A cold sneer tugged at Old T's lips.
Can't even find a real girl who likes you, so you rely on a Nen Beast to satisfy your needs? Is that how members of the Hunter Association are?
Do you know what kind of life the KUTO Thieves once led?
Since we have power, what's wrong with having certain privileges?
Nen users aren't ordinary humans.
They stand a level above.
Hearing Old T's mocking voice, Ron remained calm. He had seen Old T's abilities before: when Ging Freecss subdued Old T, even Old T's full power couldn't do a thing to Ging. And now, the aura Ron sensed from Old T was significantly weaker than in those days.
Back then, among A-level Nen users, Old T was merely stronger than Meteor City's "Wild Beasts." He was completely outclassed by Zeno or Silva—he couldn't beat either of them one-on-one. Zeno and Silva only insisted on teaming up to ensure an absolute victory. Had it been two against two, Zeno and Silva would still have won. They would likely have beaten three or even four members of the KUTO Thieves together.
Now Old T was in worse shape than before.
Ron compared Old T with other opponents he had faced. He was weaker than the inmate sealed inside Sumas's pyramid and weaker than Hisoka. Ron remembered how Natsu and Baki together had managed to hold off Hisoka in a spar, and now the pair was Natsu and Sasuke—far stronger than before.
He had no reason to fear. Natsu plus Sasuke was enough to overpower Old T.
And if things got dicey, he could just hide in Sumas, rendering Old T completely helpless.
"No need for that, though," Ron thought. "This situation's perfect for letting Natsu try that move."
Ron gave Natsu an order.
In the next instant, a powerful aura surged around Natsu. Flames appeared on his left hand, flames on his right. Raising both hands, he brought them together.
"Left-hand flames, right-hand flames—merge!"
Originally they had been red, but fusing them turned the flames golden. Their temperature and intensity skyrocketed, and without even touching the branches, they already began to scorch and distort.
"Fire Dragon's Blazing Flame!"
It was an attack Natsu had never used before—he had gained it only after merging with Baki as a Second Shadow. This was now Natsu's strongest technique. A massive fireball began to swirl in midair, incinerating everything in its path. All branches turned to ash on contact.
A deafening roar rang out.
The sound reverberated throughout Trick Tower, causing the entire structure to shake.
Prison inmates stared at each other in confusion. One of the examinees, startled by the tremor, fumbled something. It clattered to the floor, and the monitor on the wall instantly displayed:
The candidate's face fell.
Illumi sat with his back against a wall, glancing upward. He had arrived first at the final waiting area and had been there for a long while already.
Nearby was Hisoka, fiddling with a precarious card-tower game. There was a bleeding wound on Hisoka's right shoulder—a memento from a certain examiner's petty revenge. It had slowed Hisoka a bit, so Illumi finished first. Then again, that was exactly what Hisoka wanted: he'd squeezed in a fight against that examiner, mediocre though he was, for a bit of entertainment.
The tower's quake made Hisoka's fragile card tower collapse at once.
"Who caused such a ruckus?" he muttered. "Ron?"
Hisoka's first guess was Ron, because in his eyes, no other examinee had that kind of power—Illumi and he had already exited the exam. Ron was the only possibility.
"But…why? Did he meet a decent opponent? Stronger than that examiner? This is unfair…"
Hisoka's eyes narrowed.
"If there was such a strong fighter, why not let me have him?"
"Any idea what's happening?"
Illumi shook his head.
Elsewhere, Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika also felt the tremor. Uncertain of its source, they only quickened their pace.
Inside Old T's chamber, an intense conflagration raged, filling the entire room in an instant. All the branches burned up under that violent surge of flames. In a blink, the whole place turned into a sea of fire—like a scorching furnace. Old T couldn't keep control of it.
His expression froze. Moments before, he tried to defend by crouching, gathering dirt and stones to shield himself. But the flames were too abundant, too strong. His makeshift defense did almost nothing.
His clothes vanished in a flash of ash; large swaths of his skin were red, even blackened. Extreme heat had burned away his hair, beard—everything. Now he looked utterly miserable.
But worse than appearances was the internal damage—he'd taken a heavy blow.
Ron waved a hand, recalling Lampent, while Akame stayed at his side. Natsu and Sasuke, one to the left and one to the right, closed in on Old T. Ron gazed calmly at Old T's wretched figure, feeling more than ever the difference from years ago.
Back then, he wasn't even qualified to stand before the KUTO Thieves. Now, he hadn't even gone all-out, and here Old T lay, severely injured, easy to kill.
"My strength really has grown a lot these past few years," Ron thought with a smile.
Old T huddled in a corner, eyes flicking around in desperation—none of that earlier rage remained.
"How…how does that brat produce such a powerful attack?" he rasped.