"He was cut!!"
Seeing Kaido being wounded, Sanji was completely shocked.
His eyes widened as he exclaimed:
"Hey, moss-head! Isn't your swordsmanship supposed to be amazing?! Luffy doesn't even understand swordsmanship… and he still managed to cut Kaido!!"
He still remembered perfectly the absurd resilience of that monster.
Sanji had fought Kaido before and knew very well how terrifying that man's body was.
Kaido was the kind of monster who could simply stand still and let someone attack him.
Even then, he would endure it until the very end.
Sanji had only managed to partially break the opponent's dragon scales while in his most powerful state, using his blue flames in the Ifrit Jambe form.
Faced with such an absurd provocation, Zoro rarely had the opportunity to respond.
The corner of his mouth twitched.
He answered irritably:
"Luffy isn't using swordsmanship…"
He pointed toward the sky.
"It's the power of the Gura Gura no Mi. That isn't a cut… it's Devil Fruit power!"
After that, Zoro began muttering incomprehensible things.
Something about "a guy without a swordsman's spirit" and other confusing complaints.
That made Nico Robin laugh softly.
For a moment, the air around the Straw Hat Pirates was filled with a strange sense of joy.
They were simply talking and laughing.
Without any kind of tension.
Watching that, Hiyori fell into a daze.
She couldn't understand it.
There was no tension…
Even in the face of a battle between monsters of that level.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a massive explosion echoed.
Kaido fell from the sky.
He landed heavily on the ground with both feet.
Holding his club in one hand, he touched the wound on his chest with the other.
In his mind, he couldn't stop replaying the moment he had been struck.
That was not a normal cut.
It was the power of the Gura Gura no Mi.
Luffy had created an extremely compressed vibration space.
That space had been shaped into the form of a blade and attached to the sword.
In truth, he had not been cut by a blade.
His body had been cut by the compressed force of an earthquake.
That was why his wound looked so strange.
It wasn't a clean cut.
The area was completely bloodied and full of cracks.
As if the flesh had been crushed from the inside.
Blood continued to flow without stopping.
Within seconds, the ground beneath his feet was completely red.
Not far away, Luffy slowly descended from the air.
He was still holding the black blade Shusui.
"Your Haki is starting to weaken," Luffy said calmly.
"A person's Haki changes along with their physical condition."
He continued explaining:
"When someone is young, their Haki is strong."
"When they grow old, when their strength and energy decline… their Haki weakens."
"In the same way, when someone gets injured… their Haki also becomes weaker."
Kaido looked at him in silence.
But Luffy continued speaking.
"But don't worry."
He pointed the sword slightly.
"The last time I was in your territory, you gave me a sea chart."
"At that time, I said that the next time I came… I would spare your life once."
Thanks to that map, he had saved the life of Boa Hancock.
Hearing that, Kaido's eyes turned cold.
But after a few seconds…
He started laughing.
Kaido had lost many times in his life.
This was not the first time he had been defeated.
He had lost to Edward Newgate.
He had also lost to the red-haired boy, Shanks.
He had been captured by the Marines countless times in his youth.
But no one had ever managed to kill him.
He had grown so bored with his own life that he had tried to commit suicide many times.
And he never succeeded.
Even when he threw himself into the sea, the seawater merely weakened him.
But he could still breathe.
After all, the power he had eaten was the Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu.
His subordinates always ended up rescuing him.
He had even tried to break the rule of Devil Fruits by eating a second fruit.
All he gained was intense pain.
But even that didn't kill him.
He had also eaten a SMILE produced by Donquixote Doflamingo.
But it had no effect whatsoever.
It neither failed nor worked.
It was like eating an ordinary fruit.
The strongest creature in the world.
That was how the world described him.
But Kaido felt no happiness about it.
Having no rivals made the world boring.
He burst into loud laughter.
"Wahahaha!"
Then he said:
"Don't say such cold words."
His eyes shone.
"If you think you can kill me… then try! A mere wound won't weaken my Haki!"
BOOM!
The Haki that had weakened began exploding again.
And surprisingly, it seemed even more intense than before.
Luffy raised his eyebrows.
"So you've decided to stop holding back?"
Then he smiled.
"You want to die that badly?"
He raised the sword.
"Then I'll grant your wish!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he shot forward.
Granting Kaido's wish for death seemed perfectly acceptable to him.
Kaido also charged immediately.
The club in his hand spun like a hurricane.
The two collided like lightning.
The blade and the club clashed repeatedly.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Each impact produced deafening explosions that made the air vibrate.
"What kind of monster is this…?" Kyoshiro said in disbelief.
"Kaido seems stronger than before!"
Marco narrowed his eyes.
"He's forcing his own body. Kaido is using Haki without worrying about the strain."
It was similar to what Whitebeard had done during the Battle of Marineford.
Using Haki beyond the body's limits.
The final result was consuming one's own vitality.
Law spoke immediately:
"We need to retreat!"
"The fight between those two is getting more intense! This place will be engulfed!"
He instantly opened his spherical space.
"ROOM!"
In the next moment, everyone was teleported to the entrance of the Flower Capital.
And exactly when they disappeared—
BOOM!
A violent shockwave fell from the sky.
The enormous Torii gate below the stairs was instantly destroyed.
It was the entrance gate of a shrine.
It symbolized the boundary between the human world and the realm of the gods.
Behind it stood a long staircase leading directly to the Flower Capital.
Now…
Not only had the torii been destroyed.
Even part of the stairs had been pulverized.
And that had not been a deliberate attack.
It was merely an accidental consequence of the battle between two Emperors of the Sea.
Meanwhile, at the center of the battlefield—
Luffy was laughing loudly.
"Hahaha! Are you already out of strength? Your attacks have gotten weak, Kaido!!"
While resisting Kaido's storm-like assault, he still had time to provoke him.
Kaido didn't respond.
But his club began moving even faster.
Luffy dodged.
The weapon struck the ground.
BOOM!
Everything within a hundred-meter radius was destroyed.
A massive crater instantly appeared.
Kaido frowned.
Damn it… he thought.
He couldn't hit him.
Suddenly—
Puff!
A sharp pain appeared in his arm.
He had been cut again.
More blood began to flow.
Luffy then stepped back several meters.
He smiled.
"I'll show you something interesting."
He slammed his palm onto the ground.
"Planetary Devastation!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A gigantic earthquake began around the Flower Capital.
The ground around Kaido started moving.
It looked alive.
Enormous masses of earth rose up.
They began closing around him.
"What is this?!"
Kaido shattered the first layer with a swing of his club.
But immediately, new layers of earth appeared.
More and more.
Within seconds, he was completely surrounded.
The ground enveloped him.
Forming a gigantic sphere of earth.
The ball slowly began rising into the sky.
Its diameter exceeded hundreds of meters.
But soon it began compressing.
One hundred meters…
Fifty…
Twenty…
Less than ten meters.
Meanwhile, more rocks began tearing free from the land.
As if drawn by an invisible gravitational force.
All of them flew toward that artificial star that had appeared in the sky.
(End of Chapter)