Inside a conference room at Marine Headquarters.
On the conference table sat a mechanical Den Den Mushi identical to the one in Kizaru's hand.
Light shone from the Den Den Mushi's eyes onto the conference room wall, projecting Liu Qing's battle with Kaido.
"Vice Admiral Tsuru, can you tell what Devil Fruit ability Liu Qing is using?" Fleet Admiral Sengoku asked a graying Vice Admiral.
Tsuru shook her head. "Not a clue. It looks like the Logia Woods-Woods Fruit, but according to our investigation, someone from the South Blue Taya Kingdom ate that fruit, and that person is still in the kingdom's prison."
"Besides, his recovery doesn't look like a Logia Devil Fruit's. It looks more like an awakened Mythical Zoan, but the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia has no record of a Mythical Zoan ability that can control trees."
"Sigh... these are troubled times. The world is getting more chaotic by the day. Now a seventeen-year-old Emperor-level fighter has actually appeared, while the Marines really are running out of talent. No one capable of succeeding an Admiral has emerged." Sengoku sighed.
Akainu slammed the table. "You should have sent me to Alabasta in the first place. Then we wouldn't have all this trouble. I'd just wait until they finished fighting and kill Liu Qing. Wouldn't that settle everything?"
"Do you want to be stripped of your rank as Marine Admiral? With that temper of yours, if a fight broke out, everyone in the Alabasta Kingdom would probably report you to the Five Elders," Sengoku snapped.
"Ah la... there's no point talking about that now. Let's keep watching their fight and gather some intelligence," Kuzan said lazily.
In Alabasta's abandoned city.
As more and more trees coiled around Kaido's enormous body like pythons, they began gradually draining his stamina, making it difficult for him to break free.
Yet just as Kaido was about to be completely restrained, his body suddenly began swelling, growing larger and larger until he finally became a gigantic Azure Dragon, sixty meters in size and a thousand meters long!
Kaido let out a deafening roar in his Azure Dragon Form.
"What terrifying control!" Kaido's voice echoed through the air like thunder. "These trees can actually consume my stamina to strengthen themselves, then use it to keep restraining me."
His gaze blazed as he stared fixedly at the Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees before him, a trace of anger and disdain in his eyes.
"But if it were someone whose Taijutsu wasn't so... I'm not that kind of weakling. Come on, let's have a real fight. Enough of these little tricks!"
Before his words had faded, Kaido flew toward the sky, streaking through it like a bolt of azure lightning.
Once airborne, Kaido opened his mouth and spewed a stream of scorching flame straight toward the forest created by Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees, like an erupting volcano.
"Bolo Breath!"
The flames were astonishingly powerful. Wherever they passed, even the air instantly ignited, becoming a raging sea of fire.
When the flames reached the trees, they instantly ignited the forest created by Wood Release. The fire spread like a prairie blaze, engulfing the entire forest in a sea of flames in the blink of an eye.
The raging fire rolled toward Liu Qing, its scorching gusts whipping his hair around and making his clothes snap.
Just as the roaring flames were about to swallow Liu Qing, an astonishing sight unfolded! A thousand-meter-tall giant suddenly rose beneath him, as though emerging from hell, its imposing presence breathtaking.
The giant was lifelike, resembling a Buddhist vajra guardian, its eyes wide with fury and its vicious aura chilling. It had three heads and two arms, with one hand gripping a wooden shield and the other a wooden spiked club, as though it were the most powerful being in the world.
Then Liu Qing's voice rang out from atop the giant, resounding through the heavens like a thunderclap: "Wood Release: Wood Golem!"
As his words fell, the two thousand-meter behemoths instantly launched into a heart-stopping battle! There were no flashy techniques or dazzling effects, only the most primitive, purest hand-to-hand combat-well, Kaido fighting a wooden golem.
Kaido showed no weakness. He swung his thick, steel-like dragon tail and lunged straight at Liu Qing like a moving mountain, carrying overwhelming force.
Liu Qing remained unruffled. Calmly controlling the wood golem, he quickly raised its wooden shield and precisely blocked Kaido's tail strike. At the same time, the golem swung the spiked club in its other hand, coating it in powerful Haki and battering Kaido in a wild barrage!
In an instant, the fierce collisions shook the entire space, sending wood chips flying and clouds of dust billowing. The two traded blows without giving an inch, every strike like mountains collapsing and the earth splitting, an awe-inspiring sight.
Half an hour later...
After taking several more blows, Kaido suddenly began spinning his entire dragon body.
An enormous tornado immediately formed around Kaido. As he spun faster and faster, the tornado grew larger and larger.
Meanwhile, streaks of red lightning began appearing around the tornado's outer edge. Clearly, Kaido had unleashed his Conqueror's Haki as well.
"Tornado!" With Kaido's furious roar, it lunged straight at Liu Qing like a ferocious beast baring its fangs and claws.
Unafraid, Liu Qing narrowed his eyes and concentrated, coating the spiked club in the giant's hand with Conqueror's Haki.
In an instant, the otherwise unremarkable weapon seemed to come alive, radiating purplish-red lightning as it met Kaido's tornado in a breathtaking collision.
Whoosh, whoosh... bzzz... crackle...
At the moment of impact, space seemed to tear apart, trembling violently with a series of cracking sounds.
Visible ripples spread through the void at astonishing speed, like the rings stirred by a stone thrown into a still lake.
The surrounding city ruins, the forest created by Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees, and even the yellow sand and gravel on the ground crumbled before this terrifying power, instantly reduced to powder that drifted through the air.
Red lightning raged through the sky. Terrifying shock waves swept outward like a furious tide, destroying everything in their path.
Kizaru reacted swiftly, grabbing Big News Morgans and retreating as fast as lightning. Red-Hair dared not delay either. His figure flickered as he sped into the distance like a phantom, afraid of being caught up in the fierce battle.
Farther away, Marco and the others felt a surge of lingering fear at the sight. They silently congratulated themselves for staying away from that terrifying battlefield, or quite a few of their brothers might have died in that violent clash.
On Nanohana's streets, the distant shock waves shattered the formerly peaceful atmosphere.
Usopp, Nami, and Chopper stood in the middle of the street, their faces filled with worry.
The townspeople also stepped out of their homes and gathered to discuss what was happening.
"I wonder who's fighting over there. I hope they don't bring the fight here," one townsman said anxiously.
"I bet it's that dragon that came looking for someone earlier, fighting somebody. I hope they don't come near us," another agreed.
"Sigh... yes. If they destroy our town, we'll have nowhere to go," another townsman said with a sigh.
Everyone in Nanohana was on edge, praying that the battle would not reach their town.
They watched the distant battlefield uneasily, but it was too far away to make out the actual fighting. All they could see were occasional fragments flying through the air.
Just then, the clash between the two on the battlefield abruptly stopped. Clearly, neither had gained an advantage from that attack.
Immediately afterward, they resumed fighting at close quarters.
As the battle wore on, however, Kaido gradually discovered something that infuriated him-he was the one taking the hits every time!
No matter how fiercely he attacked, he could not break through the shield held by the wood golem beside Liu Qing. At most, he could shatter the shield.
But the shattered shield would be restored in less than a second. As for him, every attack from the wood golem landed squarely on his body. If this continued, he would be the only one injured, while Liu Qing would merely expend some stamina at most.
This can't go on. I can't keep being the only one taking hits. Since a single-target tornado can't reach him, I'll use an area-wide tornado.
Having made up his mind, Kaido disengaged and spun his body once more, forming another tornado.
This one was different from the last. Countless white wind blades lined the tornado's walls, seemingly ready to shoot out at any moment.
"Dragon Twister Demolition Gust!"
This attack worked. As the two fought fiercely, the countless white wind blades split off to attack one after another.
The sudden change in attack caught Liu Qing off guard.
There were simply too many wind blades to block, and the wood golem's shield began struggling to regenerate fast enough.
Whoosh, whoosh... swish, swish, swish...
At last, Dragon Twister Demolition Gust broke through the wood golem's defenses, and a mass of wind blades shot toward Liu Qing.
But Liu Qing was not someone who would simply take the damage head-on. He decisively activated Sage Mode.
"Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands!"
Boom, boom, boom!
Amid a series of deafening sounds, the wood golem beneath Liu Qing began growing continuously, its shape changing as well.
Within a few breaths, a ten-thousand-meter-tall Buddha statue appeared before Kaido, sitting cross-legged with 9,999 arms on its back. Behind the statue was a magazine whose length could not be made out, filled entirely with arms identical to those on the statue's back.
Kaido stopped his Dragon Twister Demolition Gust. Looking at the enormous Buddha statue before him, he finally understood what Liu Qing had meant at the start of their fight when he said, "I'll give you a two-hand handicap."
As he stared at the seemingly endless wooden magazine behind the Buddha statue, packed densely with enormous arms, Kaido broke into a drenching sweat, black lines covering his forehead.
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