Forty-four hand seals—through relentless practice, Ronin had compressed the time required to perform them to the absolute extreme.
His hands danced in front of his chest, leaving behind afterimages. In less than four seconds, Ronin completed all forty-four seals.
A massive amount of chakra gathered in his mouth, to the point where it nearly drained more than half of the chakra in his body.
And this was while he was still under the enhancement of Nen borrowed from Millia.
This was a B-rank ninjutsu—a complete, offensive B-rank technique unleashed at full power, regardless of the cost.
When Nen users activate their abilities, there is an upper limit to their manifested aura output. Even the strongest Nen users find it difficult to release all of their aura in a single instant.
From Ronin's memories of the manga, only Chairman Netero had ever managed to unleash his Nen without restraint in a single moment.
That technique was called Hyakushiki Kannon: Zero Hand.
A strike that embodied Chairman Netero's very life.
Ninjutsu, however, did not suffer from this limitation. While a single technique wouldn't completely drain a ninja dry, the power it could unleash could come infinitely close to the kind of full-body Nen concentration that Chairman Netero achieved.
To put it more concretely—
Under normal conditions, Ronin's manifested aura output, according to Millia's assessment, was a little over 700.
With Ultra Destruction Fist combined with Sakura Charge, Ronin could unleash power far beyond 700—nearly doubling it to around 1,500.
But that was basically his limit.
Compared to Ronin's staggering 8,400 points of potential aura, that level of output only consumed about one-sixth of his total Nen.
That limit could be expanded, but no one knew how much time and effort Ronin would need to invest in training to achieve it.
Even after borrowing Nen from Millia, his burst output still struggled to exceed 1,500. The additional Nen mainly enhanced his endurance and staying power.
But ninjutsu was different.
The more chakra it consumed, the greater the destructive power of an offensive ninjutsu. There was no such thing as a manifested-output limit.
At this moment, after converting the Nen borrowed from Millia into chakra, Ronin's total chakra level was around 23,500.
The instant the ninjutsu was released, it consumed roughly 13,000 chakra!
The power of this single attack was about ten times that of Ultra Destruction Fist combined with Sakura Charge.
Fire Release · Great Fire Annihilation
The chakra gathered within Ronin transformed into searing flames, which he expelled in one tremendous breath!
In an instant, blazing fire erupted across the arena, forming a massive firestorm. Everything around was swallowed by a sea of flames.
Uvogin, caught at ground zero, was directly engulfed by the inferno.
The overwhelming flames even looked as if they were about to surge toward the audience, but they stopped spreading the moment they reached the edge of the arena.
Arena No. 227 was enormous to begin with, and Ronin had already positioned himself near one side of it when he released the technique.
In the stands below, as Great Fire Annihilation erupted, some people finally couldn't stay seated anymore.
Two figures leapt out of the crowd at the same time, skirting the edge of the flames. Ignoring the panicked spectators scrambling backward in fear, they charged straight toward Ronin from along the wall of the audience area.
Ronin swept his gaze over them and immediately recognized who they were.
The man with his hand resting on the hilt of a sword at his waist was Nobunaga.
The other—pink-haired, slightly petite, and expressionless as she ran—was one of the Phantom Troupe's female members, Machi.
The one who specialized in turning Nen into threads, and who liked to hang her enemies up and kill them with those threads.
At the same time, Ronin felt pressure from behind, as if something had locked onto him.
Without even looking, he could roughly tell that the one aiming at him wasn't Shalnark, but Franklin, another Troupe member who had arrived with Machi.
Millia had already informed him of this before he entered the arena.
As an Emitter-type Nen user, Franklin excelled at mid- to long-range attacks.
In other words, Nobunaga and Machi's attacks would likely arrive only after Franklin's firepower came down first.
Great Fire Annihilation was complete. A huge amount of chakra had left Ronin's body, freeing up his hands again.
He formed a cross-shaped hand seal in front of his chest.
Another Ronin appeared directly behind him.
The moment it appeared, it began forming hand seals at high speed.
Earth Release · Earth Shore Return
Stone slabs burst up from the ground, only to be rapidly punched full of holes amid a series of loud cracks.
This was a preemptive response to Franklin's predicted attack!
Nen bullets poured down from the stands, tearing through every spectator in the path of that towering figure and pulverizing the stone slabs that had just risen from the ground.
But in that very instant, Franklin—standing on the high platform with earlobes hanging down to his chest, both hands raised as his fingertips opened into pitch-black gun barrels that fired Nen bullets—suddenly felt a wave of danger.
Acting on instinct, he twisted his body to dodge while sweeping his hands to fire in return.
That's when he saw it—
A young man with an inverted V-shaped hairstyle, rapidly evading the barrage of Nen bullets.
Franklin's brow furrowed. He sensed the powerful aura coming off the opponent, one that faintly gave him the feeling of being evenly matched.
What made him even more cautious was what he noticed in his peripheral vision—at the spot he had dodged from earlier, a small hole had somehow appeared.
Had Ronin already set things up in secret?
With such a helper backing him up, no wonder Ronin had dared to accept Uvogin's challenge in the arena.
Meanwhile, Nobunaga and Machi had already closed in near Ronin at the edge of the arena. But before either of them could strike, Ronin crouched down and slammed both hands onto the ground.
Earth Release · Earth Flowing River
Ronin poured chakra into the ground. The arena floor—and the wall that Nobunaga and Machi were stepping on—resonated with his chakra, instantly shifting from solid stone into undulating, mud-like terrain.
Completely unprepared for such a change, the two had no time to react. The moment they stepped forward, they sank straight into the mud.
At the same time, a strange force wrapped around them, dragging both of them rapidly toward the center of the arena.
Machi flicked her wrist, firing Nen threads into nearby spectators.
One after another, the spectators became tools. As they were yanked toward her, Machi pressed them down into the mud, using the leverage to wrench herself free from its grip.
By then, Ronin had already leapt down from the arena and was sprinting toward the exit.
As for Uvogin on the arena floor, the flames from Great Fire Annihilation hadn't fully dissipated yet. Ronin had no way of knowing whether that attack had completely burned Uvogin to death.
But he didn't have time to check.
The professional Hunters he had hired for a hefty sum could help stall Franklin and the others for a short while, but expecting them to truly stop the Phantom Troupe was a stretch.
After all, the pay wasn't high enough for them to risk their lives.
Especially since the people he hired were either members of the Hunter Association's specialty division or straight-up mercenaries.
Those guys were experts at slacking off while still collecting rewards.
Back when Ronin made a deal with Wisley, he had taken notice of Wisley's bodyguard, Yardley.
That was someone who would one day assist Beyond Netero in traveling to the Dark Continent—clearly a man with real strength.
Using Yardley to block the Phantom Troupe struck Ronin as the best possible choice.
What's more, Yardley brought him an unexpected bonus: he could help Ronin get in touch with mercenaries and provide safe protection.
Naturally, Ronin had accepted without hesitation.