"W-What is this?!"
The Spiders watched in absolute, mind-numbing horror as their perceived victory crumbled before their eyes. Their hearts hammered against their ribs, and a cold sweat drenched their backs.
Ryker's severed stumps were writhing. Within the span of a few shallow breaths, pristine white bone regenerated from the empty sockets. Then came the violent, pulsating weave of muscles, tendons, and finally, skin.
It wasn't just his missing leg. His amputated arms were regenerating at the exact same horrifying speed.
[Trait: True High-Speed Regeneration (Gold)]
Hsss—
Gon gasped loudly, his eyes practically bulging out of his skull. "Am... Am I dreaming?"
Killua's jaw dropped. The sheer absurdity of the scene completely short-circuited his assassin training. Even as a prodigy of the Zoldyck Family, he had never seen—or even heard of—an ability that allowed a human to instantly regenerate severed limbs from thin air. In the world of Nen, abilities were vast and bizarre, but true, instant bodily regeneration essentially rendered a person immortal. It was an impossibility.
The Phantom Troupe was equally paralyzed. Their minds went entirely blank.
These were mass murderers. Hardened killers who had fought countless elite Hunters and survived the deadliest environments on Earth. But they had never seen anything like this.
Nuclear explosions. Red lightning. Fire manipulation. And now... cellular regeneration?
"I-Impossible! How can this be happening?!" Phinks stammered, his face contorted into an expression of sheer panic.
Is this guy even human? What kind of insane training produces a monster like this?!
"We can't let him finish!" Phinks suddenly roared, snapping the others out of their stupor. "Attack him now! Before he fully recovers!"
The Spiders felt a bone-deep chill. They realized their master plan to drain Ryker's stamina using the mafia and assassin fodder had been entirely useless. The monster had walked right through the underworld's gauntlet, arrived at their doorstep, allowed them to chop off his limbs... and was now undoing all their hard work in seconds.
If they waited for him to fully regenerate, they were all going to die. This was their final stand.
"DIE!" Franklin roared.
Franklin and Uvogin hadn't been incredibly close, but Franklin was loyal to the Spider above all else. He knew his attack wouldn't kill Ryker, but as the vanguard, it was his job to suppress the enemy.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
The tips of Franklin's ten fingers dropped off, hanging by small chains, revealing the hollow, gun-like barrels embedded in his knuckles. He unleashed his absolute maximum output.
[Double Machine Gun]
A torrential downpour of heavy Nen bullets ripped through the alleyway, tearing up the asphalt and shredding the brick walls. To ensure Ryker couldn't dodge, Franklin intentionally widened his firing arc to include Gon, Killua, and Leorio. If the monster was willing to chop off his limbs for them, he would definitely protect them.
Simultaneously, Shalnark frantically tapped on his bat-phone.
He pumped his aura into the two [Black Voice] antennas still embedded in Ryker's shoulders. He intended to force Ryker to stop his regeneration or snap his own neck.
But when Shalnark hit the Execute button... nothing happened.
What?! Why can't I control him?! Shalnark's eyes widened in sheer terror. Did he let me control him before?! No! That's impossible! Once the antenna pierces the skin, my aura overrides their nervous system! They become an NPC in my game!
CRACK.
A faint, sharp sound echoed from inside Ryker's body.
Microscopic arcs of red lightning surged through Ryker's cellular structure, instantly incinerating the microscopic Nen threads Shalnark had injected into his nervous system.
[Trait: Lightning Nen (Red)]
The lightning didn't just enhance Ryker's speed; it acted as an absolute internal defense grid.
To control a target via Manipulation, the user's aura must overpower the target's will and aura defense. Against ordinary targets, Shalnark's antennas were instant-win conditions. But against Ryker? Ryker's aura was governed by a Red Trait, and his mental fortitude was anchored by Netero's [Absolute Will] (Red).
Trying to dominate Ryker's mind was like a house cat trying to put a leash on a tyrannosaurus rex.
With a simple flex of his internal lightning, Ryker obliterated Shalnark's manipulation.
Gah—!
Shalnark stumbled backward, his face turning deathly pale. When a Manipulator's intrusive aura is forcefully crushed, the backlash hits their own nervous system.
With the antennas neutralized, Ryker casually rolled his neck. His trademark mocking smile returned.
"Heh."
An invisible spherical barrier erupted around Ryker, perfectly shielding Gon, Killua, and Leorio behind him.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Franklin's heavy Nen bullets slammed into the invisible barrier. Instead of shattering it, the bullets slowed down drastically, as if sinking into deep mud, before freezing completely in mid-air right in front of Ryker's face.
[Trait: Telekinesis (Purple)]
Though it was only a Purple Trait, Ryker's base stats were so astronomically high that stopping Franklin's bullets was effortless.
"Damn it! Phinks, hurry up!" Bonolenov shouted, feeling the hairs on his arms stand up.
He noticed that the skin on Ryker's arms was almost fully formed. If they didn't land a fatal blow right now, the fight was over.
Bonolenov vanished.
He didn't run; he blurred out of existence, reappearing directly in front of Ryker.
"Brother Ryker, watch out!" Gon yelled.
"He's too fast!" Killua warned.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The bandages wrapping Bonolenov's body unraveled completely. As he moved, the air rushed through the hollow holes drilled into his flesh, creating a bizarre, high-frequency humming sound.
The sound was disorienting. Gon and Killua instantly felt their bodies lock up.
What's happening?! I can't move! Killua panicked, realizing his brain was no longer communicating with his limbs.
[Battle Cantabile: The Prologue]
The melody Bonolenov played with his body disrupted the nervous systems of anyone who heard it, leaving them paralyzed. It was the ultimate assassination technique of the Gyudondond Tribe.
WHAM!
Bonolenov brought a devastating, aura-infused hand chop directly down onto Ryker's neck.
A cruel light flashed in Bonolenov's eyes. He knew his attack possessed enough kinetic force to cleanly slice through solid steel. He fully expected to see Ryker's head roll off his shoulders.
But the moment his hand made contact... an agonizing, bone-shattering jolt of pain shot up Bonolenov's arm.
His eyes widened in shock. It didn't feel like he had chopped a human neck. It felt like he had slammed his bare hand into a block of solid vibranium.
[Trait: Iron Tank (Gold)]
[Trait: Enhanced Defense (Gold)]
Ryker's base physical durability, combined with multiple Gold-tier defensive traits, made him essentially indestructible to blunt force. Furthermore, Netero's [Absolute Will]completely negated the paralytic effects of Bonolenov's sonic attack. The mental disruption simply bounced off Ryker's psyche.
Before Bonolenov could even register that his attack had failed, Ryker moved.
Ryker's newly regenerated left hand—the skin still raw and pink, looking incredibly demonic—shot up and clamped onto Bonolenov's wrist.
Bonolenov felt the grip of death close around him.
Oh shit—!
In a split-second decision driven by pure survival instinct, Bonolenov didn't try to pull away. Instead, he violently spun his entire body in the opposite direction.
CRACK!
With a sickening tear of flesh and bone, Bonolenov deliberately snapped his own wrist off, leaving his severed hand in Ryker's grip as he launched himself backward like a coiled spring.
Blood sprayed from Bonolenov's stump, his face contorting in agony.
Gon and Killua stared in disbelief. Bonolenov had the element of surprise, the speed advantage, and a paralytic debuff active. Yet, the moment he touched Ryker, he had to tear his own hand off just to survive the exchange.
If he had held on for even a second longer, Bonolenov thought, clutching his bleeding stump, he would have grabbed me and smashed me into paste.
"He's immune to the sound!" Bonolenov yelled, quickly using his bandages to act as a tourniquet.
Franklin was still firing blindly, his Gatling-gun barrage continuing to wash over Ryker's telekinetic shield, unable to penetrate even an inch.
"Not bad," Ryker smirked, admiring the severed hand he was holding. "Sacrificing a limb to save your life. You have guts."
Ryker casually tossed the severed hand onto the bloody street like a piece of garbage. He then flicked his wrist.
SWOOSH!
The thousands of Nen bullets suspended in the air in front of him instantly reversed direction, rocketing back toward the Spiders.
"SCATTER!" Shalnark screamed, having finally recovered from the psychic backlash.
The Spiders dove in opposite directions as their previous positions were instantly vaporized by Franklin's reflected bullets.
Franklin fell to his knees, panting heavily, sweat pouring down his face. His own ultimate attack had been completely nullified and weaponized against him. It was the most humiliating feeling in the world.
But while the others had been fighting, one Spider had been standing in the back, winding his arm.
Phinks.
His right arm was a blur of motion, spinning like a turbine. His aura had condensed into a blinding, golden sun around his fist. The sheer, apocalyptic pressure radiating from him made the air in the alley heavy and suffocating.
[Ripper Cyclotron]
Phinks swore he had never spun his arm this many times in his entire life. The more he rotated his shoulder, the exponentially stronger his punch became. But the recoil was immense. Blood was currently leaking from the corner of his mouth, and the muscles in his arm were screaming, tearing under the strain of containing so much raw, explosive aura.
He knew that if he didn't surpass his absolute limits right here, right now, the Phantom Troupe was finished.
This is it. This is my absolute maximum output! Phinks roared internally, his arm feeling like it was about to physically detonate.
Even Gon and Killua, huddled behind Ryker, felt their breath catch in their throats as they sensed the world-ending power gathering in Phinks' fist.
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