Kaido slowly raised a hand and touched the burn mark on his cheek, his fingertips brushing over the charred trace.
It was shallow, not even a real wound, yet it had undeniably been left on Kaido's face.
The next moment, Kaido laughed.
"Worororo--!"
His laughter started low, then grew louder and louder, rolling over the ruins like thunder.
But there was no longer any casualness in that laughter.
"Good."
"Brat."
"You're far more interesting than those pieces of trash who only know how to kneel and beg for my protection."
As soon as he finished speaking.
Kaido stomped the ground apart.
"Boom!"
His enormous body shot forward at a speed utterly disproportionate to his size, forcibly blasting the air apart before him.
Ace's Observation Haki screamed a warning.
Danger.
Danger.
Danger!
He barely had time to think before his body instantly turned to fire and flashed to the side.
The spiked club crashed down.
Ace's afterimage was shattered on the spot, while an entire row of buildings behind him was swept down by the blow. Rubble and broken timber flew in every direction like cannonballs.
Flames propelled Ace's feet as he forcibly turned in midair.
The second strike was already upon him.
"Boom!"
Another stretch of ruins exploded.
Ace turned into fire and skimmed past the edge of a rooftop. Before his fiery afterimage had even fully stretched out, the third swing swept past his shoulder.
The terrifying gust tore through the flames.
His shoulder felt as though it had been grazed by a sledgehammer, and his entire arm went numb in an instant.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The spiked club kept smashing through his afterimages, and every strike brought down another section of buildings.
Relying on elementalization, Observation Haki, and flame propulsion, Ace desperately twisted and dodged through the