Even if Menthuthuyoupi had an enormous aura, once his interest calculation ability began its countdown, it was only a matter of time before he would go bankrupt and enter the sealed state of Zetsu.
Defeating him would become only a matter of time.
"So this is one of the royal guards? As expected, their strength is no joke..."
Only after experiencing it firsthand up close did Knuckle truly understand just how powerful Menthuthuyoupi was, especially when it came to calculating the bankruptcy threshold.
Even with his experience of over 5,000 battles, he couldn't gauge just how much aura Menthuthuyoupi had.
In Knuckle's rough estimate, it was at least in the hundreds of thousands.
That was the largest amount he had ever seen in his entire combat career!
"But no matter how much he has, he will still go bankrupt eventually!"
Knuckle was confident that, given enough time, they could drag Menthuthuyoupi down.
With Master Morel's Smoky Jail, Shoot's Hotel Rafflesia, and Kite's abilities all working together, they were confident in victory.
According to Knuckle's calculations, even with hundreds of thousands in the aura, compounding interest meant Menthuthuyoupi wouldn't last more than half an hour.
If they could hold him off for 30 minutes, the victory was basically guaranteed.
In this battle against Menthuthuyoupi, the outcome became clearer.
… … …
Meanwhile, inside the palace hall…
"I always thought that the royal guards would drop everything and rush to the king's side if the king were in danger..."
Sitting on the ground, Ging Freecss suddenly spoke.
"But you... you just turned into a cocoon and stayed here, frozen."
"Clearly, that doesn't match the instinctive duty of a royal guard."
"In that case, your actions now make more sense..."
Ging stood up, patted the dust off his pants, and…
Whoosh!!
He vanished, and in the blink of an eye, he was standing in front of the palace gates.
"When did you figure it out?"
Shaiapouf, who was about to escape but was suddenly blocked, looked visibly frustrated.
The cocoon he had created as a decoy behind was now falling apart.
"Oh, that?"
Ging casually plucked two beard hairs from his face.
"When I felt you sprinkling just a little more of your scales on me, I got suspicious."
"Then, noticing the microscopic particles you were emitting..."
Ging made a small hand gesture, one particularly irritating to certain groups online.
"Your goal became crystal clear."
Shaiapouf had turned his body into a swarm of micro-particles, tiny biological components.
The cocoon in front of him was just a decoy while he was secretly trying to fly out, broken down into particles.
Unfortunately for him, Ging stopped him at the very last second.
"You must've noticed my slow retreat earlier, right?"
Shaiapouf stared at Ging's eyes.
"Yep."
Ging nodded. "From the moment I sat down and started observing that cocoon, I'd already figured it out."
Shaiapouf's face twitched.
"So you saw through everything I did?!"
"Then why didn't you stop me earlier?! Why wait until the last second?!"
"Well..."
Ging scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"First, I wanted to see what your trump card was. Didn't expect it to be that simple, though."
"Simple?!"
Shaiapouf was unable to believe it.
"Second."
Ging continued nonchalantly: "I wanted to understand the nature of your ability. That way, I could learn more about you."
"But most importantly, there's a third reason..."
Ging looked up seriously.
"People always say that the light at the end of the tunnel, just before achieving your goal, is the brightest."
"But if you snuff that light out at the last moment, it sends them plunging into utter darkness."
"I wanted to see what kind of reaction a Chimera Ant would have under those conditions."
Shaiapouf: "..."
I may not be human, but you're seriously a son of a...
Even someone as crazy as Shaiapouf couldn't help but snap.
Veins bulge on his forehead like a crisscross of roads.
"So you're saying..."
His voice was cold and raspy.
"You waited until I was just about to escape just to screw with me for your dumb little experiment?!"
"Exactly!"
Ging nodded without shame as if to say you nailed it.
"You're a freakin' psychopath!!!"
Shaiapouf couldn't take it anymore. He erupted with fury; this was the first time he'd met a human this infuriating.
Whoosh!!
He charged forward, aiming to break through Ging, who was blocking the palace gate.
At this point, his stealth plan had failed. If he wanted to reach the king quickly, his only option now was to force his way out through brute strength.
Although Shaiapouf didn't specialize in direct combat, he wasn't weak by any means.
He figured dealing with just one human would be no big deal.
And if it were someone else, say, Kite, Morel, or the others, he might've been right.
Unfortunately, the one blocking his path was none other than Ging Freecss.
One of the top five Nen users in the world.
A man who is infamously difficult and infuriating to deal with.
For Shaiapouf… this was the beginning of the end.
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