Kite and Gon were trying to catch their breath, drying off from the rain by hiding amongst the foliage within the forest. Their battle with Neferpitou is still ongoing as they have been dragging it on like a cat that has caught its prey only to let it go so it can be caught again later. As they both concealed their presence, Kite wondered how long this had been going on already. It could be hours, it could be an entire day but he is too focused on survival to keep track of the time. He clutched the sword in his hands as he heard the sound of wet footsteps approaching them.
He and Gon then held their breaths and stood absolutely still and silent. Peeking through the leaves. Trying to see them before it can find them. Suddenly the sounds of Pitou's steps stop, before they are replaced by the sound of wood being torn apart. This sound continues around them as they only can see a blur moving as more and more trees begin crashing down. As part of the forest is made into a clearing with timber scattered across it.
Pitou then stops as they turn towards the spot where Gon and Kite are hiding. The one place they didn't cut down yet.
"Damn it, they now know that we're here, or did they know we were here already and wanted to draw us out by getting rid of all other places we could hide as a warning?" Kite thought.
"It's really cute how you think that you could actually hide from meow," Neferpitou said.
Kite gets into a defensive stance as his worst case suspicions turned out to be true.
"I can't have you two run away as things were just getting interesting, or continue using this cowardly tactic of yours. If you want to win you're gonna have to do so by your strength alone," Neferpitou said.
Pitou then makes a running start as they kick themselves off the ground and begin running on all floors. The red glow of their eyes showed an intense bloodlust. But then a metallic Yo-Yo strikes them in their face as they are pushed back and their arm is wrapped in the string of the Yo-Yo as they look to see who struck them. Gon's eyes light up as he sees Killua.
"Oh? The other one that ran away came back too?" Neferpitou said.
Without saying another word Killua sent electrical aura through the string of the yo-yo as Pitou is then shocked from the voltage. The rain water soaks them, conducting the electricity even more. Yet Killua is unaffected by this due his grueling upbringing that made him immune to electricity. With Pitou stunned Kite makes a slash with his seven shaped blade across Pitou's right forearm before making another strike again across their left leg. After Pitou begins moving again Kite jumps back as Killua reels his Yo-Yo back.
Pitou then makes a step with their left leg and then notices a sharp pain as they inspect the damage of their gashes and note that both are deeper than the one that they took in their torso earlier.
"This is nyat good, it seems that that sword is getting stronger each time it hits me. If this keeps up they might be actually able to kill me. And that kid with the white hair used electricity against me but somehow he was unaffected by it. If there are more amazing people like them I don't think I'll ever succumb to boredom," Pitou thought.
Pitou's surprise is replaced with a creepy grin as they look towards Killua and towards him. Killua throws one of his Yo-Yos only for it to be slapped away by Pitou. Killua then pulls it back before running around Pitou as it appears almost as if he cloned himself.
"Rhythm Echo, of course, they wouldn't know that such an ability is not Nen based. They might think it's just a Nen ability that Killua has." Kite thought.
Using Gyo Pitou focuses their eyes and notices that a lot of the doubles they are seeing do not have auras. While trying to find Killua a blow strikes them in the back of their head. As they turn their head to look around they turn towards the sound of something coming out of the nearby bushes.
"First comes rock! Rock, paper,-" Gon said.
"He can't punch me all the way over there, is he planning to run through these clones before doing so?" Pitou thought.
"Paper!" Gon yelled as a ball of aura shot out of the palm of his hand and caught Pitou square in the face. Though doing no damage.
"That attack was weak, what was the point of-" Pitou wondered.
Though their train of thought was interrupted upon being slashed across the back by Kite. Making this the fourth consecutive time that they have been slashed by Kite's blade.
"Four hits already, if I can just get three more in then this battle has been decided. I just need to make sure to make the last one count." Kite thought.
Killua then threw both of his Yo-Yo's towards Pitou and wrapped it around them. Before unleashing another surge of electricity. Gon then gets in front of Pitou and prepares another attack.
"First comes rock! Rock, paper, scissors, rock, paper, scissors," Gon said as his aura was flaring up even more.
"What does Gon think he is doing, if he keeps charging up his attack he might run out of aura before this fight is even over," Kite thought.
"Rock!" Gon yells.
As Gon punches Pitou square in the face, Killua releases the Yo-Yo's binding them, as Pitou is sent flying back into a large rock. As they get up from the crater they feel their nose to find it broken and bloody. As they then give a glare filled with burning anger towards Gon. Colt, as he continues to watch the fight while in the air. Starts to get impatient and worried.
"Something is wrong, not only is that strange shaped blade doing more damage to Lord Neferpitou, but those kids seem a lot stronger then when they fought Rammot. Are they growing in the midst of battle or did they not show their full strength that time? Either way I can't seem to find an opening to grab Lord Pitou and fly back to the nest with them without getting struck down myself. I will be of no use to the Queen dead and if Lord Pitou dies as well then no one will be left to be able to protect her," Colt thought.
Killua then throws his yo-yo's towards Neferpitou this time with them already covered in electricity, but this time a layer of aura surrounds them and the yo-yo's are deflected doing no damage. They all immediately recognized what this was.
"Impossible! Ken! Not only do they know about Ten and Ren they managed to easily combine it
just like that. Wait a minute, that hag Biscuit said that Ken uses a large amount of aura and stamina the longer it's used. Perhaps we can keep tricking them into maintaining it long enough for them to exhaust themselves so we can finish them off," Killua.
However, they watch as Neferpitou focuses most of their aura in their claws. Not just their hands but their claws. Not only did they just use Ryu, but they did so with such precision on their first time. As Pitou runs towards Killua, then a flash of light startles them, reminding them of Kite's last weapon even though they aren't using that anymore. As a lightning bolt strikes a tree near them and the resulting boom of the thunder startles them and breaks their concentration. This startles Colt as well who decides that being in the air at this point would be a bad idea to stay in the air as they dive down to the surface and find a hiding spot to watch the fight from.
Kite takes the opportunity to then slash at Pitou's right hip. The gash real deep as blood gushing out of it as the rain continues to wash the blood coming out of their wounds. Pitou grabs the wound which begins to hurt as they are moving. They then turned their attention to Gon. Running towards them. Kite, seeing this, rushes to try to reach Gon first, while as this is happening everything seems to move slowly to Killua. As Illumi's words from the Hunter Exam echo in his head.
"You're not qualified to have friends."
He then looked up to the stormy sky and got an idea, an incredibly dangerous, risky, and stupid idea. But Gon would do the same for him. He then throws one Yo-yo at Pitou and ties them up in them and pulls them back. Before throwing his other yo-yo up into the air. As it reached its maximum height. Like a lightning rod it attracted a lightning bolt that struck it as the electricity traveled through the yo-yo, through Killua, and to Pitou before the chance that they had to be able to cut the yo-yo string and free themselves.
Gon and Killua could do nothing but watch.
"Even though you raised and trained to gain resistance to electricity, a lightning bolt is three hundred million volts, even if you managed to survive this you could end up unconscious or worse paralyzed. Yet you knew this already most likely and did it to protect Gon," Kite thought.
As the electricity stops Killua falls unconscious and goes limp as his body falls into the mud. His yo-yo's dropped. Kite then takes this opportunity to make a slash at Pitou's left knee while they are stunned. He was then aiming a slash at the neck. The final decisive blow to cut their head off. Then suddenly Pitou's then look at Kite as they arm right arm holding the sword is cut clean through and slash off, flying and landing on the ground with a wet thud. Colt is relieved upon seeing this and thinks that the battle has turned and that he no longer has to intervene.
As Gon sees this something in him snaps. And it wasn't just seeing Kite, his inspiration and mentor, arm be dismembered. It was also seeing Killua knocking themselves out just to beat Neferpitou. And now he took himself out of the fight for nothing. A burning rage burns inside them.
Gon's aura grew as he screamed in anger, Kite and Pitou turned to see this, Colt watched in horror, and even the Chimera Ants from within the nearby nest could hear and shudder at what they heard echoing in the distance. Gon then runs towards Neferpitou, as Pitou tries to move the injuries they have sustained and has slowed their movement to prevent them to counter or even dodge. Gon uses a Ko punch to strike Pitou square in the face, before repeatedly bashing their face with a Ko infused punch.
As Kite is watching this he turns his head to his severed arm and goes to grab his Jackpot Blade. Pitou then realizes that their defense is weakened due to focusing 40% of their auras into their claws. After switching to full Ken they then quickly realize that the protective aura around them has diminished since they first used it earlier. Gon continues to strike them in the face, unable to retaliate.
"I have taken too much damage from that thing that came from the sky, probably because that kid must have been a Transmuter, so when that streak of light from the sky went into him. He transmuted it into an aura with the same property of it and I was able to diminish the effects of it with my own aura enough to at least not be stunned for long, but it took a lot of aura out of me to do so. Not to mention I am bleeding out in several places, I don't know how much longer I can last," Pitou thought.
Gon then cupped his hands together, and began charging his aura into his hands. This time even much more than he did last time.
"First comes rock! Rock, paper, FIST!" Gon said as he threw a punch towards Pitou's face knocking them back and breaking their nose.
Gon then starts to pant as he begins charging again.
"First come…rock. Rock…paper…" Gon said weakly.
Before he could even finish he fainted and fell to the ground. Expending all of his stamina. Pitou then sees this as an opportunity to finish the kid off as they raise their left arm. Before out of the corner of their eye they see Kite about to slash them with a look of intense fury and malice emanating at them aimed at themself. They try to move out of the way but their damaged knee causes them to stop midway as their arm is cut through and the blade reaches their face and slashes through their left eye. With their right hand they clutch their face in pain trying to stop the blood flowing out of it.
Crazy Slots then turns back to normal as Kite then begins to barrage Neferpitou with an onslaught of kicks and one arm punches. Pitou's Ken is able to reduce the damage to nothing but they slowly start to lose more and more aura tanking each hit. Unable to retaliate as they lost an arm, their legs are injured, and they are drawing to stop the blood flowing through their left eye socket by putting pressure on it with their only remaining hand. Kite then kicks Pitou's damaged knee causing that leg to buckle as Kite then punches them in the face and proceeds to hit them in each of their wounds staining his white shirt with Pitou's blue colored blood.
Kite then grabs Pitou by their hair and knees in the stomach three times before throwing them to the ground. With one hand, Kite picks up a rock, and imbues the rock with aura to enhance with Shu. And begins bashing Pitou in the head repeatedly with the said rock. Pitou gets into a fetal position to try to protect themselves. Meanwhile Colt was still frozen with fear from witnessing the brutality of this scene before him.
"He seemed so stoic originally and now he's acting like a wild animal. He's more barbaric than most of our soldiers are. Are human beings just prone to be this violent?" Colt thought.
The rock finally breaks as Kite then grabs Pitou by the hair again and keeps slamming it into the ground. He then uses Ko on his right hand and begins punching Pitou's head, driving it deeper into the ground. One punch after another. Even while his knuckles are beginning to bleed. Kite always seemed so calm and collected, but he never felt true frustration until now. However, all of this frustration was not aimed towards Pitou, but at himself.
"I brought them here, I put them in danger, now they are going to die unless I kill this one and kill Colt before others can come and I can take Gon and Killua to safety. Yet their exoskeleton is so tough and their Ken is still protecting them. I will go as long as it takes until I can shatter it and make the finishing blow. Damn it, taking another life to save the lives of others, never gets any easier," Kite thought.
He continues releasing his own self hate onto Neferpitou. The rain begins to let up as the clouds begin to clear until it stops completely. As sunlight peeks through the clouds. It has been twelve hours since the fight started. And Kite still isn't through with bashing Pitou's head in. Until eventually Pitou's Ken ran out. And Kite used one more Ko punch as a cracking sound was heard though he could have sworn he just saw a flash of something but maybe that was just the sunlight hurting his eyes.
"That should knock them unconscious, but I don't have enough aura left to finish them off. I need to use what's left to kill the other Chimera Ant, take Gon and Killua away from here, and find a place for us to rest and heal. Then we can finish this one off before it can fully heal and we regain our strength. Hopefully by then the backup from the Hunter Association also arrives then his ant won't stand a chance and we can finally exterminate the rest of the Chimera Ants," Kite thought.
He then turned and looked toward the still terrified Colt who then took a defensive stance ready to fight. Before Kite could make a move he then finds a sharp pain in his back. He then turns his head to look behind him and is horrified to see Pitou behind them, their left eye covered now healed and scarred, their clothes burnt and ruined by the electric shock, their hair messed up from the static, and various other scars all over their body, even missing an arm yet despite all of that they are still alive as if all of their efforts were in vain. And they kicked Kite to the ground as they drew back their right hand covered in blood.
"Damn, couldn't even drive my hand through his body. That battle really took a lot of me, but at the very least I managed to survive. Oh well, despite all that that was pretty fun. I am definitely purretty strong but it seems I still need to develop special abilities of my own," Pitou said.
Neferpitou then steps on Kite's left leg, breaking it. He gritted his teeth as he felt the bone fracture. He tried to get up but couldn't.
"How…how did you survive?" he weakly asked.
"I gradually lowered my aura to conserve it on purpose. I used that same trick you did where you focused your aura at one point in a fraction of a second to reduce the damage enough to prevent you from killing me or knocking me out so I could then strike you while your guard was down. I hate to stoop to your human's level like this but I'd rather not die just yet," Neferpitou said.
Colt looked at the injured human on the ground and the two other unconscious humans started to ease up. It seemed as long as Neferpitou was around that the Queen would be safe and that no harm would come to her. That is until the Royal Guards have to leave with the King but he shouldn't be born for a while. Until then he shall continue serving the Queen and making sure she is well fed.
Meanwhile, Killua is still conscious albeit, paralyzed. Was able to move his eyes to see that Kite and Gon are down.
"So this is it then? Are we about to die? I'm sorry Gon, Kite, I tried my best. Maybe my brother Illumi was right after all," Killua thought.
Colt then walked over to where Kite was and loomed over him. Looking down on him as if he was nothing.
"Your efforts were valiant for lasting that long but it still wasn't enough. Nevertheless, you three will make a fine meal for the queen. You are no match for the both of us as you are now," Colt said.
As Colt is about to grab Kite Pitou smacks his hand away.
"My lord?" Colt asks, confused.
"I have a better idea, let him go," Neferpitou said with a smirk.
"You can't be serious!" Colt said.
"I enjoyed the fight but I don't like how it ended. I want him to get healed and come back stronger so I can fight him again one on one. It was getting hard for me to focus when it was the three of them. And if he is this strong now to do this much to me with his techniques then the next fight will be even great," Neferpitou explained.
"Even so, how do you expect to win next time when he does!" Colt said.
"Don't worry, by then I will have my Hatsu developed and whatever techniques I create should help me in the next battle. Though he can't quite get out of NGL in the state he is in and he might be nabbed by another Ant, carry him away from here." Neferpitou demanded.
Colt was still flabbergasted at this but Neferpitou outranks him and he is too honorable to ignore orders. Neferpitou then steps off of Kite and walks over to look at Gon and Killua's bodies while Colt flies up in the air ready to snatch Kite and whisk him away. Pitou put a finger to their chin pondering.
"Nyow what to do with the two of you?" Neferpitou thought.