Boom!
A dozen or so minutes later, a ferocious azure dragon came flying in from the distant horizon.
The dragon hadn't even arrived yet when an overwhelming wave of Conqueror's Haki crashed over them like a mountain collapse and a tidal wave. The invisible pressure blanketed the entire Flower Capital with terrifying force.
Before the man himself even appeared, that monstrous Haki had already crushed many people.
All across the Flower Capital, people's eyes rolled back and they collapsed on the spot.
The moment Rowan felt that overwhelming Conqueror's Haki, the Conqueror's Haki inside his own body instantly pushed back.
Black-red lightning exploded outward.
A wave of Conqueror's Haki even more domineering than Kaido's slammed back into him, and the moment the two clashed, the clouds above were torn apart.
Everyone looked up and saw what looked like a huge wound split open across the sky.
Caught between these two terrifying bursts of Haki, the people of the Flower Capital could no longer endure it. Large numbers of them dropped unconscious one after another.
The once-lively capital fell deathly silent in an instant. You could hear a pin drop.
Then a wild laugh rang out from the sky.
Kaido was excited.
He had just received word that some group of nobodies from who-knew-where had attacked the shogun's palace and intended to liberate Wano.
At first, he assumed it was just another batch of trash.
But he hadn't expected to run into a real monster.
There was no mistake. Conqueror's Haki on this level was even stronger than his own. The other side had to be a true top-tier powerhouse.
He had no idea where such a monster had come from, but as long as there was a fight to be had, Kaido was happy.
So first, a little greeting.
Flying high in the sky, Kaido took a deep breath and spat downward.
"Heat Breath!!!"
A torrent of blazing fire shot down from the sky toward Rowan's group, carrying enough penetrating force to vaporize a mountain.
Just as Hashirama brought his hands together, preparing to intercept it—
Whoosh!
Ryuma, who had been sitting atop the ruined shogun's palace roof, suddenly leapt into the air. Shusui flashed from its sheath, and Armament Haki exploded around it.
Flying Slash!!!
A pitch-black sword wave over a hundred meters long, wrapped in Armament Haki, shot straight at Kaido.
When the descending Heat Breath collided with that black slash, it failed to break it. Instead, the slash split the flames clean in two.
After tearing through the Heat Breath, the flying slash shot upward and reached Kaido almost instantly.
Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger!!!
Kaido's Observation Haki screamed a warning and instantly showed him the future three seconds ahead.
His supposedly invincible body was being torn open by that slash, leaving behind a wound deep enough to expose bone.
At the critical moment, Kaido's massive body shrank in an instant, transforming into his several-meter-tall hybrid dragon-man form.
His kanabo wrapped in powerful Armament Haki as he smashed it down at the oncoming black slash.
"Thunder Bagua!!!"
Boom!!!
The two completely different forces collided in an instant, erupting in a deafening blast. The shockwave that followed was so immense that even space itself seemed to ripple in translucent rings.
Savage, terrifying, surging, and carrying enough force to annihilate everything, the shockwave spread outward in a giant sphere through the air.
Thankfully, this clash happened in midair.
If it had happened on the ground, half the Flower Capital would have been reduced to dust on the spot.
After breaking through the black slash, Kaido himself was blasted upward like a cannonball, flying more than a hundred meters before finally stopping.
He glanced at his palm. Thin lines of blood were seeping out.
His face darkened.
He had been injured from just one exchange.
It was only a minor wound, but that alone proved the enemy was no weaker than he was.
What made him feel even more cursed was that the one who had unleashed that absurd Conqueror's Haki and the one who had launched that flying slash were clearly not the same person, but two different people.
One had outrageously strong Conqueror's Haki.
The other had outrageously strong Armament Haki—and was also a top-tier great swordsman.
Wasn't that lineup a little too broken?
No one had told him these people were this strong.
Kaido regretted it. He had been too reckless. The moment he heard someone was trying to liberate Wano, he had rushed over alone without even checking the situation.
One-on-one, he truly didn't fear anyone. That was just how confident Kaido of the Beasts was.
But what if the other side didn't fight fair and just jumped him all at once?
Even two fists couldn't block four hands.
Maybe he should retreat for now and come back after gathering his forces?
The moment that thought appeared, Kaido threw it out of his head.
Retreat? Impossible. Not in this lifetime.
Did he, Kaido, have no pride?
If he ran back now to call for reinforcements, then once word got out, everyone would think Kaido was afraid of them.
And when you lived by the sword, what mattered most was your face.
If he slunk back in full view of everyone today, then by tomorrow the whole of Wano would know, and everyone would think Kaido was washed up.
Not just the other Emperors—even some random little nobodies would start laughing at him.
So retreat was not an option.
And if he couldn't retreat, then there was only one thing left to do.
Fight.
The enemy was strong, sure. But that didn't make Kaido weak. He refused to believe some bunch of freaks from nowhere could actually defeat him.
With that thought, Kaido kicked off the air with a heavy stomp.
Bang!
The air exploded beneath his foot.
A ring-shaped shockwave burst outward under him.
He himself shot downward like a falling cannonball, hurtling straight at the swordsman below, his kanabo raised high before slamming down at Ryuma in midair.
"Great Mighty Thunder Bagua!!!"
Terrifying Conqueror's Haki wrapped around the kanabo, its condensed lightning like a miniature nuclear blast as it crashed down on Ryuma.
"Dragon-Slayer!!!"
Facing Kaido's all-out strike, Ryuma responded without hesitation with the legendary technique said to cut down even a flying dragon.
The pitch-black supreme blade Shusui and Kaido's kanabo smashed into each other head-on.
Boom!!!
A roar like a nuclear detonation tore through the sky. The massive shockwave swept in every direction, and the violent air blast ripped apart anything in its path like a tornado crossing the land.
The power of that exchange was simply too great. Not just the sky—even the ground suffered catastrophic aftershocks.
Within the Flower Capital, every building taller than twenty meters suffered devastation. Hit by the remaining shockwaves from that enormous clash, they were instantly reduced to dust.
~~~
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