"Stubborn old man! He actually forced out one of my trump cards. Since it's come to this, I might as well go all the way and let him taste what it feels like to get beaten without being able to strike back."
Aided by the strength of his dragon wings, Allen hovered at an altitude of approximately one thousand meters, staring down at Netero with a predatory gaze.
In truth, according to his original plan, this was supposed to be a battle aimed at honing his Nen techniques, using Netero's extreme speed to create pressure and force out every drop of potential within his body.
Regrettably, the Chairman was not so easily handled. The "old geezer" had clearly seen through Allen's intent, so he had unhesitatingly unleashed the 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva: Ninety-Ninth Hand to force Allen's hand early.
After all, Netero was no free sparring partner. He yearned to witness a power that transcended his own in this battle, to experience the ultimate peak of martial arts at a higher level, even if the price was his own life.
It had to be said that the high-level Nen masters of the Hunter x Hunter world were quite the handful. Each had their own ideals and pursuits; they would never be led by the nose.
Allen felt this deeply at this moment. He decisively abandoned his original fantasies and deactivated the Heartbeat Watch. Testing the physical durability of his Dragonkin Form, he whispered in a voice only he could hear, "My current body should be able to withstand much higher instantaneous acceleration. In that case, let's start at Mach 3. What do you think?"
"No problem," Vaelstrasz replied bluntly.
"Then here I come!"
As the last word left his lips, Allen encased himself in Ken and instantly activated his Aura Burst. In less than 0.1 seconds, he broke the sound barrier and initiated a dive.
The spectators saw a white, umbrella-shaped shockwave appear out of thin air, followed immediately by a thunderous boom.
The next second...
BOOM!
Without flinching, he collided directly with the descending palms of the Guanyin. Bolstered by his terrifying aura, he swung his fist and shattered an entire arm and palm of the golden-glowing colossus.
That's right! This time, Allen didn't try to bypass the Guanyin. He made the puppet, created from aura, his direct target. No flashy abilities were needed, nor did he need to scheme a way to get close to the Chairman. He would simply use the crudest, most barbaric method to crush his opponent!
After the successful strike, he immediately triggered another Aura Burst to return to the sky, giving the old man no chance to counter. At this moment, the advantage of free flight was displayed to its fullest.
As long as he attacked from the air, the old man couldn't utilize the Guanyin's greatest strength: the overwhelming, continuous, high-speed carpet-bombing that forced opponents into passive defense. All of Netero's vaunted experience and technique became useless.
The hunter had become the hunted!
"Hmm… troublesome." The battle-hardened Netero instantly realized he was at an absolute disadvantage. The problem was, he lacked any means of counter-play. The classic weakness of an Enhancer, a lack of versatile tactical options, was now fully exposed.
Meanwhile, Allen had no intention of being polite. During his second dive, he pushed his speed to Mach 4! That's 1,440 meters per second. In less than the time it took to blink, he could cross the distance from a kilometer up to the ground.
At such terrifying speeds, Chairman Netero had no time to adjust; he could only rely on the Guanyin's superior striking speed to meet the attack head-on. The strike arrived even before the sound reached his ears. Netero possessed god-like striking speed, but not movement speed.
Due to the absolute gap in total aura, the Guanyin suffered damage with every clash, requiring Netero to expend even more aura to repair it. It was a war of attrition. Netero, who usually loved using his speed advantage to pin opponents to the ground and pummel them, was finally experiencing the pain and helplessness his own past opponents must have felt.
"It's over. Looks like the old man is going to lose this time." Ging Freecss was the first to offer his judgment with a smile.
"What? The Chairman is going to lose?" Cheadle's face was filled with shock and disbelief.
Ging nodded without hesitation. "Yeah. That young man's flight and acceleration are the perfect hard counters for the Chairman. Most importantly, his aura capacity is significantly higher than the Chairman's. In a head-on clash, that is the deciding factor. Of course, if it were a fight to the death, the old man likely has one last trump card to turn the tables. But this is just a sparring match; I don't think he's crazy enough to use it here. Similarly, the kid has his own cards hidden. Allen the Grim Reaper... the world might become much more interesting because of him."
After speaking, Ging lost interest in the fight and turned to leave. He wasn't the only one; the Zoldyck family and several members of the Zodiacs made the same choice. In their eyes, the suspense was gone. From the moment Allen transformed and began his high-speed dives, the ending was written.
However, Chairman Netero was not a man to surrender easily. He remained on the ground, taking hit after hit from the increasingly fast dives until his clothes were soaked with sweat from exhaustion.
On the other side, Allen seemed to have become addicted to the sensation of high-altitude diving.
Mach 5! Mach 6! Mach 7! Mach 8!
Relying on the immense physical durability of his Dragonkin Form, he smashed the massive Guanyin to pieces again and again. Toward the end, even his dragon-kin body began to buckle under the strain, suffering severe bone fractures, muscle tears, and burst blood vessels.
Fortunately, he possessed the Ghoul's tenacious self-healing, allowing his severe injuries to recover rapidly.
The price paid was steep, but the damage dealt to the Guanyin increased exponentially; a single punch could now vaporize half of its golden body instantly. That unparalleled destructive power was like a proclamation to the world of a rising star.
After more than ten minutes, Chairman Netero exhausted his last ounce of strength. He lay on the ground, letting out a joyful laugh as the brutal head-on contest finally came to a close. From the expression on the old man's face, it was clear that even though he had lost, he wasn't sad, he felt an indescribable excitement.
In contrast, Allen, the victor, stood there looking like he had lost his soul. When he deactivated his form, Vaelstrasz reported a terrifying string of numbers, the total amount of stored aura consumed during the fight.
Allen felt sick. Specifically, those final dives beyond the limit had each consumed several times more aura than the previous speed tier.