Chapter 52: The Battle before the Storm

Chapter 52: The Battle before the Storm

*Author's Note*

Someone asked why I never use POVs outside the MC's. The only time I do that is for comedic effect, usually to see how much the MC is messing with Nick Fury. Using other POVs is just a way to give info to the reader that the MC can't get and extend a scene. It helps the world-building, but I like the idea of less is more, so the readers can imagine the background characters doing their own thing without it being spelled out for them.

I also heavily dislike flashbacks and will never use them. If you need a flashback to explain something, then you obviously didn't explain it right the first time, and using Flashbacks to reveal something as a surprise is just lazy.

Chapter 52 The Battle before the Storm

With just a few questions and maybe a tiny push or two from the Force, Rayleigh was able to learn of the mechanics behind Knov's and Morel's Nen abilities.

Knov was a transmuter, but instead of transmuting his aura into an object or energy, he transmuted it into space to create a subspace he could access under the right conditions. His subspace included multiple rooms and each had multiple doors. He could place the entrance door to a room in the real world anywhere he wanted, but exiting the room from that door only led to the place he made the entrance to that door from. If he wanted other people to be able to use his ability for instant movement, he had to make sure they were in a room that had all the doors they needed access to. Knov himself had a Master Key he could use to exit through any door in the real world from any door in any room, so he was not as limited when it came to traveling using his Hatsu. Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

It was an overpowered ability for sure but had a number of restrictions. First, he had to use Divine Script to slowly mark the location he wanted to place a door in the real world. It was no instantaneous thing and required a concentrated effort to place. Next, from the point he made his first door, he could only travel by foot to where he intended to place the next. If he took a car, bus, or plane, he would be unable to make another door until he reset his travel by returning to an existing door. This meant he could not use his ability to make a door on Greed Island and then make another door off the island to smuggle things. Swimming didn't work either, he had to travel by foot from an existing door to make another after making the first door.

Morel was a Manipulator with Emitter leanings. He could manipulate smoke to turn it into a solid object or a puppet-like construct. There were just two conditions for his ability. First, he could only manipulate smoke that he exhaled after saturating it with Emitter attribute aura in his lungs, so he needed to use a smoking pipe to create the smoke to inhale in the first place. Next, when he wanted his smoke to act independently of him, he had to form the smoke construct around a ball of Emitter attribute aura that formed the core of the construct. Each construct could only act upon a limited set of instructions given at the time of its creation. It was simple in effect but extremely versatile in use.

Neither was particularly useful for Rayleigh's build but learning of the possibility of each and the mechanics behind both was certainly insightful.

Morel agreed that everyone could fight the soldier-puppets with them the following night. Due to the limitations behind Knov's Hide and Seek, each could only patrol a certain area that was expanded thanks to it being linked to multiple doors from a room. Killua and Gon were partnered up while Shoot and Knuckle were paired together in the northwest and southwest of the capital city of Peijing respectively. Morel and Rayleigh stayed inside the city itself to draw the attention of the Chimera Ants. This was the most dangerous job, but suited for the pair since Rayleigh was very hard to kill and Morel was very flexible.

The only problem was that this took up hours and hours, and even though Babylon was efficient, it was not that efficient. Thankfully, he didn't even need to use his aura for most of it. Having a Will or two use Clairvoyance to search the area and then just using Shatterpoint directly on the Nen constructs that were puppeteering the soldiers was enough to take them down without using up much energy.

As predicted, what came to face them was not a group of disposables.

Before Rayleigh could react, the Cheetah Chimera Ant approached and struck Morel. A moment later, a massive baseball-field-sized dome appeared above the city. Were it not for the fact that Martial Law enforced everyone to stay inside their homes, it would have drawn a lot more attention.

It was then that the Lion dude showed up with a peg-leg. Behind him were two other Chimera Ants, one that looked like a humanoid wolf and the other was a human-sized lobster. Or was it a shrimp?

Rayleigh could hear the growl in the lion man's voice as he told Rayleigh, "You bastard. I'm gonna rip you to pieces!"

"Open, Babylon." Rayleigh's Nensaber extended and his Hatsu activated. It was then that the wolfman bend down and the flesh on his back morphed into a strange X-shaped formation, with each end holding what appeared to be a rocket. He said, "Target acquired. Don't move. If you move, these Missiles will track you for all eternity."

Immediately after that threat was levied, the lobster/shrimp dude opened up his pincers and started charging what was obviously a powerful aura blast.

The lion sneered viciously, displaying his sharpened teeth at the combo of the ants he brought. Move and you die. Don't move and you die. Death was the only option.

Rayleigh used Battle Precognition to predict when the Nen blast would fire and a moment before it did, he moved. Unsurprisingly, the four missiles on the back of the wolf launched themselves at Rayleigh. Straight into the path of the lobster's emission attack.

A massive explosion shook the streets and momentarily blinded the attacking ants.

When the dust cleared, Rayleigh was gone.

The lion panicked for a moment, "Where'd he go?!"

From behind them, Rayleigh snarked, "You're kinda stupid, aren't you?"

They all turned around him time for them to see Rayleigh's Nensaber removing the head of the Chimera Ant Wolf. Why aim for him? Rayleigh didn't like the feeling of those missiles. If they had not been obliterated by the lobster's attack, he sensed it would have been quite bad for him.

The cowardly lion jumped back while the lobster fired a quick nen attack that Rayleigh bounced back using his Nensaber toward the Lobster's head. The armored crustacean didn't die from the hit, but being hit by his own attack did disorient him enough to lose the chance to dodge Rayleigh's next attack, a stab through the eye into the head.

Rayleigh wasn't the kind of person you could release a deadly attack on with ease. He got scratched up multiple times from the debris of that explosion which was enough for him to use lethal force on these guys.

In the time it took for Rayleigh to kill them both, the lion had not run away, he'd simply used that distance to pull something from his pocket that printed out a small sheet he pulled and teared up. This time, instead of a sword forming, five different colored totem pole-looking things appeared. Each seemed to be a stack of nine or so carved faces.

The lion bragged, "I learned last time that I can't get close to you and that you had a limit to that telekinesis of yours. Well, see how you like this!" The five totem poles rose into the air and launched themselves at Rayleigh.

As Rayleigh moved to dodge or cut them, each of the totem poles broke into multiple pieces, each with a face. Rayleigh was now being assaulted by forty-five logs that floated around and struck out seemingly at random.

Rayleigh moved his body like an acrobatic monkey and swung his Nensaber repeatedly, slicing multiple logs into pieces. What was interesting was that when a log was sliced, two other logs would smash themselves around the pieces which caused those pieces to reassemble.

Rayleigh couldn't prevent a smile from forming on his face. It wouldn't be any fun if it were too easy.

It didn't take long for Rayleigh to get covered in wounds. He never took a direct hit, but he was unable to fully avoid many of the combinations the logs used together and each struck with the force of a Nen-empowered battering ram. His shoulder had almost been dislocated, three ribs were at least fractured or broken, and there were multiple fractures on his left arm and right leg.

The comparison between this moment and when Gon fought the Top user was not lost on Rayleigh. There could also be a comparison drawn between this moment and when Ichigo faced Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura. In either case, Rayleigh intended to use it to train.

The reason this was good training was that the Danger Perception ability he over-relied on was far less effective. He could tell when the Lion guy was looking for an opening because he had the intent to kill, but the logs worked off a program and had no intentions. Even Battle Precognition heavily relied on reading the opponent's thoughts and intentions and had a very dull effect when used on objects that lacked consciousness. There was still some effect since they naturally gave him notice before he was harmed, but it was not nearly as useful without a readable source of harm. He also couldn't use Shatterpoint to shatter the logs into pieces since he would not be given the time to do so.

Rayleigh shrugged, "I was just hammering out a few of my weaknesses."

Killua nodded, "That would explain the broken bones."

Shoot, Knuckle, Morel, Meleoron, and the Octopus headed in afterward.

Thanks to some of the changes, the overall mission had been altered a bit, but was mostly the same.

Knuckle explained, "Alright sleepyhead, here's the plan we've come up with. Us eight will use Master Knov's doors to access the Palace a few seconds before Midnight. At precisely midnight, President Netero and Killua's grandfather, Master Zeno will attack from outside of Pitou's En's range. We only have those few seconds to separate the King from his Royal Guard. While we are doing that, Ikalgo will search for Palm." Ikalgo was the octopus Chimera Ant's name.

Knuckle showed a map of the palace and the throne room the King would be staying in, as well as the stairs that led up to that throne room that the closest door was placed next to.

They assumed that after Netero launched an attack, the guards would surround the king to protect him, and to ensure the King's assassination, they had to stall the guards and prevent that from happening.

Rayleigh looked over the map and confirmed everything before saying, "Yeah, this plan is kinda worthless."

Morel frowned before asking, "How so?"

Rayleigh replied, "Neferpitou stays on the roof using her En. The moment the Prez is within range, she'll attack him first, so she'll leave the King on her own. This ambush will be in the middle of the crowds gathering in the palace for the selection. Shaiapouf can fly, so he'll be flying over the crowd and keeping watch. He won't even be in the palace. That leaves Menthuthuyoupi as the only guard. If we take all of this into consideration, I'd like to make a single change to the plan."

Morel asked, "Oh? And what change would that be?"

"Before the plan, I go with Meleoron through one of the outside doors to confirm that Pitou and Pouf are outside. If I've confirmed it, then I'd like to enter the door next to the stairs a minute early so I can assassinate Youpi."

Knuckle stated sarcastically, "If you're that confident, then why don't you just kill the King yourself?"

Rayleigh shook his head, "I confirmed with that Lion guy that although I can kill with a touch, it takes a while. The stronger the target, the longer it takes. A Royal Guard is one thing, but the worst case scenario is that Meleoron won't be able to hold his breath long enough for me to kill the King."

Morel asked, "How will you confirm their location? Even if Meleoron uses Perfect Plan to hide you while you scout, what if they aren't in your visual range?"

Rayleigh answered, "I can use Clairvoyance without using aura. Once I'm inside the Palace, I can check around without moving from my position. I can't see through walls, but if those two are outside, I will find them. If the Palace doors are open, I'll be able to spot everyone inside as well."

After considering it, Morel agreed to the change. Some versions of the plan had Meleoron go with Knuckle so he could use his Nen ability on either the Royal Guard or the King himself, but Rayleigh doubted Knuckle would last long enough for the interest to exceed their aura reserves. Rayleigh himself could outlast and even destroy Knuckle's Hakoware, so it was not considered as effective as they once thought it to be.

To ensure they knew what they were walking into the strengths and styles of each of the Royal Guard was discussed at length, with much of the info being provided by Rayleigh as the Royal Guard members fought against puppet-Kite.

Neferpitou, the cat-girl, was a nimble and fast power attacker. She could strike with enough force to cleave through the hardest steel multiple times in a second and fought using pounces. She was fully capable of pouncing two full kilometers in a single jump and the travel only took a few seconds.

Shaiapouf, the butterfly-guy, was a surgical fighter that used diversions and poisons. Though said poisons may not have an effect on nen users, they were effective on normal humans. His attacks mostly consisted of knife hand strikes that either pierced into his opponents or cuts them into pieces.

Menthuthuyoupi, the morpher, was a beast. He had basic intelligence outside of combat, but during combat, he went into a primal, instinctive state. He was capable of shifting the flesh on his body to almost any form and could form innumerable weapons from his flesh and attack as he pleased. He was the strongest shield by being the most unstoppable spear.

Morel's target was Pouf. He intended to use his smoke to create a cage that would trap the flying Guard and keep him from the King.

Knuckle and Shoot should have been the ones to target Youpi, but Rayleigh didn't see them having any chance at success. It was better if they worked together with their trio to fight and restrain Pitou. Rayleigh's telekinesis combined with Shoot's floating hands could somewhat restrain the lunging cat-girl while Killua and Knuckle whittled her down and Gon charged up a good punch.

The reason Rayleigh wanted to assassinate Youpi was that, as a shield, that guy was incredibly effective. According to the Shatterpoint he just saw, that guy could fight them all at the same time. Pitou was incredibly powerful, but neither she nor Pouf was as capable of fighting off groups by themselves.

The day before the battle, the group was instructed to walk around with the citizens of the city and mingle. Why? Because the soldier puppets were back and they wanted to plant false information. Although the final selection of the residents of Peijing would occur tomorrow, the five hundred thousand citizens were instructed to start heading to the palace tonight.

By having the Hunters mingle with the population and then enter Zetsu once they grouped together, it looked like they intended to breach the palace's defenses by sneaking in with the citizens to the senses of all paying attention.

What actually happened was after entering the groups and using Zetsu, they left the groups and entered the Hide and Sneak space of Knov's Hatsu and waited for the time of the ambush.

Although the mission was dangerous, most of those waiting to strike had numerous questions floating around in their head. What would happen if they failed? What if the king wasn't there? There were also many unanswered questions about what was going on inside the palace for the last few days.

The main question that had been asked was what had happened to Palm? Was she dead, captured, hiding, or worse?

A second, but just as interesting question was, why did Pitou's En stop working on that day? They knew that her healing ability prevented her from using any other ability, so she likely was using that, but then they had to question, why did she need to heal someone? Then came the question, who did she need to heal? The only person who she likely would use it on was the King, but how did the King get injured? Someone suggested that the King might have injured himself, but that brought up even more questions.

Safe to say, something they could not conceive was happening inside the Palace. Now it was time to see what that was and bring everything to an end.

*Author's Note*

Next time on the Reincarnator's Tavern, the final battle of the Chimera Ant Arc!

Stones= writing fuel