Everyone took Odo's warning to heart. At the same time, because Odo had spoken so openly about his own experience, the group gained quite a bit of goodwill toward him.
Shizuku, Neon, and Veronica stayed behind to guard the ship. Everyone else followed Ronin as he activated the Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique and flew high into the sky.
Among them, Ging served as backup.
If Ronin's Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique lost effect, or if Ronin failed to take care of someone, Ging's abilities would still allow him to rescue people in midair.
After all, with Ging's skill, simply using Emitter Nen was enough for him to gain brief flight capabilities in the air.
When they passed through the cloud layer, the floating island's position had barely changed from the first time Ronin and Ging had come.
This also made it clear why the rain in the sky had continued for so long. As long as the floating island did not move away, the rain would keep falling. Even if the island did move, the rain would merely shift to another location and continue.
If not for the ruined-looking relics on the floating island, Ronin and the others would only need to move in the opposite direction of the island's flight path, and they would soon leave the rain zone.
Now, as everyone appeared high in the sky again, changes quickly appeared on the floating island.
Unlike the first time, no ordinary giant eagles launched probing attacks. The Gold and Silver Ingot eagles that had returned to the ruined buildings earlier walked out again and immediately charged toward Ronin and the others.
It felt as if Ronin and Ging had already been remembered by the Gold and Silver Ingots.
Abaki's gaze immediately landed on the Gold and Silver Ingot's round, oversized head. She tightened her grip on her fishing rod, drew her arm back, and made a casting motion. The next second, the hook flew out and vanished instantly in midair.
However, at that exact moment, Ronin noticed that the Gold and Silver Ingot eagle in the distance, whose head was a pure golden sphere, suddenly let out a long cry.
It was strange.
That thing clearly had no mouth, yet it still produced a cry.
And that single cry made everyone in the air feel their blood boil.
Even the Nen wrapped around their bodies trembled violently.
However, this effect did not have much impact on Ronin. The moment he discovered that the cry could affect Nen, he immediately transformed all the Nen on his body into chakra.
Chakra, an energy that circulated completely within the body, was entirely unaffected by the opponent's sonic attack.
At the same time, Ronin formed hand seals, and Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique erupted high in the sky, rushing straight toward the gold ingot eagle.
During this process, however, Ronin noticed a crack suddenly appear on the gold ingot's head. Nen surged out from the crack and flew straight above everyone's heads.
Ronin inwardly cursed.
But that stream of Nen moved extremely fast. In an instant, it had already reached the sky above them and exploded.
There was no powerful attack.
Only endless spores suddenly appearing high in the air.
Ronin felt his body being pulled, and he rapidly fell toward the sea of clouds below.
It was Ging.
This action was also the retreat signal they had agreed on earlier.
Ronin's hands quickly formed seals in front of him. As for the Great Fireball that had attacked the gold ingot earlier, Ronin noticed it from the corner of his eye.
The gold ingot did not absorb the attack like before. Instead, it directly bathed in the flames.
Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!
Violent flames instantly erupted from Ronin's mouth, rushing toward the countless spores falling from above.
But during this process, Ronin had already noticed a silver ingot eagle flying above them.
The flames of Great Fire Annihilation struck the opponent directly. The silver ingot on the eagle's head began turning gold. At the same time, flames suddenly appeared in front of the silver ingot eagle and collided directly with Ronin's Great Fire Annihilation.
In an instant, the high sky turned into a vast sea of fire. Ronin's figure, however, had already been pulled by Ging into the dark clouds.
Those dark clouds were completely different from normal clouds. They felt as if they had a boundary; the instant one fell into them, one could sense it.
Most importantly, the moment they entered the sea of clouds, the Gold and Silver Ingot eagles that had been about to unleash attacks and chase Ronin all stopped moving.
Ronin and the others stopped as well.
But what surprised Ronin was that under the attack of his Great Fire Annihilation, the endless spores the gold ingot had released into the sky had actually passed through the flames and were falling toward the sea of clouds.
"Keep retreating!"
This time, Ronin led the retreat himself.
The instant they pulled away, tiny spores smashed into the cloud layer and continued falling toward where the group was.
Ronin's heart tightened.
He had not expected these tiny spores, which could only be observed with the Sharingan or eyes enhanced by Gyo, to possess such tenacious vitality.
Ronin instantly activated Amenotokotachi.
The falling spores finally froze above them. Ronin then used another ninjutsu.
This time, it was not Fire Release, but Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique.
A water dragon burst from Ronin's mouth and swept up the spores that continued falling after Ronin released Amenotokotachi.
It was not to destroy the spores, but to carry them somewhere else.
Clearly, Ronin's thinking was correct this time.
The spores above were washed away by the current, and Ronin's group stopped moving again. But as everyone looked toward the Gold and Silver Ingots returning outside the cloud layer, their expressions became extremely grave.
All the methods they had thought of earlier had not been useful at all.
From beginning to end, the only one who had attacked was Ronin. It was not that the others did not want to help, but that they truly could not.
"How was it?" With no new danger in the sky, Ronin released a shadow clone to send a message to Kurapika and the others below, warning them not to get hit by the spores released by the gold ingot. At the same time, he looked toward Abaki.
"I hit one silver ingot. Not the head, but the body. My Nen wasn't erased or absorbed," Abaki said, somewhat surprised.
When her target had been the silver ingot, she had already prepared for failure.
That cast had even been made with testing in mind. She had not expected it to go so smoothly.
"So it can't absorb attacks that hit the body?" Ronin was a little surprised, but after thinking carefully, it made sense.
After all, the term Gold and Silver Ingot did not refer to the temporarily occupied body.
"Can you reel the target over?" Ronin continued asking.
Using kiting tactics was impossible now, because the Gold and Silver Ingots on the island had swarmed out the moment they confirmed Ronin's group had entered their territory.
Under these circumstances, kiting them was impossible.
"I can try," Abaki said. She did not have the habit of making guarantees.
"Good." Ronin nodded heavily and began making arrangements. If Abaki could really fish out a Gold and Silver Ingot alone, he would definitely make sure to keep it there completely.
But just as he said that, he sensed something was wrong. Looking down, he saw that the spores below, which should have been falling, were shockingly beginning to fly upward toward their position.
At the same time, Ronin's ears moved slightly, and he heard a faint sound coming from the direction of the floating island.