"Shalnark and Kortopi... they just died like that?" Baise finally emerged from the darkness, her voice tinged with disbelief, watching the two Spiders being swallowed by the growing red giant beast.
After all, she had personally witnessed Uvogin's rampage and always believed the Phantom Troupe members were all high-level experts like him. But now, two Troupe members had been instantly killed, one unable to even commit suicide, which was difficult to accept.
"What did you expect? You need to understand that the Phantom Troupe is just a band of thieves; they have clear internal roles. These two weren't designated fighters, so naturally, they wouldn't be very strong. Come on, let's hunt down the next target."
With that, Allen spread out the Hunting Map in his hand and took a quick look, noting that aside from Chrollo, who had successfully infiltrated the Mafia building, the rest were distributed across the surrounding blocks.
The red dots representing Hisoka and Machi even appeared near the hotel owned by Marcus. It was obvious they were acting on Chrollo's orders to investigate Bodoro's true identity and his connection to the Mafia's higher-ups. Unfortunately, it was already too late.
Thinking this, Allen showed a playful expression and muttered to himself in a voice only he could hear: "Since I've acquired Kortopi's ability, let me see what kind of elemental puppet I can create under the limitations of the existing mediums."
The moment he finished speaking, he immediately pulled out large amounts of Elemental Fire, Heart of Fire, Fire Essence, Elemental Earth, Core of the Earth, Earth Essence, as well as a Lava Core and a Fiery Core from his pouch.
Using the incomparably strange ability, Gallery Fake, he copied a huge pile in the blink of an eye. Once the quantity was sufficient, he put the original materials back into his pouch and quickly materialized the red Fire and brown Earth Philosopher's Stones.
As a huge amount of aura was extracted, all these materials began to merge with the two Philosopher's Stones, rapidly releasing astonishing heat.
The next second...
Rumble! Rumble!
A colossal creature, its entire body streaming with scorching magma and hard stone, rose from the ground. Its height alone exceeded ten stories.
Molten Giant!
Any player who had played the game and entered Molten Core could instantly name the monster before them. The only difference was that this Molten Giant was several times larger than its in-game counterpart, and continually oozed boiling magma, melting even the asphalt road beneath its feet from the intense heat.
"My God! This... this is also your ability?" Baise was completely stunned by the sight before her.
Not just her, but all the surrounding Mafia members, Phantom Troupe members, and the killers and bounty hunters in the building temporarily stopped everything they were doing to stare at the terrifying giant standing in the street.
Even an idiot could sense that if it went berserk, the surrounding blocks would instantly be reduced to a raging inferno.
"Uh... I think I went a bit overboard." Allen, the culprit, couldn't help but twitch his mouth. After all, it was his first time using so many materials to create an elemental puppet, so he lacked experience. Plus, wanting to test the limits of this ability, he accidentally overdid it.
"What now? If you let it fight, these few blocks will be destroyed," Baise kindly warned him. To be precise, this super Molten Giant didn't even need to fight; just walking around a couple of times would cause buildings to collapse, roads to crumble, and staggering casualties.
"Probably... we'll just have to wait for the aura maintaining its existence to run out..." Allen's voice held strong uncertainty. After all, he had invested roughly 250,000 units of aura capacity when creating this thing; who knew how long it would last? Once an elemental puppet is created, unless it is destroyed or runs out of the aura maintaining its existence, even its creator cannot actively dismiss it.
Just as Allen and Baise were staring dumbfounded at the massive Molten Giant, three Troupe members—Franklin, Nobunaga, and Pakunoda—suddenly rushed out from a corner. It was obvious they had come to check on the status of Shalnark and Kortopi.
But their appearance instantly triggered the Molten Giant's automatic attack mode. The behemoth swung its massive fist and slammed it down hard toward the trio's position.
BOOM!
Fire and magma splashed everywhere! A terrifying crater, over five meters in diameter and filled with crimson magma, instantly appeared in the middle of the road.
"We're done for! This street is beyond saving!" Seeing the Molten Giant start chasing the three Troupe members like a mad beast, Allen immediately realized things were likely headed in the worst direction possible.
Since he wasn't proficient in Manipulation-type abilities, the command he gave the elemental puppet was simple: kill all enemies within sight as quickly and ruthlessly as possible. It absolutely would not stop until the last target was eliminated. And this time, the enemies he had in mind when creating it were all members of the Phantom Troupe.
Meanwhile, the three Troupe members were in dire straits, especially the non-combatant Pakunoda. During the first attack, a large chunk of splashing magma hit her right leg. Her skin, muscle, and bone were severely burned by the high temperature, with black carbonization marks appearing in some areas.
Now, let alone dodging or escaping, even walking was extremely difficult. The agonizing, deep pain constantly stimulated her sensitive nerves, nearly causing her to pass out several times.
"Pakunoda!" Upon noticing this, Nobunaga immediately tried to leap over and help his injured companion. But just as he was halfway there, he suddenly saw the Molten Giant condense a searing fireball, comparable in size to a car, between its hands, constantly radiating a bright white light like the sun.
"Careful! Get out of the way!" Franklin yelled a warning while frantically using his Finger Machine Gun to launch Nen bullets, trying to interrupt the Molten Giant's casting. But for a behemoth over ten stories tall, that damage was no different from a tickle.
In just a few short seconds, the Molten Giant finally finished gathering its energy, then aimed it at the enemies and threw it without hesitation.
BOOM!!!
Accompanied by a deafening roar, a small mushroom cloud shot up into the sky!
All the glass in the nearby buildings instantly shattered, and everything within a hundred meters—whether structures, ground, bricks, asphalt roads, or anything else—was instantly blasted into the air!
Moreover, the explosion generated by the fireball seemed to have ignited buried natural gas pipelines... Chain explosion! Double the fun!
Such terrifying impact and firelight nearly affected Allen himself, let alone a few thieves from the Phantom Troupe. Fortunately, his nervous reflexes were fast enough. Seeing the danger, he immediately grabbed Baise and used Aura Burst to flee the center of the explosion; otherwise, he too would have likely been injured.
On the other side, Lupos escaped thanks to the double buff of Charge and the 30% movement speed from the Beastial Swiftness Talent, losing only around six hundred points of health.
As for Franklin, Nobunaga, and Pakunoda, they were either instantly killed by the explosion or left crippled.
Only the Red Dragon, Vaelstrasz, was completely unfazed by the explosion. It materialized immediately, rushed over, turned the trio into cocoons, and swallowed them.
Because the elemental puppet was a creation of Nen, the targets killed by the Molten Giant were equivalent to those killed by Allen, making them eligible for consumption.