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At the top of the Vasily Grand Canyon, a group of six people stood in the shadow of a giant rock, avoiding the scorching sun while also observing the situation at the bottom of the canyon.
Their eyesight seemed to be extremely good. Except for the woman with long, curly pink hair who needed binoculars, the others all observed with their naked eyes.
"Ah oh~~"
Suddenly, the small mouth of the woman with long, curly pink hair puffed up. Her gaze shifted, and she saw Illumi and King Bradley not far away.
"It seems someone got caught up in the battle with the giant sub-jungle brown bear."
"Should we intervene?"
The woman with long, curly pink hair put down her binoculars and looked back at a burly, strong man standing behind them.
"Ginta."
"Roar!"
The giant bear killed the eagle and once again let out a roar towards the sky.
Then, as if remembering something, it suddenly turned its head to look in the direction where Illumi and his companion were.
A large amount of Nen surged from Illumi and King Bradley. A red glint flashed in Illumi's left eye, and they quickly assumed a defensive-counterattacking stance.
"This guy, he's so badly injured and still wants to fight us."
Illumi looked at the giant brown bear, covered in wounds, his face sinking.
The giant brown bear looked at them from afar, swayed its body, then placed its two front paws on the ground and roared as it charged towards them.
"I'll attack its anus and ears."
Illumi looked at the brown bear rapidly charging towards them and said to King Bradley.
"You attack its front, nose, and eyes."
"As for other openings, we'll coordinate depending on the situation."
The two divided the work for the battle: one would engage it from the front, while the other attacked from behind. If the opponent shifted its attention, the one being targeted would act as bait, allowing the other to attack.
Mutually creating openings for each other, seizing opportunities to attack, and at the critical moment, inflicting a heavy blow.
Although simple, it was a rather practical method.
Moreover, the prerequisite for this cooperation was that both parties had good tacit understanding.
"Go!"
Illumi's expression turned serious. King Bradley's expression likewise tensed, a murderous intent glinting in his eyes.
"Swish!"
The sound of something tearing through the air approached.
Just as Illumi and his companion were about to launch their attack, a sudden change occurred.
In Illumi and King Bradley's line of sight, a black dot descended from the sky, falling towards the giant brown bear's head. The charging brown bear, however, was completely unaware of this.
"Bang!"
The black dot landed on the giant brown bear's head. The faint sound of bones cracking, "kaka," could be heard. Before the brown bear could react, its eyes had already rolled back, and its chin slammed towards the ground.
"Boom!!!"
In an instant, with the brown bear's head as the center, a circular crater five meters in diameter caved into the ground, and dust flew everywhere.
A shockwave spread outwards. Illumi raised his arm to protect his face, preventing sand from blowing into his eyes.
"Whoosh~"
A moment later, a strong wind swept past, blowing away the smoke formed by the dust in front, revealing the situation inside the circular crater.
Inside the circular crater, a burly, super-strong man had his knees pressed onto the giant brown bear's glabella. As he stood up, Illumi saw that the brown bear's head had actually caved in significantly.
And at this moment, the brown bear was bleeding from all seven orifices, completely silent.
Looking at the person who had made the move: a black afro, egg-like eyes, sausage lips, staring blankly at the two of them.
Illumi found him familiar and suddenly remembered that among that group of six, wasn't there a big man carrying an oversized mountaineer's backpack?
"Tap..."
That person took a step and walked towards Illumi and his companion, stopping in front of them. This person was precisely the one the woman with long, curly pink hair had called Ginta.
King Bradley stood in front of Illumi, assuming a defensive posture.
This image... was one of the Hunter Zodiacs.
Illumi suddenly remembered: this person was one of the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs from the original story, the Poacher Hunter, "Boar" Ginta.
"Hunter?"
Illumi tentatively spoke. Ginta blinked blankly and said.
"I am a Poacher Hunter."
"Recently, a poaching team has entered Gregorius National Park."
Speaking of this, Ginta carefully looked at Illumi and his companion: a child, and a middle-aged uncle who carried nothing but a sword.
"However, you two don't look like poachers."
Illumi let out a breath and looked up at the top of the canyon.
That height of over a thousand meters, this person had actually jumped down directly from there and killed the giant brown bear in one blow.
"Since you are not poachers, then I'll give you a piece of advice."
"No matter what you plan to do in this forest, don't easily approach the river areas."
"This area is where various large, ferocious beasts gather. It's a forbidden land that even ordinary magical beasts don't dare to approach."
After giving Illumi and his companion this advice, Ginta turned and walked towards the rock wall at the bottom of the valley. Grabbing various protruding rocks on the wall, he climbed up step by step.
Illumi looked at King Bradley, then looked up at the sky; there wasn't a cloud in sight.
"We'll climb up from here too."
The two arrived at the foot of the rock wall. Ginta, who was climbing above, sensed that they were also going to climb the cliff and asked.
"What are you doing here?"
"Training."
Illumi replied simply, grasping a protruding rock with his right hand, then stepping on another rock with his left foot, slowly climbing up.
"Rustle..."
Some loose stones and fine sand on the rock wall slid down due to Illumi's movements.
Illumi looked at the cliff face, over a thousand meters high, and frowned slightly. He was here to train, but his experiences these past two days had been nothing but being chased by ferocious beasts.
Since he was here to train, then every moment should be focused on training. Even walking should be treated as training.
"Then, how about this."
An idea came to Illumi's mind.
Use Gyo to move Nen to the finger area, letting it envelop the fingers. Then use Ten to wrap all the emanating Nen around the fingers to increase the density of the Nen.
In this state, a small amount of Nen still escaped from other parts of Illumi's body. Therefore, he then used Zetsu to eliminate the Nen from other parts. At this point, the area where Gyo was used would receive 100% of the Nen from his body and be greatly strengthened.
This was Ko, an advanced application technique of Nen that combined the five techniques of Ten, Zetsu, Ren, Hatsu, and Gyo.
A large amount of Nen surged from his body, slowly enveloping the five fingers of both hands. His fingers bent into a claw shape, and with a "pssh" sound, dug deeply into the rock wall.
"It works."
Illumi's face lit up. His fingers gouged out small holes in the rock wall as he quickly climbed up.
His Nen-enveloped fingers inserted into the rock wall as easily as if into soil, but this was no easy feat.
Usually, an application technique like Ko was used as a condition for activating special moves during battle, not for prolonged use. And to use Ko for an extended period required long-term training.
Therefore, Illumi would climb a certain distance, then retract his Nen, rest for a while, then use Ko again, digging his five fingers into the rock wall and climbing rapidly.
"Hmm?"
Ginta heard a sound and looked down. He saw that Illumi had actually sped up considerably and was about to catch up to him.
"Enveloping the fingers with Nen and climbing quickly is indeed a good method."
"However, the prerequisite is that the person's finger hardness can reach that of iron."
"This boy, how much suffering did he endure in his childhood to reach this level?"
Although Ginta appeared foolish on the surface, his personality was actually very meticulous.