Chapter 150: The Despair Flames of the Bullet
A cascade of Spell Cards was being ripped from his Binder. Feitan's expression
remained a cold mask, but Phinks was beginning to sense the true scope of the
danger.
Their failure to activate [Leave] immediately was proving to be a fatal
professional error.
But could I even have activated it? Phinks wondered.
He glanced at Ronin's other hand. The boy was holding a [Gate] card—a
specialized counter designed to nullify an opponent's spell activation at close
range.
They had been marked from the second they started their high-profile collection
run.
Ronin had outplayed them before the fight even began.
Phinks rolled his shoulders, testing the flexibility of his arm. The earlier
spatial lock had taught him a harsh lesson: Ronin didn't just know his ability;
he had the means to stop the wind-up of Ripper Cyclotron in its tracks.
The situation was dire. The primary weight of the battle would have to shift to
Feitan.
As Phinks prepared for a desperate 2-on-1, he froze. A familiar figure had
appeared at the edge of the clearing.
He didn't know her name, but he recognized the aura. A ghost from the streets of
Meteor City.
Shizuku.
She stood silently, pulling a card from her own Binder.
"[Transfer] on Phinks. Target: Soufrabi."
Shizuku executed the command with clinical precision. With the Spiders'
defensive stocks already being looted by the crowd and their physical movement
restricted by Ronin's presence, Phinks had zero counter-play.
The spell hit. Phinks clenched his fist in a useless rage as the light engulfed
him.
Shizuku immediately pulled out a second card, giving Ronin a brief nod.
"[Magnetic Force] on Phinks."
She vanished in a streak of light, following her target to the coastal city to
finish the job.
With the others gone, Ronin turned his full attention back to Feitan.
He knew Feitan wouldn't run. The small Spider was likely already calculating how
much pain he needed to take to trigger a high-yield Pain Packer.
"Don't even think about leaving," Ronin said, holding the [Gate] card visibly.
"I won't give you the window to speak an incantation."
"I wasn't planning on running," Feitan hissed, whipping his rapier through the
air. He kept his gaze strictly below Ronin's eye level, utilizing his height
disadvantage to avoid the Genjutsu trigger.
Arrogant brat, Feitan thought. Let's see how you handle the sun.
Ronin knew that fighting Feitan required a desolate arena. If he failed to kill
him instantly, the counterattack would turn the surrounding area into a scorched
dead zone.
He pulled a card of his own. "[Accompany]! Target: Mount Won."
The radius of Accompany included everyone within 20 meters. At this range, that
meant only Ronin and Feitan.
Feitan didn't dodge the spell. He welcomed the isolation.
As they vanished, Nickes watched from the crowd, feeling like a pawn in a much
larger game. He had been used as a "Spell-Sink" to drain the Spiders' resources,
but seeing the sheer power of the combatants made him appreciate the secondary
role.
We aren't in their league, Nickes realized. Without Ronin's group, this
Subjugation Squad would have been a mass funeral.
He checked his loot. He had managed to snag two high-rank Restricted Slot cards
and a handful of utility spells during the chaos. It was a good haul.
Nickes hoped Ronin's team would win. They were professionals, relatively
rational, and didn't seem interested in mindless slaughter. They were better
partners than the "Demon Trio."
He prepared to coordinate with Genthru and pulled out a [Communication] card.
Meanwhile, Bonolenov had already hit the ground in Antokiba.
The black flames of Amaterasu weren't just burning his armor; they were feeding
on his Nen.
The searing heat triggered a primal fear he hadn't felt in years.
This time, however, he was prepared. He had spent the last few days theorizing
counters to the black fire. He could dispel his armor, strip his Ten, or use a
surge of aura to push the flames away from his vital areas before amputating the
affected flesh.
But he had to be fast. If the fire reached his torso, he would be a "potato in
tin foil" again.
As he struggled, several players landed nearby.
Seeing a Spider burning in black fire, they didn't offer help. They drew their
Binders and began to [Rob] him of his cards.
Bonolenov, Spider #12, never imagined he would be the victim of a petty mugging.
But his focus was 100% on the fire. He couldn't spare the aura to kill the
scavengers.
His cards vanished one by one. More players arrived, some launching physical
attacks to expedite the looting process.
A physical strike shattered a section of his battle armor.
The armor was designed with vents to allow air to pass through his body, fueling
his Battle Cantabile.
As the pieces flew off, tiny sparks of black fire remained trapped in the seams.
They bypassed the discarded armor and landed directly on his bare skin.
This was the difference between this encounter and Yorknew.
In Yorknew, Machi's threads had stripped the skin and armor together in one
violent motion, removing the fuel source for the fire.
Now, the "infection" was microscopic but growing. The black flames began to
surge across his flayed body at an exponential rate.
Bonolenov realized he was out of time. He prepared to shed his entire layer of
Ten in a final, desperate burst to discard the flames.
But as he prepared the technique, a bullet whistled through the air toward him.
The layer of Nen—his "shroud"—detached from his body as planned.
But the bullet struck the discarded shroud perfectly. And on the tip of the
bullet was a trace of residual Amaterasu.
"No!" Bonolenov shrieked.
The bullet, carrying the black fire, punched through the discarded aura and
struck Bonolenov's unprotected, flayed body.
The flames hit the raw meat.
The end was instantaneous. The Spider screamed as he was consumed from the
inside out, turning into a pillar of black, eternal fire.
☆☆☆
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