Confusion flashed through Chrollo's eyes.
Fighting underwater had never been part of his calculations—or rather, it had never been part of his calculations for facing Ronin alone.
If Kortopi were still here, then with Kortopi's support, Chrollo would have had plans prepared, whether to restrict Ronin in the water or help himself escape as quickly as possible.
But now, relying only on the abilities inside Skill Hunter, he had nothing that could help him fight underwater.
Still, was he supposed to just sit there and wait for death?
Chrollo watched the Water Shark Bullet tearing toward him, and the pages of his book finally stopped on a new ability.
One pale white fish after another appeared out of thin air. The Water Shark Bullet smashed into them and broke apart, while the fish rapidly swam through the water toward Ronin.
Indoor Fish.
It was an ability Chrollo had obtained long ago.
However, there was one condition for activating it: it had to be used inside an enclosed space.
And right now, both Ronin's Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave and the Four Violet Flames Formation had created an enclosed space. The activation condition for Indoor Fish had been fulfilled.
The Water Shark Bullet suddenly burst apart, and Ronin's advancing body came to a halt.
He knew very well what ability Chrollo was using. After all, Chrollo had used this ability in the manga.
And the method to break it was simple: just remove the Four Violet Flames Formation and the Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave.
But doing that would give Chrollo another chance to use instant movement.
On the other hand, if Ronin didn't deal with this ability, then those fish—which could easily smash through the Water Shark Bullet and seemed completely unaffected by physical attacks—would get close enough to harm him.
Ronin's hands rapidly formed seals in front of him.
The hand that had been severed earlier had already been reattached with the help of the Strength of a Hundred Technique.
He could now use it without the slightest stiffness. Aside from a faint ring-shaped scar around his wrist, no one would be able to tell that his wrist had once been cut off.
The Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave was the first to disappear.
Then came the Four Violet Flames Formation. But the moment the barrier vanished, Ronin's hands had already pressed against the ground.
Chrollo looked at the vanished enclosed environment and his own ability that had been undone, and doubt rose in his heart.
After all, if Ronin didn't know about Indoor Fish, then there would have been no reason for him to remove those two techniques.
But how could Ronin possibly know about Indoor Fish?
Unless there was a traitor inside the Troupe who knew Chrollo had obtained that ability. But the only people who knew were Kortopi and Pakunoda.
And neither of them could possibly betray him.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but the sinking sensation beneath his feet forced Chrollo to quickly flip through Skill Hunter again.
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld.
That was the new ninjutsu Ronin activated after removing the two techniques that had created the enclosed environment.
He had turned the ground completely into a muddy swamp.
Chakra allowed Ronin to move across the swamp as easily as walking on solid ground, but Nen users had no training equivalent to "water-walking." Immediately mastering the ability to run across a swamp was not simple.
Chrollo knew Ronin's abilities were troublesome, but he hadn't expected them to be troublesome to this extent.
Super Fortress appeared again.
It didn't fly far before dropping a bomb.
The bomb fell between Chrollo and Ronin, crashing into the swamp on the ground. An explosion erupted along with blazing heat.
Chrollo had already teleported away. Ronin, who bore the brunt of it, didn't care at all about the blast or the high temperature, because the ground surged the instant he touched it, burying both the explosion and the heat.
It was Earth Release: Moving Earth Core.
But as the heat was buried underground, the swamp's condition rapidly changed as well. The ground began hardening.
Ronin raised an eyebrow slightly and shot a kunai from his hand.
The kunai flew toward Chrollo's back, even faster than Ronin himself could pursue. At the same time, Ronin had already completed a new set of hand seals.
Chakra gathered in his hand, forming a Rasengan.
Chrollo sensed the kunai approaching. Super Fortress had already disappeared after dropping the bomb. He didn't use instant movement again. Instead, he raised his hand and shot out spider silk, wrapping it around a stone pillar and pulling himself sharply to the side.
But just as he avoided the kunai's direct path, Ronin's figure suddenly appeared at the kunai's location.
It was the Flying Thunder God Technique.
At the same time, the Rasengan in Ronin's hand drove straight toward Chrollo's back.
Chrollo hadn't expected such a change at all. This already belonged to the realm of Emission-type abilities, completely inconsistent with the abilities Ronin had shown before.
The Rasengan struck Chrollo cleanly and smashed his body straight down toward the ground.
Mud that had not yet dried splashed everywhere, but Chrollo, who had been slammed into the swamp, did not spray blood from his mouth—because at that moment, his mouth had vanished.
Three monkeys appeared around Ronin at the same time. The Silent Monkey pulled the zipper over its mouth the instant it appeared.
"Stop!"
Only that single word burst out.
But Ronin's movements completely froze. Only his eyes remained locked tightly on Chrollo.
The Seeing Monkey's fist finally closed in on Ronin. As long as that blow landed, Ronin's sight would be stripped away.
But in the end, that punch failed to hit Ronin, because crimson Nen appeared outside Ronin's body, and a giant hand grabbed the Seeing Monkey directly. With a single squeeze, the Seeing Monkey shattered apart.
It was Susanoo.
However, after using his Sharingan abilities repeatedly, blood finally began flowing from Ronin's eyes.
He still had plenty of chakra left, but the consumption of his ocular power had already reached its limit.
The condensed Susanoo was only in its first form, but that was enough.
Because the Silent Monkey's binding effect couldn't be maintained for long. It lasted only three seconds. In fact, even Chrollo, who had been smashed into the swamp by Ronin, had not managed to stand up before the immobilization effect vanished.
Wrapped in Susanoo, Ronin stepped forward and directly planted his foot on Chrollo's back, stomping his raised head back down into the mud.
The instant Ronin bent down and touched Chrollo's body, a sealing technique activated.
It was the Four Symbols Seal, and what it sealed was Chrollo's own Nen.
As the sealing effect appeared, Skill Hunter, which Chrollo had been gripping in his hand the entire time, vanished instantly.
The two Nen monkeys still punching and kicking at Susanoo disappeared at the same time.
But when Ronin reached down and pulled Chrollo out of the mud, he discovered that a dagger had been stabbed into Chrollo's heart.
It was the poisoned dagger Chrollo always carried on him.
At some unknown moment, he had driven it into his own heart.