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Muir's hesitation didn't last long. Ronin's insistence broke it down.
Muir trusted that Ronin wasn't reckless. If the man was volunteering to go in, he had to have something up his sleeve.
Besides, sending Vanessa alone really wasn't safe.
So with the rest of the squad positioned outside the building, ready to reinforce at a moment's notice, Ronin and Vanessa headed inside together.
Vanessa's ability worked exactly the way Ronin had guessed—movement through the shadow world.
She could control her own shadow, and whenever it touched another shadow, that connected shadow became a special space she could hide inside.
In Ronin's judgment, her power leaned toward Emission with a Manipulation tilt.
Unlike Vanessa's silent passage through the dark, Ronin's approach was simpler and louder. He used the Shadow Clone Technique to lure every monster he encountered away, carving out a clear path for his real body. When necessary, he cut a few down himself.
It wasn't really infiltration. It was a one-man assault.
Muir had guessed right. Ronin's real strengths weren't built for stealth. Even among the ninjutsu he knew, none were particularly suited for quiet movement.
But the Shadow Clone Technique worked extremely well here.
The monsters only attacked the first living target they spotted. They had no way to tell the difference between a clone and the real thing.
Vanessa, moving silently through the shadows, noticed Ronin's tactic. She was surprised that he could create clones, but she didn't slow down on her way to the lower levels.
Ronin kept releasing clones, letting his real body slip forward once the monsters were pulled away. After advancing a certain distance he dispelled the clones and pulled the chakra back. The monsters never came chasing from behind.
That told him two things.
First, the monsters living inside the building had limited patrol ranges. They didn't chase intruders across the entire structure.
Second, there were no organized scouts or monsters with specialized roles down here. Nothing that could coordinate a real response.
They moved through a long corridor and found the entrance leading downward.
Vanessa's figure had already vanished. Ronin figured she had slipped into the lower level ahead of him.
He had to admit—moving through shadows was perfect for this kind of exploration work.
Still, one question nagged at him.
In the manga, he had never seen Vanessa in Byande's team during the Dark Continent expedition. Either she had no interest in exploring the Dark Continent, she had left the mercenary group early to chase her Hunter dream, or she simply hadn't lived long enough to make the trip.
And if it was the last possibility, Ronin had a strong feeling Vanessa's end would come right here in the Mahavi Ruins.
From everything he had seen of Muir so far, even without Ronin's presence the man's focus would eventually shift to these ruins anyway.
As for the other options, Ronin's gut told him Vanessa wasn't the type to strike out on her own and leave the mercenary group behind.
Which meant the Mahavi Ruins probably contained something dangerous enough that even a full mercenary squad couldn't handle it easily.
A shadow clone stepped onto the stairs leading down first.
At the bottom of the stairs sat a glowing illumination stone—clearly something Vanessa had dropped to create usable shadows in the darkness.
The clone could use En just like the real body. Combined with the Sharingan, even the dim light from the stone was enough to reveal everything in the passage below.
On the surface it looked clear. But the Sharingan caught faint energy fluctuations in the areas the light didn't reach.
Through En, Ronin could also sense monsters hidden in the dark, watching the glowing spot.
It felt like anything that moved toward the light—like a moth to a flame—would trigger a full swarm attack from the creatures lurking below.
"Hey!"
The clone shouted down the stairs.
His voice echoed through the open space beneath.
The moment the sound rang out, the entire underground level seemed to fall into an unnatural, waiting silence.
"Come get me!"
The clone yelled even louder.
Even Vanessa, hidden in the shadows and preparing to throw another illumination stone, looked momentarily stunned.
This was Ronin's idea of a plan?
That was… aggressively simple.
Meanwhile, the level right below the stairs had already erupted into chaos. Heavy footsteps and guttural roars answered the clone's shouts. Monsters poured out of the darkness and charged straight up the stairs toward the sound.
The clone didn't turn and run. While still shouting, it had already begun forming hand seals.
As the monsters flooded toward the stairs, the clone finished the sequence and unleashed the prepared technique.
Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet!
Three blazing fire dragons materialized on the stairs and roared downward, slamming into the charging monsters.
The sudden inferno lit up the entire stairwell entrance and revealed the massive swarm still pouring toward it from the darkness below.
Vanessa had already reached the lower level. She adjusted her position in the shadows, eyes widening at the sheer number of monsters hidden down here.
But the same question kept circling in her mind.
What the hell were these things even eating?
The fire dragons crashed into the monsters without slowing down, swallowing them whole in roaring flames.
The creatures kept trying to push forward even as they burned. Their charge finally faltered less than ten meters from Ronin. One after another they collapsed onto the stairs, still twitching as the fire consumed them.
Ronin's gaze lingered on the fallen bodies for a second, a flicker of confusion crossing his face.
Then he stopped worrying about the first dragons. His hands blurred through a longer sequence—forty-four seals this time. He was preparing the full, complete version of the technique.
But before he released it, he shouted down into the darkness.
"Get over here or get the hell away!"
The monsters below showed no fear. They kept throwing themselves at the remaining flames, using dozens of their own burning bodies to smother the fire.
By the time the flames finally died, the stairs were almost completely blocked by corpses and the air near the entrance was thick with blistering heat.
Still the monsters kept coming, roaring and clawing their way forward like the man standing at the top of the stairs was either an unforgivable enemy… or the most delicious thing they had ever smelled.
This time, what met them was even hotter.
Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!