'What an incredibly monstrous physique...'
In their brief exchange, Chrollo had a firsthand appreciation of Silva's monstrous physical prowess.
'He remained unmovable even in a partially raised leg stance, showcasing perfect body coordination.'
'He first blocked my left punch with his elbow, and then, as he retracted his leg, used his other knee to trap my fist in conjunction with his elbow.'
As these rapid thoughts flashed through Chrollo's mind, Nen began to gather in his left hand, conjuring a book.
[Bandit's Secret]
At the same time…
Silva was naturally able to see a book conjuring in Chrollo's hand, but he didn't halt his attack. He channeled a massive amount of Nen from his left palm, forming a Nen ball over a meter in diameter.
As an Emitter, Silva's most powerful attack involved releasing his Nen at maximum extent and concentrating it into a sphere in his hand. He would either launch it directly or use it as a massive Nen ball to strike his enemy.
Since opportunities for close combat are always fleeting, once the Nen ball exceeded a meter in diameter, Silva immediately shot the Nen ball towards Chrollo's face directly.
At such a close distance, if the Nen ball exploded on Chrollo's face, he would be critically injured if not killed outright.
The surrounding Phantom Troupe's members witnessed this rapid escalation, and their faces suddenly changed.
But in that split second -
[Bandit's Secret] on Chrollo's right hand stopped flipping, signaling he could activate his ability now.
Swish!
As his Nen was activated, Silva and the condensed Nen ball suddenly vanished.
At the next moment.
Silva appeared in front of Moses's shadow clone, which is holding the black sword. The dazzling light released by the Nen ball pressing forward engulfed the upper body of Moses' shadow clone.
Chrollo had used some kind of Conjurer Ability at the critical moment to teleport Silva, who was in mid-attack, to in front of Moses's shadow clone.
This maneuver was incredibly insidious, raising the question of whether his initial offer of two choices to Silva was genuine or if he had been plotting this moment all along.
Faced with this sudden turn of events, Moses reacted swiftly. He resisted the urge to switch the shadow clone into its two-dimensional state and instead controlled the clone to move sideways.
Earlier, in the confusion of the smoke cover, Moses had thrown the black sword to the shadow clone to create misleading information.
He hadn't anticipated Chrollo would manipulate events to use Silva's attack against him.
However, because he had thrown the sword to the shadow clone before, Chrollo thought the shadow clone was Moses's real body before taking action.
Moses's reaction was quick, but Silva was even faster.
However, stopping the attack at this stage was impossible.
The main reason was that the timing of the move made by Chrollo was too precise...
In order to prevent the other party's plan from succeeding, the most Silva could do was to redirect the trajectory of the Nen ball in his hand.
Thus, with both Moses's shadow clone and Silva making their respective moves, the Nen ball brushed past Moses's side, slamming into the ground.
In an instant—
A dazzling light burst out.
Boom!
The sudden explosion flung Moses's shadow clone into the air.
Moses endured the pain transmitted from the shockwave hitting the shadow clone, keeping his facial expression composed. Then, he silently controlled the shadow clone to adjust its posture as much as possible in mid-air and land steadily on the ground.
At the center of the explosion, Silva remained unscathed, standing still. However, the head of Rice, which had been in his left hand, was now completely unrecognizable.
Silva casually discarded the ruined head and glanced at Moses's shadow clone, which had barely managed to stabilize its landing.
After he first killed Ryles, Silva noticed Moses, who seemed to have some connection with Netero, but he had no intention of having any interaction with Moses.
However, the black-haired youth, who appeared to be the Phantom Troupe's leader, had actually pulled a cunning trick during their intense close-combat exchange, nearly causing Silva to kill Moses.
Fortunately, Moses's quick reaction provided Silva with the space and opportunity to adjust his move.
Although Silva felt a twinge of guilt, he did not express it. Instead, he turned his gaze towards Chrollo, who was still holding a book in his right hand.
'The ability to force the target to teleport instantly from an Emission Type... But it is usually impossible to link it to a conjured book. Is it a derived ability, or...'
A doubt flashed through Silva's mind.
It seemed illogical for a conjured book to include an Emission Type's displacement skill. In other words, it was more than just redundant. Yet, the calm black-haired youth in front of him used a conjured book to execute this ability.
With too little information, Silva couldn't draw any useful conclusions.
Even though Chrollo had tricked him, Silva had no intention of pursuing the matter further.
Now, he just wants to leave from this deadly vortex and find his client to collect the remaining reward.
With this in mind, Silva began to withdraw from the combat zone.
'Even after all this, you're still not planning to engage?'
Chrollo looked at Silva with a glint in his deep eyes, and thought to himself: 'But it's not up to you to decide.'
Whether it is Silva or Moses, Chrollo had no intention of letting them leave and planned to rob their abilities for himself.
When the Phantom Troupe's members saw Chrollo effortlessly defuse the crisis and even injure Moses in the process, they all smiled in relief.
This was the Boss they revered, someone who commanded their unwavering loyalty.
However, they didn't know that the injured Moses was actually a shadow clone.
Another person who doesn't know this is Kanzai.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Kanzai, who was also within the combat zone, called out to Moses' shadow clone, who had just been blown away.
"…"
The shadow clone merely glanced at Kanzai without saying a word.
It can't be helped…
Under these circumstances, how could Moses respond to Kanzai's concern?
But Kanzai didn't know this, and when he saw Moses's cold reaction, he suddenly became a little angry.
'I was kind enough to care about you, but you were actually so cold!!!'