User blog comment:Goregutz619/HXH episode 126 discussion/@comment-24287488-20140424071814/@comment-23822532-20140425170817

Alright, let's see again.

Everytime Meruem feels like his time is 'compressed', Netero is always doing the praying motion, in that moment, Meruem -and Pitou- can only see the afterimages of Netero's hands, that's because he is moving incredibly faster than what they can perceive. Therefore, any attack from the Guanyin looks even faster than they are, because it's attack that is activated with almost no transition, it comes before you can process how and where is it coming from. This is seen perfectly in the animation and for what Meruem states.

"That's it. He brings his hands together to start the attack. That's the only motion he has that far surpasses my speed. Such wasted movement could cost one's life in battle, but now, it works as a wapon that may allow him to defeat me."

This is right after he goes directly at Netero, he sees him pray in slow motion, and the Guanyin smacks him a good one AFTER he moves a little bit closer. Meruem, not really knowledgable of Nen's conditions and stuff like that, calls this movement a 'waste' and something that could cost Netero his life -which is pretty much true-, but it is nonetheless a movement that surpasses his speed. If all of  the Guanyin's movements were like the pray, Meruem's time should be compressed until the Hand lands, meaning, Netero's "order" to the Guanyin, and the Hand itself, lands and Meruem wouldn't have advanced an inch in this process at all. That's why I said Netero could have played with him as he pleased IF he could do that.

So, what influenced in Meruem's "victory" over Netero's style were these:

- As you say, the cause-and-effect type of attack, making Meruem able to see through this process and strike.

- The fact that the Hands are limited by their quantity even though the combination betwen them might be infinite.

- Netero's normal speed -and the Guanyin itself- is arguably the same than the King's, but this would not be enough to beat him because of the cause-and-effect attack, that's why he has a single movement that surpasses Meruem's speed and that allows him to land attacks.

- Meruem's experience on tactics and his almost undestructible body, that's why he carefully endured all of the attacks to define perfectly the possible angle of attacks, memorize them, and then counterattack based on this. It was difficult, as he said, but HE can do it, other oponent would have been totally crushed only by the Ninenty-Nine Hand.