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Chapter 154: The Lethal Strike of Accompany
The hook tore brutally into his flesh, lodging itself firmly in his cheek. The agonizing pain made Phinks' vision go dark for a second.
But worse than the pain was the fact that the torn flesh provided another massive outlet. Blood surged wildly from his face, forming a second crimson ribbon that twisted through the air and vanished into Blinky's waiting maw.
The rapid, massive blood loss sent a wave of dizziness crashing over him.
Am I really going to die here? The fishing line went taut, violently jerking his head up. A vicious, cornered glint flashed in Phinks' eyes. He raised his hand and grabbed the line.
But before he pulled, he hesitated.
Even if he ripped the line away, it wouldn't stop the blood from being drained. Death felt absolutely inevitable!
A split second later, he made his choice. His arm bulged with power, and he violently ripped the hook free, tearing off half of his own cheek in the process.
In that moment of life and death, he had long stopped caring about the pain.
Phinks clenched his fists and drew his arms back. He wasn't striking out—he was charging his aura!
If he was destined to die, there was no point overthinking it. The only thing left to do was use his final reserves of strength to drag at least one or two of them to hell with him.
"He's going for a desperate final attack," Kurapika noted, his voice terrifyingly calm.
As he spoke, he pulled a card from his Binder. To Phinks, that simple action made Kurapika look like the devil incarnate.
It was an [Accompany] card.
Even if Accompany was activated and swept Phinks along with them, the rules of the spell card dictated that players couldn't attack each other while in transit.
But his blood—the blood continuously rocketing out of his open wounds—wouldn't stop flowing just because they were teleporting.
They want me to sit here and watch myself bleed to death! Seeing the spell card in Kurapika's hand, Shizuku pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. He really picked the most ruthless card possible.
But thinking about it logically, there probably wasn't a more perfect spell card for this exact situation.
How long would it take to drain Phinks completely dry? Shizuku mentally calculated the rate. Probably just two Accompany jumps. And they wouldn't even need to go far—just teleporting back to the starting point would be enough.
Phinks stopped moving.
His dying, explosive counterattack had been effortlessly suffocated before it even began. The searing agony in his face left his mind terrifyingly sharp.
Yet, despite that clarity, he couldn't find a single way out of this dead end. That was the most despairing part of it all.
Just then, a flash of light appeared on the horizon. When it landed and faded, Ronin stepped out.
Seeing him, Phinks slumped heavily to the ground. A bitter, defeated smile crossed what was left of his face.
If Ronin was here, it meant Feitan had lost.
That guy was ready to put his life on the line from the start. I never expected him to go down so easily... Ronin doesn't even have a speck of dirt on him. "You guys win."
Perhaps attempting to use the [Leave] card to escape earlier was his last genuine chance at survival. Or maybe listening to Shalnark—finding items to block spell cards before quietly gathering what they needed—would have prevented this outcome.
But it was too late for regrets.
Besides, the three of them weren't exactly known for keeping a low profile. Put a perpetually enraged Bonolenov, a battle-hungry Feitan, and an apathetic brawler like him in a group, and causing chaos was the only logical outcome. They had planned to wreck the place, get what they needed to heal Bonolenov, and bail as fast as humanly possible.
They just didn't expect Ronin and his crew to track them down even faster.
They had lost the tactical battle, and they couldn't overpower their enemies in combat. Dying here was fair. He had no complaints.
His blood continued to flow rapidly. Phinks' mind grew hazy, and his body fell backward onto the dirt. By the time he had lost half his blood volume, he stopped breathing. But the blood didn't stop draining just because his heart gave out.
It wasn't until Phinks' corpse was splayed out on the ground, shriveled and dehydrated like a piece of sun-baked leather, that Shizuku finally ordered Blinky to stop.
"He managed to break the curse, but damn, he was ruthless," Neon commented, watching her floating red text fade into the air.
The second half of the curse had been fulfilled, but the first half failed because of Phinks' savage self-mutilation.
Not that it mattered anymore.
"The Troupe members all share that same ruthless streak," Ronin sighed lightly. "It's probably deeply ingrained in Meteor City's culture. Anyone who manages to crawl out of a hellhole like that has a terrifying amount of tenacity."
"Am I like that too?" Shizuku asked, holding Blinky and hesitating over whether she should vacuum up Phinks' corpse.
Neon had already walked over, squatting next to the shriveled body with her eyes shining. The withered face held no resentment or anger; instead, there was a faint trace of relief mixed with a lingering unwillingness—two contradictory emotions frozen together permanently.
Just like her curse poem had predicted, it truly was a rare work of art.
"Yeah, you've got plenty of tenacity," Ronin told Shizuku. "Pack up Phinks' body for now. When we get back, I can't wait to turn it into a specimen!"
He said that aloud, but Ronin had his own plans for the corpse. He didn't need much; just enough organic material to serve as a medium for [Edo Tensei].
Through careful collection, he had now acquired the physical remains of Uvogin, Phinks, and Feitan.
As long as he could find suitable living sacrifices, he could use [Edo Tensei] to drag all three of them back into the world. If he allowed them to keep their autonomous thoughts, they would probably be thrilled to return!
Especially if he placed them right in front of Chrollo and ordered them to attack him. Chrollo would absolutely love that, wouldn't he? After all, they were all former spider legs.
Shizuku nodded, and Neon agreed enthusiastically.
Only then did Abaki stroll over from the distance, carrying a massive backpack stuffed with fishing gear.
Phinks had been right in his final moments: Abaki's fishing rod wasn't conjured. Whenever she wanted, she could simply swap rods and launch another attack. This rapid, unpredictable strategy—especially when executed from complete concealment—was incredibly lethal. Enemies rarely realized what was happening in time to formulate an effective defense.
She had even intentionally used the snapped line and the replacement hook to misdirect him, drastically increasing the success rate of her ambush.
In the effort to take down Phinks, Shizuku deserved the most credit, with Abaki taking second place. As for Neon and Kurapika, they had merely provided the finishing touches.
However, Ronin was far more interested in the fact that Kurapika hadn't expended much effort here. Did that mean he had gone after Bonolenov?
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