Sitting high atop a mound of earth piled with stone-and-mortar wreckage, Xiang Nan looked down at the four—Beishi and the others—who were standing or sitting in a row below him.
Their spot had become the most eye-catching place in the whole city. With nothing to shield them, they were easy for other players lurking in the dark to watch.
The battle between the Parasyte side and the trio had flattened several hundred meters of city blocks, and the town wasn't large to begin with. The earlier commotion had already drawn the attention of nearly every player squad. For Xiang Nan's team to still be swaggering around on the finished battlefield meant they naturally became the focus.
Whoosh!
All at once, Xiang Nan flicked his wrist. A scalpel streaked through the air like an arrow, a flash of steel that pierced the circling bird overhead and knocked it from the sky.
That bird had been tailing them for "a long time," watching from above and refusing to leave—almost certainly a trick from one of the invading teams.
"Still not here… scared?" Beishi yawned, bored, sitting on a chunk of stone.
He meant the Fullmetal Alchemist players. They'd already cut down two alchemists and had no intention of running—sitting here so openly that, if the enemy wanted revenge, they'd know exactly where to go. Yet neither the FMA squad nor the Parasyte team showed themselves again.
Xiang Nan's attitude was clear. No matter which world the intruders came from, the Hunter x Hunter team welcomed a "challenge." They would wait right here—anyone who wanted a fight could come get it. That set the tone for Xiang Nan's tactics and style in this multiversal battlefield: in a deserted city where this wave of intruders were clearly high-level, better to meet them head-on than hide.
"Hm?" Orban, standing at the base of the rubble mound, narrowed his eyes.
They all saw a point of dazzling rainbow light flash in from the far horizon.
An arrow.
Its speed was astonishing; as it crossed the sky it even gave off a faint sonic crack. The radiance sheathing the shaft trailed a long tail behind it.
"From this range…" Orban's heart skipped.
As the red arrow-light was about to strike Xiang Nan where he sat, Orban bent his knees and sprang, drawing his long blade. With sword boosted by Nen and technique, he unleashed a brilliant arc and struck the crimson arrow mid-flight. He didn't knock it down at once; the two forces hung locked in the air for a few seconds before the arrow's energy bled away, whereupon it split in two and fell. Orban landed and sheathed his sword in one smooth motion.
Manman tensed to dash toward the direction the shot had come from and hunt the shooter, but Xiang Nan stopped her.
"No need. If they want to skulk and peep, let them. Don't mind it," he said coolly.
"They're provoking us. Shouldn't we hit back?" Manman looked at him. She'd become very forward whenever conflict loomed. She didn't get it—hadn't Xiang Nan himself said their squad should play strong?
"Not provocation—probing," Beishi said, picking up the broken arrow to examine it. "Just a regular arrow, nothing special about the make." He glanced at Xiang Nan, then turned to Manman.
"By showing ourselves, we've basically become a 'target' everyone can choose. That also spooks them enough not to act rashly. Hiding in the dark, they're likely forming side alliances and laying plans. If we take the bait and split up, they can pick us off one by one—classic 'smoke the fox from its den.' If you'd chased just now, you'd have walked right into it."
"…" Manman's face cleared as she understood, her eyes dimming a little—frustrated. Xiang Nan noticed but said nothing, offering no comfort.
"Being the first on the table means we're already on the 'menu'—prey. Whether any hunters actually show is another matter. Watching and testing are inevitable. Give it two or three hours: if no enemy squad dares to come at us properly, then our 'defense' has worked. At minimum it means we've become the 'dangerous element' everyone avoids in this city.
"That will buy us some freedom when it comes to executing our plans for the system mission.
"Stay sharp. The probing has only just begun… and remember: don't show your Nen. Keep it to simple counters so, for the time being, they still won't be able to tell which world we're from."
Xiang Nan's eyes gleamed as he smiled.
"Got it."
Sure enough, five minutes after Xiang Nan finished, the temperature on the ruins spiked. A blinding light flared overhead; a rolling roar filled their ears. They looked up to see a fireball the size of a meteor suddenly coalesce in the blue sky, its searing heat sweeping thin clouds aside as it plummeted toward their position.
Xiang Nan had sensed the energy fluctuation high above well in advance.
"Magic?" He scanned the surrounding districts but couldn't locate whoever cast it.
The display made Beishi and the others blanch; forget them—every intruder hiding in the city could probably see this "heavenly fire" falling from the sky. The area damage on impact would be outrageous.
Without waiting for orders, the Hunter team vanished from their spot.
Boom!
The torrent of flame slammed into the ground, boiling heat and black smoke rolling out in concentric waves like a tsunami, devouring and burning everything.
For all its apocalyptic power, the descent and impact were slow enough for Xiang Nan's group to react and get well clear of the blast radius. But if your base stats were still ordinary and you lacked any other kind of power… well, you'd be toast.
"Uh… that's a bit against the rules, isn't it…" Beishi gulped as he stared at the inferno.
Xiang Nan was silent for a moment. "We don't yet know whether this is a power a single player can wield. If one person cast it, then they're one of the nastiest pieces on the board. If it took several or a whole group, that's different. Also, we showed ourselves early, which gave the enemy time to prepare and lift any usage limits on their abilities. So don't panic.
"Even a test strike gives us some intel, heh…"
He tipped his hat down with a calm hand.
"Do we head back?" Beishi asked, watching the wall of fire and smoke.
"Of course," Xiang Nan replied. "Give it a bit—wait until the flames and smoke die down…"
"Uh…" Beishi trailed off.
~~~
Dropped by the Author. Thank you for Reading!