Conrad was fully aware that if he decided to end the fight seriously, it would take no more than ten, perhaps twenty, seconds.
It was simply an assessment.
His body was faster.
His aura control was cleaner.
His reactions were sharper.
With Trinity Archive prepared and State of Calm active, he already held several winning lines.
But he did not take them.
"As long as my life isn't in immediate danger," he thought, "a few injuries are acceptable."
This was not a duel he valued for victory alone. He wanted to keep fighting until he got used to keeping strategizing against the Nen users.
Against Nen users, understanding tendencies and solving the mentality of the enemy mattered more than brute results.
Power could always be applied later.
So Conrad kept moving defensively, dodging without countering decisively.
Across from him, Anisa moved as well, stepping sideways, adjusting her distance, her eyes never leaving him.
Inside her mind, her thoughts were far less calm.
"He's fast," she realized. "Faster than me."
She felt it clearly now.
Every time she closed the distance, he was already gone.
"He's physically stronger too," she added grimly. "And he's not stupid."
That part unsettled her the most.
Most fighters on this floor either rushed recklessly or overcommitted to flashy techniques.
Conrad did neither.
"He's hiding something," she thought. "I can feel it."
Her grip tightened slightly around the dagger.
"From the start of the battle, he never used anything that I could call an ability."
"Does that mean he does not have a "hatsu"?" She asked and then shook her head.
"No, he is too experienced in nen control and mastery to not have hatsu."
"Maybe he is already using it or does not think that he needs to use his hatsu to win..."
"Both are pretty bad to know and sad to see," she said to herself.
"I'm not sure if I can get to him at all."
Anisa slowed her movements, abandoning the idea of forcing an exchange.
Rushing would only feed his advantage.
Instead, she began thinking seriously about how to deploy her ability.
Her Nen ability was called
Twin Dagger—Hunter of the Murderer
A conjuration-type Hatsu.
It allowed her to conjure two weapons simultaneously, each bound by a shared system of conditions.
The first was the Red Dagger.
The second was the Black Revolver.
Red Dagger could be used without any conditions or anything, but Black Revolver needed to fulfill some conditions to work.
Especially if the second ability of Red Dagger, "Marking," was complete, the real power of the Black Revolver surfaces the ground.
The Red Dagger was her close-combat weapon.
On the surface, it seemed a sharp blade.
But its true function went deeper.
Each successful strike with the Red Dagger increased Anisa's overall combat performance.
Her physical output sharpened slightly.
Not dramatically due to her being a Conjurer Nen user, not an Enhancer, but still enough to make a difference.
More importantly, the second function of the dagger applied a mark.
It is the reason why it was called "Twin Dagger."
The moment the blade caused real damage that drew blood the marking process began.
It was invisible to normal eyes and even difficult to perceive through Gyo unless one knew what to look for.
The mark was not instant.
It grew with time and more damage to the enemy.
Each wound fed it, strengthening and stabilizing the process.
Once sufficient damage had been dealt, the mark would complete itself exactly one minute after the first qualifying injury.
When that happened, the mark transferred.
From the enemy's body…
…to the Black Revolver.
Once the process started, time did the rest.
The Black Revolver was the finisher.
On its own, it was incomplete. It could not fire lethal rounds freely. It required conditions, very specific ones.
To conjure a bullet capable of piercing or breaking down most Nen defenses, Anisa needed one final trigger.
"The enemy had to attack her with clear intent to kill."
But genuine murderous intent.
It was a counteractive conjuration condition.
The more decisive and lethal the enemy's intent, the stronger the bullet became.
If the enemy had already been marked by the Red Dagger, the outcome was almost guaranteed.
Once both conditions were met a completed mark and a killing intent filled strike against to Anisa, the bullet formed instantly, dense with aura, optimized solely for murder.
At that point, escaping was nearly impossible.
Anisa can also use this ability to keep tabs on her enemies.
If he marks a target with her dagger and then gets attacked by the target with killing intent behind it, a bullet with "mark" specialized for that target is created.
She then could always conjure the Black Revolver and shoot the bullet into the air, and then the bullet will find its target with 100% accuracy as long as the enemy is not far away, like continental distances.
Anisa believed in her ability deeply. Against most Nen users, it was devastating.
But Conrad…
He hadn't bled.
And he hadn't attacked with killing intent.
Not even once.
As Anisa moved slowly to the side, testing angles, Conrad mirrored her without effort.
His breathing remained steady. His aura stayed tightly controlled.
"He knows," she thought suddenly.
"I also think that he does not take the battle seriously; he is more like in a training mock battle than a real Nen battle."
"That is a problem..."
Not the specifics.
But the structure.
"He knows this is a staged ability."
Her eyes flicked briefly to his hands. Empty. Relaxed. Ready.
"He's not giving me what I need."
Conrad, for his part, watched her just as carefully.
"She's waiting," he thought. "For me to commit."
He had already pieced together most of it.
"A preparatory weapon and an execution weapon," he reasoned.
"She needs to damage me first."
"I am still not sure about the Black Revolver, but it must have some sort of condition to be usable against me."
"As I can see, she wants to use it but cannot."
His lips twitched faintly.
"A clever design," he admitted.
And Conrad did not fight the way her ability expected him to.
He shifted his stance slightly.
"I've seen enough," he thought.