Chapter 64: Shadow Beasts Attack
Under the moonlight, a bat-like figure trailed Ronin's car from the sky.
It made no effort to hide its presence, seemingly confident that Ronin's group was easy prey.
As the car passed through an intersection, the figure swooped down, dropping a massive cloth directly onto the vehicle.
A man wearing round sunglasses, a Hawaiian shirt, and flip-flops landed in front of the car.
But the car, which should have been driving normally, had vanished. In its place, a small, twisted lump of metal resembling a liqueur chocolate sat on the asphalt.
The attacker was Owl, one of the Shadow Beasts.
His ability, Fun Fun Cloth, allowed him to conjure a magical cloth. Anything covered by it could be shrunk and captured instantly, regardless of size or whether it was alive.
Owl turned to pick up his prize. But before he could reach the cloth-wrapped car, a chain shot out from the shadows, aiming straight for him.
Suddenly, another man with white hair and dark skin appeared at Owl's side, stomping down on the chain.
This was another Shadow Beast.
As he stepped on the chain, a strange mucus secreted from his body, coating the metal links and threatening to spread toward the user.
But in the next second, the chain vanished.
At the street corner, Kurapika rematerialized the chain in his hand, his gaze hostile.
Simultaneously, a slender figure appeared behind Owl.
A shapely leg whipped out from under a skirt, delivering a high-speed roundhouse kick aimed at Owl's head. It was Neon, who had also escaped the shrinking cloth.
Bam!
Owl reacted just in time, raising his arm to block Neon's kick.
But the force sent him skidding backward several meters. As he stabilized, he saw the third passenger, Ronin, standing not far behind him.
His ambush had failed completely. None of the three were caught.
Did they realize the bat was bait and that I was the main attacker?
Thinking this, Owl conjured a massive cloth in his hand as he retreated, ready to throw it over Ronin at the slightest movement.
But Ronin didn't even look at him. His eyes were fixed on the ground.
Ronin raised his fist, channeling aura in the style of the Big Bang Impact. With a burst of pure Enhancement power, he punched the asphalt.
CRASH!
The road caved in, creating a deep crater.
But the target lurking underground wasn't there.
Meanwhile, a sonic wave blasted down from the sky. It came from the bat-winged Shadow Beast, Bat.
Windows along the street shattered instantly from the high-frequency screech.
Ronin, bearing the brunt of the attack, gathered aura in his throat and roared back, sending a counter-shockwave surging upward to cancel out the attack.
Four.
With his Sharingan, Ronin clearly identified four Shadow Beasts pursuing them.
This meant a maximum of six had gone to fight the Troupe.
What kind of allocation is this?
Did they think the Troupe was weak? Or did they think we were soft targets easy to capture, while the Troupe was too hard, so they split up?
Either way, Ronin didn't recall offending the Shadow Beasts enough to warrant a four-man hit squad.
But since they dared to come, they would stay here—permanently.
Ronin scanned the sky and the ground. He decided to leave Owl and the white-haired guy to Kurapika and Neon.
It was time to test their training.
"Capture the guy with the cloth. Kill the ugly one," Ronin shouted instructions.
Bat descended slightly.
From the crater nearby, a red-skinned, grotesque man burrowed out of the earth. This was Worm.
The white-haired, dark-skinned man was harder to identify, but Ronin had seen the mucus on the chain. Likely a Transmuter.
Kurapika was cautious. As soon as the mucus touched his chain, he dispelled it.
It was a smart defensive move. Since he could re-conjure it instantly, there was no need to risk contamination.
Owl pushed up his sunglasses. His arm was numb. That girl's kick was surprisingly heavy.
She looks delicate, but she's definitely an Enhancer.
"Leech, switch with me?" Owl asked the white-haired man (identified as Leech/Slug contextually).
"OK!"
Leech, dripping with slime, turned to face Neon.
Neon looked at him with sheer disgust.
She really didn't want to fight this gross slime-man. But Ronin had assigned the cloth-user to Kurapika, who was better suited for capture.
So, she was stuck with the slime.
Neon reached into her pocket and pulled out a fountain pen in her left hand.
She scrutinized Leech, but her gaze wasn't that of a fighter analyzing an opponent. It was a collector searching for a valuable part.
Unfortunately, the answer was no.
From the outside, he had zero collection value. Maybe his insides were prettier?
Cars were piling up at the intersection, their drivers shivering in fear as they watched the standoff.
A truck horn finally broke the silence, hitting the play button on the paused battle.
Ronin stomped the ground, sending debris flying. He snatched a rock from mid-air, infused it with Shu, and hurled it at Bat in the sky like a bullet.
Worm dived back underground.
But his target wasn't Ronin, the monster who could punch craters in the road.
It was Kurapika.
Enhancers were hard to approach, but a Conjurer? Worm was confident he could drag him underground and crush him.
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