Book 7: Chapter 27: Captive

“A muscle idiot like you will end up doing whatever we say.”

Rabid Dog appeared behind Uvogin and spat out a bloody piece of flesh.

Rabid Dog moved very quickly. Uvogin swung his fists several times but couldn’t hit him. Soon, several more wounds opened on his body. When he swung again and missed, his whole body suddenly stiffened. He found he couldn’t feel anything below his neck, and his face changed with shock.

“Can’t move, can you? You’re tough. It took this long to take effect!” Rabid Dog sneered. “My teeth carry nerve poison. Not so easy to handle.”

“You…” Uvogin muttered, losing control and falling to sit on the ground.

“Now only your head above the neck can move freely. Enjoy it!” Rabid Dog licked his lips, his voice bloodthirsty.

“Heheh!” Leech, the last Shadow Beast who hadn’t attacked yet, saw his chance. He pounced on Uvogin. Grabbing the big man’s shoulders, he opened his mouth and thrust out a fleshy tongue, forcing its tip into a bloody wound.

“My body is home to countless Madara leeches. They can lay eggs inside your bladder. When those young leeches hatch, the pain will kill you slowly. Consider it revenge for the dead members of the Syndicate!” Leech narrowed his small eyes, grinning darkly.

“Pfft, you’re disgusting!” Uvogin frowned, cursing in disgust.

“He could have decided the fight immediately with deadly poison.” Machi, the girl in training clothes, looked calmly at the clearing below. “These Shadow Beasts are truly foolish!”

“Teehee, Uvogin got careless!” Shalnark smiled, tidying his playing cards. “But… this should be ending soon!”

…

“Captain Dalzollene, I think it’s about time we retreat!” Qin Lun, who was watching the battle, suddenly sighed.

“Oh? But… even if the Shadow Beasts finished off one member of the Troupe, there are still six more!” Dalzollene stared blankly. The others also looked confused.

“I never said the Shadow Beasts won!” Qin Lun gave a bitter smile, seeing their misunderstanding. “The truth is…”

Before Qin Lun could finish, the battle changed again. Uvogin turned his head and opened his mouth wide, biting fiercely at Leech who clung to his shoulder.

Crunch! Leech’s expression froze. A large chunk of his left skull vanished, like an apple bitten by a child.

Rabid Dog and Porcupine stared in shock. The obese Leech slid limply from Uvogin’s shoulder, the missing part of his brain visible through the wound.

“Hmph, nasty! People say dirtier things taste better!” Uvogin chewed loudly, flashing a savage grin at the stunned Rabid Dog. “Biting isn’t just your trick. To deal with trash like you, only needing my head to move is enough.”

Seeing Uvogin’s mouth full of blood and brains, a chill ran down the spines of everyone watching.

Qin Lun sighed. Against a Nen Ability user like Uvogin, one with a body of steel and immense power from the Enhancement Type, getting close meant suicide.

Yet all four Shadow Beasts present were close-combat fighters. Worse, when Uvogin was careless, they failed to finish him off in one hit. They gave the giant a chance to fight back. It was asking for death.

After seeing their Nen Abilities, Qin Lun had guessed this would happen. The remaining Rabid Dog and Porcupine likely wouldn’t last long either.

“The Shadow Beasts are going to lose!” Qin Lun said calmly. “Retreat now while we still can. Stay any longer and we won’t escape!”

“Beat us? Leech just slipped up! You can’t even move! How will you keep fighting?” Rabid Dog’s face shifted colors as he tried to stay calm.

“Mmmm!” Uvogin opened his mouth, took a huge breath, puffing out his cheeks. A white object shot from his mouth straight at Rabid Dog like lightning.

“Leech’s skull fragment!” Rabid Dog panicked, hurriedly raising his hands to block. Thick Nen aura covered his palms.

Thwack! The white skull piece shot clean through Rabid Dog’s hand and nose bridge, bursting out the back of his head. Like a blooming flower, blood and brains sprayed outward onto the ground behind him.

After killing Rabid Dog, a cruel smirk touched Uvogin’s lips. He turned to look at Porcupine, still hanging onto his left arm. He opened his mouth again, cheeks puffing out.

“He… he can’t have another skull bullet… and my quills… can block it!” Porcupine’s thoughts scrambled. He stared in terror at Uvogin, forgetting even to run.

“Huh?” Seeing Uvogin puff his cheeks again, Qin Lun felt a bad premonition. He remembered Leo’s Infrasound attack.

“Impossible!” The young man’s face changed. He hastily covered his ears.

“UUUUWOOOOOHHH!!!” An ear-splitting roar shook the clearing. Qin Lun’s hunch was right. Though it wasn’t Infrasound, the sonic shockwave was just as devastating to the human body.

Hundreds of meters away, Qin Lun still felt his eardrums throb. Dalzollene and the others, who hadn’t covered their ears in time, wore agonized expressions. Porcupine, mere inches from Uvogin, had blood flowing from all his orifices. His steel-quill hair hung limply. Uvogin had literally roared him to death.

“The Shadow Beasts are wiped out!” Squala wiped sweat from his forehead, looking at Dalzollene. “Captain, let’s retreat. We shouldn’t stay here!”

“Ah!” Dalzollene agreed instinctively. Any thought of claiming the bounty was gone. Twenty billion Jenny was tempting, but you needed to be alive to spend it.

As they froze, Kurapika stepped quietly past them, heading towards the valley.

“Kurapika!” Dalzollene gasped, taking two quick steps to grab the youth’s arm. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? Going to capture them, of course.” Kurapika’s voice was grim, his expression dark.

“You want to die, Kurapika?” Basho cried out in shock.

“Hatred has blinded him. This can’t go on.” Qin Lun bent down helplessly to Melody’s ear. “Melody, can you hear his heart’s melody? You can calm him down, right?”

“Mhm.” Melody glanced at Qin Lun and pulled a silver flute from her robes.

A sweet, soothing flute melody reached everyone’s ears, as if they stood in a flower-filled meadow. Fear and turmoil settled in their hearts. Kurapika started, the burning red finally receding from his eyes.

“‘Wildflowers of the Meadow’. It’s the best song to calm the soul!” Melody smiled gently as she lowered the flute. “Everyone, please calm down.”

“Thank you, Melody!” Kurapika gave her a grateful look, then turned back to the valley. “But… I’m still going to capture them.”

“Kurapika…” Dalzollene buried his face in his hands, at a loss for words.

“Let him go, Captain Dalzollene,” Qin Lun said suddenly, a knowing glint in his eye as he smiled at the group. “Since Kurapika insists on this, I believe he has a way.”

“You saw that Nen Ability. Are you still so confident?” Dalzollene gave Kurapika a long look. “Fine then. Be careful. We’ll wait for you in the car.”

…

“Shizuku! Use Blinky, your vacuum cleaner! Suck out the nerve poison in my body, and these leech eggs! Blinky can do that, right?” Uvogin, sitting on the ground still motionless, yelled at the bespectacled girl.

“Nerve poison, yes. Living eggs… no.” Shizuku replied expressionless.

“Huh? What am I supposed to do then?” Uvogin looked worried.

“Teehee, who told you to be careless in a fight?” Shalnark chimed in cheerfully. “Don’t worry. Madara leech eggs need specific conditions to hatch inside a human. Just drink plenty of beer. Keep urinating. You’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Trying to scare me?” Uvogin sighed with relief.

“Then I’ll start removing the poison.” Shizuku jumped down the cliff. Nen aura condensed and stretched in her hands, swiftly forming a vacuum cleaner with a flat, wide mouth.

Just then, a glowing silver chain shot down from a cliff ledge. It wrapped snugly around the paralyzed Uvogin. Snap! Before the other Troupe members could react, it yanked him into the air like caught fish.

“Eh? Hey! What the—?!” Uvogin roared furiously into the darkness.

“Hmph!” The coldly beautiful Machi flicked her wrist. A slender thread, glittering silver, followed Uvogin upwards like a ghost.

“Did you see that?” Shalnark gaped at the spot Uvogin vanished.

“Mhm. Chains hooked him instantly!” Shizuku pushed up her glasses, curious.

“Uvogin can’t move yet! If other Shadow Beasts want revenge for their friends, he’s in danger!” Nobunaga’s face was grim as he looked at the others.

“Such a pain. Fine, let’s go rescue him.” Feitan sighed reluctantly.

“If we leave now, we should still catch them,” Machi added coolly. “I hid my threads with ‘In’. If they don’t use ‘Gyo’, we can follow back to their hideout.”

“Right! While they haven’t realized it yet, we chase them now!” Shalnark smiled brightly.

“Maybe we can round up the other Shadow Beasts too. Find the auction goods,” Feitan suggested flatly.

“Franklin. Could you handle getting the beer Uvogin needs?” Nobunaga’s eyes gleamed. “You all had your fun today. I’ve been bored stiff all day. Hope whatever comes next is more interesting!”

…

Two black cars sped along a dark mountain road. Bound tightly by chains, Uvogin was crammed into the back seat. Beside him sat Qin Lun, eyes gleaming with interest.

“Kurapika, will these chains really hold him?” Qin Lun asked anxiously towards the young driver.

“Yeah, kid. Not killing me right now… you’ll regret it,” Uvogin grinned, utterly unfazed, looking at everyone in the car.

“Quiet!” Kurapika said coldly.

“Hey hey, this is your only shot!” Uvogin gave a wide, bloody grin. “Don’t bother thinking about it. Just do it alrea—”

Before Uvogin could finish, the chains tightened violently, biting deep into his muscles. Thin lines of blood appeared along the edges of the chains.

“Oh?” Qin Lun stared at Kurapika’s chains, his eyes slowly widening.