Outside the battlefield.
Morel and Knov watched in silence as Moses and Pitou were still fighting fiercely.
The rapid, dazzling collisions of Aura left them both feeling heavy-hearted and they couldn't stop the cold sweat from coming out.
They would rather deal with a Chimera Ant with overwhelming destructive power than face someone like Pitou.
Thankfully, Moses was able to suppress a monster like Pitou.
Vaguely, they seemed to see a shadow of Netero in Moses.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, the look in Mo Morel and Knov's eyes changed, and they immediately noticed that there was a slight disruption in Moses's rhythm.
"This is bad!"
Realizing that Moses might not be able to maintain such a high-intensity battle for long, inevitably leading to a decline, Morel's heart sank.
"I was too optimistic..."
Seeing that there were problems with Moses's rhythm, Morel finally decided to join the battle and take action.
While he was concerned that his involvement might disrupt Moses's rock-solid state, he couldn't just stand by and watch Moses be pushed to the brink step by step.
Just as he was about to act, the situation in the battle circle suddenly took a turn for the worse.
Moses's extremely fierce momentum collapsed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and many vital parts of his body were exposed to Pitou's attack.
'Was it a mistake or exhaustion?'
Pitou's red vertical pupils contracted.
In the rapid, continuous attacks, her body moved faster than her thoughts in confirming the information.
Subconsciously, she didn't want to miss this opportunity.
So her body responded in an instant.
Pitou leaned forward, put her hands together and pointed them forward like a sword, aiming for the opening on Moses's left side that had appeared due to either a mistake or exhaustion.
The bright Nen that emerged from Pitou's body cut through Moses's left arm like a beam of light.
Sss...
Blood sprayed.
Moses's left forearm flew into the air.
Although Pitou succeeded in her attack, she still wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to expand her victory.
This is because she doesn't have to worry about counterattacks from Moses, so she has fewer concerns.
But soon, Pitou paid the price for this choice.
She focused on the attack and was not aware of her own recklessness, nor did she pay close attention to Moses's Aura state during the lightning-fast exchanges.
The fundamental reason for this situation is actually related to her ideological constraint from her mission, 'returning to the nest as soon as possible to protect the Queen.'
Regardless, Moses had finally obtained the opportunity he wanted.
He calmly accepted the consequence of having half of his left arm cut off by Pitou, and also calmly slashed with his sword when Pitou passed by his left side.
In that split-second exchange, a blade of light cut across Pitou's outstretched ankle.
Sss-
A spray of blood shot out from Pitou's ankle.
When pouncing or moving, she would consciously accumulate life force in her legs to increase her explosive power.
When attacking, she would focus her life force on her hands.
Thus, she sometimes weakened the life force distributed to her lower body.
Moses had noticed this and made the current move.
At the cost of half an arm, he had successfully inflicted damage on Pitou.
Before this result came out, the two had clashed hundreds of times, though the actual exchange lasted only two to three minutes.
Pitou's heart skipped a beat when she saw a cut on her ankle.
Her initial intention to capitalize on the opportunity and expand her advantage was thwarted as Moses immediately retreated.
That's right.
After a successful strike, Moses was able to distance himself from the opponent.
He needed some space to confirm whether Kyoka Suigetsu would work on Pitou.
…
Outside the battlefield.
When Morel and Knov saw that Moses had lost half of his arm, their expressions suddenly changed.
Then, they noticed that there was no fluctuation in Moses's expression.
It was as if the person who had lost half an arm wasn't him.
'Was it intentional...?'
Morel's mind flashed back to Moses's decisive counterattack, and he couldn't help but think of a possibility.
'From the very beginning, Moses had been aiming for an 'trade injuries'!'
Although Knov was not as courageous as Morel, his combat experience was not much worse, so he quickly arrived at the same conclusion.
No.
Based on the information they had, there is no doubt that Moses was aiming to trade injuries.
'Is he crazy?!'
Knov stared at Moses in disbelief, with a huge wave of emotion in his heart.
…
On the battlefield.
Pitou landed steadily, her upper body slightly leaning forward, her eyes fixed on Moses's calm expression with a hint of surprise.
'Was it... intentional, meow?'
She couldn't understand Moses's motivation for doing this, and the injury to her ankle wasn't severe. Although it would slightly affect her speed, it is still within an acceptable range.
The question is-
'Why go to such lengths?'
'Is it poisoned?'
Pitou's eyes narrowed slightly.
After the brief clash, both sides paused momentarily.
It was also at this time that both sides noticed the presence of Morel and Knov.
Moses looked at Pitou calmly, and from the corner of his eye, he saw a trace of black tendril extending.
'Good.'
Moses thought to himself without showing any emotion.
'Half an arm was nothing… it can be restored with [Black Clay] afterwards.'
'The most important thing right now is... huh?'
Moses's thoughts suddenly stopped, as he saw Pitou abruptly turn around and run away.
"???"
Pitou's sudden escape caught Moses off guard.
Just as Pitou had covered a significant distance, a sudden golden light burst into the vision of everyone present.
Feeling the golden light upon her, Pitou hadn't even reacted before a golden pillar slammed her into the ground.
Boom!
Pitou was smashed into the ground, and the powerful impact caused countless pieces of rubble to fly everywhere.
The source of the golden light was none other than Netero's 100-Type Guanyin.
Seeing Netero return and attack Pitou, Moses, Knov, and Morel were all stunned.
As 100-Type Guanyin retracted its hand, Pitou, who had been slammed into the ground, stood up unharmed and dashed toward the nest.
She had already decided to rush back to the nest, and after Netero appeared, she no longer hesitated.
"Hoho…"
Netero was quite surprised to see Pitou running away so quickly.
The palm strike he just made could be considered a sneak attack.
But after taking the hit, Pitou was completely unharmed, and her escape speed wasn't affected in the slightest.