"The Depths of the Tree Hollow"
This ability has strict usage conditions and comes with a significant cost.
So Ryles's attitude towards this ability is... to use it only when necessary.
And this time, in order to prevent Franklin from losing his life in this operation, Ryles decisively used this ability.
As he said, he normally he wouldn't care whether Franklin lived or died, but this time he was leading the operation and had to bear the corresponding responsibility.
As for Franklin's desire to stay and fight to the end, he didn't care.
"If you're unwilling, I can call a car for you right now."
Ryles took out his phone from his pocket and said calmly: "And I will provide free bleeding control services, so you don't have to worry about dying of excessive bleeding on the way."
"You're too 'slow'."
Franklin didn't dwell on this topic and instead coldly hinted at something.
He was referring to the time Ryles took when plundering his targets.
Rice understood the meaning behind Franklin's words, spread his hands and said, "And you're too 'fast'."
He was referring to the short time it took for Moses to crush Franklin.
"…"
Franklin was suddenly speechless.
Ryles then sighed: "It feels terrible to be driven away like this."
"…"
Franklin remained silent, just glanced at Ryles's condition and did not see any injuries.
So the phrase 'driven away' was clearly directed at him.
But unfortunately, he had no qualification to retort.
As far as the current situation is concerned, he was indeed beaten away by that kid.
Seeing that Franklin stopped talking, Ryles stood up contentedly, and immediately mobilized his remaining Potential Aura to seal the wound on Franklin's right shoulder with resin.
'This will stop the bleeding.'
"I remember your ability is called Double Machine Gun, right?"
After taking the emergency measures to stop the bleeding, Ryles retracted his Nen and looked at the empty right shoulder of Franklin, then sighed: "Then, from now on, it should be changed to Single Machine Gun."
"…"
Franklin remained silent like he was under a silencing spell, allowing Ryles to talk freely.
Ryles shook his head slightly and changed the topic to Moses.
"What kind of ability does that kid have? He managed to make you look like this."
"Use shadow to form a Nen Clone, and his real body can exchange places with the Nen Clone. He also has a release-based attack method that releases Aura blade."
Seeing Ryles asking about Moses's abilities, Franklin no longer remained silent and briefly explained the information about Moses's abilities that he had obtained during the battle.
Upon hearing this, Ryles pondered with his hand on his chin, his eyes showing contemplation.
Based on the intelligence provided by Franklin, he imagined the scenes in his mind.
'The first time was when Franklin didn't understand the brat's ability and was accidentally thrown away by the 'position swapping' ability.'
'Then what about the second time?'
'Even with knowledge of the ability, he still lost an arm by accident?'
"You were too careless, Franklin. You need to be more cautious next time, don't be negligent just because you have the upper hand."
Ryles believes that the pictures he made up in his mind are very close to the truth.
Franklin being smashed by the opponent when victory seemed certain.
'If this is the case, you really deserve it.'
"I wasn't careless. I took precautions against various possibilities."
Moses's appearance flashed through Franklin's mind, his eyes gradually became serious, and he said solemnly: "But I still fell into that kid's trap..."
"Hmm?"
Ryles believed Franklin's words, so he suddenly became very interested.
"Elaborate."
He really wanted to know how that Moses broke through Franklin's steady defenses.
How could Franklin be in the mood to review his battle in front of Ryles?
"I saw the Boss's shadow on that kid."
After saying this, Franklin turned and walked away quickly.
Ryles was stunned.
'He saw the Boss's shadow on that kid?'
'Such a high evaluation?'
Ryles looked at Franklin's back as he walked away.
He had reason to suspect that Franklin was trying to cover up his incompetence by praising Moses.
'If it was the Boss, there was absolutely no possibility of him being defeated by a kid.'
…
The casino.
'Did they run away…'
Moses let out a long sigh.
He had imagined many scenarios, but he never expected the opponent to choose to flee so decisively.
This is enough to indicate that there are no other members of the Phantom Troupe nearby.
Otherwise, there would be no need for the opponent to retreat.
'Was it because of concerns for Franklin's safety that they chose to withdraw?'
Moses wondered to himself.
He speculated that the blond man with a sinister temperament was worried about Franklin's life here, so he chose to withdraw with Franklin under those circumstances.
'That seems to be the only possibility.'
'Then, looking at it that way, if Franklin had been killed just now...'
'Without any worries, the blond man would undoubtedly have chosen to kill us all.'
'In a sense, failing to kill Franklin in the last combo, and the result of Fiora and Xeniela being unable to restrain the blond man, actually allowed us to escape.'
Moses silently watched the place where the shadow of the big tree disappeared.
'The blond man chose 'to save Franklin's life' over 'kill us all'.'
'Should I feel fortunate?'
Shaking his head slightly, Moses didn't dwell on it, but instead closed his eyes and extracted the information about the reward he had just received.
"The upper limit of Emission Category +5%"
This was the reward given to Moses by Perception after the opponent fled, and similar to 'Star of Mankind's Shine', it was a permanent passive buff.
To understand it literally, if his Nen attribute is Emission, then under the blessing of this passive buff, he could exert 105% of the strength of the Emission Category.
Although the +5% increase may seem meager, upon closer inspection, this reward was actually quite insane and could be considered a late-game divine skill.
Suppose there are two Emitters with similar levels of Nen techniques in the late stage who are facing each other in the battle, and then one of them had this buff.
Then, the other Emitter would definitely be confused, wondering why the opponent's aura was so much stronger?
But the problem is—
Moses wasn't an Emitter.
However, the characteristics of Soul Echo greatly benefited from the Emission Category, and the +5% conversion rate is also good.
The next time he dealt with Franklin, perhaps he could still reap the same benefits from him.
But if circumstances allowed, Moses would prefer to kill Franklin this time.
However, since things had come to this now, thinking about these things was meaningless.
In the future, when his strength grew, it would be inevitable to confront the Phantom Troupe if he wanted to obtain rich rewards.
Moses cleared his thoughts and returned to Wright's side.
"Are you okay?"
He looked at Wright's blood-soaked chest.
Wright smiled bitterly.
"I won't die."
With that said, he looked at Moses with a complicated expression.