The dragon's breath—enough to erase a mountaintop—naturally wiped out the upper half of Oden Castle.
A pillar of fire cut the night from end to end, stretching for hundreds of meters.
Inside the city, faces went chalk-white.
"A dragon—! A dragon's attacking Oden Castle!"
"Lord Oden!"
"Run—run!"
Atop the dragon's brow, Dimon opened his mouth, helpless:
"That was going to be our castle. One loogie and you've halved it. We'll have to rebuild."
The azure dragon smacked his lips, unsatisfied.
"Not a loogie. Heat Breath," Kaido groused, slitting his reptilian eyes. "The kid still alive?"
Flame-clouds billowed from his claws as he slid over the ruins.
Hundreds of meters away in the treeline, Kozuki Oden knelt on one knee, clothes half-charred, his right arm scorched raw.
"Sss… that hurts!" He sucked in a breath and whipped his head around. "Kin'emon—are you alright?"
He spotted Kin'emon nearby—worse for wear, hair singed to stubble, not a scrap of cloth intact.
"Guh-hah-hah… Took my Heat Breath and only got a burn," Kaido rumbled overhead. "So you did block with Haki."
Oden snapped his gaze up; the dragon had already wheeled back over them.
"A talking dragon—what in the world…!"
He sprang to his feet and drew both blades: Enma and Ame no Habakiri—twin Great Grade swords.
Oden sprinted, vaulted off a rock, and launched skyward.
"Careful. He's not weak," Dimon offered from his premium box seat, still planted on the dragon's crown.
Kaido scoffed. He'd just acquired the Azure Dragon fruit; his confidence was a bonfire.
He opened his jaws and spat a storm of wind blades, keening like kamaitachi.
Oden crossed both forearms, Armament Haki surging across his body, and forced through the gale.
"What—?!" Kaido's eyes widened.
Oden, a streak across the night, slammed into the dragon.
"Oden Two-Sword Style: Paradise Totsuka!"
A cross-shaped slash carved through blue scales; the dragon's flesh split wide.
"GRAAAH!"
Kaido howled, blood pouring in sheets as he plummeted through the canopy.
"Huff… huff…" Oden landed, catching his breath—then his pupils shrank.
The colossal dragon shrunk, condensing into a seven-meter giant of a man. The cross-wound across his chest knit before Oden's eyes; spilled blood flowed back like rewinding film.
"What… is this…?"
Dragon to man—and there was another man besides.
Oden looked up. The one who'd stood on the dragon's brow now hovered in midair, a pair of ink-black wings spread from his back. His eyes were cool, amused.
"Told you he wasn't weak. Need a hand?" Dimon asked.
"I was careless. Don't move. I'm tearing his head off myself," Kaido snarled.
By the time he stood, the wound was gone.
His body swelled into a hybrid form—multi-horned, scale-faced, muscles ballooning, a dragon tail lashing behind. He hefted a spiked kanabō and stalked forward.
"Kozuki Oden—there won't be a second chance."
Oden's face set. He wasn't stupid; he'd seen enough.
He heals instantly. And that winged one's lurking for a clean hit… I need to finish this fast.
But fear? Not a flicker. If anything, he got excited.
He sank his knees—then exploded forward, a shooting star.
"Oden Two-Sword Style: Gun Modoki!"
Steel met iron. The kanabō caught both blades with a crack like lightning.
Armament clashed against Armament; Conqueror's sparked and webbed black-crimson through the air. Thunder boomed again and again.
In the air, Dimon watched. A clash of Kings, but neither's learned coating. Armament is even. This might drag on.
Equals in youth and raw power—but Kaido was immortal now, which meant the last man standing would be Kaido.
Suddenly, Dimon's Observation Haki pricked—several auras, all strong, closing.
"Oden's retainers, huh?"
He smiled, blurred—and vanished.
Six figures sprinted over rugged ground toward the battlefield. A stocky ninja flitted between trunks with startling agility.
Sensing the overlapping auras ahead, Raizo blanched.
"That's Lord Oden's Haki—and another just as fierce. Enemies?!"
Ashura Doji, stout but fast, scowled at the distant crackle of Haki.
Brothers Izo and Kiku no Jo ran side by side—then in the same breath: "Wait—something's wrong!"
The six skidded to a halt. Kurozumi Kanjuro, wielding an enormous brush, pointed into the air.
All eyes locked onto—
"Who goes there?!" Denjiro barked, blade already drawn.
"Good evening."
Dimon drifted down like a feather and landed lightly before them, gaze ticking across each face as he counted.
"Denjiro, Izo, Kikunojo, Kurozumi Kanjuro, Raizo, Ashura Doji…"
Hearing him rattle off every name, their faces changed.
"A human with wings… Who are you?" Raizo demanded.
"You can call me Dimon."
He smiled. His right hand closed on empty air, and demonic force spun into a long, black blade.
He flicked a lazy flourish; a hair-thin sword mark stitched the dirt at their feet.
"Don't cross that line. Friendly warning."
They didn't listen. Denjiro surged to meet him, shouting:
"I'll hold him—go help Lord Oden!"
The formation split—one to engage Dimon, five to sprint past the line.
Dimon sighed, shook his head—and disappeared.
He reappeared in front of the quickest.
Raizo's eyes went wide. "Wha—"
"Thunder Bagua."
Dimon's blade cracked across Izo's cheek like a black bolt, launching him a hundred meters and through a dozen trees.
Everyone froze. So fast.
Dimon snapped his wrist, shedding the air from the blade.
"You ignore a warning," he said pleasantly. "So I'll just brick you into statues."
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