*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.

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.

Over the course of a few minutes, however, Rayleigh was able to figure out a pattern.

Depending on which of the five original totem poles the logs came from, each face had a different attacking style. Faces from the red totem pole spun like a frisbee before aiming for his legs, trying to either destroy his balance or cripple him. Those from the yellow totem pole would move in sync and try to smash against each other with Rayleigh sandwiched between them. Faces from the blue totem pole attacked in straight lines like meteors while faces from the green pole attacked in arcing motions. The trickiest ones were the faces from the black totem pole. They did not attack so much as they tried to make contact with Rayleigh. They each carried an inky black aura and it was obvious that nothing beneficial would occur if they touched him and most of his wounds came from hits he had to take to avoid those.

Knov had seen Rayleigh's ambush and was tempted to interfere, but Rayleigh knew he was watching and had not given any form of signal to ask for assistance.

It was then that Knov noticed something bizarre. All of the puppeted soldiers went limp and Neferpitou's En, something that always covered the palace, had vanished. Without that En, he could finally approach the palace to place a door. He shouted to Rayleigh, "I'm heading out, did you need any help?"

The lion looked over at the Hunter that had been observing from afar with surprise. He didn't know that he was the one being watched.

Rayleigh answered while still surrounded, "I'm good, if you need to go to the bathroom or get a bite to eat or something, go ahead."

Knov rolled his eyes at the blatant confidence, but he could also see the light in Rayleigh's eyes that close combat fighters only got when they were in the moment, and Knov would not ruin it for his little friend. Knov left the area for his closest door and used it to travel to the door closest to the palace so he could stealthily make his way there on foot.

The lion felt reasonably insulted. The child he had cornered was treating this like a game. Seeing red, the lion form chimera ant launched himself into the storm of logs and attacked Rayleigh. The logs naturally moved out of his way to give him an opening and since the other paths were blocked, Rayleigh was unable to dodge. Instead, he used Force Valor to shift the position of his body like a cat to turn and face the lion and strike with his Lightsaber. The direction the lion approached from would now lead to him getting decapitated, so one of the logs naturally moved to block the Nensaber and another moved to push the lion out of harm's way and back out of the encirclement.

The threat of death made the lion's self-awareness return and he didn't attack again. He didn't like to admit it, but this cub's claws were sharper and longer than his own. Even if he was stronger, that meant little if he was not faster. He looked up at the dome over the city. It would last eight hours so it wasn't an ability he could borrow since the length of time he could borrow an ability was only a single hour.

Rayleigh's use of Clairvoyance ensured he was never attacked from a blindspot, but it also kept track of the wooden pieces that continued to assault him. He could essentially take three out of action every time he sliced one apart since two others would retreat to repair the one he cut, but that only lasted for a few seconds as the logs were repairing themselves as fast as he could chop them to pieces. After half an hour, he noticed something interesting. Ten of the forty-five multi-colored logs never attacked him. They traveled with other pieces that attacked him or got close, but they were never within reach of his Nensaber. It didn't take long to figure out why.

Rayleigh used five of his Wills to enforce Telekinesis on five of the wooden pieces. Four were used to get in the way of others and the fifth, one of the few that always avoided him, was pulled in and sliced into pieces.

As predicted, that piece was not restored like the others. Why? It was an end piece. That's right, in order to fix a broken piece, the two surrounding pieces had to sandwich it between themselves. The end pieces didn't have a second piece to surround them. In order to take out all the pieces, he had to destroy them in order.

Rayleigh began using telekinesis to shuffle through the logs while dodging the attacking ones and drawing in the targets to destroy. One by one, the forty-five logs were reduced to pieces until none remained. The lion then ripped another piece of paper to shreds and mocked, "I hope you're not tired yet." Five totem poles appeared again. He had more than one copy of this ability saved just for today.

Completely drenched in sweat and rain and panting heavily, Rayleigh replied, "I'm just getting warmed up."

Obviously, that was a lie. His brain and body had been pushed to the limit and he could pass out at any time. His strength was used up, his entire body felt like a massive bruise, and he was barely holding himself up with Force Valor.

Before the totem poles could attack, Rayleigh vanished from view.

As Rayleigh's Nensaber sputtered out, he turned around and saw Meleoron holding his breath. Rayleigh picked him up and carried him over to the lion who was still panicking from Rayleigh's vanishing act. The Totem Poles needed a target and if one was not identified, they could not be used.

Rayleigh used the last of his aura to initiate Gyō and placed his hand on the largest shatterpoint he saw on the lion's chest. Thanks to the effect of Meleoron's ability, the lion didn't even feel it. A few seconds later, blood poured out of the lion's mouth, eyes, and nose. He didn't even have time to register what happened as his organs broke apart and he died, almost instantly.

Rayleigh decided that was a good time to pass out.

When he woke up, he was on a bed in the hotel they stayed in. His Nensaber handle was on the bedside table and his wounds have been expertly wrapped up. Rayleigh took the Lightsaber and enabled Babylon before he started healing himself. He could use a combination of Enhancer attribute aura to speed up his recovery and Force Healing techniques to make a full recovery now that he was conscious again.

It took a few minutes because Rayleigh intended to be thorough, but he eventually recovered from all his injuries without receiving anything permanent.

Rayleigh's cell phone was also on a charger on the stand and he reached over to check the time. It was August 4th, three days before the selection. That meant he was unconscious for three days. Not too surprising. Unlike Gon, Rayleigh's recovery was more mental than physical.

Although there was no theoretical limit on how much one could use the Force, physical brains would feel the burden of accumulated stress from continued use of the Force. Usually, this would not happen for a while, but a side effect of Rayleigh's use of multiple Wills meant he accumulated mental fatigue and stress multiple times faster than normal. A seasoned and well-trained Jedi Knight could probably maintain a single use of the Force for several hours before reaching a fatigue limit. Rayleigh's limit while using nine Wills, was less than an hour.

That was fine with Rayleigh as it gave him more things to work on. The point of fighting a difficult battle was to learn where you could improve yourself. This was the first time he'd felt the side-effects of his crazy Will splitting idea, and he'd have to work on it in the future, but working on it was not a large problem.

The Temple of Force Skills Rayleigh spent months living in contained dozens of mental exercises and esoteric skills that the ancient Je'daii used to strengthen their physical brains using the Force. Rayleigh didn't intend to use them until he reached a limit because he wanted a stronger mental foundation, but now that he had hit a wall, it was a good time to start using them.

After going over his battle and making a plan to improve himself further, Rayleigh left the room and found Knov on the couch, wearing a hat. He seemed quite dispirited and Rayleigh did not understand why he wore a hat while inside. Though Morel wore sunglasses no matter the time of day, indoors and out, so he supposed it didn't matter too much.

Knov spotted Rayleigh's entrance and said, "Ah, good, you're awake. Were you able to recover yourself?"

Rayleigh patted his formerly fractured bones and answered, "Yep, good as new." That also made him realize if he practiced healing more, he might be able to recover quickly in battle as well. Something to consider for later.

Knov nodded and said, "Everyone will be returning in an hour. Neferpitou is no longer sending puppet-soldiers out of the city and the refugees have gone far enough west for them to no longer matter. They seem to have given up on chasing them, so with the exception of the first 500,000 killed on the first day, the selection seems to have ended with the exception of those inside Peijing that are scheduled to head to the Palace in a few days."

Rayleigh asked, "What happened while I was out?"

Knov looked pensive for a moment before answering, "We lost contact with someone we sent inside, a student of mine named Palm. Other than her, everyone else is fine."

It was obvious that there was more to it than that, but Knov didn't share so Rayleigh could only wait for the rest of the group to return. Gon arrived first, "Ray, you're up! Are you okay?"

Ray nodded, "Not a scratch."

Killua walked in behind Gon and replied, "Maybe not now. But I certainly saw a few earlier."

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