Natsu's flames suddenly flared, erupting into a massive blaze that covered a radius of over ten meters. The moment the dried-up branches touched the flames, they burst apart.
Countless sparks of light appeared and flowed into the crystal sphere beside Ron.
Lampent drifted near Ron, absorbing any of the flames that drew too close.
"Observer's progression: three percent," Ron noted.
Natsu withdrew most of his flames so that only his fists remained aflame.
"One batch of monsters like that was worth three percentage points. Not bad.
They're not exactly weak—especially when they swarm in large numbers—
but they're too vulnerable to fire.
Without it, even a Nen user could be in real trouble."
Ron chose a direction and walked on without killing any more withered branches, as they no longer boosted the crystal sphere's progress.
A whiff of blood suddenly drifted by, and Ron's nose twitched. He glanced toward the source.
Before long, he spotted a corpse within his line of sight.
Whatever it once looked like was impossible to tell; shriveled branches clung to its frame, leaving it mummified.
Yet the air still held a distinct scent of blood, suggesting the person had died only recently.
A lingering trace of aura clung to the body.
"A Nen user killed by those withered branches, drained until nothing was left."
After a short moment of silence, Ron kept going. The branches definitely noticed him, but Natsu's blazing fists kept them at bay.
"Such extreme monsters.
A regular person with a torch could pass safely,
but a Nen user might die under the wrong circumstances."
Gradually, the forest began to thin out. Ron exited the treeline. None of the branches followed.
Beyond the forest lay a stretch of grass. The instant Ron stepped onto it, he sensed something below, racing toward him underground. Reflexively, he sidestepped.
A large form burst out of the dirt—huge and pink, like an earthworm magnified a thousand times. Its slimy body glistened unpleasantly, and near the top was a gaping maw lined with rows of jagged teeth. It had no eyes, but somehow located Ron and lunged for him.
Natsu leapt in front and slammed it away with a single fiery punch.
Though sent flying, the worm was still alive. It quickly dove back into the ground and attacked again from below.
"Ryunosuke Akutagawa!"
Ron switched Nen Beasts. The moment the worm broke through the surface a second time—
A dark, claw-like appendage seized the creature. With a forceful squeeze—
It split into several segments. Yet those pieces retained life, wriggling back into the ground. This time, however, Ron was no longer attacked.
He recalled the scene that just played out.
"They sense movement. Twice, it attacked when I moved,
but when I stayed still, it lost track of me."
He quickly formulated a plan.
Chii appeared. Though normally a purely supportive, intelligence-gathering Nen Beast, Chii had another use: floating at low altitude.
Following Ron's command, Chii rose about ten meters off the ground—ordinarily not very helpful, since most Nen users could strike that high easily. But here, it was enough to escape detection by the worms underground.
Ron could have simply floated across the field unharmed, but that wasn't his goal. The dried-up branches had already proven that killing such creatures raised the crystal sphere's progress. These worms might do the same.
"Akutagawa's attacks don't quite work,
and Natsu's strength isn't the best fit.
They have incredible vitality,
so I'll have to rely on Killer Queen."
With a thought, Natsu vanished and Killer Queen took his place.
Ryunosuke Akutagawa stood on the ground to draw the worm's attention. Soon, Ron felt another faint tremor.
A giant worm burst from the earth. Akutagawa's crimson-black claws caught it. Instead of tearing it apart, he simply held it in place. Killer Queen approached with a baseball bat in hand.
Akutagawa loosened his grip. Killer Queen swung the bat.
Killer Queen's power transferred into the worm via the bat. The next moment brought a silent explosion, disintegrating the worm's body in a flash. A point of light emerged and was pulled into Ron's crystal sphere.
"If I had to pick my strongest Nen Beast, it's definitely Natsu.
But my most broken one is Killer Queen—those bombs are almost unstoppable."
He moved forward, letting Akutagawa and Killer Queen hunt the worms. Like the withered branches, the worms had no intelligence. Even as one fell after another, they kept coming, drawn by the lure.
One by one, they died, and the crystal sphere's progress inched upward. Before long, it reached six percent.