Watching the battle unfold below, a satisfied smile touched Bisky's lips in the stands. "Kevin's mind works quickly in combat. He's applying the theory I taught him directly to the fight. Compared to his stubborn physical learning, his brain adapts very fast."
As she spoke, her gaze involuntarily drifted toward Mori beside her.
Feeling the weight of her stare, Mori immediately turned his head, focusing with intense concentration on the arena.
In the Arena.
Kevin had already scored two points: one for an effective hit, another for a knockdown. But he didn't let up. The moment Chello was sent flying, Kevin was already in motion, closing the distance in a flash.
Facing a downed opponent struggling to regain his footing, Kevin lunged forward and delivered another piston-driven punch.
BOOM!
The force of the blow resonated through the entire arena. The ring's floor shattered where he struck, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air that partially obscured the view.
"What happened?!"
"Is Chello dead?"
"With power like that, even if he's not dead, he's knocked out!"
"Did that cruel bastard finally get what he deserved?!"
"Look over there!"
Following the shouts, the crowd saw a figure flying diagonally out of the obscuring dust cloud. The figure seemed to float, tracing an unnatural, semicircular path through the air before landing at the farthest point from Kevin.
The dust settled. Kevin stood, shaking debris from his right hand. A man-sized crater marked where his punch had landed.
He turned. Chello was already back on his feet in the distance, having somehow adjusted his posture mid-flight. His condition, however, was poor. His shoulder was grotesquely swollen and red where Kevin's punch had connected; the bone was undoubtedly fractured.
Kevin didn't press the attack this time. He was piecing together the rules of his opponent's ability.
Chello's four weapons were thrown and controlled. The dagger had sharpness. The meteor hammer emitted shockwaves. A thrown weapon took roughly three seconds to retract—hitting a target might speed this up, but Kevin hadn't been hit to confirm. The weapons could be wielded in hand, but their power seemed diminished; otherwise, his last punch would have been more heavily deflected.
The curved hook's ability had just been revealed: it could carry Chello's body for rapid movement. After being punched, with no time to adjust, he'd thrown the hook to yank himself to safety. Kevin judged this movement required significant distance, with only limited arc adjustments possible mid-flight. The cooldown was unknown—maybe three seconds, maybe more.
Swish! Swish!
The dagger and meteor hammer shot toward him again from different angles, trying to box him in. Kevin squatted and leaped sideways in a frog-like hop.
But the attacks he thought he'd dodged suddenly curved, tracking his new trajectory. Chello had used three weapons. He'd thrown the curved hook toward Kevin's evasion path, dragging his own body along, and in doing so, the trajectory of the other two thrown weapons shifted as well.
He can manipulate them like that? It seemed there was a restriction: the weapons couldn't be freely steered once thrown. Conversely, hitting a target likely reduced the retrieval time.
Kevin realized his evasion space was now critically limited. He had to take a hit.
Almost without conscious thought, he made the choice. He twisted to let the dagger whistle past his ribs and met the incoming meteor hammer with a powerful kick from his left leg.
THUMP!
A deep, strange sound reverberated. The shockwave that erupted was more powerful than any previous close-range emission.
Hmm? This much force?
The doubt flashed through his mind just as the answer arrived. Even braced for impact, the concussive blast sent him skidding backward.
No pain? Not much sensation of injury.
He hadn't taken much damage. Not even his shoe was torn.
So that's it. The meteor hammer was primarily a repelling tool. Its knockback power far outweighed its direct damage. It was a support weapon, used to create openings for the other, more lethal tools. Its intimidating appearance was a bluff.
Alright, alright, he chided himself, focus on the fight, not just the analysis.
But analysis was what he needed. Using the momentum from the shockwave's repulsion, Kevin suddenly torqued his body. With no visible leverage, he completed a mid-air posture adjustment—another technique "borrowed" from Killua's arsenal. Thanks, little buddy.
He landed, already perfectly oriented, and shot toward Chello like a launched spear.
Chello clearly hadn't anticipated Kevin could not only recover from the repulsion but use it to accelerate his approach. The meteor hammer, having just been retrieved, was already back in his hand. He hurled it at the closing Kevin.
Not even three seconds. Kevin's guess was confirmed. Hitting a target eliminated or drastically reduced the retrieval cooldown.
The hammer's flight wasn't fast enough to stop Kevin's charge. Kevin planted his hands on the ground, using them as a pivot to flip his body sideways in a tight roll, the meteor hammer whistling past where his torso had been.
He landed and lunged again.
Now, all three of Chello's visible weapons were in the air or on their way back. Only the dagger could possibly be in hand for close-quarters defense in time.
So, what about the fourth weapon? When will he use it?
The answer came immediately.
The steel needle at Chello's waist vanished.
Kevin saw it! He'd maintained Gyo throughout the fight. The moment Chello threw the needle, it disappeared from sight.
In. And it was fast. Blindingly fast.
It was almost upon him in the time it took to blink. The steel needle's trait: Penetration.
Kevin raised his right arm to block.
Schlik!
The needle punched clean through his forearm, erupting from the other side in a spray of blood.
And there's the fourth trait.
"What was that?!" Mori exclaimed from the stands.
"Idiot, use Gyo!" Bisky smacked the back of his head. She had to admit, the enemy's Nen ability was more polished and his combat experience sharper than Kevin's. "So, how will you respond now?"
The steel needle embedded in his arm vanished. Blood welled from the entry and exit wounds, flowing freely.
Chello had already retreated to a safe distance. All four weapons were back on his belt. He was breathing heavily; the pressure Kevin exerted was immense.
"You were right," Chello admitted, his voice a strained rasp. "Pruning too many small branches made me forget what a great tree is. I will treat you as a great tree… and prune your branches properly."
"Then I'll have to thank you in advance," Kevin replied.
Then, he pulled two vials from his pouch and downed them in quick succession.
Strength Potion. Healing Salve.
Fifteen minutes. I'll finish this in fifteen minutes.
The current score was tied, 2-2.
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