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Chapter 455
🕑 Added 2025-03-28 16:04:01 +0000 UTCChapter 455
Natsu and the young man collided, launching into a rapid series of close-quarters exchanges without pause. Their movements were so fast that if any ordinary person had been present, they would only hear the barrage of impacts without being able to see the attacks themselves. The entire clash unfolded in less than a heartbeat; within that fleeting instant, their bodies blurred through space, striking, dodging, and countering nearly a dozen times before the world could even catch up
Both were highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat. In terms of pure technique, the young man might have had a slight edge, but Natsu had the advantage of fire. For a while, neither could gain ground; they were locked in a back-and-forth deadlock. Yet such a tenuous balance could be broken at any moment, depending on who made the first slip.
Psychologically, Natsu held the upper hand. As a Nen Beast, he had no worries—Ron’s command was to fight all-out, and that was precisely what Natsu did, free of distraction. By contrast, the young man had other concerns. He wasn’t necessarily worried about his companion’s survival but rather what the potential consequences meant for him if he was alone.
Meanwhile, Ron gripped the hilt of the Rotten Life Blade. Sasuke’s eyes glimmered with three rotating tomoe as he cast a genjutsu toward the woman. Her willpower was strong, and Sasuke wasn’t that skilled in illusions, so the seizure only affected her for a fleeting moment—but that was enough.
Just as before, when Ron had used faints and sneak attacks to corner two of the Four Beasts into Sumas’s space, he exploited that opening again.
“Rotten Life Blade!”
Ron slashed, sending a ghostly gleam hurtling at the woman. It struck home, spawning countless insect eggs on her body.
“Squish!
“Squish!
“Squish!”
White maggots burst from their shells and began writhing across her skin, devouring her aura. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake them off—they clung like parasites. As her aura drained away, her movements slowed. Sasuke and Ron both drew closer.
Realizing this, she gritted her teeth. “Damn it!”
Before this mission, she had maintained more caution than her three fellow members, largely because her position within the Four Beasts was special—she was effectively their vice-captain. She was also exceptionally fast, which gave her confidence that, should anything go wrong, she could escape with relative ease. But now she saw there was no chance of escape left.
“If you want to kill me, you’ll pay a price for it!”
She eyed the surface of her arm.
“It’s about ready…”
An alarming surge of aura flared around her. In the next instant, something seemed to evaporate from her body. It dispersed into the air, merging with the dust and forming a pale mist—reminiscent of the oily fog used by Ron’s Lampent, though not as dense. However, unlike that fog, it carried poison.
Ron simply held his breath and used as little aura as possible to counteract the poison, as a trained assassin his body could handle it. Sasuke however moved in having no concern about the poison, and the woman charged to meet him, only to pivot away at the last second. Her speed spiked once more as she darted around Sasuke, preventing him from reacting. She shot straight for Ron.
Ron raised the Rotten Life Blade and slashed again. Another eerie gleam flashed out, but this time she moved too fast and dodged it.
“She’s even quicker now?”
Ron’s gaze flickered. As the woman closed in, he gave a mental command.
“Akame!”
Akame stabbed at the woman. She sensed a threat and abruptly halted, swerving aside to evade, but in doing so lost her chance to strike Ron. Akame pressed the attack, and Sasuke looped around to join in.
Ron watched her carefully, frowning.
“It’s not just about increased speed. There’s something else going on…”
He stepped back, retreating beyond the boundaries of the mist. Sasuke threw a punch at the woman. She dodged, and his fist pounded the ground, sending shards of rock and earth spraying everywhere—some inside the fog, some outside.
Ron squinted his eyes and noticed a discrepancy in some of the stones.
“Time… That’s her real ability.
“The stones that landed in the mist took longer to fall than those outside. It means that everything inside the mist—except the woman—experiences slowed time, making her appear faster. This is a clever power, but she hasn’t developed it enough to be truly overwhelming.
“We can still handle it. Although using sweat to create the mist is…a bit unusual.”
Ron issued new orders to Sasuke and Akame. In the next moment, Akame took the lead while Sasuke hung back slightly.
The woman clearly feared Akame’s blade, and Ron’s Nen Bullets only added to her woes, as did the lingering effects from the Rotten Life Blade. Most of all, her intent was obvious: she wanted to reach Ron himself. By staying alert to that single goal, Ron could effectively contain her.
She was wary of Akame’s weapon and thrown off by Ron’s precisely timed Nen Bullets, which always came at the worst moment for her. The cumulative effect left her feeling like she was fighting an opponent far stronger than herself, someone with greater experience and sharper instincts, who methodically hemmed her in from every angle. She had power, but no way to use it.
