Kaido sat cross-legged on the shattered deck, his spiked club resting horizontally across his knees, the lingering sunlight casting a 'master's' glow on his blue-green scales, giving this fearsome Four Emperors a surprising aura. He nodded slightly: "A kid with resolve."
"I'm ready!" Luffy eagerly took up a fighting stance.
Kaido slowly rose, the hassaikai spinning lightly in his hand, causing bursts of thunder: "Listen carefully, this strike is different from before."
His voice suddenly deepened, and black-red Conqueror's Haki lightning began to jump around his body, "I'm going to teach you Conquerors Haki Infusion. This strike... will carry my Conqueror's Haki."
As he spoke, the spikes on his spiked club were suddenly enveloped by a layer of solid-like black-red energy, which flowed like a living thing, emitting a heart-pounding 'crackling' sound.
The surrounding air began to distort, and the Merry's planks trembled uncontrollably.
"The attack power will be very high," Kaido's pupils contracted slightly. He bared his teeth, revealing his stark white fangs, "You could really die if you're not careful. It's still not too late to regret it now."
Luffy paused: "Huh? Didn't you say I'm the protagonist and won't die?"
"That's fiction," Kaido scoffed, his dragon tail impatiently slapping the deck. "In reality..." His gaze suddenly became distant, as if piercing through the clouds to look at the universe, "Pirate King or whatever, it's not even a grain of sand in the vast universe." His tone was one of profound indifference.
But Luffy simply pulled down his Straw Hat, revealing his characteristic brilliant smile: "Doesn't matter! I'm the man who's going to be the Pirate King!"
This statement made Kaido's dragon eyes widen slightly. Once upon a time, he also harbored the same ambition... But now, looking at this naive rubber boy in front of him, he felt a long-lost sense of interest.
"Interesting." Kaido suddenly raised his spiked club high, Conqueror's Haki lightning pouring down like a waterfall, "Then let me see if your capacity is worthy of that statement!"
"Thunder Bagua: Ultimate Haoshoku Haki Teaching Version!"
Heaven and earth lost their color!
The black-red energy torrent transformed into a ferocious giant dragon, opening its bloody maw and lunging at Luffy. Wherever it passed, space twisted and shattered, and the sea surface was plowed into hundred-meter deep gullies by the aftermath.
Luffy's eyes widened. Before the destructive energy reached him, he instinctively stretched out his hands, Armament Haki covering them, and Conqueror's Haki also automatically emerged from his body.
"Boom!!!"
Blinding light swallowed everything.
"Bang--!!!"
A deafening crash echoed through the sky, and Luffy's body shot out like a cannonball!
Kaido's spiked club, infused with Conqueror's Haki, instantly shattered Luffy's Armament Haki defense on his arms upon contact. His rubber body twisted and deformed in the air, the generated wind even tearing a rip in the Merry's main sail.
"Luffy!!" Nami's shriek pierced the air.
In the nick of time, a pink beam shot out from the ship's side—
"Slow-Slow Beam~!"
Foxy's signature move accurately hit Luffy in mid-air. The rubber boy's body suddenly seemed to be put on slow motion, drawing a slow parabola in the air.
This buffer finally gave Usopp a chance to throw his special rope: "Sure-Kill: Lifeline!"
The rope coiled around Luffy's waist like a nimble snake, but the terrifying inertia still dragged Usopp forward, the long-nosed sniper's feet scraping two trails of smoke on the deck: "Help, help me—!"
"Mille Fleur: Grand Jacquelina!"
Robin's slender hands bloomed on the deck, dozens of arms forming a buffer net. Zoro and Sanji leaped up simultaneously, one grabbing the end of the rope, the other using Diable Jambe to brace against the ship's side. With the combined efforts of the three, the rope became taut, emitting a groaning 'creak' under the strain.
"Quick, connect to Chopper the big streamer! Prepare for emergency aid!" Nami directed everyone to slowly pull Luffy back.
When Luffy was finally safely placed on the deck, everyone gasped. Blood gushed from the boy's forehead, staining the Straw Hat's lining dark red. His arms were unnaturally twisted, and black-red electrical burn marks remained on his skin.
Before he finished speaking, Kaido's massive figure already loomed over them. Everyone instantly tensed. Zoro's three swords simultaneously unsheathed, and Sanji's right foot ignited with blazing red flames.
He really wants to kill Luffy!
"Ugorororo..." Kaido, unexpectedly, squatted down, his dragon claw gently pressing on Luffy's chest, "Not bad, still alive after taking my full-power Conquerors Haki Infusion..."
As if to confirm his words, the unconscious Luffy unconsciously wiggled his fingers.
The live stream chat was completely insane at this moment:
"He's not dead after that? That's ridiculous!"
"Taking a direct hit from a Four Emperors' Conquerors Haki Infusion, he should at least be a vegetable if not dead!"
"The protagonist's halo is too absurd!"
On the distant horizon, the three Marine Vice Admirals who witnessed the entire event fell silent. Yamakaji silently lit a new cigar: "Are we... still fighting?"
Onigumo slowly sheathed his eight swords: "Are we going to chase him just to die?"
Strowberry looked at his singed long beard and sighed deeply: "Don't rush, Headquarters has already sent Admiral Borsalino. We just need to wait."
In front,
"Ugh... Conqueror's Haki..."
Luffy's body suddenly twitched slightly on the deck, his blood-stained lips moving as he uttered incoherent murmurs. Usopp's hand was still suspended in mid-air, and the bandage clattered to the ground.
"It's just... according to will... to infuse..."
With that murmur, a wisp of golden lightning suddenly flickered at Luffy's blood-stained fingertips. The lightning spread along his arm like a living thing, forming a golden protective film on the surface of his skin.
"On the body's surface... increase attack..."
A chilling thing happened—Luffy's body actually stood upright on its own, defying the laws of physics! His knees didn't bend, and his waist didn't exert force, as if he were suspended by invisible threads, slowly floating into the air.
"What's so hard about this!"
Luffy suddenly opened his eyes, golden lightning bursting forth from them as if solidified!
Even more astonishingly, his entire body was now enveloped in a flowing golden energy, which moved like a living thing across his skin, emitting a heart-pounding 'crackling' sound.
"Con... Conqueror's Haki Infusion?!" Nami's voice changed pitch.
Kaido's dragon eyes contracted to pinprick size. As a master of Conqueror's Haki application, he knew better than anyone what this scene meant.
This was not a simple externalization of Haki, but the ultimate technique of truly 'infusing' Conqueror's Haki into every inch of one's skin!
.....
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"