Insects and eyes.
What was the purpose of deliberately stating these?
Candy's thoughts found no foothold. Regardless of anything else, eliminate this woman.
Like a woman at the starting line of a race track, her raised hands suddenly dropped. Two seemingly ordinary Aura Clusters instantly took form from her palms, like two race cars gunning for horsepower, racing toward Cheadle.
Cheadle remained calm, Aura gathering at her legs in an instant, propelling her body to dodge the two Aura Clusters.
After passing Cheadle's body, the Aura Clusters suddenly turned into strip-like black shadows, making a sharp turn and attacking Cheadle's back.
The black shadows' appearance was blurred, perhaps due to speed, or perhaps shrouded in a layer of darkness.
The personnel stationed at the first line of defense had died by these black shadows… in an instant.
Cheadle, however, seemed to anticipate the sudden change in direction. Without even looking, she sidestepped to avoid the two black shadows.
Simultaneously, three more black shadows came from the front.
Multi-threaded control!
Cheadle had already 'grasped' some information about the black shadows, knowing she couldn't block them with her body. So even though these three black shadows came hastily, she chose to dodge just after stabilizing her posture, ultimately barely avoiding them.
A total of five black shadows from front and back, after missing their attacks, retracted into Candy's body once more.
Seeing this, Cheadle took two steps back, slightly increasing the distance, then said, "The insects are 3.2 inches long, slightly longer than a cigarette."
"Huh?"
Hearing the inexplicable data Cheadle stated, Candy frowned, a shadow of doubt creeping into her heart.
'Little darlings! Bite this ugly hag to death!'
Shouting this sentence in her heart, the five insects with indiscernible forms once again shot out from Candy's body, swiftly attacking Cheadle.
But for some reason, their speed was a tiny bit slower than before.
Candy's eyes changed slightly. If she weren't extremely familiar with her little darlings' speed, she probably wouldn't have noticed.
'What's going on? Did that ugly woman do something?'
Candy was inwardly alarmed and suspicious.
Cheadle avoided the insects' attacks again.
The insects' speed was too fast, and the terrain limited most of the space, increasing the difficulty of dodging.
However, Cheadle was, after all, a Triple-Star Hunter, possessing not-too-weak direct combat ability. Although the opponent's continuous attacks made her somewhat weary, she successfully dodged them all.
"They have eleven compound eyes. One pair is blue, lacking visual function."
Stabilizing her body, while tangoing with the insects, Cheadle again stated the insects' physical characteristics.
Hearing this, Candy could only increase her attack frequency.
This time, the speed dropped again.
'Could it be...?'
Candy became alert, realizing the opponent's ability might weaken her own through 'clarification'.
'By stating the little darlings' symbolic features, thereby weakening their speed?'
'Then, what was the activation condition? When was the condition set?'
"Three pairs of cicada-like wings, spiral-toothed mouthparts, bloodthirsty."
Cheadle gave Candy no space to think, again stating the insects' characteristics.
In essence, Cheadle couldn't clearly see the details of the insects' forms. But she 'heard' the sound of the insects' flapping wings… that is, Listening from the Four Examinations of traditional medicine.
Thus, once the insects' identity was exposed, she could see the details clearly… that is, Observation from the Four Examinations.
"These insects are called [Wire Snipers], a bloodthirsty creature from the Echoing Forest in the northern Azian Continent," Cheadle looked at Candy's slightly unpleasant expression and calmly said. "But the Wire Snipers you control aren't real Wire Snipers, they're Nen Beasts, right?"
Questioning from the Four Examinations.
Observe the form, Listen to the sound, Question the root.
Finally, Touch!
Having her details exposed by Cheadle, dark clouds spread across Candy's cute face.
If it were just having details known, that wasn't much. What was feared was her little darlings having their trump card weakened.
'Never mind!'
Candy's ferocity surged, controlling four Wire Snipers to attack Cheadle.
With details completely revealed, the Wire Snipers' speed was about 40% slower than at the beginning.
Since Cheadle could dodge the Wire Snipers at 100% speed, dodging them at 60% speed was no problem at all.
But this time, Cheadle didn't dodge. Instead, with the Wire Snipers' speed reduced, she swiftly took off her white gloves and caught them bare-handed.
This was the final step of her ability's effect, the last step of the Four Examinations: needing to personally touch the 'diagnostic object' with her hands… that is, Touching.
Seeing Cheadle catch the Wire Snipers bare-handed, Candy didn't have time to think much. She controlled the final Wire Sniper, whose form was erased using In, to attack Cheadle's back from behind, targeting the heart.
"Confirmed to be Nen Beasts. Diagnosis complete." At that moment, Cheadle suddenly said.
Including the Wire Sniper stabbing at Cheadle's back, they all suddenly turned into green light points, swiftly retracting into Candy's body.
That was an ordinary sight when an Emitter-type Nen User retrieves their Aura.
However, Candy hadn't actively retrieved her Aura. The Wire Snipers were forced to revert to Aura and return to her body, tinged with a layer of green glow.
Simultaneously, Candy's face changed dramatically.
'Aura... I can't use it.'
The Aura covering Candy's body gradually retracted into her.
The normally invisible Aura Nodes were forcibly closed.
"What did you do?"
Candy was both shocked and furious.
"I'm not obliged to explain to you."
Cheadle put her white gloves back on and rushed in front of Candy.
Without Aura assistance, even though Candy was an elite assassin of the Blackstone Family, she couldn't directly withstand Cheadle's attack.
A punch directly to the abdomen instantly robbed Candy of her ability to resist. She fell to the ground, a pained expression on her face.
Cheadle looked at the fallen Candy, raised her hand, ready to chop and knock Candy unconscious, when her expression suddenly changed.
Candy's face instantly turned bluish-green, and copious white foam bubbled from her mouth.
"Darn it."
Cheadle hurriedly checked Candy's condition. The conclusion was Candy had taken a potent poison.
Within moments, Candy stopped breathing… ruthless and decisive.
Immediately after, a dull thud.
A communication device placed somewhere automatically destroyed itself, further dissolving the corpse.
Watching this scene, Cheadle couldn't help but bite her thumb.
They had set a trap under the premise of ensuring Netero's safety.
The goal was to capture the assassins alive, then extract intelligence.
Originally, this was a guaranteed win. But the corpse on the ground clearly told Cheadle that although Blackstone Family's operation was doomed to fail, the Association also wouldn't gain much.
'With the difficulty of capturing alive so high, should we cancel the original plan?'
Hesitation appeared in Cheadle's eyes.
Should they continue the high-risk operation, or directly execute an extermination action?
…
Frequent noises began emerging from multiple locations in the hospital.
Amidst the night, the scent of blood gradually rose.