Machi and Nobunaga were stuck outside the Four Purple Flames Formation, both of them hammering away at the barrier at the same time.
Nobunaga's blade crashed against the wall of purple fire—and didn't leave so much as a scratch.
Machi's Nen threads ignited the second they touched the flames, burning away to nothing in just a few seconds.
Both of their faces turned ugly real fast.
At that moment, Chrollo and the others who'd been hiding in the shadows finally stepped out into the open.
They'd originally planned to sniff out Ronin's hidden backup and surround him completely.
But now it was obvious: the guy had the guts to wait for them alone in the middle of the desert because he'd come prepared with something way nastier.
Those four people maintaining the barrier were impossible to read—Chrollo had no idea where Ronin had dug them up—but the four-sided seal they'd created left the rest of the Troupe completely cut off, forced to watch helplessly while Ronin one-sidedly brutalized Uvogin.
Chrollo clenched his fist.
In his head, though, he was already running the math: if it was just him against the current Ronin, could he win for sure?
The answer was no.
He wasn't confident.
Uvogin was one of the absolute top dogs in the Troupe when it came to straight-up brawls. Even missing an arm took some bite out of his power, but the guy was still undeniably a monster.
And Ronin wasn't even bothering with his old fire tricks anymore. He'd chosen to meet Uvogin head-on—and was straight-up dominating him in a pure slugfest.
This wasn't just a display of how strong he'd gotten. It was a deliberate gut-punch to the heart, meant to humiliate.
Especially since he'd thrown up this barrier that put Uvogin's beatdown on full display for every single Troupe member to see. This was provocation and insult in the most blatant way possible.
Feitan's usual squinting eyes actually opened wide.
Rage poured off him in waves. Sure, he'd never been particularly close to Uvogin—hell, he loved roasting the big dumb oaf—but at the end of the day, that was still one of the crew he'd grown up with back in Meteor City.
"You gonna kill me!" The words came out backward and jumbled, pure fury spilling out of his mouth.
Franklin kept it simple.
The first joints of his fingers popped open, and a storm of Nen bullets roared toward the barrier.
No matter how tough a barrier was, every defense had a breaking point. Hit it hard enough, long enough, and it would crack. Franklin believed that with every fiber of his being.
Inside the barrier—
Uvogin's other arm was already gone, flying through the air.
His eyes were starting to dim. The moment Ronin had ripped his guts out, he knew he was done.
So in that split second, he made his choice: end it himself.
That's right.
Uvogin was going for suicide.
Back when he'd left Meteor City and seen more of the world, he'd learned about a special kind of power.
A power that only erupted after death.
A power stronger than anything you had while still alive.
Or rather—a kind of Vow and Limitation.
Uvogin's obsession, his Vow, was to kill Ronin. He was willing to give his own life for it. That was the final Limitation he placed on himself.
But he failed.
The arm he'd raised to smash his own heart was torn away from his body even faster than he could move—by Ronin.
Another piercing hand strike.
With his last arm gone, a flicker of doubt crept into Uvogin's mind.
Even if he died right now… even if his corpse awakened with Post-Mortem Nen… without both arms, could that version of him really explode with power beyond his peak and actually take Ronin down?
The second that thought appeared, Uvogin knew he'd lost completely.
Lightning danced around him. Each piercing hand became a scalpel carving Uvogin's body apart.
Thighs. Chest. Heart. Both eyes. Until finally, Ronin ripped the unrecognizable head clean off.
Blood and chunks of torn flesh splattered everywhere. The lightning-style chakra around Ronin finally faded.
His breathing was heavy, but his eyes burned bright.
He held Uvogin's head up by the hair, turned, and looked straight at the Troupe members outside the barrier, every one of them looking ready to tear him to pieces.
A huge, bloody grin spread across Ronin's face.
He casually tossed the head into the air.
When it came back down, his aura-coated foot slammed down with crushing force.
Just like that rainy night when Uvogin had stomped his own father's head into paste… Ronin did the exact same thing to Uvogin's skull.
Right in front of the entire Phantom Troupe.
Spiders feel pain too, huh… probably.
They'd always known a day like this might come for them, hadn't they?
More Troupe members unleashed everything they had on the Four Purple Flames Formation. Cracks finally started spiderwebbing across the purple fire wall.
But Ronin, still inside, knew exactly what was happening.
The four shadow clones maintaining the barrier were reaching their limit.
Franklin's tactic had been dead-on. Constant bombardment was burning through the clones' chakra way faster.
Ronin didn't care, though.
His aura vanished again. His hands flashed through seals.
Earth Style: Super Light-Weight Rock Technique.
Under the stunned stares of Chrollo and the others, Ronin slowly rose into the air.
"So this is his real ace in the hole?" Chrollo's voice stayed calm—his face barely showed anything.
Flight.
An extremely rare ability. If you were flexible enough with it, it was one hell of a life-saving trick.
Every time they faced Ronin, he seemed to pull another new crazy ability out of his sleeve.
Chrollo felt something strange in his chest. Ronin was exactly the type of opponent he hated most.
No matter how much he planned, no matter how perfectly he calculated, the next meeting could always throw in some wild new variable.
Chrollo preferred having everything locked down—victory already in his pocket—before making his move.
Not calculating everything to perfection only to lose because of some freak accident.
He despised that kind of luck-based fighting.
Bang bang bang…
A series of shattering sounds rang out as the Four Purple Flames Formation finally broke under the Troupe's onslaught.
Several figures shot forward at once, rushing straight toward the four corners where the clones had been standing.
But the four shadow clones moved in perfect sync. Each of them suddenly held a round clay ball in their hand.
They smashed the balls into the ground.
Thick clouds of smoke billowed up instantly, swallowing all four of them completely.
The Troupe members who charged in hit nothing but air—like the four had simply vanished inside the smoke.
At the same time, Franklin shifted his aim skyward.
A barrage of Nen bullets screamed upward toward Ronin.
But Ronin, already airborne, had formed another hand seal.
Chakra surged in his mouth, shifting to earth affinity. He spat out masses of clay that quickly molded together in the air.
Earth Style: Golem Technique.
A technique created by the Second Tsuchikage—perfect for both defense and offense.
The clay giant wasn't under the effects of the Light-Weight Rock Technique. The moment it formed, it shielded Ronin completely and then dropped like a meteor toward the ground.
Franklin's bullets slammed into the clay giant—but couldn't tear it apart mid-fall.
Instead, the giant raised a massive fist as it descended.
BOOM!
An earthquake-level roar shook the entire area when the clay giant crashed down, the ground trembling hard enough to rattle everyone's bones.