Sss-
Sparks continued to fly from Pitou's back.
She tried to use brute force to throw Moses off, but after several attempts, she found herself being pressed back down each time she tried to rise.
'This human…!'
Ripples of emotion appeared in Pitou's heart.
Moses watched Pitou's resistance closely and all he could do was try his best to maintain the pressure.
'Almost there.'
As the shadow clone rushed toward them, Moses didn't dare relax for a moment.
Pitou, who was pinned to the ground by the black sword, seemed to sense Moses's intent, and suddenly lashed out with her tail, striking the thinned black sword.
With a sharp sound, the black sword shattered.
After the blade becomes thinner, its durability is obviously affected.
In addition, Pitou's attack was so powerful that she could easily break the black sword with just one blow of her tail.
Seeing this, Moses's expression changed.
Without the suppression of the black sword, he immediately retreated without hesitation.
Just as he moved back, Pitou turned over and her claws missed.
"Your ability..."
Having missed her strike, Pitou straightened up and took a step forward, her right foot firmly planted on the ground. Her wide red cat eyes locked onto Moses's retreating figure.
"In terms of lethality, it's not that impressive."
Before she finished speaking, Pitou suddenly pushed off the ground with her right foot.
Boom!
The ground beneath her cracked.
Pitou's figure shot towards Moses like lightning.
Although she was pinned to the ground by Moses in the previous exchanges, it actually made her realize the fact that 'Moses's lethality is limited'.
'As expected...'
'Whether it is the human from before or this human now…'
'There is no doubt that they are all very strong.'
'But in terms of innate advantages, they were far inferior to me!'
With no reservations, Pitou lunged at Moses with her fastest speed.
No tricks, no techniques.
Just a full-force, straight-line attack.
Moses sighed softly, landed on the ground to steady his body, and the needle-like Nen light carried by Pitou was reflected in his eyes.
[Zetsu]
Facing Pitou's lightning-fast assault, Moses's mind was as calm as still water. He closed his Aura Nodes and restrained all his Manifested Aura.
Then-
With an empty hand, he made a slashing motion forward.
Pitou, who was in super-high-speed movement, could still see Moses's inexplicable actions with her terrifying dynamic vision.
"What is he trying to do now?"
In that split second, Pitou's heart was filled with doubt once again.
And her doubt was soon answered.
A black sword appeared from nothing, revealing its shape at a speed that seemed both slow and fast.
By the time Pitou realized something had suddenly appeared in 'that location', the slash had already landed on her.
Boom!
The blade-
Or rather, the back of the blade, which was twice as thick as its normal state, slammed heavily into Pitou's face.
Then, with a dull sound, a visible shockwave erupted from Pitou's face.
Then her entire body was sent flying back in the direction she had come from, like a shooting star soaring over a hundred meters, crashing through trees along the way.
Moses watched as Pitou flew away like a streak of light with calm eyes. He had no intention of pursuing her, nor did he command his shadow clones to follow up with a second wave of attacks.
'Blunt-force attacks might still accumulate some damage inside her body.'
'But the fundamental issue is still...'
'The disparity in Manifested Aura.'
'Other than that, her combat performance isn't actually that intimidating.'
Moses thought in his heart, and at the same time, he recalled the two shadow clones.
Although the two shadow clones could provide assistance in combat and escape, when facing an enemy like Pitou, trying to achieve results with only a third of his Manifested Aura was...
Simply insufficient.
Therefore, Moses decided to abandon the safety net provided by the shadow clones and instead recalled them to increase his attack power.
This meant-
Moses would have to carefully handle every attack from Pitou from now on.
…
In the distance.
After crashing into a large tree, Pitou's body finally plummeted to the ground, carving a deep trench before coming to a stop.
"What... just happened..."
Lying on her back, Pitou's face, which now marked with faint scratches, showed a look of confusion.
In the split-second exchanges of combat, any action that could be considered slow would place oneself in absolute danger.
But what Pitou had felt in that moment...
Was an attack that appeared slow on the surface but was essentially lightning-fast!
She could clearly see the slow motion, but by the time she registered it, the attack had already landed.
Slow, yet fast.
These two phenomena, which shouldn't coexist in the same moment, had merged in a dissonant way.
Having endured this strike, Pitou felt a sense of irritation for the first time.
However, this emotion came and went quickly.
Because-
The attack, which was so strange that it was hard to describe in words, did not cause her any harm.
And the sense of security this result brought was enough to soothe any agitation.
'It's fine if I don't understand. I'll figure it out eventually.'
Pitou quickly got up from the ground. Something in her genes seemed to be ignited. Her cat eyes widened to their fullest, and a crimson glow emerged from them.
Boom!
She shattered the ground beneath her feet, and her body once again transformed into a bolt of lightning as she darted through the fallen trees.
At this moment…
There was only Moses in her eyes.
So much so that all her six senses were compressed to the extreme and were all concentrated on Moses.
However, this made her ignore the two uninvited guests who came at this time.
It's Morel and Knov.
Having been left behind by Moses and Netero, they had arrived in the area at this very moment, and were immediately attracted by Pitou's malevolent Aura and the frequent and loud sounds of fighting.
As soon as they arrived, they noticed Pitou charging at Moses with incredible speed.
"Huh!?"
Both of their faces showed shock simultaneously.
They couldn't clearly see Pitou's movements, and could barely sense her movements through her overwhelming, evil Aura.
This was the first time they had participated in the incident and witnessed Pitou's Aura with their own eyes, and...
Her terrifying offensive power!
"I can use Nen too, so I can tell that you're all very strong. But even so, I still don't think... you can defeat her!"
Killua's words flashed through Morel and Knov's minds at that moment.
But before they could suppress the turmoil in their hearts, their eyes followed Pitou's Aura and landed on Moses.
Then they saw Moses actually closed his Aura Nodes under this circumstance and entered a Zetsu state.
'Was he trying to get himself killed?!'
'What on earth is Moses thinking?!'
Shock, confusion, worry...
In less than a second, although Morel and Knov's heads were filled with a mix of complex emotions, they still reflexively rushed toward Moses.
However, what happened next became the final straw that broke the camel's back, causing them to stop abruptly and their brains to shut down.
In their vision, which is dominated by the oppressive atmosphere, they only saw Moses swing his empty hands forward, and then something they couldn't quite see flashed by.
In the next moment, Pitou, who had been charging with her terrifying Aura but hadn't yet fully revealed her figure, was sent flying sideways in their barely perceptible senses.
"What... just happened?!"