Ronin's Swamp of the Underworld didn't just cover the area around the Ant King.
He already understood Vanessa's ability from their earlier exploration of the underground city.
The sudden shift to mud wouldn't slow her down much at all. But for the lion Chimera Ant, the abrupt change would create an opening it never saw coming.
As for Maschur, his mid-to-long-range fighting style kept him safely outside the swamp's reach.
Everything played out exactly as Ronin expected.
The sudden transformation of the ground barely affected Vanessa while she hid in the shadows. Instead, it gave her the perfect moment to strike.
While the lion Ant was busy fending off Maschur's aura bombs, Vanessa slipped from the shadow cast by one of those bombs straight into the lion's own shadow.
She rose silently behind it and drove her dagger straight into the artery in its neck before the creature even realized she was there.
When the lion reacted in pain, Vanessa had already vanished back into its shadow.
As long as the Ant couldn't attack inside the shadow or erase the shadow itself, she was untouchable.
Mud sprayed everywhere. The lion Ant clearly hadn't expected the ground to betray it like that.
Blood gushed from the wound in its neck in a thick spray. Its eyes turned blood-red, but it made no move to clamp the injury shut.
Instead it threw its head back and let out a deafening roar. At the same time it noticed the change in its own shadow. Vanessa, still hidden inside it, felt a chill. Her gaze flicked to the spraying blood and saw it beginning to coagulate on its own.
Was this lion Ant not an Enhancer at all? Was it a Manipulator or an Emitter?
Vanessa tightened her grip on the dagger but didn't leave the shadow. The lion's crimson eyes stayed locked on the mud where its own shadow lay.
Maschur's aura bombs kept exploding inside the blood, scattering it, but the scattered droplets quickly flowed back together in midair, weaving into a protective net around the lion.
Vanessa noticed something else. None of the blood had lost its connection to the lion. Every drop still linked back to the wound she had opened in its neck.
Her attack had probably helped the lion Ant trigger its own Nen ability.
A Manipulation-type power, most likely.
It controlled its own blood for both offense and defense.
Had this ability existed before, or had the lion created it on the spot in response to her strike?
Vanessa's mind raced, but she quickly zeroed in on the key detail.
The wound.
What would happen if she severed the connection between the blood and the lion?
Maschur hadn't expected the lion to use its own flying blood to block his aura bombs.
He and Vanessa had worked together long enough to read each other perfectly. His earlier barrage had been meant to create openings for her assassination attempt.
But now that the lion had spotted her inside its shadow, letting her stay there was too risky.
There were plenty of ways to force her out. If even one of them worked, Vanessa would be completely exposed in open combat—and she would be no match for the lion Ant face-to-face.
Maschur stopped firing.
More precisely, he stopped launching the fast, simple aura bombs and started gathering power instead.
A massive amount of aura formed in his hands, then rose rapidly above his head. Unlike the earlier spheres, this mass began compressing into a flat, disc-shaped construct.
In just a few breaths a spinning disc of aura hovered above him.
It rotated faster and faster, emitting a high-pitched whine. Even from a distance the lion Ant felt the razor-sharp edge.
Since regular aura bombs couldn't break through the blood defense, Maschur had turned his aura into a cutting wheel.
He twisted his body and hurled the spinning disc straight at the lion.
Ronin caught the motion from the corner of his eye. He also noticed the Ant King watching the same scene and immediately trying to copy it.
Ronin had seen this technique in Dragon Ball.
It was the Aura Disc Slash.
Maschur's version was rougher and thicker than the polished ones from the anime, but it was already taking shape.
The lion Ant's gaze sharpened, yet a smile tugged at the corner of its mouth. It had already figured out how to turn the situation against both of them.
Its body suddenly accelerated downward.
If it sank deep enough into the swamp, its shadow would disappear. The woman hiding inside it would be forced out into the open with nowhere to hide.
As for the incoming aura disc, even if it broke through the blood net, so what? It was aimed at the part of him still above the mud.
The lion Ant's plan was too simple.
The next second its descent stopped dead. Its entire body locked in place.
Ronin was responsible.
He hadn't been fighting the Ant King with his full attention. Both of them had been watching the battle between the lion and Maschur.
Unlike the Ant King, who could only steal Maschur's technique and couldn't help the lion, Ronin was the one who had created the swamp in the first place.
He saw through the lion's move in an instant.
The moment the lion tried to sink, Ronin canceled the Earth Style. The ground that had turned to swamp hardened back to solid earth the instant the earth-nature chakra vanished.
That alone wasn't enough.
Susanoo flared around Ronin to block the Ant King's attacks. At the same time he slammed one hand to the ground and activated Earth Style: Earth Core.
The technique let him raise or lower any section of ground within a certain range however he wanted.
The lion Ant's body, which had just been trapped, was suddenly hurled upward.
The abrupt lift exposed it completely to the incoming Aura Disc Slash.
The blood net couldn't stop it. The spinning disc tore straight through the moment it touched the blood.
Even the lion Ant's powerful body failed to withstand the cut. The disc sliced cleanly through its chest.
At the instant its torso split apart, the blood spraying from the wound tried to pull the two halves back together.
A figure rose from the lion's shadow.
Vanessa.
Long strands of aura extended from her dagger. One clean slash severed the blood connection the lion was using to reattach itself.
At the same time she drove a powerful kick into the side of the lion Ant's head.
The force sent its head, half a heart, and one arm flying through the air in a grotesque arc.