Law dispatched the assailant, whose Manifested Aura was even comparable to Uvogin's, in a single move.
'What just happened…?'
The assailant's head flew through the air, his face filled with profound bewilderment and confusion.
'Had my proud defense suddenly failed?'
'That was my [Iron Wall], impervious to countless bullets without a scratch. Why had it been sliced open so easily?'
'Moreover, the Aura on that man was clearly very weak. How could he erupt with such instantaneous speed?'
'And where had that black sword come from?'
'I had almost reached level one hundred…!'
Carrying his multitude of confusions and intense resentment, the assailant weakly closed his eyes.
The head slammed into the ground, bounced, then rolled several times before coming to a stop.
When it stopped, his face was smeared with blood and dirt, barely concealing the thick resentment.
After killing the assailant, Law glanced at the squad of soldiers standing frozen not far away. He hadn't expected them to arrive so quickly. Fortunately, this male assailant had been too arrogant, otherwise, he couldn't have taken his head in a single move.
In full view of the soldiers, Law had Kuro, transformed into a longsword, shrink back into the back of his hand.
Just moments ago, he had charged straight at the male assailant, allocating his limited Manifested Aura entirely to his legs and right hand.
This allocation was equivalent to exposing vital areas like his head and chest to the enemy. Body parts without Aura Defense would suffer serious injury even from a glancing blow of Aura.
It was a very dangerous choice.
Law's Manifested Aura was limited, so he could only choose this way.
Despite carrying significant risk, if used correctly, he could turn risk into reward.
Law's trump card was Kuro, suddenly manifesting as a longsword, completely catching the male assailant off guard, to the point he couldn't even react.
And then, the battle ended in an instant.
Being able to dispatch the male assailant so easily was due to Law's willingness to take risks, Kuro's independent Nen, and most crucially, the male assailant's overconfidence in his own defense.
Law had noticed this from observing the male assailant's fight with the military and exploited it perfectly in their brief clash.
Achieving this result didn't surprise Law in the least.
Ignoring the soldiers who had arrived as reinforcements, he placed a hand on the male assailant's corpse, absorbing the lingering Nen into his body.
'Eighty-one days… that's a lot.'
Law's eyes lit up slightly, clearly feeling his Aura Nodes were almost completely open.
However, the amount of Manifested Aura he could release was still small, as if an invisible seal was plastered over his body's surface, or like a threshold he couldn't yet cross.
'Almost there… just two more, or three should do it…'
Law stood up and headed directly toward the location of the other Manipulator-type assailant.
Since he had already acted during the lull, his current thought was to quickly claim the female assailant's head as well, then blend into the crowd to search for the next target.
The soldiers on the scene stared dumbly as Law quickly departed before finally snapping back to their senses.
Immediately, a soldier in charge of communications reported what had just happened to his superiors. He then received new orders and moved in the direction Law had gone.
Their new task was to assist Squad Ten in eliminating the female enemy… the same assailant Law was targeting.
When Law arrived at the combat zone, the female assailant had gained another gunshot wound, in addition to the initial one in her right arm: one in her left calf. Moreover, few soldiers remained in the area.
Ratatatatat!
Twenty-three soldiers surrounding the female assailant leveled their rifles and fired at another dozen or so soldiers.
With only corpses for cover, despite the remaining soldiers dodging frantically and returning fire, they were overwhelmed by the firepower laid down by the twenty-three puppet soldiers.
Moments later, the puppet soldiers stopped firing. The area was now filled with corpse fragments torn apart by bullets.
"These fearless beasts! Damn it, damn it!!!"
The female assailant glanced at her gunshot wounds, her expression extremely fierce, snarling under her breath in a low, furious roar.
She had to retreat.
According to the original plan, everyone had to adapt to the situation. The main goal was to harvest experience points as much as possible, but there was no need to fight to the death. If the situation became critical, they had to withdraw quickly.
If she hadn't been injured, she could have continued harvesting experience. But now she was injured, so she could only retreat temporarily, recover, and wait for another opportunity.
Just as she was about to have the puppet soldiers cover her retreat, Law arrived.
She saw Law and without hesitation, ordered the soldiers to aim their guns at him and immediately pull the triggers.
It was an action taken before she could determine whether Law was a Nen User or an ordinary person. In her first reaction upon seeing Law, she simply saw him as experience points, a single life.
The curtain of fire woven by twenty-three guns was enough to cover the entire frontal area, leaving Law with no way to avoid it.
He could have chosen to have Kuro transform into a shield to withstand this wave of firepower, but he chose not to. Instead, he had Kuro transform into a throwing knife, which he hurled toward the female assailant a hundred meters away.
The black throwing knife pierced through the curtain of fire, flying straight toward the female assailant's heart.
At the same time, the bullet curtain, sufficient to instantly shred an ordinary person, arrived before Law.
Currently, Law couldn't deploy a high-precision Domain to stop the bullets. He immediately curled his body, reducing the area exposed to fire, and allocated his meager Manifested Aura to his front.
Thump thump thump thump!
Bullets carrying heat struck Law's curled-up torso one after another, splashing against the Aura like water droplets.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the female assailant, injured in the leg, saw Law's thrown knife. Her first reaction was to command the two nearest puppet soldiers to stand in front of her as human shields.
With a shlick sound, the throwing knife pierced through the first puppet soldier's body, then lodged into the second, stopping there.
The female assailant snorted coldly and waved her left hand, dispelling the Aura from the two damaged puppet soldiers.
At that moment, the black throwing knife stuck in the puppet soldier's corpse rose into the air of its own accord, flew toward the female assailant, and transformed into a robust black panther mid-air.
'This is…?!'
The female assailant was horrified. She instinctively tried to dodge but forgot her leg was injured.
Kuro indifferently swung its paw, cleaving the female assailant's body into several pieces.
Blood splattered everywhere. The female assailant died instantly.
She had allocated too much Aura to controlling puppets, so her personal defense was very limited. This was why she had been shot in the first place, and why Kuro could so easily kill her.
Once the female assailant died, the soldiers firing at Law stopped shooting.
Law, curled up, immediately stood up. Looking at the slight red swelling on his arms and thighs, he couldn't help but give a bitter smile.
On his path to becoming stronger, when had he ever feared firearms? When would he have imagined that one day, to block bullets, he would have to rely on curling up to reduce the exposed area?
If not for Kuro's assistance, he really wouldn't have had an easy time dealing with these upstart Nen Users.
But, the result was good.
Law quickly approached the corpse, and Kuro returned to its original size.
"Law."
Kuro called Law's name, unease visible in its eyes.
At this moment, the edges of his body were flickering unstably.
Law looked at the anomaly on Kuro's body, silently summoning his book.
On the cover, the vein-like white patterns glowed brightly like incandescent lamps.
"I promise you."
Law dismissed the book, then placed his hand on the corpse.
Hearing Law's words, the unease in Kuro's eyes vanished completely.
Not far away, the soldier squad was approaching.
Law quickly absorbed the Nen left behind by the female assailant.
The time until unsealing… was almost up.
The seal on his Aura Nodes seemed to begin loosening at this moment.
Law let out a long breath, feeling as if a ferocious beast was roaring wildly inside him.
Vaguely, he felt that after this unsealing, his ability would rise to a new level… a metamorphosis.