"Here comes Tina!"
Tina's eyes sharpened. With a low shout, a black iron bar extended from her right palm.
Kairos remained calm.
"So you've already eaten your Devil Fruit by this point…"
The moment those words fell, he stepped forward.
Jet-black Armament Haki instantly covered his right fist and wrist.
His punch tore through the air and drove straight toward Tina's waist.
Tina shifted her footing and slipped backward, narrowly dodging the force of the punch. At the same time, she spread her arms.
A black iron cage formed instantly, locking around Kairos' arms.
"Kairos, you—"
Tina had barely opened her mouth when a violent aura erupted from Kairos.
With a sharp crack, he shattered the Black Cage through sheer force.
For a moment, Kairos stood there with his coat snapping in the wind, killing intent rising around him.
Then a fierce gust blasted outward, forcing Tina back several steps.
The commotion by the coast had already attracted the attention of nearby Marine recruits on patrol.
They looked over and immediately recognized one of the fighters.
It was their senior, Tina.
"Tina is fighting someone!"
"Hurry! Report it! Call for backup!"
Some recruits rushed forward to help, while others quickly ran to notify the instructors.
They could not clearly see who Tina was fighting, but the man was not wearing a Marine uniform.
That meant he was an enemy.
Tina noticed the recruit squad running over from the side, but her attention never left Kairos.
"Tina's Black Cage…"
Shock appeared on her face.
This was the first time someone around her age had broken through her Devil Fruit ability with brute force alone.
And in the very next instant—
Kairos' blackened fist burst through the air like a cannonball.
It smashed toward her without the slightest hesitation.
The pressure contained in that punch was enough to shatter a building.
Kairos' physical strength had long since reached a terrifying level.
Otherwise, he never would have mastered the Spear of Elbaf: Hakoku.
Alarm flashed through Tina's eyes.
The punch was too fast.
Her eyes could barely follow it.
But the results of her year of training showed themselves at the final moment. Relying almost entirely on instinct, she raised her defense.
Black bars materialized out of thin air, crossing together like a shield in front of her abdomen.
The next second—
Kairos' fist slammed into the Black Cage with a thunderous boom.
Boom!
The iron bars shattered instantly.
They exploded into countless black fragments.
Kairos' punch did not slow down in the slightest.
It struck Tina squarely in the abdomen.
Monster!
Tina's beautiful eyes widened as the force exploded through her body.
This man truly had no concept of going easy on women.
And wasn't Kairos supposed to be famous for swordsmanship?
Then why was his physical strength this terrifying too?
That was Tina's final thought.
Her vision went black.
She lost consciousness.
In the next instant, Tina's unconscious body flew backward, smashing hard into the ground and carving a several-meter-long trench through the stone before finally coming to a stop.
Dust rose around her.
But at that moment, a sharp glint flashed in Kairos' eyes.
His right fist showed no sign of stopping.
Without hesitation, he drove it straight into the ground.
His monstrous strength erupted completely, amplified further by Armament Haki.
The punch landed like a hammer striking the island itself.
Boom!
A deafening roar exploded outward.
The bluestone tiles shattered instantly, fragments scattering in every direction as dust surged into the sky.
The shockwave spread across the area.
Half the island heard the explosion.
"Senior Tina was defeated!"
The recruit squad rushing over turned pale.
Tina was already one of the strongest among the recruits.
Yet the enemy had defeated her with a single strike.
Who exactly was this young man in the black coat?
At the same time, the noise from Kairos' punch alarmed the entire Marine Recruit Training Camp Number One.
"What happened?!"
"Someone invaded!"
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
Shouts erupted across the island like crashing waves.
Hundreds, then thousands of recruits heard the explosion and rushed toward the coast.
Inside the drifting dust, a faint smile appeared on Kairos' face.
He could sense the entire island stirring.
This was exactly the effect he wanted.
The more people who came, the better.
At that moment—
an angry roar rang out.
"Bastard! You actually hurt Tina!"
The voice had barely sounded when a white figure flashed behind Kairos.
A smoke-covered fist tore through the dust and smashed toward the back of his head, as if trying to crush him in one blow.
At the same time, an enormous axe far larger than an ordinary weapon descended from above.
Its sheer size and force made it look like a meteor crashing down.
Smoker and Vice Admiral Lacroix attacked together.
Boom!
Both attacks landed at the same time, blasting away the surrounding dust.
A massive crater more than five meters wide appeared in the hardened bluestone ground.
Broken stone scattered everywhere as glittering dust drifted through the air.
But Kairos was nowhere to be seen.
Then—
a calm voice sounded nearby.
"So you're all here."
Several meters away from the crater stood a tall young man.
His black hair was messy and untamed.
His black coat fluttered slowly in the wind.
Smoker and Vice Admiral Lacroix turned toward the voice at the same time.
"It's you!"
Lacroix's expression changed drastically.
He recognized Kairos instantly.
A great pirate with a bounty of 1.3 billion Berries.
And he had come alone to the Marine recruit training camp.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/StrawHatStudios