"Heh..."
Ryker's quiet chuckle echoed like a reaper's whisper.
The three survivors—Bat, Wolf, and Elder—shuddered. Their arrogance was gone, replaced by the primal urge to flee.
Bat launched himself into the sky. Higher! If he could just get high enough, he'd be safe. His heart hammered against his ribs.
Thwip!
A streak of blue lightning pierced the night.
Bat froze mid-flap. His eyes bulged as a jagged metal shard—the tip of Vampire's broken blood-sword, wrapped in Ryker's Lightning Nen—burst through his chest and out his mouth.
I'm... dead?
He fell like a stone.
[DING! You killed Shadow Beast: Bat.]
[DING! Acquired: {Ultrasonic Wave} (Purple)... {Bat Physiology} (Purple)... Traits rejected. Converting to XP...]
"He... he threw a sword shard?"
Wolf, now armless and terrified, didn't wait to see more. He turned and ran.
He ran faster than he had ever run in his life. He was the fastest Shadow Beast on land. He just needed to get away from this monster.
The Elder screamed as lightning from Ryker's body conducted through his own wooden vines, turning him into a living torch.
Crack-BOOM!
The Elder was reduced to charcoal in seconds.
[DING! You killed Shadow Beast: Elder.]
[DING! Acquired: {Transmutation Talent} (Purple), {Wood Manipulation} (Purple).]
Ryker smiled.
{Wood Manipulation} (Purple).
Finally. The missing piece.
He looked at the fleeing Wolf, who was now a kilometer away.
Ryker took a step.
[Short-Range Teleportation]
Zip. Zip. Zip.
He moved in staccato bursts, closing the distance instantly. To Wolf, it looked like Ryker was folding space, shrinking the earth beneath his feet.
Wolf looked back and saw Ryker gaining on him.
"No! NO!"
But then, Ryker stopped.
He was still hundreds of meters away. He gently placed his palm on the ground.
Wolf blinked. He stopped? Did he give up?
Ryker whispered a name from another world.
"Wood Style: True Several Thousand Hands (Hunter Edition)."
RUMBLE.
The earth groaned. A seismic wave knocked Wolf off his feet.
"What is happening?!"
The ground beneath Ryker split open. Massive wooden roots, thick as skyscrapers, erupted from the desert floor. They twisted and wove together, rising higher and higher, blotting out the moon.
A colossal wooden Buddha rose from the sand.
It was a thousand meters tall.
It had a thousand arms.
It was a god made of timber.
Wolf stared up at it, his mouth agape, his brain refusing to process the scale. He felt like an ant looking up at a boot.
"B-Brother..." Wolf stammered, tears streaming down his face. "I... I just said some mean things... do you really need... this?"
Ryker stood on top of the Buddha's head, arms crossed.
"It's a bit smaller than Hashirama's," Ryker mused, critiquing his own creation. "But for a Purple Trait, it's not bad. Good for AOE."
He looked down at the speck that was Wolf.
"Squish."
The Buddha moved.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Hundreds of giant wooden hands slammed down.
It wasn't a fight. It was landscaping. The entire valley was flattened. Wolf was erased from existence, buried under tons of wood and earth.
[DING! You killed Shadow Beast: Wolf.]
[DING! Acquired: {Werewolf Transformation} (Purple)... Rejected.]
Ryker exhaled. The massive construct began to crumble into dust as he released the Nen.
"Dinner is served. Now for the main course: Uvogin."
Yorknew City. A Hotel Room.
"Greed Island starts at 8.9 billion Jenny," Leorio sighed, tossing the catalog onto the table. "We have five million. We can't even buy a ticket to the auction."
Gon and Killua looked defeated.
"Arm wrestling isn't cutting it," Killua admitted. "We need a miracle."
"Let's call Brother Ryker!" Gon suggested. "He always has a plan!"
Leorio dialed.
Beep. Beep. Busy.
He tried Kurapika.
Beep. Beep. Busy.
"Both of them?" Gon frowned. "I hope they're okay."
"Don't worry," Killua said, leaning back. "Ryker is a monster. Nothing in this city can hurt him. He's probably just busy making money."
An Abandoned Warehouse.
Uvogin was dumped onto the concrete floor, bound in chains reinforced with Nen.
Neon Nostrade and her other bodyguards were huddled in the corner, terrified.
"Dalzollene!" one bodyguard shouted. "You're insane! Bringing the Boss's daughter to this dump? When Papa hears about this—"
SLAP!
Dalzollene backhanded the man.
"Shut up!" Dalzollene roared. "You should be thanking Captain Ryker! If not for him, you'd be dead in that auction hall!"
Dalzollene was a believer now. He had seen the mushroom cloud. He served Ryker, not Nostrade.
"Heh. Ants."
Uvogin laughed from the floor. He looked like a wreck, but his spirit was unbroken.
"Enjoy your little victory," the Spider sneered, his eyes burning with malice. "My crew is coming. The Phantom Troupe will find us. And when they do? They will skin you alive. They will kill your families. They will burn this city to the ground just to hear you scream."
He looked at Kurapika.
"And you, Chain User... I'm going to make you watch."
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