Adarte took a single step back.
To anyone else, it would have looked like nothing.
But Conrad, already under the effect of the Black Ring—State of Calm, noticed the change immediately.
Adarte's posture shifted, his shoulders lowering, his breathing slowing down.
"So," Conrad thought calmly, "he's about to use his Hatsu."
Adarte inhaled deeply, filling his lungs, and then moved.
He launched himself forward with sudden speed, boots scraping hard against the arena floor.
The metal bat cut through the air toward Conrad in a heavy arc.
Conrad stepped back once, then slipped to the left, then to the right, avoiding the strike by narrow margins.
The bat hit nothing but air, yet the force behind it was unmistakable.
Adarte didn't slow down.
His grip on the bat tightened, veins standing out on his forearm.
He swung again, harder this time, and then raised the bat high above his head.
Aura surged down his arms, not evenly, but violently, as if he wasn't trying to control the flow.
Then he slammed the bat straight into the arena floor.
The impact shook the stadium.
A deep boom echoed outward as cracks spread across the stone.
Dust and fragments burst upward, and a shockwave rolled across the arena.
Conrad jumped back instinctively, reinforcing his legs with Nen as he landed several meters away.
"That was interesting."
"He purposefully did not use 'Nen' to protect his right hand..."
He steadied himself and immediately focused his vision with Gyo.
Adarte stood at the center of the impact point, breathing heavily.
His leather jacket was ruined.
Shredded pieces hung loosely from his shoulders.
Whatever defensive function it once served was gone.
Conrad nodded faintly.
"So the jacket was enhanced for defense," he whispered. "And that attack exceeded its limit."
Conrad shook his head.
"No..."
"That would be foolish to think."
"Now that I see his body and aura easily, I can see that his defensive capability and aura around him visibly weakened."
"So, the leather jacket he was wearing was already enhanced with the nen to give him defensive capabilities."
"I can safely say, his act of destroying his jacket is some sort of a condition; if not a condition, it is still a risk to take. As he takes risks, his aura gets stronger, and his emotions surge."
Conrad corrected himself quickly.
But something else also caught Conrad's attention.
Adarte's left hand.
The leather glove covering it was completely intact.
Not a single tear.
More than that, it was glowing faintly with a dense, compressed aura.
The glow wasn't flashy, but it was heavy.
"That's strange," Conrad thought. "Everything else took damage… but not that."
Adarte flexed his fingers once, slowly.
The glove creaked softly.
His right hand, still gripping the bat, was different.
Conrad could see it clearly now: reddened skin, slight tremors, and small cuts forming around the knuckles.
Adarte smiled.
"You're good at dodging," Adarte said.
Conrad didn't respond.
His focus was entirely on Adarte's aura.
Then Adarte shifted his stance.
Instead of charging again, he deliberately swung the bat into the floor once more.
And again.
Boom.
Boom.
Each strike sent vibrations through the arena.
Each time, Adarte didn't try to soften the recoil.
His right hand absorbed everything.
The bat shuddered violently, and Adarte's grip tightened through the pain.
Conrad's eyes narrowed.
"With every strike," he realized, "he's letting the recoil damage him on purpose."
The answer clicked into place.
Adarte's aura began to move not outward, but inward.
The pain, the vibration, and the shock from his right hand traveled through his arms, his shoulders, and his body.
Conrad could see the flow clearly under Gyo.
All of it was being routed to one place.
The left glove.
The glow intensified.
The aura around the glove thickened, vibrating subtly.
The glove wasn't just protected; it was acting as a container.
"That's his Hatsu," Conrad thought. "He's storing the pain and the vibration also... if I were to guess."
Adarte exhaled slowly and lowered the bat. His right hand was bleeding now. The fingers trembled, the skin split, but he didn't care.
"My Lovely Pain," Adarte said quietly, almost fondly.
"The more it hurts… the better it gets."
Due to his time in a motorcycle club and all the riding with his motorcycle, the hands of Adarte were accustomed to vibration and long voyages.
Whenever he used his Nen ability, he thought about the times that he rode with his people.
Those were the best memories he had back in his mind.
He stepped forward, this time not swinging the bat.
Instead, he pulled his left arm back.
Conrad felt it immediately.
"That glove and his left hand are dangerous."
Adarte lunged.
This time, Conrad didn't retreat immediately.
He sidestepped, watching closely as Adarte abandoned wide swings entirely.
The bat was no longer the main weapon.
Adarte threw a left-handed punch.
The moment his fist moved, the glove released everything it had stored.
The air shattered.
The punch didn't just carry force; it carried vibration, pain, and compressed kinetic energy all at once.
The shockwave exploded outward, tearing chunks from the arena floor where the strike passed.
Conrad barely avoided it, reinforcing his body and leaping backward as the ground behind him cracked apart.
He landed, heart steady, mind calm.
"So that's it," Conrad concluded. "He sacrifices his own body to build power. Every pain he felt collected in the left glove; every vibrational energy turned into the power for him..."
Adarte straightened, flexing his left hand again.
The glow dimmed slightly, spent but not gone.
He could repeat it. As long as he kept hurting himself.
"Every strike with the bat damages his right hand," Conrad analyzed.
"That pain feeds the glove. But the more he uses it, the more fragile he becomes."
Adarte smirked, noticing Conrad's calm expression.
"Figured it out yet?" he asked.
"Yes," Conrad replied simply.
He adjusted his stance, eyes locked onto Adarte's left wrist.
"That glove is everything," Conrad thought.
Adarte raised his bat again, ignoring the blood dripping onto the floor.
"Let's see if you can survive one more," he said.
Conrad didn't answer.
Adarte smiled and closed his eyes for a second and whispered his ability.
"Sting - My Lovely Pain..."