ANIMOSITY | hxh

twenty

"I am Worm, a Shadow Beast"

A red-skinned, slimy individual has approached Kurapika's group. Soon accompanied by the three other Shadow Beasts,

Rabid Dog. Leech. Porcupine.

"We Shadow Beasts will take care of this," is what they declared before walking into the ditch filled with corpses left by that burly Phantom Troupe member. Kurapika dons his binoculars, determined to watch their every move.

The spider was finishing up the last one, throwing his lifeless body to the ground. He tsked, realizing it wasn't as fun as he'd originally thought. "Uvo!" A voice called from where the Phantom Troupe was watching. The tanned man turned his head. A blonde pointed a little ways area, "They're here." He said, as the Shadow Beasts casually walked their way towards him. 'Uvo' smirked, a wide and malicious grin. "Remember. Don't interfere. The tanned man called to the other Troupe members. "I haven't gotten to enjoy myself yet."

Kurapika observed with his co-workers, Squala sweating bullets at the tension. "H-he's going to fight the Shadow Beasts by himself?" Kurapika watched intently as the spider began to interrogate the Shadow Beasts. "So.. you're the Shadow Beasts, huh? Where did you hide the merchandise?" They merely smirked. "What happened to all of the guards and the guests?" Rapid Dog countered. Uvogin didn't hesitate to respond, "We killed them." He grinned. Before his smile fell. "Now answer my question."

Suddenly, from behind Uvogin, Worm popped out of the ground throwing a punch straight at Uvogin's face. At the impact, his hand crippled and ached, disfigured without even being hit. Uvogin almost instantly straightened up, barely moved. He laughed, "That stung." He threw back his own punch, much stronger. Worm's face now had a crater the shape of Uvogin's fist. He flew back a few meters, but quickly grabbed Uvogin's wrist and retreated back into the dirt. With his shoulder stuck underground, Worm snickered. "Now choose. Have me kill you under here? Or die to the other three up there?"

The other Shadow Beasts approached, cornering Uvogin from all sides. To their surprise, Uvogin grinned again. "Idiot," He chuckled, raising his fist as built up an overwhelming amount of nen. "You're the one who's trapped!" He slammed it down, disintegrating Worm as he leveled the entire area around them. The Shadow Beasts had to quickly jump back, not wanting to get caught in the impact. From up high, the bodyguards quivered at the sight, in shock at the face of the sheer power a singular person seemed to possess. "I-I don't believe it!" One of them exclaimed, swat rolling down his face. "I've never seen nen of this caliber before..." He gulped. Kurapika sweat from under his binoculars, but as soon as the light faded, his breath hitched into his throat. "A... spider tattoo?" Porcupine stuttered, the weight of this situation dawning on everyone around. Kurapika's heart picked, his eyes burning under his contacts. "Spiders." He rasped, Melody looking at him with worry.

Down below, a Spider hummed. A large one with stretched ears. "Poor guy," he sighed, referring to Worm who faced the full impact. "Not much left of him." A woman with pink hair tsked, side eyeing the grinning Uvogin. "He's just throwing a right punch with a little added impact. 'Big Bang Impact' my ass." She quickly flicked down a card, continuing the game of BS. "Eight."

Uvogin stood up slowly, smiling smugly at the Shadow Beasts. "Okay. Who's Dying next?" From atop, Rabid Dog snarled. "The Phantom Troupe, huh?" Leech maintained his smile. "He sounds pretty confident." He huffed, before his glaring straight at him. "You're the one dying, fool!" The three of them dashed straight towards Uvogin, making the burly man laugh with excitement. "Nice.. nice! I love reckless opponents." As soon as Porcupine was within range, he aimed a hearty punch straight for his head, only to pause when he couldn't retract his fist. "Huh?" He blinked, before noticing the hundreds of hairs tugging on his wrists. Porcupine snickered, meeting Uvogin's eye. "I can control every hair on my body. I can even turn them into needles, yup." As soon as he finished, Rapid Dog ripped off the skin off his neck, before immediately retreating. A young girl blinked in surprise. "They actually managed to damage him?" She commented, her eyes drawn away from the card game. A short spider's brows furrowed. "Uvo's iron skin? With nothing but body hair and teeth?" A blonde member hummed, not take his eyes off the game. "Must be skilled nen users. Impressive." Another woman, with black hair looked over her shoulder. "Need a hand, Uvo?" She called, causing him to shout protests in response.

He curses, shaking Porcupine like a ragdoll to get him off. "Yup. It's futile." Porcupine smiled, simply hanging on. "Then I'll just use you as an extension of my fists!" He grunts, trying to use Porcupine to punch Leech, only for those specific hairs to soften at the impact. "It's no use. I can control them. Yup." In the immediate net moment, Rapid Dog tears the skin of Uvogin's thigh, before retreating again. "You're making this way too easy, muscle head." He snickered, causing Uvogin to curse as he throws another punch. All of a sudden, he froze. Rabid Dog whistled. "Did it finally kick in? My fangs secrete a neurotoxin that's supposed to be fast acting. You're tough for sure." Uvogin falls on his bum, causing him to scowl. Rabid Dog continues his monologue. "You'll be unaffected from the neck up, so you can still feel fear and pain." He grins wickedly. All of a sudden, Leech sneaks up behind Uvogin, giggling maniacally as his long disgusting tongue inserts disgusting leeches inside of his body. "They'll insert the body through your wounds and deposit their eggs inside of your bladder." Uvogin grimaces, "You're totally disgusting." But it only make Leech snicker some more. "Most people die from the excruciating pain as millions of leeches hatch inside of ther-" He's interrupted by Uvogin biting off a good chunk of his skull. The leech falls back as blood leeks from the grotesque wound. "Yuck." Uvogin comments casually, as if he weren't literally chewing on someone's brain. "I thought uglier usually meant better tasting."

The other Shadow Beats gasps, fear striking them at the ludicrous action. "Why are you surprised?" Uvogin asks Rabid Dog, "You aren't the only one who can bite y'know." He grins, blood smudged on his teeth. He eyes gleam with a dark light. "All I need to defeat you, is everything from the neck up.

From up above, Kurapika eyes never leave the action. "They're going to lose" He states, a cold hard fact. "The Shadow Beasts are going to lose." And in only moments, that was exactly what happened. Rapid dog, killed via skull bullet spit out from Uvogin's mouth. Leech, murdered via sound. After the Shadow beasts were confirmed to be disposed of. Kurapika handed his binoculars to Melody, taking confident steps toward the chaos. Squala called after him, "Kurapika? What are you doing?" Kurapika answered quickly, not even slowing his pace. "I'm going to capture him." Squala feared for Kurapika, "Are you crazy?! It's impossible! You're going to get yourself killed." And only at that did Kurapika stop. Turning to give the group his burning stare. "It doesn't matter." Leaving them shocked. Melody could feel the pure rages stemming from his every pore. Kurapika continued on his trek without saying anther word. And Dalzollene rushed to stop him, trying to grab his wrist. Only for Kurapika to turn clearly and grab his hand retaliation. They had a long hard stare, before melody played a calming melody, succeeding in getting everyone in their right minds. "Better, right?" She smiled, looking around, noticing she had everyone's attention. "Then let's plan our strategy. With level heads."

The Phantom Troupe peered over at Uvogin from above, putting up the cards. "Shizuku!" Uvo called, still stuck on the floor. "You can get the leaches and poison out, right? Using your vacuum?" Shizuku shook her head. "I can get the poison, not the leeches. Blinky can't suck up anything that's alive." Uvogin exclaimed with a hint of nerves. "What? Then what am I supposed to do." Shalnark sighed, sliding down to Uvogin's level. "Let me see," He requests, picking up a lingering leech. "Hm. These are spotted leeches. It takes one day to migrate to the bladder, before laying it's eggs and dying. The eggs will then hatch and exit through your urinary tract, causing enough pain to kill you." Uvogin grimaced and Aurum giggled from above. "Hey! Don't joke around!" Uvo yelled. Shalnark raised a hand, not finished. "However they require a certain amount of ammonia to hatch. if there isn't enough, the eggs won't hatch and can be excreted harmlessly." Uvogin let out a sound of relief, "You should have told me that first, dammit!"

"Shizuku! Can you come get out the poison?" The woman calls back a response. Shalnark then adds on a request, "Oh! And can someone go into town and buy a ton of beer?" Franklin nodded, "I'll do it." Uvogin grins, "Make them ice-cold!" Causing Franklin to tell him to shut up. Shortly, Shizuku makes her way down to Uvogin, summoning Blinky. What was unexpected was for chains to suddenly appear over Uvogin's body. "Huh?" Was all he could say before getting dragged up the cliff by an unknown assailant. Machi sticks a nen thread to him, "Aurum." She calls, glancing towards the girl.

"Yeah, yeah." Her sigh was merely an echo in the air, as the girl was already gone.