If there was still a possibility of defeating the monster...
There was only one path visible.
Knuckle gritted his teeth, enduring the intense spasms of pain radiating from his abdomen.
He remained silent, his gaze fixed on the battlefield.
Just as Kalluto had said, after dealing with the threat posed by A.P.R., Neferpitou shifted her focus to Morel and Kite.
With over two hundred Deep Purple soldiers now nearly depleted, Morel, designated as a primary target, was in dire straits.
Fortunately, Kite had decent luck, repeatedly drawing the same restraining weapon multiple times when using his Crazy Slots ability.
While it could be attributed to luck, it might also have been due to the immense pressure he was under.
The intense determination born from his overwhelming stress, as he struggled to balance combat and support his teammates, somewhat influenced the randomness of his weapon draws.
Despite consistently drawing favorable weapons, Kite remained in constant peril.
A single misstep could mean instant death.
The margin for error between the two sides was simply not on the same level.
However, precisely because Kite drew most of Neferpitou's attention, coupled with intermittent disruptions from other teammates, Morel managed to seize the opportunity to summon new Deep Purple soldiers.
Yet...
Neferpitou had already experienced the countermeasures of the Deep Purple soldiers.
Especially their ability to freely mimic others' appearances; once they accumulated in numbers, they became quite troublesome.
These humans are tenacious...
Neferpitou's initial intent was to eliminate the most threatening targets first. But even without the interference of the Deep Purple soldiers, she noticed that Kite and Morel seemed to have a way to sense her attack trajectories.
After a few brief exchanges, she gradually confirmed this.
Though unclear how they managed it...
It wasn't a major issue.
Thinking this, Neferpitou suddenly feinted an attack and, right before Kite's eyes, conjured a burly Puppeteer at an exaggerated speed.
At that moment, the magnetic chain flail Kite had swung immediately locked onto the suddenly appearing Puppeteer as its primary target.
Under the peculiar magnetic pull, the chain ball jerked upward mid-air, dragging the chain along to tightly bind the Puppeteer.
This was the chain flail, a weapon Kite had drawn, specialized in restraint and control.
The weapon's main components were a handle and a chain ball connected by a chain.
Its ability allowed the chain to extend appropriately during attacks, and when locking onto an enemy, the chain ball would generate an attractive force pulling toward the target.
However, Kite's high proficiency with the weapon, combined with his ability to perceive attack trajectories through the flow of malicious aura around Neferpitou...
Enabled him to conceal the "magnetic attraction trait" during his repeated precise strikes against her.
This allowed him to utilize the magnetic force to achieve a high hit rate.
But after several exchanges, Neferpitou had clearly noticed something.
The appearance of the Puppeteer, while consuming a portion of Neferpitou's aura output, also served as a shield, restricting Kite's chain flail.
Simultaneously... Neferpitou flipped through the air, planting both feet firmly on the puppeteer's body.
This was her usual leverage trick.
Thump!
The heavily stomped puppeteer instantly flew toward Kite's direction.
Meanwhile, leveraging the momentum, Neferpitou shot like lightning toward Morel, who was busy blowing smoke soldiers.
Trying to make these preparations right under her watch really isn't realistic.
Morel wore a grave expression, unable to clearly track Neferpitou's attack trajectory. However...
Like Kite, he had detected a rather subtle weakness in Neferpitou.
That was her inability to conceal her offensive intent within the flow of her aura, even allowing "malice" and "bloodlust" to cling to every strand of flowing Nen.
It was akin to attaching glow sticks to every part of her body in the dark.
Top-tier experts would consciously suppress such fluctuations during combat.
While most elite fighters couldn't achieve Netero's level of making aura flow completely silent, they certainly wouldn't expose their "offensive intent" as blatantly as Neferpitou did.
Leveraging this weakness, both Morel and Kite could barely predict Neferpitou's attack intentions by reading the flow of her aura.
The forehead again...
Sensing the malice in Neferpitou's aura flow, Morel abruptly dropped into a crouch.
Whoosh!
Neferpitou's blade-straight form narrowly grazed past Morel's scalp.
How peculiar, meow...
As she leaped over Morel's head, Neferpitou's suspicion grew clearer.
How are they doing this?
Realizing both Morel and Kite could predict her attacks, Neferpitou began pondering the reason.
During this brief moment of reflection, her graceful form twisted mid-air before landing steadily on the ground. She raised her eyes to look at Morel ahead.
What she saw was Morel maintaining his crouched position, wiping sweat with one hand while lifting his smoke pipe with the other, continuously blowing out Deep Purple soldiers like a bellows.
Witnessing this, Neferpitou didn't intervene. Instead, she lightly rested her chin on her hand, her eyes revealing contemplation.
This prediction of offensive intent likely didn't rely on Nen abilities, but rather represented a common combat insight among seasoned fighters.
Combat... insight.
Perhaps I've been 'neglecting' something?
Neferpitou's thoughts gradually clarified as she mused to herself: That must be why they can anticipate my attacks.
As her mind raced, she glanced down at her hands and vaguely grasped the answer.
'Meow.'
The corners of her lips curled slightly.
Seeing Neferpitou suddenly halt her assault, Morel felt a flicker of doubt.
Suddenly "calmed down"... This isn't a good sign.
This abrupt development gave Morel a foreboding feeling.
Because he had already seen through the essence of Neferpitou's capabilities.
This was a monster born with immense power, whose mastery and comprehension speed of Nen techniques were astonishingly exaggerated.
Yet precisely because her "growth rate" was so extreme, it highlighted her weakness of "lacking combat experience" all the more prominently.
This inherent weakness naturally diminished Neferpitou's fearsome offensive pressure. What Morel feared was that Neferpitou would gradually realize this during the drawn-out battle, then fill in the final piece of the puzzle by accumulating combat experience.
If that were the case...
Then instead of causing trouble for Neferpitou, they would become the very whetstone she lacked.
If it really came to that, everything would be over.
Neferpitou's sudden incongruous movements made Morel wary, and he truly understood the intense determination Morrow had shown when risking his life to kill Youpi at the Chimera Ant Nest.
Probably not just Morrow, but even Knuckle had noticed it too...
These Royal Guard monsters were all like uncut gemstones.
Given time, their strength would undoubtedly advance further.
But during intense battles, their growth and progress would clearly accelerate even faster.
But unfortunately, we don't have Morrow's strength to deal with these monsters before they mature...
The ominous premonition rising in Morel's heart intensified abruptly when Neferpitou launched another attack, transitioning from stillness to motion.
The reason being...
Neferpitou's attack this time had actually learned to conceal her intent within the flow of her aura.
This damn monster...!
Suddenly losing the support of "information," Morel instantly felt a chill spread throughout his body from his spine.
This chill was undoubtedly the manifestation of the aura of death.
Was it aimed at his forehead?
Or somewhere else?
No matter how powerful his instantaneous thinking burst was, it couldn't grant him the precious time to "choose among options."
He could only gamble with his life on this coin-toss decision, completely devoid of any basis, as danger approached.
A wrong bet meant death.
Sweat pouring down his face, Morel positioned his smoke pipe horizontally across his chest, leaving the vital points above his neck exposed.
Clang!
The violent sound of shattering metal reached his ears the next instant.
Only then did Morel's eyeballs seem to thaw from frozen time, barely moving downward to see the shattered fragments of his smoke pipe.
And among the scattered fragments, Neferpitou's face bearing a hint of satisfaction.
Morel knew...
That was the reaction of "solving a difficult problem."
And mixed with the satisfaction was a trace of merciless bloodlust.
It's over...
Despair filled Morel's heart.
Not because he was about to die here, but because he couldn't see any upper limit to the monster before him.
"You're quite strong."
Regardless of whether Morel could hear this praise for her prey, Neferpitou's sharp claws enveloped in condensed Nen pierced through the line of death, aiming straight for Morel's heart.
But at this critical moment.
Both Morel and Neferpitou's bodies simultaneously shifted positions.
More accurately, two fists flying through the air from opposite directions struck them respectively.
The owner of these two fists was Shoot, whose expression was completely different at this moment.
He hadn't achieved this through "reaction."
It was Neferpitou's thoughtful pause of less than three seconds that made him anticipate what "might happen" next. So he mobilized two fists in the form of prediction, sending them in time; one attacking Morel's right waist and abdomen, the other striking forward toward Morel, which consequently hit Neferpitou's left elbow.
If the guess is wrong, it would only make Master Mo shift his position slightly.
That was the reason Shoot acted so decisively.
It was like swinging from one extreme to another.
All the hesitation of the past had now transformed into unwavering decisiveness.
Thanks to his timely rescue, Morel and Neferpitou brushed past each other.
"Hotel Rafflesia."
Shoot activated his ability, drawing the struck elbow of Neferpitou into the hotel.
We... will win!
Shoot's gaze was sharp as a blade, sharper than ever before.
------------------
How we reached 1200ps so fast....
Bonus chapter @1400powerstones.........