As the referee announced the start—
Hyuga Arin looked at Killua with clear interest.
"Why aren't you moving?"
Killua's body trembled faintly.
To him, Hyuga Arin looked full of openings—but he simply couldn't bring himself to attack.
"If you don't make a move," Hyuga Arin said calmly,
"then I will."
The voice sounded from behind him.
Killua spun around instantly and lashed out with a whip kick.
Hyuga Arin raised a finger and tapped a pressure point on Killua's leg, then stepped back smoothly, narrowly avoiding the kick.
The moment Killua's foot touched the ground, he gritted his teeth and rushed forward again.
"What a ridiculously tough body," Hyuga Arin muttered.
He blocked Killua's attacks using only one hand.
He had just struck a pressure point in Killua's leg—normally, that should have caused numbness and disrupted movement.
But Killua showed no reaction at all.
Not even a moment of hesitation.
His assault remained fierce.
Suddenly, Hyuga Arin's palm passed straight through Killua's arm—like striking an afterimage.
In the next instant, Killua split into countless figures.
"Rhythm Echo."
Multiple Killuas attacked Hyuga Arin at the same time.
"Byakugan!"
Veins bulged around Hyuga Arin's eyes as his vision turned transparent.
At the same time, he used Gyo, concentrating chakra into his eyes.
He could clearly see the vibrations of Killua's muscles—
—but because Killua had no internal energy at all, Hyuga Arin couldn't distinguish the real body.
"Gentle Fist · Willow Drift."
He extended Gentle Fist principles to his entire body, amplifying perception and sensing the flow of air.
Killua had multiplied—
—but the one who couldn't land a hit was Killua himself.
Seeing that his attack was ineffective, Killua retreated.
An assassin didn't fight prolonged battles.
Hyuga Arin didn't pursue. Instead, he clenched his fist lightly, lost in thought.
In the audience—
Gon had somehow ended up sitting with Wing and Zushi.
"Killua and Hyuga Arin fight in really similar ways," Gon said.
Wing looked at Gon in surprise.
Despite their techniques looking completely different, Gon had sensed the similarity.
"That's the combat style of assassins," Wing explained.
"An assassin's fighting style isn't about winning—it's about killing. Every strike targets a fatal weakness."
One was clearly serious, the other looked almost playful—
—but their habits as assassins hadn't changed.
Wing could tell because of experience.
Gon sensed it purely through instinct.
Normally, when two assassins of equal strength clashed, the fight ended only with one dead.
But here—
The gap between them was far too large.
Hyuga Arin finished thinking and looked at Killua, who was still probing for an opening.
"That's about enough."
"Anything else you want to show me?"
He pushed off the ground and rushed forward.
In an instant, his figure split into multiple afterimages.
"That's my Rhythm Echo!!" Killua exclaimed in shock.
He could tell—Hyuga Arin's execution was still rough.
"He copied it after seeing it once?"
"Twisting the body with alternating tension to create afterimages isn't hard to learn," Hyuga Arin said calmly.
"It's just control of force and movement."
All of Hyuga Arin's figures vanished at once.
He stopped directly in front of Killua, a finger pressed against Killua's forehead.
"If that's all," Hyuga Arin said lightly,
"then it's time for your curtain call."
"Gulp."
Killua swallowed hard.
The urge to flee flooded his entire body.
"Calm down!!"
Only when Hyuga Arin voluntarily stepped back did Killua regain his composure.
Every time he faced danger, his body instinctively wanted to run.
So much so that Killua had always believed it was his own will.
"Then—"
Killua's eyes turned cold.
His arms dropped naturally to his sides, and he lunged forward.
"Serpent Awakens!"
His arms transformed into whips, leaving streaks of afterimages.
Sharp claws extended from his fingers, capable of slicing through anything in their path.
"This one's harder to copy," Hyuga Arin said.
He spread his stance.
A faint Eight Trigrams diagram appeared beneath his feet.
"Eight Trigrams · Sixty-Four Palms!"
Both of Hyuga Arin's hands turned into blurs, colliding head-on with Killua's arms.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of flesh colliding rang nonstop.
Step by step, Hyuga Arin forced Killua backward—
until Killua's arms suddenly fell limp at his sides.
"My arms… won't move?" Killua's expression changed.
After having his pressure points struck repeatedly, losing control was inevitable—even for someone as gifted as Killua.
And Hyuga Arin didn't stop.
Once Killua's arms dropped, the remaining blows landed squarely on his body.
Fifty-four palms.
Fifty-five palms.
Sixty palms.
Sixty-four palms.
Boom!
Killua was sent flying, crashing into the edge of the ring.
"…Hm?"
Hyuga Arin frowned when no experience notification appeared.
He looked at Killua lying there in surprise.
"What kind of body does this guy have?"
He had struck multiple vital pressure points.
Even chakra-using shinobi would have lost consciousness.
Yet Killua was still awake.
And—
Killua stood back up.
Using arms that should have been useless, he rubbed his shoulders and looked at Hyuga Arin.
"Pressure points?" Killua said thoughtfully.
"You disrupted my blood flow and cut off my nervous system."
"You really are absurdly talented," Hyuga Arin sighed.
Killua had forced his blood flow through the blocked points on his own.
Every Hyuga clan ninja who'd killed enemies with pressure-point strikes would be crying right now.
Since Killua was still standing—
The fight continued.
"Anything else you want to show me?"
Killua's method wasn't something Hyuga Arin could learn.
That level of bodily control required both monstrous talent and years of training.
Without a corresponding skill, Hyuga Arin simply couldn't replicate it.
At this point, the only thing worth learning from Killua was Serpent Awakens—
—and even that couldn't be mastered quickly.
It required reshaping the bones in the hands. Chakra could do it, but it needed long-term practice.
Killua suddenly grinned.
"Hehe. I surrender!"
Hyuga Arin wasn't someone he could defeat right now.
Hyuga Arin rolled his eyes and turned to walk off the ring.
"Winner—Vanishing Hyuga Arin!!"
The crowd erupted in cheers.
They cheered no matter who won—unless it was an obvious fixed match.
Hyuga Arin walked over and sat beside Wing in the stands.
"Yo. You must be Zushi's teacher. Nice to meet you."
"Master, he—" Zushi tried to say that Hyuga Arin could use Nen.
Wing raised a hand, stopping him, and looked at Hyuga Arin.
"That was an excellent match."
Hyuga Arin glanced at Wing's serious expression, then at the silenced Zushi.
"There are some Nen techniques I don't fully understand," Hyuga Arin said casually.
"Mind if I discuss them with you?"
"…Huh?! You can use Nen?!" Wing stared at him in shock.
Beside him, Zushi slapped a hand to his forehead in frustration.
I was trying to say that just now…
Hyuga Arin looked at Wing speechlessly.
As expected of an Enhancer.
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