Kaido Came for Revenge, Only to Be Soloed by Katakuri

The walls collapsed. The quarry's three-meter-thick granite perimeter wall shattered into a heap of rubble.

Amid the yellow dust billowing through the air, a tall figure emerged.

Kaido gasped heavily. A rasping sound like a broken bellows came from his lungs, carrying a nauseating stench of blood.

He dragged a brand-new Fine Steel spiked club in one hand. Its bottom scraped across the bluestone slabs, throwing off shrill sparks and leaving a long white mark.

The enormous scar running across half his chest had only just scabbed over.

With each violent breath, several cracks split open along the edges of the dark-red scab. Yellow tissue fluid mixed with fresh blood and ran down his belly, staining the ragged waistband of his trousers bright red.

Kaido raised his head.

His eyes were red as if they were about to drip blood. Dense veins covered the whites of his eyes as he fixed a deathly stare on the raised platform in the center of the quarry.

Rektol sat in the grand chair draped with luxurious beast hide.

He held a cup of freshly brewed tea. He blew across the steam at its rim without even sparing Kaido a proper glance.

"My fruit..."

A beastlike roar burst from Kaido's throat. His vocal cords were swollen with blood, leaving his voice completely hoarse.

He had crawled out step by step from beneath the ruins of God Valley. The nails on all ten fingers had been torn off, exposing his ghastly white finger bones.

He had stolen a leaky, broken ship. Whenever a storm came, he had rowed with his own hands.

He had rushed to Wano like a madman. Only one thought remained in his mind.

To take back the Azure Dragon Fruit that could change his fate.

"Give me back what's mine!"

Kaido stomped down hard. The bluestone slabs beneath his feet exploded, sending fragments flying in every direction like bullets.

His massive body, reeking of sweat and dead fish, lunged straight at the platform. He gripped the spiked club with both hands as black-and-red Armament Haki instantly coiled around its spikes.

Rektol remained seated. He did not even shift in his chair.

He lowered his head and took a sip of tea. It was slightly too hot on his tongue.

"Katakuri." Rektol's voice was flat and emotionless.

Beside him, Katakuri strode forward.

His military boots landed heavily on the stone steps, producing a dull thud.

He yanked off the thick scarf around his neck, now covered in dust, and casually tossed it onto a nearby mine cart.

With his knees slightly bent, he leaped from the platform to meet the charging Kaido.

In midair, Katakuri's body rapidly expanded.

His bones crackled like beans popping in a pan. His originally slender body shot up to five meters in the blink of an eye, and his clothes instantly burst into strips of cloth.

Hard blue dragon scales pierced through his skin and unfolded, covering both arms and his chest.

Two thick dragon horns broke through his forehead.

The Azure Dragon's half-beast form.

Katakuri landed on both feet, crushing two enormous chunks of raw Seastone ore.

He raised his head, his dark-gold vertical pupils coldly locking onto Kaido in midair.

His all-seeing Observation Haki activated instantly.

Images of the next few seconds slid through Katakuri's mind like ripples on water.

Kaido roared as he swung the spiked club.

"Thunder Bagua!"

The iron club, carrying destructive momentum, tore through the air and smashed viciously toward Katakuri's head. The gale forced the surrounding slaves to retreat again and again.

Katakuri did not move.

Just 0.1 seconds before the spiked club was about to strike the tip of his nose,

he merely shifted his neck half an inch to the left.

The heavy spiked club scraped past his dragon horn. The resulting gust tore away a scale on his cheek and splashed out a bead of blood.

Kaido's club missed. His body pitched forward from the tremendous inertia. His previous momentum had faded, and he had yet to build up new force.

Katakuri raised his right fist.

The fist covered in blue scales instantly became wrapped in black Armament Haki. The muscles in his thigh twisted tight like a winch, channeling all his strength into his waist.

A plain, unadorned uppercut.

It smashed into Kaido's chin.

"Bang!"

The sound of shattering bones rang throughout the quarry.

Kaido's jaw was knocked completely out of place. More than a dozen teeth flew from his mouth. Blood mixed with yellow-white shards of teeth and erupted into the air.

His massive body was knocked off the ground, flying backward.

Katakuri gave him no chance to land.

His thick blue dragon tail slammed against the ground. His entire body turned into a blue afterimage and instantly caught up with the flying Kaido.

His two clawed dragon hands seized Kaido by the shoulders.

His ten fingers tightened.

The sharp dragon claws pierced straight through Kaido's tough flesh and dug into the gaps between his shoulder blades. Blood instantly stained Katakuri's hands red.

Kaido groaned from the pain. Enduring the agony, he threw away the spiked club and grabbed Katakuri's arms with both hands, attempting to overpower him.

This was the monstrous strength he took pride in. Few people on the sea could suppress him in a purely physical struggle.

But he had miscalculated.

The Azure Dragon Bloodline inside Katakuri erupted with a terrifying roar. The muscles in both his arms swelled another size.

Monstrous strength collided.

Kaido's arms were forcibly pressed back. The bones in his wrists creaked under the unbearable strain.

"Too weak." Katakuri's voice was low, carrying a metallic quality.

He exerted force with both hands, gripping Kaido's shoulders. He swung the several-hundred-kilogram body halfway around in midair as if it were a torn sack.

Then he slammed it into the ground.

"Rumble!"

The quarry floor was smashed into a crater more than a dozen meters wide.

Tons of dirt and shattered stone surged three stories into the air. Dust swept across the surrounding mine carts like a sandstorm.

Kaido lay at the bottom of the crater. The flesh on his back had been scraped into a bloody mess by the rubble.

His internal organs felt as if they had been pounded into mush by a heavy hammer. He opened his mouth, barely retaining enough strength to breathe.

Katakuri descended from the sky.

His feet carried tremendous force as they crashed down onto Kaido's chest.

"Crack! Crack!"

A series of dense bone-breaking sounds rang out.

His sternum and ribs snapped in succession—more than a dozen bones in all. The broken bones pierced his lungs and stabbed into his internal organs.

Kaido's eyes bulged violently.

His mouth opened wide. Great gouts of black blood surged from his throat, mixed with shredded lung tissue and stomach acid.

The monstrous body he took pride in had become a complete joke before the absolute crushing power of the Mythical Zoan Azure Dragon.

It was a one-sided beating. There was not the slightest suspense.

Katakuri bent down.

He pinned Kaido's struggling right arm with his left hand, braced his knee against the elbow, and forcefully bent it backward.

The joint twisted into a grotesque angle. The bones of his forearm snapped cleanly, and white shards of bone pierced through the skin.

Kaido could not even scream. He could only make hoarse, gasping sounds.

He lay in the deep crater.

His entire body drenched in blood, he looked like a dead dog that had been stripped of its tendons. He no longer had the strength to lift his spiked club.

Blood running down from his forehead blurred his vision until everything became indistinct.

All he could do was despairingly watch Katakuri raise his right hand.

Sharp blue dragon claws hovered above his head. Their tips gleamed with a chilling light, less than an inch from his crown.

With the slightest exertion, they could crush his scarred head like a watermelon.

His brains would burst out in the very next second.

On the raised platform,

Rektol set down his teacup. It struck the iron armrest with a crisp clang.

He raised a hand.

"Leave him alive."