Itsy Bitsy Spider

7. Of Chained Hearts

Letting loose a roar, Uvo punched the ground, creating a cloud of dust large and thick.

When he moved, Rein saw something caught in his furs. In a short instant, she could see it drop to the ground before the smoke screen obscured her view of Uvo. Could the item have been her rock? Maybe her rock had fallen out of her pocket while Uvo was flipping her in the air, and it had landed on him. There was a slim chance, but it must've been as it was the only explanation as to why she'd been drawn to the middle of nowhere. Ugh, but now she couldn't see what was happening, and she couldn't be sure of that. He would act soon, while the chain user was blinded. She had to be down there by then. Then she could search for her rock and watch the fight at the same time.

Well, mostly the fight.

What? Uvo was fighting. This would be interesting, and an excellent time to learn from one of the best.

Using the dust as a cover, she jumped and landed, trying to do so as softly as she could. She skirted around the cloud, careful not to disturb it lest one of them noticed a shift in dust (and in turn, her). She hid behind another set of boulders and crouched with one knee on the ground, pressing her eye to the crack so she could follow along.

A loud hit and the crunch of bone rang through the air, and Uvo laughed as the dust settled. Above, the chain user was sailing through the air, arm swollen red and limp. "This time I crushed your arm." Uvo grinned. No one could withstand his full strength Big Bang impact. "But I'm impressed! You reacted quickly. I'm guessing you noticed the slight shift in smoke when I moved."

"I'm impressed as well," the chain user called back, still flying through the air. "I didn't expect you to know how to use In." He landed gracefully on the high cliff despite his shattered arm. "Striking the ground to create a smoke screen was intended to conceal both your physical body and presence. However," His hair and clothes waved in the wind as he lifted his arm. "I too, can use In. Can you see them?"

Quickly activating Gyo, Rein could see what the chain user had been hiding. Rows upon rows of chains, wrapped every which way around Uvo's body. They snaked around his legs and pinned his arms to his sides, rendering them near useless. 

"It appears you can use Gyo as well." The chain user jumped to Uvo's level, his chains shortening as he went. "These chains were fortified with a Conjurer's Nen, meaning I can use In to render them invisible."

Uvo narrowed his eyes. "So you kept the chains out to trick us into thinking they were real," he loudly summarized, projecting his voice. Summarizing, why was he doing that?

"Precisely," said the chain user. "I pretended to be a Manipulator using Nen-controlled chains, so my enemies would only be alert to the visible threat." He tilted his head down, eyes taking on a dangerous gleam. "And my bluff just paid off. While you were making empty threats, my chains were already wrapped around your body." Flicking his fingers, the chains tightened and proceeded to press into Uvo's skin so that they almost made red marks on his rock-solid body. "Capture complete."

Rein could see Uvogin trying to burst out of the chains, but no such luck. Why wasn't he using some Nen, or some other ability to break free? And even if he didn't, he should have been able to break his chains as conjuring unbreakable items was impossible. But the chains held an unusual amount of Nen. With that, the chain user's defense should have been nonexistent, yet he had been able to hold off Uvogin's attack and had only emerged with a broken arm. He should have been blown to bits. Besides that, only an Enhancer would have been able to barely have come out of his full strength punch alive, yet the chain user had emerged with minimal damage. 

The chain user was a mass of contradictions against everything she had been taught. If it wasn't supposed to be possible, where was all his power coming from?