Gourmet Hunter - Chapter 192 (Patreon)

Chapter 192: Striking a Stone with an Egg

Attempting to sever an arm, Luo only managed to cut off three fingers, which was a small victory in itself.

As Luo continued to distance himself, he used the blade of the True Master to reduce the aura on Antomu's severed fingers, much like peeling an apple skin.

As long as Antomu maintained the aura output, he could continually deplete Antomu's aura through these three fingers.

Bisky, using Gyo, could see the aura enveloping the three severed fingers, while Luo, with his rusty knife, shaved off the aura. In the next moment, the fingers emitted aura again.

Even with her extensive knowledge, she couldn't understand the situation at first glance.

As the involved party, Antomu realized the problem. Having severed fingers that felt no pain and bled not, and still feeling connected to the severed parts, he understood that this was Luo's Nen technique. As long as he maintained the aura output from the severed fingers, Luo would deplete it using this method.

In the previous battle, assuming Antomu had 100 points of aura, he was now down to 60. Every time Luo shaved off the aura on the fingers, Antomu would lose 0.1 aura points.

In one second, Luo could shave once, removing 6 aura points per minute. By sustaining for 10 minutes, Antomu's aura would be depleted.

The only downside was that three fingers were far less significant than an entire arm.

To drag out the time, Luo kept his distance from Antomu.

"Very good, excellent."

Antomu stood up, infuriated yet laughing in contempt, pushed to such a state was indeed a disgrace.

Just as he spoke, Luo noticed no more aura emanating from the severed fingers—Antomu had realized the issue and closed off the aura nodes.

"Three fingers, I'll give them to you."

With his eyes bulging in fury and an overwhelming aura bursting forth, the atmosphere in the hall turned even heavier. He stepped forward, attacking Luo anew.

Simultaneously, Luo tossed the severed fingers into the air, materializing a book in his left hand and slapped it down on the fingers like an eraser, erasing their existence.

After this action, the book disappeared, and blood suddenly spurted from where Antomu's fingers were severed, now feeling the pain.

He didn't even look at the injury but kept his gaze fixed on Luo, unaware of what method was used to stop the bleeding after a slight blood flow.

"Still not enough."

Seeing Antomu's distinctly different aura, Luo gritted his teeth and repeated his technique. While moving, he created numerous pitfall traps, remembering each one's location.

Antomu, having been fooled twice, was enraged but kept his wits about him.

The hall was spacious enough, with a floor paved in slabs. Earlier in the fight, two-fifths of the floor had been destroyed.

To prevent his feet from stepping into pitfalls again, which would counteract his attack, Antomu kicked up the slabs he passed over as he charged at Luo.

With fewer slabs, the pitfalls lost their cover and became meaningless.

After kicking up numerous slabs, Antomu swung his fists, shattering the slabs and hurling them at Luo.

The shattered slabs were not enveloped with aura. It wasn't that Antomu couldn't do it, but he chose not to waste aura on something he could achieve with brute strength.

Seeing Antomu's response, Luo furrowed his brow deeply, seeing a large swath of rubble flying towards him, reluctantly opened his domain, stopping the debris in front of him, which also obstructed his view.

After stopping the debris, Luo, like firing a machine gun, hurled chunks of rubble at Antomu in batches. However, Antomu, like a heavily armored tank, blocked the rubble with his body and charged forward.

If Luo were fighting an equal, his opponent would have been stunned long ago, but Antomu's offensive and defensive level was a notch above Luo's.

Antomu, bull-like, cleared a path through Luo's laid traps, and then, almost reaching Luo, snapped a stone pillar to use as a weapon.

He transferred his aura through his hands to the pillar, using the technique Zhou.

Zhou involved covering the weapon with aura, making it more durable and increasing its destructive power.

The pillar, over five meters long, was swung by Antomu as if it were a mere stick, displaying terrifying power.

He charged at Luo with the pillar, sweeping it horizontally.

Luo stepped back, dodging the tail end of the pillar. In the next moment, the pillar, without any cumbersome momentum, swiftly swung back, and Luo retreated again, slashing at the tail end of the pillar, cutting off about 0.3 meters.

Antomu swung the pillar vigorously, forcing Luo to constantly dodge, trapping both in a deadlock.

As an observer, Bisky immediately recognized Antomu's intention.

"He's noticed it too…" Bisky thought quietly.

From the looks of it, using such a heavy stone pillar as a weapon, even employing Zhou, should have drained Antomu's aura faster than Luo's. However, in reality, it was Luo who was depleting more aura.

Because Luo was drawn into Antomu's rhythm of attack. Each dodge required him to expend corresponding amounts of aura, showcasing the disadvantage of overly relying on aura.

Antomu's aggressive style was specifically designed to exhaust Luo, a form of retaliation for Luo's earlier actions.

This was a cat-and-mouse game intended to drain all of Luo's aura, also a revenge for his earlier behavior.

Reflecting on the battles up to now, Luo had not experienced being slowly driven to desperation before, not even in his first fight against Cook.

"If I could dodge attacks without needing to boost my aura, I wouldn't need to keep spending it…"

After being drawn into this deadlock of offense and defense, Luo realized that his internal aura was rapidly depleting. Coupled with having half of his aura eaten by a black cat earlier, continuing this way, he'd run out of aura without achieving anything.

Luo came to this realization…

Having been exposed to Nen for less than a year, his aura had rocketed in growth, and his control over it was increasingly refined. Until now, he hadn't faced an opponent significantly stronger than himself and had always believed that aura was the fundamental basis of strength.

But now, Antomu's deliberately created offensive alerted him to the truth.

Originally, the root was the source, the foundation was the base, and aura was not the essence. Only when aura and the body worked together could they truly form the foundation.

"I'm going to make you truly feel what despair is," Antomu roared furiously.

Just then, a robust female voice intervened.

"Let's skip that."

Suddenly, a woman, matching Antomu in stature, stepped in front of Luo, facing the swinging stone pillar and threw a punch with perfect form.

Under the astonished gaze of both Antomu and Luo, her fist, radiating dazzling light, struck the pillar. The impact unleashed tremendous power, shattering the pillar and sending residual force towards Antomu, blowing him away.

The punch, which combined the techniques of Ten, Zetsu, Ren, Hatsu, and Gyo—high-level techniques of hardness—easily smashed the pillar, even wrapped with Zhou, and the leftover force injured Antomu.

"Muscle woman…"

Watching the imposing figure before him, Luo blurted out, taken aback.

The next second, he was sent flying by a punch from Bisky.

This punch wasn't reinforced with hardness, just a plain one. If it had been, Luo's head would have instantly shattered.

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