AN: I am back with a regular upload, I got things mostly figured out over here so I should be good for the next 2-3 weeks before finals. I am also going to try to pick up the pace in some areas while still exploring the fight scenes (as I like writing those) Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter
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*ding* with an upbeat chime the elevator doors began to smoothly part as its sole occupant briskly stepped out into the posh carpeted hallway of the hotel. Making his way down the hall, he swept his left hand across his body as he tugged on the sleeve of his shirt revealing a set of ornate chains manifesting. And as he wound the various turns and straights of the hallway they made a weighty clinking sound until he came to a sudden halt as he came across the sight of the door located at the end of the hall. More specifically it was the bright lights coming from the slightly ajar door leaking out into the warmly lit hallway that stopped Kurapika in his tracks.
*jingle* releasing one of the specially shaped chains he stared intently at the ball-shaped ornament for a moment before it started to spin in a circle. An odd occurrence, one that elicited a frown from him as he couldn't quite interpret this sort of reading. Ideally, he would rather use En to sense for an ambush or if there were hostels still inside the room but he needed the advantage of initiative if he was fighting multiple powerful enemies. Using En would alert them of his presence, so he had been in a state of In, masking the activation of his own Hatsu and presence.
"!!!" sharply sucking in a breath as he looked at his dowsing chain strongly pulled toward his torso. And by pure instinct, he twisted his body around and whipped his chain alongside him tearing through the floral wallpaper and various framed paintings on the wall. Then, just in time, the chain made contact with a volley of playing cards that were infused with aura, scattering them across the floor.
{P.o.V Change}
'Hisoka… what is he doing here? I didn't see him inside the recovered security footage.' removing all pretense of stealth I stopped expending effort to suppress my presence as I let my aura flow outward in the form of En alerting me to the twisted scene that lay behind the facade of the furnished walls of the hotel. Each room contained the mangled corpses of their former occupants strewn across the floor. Oddly though, there wasn't any blood pooling from their bodies, and the formerly opulent rooms of the wealthy who could afford to stay here were stripped of any furniture or belongings.
But most important, was the three strong presences he felt all around him on the floor. The nearest one was the all too familiar magician who dominated the Hunter Exam, who was currently sauntering down the hall behind him with a plastered-on smile.
"Hmm… you took a lot longer to show up than I thought, though I suppose any measure of time would have been late as I expected you to be here from the beginning. Some of us did busy ourselves to stave off the boredom of waiting…" Coming to a stop just ahead of me, he stood there in a relaxed manner as he began to play with his deck of cards. For a moment we stood there in silence as he continued to riffle his cards, though, at the same time, I used the moment of downtime to retract the dowsing chain and start to pull some slack on chain jail as it hung just a few inches below my hand.
Eventually, Hisoka stopped shuffling his cards as he looked back up at me while simultaneously fanning the cards held in both of his hands just before the entire hallway erupted into the sounds of combat. Cards that held a razor-sharp edge bounced and changed trajectories in a non-sensical manner even when using Gyo to observe the strands of his Hatsu. To counter the rapid onslaught of attacks that came my way, I had to use just about everything at my disposal. I still wasn't quite used to enemies that employed rapid-fire attacks, and only having my chains to protect myself alongside rapidly fluctuating Ryu to absorb hits I couldn't quite dodge we continued to race through the halls leveling everything in our way. Through the use of strategically thrown cards, he was able to deflect my chains or even adhere them to a wall or surface using his Hatsu.
It was an odd experience, fighting my inside informant in this sort of manner, though his spontaneous nature didn't out rule the possibility of this happening. Most likely, however, was that he couldn't completely blow his cover in front of the other spiders leading him to attack me in front of the other two.
'Whatever the case, I shall return whatever he throws at me and more. He is still a spider regardless of his skewed motivations' crashing through another wall, I let lose my control over the chains and let their weight bring them crashing to the floor as I continued to rapidly breach the various walls as I circled Hisoka while being wary of the other two signatures that were approaching me at a decent pace. At the same time, I pulled out one of my more standard chains, one that ended in a sickle-like claw as I shrouded it in IN at the same time before taking the time to thread it through the hollow cavity in the broken wall I stood next to before darting out into the hall.
Now, I was the one who stood behind Hisoka as I made a show of lifting my chain-adorned hand, making a distinct rattle that drew his attention as he lazily spun around. Once I had his attention, I slashed my hand in a horizontal trajectory as my specialization in manipulation allowed my aura to rapidly spread through the conjured chain like it was a superconductor before it came to life. The large loop of heavy steel began to rear upward like a coiling snake as it began to shrink and speed toward Hisoka who would be torn in half if he didn't do anything.