Greg, the emergency ward security guard, had notified the rest of the hospital's security team to begin a pursuit the moment he realized Ivan was acting suspiciously.
He had picked up the man's phone outside the doctor's office.
The Nen attached to the phone was still there—but it had already lost its function.
Through the communicator, Yuliel, who had arrived at the hospital alongside him, was waiting for an update. Meanwhile, Greg studied the registry book in his hands, trying to predict where the man who had called himself "Bins" was heading.
But the small dinosaurs he had spotted outside the emergency ward had now chased him into the lobby.
They were rapidly closing in.
After the gunshots earlier, the emergency lobby had fallen into brief chaos.
Now, however, hardly anyone remained standing in the hall. At most, occasional groans could be heard from the emergency wards.
Greg tightened his grip on the pistol.
When the first Compsognathus leapt toward his leg, jaws snapping, Greg fired.
But to his astonishment—
the bullet missed.
Even though he had waited until the dinosaur was less than five meters away before pulling the trigger, the creature had dodged the shot.
It was unbelievable.
But Greg had no time to dwell on it.
The small dinosaur lunged again at his leg.
Rip—
His pant leg was torn open.
Yet the exposed skin beneath remained uninjured.
The moment the dinosaur attacked, Greg had already activated Ren.
The surge of aura reinforced his defenses, preventing the claws from cutting his flesh.
At the same time, Greg counterattacked, kicking out with explosive force.
But the kick missed.
More of the small dinosaurs were already pouncing.
Some bit with their jaws.
Others slashed with claws.
Pain flared across Greg's body again and again.
He swung the registry book in his hand and struck a Compsognathus that had latched onto his left shoulder.
The book, reinforced with Nen, had become razor-sharp.
The dinosaur's head was instantly severed from its body.
But the detached head remained clamped onto Greg's shoulder.
And then it began to revert—
transforming back into the head of a wildcat.
When Greg saw the cat's head, his heart sank.
A terrible premonition rose within him.
At that moment, pain shot through his ear.
A Compsognathus had leapt up and bitten him there.
As it fell from the air, a sheet of paper struck it midair before it could escape.
The paper had been torn from the registry book.
Infused with Nen, the thin sheet sliced cleanly through the creature's body.
The dinosaur reverted into the form of a wild dog, its intestines spilling onto the floor.
Greg raised a hand to his ear.
His fingers came away warm.
The metallic smell of blood filled his nose.
He was injured.
Seeing the endless stream of Compsognathus still pouring into the emergency lobby, Greg didn't dare linger.
He turned and sprinted toward the stairwell.
Through the earpiece came Yuliel's voice asking for an update, along with reports from the guards Greg had previously dispatched to intercept the target in the outpatient hall.
They had failed.
Which was exactly what Greg had expected.
The dinosaurs were already chasing him up the corridor.
Ignoring the pain in his ear, Greg examined the map printed on the back of the registry book.
Gradually, he noticed something.
"He's heading toward the morgue!" Greg reported.
What he didn't notice was the small fragments peeling from the corner of his lips.
Yuliel had already arrived among the security team.
With a sharp eye, he quickly noticed something strange.
Several guards were undergoing mutations.
They were beginning to transform into dinosaurs.
A thought surfaced in Yuliel's mind.
Ivan had not come to the hospital alone.
Otherwise, there was no explanation for how a single person could possess two completely unrelated abilities.
Humans had limits.
Yuliel had learned that lesson seven years ago when he nearly died.
No matter how talented someone was, there was no way a person of Ivan's age could develop two such refined and powerful abilities simultaneously.
The dinosaur transformation ability resembled a Conjuration-type ability.
Meanwhile, the ability that erased half of his body felt closer to an Emission-type ability.
And having both on the same person was practically impossible.
Unless…
Yuliel thought of the death Nen clinging to Ivan's body.
Unless that death Nen was granting him a second ability.
From their earlier encounter, Yuliel had already determined that Ivan himself could not control that death Nen.
Otherwise, when Yuliel launched his long-distance attacks, Ivan would have at least used Ten or Ren to reinforce his defenses—even if he avoided using Ken to conserve stamina.
Instead, he allowed the death Nen to remain exposed around his body, offering only mediocre protection.
Yuliel had reached his conclusion.
Moving quickly, he seized a nearby guard and stripped the man of his communication equipment.
During the entire process, the Compsognathus lurking nearby did not attack him.
They merely circled at a distance.
Only the guards who were in the middle of transforming into dinosaurs stared at Yuliel with increasingly feral eyes.
Yuliel ignored them.
Once they fully transformed, they might even serve as projectiles for his Nen ability.
But he couldn't be sure how long that transformation would take.
Right now, his priority was making sure Ivan didn't escape the range of his ability.
Yet after putting on the earpiece, the static-filled noise coming through it made Yuliel frown.
He stopped walking.
Just then, headlights appeared on the hospital's asphalt road.
A car was approaching.
Its movements were erratic, swaying left and right as though the driver were drunk.
Yuliel narrowed his eyes.
Normally, cars moving through the hospital at this hour were not unusual.
After all, the inpatient ward stood not far behind him.
Deaths occurred there regularly, and vehicles arriving in the middle of the night were common.
But tonight was different.
Gunshots had already been fired in the hospital.
The guards at the main entrance had been pulled away.
A vehicle appearing here now felt… wrong.
Unless—
Could the driver possibly be Ivan?
From the moment Ivan created distance, turned corners to block line of sight, and used the small dinosaurs to monitor him, Yuliel had begun to suspect that Ivan had already figured out part of his ability.
If that was the case…
Would Ivan really return here in a car just to die?
Yuliel reached into his pocket.
When his hand emerged, it held a tennis ball.
Then he bent down.
His fingers dug straight into the asphalt road.
With a powerful pull, he tore out a chunk of pavement, leaving a small crater behind.
Whether the driver was Ivan or not—
the moment that car entered three hundred meters, Yuliel would hurl the pavement fragment wrapped around the tennis ball.
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