By the time Ginta reacted and had barely taken a step forward, all the fire had vanished before his eyes.
Even the aftermath of the explosion seemed to have vanished into thin air.
It was as if everything that had just happened had never existed.
Everything was calm, the clouds were light, and the breeze was gentle, creating a tranquil scene of a peaceful forest.
Except... For Ging Freecss, who stood there with his arms crossed while staring at them with dead-fish eyes.
"Just like that... It's all resolved?!!"
Ginta muttered in disbelief.
He felt as if everything he had just seen was a completely unreal dream.
In fact, if it weren't for the few scattered, yet harmless, sparks at Ging Freecss's feet and the scorching marks on the surrounding trees, Ginta felt as if his eyes and ears had deceived him.
People's visual and auditory effects derived from their physical senses can be somewhat deceptive.
As a qualified professional hunter, sometimes even the feedback from one's own body cannot be fully trusted.
And clearly, this situation doesn't fall into the category of sometimes.
Ging Freecss, using some means unknown to Ginta, has completely extinguished the fires in this forest that hadn't yet caused a catastrophe!
Although he didn't know how Ging Freecss had done it, considering the results...
"This is truly great!"
Ginta wiped the sweat from his forehead, unsure if it came from the heat of the fire or the fear of the crisis just now.
"Great, my ass!!"
Ging Freecss cursed out loud.
"What the hell are you doing? You're trying to set this whole forest on fire?!"
He vented his frustration, but that wasn't even the main issue: "If you had to blow things up, could you at least do it more quietly?!"
"Can't you see there are people here thinking?!"
Well, he was mainly concerned about his own thoughts being interrupted and affected.
Otherwise... The rest was none of his business.
"..."
Ging Freecss glared at Ginta again: "When someone is talking to you, don't just ignore them and mutter something to yourself. That's very rude, you know?!!"
Luke on the side: "..."
Hearing Ging Freecss lecture Ginta about manners almost made him laugh.
"What are you laughing at?!!"
Ging seemed to notice the smile in Luke's eyes and immediately turned on him instead: "This is all your fault, isn't it?!"
"Where did you get so many bombs, and why would you set them all off at once? Don't you know this is a forest?! You're destroying the whole ecosystem here!!"
Ging Freecss started cursing and lashing out.
"Of course I know."
Luke was unfazed. "It's just that..."
He smiled at Ging Freecss. "Aren't you still here?"
Ging Freecss: "..."
"So you're counting on me to clean up your mess, huh?!"
Ging Freecss rolled his eyes.
"You've committed a crime here yourself, so don't drag me down with you!"
Still, he stubbornly refused to admit that he had acted out of concern for the forest.
Luke just looked at him.
"You bastard..."
The calmer Luke looked, the more annoyed Ging became.
"It seems even without my intervention, you bastard should have a way to prevent this fire disaster from happening and spreading, right?!"
A bastard calling others bastards, huh…
"As long as someone stops the disaster, what difference does it make?"
Luke grinned. "The goal was achieved, right?"
"That's not the same!!"
Ging Freecss's eyes bulged, and he immediately pointed at the trembling, nearly fainting Two-headed Wolf.
"I've designated a zone for them, and they can't leave!"
"If I had acted a little later, they'd probably have been roasted whole!"
Luke: "Well, isn't that your own fault? Restricting the freedom of other creatures..."
Ging Freecss: "...?!"
"The hell it is!!"
Ging immediately erupted: "I get it now, you did this on purpose, didn't you? You wanted to force me to step in?!"
"How dare you falsely accuse me?"
"Oh yeah? So I wronged you?!"
"Of course!!"
Luke looked at him with a clear conscience and said: "This is all just a coincidence."
"Don't taint my pure soul with your foolish and filthy thoughts..."
Ging Freecss: "..."
What should I do? I suddenly feel like killing someone! What should I do?!
"This is the first time..."
Ging let out a bitter laugh. "That I've met someone who can spout such shameless lies with a straight face and be even thicker-skinned than me."
"You're not thick-skinned to begin with, are you?"
Luke delivered a powerful finishing blow: "You're just a willful and arrogant tsundere. So thin-skinned that even though you have your own ideas and goals, you refuse to admit them and instead hide behind some bizarre excuse or pretext..."
Ging Freecss: "..."
He finally understood that he couldn't talk with Luke for too long.
It was as if Luke saw straight through him; he stabbed straight at his heart with every word.
Precise, ruthless, and unrelenting…
"I don't want to say anything more to you."
Ging Freecss immediately gave up the argument with Luke.
While he was confident he could outwit Luke in terms of intelligence, eloquence, and logical reasoning, he would undoubtedly be stabbed in the heart by Luke in the process.
Ging Freecss didn't want to hear Luke's assessment of his character flaws and weaknesses.
He was truly shy and embarrassed!!
To avoid this, he simply chose to escape and stopped arguing with Luke.
Frustrated, his face twisted like he'd just swallowed a fly.
Then with a casual pluck, he pulled a charcoal-covered figure from the nearby pit.
Looking closely, one could just barely tell that this was once a human.
"This guy should be one of the Kute Gang of Thieves who trespassed here."
As the culprit behind all this, Ging Freecss's tone was far less forgiving: "This guy is lucky enough to still be breathing."
"Most likely, at the very first moment of the explosion, he used aura to wrap around his body, and his Nen ability should lean toward support or defense, so he barely managed to keep his life."
Plop.
He casually tossed the trembling figure in front of Ginta.
"I'll leave this guy to you!"
Ging Freecss said with a look of disdain: "You can just go back now."
"Tell Chairman Netero that with me here watching over the Two-headed Wolf, he doesn't need to worry about poachers anymore."