[Survival of the Fittest Level 9: You possess extremely strong adaptability to any environment or disaster, and extremely high resistance to any abnormal condition.]
Lin Ye could feel his adaptability to lightning damage growing stronger.
The lightning strikes that had originally required Armament Haki coating to endure were having less and less effect on him.
But with Kaido flying into the sky, things became troublesome for him.
He did not know Geppo. His ability to walk through the air was achieved by forcefully stomping on the air.
It worked at low altitudes for a short time, but prolonged combat at high altitudes was impossible. It was not flexible enough either; if he went up there, he would definitely get beaten up.
Still, if he wanted to take to the skies, certain Devil Fruit abilities and Geppo could do the job. He could put that on the agenda.
Kaido in the sky also noticed the change in Lin Ye.
The lightning strikes seemed to have no effect at all.
Was this brat's physique really that absurd?
Kaido was a little dumbfounded.
Even he would not be able to withstand being struck by lightning continuously.
But what was going on with that brat below?
As he wondered, Kaido saw Lin Ye turn and leave below.
The sight left Kaido stunned.
Was he running away?
No, the battle had yet to be decided.
With a thought, Kaido immediately understood Lin Ye's situation.
He had no means of attacking the air.
That was Lin Ye's weakness.
But this weakness...
The lightning under Kaido's command stopped.
When Lin Ye noticed that no more lightning was falling, he looked up at Kaido amid the clouds and revealed a mocking smile.
With Kaido's eyesight, he saw the mockery on Lin Ye's face clearly.
In an instant, Kaido bristled.
This brat was mocking him.
Did he think Kaido was avoiding the fight?
Did he think Kaido was afraid of him now?
At that thought, Kaido's eyes filled with bloodshot veins. His massive body burst from the clouds and plunged toward Lin Ye below.
Sensing Kaido's movement, Lin Ye abruptly turned around and shot into the sky.
One went up, while the other came down, both at incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, Kaido saw Lin Ye appear before him.
"Get down here!"
Leaping into midair, Lin Ye sharply drew back his right fist. Full-power Conqueror's Haki Infusion wrapped around it.
The space around his fist seemed like a black hole.
With a furious roar from Lin Ye, his fist crashed heavily into Kaido's brow.
The instant the fist landed, Kaido's massive dragon head turned black.
But it was useless. Lin Ye's punch sent Kaido crashing down.
His huge, elongated body was dragged along by his falling head like a ribbon.
Watching Kaido plummet, Lin Ye violently stomped on the air with both feet, flipping his body and diving downward.
Kaido's enormous body smashed into the ground.
Then a figure followed close behind, full-power Conqueror's Haki once more wrapping around his fist.
Like judgment descending from the heavens, this punch streaked through the air in a black line with black lightning flashing around it, striking Kaido's head again as he hit the ground.
The earth trembled as violent shockwaves spread in every direction.
Kaido's massive body twisted along with the shockwaves.
Lin Ye's fist remained a meter away from Kaido's head as black lightning erupted between them.
Kaido's bloodshot eyes had been knocked blank by Lin Ye's previous punch.
Now, his huge eyes were filled with gravity.
Lin Ye's Level 10 Conqueror's Haki was clearly stronger than Kaido's. Even though Kaido used Conqueror's Haki to resist the blow, his head continued sinking into the ground.
The surrounding dirt, rocks, and boulders were blasted away by the shockwaves.
Kaido was shocked. Gritting his teeth, he stared at the immense pressure above him.
This brat's Conqueror's Haki was stronger than his.
Earlier, Kaido had thought they were evenly matched, and that he even held a slight advantage.
But the Conqueror's Haki he felt from Lin Ye now was stronger than his own.
In a daze, he once again felt as though he saw Gol D. Roger's shadow.
In the past twenty or thirty years on the seas, he had only encountered this kind of Haki a few times.
And every one of them had been a top-tier powerhouse of these seas.
Like Gol D. Roger, and like his former captain, Rocks.
"You lost focus!"
Lin Ye said coldly as the force in his hand suddenly increased.
Full-power Conqueror's Haki combined with the strength of Mighty Arms as Lin Ye's Haki-wrapped arm abruptly swelled.
Boom!
Kaido's head abruptly sank down, and a black line tore through space.
All of Wano Country shook violently. Then, Ringo completely split apart.
Ringo, which had originally been seamlessly connected to Wano Country, slowly cracked into dozens of pieces of land. The land near the shore was sinking into the sea.
Standing in midair by stomping on the air, Lin Ye looked below and panted slightly.
Wisps of white steam rose from his body.
Seawater poured into the fissures splitting the land below, concealing Kaido's dragon body beneath the waves.
Devil Fruit users feared seawater, but Kaido was different.
The Fish-Fish Fruit had strong adaptability to seawater. Lin Ye suspected that this guy could retain part of his strength even in the sea.
After all, powerful Devil Fruit users possessed a certain degree of adaptability to seawater, let alone someone with the Fish-Fish Fruit.
The seawater below turned crimson, boiling in an extremely short time.
The orange-red water looked as though a colossal volcano below was about to erupt.
Lin Ye stared intently at the seawater below.
Then Kaido's Heat Breath pierced through the seawater and shot past Lin Ye into the sky.
The surrounding seawater was directly pierced through and vaporized.
The forcefully parted water revealed Kaido standing on the seabed below.
Having already withdrawn his Beastification form, Kaido had transformed into a half-dragon man again.
Holding his spiked club, he looked up at Lin Ye.
The scene was exactly like before.
Only, Lin Ye had been below while Kaido was above the clouds then.
Now, Lin Ye was above, while Kaido stood on the seafloor.
Kaido leaped up, swinging his spiked club and rolling the incoming seawater into a massive waterspout.
Rising along with the waterspout, Kaido emerged and struck it with his spiked club.
Seawater weighing tens of thousands of tons came crashing straight at Lin Ye.
Lin Ye stopped stomping the air beneath his feet, then changed direction. After avoiding the surging seawater, he landed on a patch of land.
By then, Ringo had changed from one complete landmass into dozens of reefs protruding above the sea.
Kaido also landed on another reef not far away.
"I underestimated you!"
Kaido planted his spiked club against the ground. One of the horns on his head had broken off.
He panted lightly, his eyes fixed firmly on Lin Ye.
"If you don't fight with your life on the line, you might die."
Lin Ye replied coldly.
"Brat, you've got a really big mouth. Your Conqueror's Haki is indeed strong, and your Armament Haki is strong too, but I've fought my way here step by step."
Kaido was instantly enraged, but then he calmed down.
To become an overlord of the seas and one of the future Four Emperors, Kaido was actually quite intelligent—at the very least, smarter than most pirates.
This time, he had to go all out.
Kaido was no longer thinking about how to defeat Lin Ye, but how not to lose.
From their earlier exchange, he had already realized that Lin Ye was absolutely no weaker than him.
That was only because Lin Ye lacked sufficient combat experience and was not yet skilled in using his own Haki.
All out!
Kaido thought.
When Lin Ye noticed Kaido's gaze, he immediately understood his intent. A trace of fervent excitement appeared once more on his cold face. Then, the two leaped up simultaneously and charged at each other.
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