Goreinu arrived just in time to save Grachan, flaring his aura as he assessed the situation. He realized immediately that Targer was a cut above the average opponent. Even Grachan—the man responsible for the coastline's defense—had been pushed to the brink. For Goreinu, who relied primarily on close-quarters combat with his Nen beasts, the compatibility was even worse.
(This is a real pain. I've got almost nothing that can land a finishing blow. If I can't have Gon, I'd at least take someone at Killua's level right now,) Goreinu thought, scanning for an opening.
A brief silence hung over the battlefield as Targer warily eyed the newcomer. Sensing Goreinu's hesitation, Grachan shouted a proposal.
"Buy me some time! I'm going to use my ultimate trump card!"
"I'm counting on you, Grachan! ☆ Let's go! Black Sage! White Sage! Triangle Dance!"
Uhoho!
Goreinu and his two conjured gorillas surrounded Targer in a triangle and began to perform a strangely seductive, synchronized dance. Targer, braced for an attack from the three new opponents, simply stood there with his jaw hanging open, his mind completely blank at the absurdity of the sight.
"...Wait, are you seriously just stalling for time?! Screw you! If I eat the main body, it's over!"
Snapping back to his senses, Targer lunged at Goreinu in a fury. But the moment he closed in, his vision shifted. Suddenly, he was facing the White Sage at point-blank range, its arm already swinging in a massive lariat.
"Gubuh?!"
The lariat struck Targer squarely, sending him crashing onto his back. Before his vision could clear, the gorilla vanished, replaced instantly by Goreinu himself, who was already bringing his heel down in a crushing strike.
"CHESTO!"
"Gofuh?!"
The heel slammed into Targer's throat—the same spot the lariat had hit—dealing significant damage. Enraged, Targer forced himself to spin, unleashing a Death Roll that blew back Goreinu and his beasts simultaneously.
"Gah... cough! You... you bastard! You're gonna pay for that!"
Despite his rage, Targer didn't charge blindly. He took a moment to recover. That sudden burst of damage had been unexpected, and he needed to re-evaluate his prey.
Goreinu, meanwhile, was grimacing. That heel-drop had been a focused Ko strike meant to kill, yet Targer had not only survived but counterattacked before Goreinu could follow up. Even worse, the White Sage's arm had been nicked by Targer's reinforced, jagged scales during the exchange.
Both warriors realized that a single mistake would be fatal. They stepped back into the fray, determined to play their best cards.
"Eat this! Death Roll!"
"Hang in there, boys! ☆"
It was a clash of styles: Targer's superior physical stats and linear power versus Goreinu's tricky, position-swapping maneuvers. Targer, realizing his field of vision as a crocodile was somewhat limited, stopped trying to track the gorillas and focused entirely on the main body, charging with a high-speed rotation that acted as both offense and defense.
Goreinu avoided the lethal spins through perfect timing and his swapping ability, landing chip damage whenever Targer slowed to reset. Targer was burning through stamina with his violent movements, while Goreinu was burning through mental energy to maintain his focus.
The Bull-Ant and the Gorilla-Matador crossed paths again and again, each exchange shaving away their respective lives.
"Hahaha!! You're a fine 'girl,' aren't you?! It's almost a waste to eat you!"
"You're a sturdy one, Crocodile! But if you think a woman is just gonna let herself be eaten, you've got another thing coming! ☆"
Finally, the rain stopped. Sunlight began to pierce through the clouds. And the long, grueling stalemate finally reached its end.
"Dragon-Snake Death Tornado!"
Targer unleashed a new evolution of his technique. Unlike the linear Death Roll, this charge allowed him to curve his trajectory, if only slightly.
"Nwaaaargh?!"
The two gorillas were shredded and vanished. Goreinu was sent flying, coughing up blood as he took a direct hit.
"Huff... puff... finally. Time to eat. I'm not leaving a single shard of bone."
Targer was ravenous, the exertion having left him starving. He salivated at the thought of the meal before him. He took a step toward the crumpled Goreinu—only to have a massive orca leap out of a nearby puddle and bite down on his torso.
"What?! What the hell is this?!"
"This is my trump card! An ability that can only be used when a rainbow is visible! ORCA: Michiru!"
The orca dived back into the shallow puddle—which shouldn't have been deep enough to submerge a fish—taking Grachan with it. Targer looked around to see a thin layer of aura covering the ground; the scattered puddles were now rippling like the surface of a miniature sea.
(Damn it! His aura covers the whole area... I can't get out of range!)
Grachan's ORCA ability created a sub-dimension within water permeated by his aura. Only his conjured orca and anyone touching it could enter. He could "swim" through the sub-dimension and launch ambushes from any puddle on the field.
"I have no interest in bullying a weakened prey. Let's end this now!!"
Grachan meant it, but the reality was that the clouds were returning; the rainbow was fading, and his ability was about to expire. He launched several feints with the orca before pouring his remaining aura into his conjured harpoon for one final strike.
"Take this! Raging Current Spear!"
The surrounding water swirled around the harpoon in a violent vortex. He launched it with the force of a ballista. Exhausted from his battles with both Grachan and Goreinu, Targer was too slow to dodge.
"HUNGRY... I DON'T CARE WHAT IT IS, JUST LET ME EAT!"
Driven by primal instinct, Targer chose to intercept the strike with his jaws. He reinforced his snout to the absolute limit. A crocodile's bite is among the strongest in the animal kingdom, and he successfully caught the vibrating spear between his teeth.
"Tch! Push through! Raging Current Spear!!"
"Ngagaga... I told you... I'm the King of Gluttony!"
The momentary deadlock between their techniques was broken as the sun dipped behind a cloud and the rainbow vanished. Targer crushed the spear and the water vortex between his teeth. Certain of his victory, he opened his bloodied maw and let out a triumphant roar.
"Whew..."
But a voice from his blind spot caught his attention. He turned to see Goreinu and his two gorillas performing a perfectly mirrored dance.
"Fusion!"
The auras of the black-and-white gorillas and Goreinu synchronized perfectly, splitting down their centerlines. The movement looked absurd, yet the power radiating from it was undeniable—the result of a heavy restriction.
Uhoh!!
As their fingers touched, a blinding flash of light and a shockwave of aura erupted.
"Golden Goreinu: Exploding Birth!"
As the light faded, Goreinu stood there, his hair dyed a shimmering rose-gold, shrouded in an aura of the same hue. He was still heavily injured, yet the pressure he exerted was far beyond his previous peak, surpassing even a fresh Targer. Before Targer could even process the change, Goreinu was in the air, a dropkick already aimed at his chest.
"Tch... I should have eaten more..."
The kick, packed with an impossible amount of aura, slammed into Targer's chest, causing his exhausted body to literally explode into fragments.
Goreinu fell to the ground, unable to even take a proper landing. The over-limit ability deactivated, and he split back into the three Nen beasts and his own body. As the gorillas gave him a final thumbs-up and faded away, a wheezing Goreinu looked at the stunned Grachan.
"Sorry... I stole the spotlight at the last second..."
"No... I was at my limit too, so you saved my life. ...Hey, are you okay?! Hang on, I'm calling the medical team!"
As a doting rainbow appeared once more to bless the field, a proud but unconscious Goreinu was attended to by a panicked Grachan.
***
Biscuit Krueger and Zazan had begun their duel, and from the very start, the gap in their skill was apparent. Almost every one of Bisky's strikes landed, draining Zazan's vitality even through her guard. Conversely, Zazan's attacks were parried and blocked with ease; even the unconventional strikes from her scorpion tail were anticipated as if Bisky were reading her mind.
"Isn't this a bit of a foul? Have you fought my kind before?" Zazan hissed.
"The only 'foul' here is you," Bisky countered. "I'm just making do with a bit of life experience."
What was the true strength of Biscuit Krueger? Her physical peak and combat experience were formidable, but the element that sat at the apex of her being was Technique.
The Shingen-ryu school was vast, encompassing a staggering number of forms and techniques. Though they all shared a common origin in Netero, the school had branched into countless philosophies. Biscuit Krueger was the only person in the world to have mastered every single technique and form within the Shingen-ryu.
She possessed a level of body control that allowed her to wield her physical form without being hindered by its drastic changes, and a tactical sense that allowed her to switch between offensive and defensive specialties in an instant. Just as Killua had a peerless genius for aura manipulation, Bisky had a genius for the Shingen-ryu that surpassed even Netero's.
And yet, she hadn't finished Zazan off. Part of the reason was that she was focused on ensuring Tsezguerra and the others stayed safe—she couldn't afford casualties that would damage Netero's political standing. She was also fighting cautiously, wary of what unknown biological trump card a Chimera Ant might reveal.
But the main reason was that Zazan was truly elite among the Squadron Leaders.
(This is bad,) Zazan thought. (She's clearly a level above me, and Pike's group is losing ground. She isn't giving me any openings to flee... I didn't want to do this, but I have no choice.)
The outcome of the battle had been decided long before it began. While Zazan's group had been leisurely marching toward a "new land," the Hunters had spent days researching their power and choosing the perfect battlefield. Though they were short-staffed, Tsezguerra's management skills—securing Bisky as their ultimate weapon for this specific day—had been the deciding factor.
"Keep it up! Once we win here, the tide turns! Don't let up until the end!" Tsezguerra shouted.
Victory was within reach for the Hunters, but then Zazan's tail began to glow with a sickly light. Simultaneously, the ants she had injected with her Queen Shot began to shine as well, launching a desperate, suicidal charge that ignored all incoming damage.
"Don't let them get close! Blow them back!"
The Hunters sensed the danger and tried to create distance, but at the peak of the glow, the ants self-destructed in violent explosions, dealing heavy damage to the lines.
"Tsezguerra!!"
The non-combat ants swarmed Tsezguerra, who—aside from Bisky—was the least injured.
"Dammit?!"
Thanks to Bisky's warning, he managed to get his guard up. Because these were non-combatants, their explosions were weaker than the others, and he survived—but he was too injured to continue the fight. The other Hunters were in similar states; no one was left to back Bisky up.
"You've got quite the nerve, sacrificing your own kind like that," Bisky said, her voice cold.
"They aren't my 'kind,' they are my subordinates," Zazan spat. "They chose to act for my sake until the very end. To deny that is an insult to them."
With a look of grim determination, Zazan grabbed her own tail and tore it off from the base with her bare hands. By discarding the organ she used to manipulate others, the aura she had invested in it went haywire through her own Queen Shot logic, triggering a massive mutation.
Her beauty and figure vanished. She transformed into a towering, grotesque beast, her power surging to a monstrous level.
"Even like this, I might not reach you. Boki! Show me your loyalty!!"
"Everything Boki has belongs to Lady Zazan... but this actually makes me kind of excited! ♪"
A small ant who had been hiding in the smoke flared his aura and aimed at Zazan.
"Obedient Beam!!"
A beam of aura struck Zazan, and a bulky controller in Boki's hands lit up. Since Zazan's current form was the result of a mutation rather than a manipulation, she could be further enhanced by Boki's ability.
"Mode: Limit Break! And this... is the weight of my loyalty!!"
Boki crushed his controller, triggering a "berserk" mode in Zazan, and then—with a cheerful, almost serene smile—he twisted his own neck until it snapped.
In that instant, a dark, roiling aura of post-mortem Nen erupted from Boki, swirling around Zazan and causing her body to bulge even further. Enhanced by the Nen of the dead, Zazan barely managed to maintain her consciousness. Driven by a violent urge to destroy, she locked onto Bisky.
"NOW... NOW I AM THE STRONGEST. I WILL DEVOUR EVERYTHING. I WILL DEVOUR THE WORLD."
The next second, the conscious Hunters lost sight of them. The air was filled with the sound of thunderous impacts, and the ground exploded in every direction.
When they became visible again, Zazan appeared unscathed, while Bisky's clothes were shredded and she was bleeding from multiple wounds.
"HYAHAHA! WHAT'S WRONG?! HAVE YOU BECOME SLOW AND WEAK?!"
Bisky stared at the laughing, mad Queen. She wiped the blood from her lip and shook her head with a sigh.
"Honestly, I'm starting to hate the younger generation. And here I was, actually proud of my physique."
Zazan's physical stats, bolstered by her own ability and the post-mortem Nen of her subordinate, were staggering. To Bisky, it felt as if Zazan had finally reached the realm where Gon resided.
And that was exactly why she couldn't afford to lose.
"You're a good comparison for Gon. Let's test this out. Come, Magical Esthetician Cookie."
Bisky conjured Cookie, who took a stance resembling Mantis Style.
"Magical Spa: Battle Massage!"
Cookie moved with blurring speed, striking various pressure points on Bisky's body. The massage was finished in an instant with surgical precision. Cookie then glared at Zazan and vanished.
The master-class body of Biscuit Krueger began to compress with a metallic grinding sound. This wasn't the usual transformation into her child form—this was a metamorphosis for the sake of ultimate power.
"I have some reservations about stealing my disciple's gimmick, but I hate losing even more," Bisky muttered.
She maintained her adult height, but her previously massive, bulging muscles were compressed into a frame of high-density steel. Her power and speed were enhanced with an emphasis on "snap" and flexibility. She emerged as a tall, muscular, yet strikingly beautiful woman—a figure of athletic perfection.
"Shingen-ryu Secret Technique..."
Neither Zazan nor the Hunters saw her move. They only heard a single impact.
"Sandstorm Cross-Blast."
What sounded like one hit was actually three strikes delivered in the same microsecond. The impacts on Zazan's flanks and abdomen met at the center of her body and erupted, completely blowing out her back.
"...You... I hate to admit it... but you're beautiful," Zazan whispered.
"...You too," Bisky replied softly. "I would have liked to see you polished up a bit more."
Zazan reverted to a near-human form and breathed her last, a look of strange satisfaction on her face. Bisky, the beautiful warrior, looked down at her.
It was a scene so breathtakingly aesthetic that the remaining Hunters forgot to breathe.
***
Author's Notes:
ORCA (Michiru): A fisherman riding an orca. Inside aura-infused water, the user is immune to damage. It's great for 1v1s, but it can't summon waves and requires a lot of prep, making it a bit weak for a "trump card."
Golden Goreinu: A form achieved by fusing with all his gorillas. It allows for instant teleportation rather than just swapping. Goreinu successfully pulled this off despite being heavily injured—he's a real protagonist.
Battle Massage: A combat application of Cookie, who previously only handled beauty. Bisky calls it a ripoff, but since it uses medical principles to adjust the body for combat, she can't shrink like Gon—but the enhancement rate is higher. Her appearance is modeled after a certain muscular, stylish female character from a pirate manga.
***
10 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
https://patreon.com/Well_being