Law wanted to cut off Atomu's entire arm, but he only cut off three fingers. While it was far from ideal, it was still better than nothing.
As Law continued to widen the distance, he used Shin to strip the Aura from Atomu's severed fingers, slicing away at it like peeling an apple.
As long as Atomu maintained his Aura output, Law can continuously consume Atomu's Aura through these three fingers.
Biscuit used Gyo and could see that the three fingers were wrapped in Aura.
Law used the rusty sword to peel off the Aura on the severed fingers, and the next moment, the severed fingers emitted Aura again.
Even with her extensive experience, she couldn't immediately discern the mechanics of the technique.
As the person involved, Atomu quickly realized the problem. He didn't feel any pain or bleeding when his fingers were severed. Moreover, even though his finger was clearly cut off, he could still feel the connection with the severed fingers.
Watching Law repeatedly strip away the Aura from the fingers, he quickly realized that this was Law's intention. As long as he continued supplying Aura to the severed fingers, Law would keep draining his reserves little by little.
In this battle, if Atomu had started with a total of 100 units of Aura, he was now down to 60 units, and each time Law shaved off the Aura from the severed fingers, it cost him 0.1 units.
At a rate of once per second, Law could drain 6 units of Aura per minute, meaning that in 10 minutes, Atomu would be completely drained.
The premise is that Atomu failed to take action, and Law can last for 10 minutes. The only drawback was that three fingers were far less effective than an entire arm.
To buy himself more time, Law kept his distance from Atomu as much as possible.
"Good… very good."
Atomu stood up and laughed in anger. Being pushed to this point by Law was nothing short of humiliating.
Before he could finish speaking, Law noticed that the severed fingers had stopped emitting Aura. It was obvious that Atomu had realized the issue and closed the Aura Nodes on the severed fingers.
"It's just three fingers. You can keep them."
Atomu's eyes burned with fury as his Aura surged outward, making the entire hall feel heavier. With a single step, he once again launched an attack at Law.
At the same time, Law tossed the severed fingers into the air, and with a swift motion, conjured a book in his left hand. He slapped the pages against the floating fingers, erasing them from existence as if wiping away pencil marks with an eraser.
After doing this, the book disappeared, and blood suddenly spurted out from the stumps of Atomu's severed fingers, and a sharp pain shot through him.
He didn't even look at the stumps, and just stared at Law. It is unknown what method Atomu used, but he managed to stop the bleeding almost immediately.
'Not enough.'
Seeing Atomu's Aura grow even more intense, Law gritted his teeth and once again resorted to his previous tactic, discreetly creating more hidden void traps beneath the stone slabs as he moved, carefully memorizing their locations.
Having fallen for the trick twice, Atomu's anger boiled over, but he maintained his composure.
The space inside the hall was large enough, and the floor was paved with stone slabs. Throughout the fight, nearly two-fifths of the ground had already been destroyed.
To prevent himself from stepping into any more hidden pits and sabotaging his own attacks, Atomu began smashing the stone slabs along his path, kicking them away with brute force.
Without the slabs covering the voids, the traps were rendered useless.
After kicking many stone slabs away along the way, Atomu punched wildly, shattering the stone slabs and hurling the debris at Law.
He deliberately refrained from coating the debris with Aura, not because he couldn't, but because he didn't need to. After all, if brute strength was enough, why would he waste his Aura?
Seeing Atomu's response, Law's brows furrowed deeply. As the rain of shattered stone filled the air, he had no choice but to expand his Domain, halting the incoming debris in midair, though it also obscured his own vision.
After stopping the rubble, Law fired pieces of rubble at Atomu in batches like releasing a machine gun.
However, Atomu, like an armored tank, bulldozed through the projectiles with his body and charged straight ahead.
If it were an opponent of the same level, they would have been overwhelmed long ago, but Atomu's offensive and defensive capabilities were a tier above Law's.
Like a raging bull, Atomu crushed through Law's carefully placed pitfall traps, leaving them useless in his wake. Then, just before reaching Law, he snapped off a stone pillar and wielded it as a weapon.
Channeling his aura through both hands, he used Shu, enveloping the pillar with Aura to reinforce its strength and destructive power.
The pillar, which is over five meters long, was swung with ease, as if it were a mere wooden staff, highlighting Atomu's monstrous strength.
With the stone pillar in his grasp, Atomu swept it horizontally toward Law.
Law quickly retreated, dodging the pillar's tail end. However, without losing momentum, the pillar spun back swiftly.
Law stepped back again and swung his sword at the tip, slicing off about 0.3 meters of its length.
Atomu swung the pillar fiercely, forcing Law to evade continuously. At this time, the two of them were stuck in a stalemate.
As an observer, Biscuit immediately saw through Atomu's strategy.
'So he noticed too...' Biscuit thought to herself.
At first glance, using such a heavy pillar as a weapon, especially coated with Aura, should have consumed more of Atomu's Aura compared to Law. However, in reality, Law was burning through his Aura at a faster rate.
It's because Atomu had forced Law into his attacking rhythm, making Law rely on Ren to enhance his movements to evade. This was the downside of over-reliance on Aura.
The offensive created by Atomu made it so that Law had to continuously expend his Aura to dodge, an intentional trap set to drain him dry.
After dodging for a while, Law became fully aware of the predicament. Atomu was gradually pushing him into a corner, like a predator toying with its prey.
This is... a cat-and-mouse game to drain his Aura, and also a deliberate payback for what Law had done earlier.
Reflecting on all his battles so far, Law realized he had never faced such an oppressive, gradual entrapment. Even in his fight against Cook, he hadn't experienced such pressure.
'If I can dodge attacks without relying on Aura, I won't have to keep wasting it...'
After being dragged in the deadlock of defense, Law knew that the Aura in his body was being consumed rapidly. In addition, half of his Aura had been eaten by Black Cat before. He knew that if he continued like this, he would run out of energy Aura doing anything.
This realization hit Law hard.
Although he has only been exposed to Nen for less than a year, his Aura has skyrocketed, and his control over Aura has gradually improved.
In addition, he has never encountered an opponent who is a tier stronger than him, so he has always believed that Aura is the ultimate foundation of strength.
But now, through Atomu's carefully crafted assault, reality struck him like a wake-up call.
It turns out that Aura was merely a source, a foundation, but not the root. True strength required both Aura and the body working in harmony.
"I'll show you what true despair feels like." Atomu roared.
Just as he was about to strike again, a powerful female voice interrupted him.
"That won't be necessary."
Suddenly, a woman with a figure comparable to Atomu's came in front of Law and intercepted the swinging stone pillar with a single punch.
Under the astonished gaze of Atomu and Law, her glowing fist collided with the pillar, unleashing a devastating force that shattered it instantly. The remaining impack affected Atomu, knocking him away.
This punch is an advanced Nen Technique that combines the five Nen Techniques of Ten, Zetsu, Ren, Hatsu and Gyo, Ko.
Not only did it easily shatter the stone pillars that were wrapped in Aura, the remaining force also injured Atomu.
"Muscle girl..."
Looking at the burly figure standing in front of him, Law muttered absentmindedly.
The next second, Biscuit turned around and punched him away.
This punch didn't have any Aura, and it was just an ordinary punch. If she had used Aura, Law's head would have been obliterated on the spot.