The two arrived amid the desolate ruins. Kaido and Liu Qing walked slowly, their figures standing out starkly in the derelict city. Yuba-this once-prosperous city had now been abandoned, leaving only crumbling walls, rubble, and fine sand strewn across the ground, as though recounting its former glory and present desolation.
Not far away, people who had come a long way for the spectacle watched from a distance. They huddled together and whispered, but none intended to approach. These people seemed to want only to see how this duel would unfold, with no intention of interfering.
Just then, Crocodile quietly slipped away from the crowd. His steps were light and swift, as though afraid of being discovered. His destination was the kingdom's capital, where he intended to force his way into the place where the Alabasta Kingdom kept its Poneglyph.
Meanwhile, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Smoker, who had been keeping a close eye on Crocodile, followed close behind. They had clearly noticed that Crocodile wanted to leave and decisively set off after him.
Amid the city's ruins, Kaido and Liu Qing finally stopped. They stood facing each other, their gazes meeting. Around them, the spectators gradually fell silent, everyone's attention focused on the two.
Big News Morgans and his subordinates in the crowd already had their cameras ready to capture this explosive news.
Kaido took out his flask and drank half its contents in one go, a deep flush spreading across his face. He hung the flask back at his waist, then drew his spiked club and immediately applied Conqueror's Haki coating to it.
He broke into a run, charging straight at Liu Qing like a hundred-ton truck. Raising his club high, he shouted, "Take this, Liu Qing!"
"Thunder Bagua!"
Purplish-red Haki writhed across his club as it hurtled toward Liu Qing with unparalleled destructive force.
Liu Qing remained calm as he watched the attack approach. There was not a trace of fear in his eyes, only an immensely powerful fighting spirit.
His lips gradually spread into an excited grin.
"As expected of Teacher Kaido. Starting off with Conqueror's Coating."
As his words fell, Liu Qing did not retreat. Purplish-red Haki began coating his arms as well, and his aura climbed steadily.
"Conqueror's Coating: Monster Strength Fist!" Liu Qing lunged at Kaido.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
His fist and the spiked club clashed without touching, producing an electrical crackle. A sky-rending force suddenly erupted in every direction, knocking all the spectating small fry unconscious.
"What a terrifying rookie. As strong as a monster," Kizaru drawled as he looked at the masses of unconscious minor pirates.
On the battlefield, the two broke off their contest of strength simultaneously.
"So you really do have Conqueror's Haki too. Then I won't hold back. Three Realms: Ragnaraku!" With that, Kaido attacked again.
Kaido leaped into the air and began spinning his club. Covered in Conqueror's Coating, it came smashing down at Liu Qing with all his strength.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Waves of force began appearing around Liu Qing. Cracks spread through the ground, sending sand and stones flying.
Feeling the force rushing toward her grow stronger and stronger, Liu Qing began to counterattack.
He stretched his right arm straight back and lowered into a half crouch. Lightning wreathed his right hand, and a sphere of light, black tinged with purple and purple shot through with red, enveloped his fist.
Watching from a distance, Red-Hair narrowed his eyes slightly as he studied Liu Qing's movements and the Haki sphere around his fist.
His solemn gaze held disbelief as he murmured, "Elbaf's ultimate technique, Hakoku?"
"Who exactly are you? Why can you even use Hakoku?"
As Kaido's attack drew closer, Liu Qing punched out, launching the condensed Hakoku at him. The two-meter-wide Hakoku collided with Kaido's descending weapon without touching it.
For an instant, the space around their clash fell still. Then a black dot began expanding between the colliding attacks.
It spread at incredible speed, stripping away even a layer of the ground.
After a brief stalemate, Kaido was carried skyward by the Hakoku.
Bzzzt! Crack! Bzzzt! Boom! Boom!
The Hakoku in the sky first contracted, then expanded rapidly and exploded. Countless bolts of Conqueror's Haki lightning scattered in every direction, and a blast of air swept toward the spectators.
In an instant, apart from captain-level fighters such as Marco and the Red Hair Pirates, everyone else was sent tumbling, their eyes rolling back as they fell unconscious in droves.
After the explosion in the sky, Kaido fell to the ground.
"Cough, cough, cough!" Kaido climbed up from the ground, blood at the corner of his mouth and numerous wounds of varying sizes covering his body.
The wounds accelerated his blood circulation, absorbing the alcohol he had just drunk and carrying it throughout his body.
No sooner had Kaido stood up than he began swaying, reeking of alcohol. His expression became abnormal too.
"Boo-hoo-hoo! Why won't you join me?" Tears and snot smeared his face.
"Why? Why?" As he cried, he grew angry.
Then he laughed again. "Wororororo! Die, brat! Drunken Dragon Bagua!"
Kaido's succession of changing expressions left everyone staring in bewilderment.
Kaido and Liu Qing both covered their entire bodies in Armament Haki and fought each other.
After Kaido became drunk, Liu Qing could clearly feel the strength of his Haki, his attack speed, his power, and his reactions slowly improving. Every collision felt different to Liu Qing, as though Kaido grew stronger the longer they fought.
Most irritatingly, Kaido's attacks were copying Liu Qing's methods, whether intentionally or not. If Kaido had chakra, he might even have been able to attack with Monster Strength Fist.
As the battle continued, Liu Qing felt his fists begin to ache faintly. Although he was not injured, he could feel pain now.
After another exchange, Liu Qing caught the spiked club with his left hand, and a purple, black, and red sphere appeared around his right hand again.
Kaido instantly released his weapon, and an identical purple, black, and red sphere appeared around his right hand. They attacked each other simultaneously.
"Hakoku!"
"Hakoku!"
Hum! Hum! Bzzzt! Crack! Crackle! Boom!
The clash between their Hakoku produced a chemical reaction. An explosion over five times stronger than the initial single Hakoku engulfed them both.
A crater hundreds of meters across appeared directly in the ground. The sand and stones beneath their feet were annihilated, and an enormous, weighty shock wave spread in every direction.
"Holy shit! Run!" Vista cried in terror.
"It's too late! Jozu, we're counting on you!" Marco positioned Jozu in front of himself, and everyone else still conscious hid behind Jozu too.
Jozu turned his entire body into diamond and covered it with a layer of Haki, hoping to withstand the energy blast imbued with Conqueror's Haki.
Hum! Bang!
"Uwaaagh! Pfft!"
The shock wave struck Jozu's diamond body, coated in Armament Haki.
Jozu immediately spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed. Trembling, he said, "Marco, hurry-get our people out of here. If that happens again, I'm done for."
"How scary. Truly as strong as monsters." Kizaru stepped out from behind Jozu, speaking with a sleazy expression.
Shanks looked at his companions and said, "Go help them too. Take everyone who's unconscious farther back."
Leaving aside those busy moving people out of the battle's range.
Inside the deep crater left by the Hakoku...
The two leaped out of the crater.
They appeared once again on the abandoned city's streets, both with blood at the corners of their mouths and dense wounds covering their bodies, still bleeding.
This explosion had blasted Kaido straight out of his drunken dragon state and sobered him up.
"Liu Qing, someone as strong as you shouldn't be playing childish pirate games here. Join the Beasts Pirates. With the two of us together, even the World Government isn't beyond taking on. Join me." Watching the speed at which Liu Qing's injuries healed, Kaido invited him once again.
Where there had originally been hundreds of people, only Shanks and a humanoid albatross remained-oh, and Kizaru, holding a mechanical-looking Den Den Mushi, watching the battle nearby.
Big News Morgans was frantically taking pictures, while Red-Hair and Kizaru were inwardly shocked. The speed of Liu Qing's recovery was clearly abnormal. This did not look like an ability a Logia Devil Fruit should possess, but rather something resembling an awakened Mythical Zoan Fruit.
Liu Qing shook his head. "I won't join your pirate crew. All I want is to sail and adventure without a care."
"Hmph! If talking won't work, I'll beat you into submission." Kaido bent down, picked up his club, and leaped hard, intending to jump across the hundred-meter crater.
He did not remain idle during his jump either. Aiming at Liu Qing, he swung his club rapidly, firing one compressed-air shell after another, then spat a mass of wind blades from his mouth.
"Vajra Arrow!"
"Demolition Gust!"
Watching Kaido leap toward him along with his attacks, Liu Qing decided not to continue using taijutsu. He jumped backward, dodging the air shells and wind blades.
"Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees!" Liu Qing pressed his palms together, and a vast amount of chakra erupted from his body.
The ground began shaking violently. The yellow sand split open, and enormous roots surged out, twisting and intertwining. Then tall, thick trees sprang up from the ground.
The ruined desert city, previously nothing but yellow sand without a single green plant in sight, became an ancient forest of trees at least a hundred meters tall in an instant.
After Kaido landed, the surrounding trees began hemming him in. They coiled around him, lashed him, bound him, and restrained him in endless ways, irritating him to no end.
With Liu Qing controlling them, almost every root Kaido broke was replaced by three or four more, leaving him frustrated and unable to bring his strength to bear. Most importantly, the trees wrapped around him possessed a devouring force, constantly draining his stamina and using it in turn to restrain him.
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