A Chimera Ant Peon had sneaked up from underground, but how could it escape Moses's danger perception?
With a flick of his wrist, the blade plunged into the ground.
In an instant, it pierced through the life of the Chimera Ant Peon.
The entire process, from start to finish, was seamless.
But Moses's demeanor was too calm and casual, which gave a significant visual impact to the group of Chimera Ants in the forest.
Most importantly, these Chimera Ants couldn't understand how Moses had detected the ambush.
Facing the surprised gazes of the Chimera Ants, Moses's right hand hovered above the hilt of the black sword.
Sss-
With a soft sound, the black sword that had been buried in the ground suddenly shot upward, dragging a trail of blood with it, before flying back into Moses's hand.
This technique looked like telekinesis, but in fact, it is the shadow that had flicked the black sword out of the ground.
However, the Chimera Ants targeting Moses and the others didn't understand what had happened. With their attention fully on Moses, they couldn't help but be startled once more.
Moses gripped the black sword and watched the emotional fluctuations of the Chimera Ants.
"Even a group of small fry can display such obvious human-like behavior... I wonder how many humans the Queen has already eaten..."
Muttering to himself, Moses stepped forward with the black sword in his hand, ready to get rid of this group of Chimera Ants.
But just as he took a step, a figure moved faster than him. He walked past him and went ahead.
It was Netero.
"Hohoho, let this old man handle it."
Netero walked to the front and casually glanced at the group of Chimera Ants in front of him.
He raised his finger and hooked his forehead, and said with emotion: "Once you get old, no matter what you do, you have to find your rhythm first."
"…"
Moses abruptly stopped in his tracks and was speechless.
He could tell that Netero wanted to use this group of Chimera Ants to warm up, so he didn't say anything and simply dismissed the black sword.
They are just a bunch of Chimera Ants cannon fodder, so it doesn't matter who comes to deal with them.
If they could help Netero loosen up his muscles, that was a good thing.
Knov adjusted his glasses and naturally had no objection to this.
Meanwhile, Morel, carrying his large pipe on his shoulder, asked, "Should we 'seal' this area?"
He asked this considering the possibility of any stragglers escaping.
Netero stroked his beard and said leisurely, "This old man may be useless, but aren't there young folks like you around? If a little ant can escape under your watch, that would be a big problem."
"…"
When Morel heard this, he didn't know what to say for a moment.
He dared to swear to heaven that his proposal was absolutely not aimed at Netero, but was only considered from the perspective of 'safety'.
Seeing Morel fall silent, Netero didn't say anything either. He just casually stretched a couple of times on the spot.
Then-
Netero suddenly moved.
His figure vanished into thin air, leaving only a burst of white Aura where he had stood.
However, this Aura explosion, which represented explosive power, didn't cause any damage to the ground.
Moses did not pay attention to Netero who was rushing out, but instead looked at the white Aura that was vibrating and dissipating, and his eyes couldn't help but narrowed slightly.
'While 'stepping on the ground', he also used a small portion of his Aura to strengthen the ground... Does this increase his 'starting' speed?'
As the white Aura dissipated, Moses stared at the intact ground and thought in his heart.
If he hadn't seen Netero use this technique, Moses would never have thought of such a maneuver.
Boom, boom, boom…
Just as Moses was pondering the effectiveness of this technique, dull thuds of fists meeting flesh and shouts filled with intense emotions suddenly came from the forest ahead.
Netero's strength was, without a doubt, a dimensional-level threat to this group of Chimera Ants.
Thus, the moment they appeared, their fate was sealed.
Moses stopped his thoughts and looked toward the battlefield ahead. He saw Netero casually strolling through the ranks of the Chimera Ants. Every time he threw a punch, a Chimera Ant would bleed from all seven orifices and die.
Because-
Netero's fists were solely targeting the heads of the Chimera Ants.
From an observer's perspective, as an Enhancer and once the world's strongest Nen User, Netero should have been able to shatter the Chimera Ants' heads like watermelons with a single punch.
However, the corpses of the Chimera Ants on the battlefield all had intact heads.
When he saw this scene, Moses couldn't help but marvel inwardly.
He could see that when Netero threw his punch, he deliberately controlled the 'power' to just the right level to kill his targets.
Thus, after suffering a heavy blow to the head, these Chimera Ants collapsed and died with blood coming out of all seven orifices.
The benefit of this approach was that it maximized the damage output while minimizing Aura consumption.
In simple terms, it was about achieving the highest damage result with the least amount of Aura.
It could only be said that this level of precision and control was truly transcendent.
'If the old man didn't say he was an Enhancer, who would have been able to tell?'
The image of 100-Type Guanyin flashed through Moses's mind, and his eyes became slightly complicated.
'The old man from back then...'
'He must have been able to dominate the world with just his fists and feet.'
'Perhaps, this was what the pinnacle of Enhancer should look like.'
'No matter the opponent, victory could be secured with just a pair of fists.'
As Moses marveled, he suddenly became curious about Netero's strength during his prime.
But what followed…
Was an indescribable sense of regret.
Moses thought of Netero in the original work who had devoted his entire life to skills and training, but was defeated by the innate racial advantage of the Chimera Ant King, Meruem.
The pinnacle of human martial arts, achieved through a lifetime of effort, had been effortlessly nullified by the 'gap between races'.
'What must the old man have felt in that moment, with his energy spent and his life flickering out?'
And then-
Moses couldn't help but think of the Nitro Rice from the Dark Continent.
This was the source of his deep regret at this moment.
If he hadn't been so cautious back then, perhaps he could have brought back a stalk of Nitro Rice for Netero.
And this would make it possible for Netero to prove the significance of his 'heart of seeking martial arts' in that battle.
As the last Chimera Ant fell…
The one-sided massacre came to an end.
Netero stood amidst the sea of Chimera Ants' corpses, and his only thought was how weak these ants were.
Not to mention using them as a warm up, he didn't even feel anything at all.
Others who thought that the Chimera Ant's Peons were weak included Morel and Knov, who had observed the battle.
"It seems that 'monster' is a special case, and the other Chimera Ants are nothing to be feared."
Knov glanced at the pile of Chimera Ant's corpses that couldn't withstand a single blow and gave a fair assessment.
But he soon retracted this statement.
The four of them arrived at the top of a rocky hill and looked towards a massive ant nest standing in the middle of the forest in the distance.
From their position, they could see with their naked eyes that an extremely terrifying Aura was spreading around the ant nest.
But this Aura-
Wasn't Pitou's!