Chapter 17: Slaying the Criminal Hunter
At the window of the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen raised his Godslayer Crossbow and locked onto Bennett using the Hunter Magic Eyes.
Bennett was leaping across rooftops, searching the nearby buildings. When the distance between him and Rosen shrank to within sixty meters, Rosen pulled the trigger, and the crossbow fired both bolts and bullets simultaneously.
The chamber erupted with the combined force of Reinforcement and Emission Nen, propelling the bullet at supersonic speed.
However, there was no sonic boom, not even the usual whizzing sound of bullets tearing through the air. The bullets, created from spiritual art imbued with large amounts of spiritual Nen, had been augmented with the Invisibility technique, allowing them to become semi-ethereal and nearly undetectable. Still, Bennett sensed the bullet when it came within ten meters.
But it was already too late. The bullet would strike him in less than a thirtieth of a second.
In that split second, the shoes on Bennett's feet activated, shifting him three meters to the side at blinding speed.
The bullet grazed past him, and just as Bennett breathed a sigh of relief, the bullet curved mid-air, turning back as if it were a living thing, automatically homing in on him.
A pendant on Bennett's neck flashed, instantly deploying a Sequence 9 elemental shield.
The bullet collided with the shield, delivering considerable armor-piercing damage. It shattered most of the shield before displaying its Nen Beast properties, pressing forward as if it had a life of its own.
Bennett's expression darkened as he used his left hand to unleash a supernatural repulsion field, while his right hand drew a six-shot Judgment Revolver from his waist holster. In one fluid motion, he fired six rounds in the direction the original bullet had come from. The bullets spiraled through the air, weaving unpredictably.
Any hunter who uses a gun must be able to trace the source of an attack; otherwise, they have no business using a firearm.
Bennett's counterattack was swift and deadly. His bullets, imbued with elemental power, were designed to enhance damage with various effects.
However, the scene Bennett had anticipated—freezing an area of dozens of meters—only resulted in an old building being covered in ice.
His Eagle Eye showed no heat signatures or signs of life; it was clear the enemy had already moved out of his attack range.
Yet, less than a second had passed since Bennett was attacked. How could the enemy have moved so fast? The quicker the movement, the more noise it would make, but his heightened senses hadn't detected any footfalls or movement sounds.
Just as Bennett was filled with doubt, he felt the threat of danger closing in once again.
His Eagle Eye detected a crossbow bolt materializing out of nowhere. He had no time to reload his Judgment Revolver, so he swiftly drew his backup revolver with his left hand and fired three shots in quick succession, shattering the bolt mid-air.
Despite this, Bennett still couldn't locate his enemy.
Bennett wasn't the only one filled with anxiety. Rosen, standing behind the window, was equally stunned.
He had thought that attacking from the safety of the Mysterious Study Room, with the element of surprise, would at least seriously injure Bennett. However, the results were far from his expectations. His initial barrage from the Godslayer Crossbow had been easily thwarted—Bennett was much stronger than anticipated.
It was only now that Rosen realized the true gap between a rookie like him and a seasoned veteran like Bennett.
The disparity wasn't just in spiritual strength but also in the number of extraordinary artifacts and abilities possessed. Aside from his innate abilities of spiritual enhancement and Nen, Rosen had yet to learn any other acquired supernatural skills.
Bennett, on the other hand, had already used at least four different extraordinary items and five supernatural abilities.
If Rosen had faced Bennett head-on instead of from within the safety of the Mysterious Study Room, his current mastery of Nen would have been no match for Bennett's first wave of counterattacks. He would have been frozen solid before he had the chance to fight back.
"Where do I learn acquired supernatural skills?" Rosen muttered, frowning.
As far as he knew, in the Blazing Shadows Duchy, most extraordinary abilities were monopolized by the nobility. Even if commoners managed to save enough gold to purchase the necessary potions and awaken their spiritual energy, there were few opportunities to learn advanced supernatural skills.
To learn such skills, one either had to serve a noble family with a strong legacy or enroll in an official academy of the Blazing Shadows Duchy.
The former meant sacrificing personal freedom, while the latter was out of reach for anyone without extraordinary talent.
Given how long Bennett had been working on Sani's contract, it was clear that he wasn't just doing it for the money. Bennett was likely being nurtured by Redstone's Viscount, which explained why he had such a wide array of techniques and tools.
Now wasn't the time to dwell on that. Rosen refocused on Bennett.
Using only the Godslayer Crossbow, without any supernatural abilities to support it, wasn't going to be enough to take Bennett down. Left with no choice, Rosen decided to use his trump card. He detached the Artist's Magazine from the crossbow and tossed it out the window just as Bennett came closer to investigate.
The Artist's Magazine had a storage space of one cubic meter, more than enough to hold an array of painted items.
Apart from creating bullets and crossbow bolts, Rosen had also painted a large quantity of spiritual TNT. TNT was far simpler to draw than bullets or arrows—after all, it was just yellow powder.
Dozens of sticks of TNT emerged from the window, manifesting in the air, and detonated instantly.
From the safety of the Mysterious Study Room, Rosen watched as light and heat flooded toward him. Thankfully, he had put on a pair of protective goggles in advance, saving his eyes from the blinding flash. As for Bennett, standing mere meters away, his triple-layered defenses were obliterated by the explosion, critically wounding him.
Surprisingly, Bennett survived the blast. In the critical moment before death, he used a Sequence 8 ability called Spirit World Walk.
Typically, only Sequence 6 individuals could venture into the Spirit World with their physical bodies. Spirit World Walk was a lesser ability that allowed Bennett to enter the Spirit World for a few seconds to avoid damage, though he had to exit from the same place he entered.
Bennett had already sustained injuries when he entered the Spirit World and took some of the explosion's residual effects upon re-emerging.
Though he wasn't dead, he was now on the brink of collapse.
Rosen hadn't expected Bennett to survive, but he never lowered his Godslayer Crossbow. As soon as Bennett reappeared, Rosen unleashed a barrage of bullets and bolts. Bennett, already at the end of his rope, was finally overwhelmed by the explosive Nen damage.
Bennett died without ever discovering the identity of his attacker.
At that moment, the Godslayer Crossbow's Hunting ability activated, capturing Bennett's body in a final bullet imbued with spiritual energy. His corpse dissolved into glowing orbs of light.
Rosen quickly sketched a metal net, pulling the glowing orbs into the Mysterious Study Room through the window, and closed it without sparing a glance at Bennett's charred remains.
He sat down and began counting his spoils.
(End of Chapter)