Do not misunderstand. The Kaido summoned by Rowan was naturally not the real Kaido.
Rather, after Rowan switched to the Bake-danuki Fruit, he used the Bake-danuki Fruit's ability to summon Kaido from his memories.
He was not the real Kaido, and his strength could not compare to the real Kaido's, but he still possessed nearly half of Kaido's power.
Kairouta was completely stunned.
He had originally thought that he himself was already a burly yokai.
But when he saw Kaido, he finally understood what true burly size meant. That enormous seven-meter-tall body and those bulging muscles all spoke of the other party's strength.
When Kairouta saw the two horns on Kaido's head, he could not help whispering, "An oni?"
He felt that standing in front of Kaido made him seem like a child who had not yet grown up.
This height was way too ridiculous.
Kaido lowered his head and looked at Kairouta.
"Interesting. Are you the challenger this time? Come. Let me see how strong you are, and whether you have the ability to kill me."
The moment his voice fell, invisible pressure erupted violently. Ripples visible to the naked eye began appearing in the air.
The overwhelming Conqueror's Haki pressed down on Kairouta unreasonably.
Kairouta's hands began to tremble.
This was not because he was afraid. He considered himself powerful and would not easily fear an enemy.
But this trembling was completely beyond the control of his will. It was like the marrow deep inside his bones was trembling on its own, like every drop of blood inside his body was screaming to flee from the existence of the man before him.
At that moment, Kairouta suddenly understood.
This trembling had nothing to do with his will. It was purely the instinctive reaction of life when facing death.
This also meant that between him and his opponent, there was an insurmountable gulf.
"You're actually not running?"
Kaido chuckled.
However, that chuckle made Kairouta feel unprecedented humiliation.
Kairouta clenched his teeth, a low roar seeping through the gaps. It was the final stubbornness of a beast forced into a dead end.
Then he moved, charging straight toward Kaido.
It looked stupid, but this was his way of fighting.
He raised his iron club high. Ghostly blue light wandered across the club, which was his fear gathering. The light climbed, coiled, and exploded across the iron club's surface, releasing powerful force.
Every step he took on the ground left a footprint several inches deep.
The club fell with that light, as if it intended to smash Kaido to pieces.
However, Kaido only casually extended one hand and broke Kairouta's attack.
His five fingers gripped the top of the iron club.
Before Kairouta could make any reaction, he and the club were already lifted together.
His huge body was like a light bamboo pole in Kaido's hand. The instant his feet left the ground,
Kaido swung him over his head and smashed him down.
Boom!
The ground exploded.
Under this smash, the floor burst outward in every direction. Golden fragments shot out like pieces of cannon shrapnel, nailing countless pits into the walls.
Kairouta's body was embedded in the shattered ground. His ribs let out groans on the verge of breaking, and blood sprayed from his mouth.
Kaido released his hand and took a step back.
He lowered his head and looked at Kairouta lying in the crater, as if he were looking at a stone that had not yet completely shattered.
"Still not dead?"
This rather surprised Kaido. He had thought this guy would be smashed to death on the spot by him. Unexpectedly, he had survived.
This physique was comparable to the Tobiroppo under his command.
A few seconds later, Kairouta's fingers moved. Then his hand. Then his arm.
He propped himself up from the crater, and fragments slid down from his body. Blood flowed down from his forehead, passed the corner of his eye, and gathered into drops at his jaw.
His vision was dyed red, but within that redness, he saw Kaido's position clearly.
He raised the iron club again, and powerful strength gathered on it once more.
This time, the light was even more blazing than before, changing from ghostly blue to purple-white. It was the sign that he had poured all of his fear into the weapon.
This time, the light no longer merely clung to the surface of the iron club. Instead, it fused with the club, turning the entire iron club into a pillar of light forged from pure radiance.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!"
Kairouta roared as he swung his second strike.
This strike was faster than the first, and its power was fiercer than the first.
Kaido tilted his head by a very small margin, just enough for the iron club to brush past his ear and smash onto his shoulder.
A dull thud rang out. Kaido remained unmoved. That fierce and surging attack, powerful enough to crack monuments, split stone, turn rocks to dust, and reduce steel to mud, landed on Kaido's body like the fist of a three-year-old child.
Weak and powerless.
It did not cause Kaido the slightest damage.
At the same time, Kaido's right fist rose from below like a giant cannon suddenly firing upward, striking Kairouta squarely in the abdomen.
That punch had no technique name, no charge-up, and could not even be considered a true attack from Kaido in any meaningful sense.
It was merely an extremely casual punch.
But Kairouta's body bent into an angle that defied common sense in that instant. His whole body shot upward like a bullet, crashing through the dome of the Golden Theater and smashing through those enormous golden reliefs. Then, after briefly stopping at the highest point, he began falling downward.
Thud!
He heavily smashed back into the center of the stage.
Golden fragments fell after him like a rainstorm, striking around him and producing dense metallic sounds.
Kaido had not moved a step from beginning to end. He stood in the golden wreckage, looking at Kairouta as he lay in the ruins, gasping.
Kairouta's ears were ringing. In his vision, Kaido's figure flickered between clear and dim, sometimes splitting into two, sometimes blurring into one mass.
He could feel that at least three of his ribs were broken. Some unknown part of the bone in his left arm had cracked. Every breath felt like a red-hot piece of iron had been stuffed into his chest.
But he still stood up.
For the third time.
This surprised Kaido somewhat. After being beaten to this state by him, he could still stand up.
Perhaps this guy's strength was not great, but his willpower was absolutely top-tier.
"Perhaps I underestimated you."
At this moment, Kaido's form changed.
Blue-green scales began emerging on his skin. From his shoulder blades to his arms, from his back to his waist and abdomen, those scales spread, covered, and formed as if alive.
His body swelled, his bones lengthened, and a thick dragon tail extended from the end of his spine. Curved dragon horns grew from his head.
The outline of a human was fading away, replaced by something older, a form belonging to the age of myth.
Hybrid form.
Among Kaido's three forms, this was the form with the most balanced offense and defense. He no longer faced this battle with a contemptuous attitude.
Although the other party was weak, his willpower was tenacious. He was a decent opponent, worthy of Kaido taking things a little seriously.
At the same time, Kairouta launched his third attack.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
He roared and bellowed, raising the iron club high, staking all his strength, all his fighting spirit, and all his dignity as a yokai on this strike.
This was a strike where he squeezed out all of his yokai aura and even bet his vitality.
After this strike, the yokai who originally possessed a long lifespan visibly aged.
But its power swelled rapidly like an inflating balloon.
He leapt high, and the club smashed down toward the top of Dragon-Man Kaido's head.
Facing this fierce, surging attack that staked everything,
Kaido raised his right arm.
A layer of black-red light wrapped around the kanabo in his right hand. That was Conqueror's Haki coating, the ultimate technique of compressing, condensing, and attaching the kingly power capable of making heaven and earth change color to the surface of an attack.
Black-red lightning continuously burst out from the wrapped Haki, carrying unparalleled power as he swung it fiercely.
"Thunder Bagua."
At the same time those four words fell, the Conqueror's-coated kanabo collided with Kairouta's iron club.
At that moment, the Golden Theater became as bright as day.
Immediately after, under this strike, Kairouta's iron club began shattering from the tip, inch by inch, into powder. Before absolute power, it could not last even a single breath.
The webbing between Kairouta's thumbs and forefingers burst open at the same time. Before the blood could land, it was evaporated by the shockwave born from the collision of the two forces.
His arms, shoulders, ribs—every bone in his body made cracking sounds simultaneously, like a mountain collapsing from within.
He flew backward faster than ever before.
His body bounced across the golden ground, fell, bounced again, and every impact left behind a patch of blood.
When he finally stopped, he was already lying at the very edge of the stage, half his body hanging beyond the shattered golden floor.
Kaido dispersed his dragon-man form. His scales faded, his dragon horns withdrew, and he returned to his human form.
He walked up to Kairouta and lowered his head to look at the yokai lying amid blood and golden fragments.
Kairouta's eyes were still open.
"Can you still stand?" Kaido asked.
Kairouta did not answer, because his consciousness had already blurred to the extreme. Yet something still burned in those eyes—the purest instinct belonging to a warrior.
This made Kaido admire him greatly.
"If it were the real me, seeing this, I would probably have invited you to join my pirate crew."
He knew very well that he was only a substitute summoned by Rowan from memory. Meeting such a pure warrior yet being unable to take him under his command was truly a pity.
However, Kairouta did not hear what Kaido said at all. He merely raised his only right hand that could still move, clenched it into a fist, and punched toward Kaido's lower leg.
That punch could not even touch Kaido's skin. It lost all its strength halfway and fell heavily to the ground, making a dull, soft sound.
The light in his eyes dimmed bit by bit.
But those eyes never closed.
~~~
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