It was a Nen beast.
At the same moment, the sounds of fighting erupted from behind. Ronin caught the movement in his peripheral vision—deformed figures were already pouring through the entrance.
The second he saw them, Ronin knew his first guess had been right.
Ryan was a Manipulator.
Every single one of those ability users was under his complete control, and the method was that grotesque blood-vessel or blood-tumor technique—something tied directly to blood.
As for the Nen beast right in front of him…
Ronin stared at the churning crimson slime and felt his stomach turn. The thick metallic stench told him exactly what it was made of: blood. Inside the swirling mass, he could clearly see corpses—some still half-digested, limbs and faces pressing against the translucent membrane.
Ryan was hiding behind the giant slime.
His face was dark as hell. If that slime hadn't blocked Ronin's killing blow, he'd already be paste.
Because the instant Ronin's fist had come flying at him, Ryan had caught a fleeting glimpse of a white-haired old crone with a sinister face pointing straight at him.
His long-dead great-grandmother.
Ryan watched Ronin warily, his biggest worry being that fire ability. The intel they'd received had said nothing about flames—only that the guy's body was monstrously strong, strong enough to bend a tank barrel with one punch.
Anyone who could push physical enhancement to that level usually didn't waste time training other categories. This outsider was a true genius.
If he could turn him into a blood-tumor puppet… what a perfect prize that would be.
Ronin had no idea what Ryan was fantasizing about, but he knew exactly what Kurapika was thinking.
Kurapika wanted to leave a force behind in Meteor City.
It didn't have to rule the place—just plant a thorn deep enough to make the Phantom Troupe uncomfortable and feed them steady intel.
Spence was useless for that now. Ronin had already carved straight through his entire estate.
Theodore was out too. Too extreme, dressed like a beggar, zero money or connections. His identity wouldn't get them much.
But Ryan?
Tailored clothes, the whole "charitable yet flashy" public image, a proper butler, and a villa that was still intact.
Kill Ryan, take his place, buy off the butler, and the garbage-mountain operation could keep running like clockwork.
Ronin and the others had no interest in playing king, but they wouldn't mind raising a few useful people here. They might not help much right now, but they'd become a real thorn in the Troupe's side.
If the operation actually grew… Ronin's mind wandered for a second. Maybe one day they could even build an Infinite City right here in Meteor City.
That was way off in the future, though. Even if it happened, it would be years—decades—away.
Who knew if there'd be a Lightning Emperor or a Sharingan guy running around by then.
His eyes slid into Mangekyō Sharingan while he thought.
To him, that disgusting slime had one perfect counter.
"Amaterasu!"
The words he'd been dying to say for ages left his mouth, and jet-black flames erupted across the massive slime.
The crimson mass thrashed violently. The room filled with the sickening sight of melting flesh and popping corpses.
But the entrance had already been breached.
Or rather, Kurapika and the girls were being pinned down by even more of the tumor-headed freaks. That gave the rest of Ryan's puppets the opening they needed to flood into the hall and reinforce their master.
"Maybe we can talk," Ryan said, his face twisted with panic.
The writhing slime couldn't smother the black flames no matter how much flesh it threw at them. As the beast visibly shrank, genuine fear finally crept into Ryan's eyes.
It wasn't that he was weak.
It was that this bastard's abilities were the perfect hard counter.
"Talk about what?" Ronin asked, already forming the cross seal.
Another version of himself popped into existence beside him—Shadow Clone.
The original took one oppressive step toward Ryan while the clone spun to face the charging puppets.
Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Technique!
Dozens of flaming phoenix-shaped projectiles shot from the clone's mouth, slamming into the oncoming horde.
The puppets' weak point was obvious—the bulging blood-tumor heads sprouting from their bodies. But Phoenix Flower wasn't built for surgical precision.
Besides, Ronin had zero interest in recruiting these things. If he wanted perfect, tireless workers, he could just use Impure World Reincarnation. Twenty-four-seven labor, no pay, no food, no breaks. The only cost was sacrificing one living person per summon.
The flames blanketed the puppets in a saturation barrage.
But some of them weren't pushovers. After the blood tumors unlocked their full potential, a few exploded with raw power. They dodged at insane speeds or tanked the fire head-on and still closed the distance to the clone.
What waited for them were the clone's hands—chakra scalpels already glowing.
Ryan was still waiting for his chance.
Ronin wasn't in a hurry.
The blood-flesh slime was the first to go. Only after Amaterasu had burned it down to absolute nothing did the black flames finally flicker out.
Not a single puppet had gotten past the clone.
The gap in strength was painfully obvious.
A massive needle suddenly materialized in Ryan's grip—his last desperate trump card.
Ronin looked at the conjured syringe and immediately understood the full structure of Ryan's ability.
Primarily Manipulation, with solid support in Conjuration and Emission.
Pretty standard, textbook training path. Offense came from the blood-controlled puppets, defense from that slime that had just tanked his full-power punch.
The only real flaw was that the puppets could only fight like basic Enhancers once controlled—no special techniques left. Most of them couldn't even use ten percent of their original strength.
That was exactly why none of them could break through the clone's pure taijutsu-and-scalpel defense.
Close combat?
Ronin was the fucking expert.
Still, he had to admit—Ryan's ability wasn't weak. With years of accumulation and that slime wall, the fight would've been a real pain for anyone else.
Too bad Ryan had run into him.
A guy with Mangekyō Sharingan and a full arsenal of ninjutsu.