But he still offered up both of his arms.
Severed limbs whirled through the air, blood spraying everywhere. Perhaps, to Hisoka, it was a form of enjoyment.
......
..
.
In another part of the brush, a large gathering of Blood Butterflies had amassed—far more than those around Hisoka—because Gozu's fresh wounds emitted a far stronger scent of blood. One of them had been injured for a while; the other had only just been wounded, with fresh blood still flowing. Naturally, the butterflies were drawn to the latter.
Someone else was hidden in the nearby foliage. Gittarackur made his way over.
Suddenly, Hisoka glanced in Gozu's direction.
"Not coming out? Well then, I'm leaving."
Gozu sprang to his feet, swinging the spear in his hand.
"Hisoka, fight me!"
In the next moment, Gozu's figure blurred. When he reappeared, he was already right in front of Hisoka, thrusting his spear directly at him with a whoosh of air.
Hisoka simply raised an eyebrow. Rather than retaliate, he slipped lightly to the side. But Gozu wanted more than that.
Gozu knew he was doomed. He wanted to die in battle against Hisoka, like a warrior—without regrets. Yet Hisoka chose to avoid fighting entirely.
"Why are you only dodging?"
"Don't you have the guts to attack me? Hisoka! You weren't like this in the Milsy Wetlands!"
"What are you afraid of?"
Gozu glared at Hisoka, hurling insults. Far from looking displeased, Hisoka actually smiled.
"Calm down. I think I see what you're after.
"You're mortally wounded but won't spend your final moments in peace. Instead, you deliberately came here to die in combat, right? But personally, rather than grant your wish, I'd rather see the look on your face when you can't have what you want.
"That expression…that's what I'm after. Keep it right there."
Gozu's face grew dark. He was already on the verge of death; he just wanted a final battle. But Hisoka refused even that.
"Damn you!"
Gozu glared at Hisoka, gathered all his remaining strength into his right arm, and lunged forward with his spear.
"Die!"
Hisoka stood his ground, barely shifting, merely glancing behind him.
A faint whizz split the air—a needle shot through the air and pierced Gozu right between the eyes.
Gozu's eyes widened.
His body, drained of life, collapsed onto the ground.
"Sorry, I accidentally let him slip away for a moment."
Illumi stepped forward to join Hisoka.
Hisoka shrugged, and the two parted ways.
Having obtained Gozu's tag, Illumi had cleared this round of the exam. Hisoka, however, still didn't know who his own target was and made no effort to find out. He preferred the thrill of uncertainty to increase the excitement of the game.
Meanwhile, Ron continued observing events. The progress on his crystal ball was steadily climbing.
"It's already at fifty percent. Finally halfway. Harder than I expected."
Ron and Ponzu roamed the island, watching skirmishes in secret without getting involved.
Kurapika and Leorio defeated Tonpa and his partner.
In another area, caught up in excitement, Hisoka killed an unrelated examinee, but during the chaos, his tag was snatched by Gon—who was then ambushed by Geretta. Yet Geretta didn't last even a single exchange when Hisoka launched an attack.
Ponzu silently processed everything she had witnessed over the past few days with Ron.
"Ruco, Geretta, Gozu… On the outside, any one of them would be top-tier fighters. There's virtually no one in my village who could match them.
"But Ruco was defeated by the captain in one blow, Geretta by Hisoka in one blow, Gozu by Gittarackur in one blow.
"These exam participants are clearly split into two levels—Ron, Gittarackur, and Hisoka on one level, and everyone else on the other. The gap is enormous."
Ponzu's eyes lit up.
"So, could the captain's strength solve our village's problems?"
Ponzu had agreed to join Ron because she felt she had no other choice, but after seeing all this, she was starting to believe it might be the best decision she had ever made.
"Captain, can I ask a question?"
"What is it?"
"Do you think there's a chance I could ever reach your level?"
"I don't know," Ron replied. He didn't know enough about Ponzu to gauge her talent with Nen before she actually learned it. In the original chain of events, Ponzu was part of Pokkle's team, but Pokkle himself wasn't strong enough to properly train others.
"What you can achieve depends on you alone." Ron paused, then continued, "But as long as your village's problem isn't extraordinarily difficult, we can probably handle it.
"If even my team can't solve it, then no other team of examinees could solve it either.
"Even if you passed the exam on your own, you still wouldn't be able to solve it."
Among all the participants, only illumi and Hisoka stood on a level comparable to Ron. But Hisoka fought alone, rarely relying on any connections.
illumi 's network overlapped with Ron's in some ways, but Ron was certain his own potential would surpass illumi's.
By joining Ron, Ponzu's destiny would be far brighter than it ever would have been otherwise.
"Captain, I believe you," Ponzu said softly, turning her gaze upward at Ron. She spoke with genuine conviction.
Over the past few days, Ponzu had realized how hard passing the exam would be for someone of her current level. She had seen how powerful some of these examinees were, and, besides, her own goal was never simply to become a Hunter. Teaming up with Ron gave her a genuine chance to fix the problem in her village.
Just as Ron had said: if even he couldn't deal with that situation, no one else could.