Chapter 24: Bungee Gum
Hisoka's reaction was far faster than Togari could have imagined.
With a single step forward, Hisoka flipped gracefully over the examiner's head.
At that same instant, Togari felt something sticky cling to his hands. Startled, he reflexively raised them only to drive both of his own blades into his face.
Togari stumbled backward, eyes squeezed shut in shock.
Although the knives hadn't pierced directly into his sockets, blood splattered across his eyelids and cheeks.
Two sharp hisses followed then came the sting and the flow of blood.
A burning pain seared across his face, and the agony blinded him. Darkness swallowed him whole as he sensed another presence closing in an eerie, suffocating pressure that made his heart sink.
"Y-You bastard!"
He struggled to free his hands, but Hisoka's Bungee Gum held him fast.
With a flick, Hisoka lifted Togari like a puppet and slammed him hard against the ground.
The impact knocked the breath out of Togari; his knives slipped from his grasp.
Hisoka stepped forward, and before the stunned eyes of the remaining candidates, he pressed his shoe onto Togari's blood-streaked face.
Togari cursed through clenched teeth, his arms still bound by the sticky threads, unable to move.
"I think you're the one who failed," Hisoka said with a grin, pressing down harder just as he had done to the frog earlier.
The Bungee Gum coiled like a living serpent, twisting violently.
A sharp crack echoed as both of Togari's arms broke.
The pain was so intense that a cold sweat drenched him, but he bit down to keep from screaming.
"Still have some spirit left?" Hisoka tilted his head, amused.
Then, lifting the examiner effortlessly, he flung him aside as though tossing out a bag of trash.
Togari crashed through the bushes, rolling down the slope until he vanished from sight.
Turning back to Germain and the others, Hisoka smiled.
"So, the examiner failed first. Now tell me… what should we do next?"
"Ah, I know!" Hisoka's eyes gleamed. "Let me be the examiner for the third test. I'll decide who passes and who fails."
The crowd of candidates shivered.
They were still reeling from what they'd just witnessed Togari, the examiner, utterly defeated and now Hisoka stood there, calm and blood-spattered, smiling.
Only Germain remained composed, his expression unreadable.
Hisoka glanced at him and smirked. "I'll save the tastiest treat for last."
Then, narrowing his eyes, his powder-white face glowed eerily in the dim dawn light.
"As for the rest of you," he said, "come at me one by one or all together. It makes no difference."
He took a step forward, smiling. The fifty remaining candidates stepped back in unison.
All of them shared the same thought:
Even the examiner couldn't fight Hisoka. How could we mere candidates possibly stand against him?
Hisoka's relentless advance made sweat pour down their faces until finally, one of them found the courage to shout.
"Don't be afraid!" cried Chen Li, a martial artist with a steady voice and firm stance. "We're fifty against one! A full assault will overwhelm him!"
The others snapped out of their daze.
"Yes, we're many!" echoed the three Amori brothers Amori, Umori, and Imori. "If two or three grab a limb while the rest charge, we can win!"
Their determination spread like wildfire through the crowd.
Weapons were drawn; others clenched their fists barehanded.
The fifty candidates fanned out in a semicircle, creeping toward Hisoka like crabs closing in on prey.
"Together!" roared Chen Li, and the others charged forward.
Hisoka let out a pleased moan, smiling wickedly.
"Oh, how I adore those unafraid of death. The more they resist, the sweeter their despair tastes."
A chill ran through the mob, yet they pressed on, lunging at him.
From Germain's perspective, Hisoka's movements looked almost beautiful like a deadly dance.
His magic wasn't a trick; it was pure slaughter disguised as art.
No one could catch him. Even touching his clothes was nearly impossible.
He shimmered between them, his Bungee Gum snapping and whipping with terrifying precision.
One by one, bodies flew.
Bones cracked, groans filled the air, and the ground became a canvas of broken forms.
Chen Li, who had led the charge, was soon ensnared by the sticky threads dangling like a yo-yo, foaming at the mouth before going limp.
The three brothers followed shortly after, collapsing in unconscious heaps.
Within minutes, over twenty candidates lay on the ground, gravely injured incapable of continuing the exam.
Hisoka chuckled softly and glanced at the remaining twenty.
A collective shiver ran through them.
Whatever courage they had built up vanished. Without a word, they dropped their weapons and fled, stumbling away in terror.
He's a demon, they thought. And humans cannot defeat a demon.
"Ah… maybe I went too far. Did I scare them?" Hisoka mused, raising his hands mockingly.
Then he turned toward Germain.
"Well, I'm all warmed up now. Time for the real show."
Facing Hisoka, Germain no longer needed to hide his aura.
His left hand shimmered manifesting a musket, while his right summoned a butcher's cleaver.
It was five in the morning.
The dawn light crept over the mountains, slicing through the forest and illuminating the twenty injured candidates lying on the grass.
Those still conscious could only watch the confrontation ahead, swallowing hard.
They had once grouped Germain and Hisoka together both cold, unfeeling, terrifyingly strong.
But now, every one of them silently hoped Germain would win.
At least Germain wouldn't kill them for fun.
"Silent partner," Hisoka whispered, waving his hand as he approached. "Let's dance."
His fingertips snapped, and from Germain's blind spot, a stone already coated in Bungee Gum shot toward the back of his neck.
But Germain, always prepared, kept his body tense and rounded in anticipation.
Sensing the attack, he spun with his cleaver, and with a loud crack, shattered the incoming rock to dust.
"You know my abilities…" Hisoka grinned, shifting diagonally, his feet barely brushing the ground. "But I know yours too."
In an instant, dozens of Bungee Gum threads lashed out attaching to rocks, dirt, even to the wounded candidates still lying nearby
swinging them through the air like meteor hammers.
(End of Chapter)