Ronin wasn't arrogant enough to step onto the ring without reading Greg's intel.
So from the very beginning, he already had a clear idea of what tactics Greg would use.
Bricks. Lime powder. Those were Greg's usual tricks—because according to the information Milia had gathered, Greg came from a street-thug background, and this was how he'd fought since he was a kid.
But from Greg's match footage, it was clear that aside from the brick—something Greg created with Conjuration—most of the other "tools" were items he carried on him.
For example, after his attacks were blocked by Ronin, he pulled a huge wrench out of his pocket.
Ronin dodged the wrench swing and threw a punch straight at Greg's face.
To be honest, calling Greg "ugly" wasn't quite accurate. In Ronin's view, "ugly and underhanded Greg" fit him better.
Bang!
Ronin's fist hit Greg—except it didn't land on his face.
It smashed into a brick that Greg conjured at the last second right in front of him.
And behind that brick, Greg didn't wait for it to get driven into his own face. He dropped into a crouch and swung the wrench toward Ronin's waist.
Ronin shattered the brick with a single punch.
But the shattered brick burst into a cloud of dust—something Greg had never shown in his previous fights.
Ronin reacted instantly. The moment his fist broke the brick, he closed his eyes, then drove his knee up hard toward Greg's face.
It looked like he had zero intention of defending against the wrench.
At that moment, if Greg retreated, he could've avoided the knee strike.
But Greg was vicious—he conjured another brick in front of him right as the knee was about to land.
Thud!
Ronin's knee slammed into the brick. The force blew it apart and continued forward, smashing into Greg's face.
Blood sprayed.
At the same time, Greg's wrench slammed into Ronin's kidney area.
Trading injuries?
Ronin lifted a brow. As his leg came down, he was already darting away.
And there was barely any pain from his waist at all.
Enhancement was the Nen category best at boosting offense, defense, and recovery.
And since Greg was a Conjurer, the "Enhancement effect" he could bring out in a fight was only about 60% of what a true Enhancer could produce.
When both sides had similar aura output, an Enhancer's punch simply hit harder than a Conjurer's punch.
And on top of that, Ronin could mobilize more aura in an instant than Greg could.
So Ronin's punch had broken through Greg's Ren defense and dealt real damage.
But Greg's wrench couldn't crack Ronin's Ren to hurt him.
That was Enhancement—pure, blunt stat-check domination.
Greg's advantage was his bag of dirty tricks.
But when Ronin was prepared, and the tricks couldn't bridge the gap in aura… then in close combat, Greg was guaranteed to lose.
Ronin leapt high.
Two bright red streaks flashed across the ring as his fist—packed with Nen and chakra—came crashing down onto Greg's chest!
BOOM!
A blast-like roar.
The entire arena went silent.
Then applause and cheers erupted like a tidal wave.
As for Greg—his chest caved in, his condition unknown—no one cared anymore.
At that moment, Ronin stood firm on the ring after withdrawing, the most dazzling presence in the entire arena.
"Winner: Ronin!"
The referee blew the whistle and declared the result.
The commentator roared with maximum hype. The crowd went wild as medical staff rushed in.
Ronin closed his eyes slightly and enjoyed the fanatical shouting for a moment. When he opened them again, he turned and left—only an aloof, solitary back view for everyone to see.
Down below, Milia pushed up her glasses.
She'd been right.
Ronin really was her best choice.
He was born to be a fighting star.
The only question was: how should she "lend him aura"?
Wait until Ronin got ten wins and challenged a Floor Master?
Or deliberately create a tougher situation for him?
Milia stood too, feeling conflicted.
If she did the latter and he found out, their partnership might break.
But if she waited… with Ronin's personality, even if he lost, he probably wouldn't borrow outside power.
Tricky.
Ronin attended the party Milia held for him.
The party's main purpose was taking photos—shots meant to sell his strength.
Everything proceeded as planned. This kind of event was part of their agreement from the start: it helped promotion and didn't take much of Ronin's time.
And besides, his first win on the 200th floor really was worth celebrating.
Ronin stayed for half an hour, told Milia he was leaving, and drifted away like a breeze.
For Ronin, the most important thing about the fight with Greg was confirming that his earlier judgment was correct.
He'd found the intermediate state between normal eyes and the Sharingan.
And that intermediate state was, in fact, the Scarlet Eyes.
The Sharingan was formed from the Scarlet Eyes—but the transition was so fast it was basically instantaneous.
However, through repeated attempts, Ronin had managed to stretch that instant out.
And as he did, his Nen changed too—part of it rapidly converted into chakra, while another part remained Nen.
This was exactly the state Ronin had been searching for: a state that wouldn't expose the existence of his Scarlet Eyes and Sharingan, yet would let him briefly possess both chakra and Nen.
In that state, Ronin tried to "enhance" ninjutsu with Nen.
But the results weren't good.
Ninjutsu didn't need Nen added to it at all. And for techniques like Fire Style, if he wanted to improve them through Nen, he might have to transmute his aura's properties.
Even though an Enhancer could train Transmutation to about 80% of a true Transmuter's effectiveness, Ronin saw that as a waste of his Enhancement talent.
Because even if Enhancement Nen "boosted" a jutsu, how much could it really boost it?
It was simpler to just pour more chakra into the technique—the power would naturally rise.
The truly crucial point of that intermediate state was this:
In that instant, Ronin could use the Sharingan to replicate Uvogin's Nen technique.
And as for using Enhancement to strengthen taijutsu bursts—the effect was close to what Ronin imagined: one plus one becoming greater than two.
But to achieve that, he needed deeper focus.
In solo practice, it was hard to truly unleash that kind of explosive power. On the ring—fully immersed in combat, fully focused—everything clicked, like it was meant to happen.
So it was true:
Combat really was the fastest way to improve.
Fortunately, Ronin held back at the last moment.
If he hadn't, with the two powers fusing and detonating at that instant, Greg probably would've been nothing but scattered pieces across the ring.
If Greg survived, Ronin thought, he should really thank him.
Of course, Ronin hadn't spared Greg out of kindness—he simply didn't want Greg's gruesome death to damage his own image.
~~~
Patreon(.)com/Bleam
— Currently You can Read 70 Chapters Ahead of Others!