In the pitch-black space, Kevin weaved and dodged, feathers imbued with Nen crisscrossing around him.
Without a doubt, this was an Emission-type Nen ability. Both the Nen attached to the feathers and the Nen space that trapped him were sufficient proof.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several more feathers shot out like arrows. Kevin tilted his head and shifted his body, easily dodging them. Taking advantage of the gap, he quickly glanced behind him. Sure enough, the feathers he had dodged had disappeared.
Either they had been hidden, or they had simply vanished, or they had returned to the opponent's hand. There were only these three possibilities.
"Do you only know how to dodge, human?"
The raven's sharp voice came from a distance. Before he finished speaking, several more feathers shot out rapidly.
Bang!
Kevin suddenly exerted force and charged forward, his speed instantly increasing as he ran in a straight line toward the raven's location.
This sudden change in speed made the raven quickly retreat. He saw his slender bird claws push backward, spread his wings, and fan forward with force. His body was as light as a piece of paper, instantly drifting a long distance away.
However, Kevin—who had been charging forward—suddenly stopped.
Ah. This Nen space is limited.
Kevin's earlier En had already clearly detected its boundaries. Charging forward had just been to see where the front and back boundaries were.
This was a long, narrow space—about two hundred meters wide and a thousand meters long. Such a scale could definitely be called enormous. From this, it could be inferred that the opponent's Nen ability was centered around this space. The moment he had been pulled in, he had been caught here almost without realizing it.
Judging solely from the activation speed of the Nen ability, it was truly powerful. Instant activation speed, forced capture ability, and a vast Nen space.
What was the cost?
Kevin pondered. The opponent clearly didn't intend to kill him immediately—he was obviously stalling for time. Judging by his stance, the opponent was confident that the Griffin outside could handle Menchi and the other two. Based on their brief skirmish earlier, that Griffin might indeed possess such strength. It was definitely the strongest beast Kevin had ever seen at this stage. Even the Calamity Dragon he had fought before was considerably inferior in comparison.
If the raven only wanted to stall him, he could have thrown Kevin into this space and released him when the Nen ability could no longer be maintained or when the time ran out. But the opponent clearly couldn't do that—which meant the opponent had to stay inside this Nen space with him.
Moreover, the opponent had only captured Kevin alone. Either he was confident enough, or he could only capture one person. From all indications, the opponent was not blindly confident. He could only capture one—so he had chosen Kevin, who was the strongest and most threatening.
This wasn't Kevin being narcissistic. It was simply the truth.
In this long, narrow space, Kevin's previous approach had already forced the opponent to the front end of the space. Three hundred meters ahead was the boundary, and the width on both sides was only two hundred meters. The opponent's current range of movement was extremely limited.
Although the opponent could sense Kevin's range of movement—since this was his Nen ability space—he still chose to retreat. Kevin guessed that the opponent must have seen his fighting style and knew that he was an Enhancement-type Nen user whose ability was simple and direct.
Kevin was confident that the opponent could not escape past him to the rear.
If the opponent wasn't an arrogant fool, then it was highly likely that he possessed an ability similar to instantaneous movement within this Nen space. Or he had other ways to pass through Kevin's blockade.
While dodging the incoming feathers, Kevin rapidly analyzed the effects of the opponent's Nen ability in his mind.
At that moment, the raven—watching Kevin skillfully dodge attacks—stopped approaching easily after a brief probe. Though he cawed, attempting to distract Kevin, he was actually under increasing pressure, constantly muttering to himself.
Just hold him back.
This raven had secretly observed Kevin fighting multiple times in the Secret Realm and knew his strength well. It was a pure form of violence. But even with this intelligence, the advantage was very limited.
Suddenly, the pressure ahead surged. The raven saw Kevin charging fiercely again and hurriedly shot out a large number of feather darts imbued with Nen, while his entire body desperately retreated backward, quickly pressing against the invisible, pitch-black boundary.
"I'm being forced to the boundary so quickly, you damned human!" he muttered, watching Kevin charge straight at him. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. The pressure was too intense—if he was touched even once, he would probably fall into a desperate situation immediately.
"Heh heh, human. This is my territory."
Saying this, the raven completely sank into the boundary, merging into the darkness and disappearing.
Seeing this, Kevin thought to himself, As expected.
He pondered: Where will the raven reappear?
The best place to appear would be the ceiling behind him, or the floor behind him. However, what he saw was the raven instantly appearing at the other end of the boundary from this end.
Kevin frowned. This was troublesome. He might really be stalled here by the opponent.
If the opponent's movement within the space had a distance limit or a cooldown interval, Kevin would still have a chance to catch him with his speed. But judging from the current situation—no matter how the opponent moved, as long as there was no cooldown interval—the opponent would be invincible.
The opponent could completely shuttle back and forth between these two ends. A distance of a thousand meters. With Kevin's speed, it would indeed be difficult to be faster than the opponent's instantaneous movement along the wall.
As long as the opponent had patience, Kevin really couldn't do anything about him.
Indeed, this kind of mechanism-based Nen ability could sometimes be a real headache.
At this point, the raven simply stopped pretending and stood motionless at the farthest end from Kevin.
"Are you just going to hide like a coward?" Kevin shouted loudly.
The raven, however, stood by the wall, completely ignoring him. His purpose was very clear. After a while, he even said directly, "Your teammates definitely can't beat that silly bird outside. Although he isn't smart, his strength isn't to be underestimated."
"I just need to hold you here. After he deals with your teammates, I'll throw you out and deal with you both then."
"There's no other way. After all, only those strong enough receive such targeted treatment, isn't that right, powerful human?"
Hearing this, Kevin couldn't help but laugh angrily. "You mean I should thank you for thinking highly of me?"
The raven cawed a few times. "I can teleport between the front and back boundaries, as well as the left and right boundaries, within this Nen space. No cooldown time. As long as I cross a boundary, I can appear on the other side I wish to go to."
"You are strong and fast, but over a thousand meters—no matter how fast you are at these two ends—you can't be faster than my single step."
"And don't expect my Nen to run out. I can last an entire day with you."
His Nen ability—[Corridor]—looked very strong and seemed to require a great cost, but its essence was simply that the Nen space was normally completely unusable.
It wasn't so much a Nen space as it was a dueling arena.
The essence of his ability was to choose a target and enter a closed Nen space with them to fight. In this absolute space, his advantage was being able to shuttle through the walls in four directions, then use his Emission-type abilities to wear down the opponent and gain an advantage.
The most fatal restriction was that he could not kill the opponent within this space—but he himself could be killed.
Therefore, the essence of his Nen ability was to gain an advantage and weaken the enemy through a special one-on-one space. After canceling the ability, he would then take the opponent's life.
Kevin listened as the opponent directly explained the directions of his Nen ability's movement.
Either the information was false, or he was already fearless.
Kevin felt this might be an opportunity. If what the opponent said was true, then to some extent, the opponent already believed he had Kevin cornered. As things stood, it indeed seemed to be the case.
"I don't understand why you suddenly appeared and attacked us," Kevin said. "This Secret Realm has existed for a long time, and more than one Hunter comes to hunt every year. We've never heard of you."
"In other words, you came specifically for us. Why exactly?"
This was the question Kevin was most curious about, so he asked it directly. Given the opponent's current attitude, it was highly likely he would answer. Kevin wanted to stall, but he didn't want to play a useless dodging game with him.
"Unfortunately, I don't know either."
"What do you mean?" Kevin frowned.
"Literally, human. We are just following a divine oracle to eliminate you. You are the main target."
"God?" Kevin deliberately made his tone full of disdain, as if to humiliate the opponent. "Heh heh. What is that?"
However, the raven showed no anger at such a tone. Instead, he said indifferently, "That is our God."
It seemed this so-called "God" was not an ordinary belief, but perhaps some powerful existence that had brought the raven a message—one he could not resist. But from the opponent's tone, there was no hint of dissatisfaction.
"Even a god must have a reason, right?" Kevin pressed.
Hearing this, the raven cawed again, laughing. "Foolish. Why would a god need a reason to punish someone?"
The information Kevin received was not much.
As for the situation outside, although he was somewhat worried, it was not too severe. Because Menchi and the other two carried the potions he had given them—a hidden trump card.
Assuming the opponent had been closely monitoring them since they entered the Secret Realm, they should have only seen them use healing potions. After all, healing potions were usually the least conspicuous and were unlikely to make enemies think of other possibilities.
The opponent's judgment that the Griffin could eliminate Menchi and the other two clearly didn't account for them having other types of potions that could enhance their strength. Based on Kevin's brief contact with the Griffin earlier, with the potions, the three certainly wouldn't be dealt with quickly—unless there were other enemies.
But from the raven's previous words and actions, there seemed to be no more helpers. The Griffin's strength alone was deemed sufficient.
Of course, this could also be a deception by the opponent, but at this moment, Kevin couldn't worry about that anymore.
Since he wasn't willing to say more, there was nothing left to talk about.
"Well then," Kevin said. "Our friendly chat ends here, raven monster."
He directly took out a light gray potion from his waist, took a deep breath, and a large amount of oxygen filled his body.
"What are you going to do?" The raven sensed something was wrong and pressed his entire body tightly against the boundary.
He was ready to enter the boundary and transfer at any moment. He had prepared to play a time-consuming, exhausting game with the opponent.
"You just said you can teleport between the front and back ends, as well as the left and right sides," Kevin said. "I don't know if you can only teleport correspondingly, or if you can teleport freely in these four directions. But it doesn't matter now."
Saying this, Kevin revealed a smile and shook the gray potion in his hand.
"Did you hear that?"
"What?"
"The death knell has rung for you."
As his words fell, Kevin threw the potion behind him.
Just as the potion was about to land, it suddenly exploded, and a gray mist instantly spread out.
"What is that?!" The raven's voice screeched, his tone noticeably higher—clearly panicked.
He felt threatened.
Kevin just smiled. "To thank you for the information you just provided, I can't be stingy."
Saying this, he walked forward with steady steps, explaining, "This is my specially made anesthetic. It enters the body through breathing. Even if you don't breathe, it will seep through the skin."
"According to my calculations, people of different weights will last for different durations inside. For me, it's probably only about fifteen seconds."
"And this potion is diffusive. The liquid inside will instantly evaporate and spread in all directions. And your Nen ability"—Kevin gently wiggled his finger, the meaning self-evident—"creates a sealed space."
Soon, the entire space would be filled with this paralyzing toxin.
At that moment, the gray-white mist spread behind Kevin. He walked steadily forward, his speed almost synchronized with the spread of the toxin.
"Heh heh... no, impossible." The raven's voice came, the panic in his tone clearly audible.
"Is that so? Then why don't you cross the wall and try?" Kevin challenged with a smile.
He didn't stop. Each step heavily struck the space, the sound echoing in this long, narrow corridor.
Kevin carried not only potions but also two or three types of poisons. Besides one absolutely lethal toxin, the other two were for assisting in the capture of large creatures. The opponent's Nen ability mechanism was indeed tricky, and Kevin found it difficult to deal with relying solely on his physical stats. But fortunately, he wasn't just brute force.
Kevin walked steadily forward step by step, slowly raising his right fist. A large amount of Nen surged and enveloped it. The change in Nen was very obvious.
He had already shown the opponent through his actions that this punch was meant to take his life.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
A large number of Nen-infused feathers shot toward Kevin like torrential rain.
Before he had captured the Red Finch, these feather attacks would indeed have given him some headaches. But now, that was no longer a problem.
The feather attacks were extremely fast—almost only streaks of light visible, much faster than before. But Kevin could easily dodge them by simply twisting his body.
At this stage, trying to hit Kevin with a ranged attack would be difficult unless it had a guaranteed hit mechanism or a special function.
Thank the Red Finch.
Kevin got closer and closer to the raven. His Nen freely emanated, and the malice in his heart surged out like a tangible entity. That Nen seemed to transform into an invisible giant hand, pressing down on the raven with overwhelming force.
At that moment, the raven was in extreme panic. His body pressed tightly against the boundary, his thoughts a chaotic mess.
He kept agonizing: Should I cross over? But if that potion really contains a paralyzing toxin, once I cross over, the likelihood of getting hit is extremely high. Even if I don't instantly collapse, the potion's effect will take hold and have an impact.
And can I really stay here? That's just Kevin's side of the story.
He endured the pressure and shouted, "This is a closed space! If I'm willing, won't you also be paralyzed by your own potion?"
Kevin just smiled, his steps unwavering. "Yes. You can die with me—as long as you think your resistance to the potion is stronger than mine."
"Or you can gamble. Gamble that this Nen space will still exist after you lose consciousness. Or gamble that I don't have an antidote."
Kevin's words were slow and clear, yet they contained immense pressure, making the raven completely unable to think. That Nen, imbued with malice, was like iron pliers tightly pinching his neck. Kevin's advancing footsteps were like heavy hammers pounding on his heart—each step made his heart bear more pressure.
At that moment, Kevin was less than four hundred meters from the raven. In less than ten seconds, he would be in front of him.
The raven seemed to already see himself being smashed into meat paste by Kevin's punch—just as Kevin had previously punched through those massive monsters.
Now, the raven's feathers were already soaked with sweat. The excessive pressure blurred his vision.
One step. Two steps.
The raven now had only one choice: if he didn't want to die, he could only dispel his Nen ability.
Kevin stopped speaking. He just walked silently forward, the power accumulating in his right fist growing more and more.
Finally, the immense pressure broke the raven's nerves. The taut string snapped.
"Get lost! You monster!"
He didn't have the courage to test whether the potion could truly paralyze him. Under the threat of death, he chose the only escape route.
In an instant, the pitch-black space disappeared, and bright sunlight poured down.
A strong wind pressure struck—and the mist formed by the potion was instantly dispersed.