Chapter 176: The Fruits of the Training

“That’s enough…” Auren says, charging forward. “Neffi! Goreinu! Ready yourselves! You know what to do!”His voice grows angrier as he closes the distance, and his gaze stays locked on Kite.

“I rescind my earlier command. Kite—the next time you attack anyone besides me, I won’t hold back anymore. And trust me, it won’t be you paying the price.”

“Black Goreinu! White Goreinu!” Goreinu yells.

Two large drops of Aura seep into the ground, spreading quickly before rising up in shape. In seconds, his signature White and Black gorilla Nen beasts form, appearing hostile and ready to attack, their mood mimicking their creators’.

“Living Poltergeist!” Neffi screams.

Her oversized clothes—including the two scarves around her neck—begin to move on their own, as if magically possessed. Their smooth black surfaces sharpen into something knife-like, and her mantle lifts into the air. Its sleeves twist and extend, transforming into spear-like limbs in seconds as it floats above her.

Neffi and Goreinu move, circling toward Kite’s back. Kite briefly turns around.

“Is this a three vs one, now?” He asks.

Suddenly, Black Goreinu disappears.

In its place, Spinner appears beside Goreinu, Neffi, and White Goreinu—swapped in an instant—while Black Goreinu reappears next to Stick, grabbing him and hauling him over to the group like he weighs nothing, ready to crush his body in seconds.

“One more time, one more stunt like that,” Auren says, glaring at Kite with hate-filled eyes, “and you can trust me—I won’t hold back anymore!”

“You’d better be careful…” Neffi says coldly. “My clothes are sharp.”

Her mantle flies forward and wraps itself around Stick, its spear-arms rising to his throat. At the same time, Neffi’s razor-sharp scarves angle toward Spinner’s neck.

A thin cut opens on her neck, as a single drop of blood hits the ground.

Both Spinner and Stick look horrified, especially the latter, who is now trapped in Neffi’s mantle, unable to do anything, her sleeves ready to pierce through him at a moment’s notice.

“It looks like I’m at a disadvantage,” Kite says. “Fine. I’ll honour our deal. There is no need for that.”

He still sounds strangely calm, but his eyes flick briefly to the hostages, revealing his concern.

Before Auren can respond, a small girl steps between them.

“I’ll be the judge,” Biscuit says with a bright smile. “There is no need for hostages or killing in general. You two boys should handle it like you initially said. A fair fight it is. Go, play and beat yourselves up!”

She clasps her hands over her head, looking pleased with herself.

“This is exciting. However, how about you deal with your business quickly so we can move on? I’m getting a little impatient, and so are the others.”

Her eyes slide to Kite, and her smile sharpens just slightly.

“Your name is Kite, right? I’ve heard about you. I wonder if you’ve heard about the Zoldyck family as well. You’d best remember they are here… watching. I suggest you honour your deal and keep your word. If you hit the wrong person with your indiscriminate attacks, the consequences could be dire.”

She turns and winks cutely at Auren. “I’m super helpful, don’t you think?”

“With age comes experience,” Auren says in a calm voice. “I am grateful for your intervention. I’ll make sure to learn from you in the future.”

Biscuit freezes.

Then she shakes with rage.

“You little!!” Biscuit yells, stomping on the ground.

“Little girl…” Kite says, his voice calm, yet icy cold. “You might want to get out of the way. I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone unrelated. The moment you move aside, the fight begins.”

Still angry, Biscuit jumps away.

Kite immediately raises the carbine, aims at Auren, and fires.

Auren smiles—genuinely excited now—and merely raises his gauntlets and bracers. He combines Shu and Gyo to coat them in a moderate amount of Aura, without exhausting himself even slightly.

The bullets slam into his Nen Regalias.

They shatter like glass on impact, their Aura breaking apart and turning into harmless loose energy. It disperses, and whatever remains gets sucked into Eternity, which Auren still holds in his right hand.

“Why would a Conjurer conjure a weapon that relies on emission?” Auren asks, taking slow steps forward. “You won’t ever be able to harm me… I don’t even need my Hatsu to deal with something at that level. Don’t disappoint me now....”

40% Efficiency... this Carbine might be able to easily kill weaker enemies, but since it fires raw Aura, this can’t hurt me! Even without my Regalia’s I could probably take quite a few hits without injuring myself. With Ken, I could block them easily.

Kite, using Gyo, stares at Auren’s slightly transformed gauntlets and bracers. They now look like shiny black diamond-covered armor pieces, their sharp surface appearing dangerously hard and razor-edged.

“So this is what you are after…” Kite murmurs, eyes narrowing. “Frightening. These items should not exist. I’m afraid I have to break them.”

His gaze flicks to Eternity for a brief moment, and his voice drops even lower.

“As for your sword… I’m honestly terrified. It has changed... this weapon shouldn’t exist!”

Break my Regalias?I’ll break you and your students into tiny pieces and feed you to your beloved animals before I allow you to put even a tiny dent into my Regalias!

“I’ll break your entire body first!” Auren yells, his anger boiling over at Kite’s threat.

He charges forward, using Limitless Waters. He gathers most of the Aura already absorbed by Eternity, along with a little of his own Aura, into it—and forms a humongous pressure blade around it, tripling its length and thickness.

Auren raises his left arm as a shield, Eternity held firm in his right hand. The oversized blade roars forward with him, its spinning watery Aura warping the air around it, the ground cracking when Auren holds it at a slightly curved angle.

Kite jumps backwards, trying to create distance, and fires more and more bullets.

Auren smiles as he blocks them—sometimes with the gigantic Eternity, sometimes with his bracers and gauntlets. Each Aura bullet shatters like glass on impact, and each time, more Aura gets pulled into Eternity.

He’s steadily losing Aura while Eternity grows stronger.And I’m barely spending my own Aura if I rely on Eternity’s absorbed Aura. I can keep this going as long as I want to.

Kite changes his style. Keeping the carbine in his left hand, he draws his tachi again.

Unable to continue to flee, Auren’s enhanced blade is about to crash against Kite’s Tachi.

Auren concentrates so hard he feels time itself slowing down—an intense, familiar sensation he doesn’t experience often, only during the most crucial moments in life or death battles or serious spars.

I’m focusing really strongly. This is good…I need to remember my fights against Nobunaga, Uvogin, Netero… and Pariston.I can win this if I do my best and actually apply what I learned.

Briefly remembering Pariston makes Auren’s mind click into place. He activates Gyo. The Aura in Eternity is mostly provided by the blade itself, not Auren, meaning he can still freely use his own Aura for other techniques.

With Gyo active, he sees it clearly—Kite shifts almost all of his Aura onto the tachi, preparing to defend against the powered-up Eternity.

A plan instantly forms in his head. He’s not questioning it, but immediately acting on his instinct.

He shifts more Aura—around forty percent of his total—into Eternity and keeps applying Limitless Waters, forcing the blade to grow even more powerful as it crashes against Kite’s tachi.

Then, at the exact same moment, Auren uses another large chunk of Aura to fire three water bullets at Kite. He changes the angle of his mouth after each bullet to spread them out on purpose, widening the angle to make dodging harder.

Kite responds immediately, aiming the carbine straight at Auren’s face and firing without hesitation.

Both sides unleash bullets.

Auren, having paid close attention, uses the limitation of the carbine—its shots can only travel in a straight line. With its length and firing angle, it becomes highly predictable and thus he dodges without getting hit.

Kite, however, is unable to copy Auren’s success.

With barely any Aura left to defend himself, Kite gets hit in the left shoulder. Another bullet barely misses, and the last one grazes his neck, drawing a thin line of blood.

At the same time, Eternity—larger than ever, with a spinning mass of watery Aura—pushes against the Tachi, which gets chipped more and more. Finally, the Aura of his terrifying blade makes it past the tachi and cuts into Kite’s arm, resembling a chainsaw as the spinning water-aura damages it.

As Kite is hurt, Eternity begins to drain more and more of his Aura.

With a bloody shoulder and a bloody arm, Kite unleashes his full Aura in desperation and jumps toward the ceiling, grabbing onto a chandelier.

Auren stares upwards, still concentrating, his mind briefly flashing back to all his spars against the truly strong opponents he fought only recently.

Compared to them… Kite seems... almost lacking!

As Kite’s blood drips down onto the floor, he looks genuinely puzzled, like he can’t accept what’s happening.

“Give up now,” Auren says in a commanding tone. “This will only get worse!”

Kite shows no sign of complying. Instead, he aims his carbine at Auren and fires. Auren dodges to the side, using quick and agile steps, the bullets ripping into the floor. The shattered, loose clouds of Aura get sucked into Eternity, making Auren smile in satisfaction.

Keep donating more and more Aura. Keep using your weakest Affinity. Your Hatsu might be effective, but this kind of attack is simply not strong enough. It will just feed Eternity.

Auren returns fire with multiple Aura bullets, forcing Kite to jump to another chandelier.

Then Auren follows up with a series of Aura slashes, Eternity still enhanced by Limitless Waters.

Three massive ranged slashes—the Aura mimicking high-pressure water blades—fly toward Kite.

Auren also gathers Aura in his left hand and manipulates it with Limitless Waters, shaping it into a large Aura arrow. He blasts it toward Kite, focusing intently as he subtly manipulates it mid-flight.

Kite throws everything he has into defence. He splits his remaining Aura between his carbine and tachi, desperately blocking the incoming slashes.

He manages to stop all three—but his carbine disappears, after blocking two slashes and his tachi is left damaged, marked by another deep nick. Even after the slashes are blocked, the loose, partly dispersed watery Aura still hits him, leaving more tiny cuts behind.

Finally, Auren’s Aura arrow closes in on Kite’s tachi—only to suddenly shift its trajectory downward.

It’s about to hit Kite in the left leg just as he tries to pull it aside at the last second.

Desperate, Kite avoids being punctured clean through, but the arrow grazes him anyway, opening another wound, this one serious, as his leg is now bleeding heavily.

Kite now has many light injuries, apart from the one on his leg, none particularly serious, but all causing him to continuously bleed.

“Master!”

“Kite!”

Stick and Spinner yell, their voices filled with panic.