Chapter 108 108 Mind's Eye, Fist's Echo
"Well spoken. Now let's see if your strength is as impressive as your words." Zane crooked his finger at his opponent.
A lot can change in a short time.
Compared to the wariness he felt when facing Hisoka before, Zane was now undeniably composed.
His eyes narrowed slightly. In the next second...
Boom!!!
The excitement and battle intent he had suppressed for so long suddenly erupted.
Malice thick with killing intent surged from Hisoka like a tide, manifesting as a demonic maw that lunged forward to devour Zane.
Boom!!!
The demonic maw was forcibly pushed back, even beginning to dissipate.
Facing Hisoka's onslaught of malice, Zane's expression remained unchanged as he simply released his own malice in the same manner.
Both were releasing malice, but the results were far from equal.
A golden aura shot into the sky, causing the very air to twist and distort.
The ground beneath his feet cracked violently.
The sheer volume of Nen aura erupting from Zane's body far surpassed Hisoka's. It easily crushed the opponent's malice and swept forward like a tsunami.
The wind howled.
The messy grass was whipped into a frenzy and torn from the earth.
Hisoka's face rippled under the pressure of the gale as if hit by a physical force.
"Hah!!!"
His pupils constricted violently.
The terrifying amount of Nen aura Zane unleashed acted as a massive stimulant for Hisoka.
It was just as Satotz had once evaluated him in the original story.
Most people slam on the brakes when they encounter a cliff.
But there are others, like Hisoka, who don't just refuse to brake; they floor the accelerator.
Right now.
Faced with the overwhelming invasion of Zane's malice, Hisoka didn't retreat. Instead, his face flushed red as he let out a bizarre, eerie cry.
Staying low to the ground...
Braving the pressure of the malice, Hisoka shot toward Zane at top speed.
They were only five or six meters apart. At the speed Hisoka was moving, he should have reached him in an instant.
Yet, in that split second...
Time seemed to slow down dramatically for Zane.
Mind's Eye, Fist's Echo!
His perception of time compressed in an inconceivable way.
What seemed like a mere moment was, to Zane, nowhere near fast enough.
His massive Nen aura was so concentrated that even without focusing it, his eyes naturally possessed the effect of [GYO] used by ordinary Nen users.
Through his insight...
He could see Hisoka constantly flicking strands of [BUNGEE GUM] hidden with [IN], attaching them to the ground on both sides as he approached.
As he moved forward, the strands of gum stretched out.
[BUNGEE GUM].
This Nen ability gave his aura the properties of both gum and rubber, allowing it to stick and stretch.
Right now, the stretched strands were like taut rubber bands. Once retracted, they would provide Hisoka with powerful pulling force.
In other words, if Hisoka wanted to...
During the coming exchange, even if his attack was blocked or missed...
He could use the pull of the gum to retreat and dodge Zane's counterattack with even greater speed.
Finding the extraordinary within the ordinary.
[BUNGEE GUM] was far from being the most formidable Nen ability.
But Hisoka relied on his own ingenuity to push this ability to its absolute limit.
Zane took a single step.
He calmly dodged the card aimed at his throat and, at the same time, reached out to grab the arm whose attack had missed.
'So fast!'
Finding the extraordinary within the ordinary.
It wasn't just Hisoka who achieved this; Zane did as well.
Whether it was dodging or grabbing the arm...
Zane's movements were remarkably simple.
But despite that simplicity, they were so fast that Hisoka couldn't even react.
It wasn't until his arm was caught that Hisoka realized with a jolt of horror.
His leg muscles tensed, and [BUNGEE GUM] activated.
As Hisoka tried to push off and retreat, the attached gum reached its limit of contraction.
However, the final result was him being pulled taut in mid-air by the gum.
He didn't move back.
Because Zane was still firmly holding onto Hisoka's arm.
Even with his own physical strength combined with the pull of [BUNGEE GUM]...
The combined force was still no match for Zane's power.
Thump!!
A knee strike.
Looking at Hisoka suspended in the air...
Zane showed no mercy, raising his right leg and slamming his knee into the opponent's exposed chest.
Amidst the sound of cracking bones, Hisoka let out a muffled groan.
But he didn't give up.
Realizing he couldn't break free, he decisively deactivated [BUNGEE GUM], using the snap-back from the interrupted pull to quickly strike with his other hand.
A card wrapped in Nen was held between his fingertips, slashing toward Zane's eyes like a blade at point-blank range.
Too slow.
Hisoka's reactions were swift, but in Zane's eyes, the movement was entirely inadequate.
Raising his other hand...
Zane flicked his finger. A flick infused with high-intensity Nen instantly shattered the incoming card.
He then released the opponent's arm and, before he could react, quickly grabbed Hisoka's face.
Boom!!!
He slammed him down.
In Zane's hands, Hisoka was like a toy, flipped over and violently smashed into the ground.
The ferocious power vented out.
With Zane and Hisoka at the center, the ground exploded instantly.
Waves of energy radiated in all directions, turning dirt and grass into ripples that rolled outward in pieces.
Amidst the flying dust...
Zane and Hisoka were deep in the ground, inside a massive crater dozens of meters in diameter.
"It seems you've conceded. This win is mine. I'll send you the list of ten criminals later. Once you've completed the captures, you're welcome to challenge me again at any time."
Releasing his grip on the opponent's face, Zane slowly stood up and looked down at Hisoka. Most of Hisoka's body was embedded in the bottom of the crater, his skin torn and bleeding from the impact. Zane calmly put his hands in his pockets.
Hisoka stared blankly at the night sky.
This was the expression on Hisoka's face once Zane moved his hand away.
There was no pain from his injuries, only numbness and emptiness.
Lost?
He had indeed lost.
And he had lost without a shadow of a doubt.
"Oh, I see..."
Hearing the words in his ear, Hisoka responded almost mechanically.
Seeing the reaction, Zane knew the man would need some time to process things, so he turned to leave without concern.
Suddenly, Zane seemed to remember something. He paused in his turn and looked back at Hisoka.
"By the way, is Machi from the Phantom Troupe not here?" Zane asked.
He was thinking back to the battle between Hisoka and Kastro.
Hisoka hadn't offered up his arms like he did in the original story. This change made him curious.
Besides the possibility of Hisoka's mindset changing, another reason could be the absence of Machi, the surgeon, by his side.
Hisoka was never a fool.
No matter what, he wouldn't commit irreversible self-mutilation out of mere spite.
In the original story, the reason he could afford to give up an arm so easily was that Machi was there to help him reattach it.