Kaido forcibly steadied his swaying body.
Then, to everyone's disbelief, he simply charged straight through the golden shock waves Sengoku sent after him.
He did not dodge.
He did not slow down.
Each blast carried enough destructive force to kill even a notorious pirate outright, yet Kaido took them head-on, his monstrous body enduring one impact after another.
At that moment, he looked less like a man and more like some enraged beast from a forgotten age.
His eyes burned with blood-red fury as he launched himself toward the outer edge of Marine Headquarters.
"Bolo Breath!"
A blazing torrent erupted from his jaws.
The heat distorted everything in its path, scorching the air itself as it tore through the structures ahead.
"Demolition Gust!"
Kaido followed with a sweep of his claws.
Black wind blades screamed outward, slicing indiscriminately through walls, fortifications, and anything else that happened to stand in his way.
Then Hassaikai appeared in his grasp.
"Thunder Bagua!"
Black-and-red lightning erupted around the kanabo as Kaido swung it wildly through the battlefield.
BOOM!
Every strike came with a thunderous explosion.
Kaido did not care what he hit.
Buildings.
Defenses.
Marines.
None of it mattered anymore.
There was only one thought in his mind.
Get out.
King was not here.
This place had given him nothing but frustration and rage, so Kaido intended to tear apart as much of Marineford as possible on his way out.
Sengoku continued hammering him with golden shock waves.
Each impact left scorched wounds across the Azure Dragon's enormous body.
Blood ran freely between his shattered scales.
Kaido ignored it all.
If anything, he moved faster.
He was deliberately trading injury for distance, forcing his way forward through every attack rather than wasting time defending himself.
The sight chilled the Marines trying to stop him.
No matter how hard Sengoku hit him, Kaido kept moving.
No matter how much blood he lost, he refused to slow down.
He was completely insane.
A monster who could neither be killed nor stopped.
Under Sengoku's relentless assault, Kaido carved a path of destruction straight through Marine Headquarters, smashing his way toward the harbor like a living natural disaster.
Then his voice thundered across the entire battlefield.
"BULLET!"
Kaido twisted his enormous dragon body toward the sea.
"We've had our fun!"
His wings spread wide.
"TIME TO GO!"
The Azure Dragon began changing course toward the waters beyond the harbor even while Sengoku's attacks continued striking him from behind.
Powerful winds erupted from the movement of his enormous body, knocking nearby Marines off their feet.
...
Bullet heard him.
The colossal magma giant was still locked in battle with Magellan and the surviving Marines, thoroughly enjoying himself.
At Kaido's shout, however, the feverish battle lust in his eyes cooled slightly.
He paused.
Then glanced toward Kaido.
The Azure Dragon was already withdrawing under fire, his body carrying obvious wounds but his overwhelming presence no weaker for them.
Bullet then looked around at Marineford.
The once-imposing fortress of Absolute Justice had been reduced to a burning ruin.
Walls had collapsed.
Towers had fallen.
Flames spread through entire districts.
Smoke and the stench of scorched stone filled the air.
For a moment, regret flashed across Bullet's face.
He was nowhere near finished.
Magellan's poison was troublesome, certainly.
But that was exactly why Bullet had been enjoying the fight so much.
His newly acquired powers still needed refinement, and Magellan was the perfect opponent to test them against.
Every attempt to resist the poison taught Bullet more about how to manipulate his magma and Clank-Clank Fruit abilities.
Every corrosive attack forced him to improve.
Even the Marine officers throwing themselves into battle despite knowing they might die only made his blood boil hotter.
Their stubborn resistance made the fight worth having.
He wanted more.
But then Bullet remembered Ron.
That calm gaze before they had left.
The unmistakable warning behind it.
Kaido and Bullet had not been sent here to fight until one of them dropped.
This was a reconnaissance mission.
Cause chaos.
Test Marineford's response.
Learn whether the God's Knights would appear.
And if the situation demanded it—
withdraw.
Bullet had practically begged Ron for the chance to come out and fight in the first place.
There was no way in hell he was going to ruin Ron's plans after finally being allowed off the leash.
...
If Bullet let his desire for a good fight interfere with Ron's plans by even the slightest amount, the punishment waiting for him would be far more terrifying than facing the entirety of Marine Headquarters.
That was not a consequence he had any intention of experiencing.
He could already imagine it.
If he really screwed this up, he would probably be locked away again for who knew how long.
And the next time he wanted permission to come out and fight?
Forget it.
"Tch! Consider yourselves lucky!"
Bullet spat irritably, sparks spraying from the enormous magma mouth of his colossal form.
Then the giant began to collapse.
Its towering body rapidly shrank as layers of molten rock, metal, and stone peeled away.
Massive chunks of hardened magma crashed to the ground with thunderous impacts.
Metal that had been fused into the construct lost its support and broke apart.
Stone slabs cracked loose and tumbled down around him.
With a continuous series of deep rumbles, the enormous shell surrounding Bullet finally disintegrated completely.
His real body emerged from within.
Even after abandoning the gigantic form, Bullet still radiated an oppressive presence.
He did not bother looking at the stunned Marines around him.
Instead, he bent his knees—
and kicked off.
BOOM!
The ground beneath his feet collapsed into a crater.
Bullet shot into the air like a cannonball, crossed the battlefield in a single powerful leap, and landed squarely on Kaido's broad back as the Azure Dragon flew low over the harbor.
"Go!"
Bullet's voice was short and decisive.
Neither of them spared another glance at the ruined Marineford behind them.
The once-majestic fortress had been reduced to devastation.
Walls lay shattered.
Towers had collapsed.
Flames still consumed entire sections of Headquarters, crackling among the rubble as smoke poured into the sky.
Kaido's massive wings beat violently.
Every movement generated a fierce gale that screamed through the harbor and knocked nearby Marines off their feet.
Then the Azure Dragon accelerated.
With Bullet standing on his back, Kaido became a blue-black streak tearing across the sky.
Within moments, the two monsters were already racing toward the distant horizon.
They had arrived without warning.
They had torn Marine Headquarters apart.
And now they were leaving just as abruptly.
Behind them remained a devastated Marineford.
Blood stained the ground.
Bodies lay scattered across the battlefield.
Wounded Marines groaned amid the wreckage while exhausted survivors simply stood in place, staring blankly at the destruction around them.
Many still looked as though they had not fully awakened from the nightmare.
The humiliating raid by two Emperor-level monsters had finally been driven off—
but the cost was enormous.
Marineford had suffered catastrophic physical damage.
Its morale had been struck even harder.
Collapsed buildings, burning fortifications, and blood-soaked plazas were all visible reminders of how easily the enemy had violated the heart of the Marines.
The psychological scars would take far longer to heal.
Kaido and Bullet had demonstrated, in the most direct way possible, just how terrifying the power gathered beneath the banner of the Eternal Divine Kingdom had become.
And behind both of them stood someone who had not even personally appeared on the battlefield.
Ron.
The Divine Sovereign.
The man whose influence could already be felt across the sea without him needing to lift a finger himself.
It was as though an invisible web was spreading across the world, slowly tightening around every major power.
Kaido and Bullet were merely two of the monsters caught within that web.
And they were already enough to reduce Marineford to this.
...
Kaido was nearly out of the harbor.
Bullet remained on his back.
The surviving Marines had begun to believe the disaster was finally over.
Then—
the situation changed again.
A booming laugh exploded across the distant sky.
"HAHAHAHA!"
The voice was powerful enough to roll over the entire ruined battlefield.
"Kaido, you little brat!"
A figure came hurtling toward Marineford from the distance at astonishing speed.
"Marine Headquarters isn't some damn marketplace where you can stroll in whenever you feel like it and leave whenever you please!"
The words struck the battlefield like thunder.
Every Marine who heard them froze.
Then heads snapped upward.
A figure was tearing across the sky faster than most eyes could follow.
A white Marine coat streamed behind him, the word Justice whipping violently in the wind like a blazing banner.
The man had only just returned to Marine Headquarters.
But there was no mistaking him.
The Hero of the Marines—
Monkey D. Garp.
His arrival hit the exhausted Marines like a spark in the darkness.
Then Garp saw Marineford.
The flames.
The rubble.
The shattered buildings.
The injured and dead scattered throughout what had once been the proud heart of the Marines.
His expression changed.
The old man's face flushed with anger.
The lines carved into it over decades seemed to deepen all at once.
Those eyes that so often carried an easy, carefree amusement now burned with fury intense enough to make even veteran Marines instinctively hold their breath.
His gaze locked onto Kaido.
The air itself seemed to tighten.
The battlefield had not calmed after all.
Because just as Kaido and Bullet were about to escape—the Hero of the Marines had returned!
---------
Read 50 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator