Chương 37: Aren's Malice

"So you're an Emitter," Aren said beside Jack.

"You look honest, but you're pretty nasty." Jack finally noticed the problem. His Nen Cannon had stopped three or four centimeters from Aren's abdomen. The emitted sphere hung in the air without advancing. Aren lifted one finger. Jack's attack moved from Aren's abdomen to the fingertip and remained there obediently.

"How is that possible?" The attack belonged to Jack. He could not understand how his opponent controlled it as if it were an extension of his own body. Jack tried to retreat. His right hand would not move. The fist used in his feint had entered Limitless Technique's range. It remained fixed in the folded space before Aren.

"What kind of ability is this?" Jack's composure collapsed. He raised his left hand and gathered aura again.

"Nen Cannon! Nen Cannon! Nen Cannon!" Sphere after sphere shot toward Aren. Each stopped three or four centimeters from his body. Jack continued until his reserves ran dry. His legs weakened. He would have collapsed if his trapped right hand had not held him upright like an invisible hook.

"Finished?" Aren asked. His voice was quiet. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Usually, I'm the one shooting other people. No one shoots me." His expression did not reveal what he thought.

"You couldn't hit me, but it still irritated me. So I'll return these." The suspended Nen Cannons changed direction. They gathered above Aren's fingertip and merged smoothly because they carried the same kind of aura. More than ten spheres became one enormous Nen Cannon. Aren slowly pointed toward Jack. The giant sphere followed his finger.

"No. Please. Don't." Jack struggled desperately. Even at full strength, he could not break free from Limitless Technique. Exhausted, he had no chance. Aren moved his finger at the same calm speed.

"Head Elder!" Jack shouted.

"Save me!" The Head Elder finally recovered from his shock.

"Aren! Stop!" Aren paused.

"Are you ordering me?" Malice rolled from his body and pressed down on the Head Elder. The old man's composure cracked. He wrapped himself in Ten. As one of Meteor City's elders, of course he knew Nen.

"This is only a spar," the Head Elder said.

"There is no need..." Aren interrupted him.

"He attacked with the intention to kill." His eyes remained still. That was why Aren decided to kill Jack. When Nen Cannon launched, he sensed murderous intent.

'Envy? Jealousy? A wounded pride?' The reason did not matter. Jack had offended him. The Head Elder could not answer easily. Meteor City taught its children a simple lesson: anyone who tried to kill needed to accept being killed in return. Jack failed. That did not make him innocent. The Fourth Elder tried to ease the situation.

"Aren, show some restraint for the elders..." The words were a mistake. The malice focused on the Head Elder exploded across the entire room. Aren released his full pressure without reservation. One hundred and fifty thousand aura units. The meeting hall became hell. For the elders, something inhuman seemed to loom behind Aren and look down at them. Even Chrollo stared. He expected Aren to be powerful. He had not imagined this.

Aren deliberately spared him from the pressure, but Chrollo could still sense the abyss in the room.

"Does anyone else have an opinion?" Aren asked. His tone remained calm. No one had ever heard a calm voice sound so terrifying. The elders could not speak. They could barely breathe. Their instincts had locked their lungs. Aren nodded and withdrew the pressure. If he continued, some of the old men might suffocate. The elders gasped. For the first time, air tasted sweet. Being alive felt wonderful. Satisfied, Aren turned back toward Jack. Then he paused. Jack had already stopped breathing.

His face twisted as though he had seen something beyond human understanding. The man had died of fright.

"I forgot he had no aura left." Aren had exhausted Jack through the repeated Nen Cannons and then failed to exclude him from the full release of malice. He looked at the corpse. Then he looked at the enormous Nen Cannon still balanced above his finger.

"Waste not." He fired. The explosion erased Jack's body, shook the room, and tore a crater into the floor. Aren turned toward the Head Elder again.

"Now, does this count as passing the test?"