Cailo pressed the advantage without mercy.
Each swing of his blades carved the rain apart; the elongated aura-edges cut through the air like guillotines.
Anisa was forced into rolling, sliding, and leaping backward just as the ground split where she had stood a heartbeat earlier.
Despite everything, she kept pushing forward.
Again and again, she tried to close the distance.
That was when Cailo understood something about the woman and her gun.
"She never used that gun."
Cailo narrowed his eyes as Anisa skidded to a halt several meters away, breathing hard, blood dripping from multiple shallow cuts along her arms, thighs, and side.
The revolver was still in her hand, but she didn't use it even when she had a chance to use it.
If an enemy has a gun that she or he can use in range and they are never using it, it is a suspicious thing that one can observe and encounter in a Nen battle.
It never meant good news.
"It seems like she is trying to stall time," he realized.
"But she does fight for real," he continued inwardly.
"So what is her purpose?"
"Maybe she needs to fulfill some conditions to use that gun."
"I would think that she is waiting for me to make a mistake to kill me without any problems." Cailo thought several things at once.
Anisa straightened slowly, chest rising and falling.
Forty seconds had passed.
In those forty seconds, Cailo's blades had changed dramatically.
The aura surrounding them now extended nearly six meters outward, forming massive spectral swords that distorted the air around them.
Cailo exhaled, feeling the weight of his Nen pour into his weapons.
His ability had fully engaged.
"Demon Swords—Bloodhungry."
The conditions had long been fulfilled.
When his swords damaged a target, the ability activated automatically.
Every wound inflicted fed the blades more aura, enhancing their speed, cutting power, lethality, and, most dangerously, their range.
Power had a ceiling: his own aura limit.
But range?
Range had no cap.
The more his opponent bled, the farther his blades could reach.
And Anisa was bleeding.
Cailo lunged forward, swinging both blades in a crossing arc.
The aura edges overlapped, forming a wide killing zone that erased everything in front of him.
"That is dangerous!" Anisa thought.
She jumped, but not fast enough.
The edge grazed her shoulder, tearing flesh and spinning her through the air.
She slammed into the wet pavement and rolled, coughing as pain tore through her body.
Cailo didn't hesitate.
He stepped forward, blades raised.
"This ends now," he said.
Anisa pushed herself up on one knee.
Her body hurt everywhere.
Blood soaked her clothes, mixed with rain until it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.
Yet she laughed softly.
Cailo froze.
That quiet, breathless, genuine laugh sent a ripple of unease through him.
"You figured it out too late," Anisa said, lifting her head.
Cailo frowned.
"What?"
She pointed at him again.
The same gesture as before.
But this time, she didn't think it.
She spoke it.
"I marked you."
Cailo felt it at last.
A sudden, invasive sensation bloomed in his abdomen right where her blade had cut him earlier.
His aura stuttered, just for an instant, like a misfiring engine.
"What?" He grimaced and took a half-step back.
The invisible mark flared.
It had grown quietly while he fought.
While he poured more Nen into his blades.
Anisa rose to her feet, swaying slightly but still standing. Her eyes burned with intent.
"My ability activates through intent from the enemy, pure killing intent, and also getting injured helps a lot..." she said.
She then added.
"I am pretty inclined to kill people who attack me to murder me."
"This feeling of mine translates into the power of my gun directly and powerfully."
"The one who prepared to kill the others must be prepared to die."
"Don't you think so?" Anisa spoke as she asked.
Cailo's expression darkened as he felt his aura circulation distort.
"You were stalling," he said slowly.
Anisa nodded.
She spread her arms slightly, inviting him to attack again.
"A beautiful ability you have there. The more you hurt me, the more dangerous you become."
"Your blades grew in range, and your power increased as the time went on."
Cailo clenched his jaw.
"But you never thought about why I was getting injured and never made a different type of attack other than just keeping pushing."
"Don't you think it is a pretty amateurish move from me?"
"In the end, you may not like me or think of me as an enemy, but I am still a Nen user that fights in the Heavens Arena."
"I did not learn nen through baptizing but constant training."
Cailo listened, but his mind was already calculating what kind of an attack she could do now that her conditions are fulfilled.
"I was careless; I need to finish this battle quickly." Cailo thought.
Much more than just a thought, his soul screamed that he needs to kill the woman in front of him; her eyes and confidence were not a joke, which meant that if he gets hit by the attack, the strike she will perform will not be great for him.
The mark pulsed again.