasn't worth it in Ronin's eyes.
If the severed hand hadn't used that spatial traversal ability, he might have tried using Fire Style or Wind Style to burn it or slice it to pieces.
But since the hand was already gone, his priority was naturally to leave as quickly as possible. Otherwise, Maha would likely follow the connection between himself and the severed hand to find Room 188.
As for his promise to heal Hisoka, he figured Hisoka would probably contact Milia, and Milia would tell Hisoka where to go.
Ronin cast the Flying Thunder God again, his figure instantly vanishing from the room. When he reappeared, he was already outside Heaven's Arena.
Less than two minutes after he left, two figures appeared simultaneously inside Room 188.
However, waiting for them there was Ronin's Shadow Clone, holding a Massive Rasengan in its hand!
Boom!
Standing outside Heaven's Arena, Ronin looked up. He could see a sudden explosion at a high elevation—the terrifying destructive power of the Massive Rasengan.
Ronin didn't know if the intruders caught in that explosive blast would die, but he knew that with this warning, even if Illumi teamed up with Maha to target him, they would have to weigh whether they could actually threaten him.
He wasn't worried about Maha or the others pursuing them. The Zoldyck family wasn't truly invincible; push too hard, and no one would walk away clean.
Making an enemy out of a lone wolf like him, whose clan had already been massacred, was truly not a wise move.
As he lowered his head, a car had already pulled up beside him. The door opened, and sitting inside were Kurapika and the others.
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