Almost Satisfaction.
8: Almost Joy.
Almost Satisfaction.
Chapter update is here.
Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ The man’s arrival instantly changed the atmosphere of the temple courtyard.
An aura field could reveal a Nen user’s emotional fluctuations with brutal clarity.
At that moment, the man’s aura field radiated cold killing intent.
Before that killing intent-tainted field, Monica, an ordinary person, suffered badly.
Kieran was unaffected.
Hidden in the darkness, he concealed his presence as much as possible and waited for a chance to move.
The man walked toward Monica.
Since entering the courtyard, his gaze had stayed on her without shifting at all.
He stopped in front of Monica and smiled.
“Do you know why I did not kill you?” Monica’s face was ashen.
She could only stare wide-eyed as the monster in her mind approached step by step.
Overwhelmed by the killing intent in his aura field, she had completely lost the ability to think, much less answer his question.
“Not even enough strength left to guess?” Looking at Monica’s reaction, the smile on the man’s face deepened.
“Do not worry.
I love to talk.
In the limited time we have left, I will tell you the reason all by myself.
The reason I did not kill you right away is, of course…” Halfway through his sentence, the man burst forward like a tiger or leopard suddenly lunging, pouncing at Kieran in the dark corner.
From that instant on, whether his earlier question to Monica had been unnecessary no longer mattered.
Whether he truly liked talking no longer mattered either.
What the man wanted was to use words to draw and control Kieran’s attention, then end the fight quickly.
“…” Faced with the sudden attack, panic appeared on Kieran’s face before he could suppress it.
In that flash of motion, the man saw his reaction clearly.
“So you are just a kid.” The man sneered with disdain.
His right fist, gathered with abundant aura, shot toward Kieran’s vitals as fast as possible.
As the lethal attack closed in, Kieran seemed frightened.
He hurriedly backed away to dodge, tripped over something, and fell hard onto his backside.
Because of that, the man’s explosive punch missed.
However, Kieran had clearly lost any ability to counter after falling to the ground.
Unless he held a weapon that could extend his reach, what awaited him was the man’s second lethal attack.
But Kieran obviously had no weapon in his hands.
In the end…
The kid in front of him was nothing more than a rookie who had only glimpsed Nen and knew nothing about combat.
He was no threat at all.
“That is what you think I am thinking, isn’t it?” The man abruptly withdrew his disdainful smile.
His cold, snake-like gaze went straight to Kieran’s hands, which were braced against the ground.
At that moment, Kieran used the momentum of his fall to pull out a long, narrow Western-style kitchen knife hidden beneath a rag.
Then he stabbed fiercely at the wrist of the man’s right hand, which was still extended in a punching posture.
It was the closest place Kieran could attack.
But the man had never lowered his guard from the beginning.
He also noticed Kieran’s small movement at once, so how could the stab possibly land?
Dodging it would have been no problem at all.
Yet to end the battle faster and more cleanly, this man, who seemed to take pleasure in killing, opened his right hand and actively met the kitchen knife stabbing toward him.
Pshk.
The long blade pierced through the man’s palm, spraying blood.
The man’s face remained expressionless.
Not only did he fail to pull his hand back, he pressed down hard along the blade.
Amid splashing blood, his entire palm slid down the blade to the handle.
Then, as if he felt no pain, he used that bloody palm skewered by the kitchen knife to seize Kieran’s knife hand in a death grip.
“The amount of aura I can output is far above yours.
From the moment I controlled you at close range, you lost everything.
Come on.
Let me see your real panic.” The man looked calm.
If he wished, his other hand, drifting with aura, could send Kieran into eternal sleep at any time.
Solving a Nen user without even using an ability.
Even if it was only a kid, it could still bring him a slight sense of accomplishment.
Kieran tried struggling once, but because his aura output was lower than the other man’s, it had little effect.
Still, the man’s caution surprised him.
The decisiveness and ruthlessness of trading an injury for the foundation of victory could not be underestimated, either.
‘This guy…
is more troublesome than he looks.’ “So all that nonsense you said to Monica was not only to disrupt my attention.
You really do like talking.” Kieran sighed softly.
He was not exactly calm, but he did not show the panic and terror the man wanted to see.
The man studied Kieran’s reaction and said coldly, “Looks like I underestimated you.
In your next life, do not stick your neck out so casually.
You will live longer that way.” “You say that as if you would have let me leave if I had not acted.
Your aura field exposes your rotten nature without holding anything back.” “Tch.
Is it that obvious?” The man spoke darkly.
“True.
The moment I saw your aura, I already considered you prey.” Before the words had fully fallen, his fist shot straight toward Kieran’s vitals.
Kieran appeared to have no way to dodge while being controlled, but this was precisely the instant he had been waiting for: the moment the other party moved in for the kill.
Just as that fierce fist was about to smash his head apart, a pair of pitch-black hands that had appeared at some unknown moment reached out from both sides of the man’s face.
They covered his face and jerked backward violently.
Crack.
The man’s head was instantly folded backward by those black hands.
His throat bones snapped, burst through his skin, and dragged a large sheet of blood out with them.
“Hm?” The sudden change froze the man’s expression.
Confusion spread through his mind like vines growing wild.
‘What happened?’ He wanted to say something, but could only produce an unclear, leaking sound.
Soon, he became a corpse and toppled to the ground.
The shadow mannequin that had appeared behind him out of thin air slowly withdrew its hands.
Then, under Kieran’s command, it returned to being an ordinary shadow.
First, Kieran had created layers of false impressions to conceal the shadow mannequin’s existence.
Then, at the most critical moment, he let it appear and execute a one-hit kill.
The battle ended in less than a minute.
Kieran looked down at the man’s corpse, an indescribable emotion forming in his chest.
Almost joy.
Almost satisfaction.
“Strange.
I am certain I do not enjoy killing, so why do I feel this way?” He pressed his index finger to his chin and murmured in confusion, “Is it because I watched him walk step by step into a trap I prepared?
Or because I solved a problem without spending much effort?
Something like the pleasure of speedrunning a game?” “Right.
I do not even know this guy’s name.
And his Nen ability…
wait, did he even have one?” “Forget it.
It does not matter.” Kieran shook his head slightly and looked at the man’s corpse again.
The feeling of victory just now still echoed in his heart.
Nen battles really were interesting.
As long as one piece of setup landed at the right moment, a battle could end in an instant.
And he could still become stronger.
Thinking of that, Kieran unconsciously revealed a faint smile.
Monica saw the man’s fate.
She also saw the smile on Kieran’s face, and felt her whole body go cold.
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.