After taking down this meddler, Kaido returned to stand before Bullet. By now, the clothes on Bullet's upper body had completely disappeared. In the earlier battle, his clothes had long since been reduced to tatters, and there was little point in them hanging off him any longer.
As for his pants, everyone knows that pants possess an "eternal" attribute during battles.
"Kid, you still holding up?"
"Are you kidding me? You think this is enough to defeat me?"
His bare upper body was knotted with bulging muscles, and the power in his voice made it clear that Bullet's condition had not been affected in the slightest.
As if to prove he wasn't bluffing, a ferocious aura erupted from Bullet's body once again. Under the effect of that aura, even the air grew heavy, and the scattered gravel and sand on the ground trembled because of it.
His pupils shrank as blue-black streaks once again spread across nearly half the island. Along with the violent winds that swept up, Bullet's Conqueror's Haki burst forth even more intensely than before.
"Worororo, good. Sure enough, you're not a trash who only knows how to talk big."
At this moment, behind Kaido, the sun had just risen above the sea. Today's sun seemed unusually crimson. Though it was the rising sun, it gave off the feeling of a blood-red sunset.
The sunlight was blocked by Kaido's massive figure, casting a long shadow across the ground. As Kaido moved, the shadow shifted with him, forming a sinister grin like that of a demon.
There were no unnecessary words. He simply pushed back with his own Conqueror's Haki. The strength of Conqueror's Haki was not directly tied to raw combat power—it was a manifestation of one's spirit. As the two Haki collided, their auras competed against one another before surging up into the sky together.
However, the clouds above had already been blown away during yesterday's battle. The sky above the island was now completely clear, and the feat of splitting the sky could not be recreated here.
At this moment, the entire island had become a testing ground for Haki. Before the Haki had even dissipated, the battle between the two resumed. Bullet swung a punch through the air, and a blue fist shadow followed in its wake.
Kaido's Hassaikai blocked the attack head-on, but he immediately sensed something wrong. This was completely different from Bullet's earlier punches; it felt more like some kind of unusual solid entity.
Bullet himself had also transformed into a different state. Haki burned over his body like flames, and above his head floated Haki resembling fire. His face turned a ghostly blue tinged with darkness.
His eyes were red like a demon's. Now he seemed to have truly become one.
His muscles swelled, his body grew larger, and both Conqueror's Haki and Armament Haki wrapped around him simultaneously.
With a thunder-like roar, Bullet threw another punch.
"The Strongest Strike!"
Solidified Haki wrapped around the fist shadow. This time, Kaido finally saw the trick behind the attack. This was no longer just a simple punch relying on physique and Haki—it incorporated the power of his Devil Fruit.
It wasn't easy for the Clank-Clank Fruit to combine with Bullet's fighting style, but it wasn't impossible either. The dust scattered throughout the air had become the target for Bullet's fusion.
A single speck of dust was insignificant. But when countless specks of dust combined with his Devil Fruit ability and were enveloped by his Haki, they became invisible fists. Even in long-range attacks, they could unleash power close to that of close combat.
What looked like a single punch actually meant that, in that moment, far more than one fist was striking Kaido.
Yet when that round of attacks ended, what Bullet saw was only a barrier slowly dissipating.
"Worororo, my opinion of you just rose a few points. Looks like you're worth me getting serious!"
"My, my, how terrifying. These two monsters really did hide quite a few tricks."
A day later, Shanks was standing on the shores of Kuja, observing the battle in the distance. Even from so far away, he could roughly grasp the situation through his own perception.
Kaido and Bullet were fighting, and as a spectator who only watched and didn't participate, he expended very little stamina. That made him the only one who had been continuously paying attention to the battle.
Moreover, he served another purpose standing here: acting as a human shield. The scattered Kuja members along the shore who had yet to wake up were proof of that.
As the two fought more and more fiercely, the range of their Conqueror's Haki spread wider and wider, and even the Kuja at this distance were being affected.
The situation here was still relatively good. These were all Kuja warriors, so not many had fainted. The areas where the ordinary Kuja residents lived were affected the most.
Even Uta had a headache from that Haki, which was why Shanks ultimately stepped forward.
"You guys sure are carefree. The one fighting over there is your captain."
Glancing behind him, Shanks noticed that the members of the Beasts Pirates were unusually relaxed. Olga had moved a beach chair and was sunbathing, Mandrell had dug a pit on the beach and was playing in the water with Maylo.
Meanwhile, Meowna and Wolff were busy thanking the "gifts from heaven."
Because of Kaido and Bullet's battle, the nearby marine life had suffered terribly. Many scallops, sea urchins, and the like had been knocked unconscious by the shockwaves and washed up onto the shore. After some simple preparation, they became natural food.
"It's precisely because he's the captain that we're at ease. This isn't a few years ago anymore. How could he lose?"
"Yeah, that's Governor-General Kaido. Why would we worry about him being defeated?"
The days when he was frequently defeated were many years in the past. The current Kaido was an invincible symbol within the Beasts Pirates.
In their hearts, whether it was the Demon Heir or the Successor of the Demon, neither could defeat a true demon. [TN: Successor of the Demon is just an epithet given by the Chinese fan community.]
"But what if he actually loses?"
"Lose? Mandrell, do you think we should rename ourselves the Yamato Pirates or the Arceus Pirates?"
"Boss Shayna wouldn't support that name. Miss Yamato might, though. She'd probably celebrate first and then go try to avenge the Governor-General."
"You guys really do trust him a lot. But it seems today's battle is about to end."
In Shanks's perception, both auras had already reached their peaks and had maintained that for quite some time. Logically speaking, it was about time for the battle to be decided.
Bang!
Fists and kanabo crossed past each other. Bullet's punch struck Kaido in the stomach, while Kaido's kanabo smashed into Bullet's shoulder. At this moment, Bullet's condition was no longer as good as before, and several purple marks had appeared on his body.
That wasn't the Clank-Clank Fruit activating its ability; it was simply the appearance of blood under the reflection of Haki.
His punch made Kaido's body bend slightly, but the force on his shoulder pierced straight through his Haki defense and injured the bones in his shoulder.
"Worororo, looks like your Haki reserves have reached their limit. How much longer can you keep going?"
"I can keep going… until I kill you!"
Too immersed in the battle, Bullet failed to notice that he had already entered a mode of trading injuries for injuries. If both sides entered such a state at the same time, it wouldn't matter much.
But now it was Bullet alone who had fallen into that state, while Kaido still appeared completely at ease. Without a doubt, Bullet had already fallen into a disadvantage.
That last strike had already injured Bullet's bones, and the muscles had suffered severe bruising. Yet he still didn't retreat. Instead, he forcibly controlled his injured body and pulled himself together.
"Twenty-three years ago, those Marine b*stards locked me up in Impel Down. But I discovered that Level 6 was actually a pretty good place. It was quiet, perfect for harsh training, and those pirates all had their own strengths.
Even in prison, those guys weren't obedient. In the slaughter inside that prison, I gradually came to understand their physical skills and began extracting the useful parts."
The aura that had been spilling outward began to retract. The Haki wrapped around his body faded as Bullet's power gradually gathered into his right fist.
"So this will be my strongest blow. If you've got the guts… try blocking it!"
Haki seemed to ignite within Bullet's pupils. The aura that had withdrawn back into his body erupted completely at that moment. Conqueror's Haki, Armament Haki, his own blood and vitality—everything within him that could be used became the driving force behind this punch.
"Annihilation Cannon!"
The rocks blasted into the air by the surging winds were crushed into powder invisible to the naked eye the instant they touched the force of Bullet's punch, like they had been erased from existence, as if they had never existed at all.
Seeing this punch, Kaido did not show the slightest fear. Instead, he burst into wild laughter.
"Worororo, excellent! Only he can charge this thing. I didn't want to waste it here, but it seems you're worthy of this move!"
A layer of crystal wrapped around Kaido's skin and was dyed purple by the energy overflowing from within his body. At that moment, Kaido looked like a demonic dragon walking out of hell, and with the swing of his kanabo, the shadow of a dragon from hell seemed to appear.
"Lord of Death Legendary Dragon Bagua!"
The demon and the demonic dragon collided. Satisfied smiles appeared on both their lips, but in the instant of the clash, a saying that circulated across the seas suddenly came to Bullet's mind.
[As a pirate, he had been defeated seven times, captured by enemy ships or Marines eighteen times, tortured countless times, and sentenced to death forty times.
Yet the noose would snap, the guillotine would shatter.
In a one-on-one fight, the strongest might very well be Kaido.
Among all living creatures on land, sea, and air, the only one who could surpass him might be the even more terrifying monster by his side.]
"This is my final respect for you!"
His arm trembled. Bullet's body was warning him that if he didn't leave now, he would die.
And at that moment, something like a flickering montage of memories appeared before his eyes.
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