A raging fire dragon surged from Hyuga Arin's mouth.
But at that very moment, Hisoka's figure began moving at extreme speed. His Nen had already adhered to the falling fragments of the arena structure, continuously tugging and propelling him forward in rapid bursts.
The fire dragon Hyuga Arin unleashed couldn't keep up with Hisoka's speed at all. With his Byakugan enhanced by chakra, Hyuga Arin possessed exceptional dynamic vision and could follow Hisoka's movements—
—but his body simply couldn't keep up.
He had no choice but to stop controlling the Great Fire Dragon Technique.
Slash.
As Hisoka flashed past, a playing card carved a bloody gash across Hyuga Arin's shoulder.
"This guy… he's really troublesome," Hyuga Arin ground his teeth. He hadn't expected that even in a space as small as this arena, Hisoka could still turn it into a playground.
If he couldn't match Hisoka's movement speed, he'd be worn down and killed alive.
That meant only one option left—clear the field.
But the problem was, his chakra was nearly depleted.
Hyuga Arin leapt straight up from the arena and took a deep breath.
"Fire Release · Grand Flame Technique."
Among Fire Release techniques, Grand Flame had the widest range.
A vast sea of flames swept across the entire arena. To avoid being burned to ashes, even Hisoka was forced to jump into the air.
"Got you."
Hyuga Arin grinned ferociously as he looked at Hisoka.
Right now, Hisoka was airborne. To detach himself from the arena earlier, he had already released his Nen.
Which meant—
At this moment, Hisoka had no way to escape Hyuga Arin's attack range.
If he wanted to move the way he had before, he would need to reattach his Nen to something else.
Hyuga Arin raised both hands toward Hisoka.
All of his remaining chakra gathered into his palms.
If this still didn't work, he would have no choice but to level up and forcibly recover.
"Twin Air Fire Cannons!"
One fireball shot toward Hisoka—followed immediately by a second.
Unknowable Fire + Shadow Clone Technique!
Faced with the incoming fireballs, Hisoka showed no fear at all. Instead, his expression twisted into something akin to ecstasy.
"This is just too wonderful!!!"
All of his Nen surged, fully reinforcing his arms.
The two fireballs merged into one and slammed heavily into Hisoka's forearms.
BOOM!
An explosion comparable to a detonating tag erupted midair. Amid the black smoke, Hisoka's body was sent crashing violently toward the spectator stands.
[EXP 19998]
So much experience.
Hyuga Arin landed on the arena floor. His chakra was completely drained now, but the fallen Hisoka hadn't died.
No need to rush leveling up yet.
Hisoka had still managed to withstand Hyuga Arin's final attack—he was merely unconscious, his entire body covered in severe burns.
If he wasn't treated, he really would die.
"Winner—Hyuga Arin!!!"
The entire arena stood up in thunderous cheers.
In the stands, Gon clenched his fists. The Hisoka he had wanted to defeat so badly had actually fallen like this.
"That guy is insanely strong…" Killua muttered beside him. When Hyuga Arin had fought him before, he hadn't even been serious.
Hyuga Arin stood on the arena floor, completely uninterested in the cheers. He turned around and left the stage without a second glance.
The severely injured Hisoka was already being carried away for treatment.
This time, Hyuga Arin had taken advantage of the environment. With so few things to exploit on the arena floor, if this had been somewhere else, he might not have been able to defeat Hisoka so cleanly.
After defeating Hisoka, Hyuga Arin's fame skyrocketed—but he had no intention of continuing to fight here.
It was time to go hunt spiders.
What he hadn't expected, though, was that the badly injured Hisoka would appear in front of him again.
Hyuga Arin opened his door and saw Hisoka standing outside.
"Yo."
Hisoka appeared completely unharmed.
"What are you here for?" Hyuga Arin said. He knew very well that Hisoka's burns couldn't have healed so quickly—he was relying on Texture Surprise to conceal his injuries.
"Just here to see you off. What—am I not welcome?" Hisoka showed none of the hostility one would expect after a life-and-death battle.
"I'm not interested in you for now," Hyuga Arin shrugged, but still stepped aside to let him in.
As he looked at Hisoka, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
What would happen if he threw Hisoka into the Naruto world?
In the game, there was a type of Character Summon Card—the same kind he'd gotten from farming Zhengzang.
That card could even be used in combination with other items to create a targeted summon.
Commonly known as raising a pet.
Some players were fascinated by characters from various anime and summoned them as companions. Even without a formal pet system, as long as affection was high enough, it worked just fine.
But this was different.
Cross-server summoning—
Would that even be possible?
"Hey, Hisoka. Keep getting stronger. Maybe I can take you somewhere interesting one day."
Didn't Hisoka love fighting? The Naruto world was nothing but battles—from start to finish.
The Second Shinobi War. The Third Shinobi War. Even in Naruto's era, peace was an illusion. And then came the even more brutal Fourth Shinobi World War.
Hisoka's eyes lit up with interest.
"That does sound… worth looking forward to."
Hyuga Arin closed the door and asked, "So what's your real purpose here?"
He didn't believe for a second that Hisoka had come just to see him off.
"Ah, don't be so cold." Hisoka smiled slyly. "Ever heard of the Phantom Troupe?"
Hyuga Arin rubbed his chin.
"My next stop is hunting the Phantom Troupe. What—planning to join me?"
"Hunting the Phantom Troupe…" Hisoka's smile grew excited. He then stripped off his shirt, pointing at the spider tattoo on his back.
"Am I part of your prey too?"
Hyuga Arin rolled his eyes.
"You sure you count as one of them?"
Hisoka peeled off the covering on his back.
"So you really do know my background."
From the very beginning, he'd felt that Hyuga Arin knew quite a bit about him. This just confirmed it.
"We can cooperate," Hisoka said, his smile tinged with killing intent. "You hunt the spiders—but the leader belongs to me."
"Otherwise… I'll kill you~"
"You already lost to me. What are you going to use to kill me?" Hyuga Arin scoffed.
Though in a different environment, he might not actually be Hisoka's match—right now, he was still the victor. That was a fact.
"…Fair enough." Hisoka stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Then I'll just tell them someone's hunting them."
"Deal," Hyuga Arin replied instantly.
Chrollo was only around upper-jōnin level anyway—not much different from the other Troupe members.
Losing out on ten thousand-plus EXP would really hurt.
More importantly, if the Phantom Troupe went on full alert, the difficulty of hunting them would skyrocket.
He had no interest in playing on hard mode.
"You really are good at exploiting openings," Hyuga Arin said, glaring at Hisoka.
Hisoka merely chuckled.
"You're the one who wants the shortcut. A little difficulty makes things more fun."
Hyuga Arin only wanted easy mode—he had zero interest in difficulty.
Hisoka extended a hand toward Hyuga Arin.
"Then… happy cooperation."
Hyuga Arin slapped the hand aside.
"Happy cooperation."
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