Couple of replies towards other comments in the thread:
1- I'm absolutely loving this fight. It's a breath of fresh air to not have to see the typical fight scene in a big time shonen (thinking of bleach and naruto), where the same formula is used over and over again leading to repetitive, mundane battles that are utterly predictable and without sense ( ok I'm exaggerating, I love me some brawls too :)
*Bad uses move*
*Good guy uses move*
*one of them is at a disadvantage and unleashes a transformation or technique that puts them on top*
*with unleashed new technique/transformation, beats on opponent*
*at last minute opponent unleashes a new transformation/move, which puts them on top*
Rinse and repeat... (at least for Bleach any ways)
Don't get me wrong; I like a good ol' fashioned straight up brawl as much as the next person, but I would have been disappointed if this fight was only a brawl, with Chrollo spamming random moves from the book with no rhyme or reason.
What we're seeing here is a battle between two of the most cunning characters in the series, with Chrollo having layers and layers to his strategy, combining acquired moves in an ingenious way, and playing head games with Hisoka. From Hisoka's PoV, we see a fighting genius with fantastic analytical capabilities in battle.
I do understand that reading through these chapters can be a bit of a pain, and the strategy does involve combining several abilities in a very complex way (it is confusing), but once you get through it, it's really one of the most well thought-out fights I've seen in a manga. I really hope to see it animated some day.
Though I completely understand some people being a bit turned off bit; it's understandable.
2- I'm not quite sure that Chrollo would lose 1v1 to Hisoka in a space with no other people. Just because Chrollo chose to fight this way here, doesn't necessarily mean he HAD to do so. It's quite possible that he wanted to break Hisoka down psychologically, beat him, and watch him fail miserably in the face of his strategy; it wouldn't surprise me.
Remember that Chrollo willingly engaged in a 1v2 battle in an enclosed room with two members of the Zoldyck family. Not only that, but he went into the battle holding back in order to STEAL their powers. Although he had no prior knowledge of Zeno, he had confronted Silva before, so he knew they would be no walk in the park.
