Chapter 178: Mercy—Unexpected Arrival

Auren feels the air in the room shifting. His eyes are glued to the obscenely large and dangerous scythe in Kite’s hands.He keeps staring at it, unsure what to do.

This scythe… if I get hit dead-on, I die. That’s for certain.However… can he even hit me with it?It’s a telegraphed attack. He needs to spin in place, and he only hits people on the same level as his scythe, a completely horizontal, easy-to-predict attack.I can counter and evade him.

The Silentz Waltz attack… I can deal with it!

Auren walks toward Kite with steady confidence.

He glares at him, then speaks in an eerily calm, relaxed voice. “I have the future on my side. I know about your little scythe. Try to use it—I’ll just dodge. I warn you... using it will be your end.”

Auren’s gaze flicks back to the collectors and the other guests at the very end of the huge dining room, clearly out of range, then back to Kite.

“You’re so far away that even the collectors you’re after are out of reach. If you try to move over there first, I’ll get you. Also, you’ll just kill indiscriminately. Do you really want to do that? Your students are in range, too. Is whatever you want to achieve worth sacrificing innocent people, including your own students?”

His voice hardens at the end, losing the relaxed tone completely.

“I don’t fear you and your scythe, Kite. I also warn you… if you try to use that attack to kill the people here, I will kill you and your students. Until now, this hasn’t been serious, but if you use that thing, any connection, respect, or even admiration I feel toward you will become meaningless. This will end in a tragedy—and not for me. I can guarantee you that.”

“Neffi, Goreinu!” Auren yells suddenly. “Back off! Run toward the others and warn them! Just move out! This attack will hit everything. Run now, and if he uses it—jump as high as you can!”

He points toward the back of the hall.

“Keep them with you, and if anything happens, immediately finish them off! No mercy!”

“You will stay!” Kite yells. “If you do that, I’ll use the technique—and before I do, I’ll approach the collectors.”

“Do it now!” Auren yells back, ignoring Kite.

Suddenly, his clone appears from behind the pillar. It rushes towards Kite and wraps around him, watery Aura covering his arm and head as it tries to drown him.

Neffi and Goreinu immediately realize their opportunity has come and sprint away, moving toward the end of the room where the collectors are gathered.

Good.

Meanwhile, despite Auren’s clone, Kite’s Aura spikes. Using just Aura the clone is pushed off him. He takes on a firm stance, the scythe tightening in his grip, his body clearly preparing to force the technique through, despite his injuries and Auren’s clone.

Is he serious?!

Auren moves first, not waiting for him to use that technique.

In a desperate decision, he takes Eternity, uses Limitless Waters, gathers all of his Aura on it, using Ko, and throws it toward Kite—the blade piercing through him like a bolt of lightning.

Kite blinks once… twice… then looks down at his chest.

A large hole has opened in it.

The next moment, his legs buckle.

Auren presses forward and reconjures Eternity, the blade appearing in his hands again in less than a second.

With his remaining strength, Kite still tries to attack with the scythe, clenching it tightly as he readies the attack.

The water clone doesn’t stay idle either. It kicks him repeatedly, targeting his legs, trying to force him down before the spin can fully form. Finally, one of his legs gives out.

Kite spins anyway—desperate, off-balance. The angle isn’t clean and horizontal; it curves slightly as his right leg is no longer able to support his weight, causing him to sink on his knee.

Auren activates Gyo, carefully reading the path of the scythe.

Even with Kite’s irregular movement and the strange angle, Auren pays close attention and dodges the scythe’s line of attack. It’s still highly predictable and couldn’t be clearer.

Still, even with that quick reaction, a feeling of dread and fear overwhelms him. The lethal Aura-based attack barely misses. His heart feels like it skips a few beats, and for an instant the world seems frozen—then, with a blink, everything returns to normal.

A drop of sweat slides down his cheek.

Scary… even if I dodged it relatively easily… one mistake and I would’ve died. The pressure is definitely real... and impressive. Many people might lose their cool and actually die.

A huge, colossal tornado forms around the scythe. The floor cracks. The nearest pillar splits, and part of the ceiling collapses, sliding down at a strange angle—almost like it’s been cut into simple building blocks.

Damn…

Ignoring the destruction, Auren focuses on the injured Kite right in front of him.

The scythe vanishes from Kite’s hand as he fully collapses onto the ground, bleeding heavily.

With that hole in his chest and wounds all over… he won’t last more than a few minutes.

Auren stares at the dying man in front of him, his expression becoming serious as he sees Kite lying in front of him.

I always thought he was a calm, extremely rational, and calculating individual—the epitome of reasonableness. As far as I remember, this is totally out of place for him… It was a silly idea to fight me in the first place. His Hatsu is perfect for a Hunter, but for duels, it clearly is not the strongest—especially since he can’t control and freely switch between his different conjurations. He should have known that he didn’t stand a chance... even last time I could almost compete with him, and after all that time I’ve grown stronger, and my equipment and armor have improved to an extreme degree.

Auren turns toward the other end of the room and sees Neffi and Goreinu with Spinner and Stick still in their arms, tears streaming down Kite’s students' faces as they desperately try to escape their grip. “Keep them safe!” he calls out to them, loud enough for them to hear over the chaos.

He then briefly sheathes Eternity, grabs the half-conscious Kite, briefly glaring at him, before storming out of the building without giving anyone time to react, carrying the tall Hunter with him.

“What… what are you doing?” Kite asks, his eyes barely open.

As he storms out of the hotel, he makes sure nobody is after him. Looking around the chaotic hotel, he sees a set of older, traditional buildings that seem like they were constructed many decades ago.

That should do.

He runs towards them and darts into an abandoned back alley between two of them, located just a few hundred meters away from the Hotel.

The buildings look dirty, old, and half-forgotten, with boarded windows and cracked walls. Trash lies everywhere, and the air feels stale—clearly symbolizing poverty and disinterest from society.

Finally, he climbs a ladder leading to the roof. The roof is abandoned and, thankfully, relatively clean, and, more importantly, no one is in sight.

Kite, still staring at him through heavy eyelids, asks, “Came to dump my body elsewhere? I much prefer this roof compared to that dirty alley below. I like cats... and I hate rats.”

“Shut the fuck up, you arrogant asshole!” Auren snaps at him. He uses Limitless Waters to clear a space on the roof, blasting Aura onto the stone like a pressure cleaner until the surface is clean.

He then drops Kite onto the cleared ground, looks down at him, then smiles. “Time to sleep, idiot.”

After that, he chops Kite’s neck with a clean strike. Kite’s eyes widen in surprise for a split second before he loses consciousness.

Auren immediately looks around, checking for anyone who might have followed him. He briefly uses the basic version of En, the radius covering a full seventy meters in every direction.

Clear... nobody here. A few people in the nearby buildings, but nobody can see us. This should be okay.

Finally, he draws Eternity. The sword is still filled with a lot of Aura—much of it absorbed as it ripped through Kite’s stomach earlier. He activates Azure Restoration, mixing his own Aura with the Aura stored inside Eternity until a huge amount of Azure-colored Aura surrounds his body.

Then he directs it at Kite, choosing to focus on the life-threatening chest injury first.

Right before his eyes, the hole slowly closes. Kite’s unconscious face shifts from pain-ridden to relaxed, his breathing calming down, as his formerly life-threatening injury completely vanishes, fresh flesh and skin being created out of nothing. When the Aura stored in Eternity runs out, Auren resheathes it and continues using only his own reserves.

He keeps going for a while, moving to Kite’s other injuries one by one. He continues until he feels his Aura slowly draining, and his body becoming weaker.

He’s still somewhat injured, but he’ll be fine. He deserves a little pain and punishment after what he put me through.

Still... as much as I acted angry, that fight was fun. I think I have learned a few things again.

He stretches his body and thinks about what to do next, then decides that he should just jump back down into the same back alley he used earlier and then walk back to the hotel.

However, as he turns around, he sees a person standing right behind him.

What the?!

Shocked, he jumps back and draws Eternity once again.

The person in front of him is not very tall for a man—he wears a robe, a long scarf, a messy mix between a turban and a hat, with strands of hair pushing through it. However, Auren calms down for a second as the person is not appearing to be hostile. In fact, he is smiling brightly, even clapping his hands.

Ging!