Under the moonlight, a bat-like figure trailed behind Ronin and the others in the night sky.
He wasn't even trying to hide his presence.
Clearly, the guy figured he had them dead to rights.
As their car cruised through an intersection, another shadow plummeted from above, hurling a massive sheet straight down onto the vehicle.
A young guy in round-framed shades, beach-vacation vibes—flowery shirt, flip-flops—landed right in front of where the car had been.
The car itself? Gone. In its place sat a twisted lump on the street, squished like a caramel-filled chocolate candy.
The attacker was Owl—one of the Shadow Beasts.
His ability: "Miracle Handy Wrap Sheet."
He could manifest a huge cloth that instantly shrank and bundled up anything it covered, no matter the size.
The scary part? It worked on living things too.
Owl turned toward his neatly packaged prize, but before he could get close, a chain shot out from the darkness straight at him.
Right then, a pale-haired, dark-skinned guy appeared at Owl's side and stomped down hard on the chain with one massive foot.
Another Shadow Beast.
As the foot came down, some kind of slime oozed from his body, coating the chain and starting to creep along it toward whoever was holding the other end.
But the next second, the chain vanished.
From around the corner, Kurapika's chain reappeared in his hand. His glare toward the newcomer had turned downright hostile.
At the same moment, a slender figure popped up behind Owl.
A long, toned leg whipped through the air under a short skirt, aimed right at Owl's head—it was Neon, who'd somehow avoided getting wrapped up with the car.
BAM!
This time Owl reacted, raising an arm to block the kick.
The sheer force still sent him staggering backward. As he retreated, he caught sight of the third person from the car—Ronin—standing not far behind him.
His surprise attack hadn't threatened any of them!
Had those three spotted the bat as a decoy and known he was the real striker all along?
That thought flashed through Owl's mind as another giant wrap sheet materialized in his hands. The second Ronin made a move, that cloth was ready to drop right over him.
But Ronin didn't even glance his way. His eyes were locked on the ground.
The next instant, Ronin raised his fist. A Super Destructive Punch erupted from his hand—pure Enhancer brutality. He vanished briefly from Owl's sight, then reappeared slamming that fist straight into the pavement.
The solid asphalt caved in, forming a deep crater.
But the person Ronin was aiming for wasn't there.
Instead, a sonic wave blasted down from the sky—the bat-winged Shadow Beast who'd been circling overhead.
Every window on the street shattered from the piercing screech.
Ronin, right in the blast zone, gathered aura in his throat and roared back. His own sound wave crashed upward, meeting the attack head-on.
Four of them.
Through his Sharingan vision, Ronin clearly counted four Shadow Beasts tailing them.
That meant at most six were hitting the Phantom Troupe.
What kind of split was that?
Did they think the Troupe was easy pickings? Or that Ronin's group was the soft target they could actually catch, while the Troupe was too tough?
Two totally opposite attitudes—it was impossible to read their real plan.
Besides, Ronin couldn't remember doing anything to piss off the Shadow Beasts enough for four of them to come hunting his crew.
But since they'd shown up… they could all stay right here.
Ronin's gaze swept over the one flying above and the one burrowed below. He'd leave Owl and the pale-haired guy to Kurapika and Neon.
Time to see how far those two had come in their training.
"Keep the cloth guy alive," Ronin called out loud. "Kill the ugly one."
The bat creature dipped lower in the sky.
Not far away, a red-skinned freak burst up from underground—another Shadow Beast, code name Worm.
The pale-haired one was harder to pin down, but Ronin had seen that slime earlier.
Probably a Transmuter.
Kurapika had been smart—canceling his materialized chain the moment the goo touched it.
Smart defense. He could always summon a new one anyway.
Owl adjusted his glasses, his arm still tingling from the impact. That whip-legged girl packed way more punch than she looked like she should.
Who'd have thought a delicate little thing was an Enhancer?
"Slug, wanna switch?" Owl asked the pale-haired guy beside him.
"OK!"
Slug started dripping more slime as he turned to size up Neon.
The way he stared made Neon's stomach turn.
She really didn't want to fight this disgusting creep, but Ronin was right—capturing the cloth guy alive was more Kurapika's specialty.
Fine. Slime boy it is.
With that, Neon slipped a hand into her pocket and pulled out a fountain pen.
She studied Slug carefully, but her gaze wasn't the kind you give a person—it was like she was scanning him for which part might be worth adding to her collection.
Answer: none.
At least nothing on the outside looked worth keeping. Maybe he had a beautiful soul?
Cars had piled up around the intersection, drivers inside trembling as they watched the standoff.
A loud semi-truck horn finally shattered the freeze.
Ronin stomped the ground hard. Shards of pavement flew up; he snatched one mid-air, coated it with aura, and flung it like a bullet at the bat overhead.
Worm dove back underground.
But this time, his target wasn't the Enhancer monster who could crater asphalt with one punch—it was Kurapika.
A scary Enhancer was hard to get close to, but a Conjurer? No escaping being dragged underground and shredded!