Worm was overthinking things.
That was Luo Ning's honest thought as he hurled the stones into the sky. Since he had already declared he would handle two of them, how could he possibly give Worm an opportunity to harass Kurapika and Neon?
With the powerful insight of his Sharingan, he clearly saw the abundant Nen hidden beneath the earth. As the hand that finished the throw pulled back, it met his other hand to instantly form hand seals in front of him.
Earth Style: Open Earth Rising Excavation!
Luo Ning pressed his completed seals against the ground, injecting chakra into the earth. Not far away, a bulge suddenly erupted from the soil!
The bulge grew larger and larger, looking like a miniature volcano forming in the middle of the street. In the next second, Worm, who had been "swimming" underground toward Kurapika, was forcefully ejected from the mouth of that "volcano" by a massive upward thrust.
In the anime, this B-rank ninjutsu was a technique Kitsuchi and Kurotsuchi used in tandem to flush out the White Zetsu hiding underground. Now that Luo Ning was performing it, he had scaled down the size of the volcano specifically to spit out the subterranean Worm—it was a perfect application for the job!
Worm never expected that, while hiding underground, he would be blasted into the sky by such a sudden force. For a moment, with the horizon wide open around him, he was completely dazed!
But Luo Ning was already prepared. The moment the small volcano of Open Earth Rising Excavation formed, he had already lunged forward. As Worm was ejected, Luo Ning appeared beside him as if he had known exactly where he would land. He condensed a powerful surge of Nen into his fist and punched directly into the small of Worm's back.
CRACK!
Before he could even recover from his shock, Worm was sent plummeting from the air like a ball, smashing into the ground. He landed in the classic Yamcha death pose, a sight that left Luo Ning feeling quite satisfied as he descended back to the earth.
In the sky, Bat, who hadn't been able to dodge the earlier stone attack at all, had a hole torn through one of his wings. However, he was still barely managing to keep himself aloft.
The moment that five-meter-wide miniature volcano rose from the ground, he knew things had gone south. When he first arrived at the Gorde Desert, he had seen Luo Ning use a flight ability to escape the pursuit of the Phantom Troupe. In his view, anyone the Phantom Troupe bothered to hunt must have some value, so he had set his sights on Luo Ning.
But looking at it now, the guy was no pushover. This meant they could actually be partners. Thinking of this, Bat reined in his arrogance as a member of the Shadow Beasts.
"We can talk!" he shouted from above, his tone now full of compromise.
The strength the opponent had displayed made the gap between them crystal clear. Bat even felt that if he tried to flee now, it would be nothing more than a pipe dream. Perhaps he shouldn't have shown hostility from the start, let alone attacked first.
Luo Ning didn't spare Worm another glance. That punch had been enough to shatter the man's spine. If he could survive that, Luo Ning would seriously have to wonder if Worm actually possessed the biology of an earthworm.
As for Bat's suggestion in the sky, Luo Ning only felt contempt.
'Oh! Now that you can't win, you want to compromise? Where was this energy earlier?'
As expected of an Emitter—he had rushed over in such a hurry without ever stopping to think: how was this guy able to calmly leave while surrounded by the Phantom Troupe? This kind of rash, careless personality truly fit Hisoka's stereotype of Emitters.
Furthermore, Luo Ning's plan from the start was to get information about the Ten Community Leaders from the Shadow Beasts. Now that Bat and the others had delivered themselves to his doorstep, it suited his needs perfectly. However, keeping Owl alive would be enough. Bat still had to die.
"You, come down first," Luo Ning said to the Bat in the sky, his eyes sweeping over the other two battlefields.
In those other two locations, the fighting wasn't quite as easy as it was for him.
Owl was swinging the Fun Fun Cloth in his hands with such vigor that it hummed through the air, causing Kurapika's chain attacks to lose their mark every time. The distance between them was steadily closing; it looked as though Owl's cloth could be thrown over Kurapika's head at any moment.
Yet Kurapika seemed entirely oblivious, continuing to circle and probe with the chain on his little finger. However, just as Owl took another step forward, he suddenly felt a binding sensation tighten around his body.
Something was wrong!
The moment the thought flashed through his mind, Owl was frozen in place. The Fun Fun Cloth slipped from his hands and hit the ground because his arms had been forced against his sides by an unseen strength.
A chain finally flickered into view, connected to Kurapika's middle finger.
It was In.
He had used In during the movement, silently laying out the Chain Jail nearby. As long as Owl moved toward him without being able to detect the hidden chains, he was destined to be ensnared.
Kurapika had already identified Owl's weakness during their brief exchange. Although the man had mastered Nen and even developed his own Hatsu, his application of Nen in combat was amateurish.
The Nen outside his body only formed a basic Ren; he hadn't even heightened it into Ken. More importantly, he didn't maintain Gyo over his eyes at all times, which meant the effective information Owl could capture during the fight was pitifully low. In became the ultimate finishing move to capture him.
'This must be the kind of half-wit Big Brother Luo Ning talked about,' Kurapika thought. 'He knows Nen exists, but he has no systematic concept of it.'
He had clearly never undergone specialized training and was completely ignorant of the importance of techniques like Gyo, In, Ken, and Ryu in battle. Against such a guy, one only needed a bit of brainpower to resolve the fight easily.
Kurapika raised his index finger.
A syringe-like point appeared at the end of the chain on that finger. Under Owl's shocked gaze, the needle at the tip of the syringe plunged into his body.
A wave of weakness swept through Owl's entire being. His Nen was being drained from his body by his opponent.
The Index Finger: Steal Chain!
Kurapika had chains on all five fingers. The thumb held the Holy Chain, which provided healing effects for both himself and others—an effect that was significantly amplified in the Scarlet Eyes state.
The index finger's Steal Chain allowed him to steal a target's Nen ability or continuously absorb their Nen, eventually forcing the target into a state of Zetsu. However, the stealing ability had to be used in conjunction with the middle finger's Chain Jail; only a bound target could be robbed.
In the Scarlet Eyes state, he could transfer stolen abilities to others, though it came at a great cost. The middle finger's Chain Jail simply gained even more powerful binding strength when his eyes turned red.
The ring finger was a support chain he designed for tracking and interrogation—the Dowsing Chain. He could use the weighted ball at the end to determine a target's location or judge if someone was lying. In the Scarlet Eyes state, this was enhanced with a larger detection range, allowing him to discern lies just by hearing words without even facing the target.
Finally, the little finger was a chain usually used to assist in the physical recovery of himself and others, though this effect could only be activated in the Scarlet Eyes state. The chain was covered in numerous fine needles that could stimulate human acupoints to induce a state of relaxation.
Additionally, the chain on the little finger was the one Kurapika most commonly used to coordinate attacks with the middle finger's Chain Jail. During combat, those fine needles could not only inflict numerous small wounds but also had the ability to seal a target's pressure points, preventing their Nen from flowing smoothly.
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