Everyone watching from a distance was utterly numb now. With a body that size, who could beat him?
Perospero looked at the distant Buddha statue, silently took out a Den Den Mushi, and reported the situation to Big Mom.
After a stretch of silence from the Den Den Mushi, a voice finally came through. "Perospero, come straight back. There's no need to invite him anymore. We can't afford to provoke someone that powerful lightly."
"Yes, Mama. We'll prepare to sail back to Whole Cake Island now."
"Ace, are you sure your little brother needs our help? This... we'd be better off helping you hunt down Teach," Marco said helplessly.
"No need. Go back to the Moby Dick. Pops still needs your ability, and you haven't checked his health in almost a month. Besides, that bastard Teach was part of my 2nd Division. I have to catch him myself," Ace refused firmly.
"All right, then. Watch yourself. I get the feeling that bastard Teach isn't simple, so be careful. Sigh... we came all this way without helping at all, and the shock waves even knocked out a whole bunch of us. We'll take everyone and leave first," Marco said helplessly. Then he had those who had awakened carry the unconscious ones away.
The meeting room at Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Sengoku took out the Den Den Mushi reserved for contacting Kizaru and called him.
"Hello, hello~~ Any instructions, old man?"
"If Kaido loses later, arrest him along with Crocodile and take them to Impel Down. That'll teach him to waste Marine manpower because he has nothing better to do," Sengoku said irritably.
"Uh~~ Of course, Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
Among the crowd watching the battle.
Marco and Perospero had left with their awakened subordinates. Now only Kizaru, Red-Hair, Doflamingo, and Big News Morgans and a few of his men remained.
Looking at the overwhelmingly intimidating Buddha statue in the distance, Big News Morgans shook all over with excitement. He was pressing his camera's shutter so hard it was practically throwing sparks.
He had already thought up tomorrow's headline: "Shocking! Veteran Emperor Kaido travels to the Grand Line to recruit a pirate newcomer, only to get beaten senseless after failing!" The more he thought about it, the harder it became to suppress his smile.
Doflamingo gave the excited Big News Morgans a strange look. "If Kaido finds out you're this excited about him getting beaten up, you probably won't live much longer."
"Hehe... hehe... Never mind those little details. Let's watch the fight first." Big News Morgans laughed awkwardly.
On the battlefield, Kaido looked at the Buddha statue, ten times larger than his dragon form, and the countless tens of thousands of arms behind it. He declared defiantly, "Don't think getting bigger will scare me. Being bigger doesn't make you stronger in a fight. The best things come in small packages."
"Let me show you the strength of my compact form." As Kaido spoke, his body transformed again, taking on his dragon-man form.
Liu Qing didn't even feel like answering Kaido. It wasn't that he was unwilling, but the magazine behind True Several Thousand Hands consumed far too much chakra. Even with his total chakra reserves, it had drained over half of them. Losing fifty percent of his chakra in an instant left him feeling hollow inside, his limbs a little weak.
He thought to himself, I can't do this next time. It's intimidating, sure, but losing so much chakra all at once feels awful. I'll stick to something normal from now on. At most, I'll give the hands some weapons or something.
Coming back to his senses, he used Observation Haki to sense Kaido, who had gone from a thousand-meter dragon to a twenty-meter-tall dragon-man.
Without wasting words, he fully coated the arms in Armament Haki, with some also bearing Conqueror's Coating, and prepared to attack.
"Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands × N!"
Drawing on half of the chakra remaining in his body, he controlled the countless arms behind him and sent them attacking Kaido.
In an instant, heaven and earth changed color. The clouds in the sky dispersed as fists plunged like meteors from ten thousand meters above, carrying an indescribable sense of pressure and visual impact.
Together with the ten-thousand-meter-tall Buddha statue, they made people feel tiny and powerless, unable to summon any will to resist.
As the attacks descended, the muscles of every arm were clearly visible, brimming with a sense of power.
Kaido took out his flask and drank all the remaining liquor. Tossing it aside, he focused completely, bringing every ounce of his attention to bear as he watched the countless attacks approach.
One second before the attacks struck him, Kaido made his stomach absorb the liquor, instantly entering a drunken state, then coated his weapon with Conqueror's Haki at full strength.
"Drunken Dragon Bagua~~ Kundali: Dragon Swarm!"
Drunk, Kaido swung his spiked club at high speed, unleashing a dense barrage to clash with True Several Thousand Hands.
Boom, boom~~ Crack, crack~~
The entire island of Yuba shook as shock waves a hundred times stronger than those from the earlier battle spread in every direction.
Explosions rang out without end. Mushroom clouds rose over the battlefield, shot through with purplish-red lightning.
As the attacks continued to fall, the island began cracking from the coast inward, followed by rapid collapse.
Meanwhile, at the center of the battlefield.
After nearly half an hour of continuous attacks from True Several Thousand Hands, Kaido was covered in wounds, some from explosions and others from direct punches.
His Kundali: Dragon Swarm gradually lost its initial speed, and defending became increasingly difficult.
Looking at the arms behind the Buddha statue, which showed no sign of diminishing, Kaido cursed furiously, "You bleeping bleep! Fuck this shit! How the fuck am I supposed to fight this?"
Kaido abandoned defending with Kundali: Dragon Swarm. Instead, he covered his entire body with Armament Haki, shielded his head with one arm, and raised his spiked club toward the sky with his right hand.
Boom~ Crack~ A bolt of lightning struck the club.
Kaido roared, "Drunken Thunder: Ragnaraku!"
A massive ball of white lightning entwined with red lightning shot toward the endlessly descending arms.
It instantly destroyed more than half the falling arms, giving Kaido a chance to catch his breath.
But less than two seconds later, countless arms rained down in another dense barrage.
With the breathing room created by Drunken Thunder: Ragnaraku's attack,
Kaido began using Hakoku to clash head-on with True Several Thousand Hands.
The spectators had moved even farther back to watch. The breathtaking sight made their scalps prickle.
Oh~~ There was one person who didn't feel that way. Big News Morgans was now laughing like a lunatic, his whole body twitching as though he were having an epileptic seizure.
Dracule Mihawk felt the most relieved of them all. Good thing I didn't keep fighting at Baratie. If he hit me with something like that, I'd probably be meeting my great-grandmother.
Then he looked at Shanks and asked, "Shanks, do you think you could beat him?"
"I'd say it's fifty-fifty." Red-Hair thought of his Observation Haki Killer and couldn't help thinking, If Liu Qing can't sense my position, I should have a chance to hit him, right? Probably.
Doflamingo glanced at Big News Morgans. "Once they're done, I'm telling Kaido you were laughing at him."
"Haha~ Don't~ Please don't, haha~ Doffy, haha~ Don't tell him! Honk~ Haha~ This news is going to, haha~ make a fortune! Honk, hahaha~" Big News Morgans simply couldn't stop laughing.
Everyone stared at him as though he were an idiot.
Meanwhile, Kaido was already panting heavily. He had not actively healed his wounds, either. He no longer had enough stamina to waste on recovery.
He had used Hakoku five times in succession. Although each use bought him around two seconds, the drain on his stamina and Haki was simply too great.
Now I have to find a way to attack Liu Qing's real body. Otherwise, he'll just wear me down to death, Kaido thought.
Then he steeled himself, deciding to stake all his remaining stamina on one final blow.
Flames resembling magma began enveloping Kaido's body, slowly taking the shape of a giant flaming dragon.
The moment the flames appeared, the sand and stones on the ground melted into magma, showing just how hot they were.
Then he concentrated all his Conqueror's Haki around his head, bent his knees into a half crouch, and leaped upward, charging toward Liu Qing's position as sensed through his Observation Haki.
A roar followed. "Flame Dragon Torch~ Rising Dragon: Flame Bagua!"
Standing atop the Buddha statue, Liu Qing sensed Kaido charging upward and silently cursed eighteen generations of his ancestors.
"This bastard is seriously tanky. After taking a beating for this long, he can still use a finisher. More importantly, why are we even fighting? Just because he wanted me to join him, and he'd kill me if I refused. What a fucking nightmare." Liu Qing gritted his teeth.
He controlled True Several Thousand Hands, continuing to attack Kaido as he used Flame Bagua, while concentrating Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki around several arms.
Unlike the simple coating he had slapped on before striking earlier, several arms now gleamed jet-black, and the purplish-red lightning was much thicker.
Seeing Kaido about to reach him, Liu Qing sent those arms, coated with Haki at full strength, attacking.
They struck Kaido squarely on the head, dispersing the Conqueror's Haki coating atop it before landing directly on his skull.
Kaido felt his head spin and his vision blur. Losing control of his body, he fell toward the ground.
Liu Qing let out a breath of relief. "I finally beat Kaido. If he hadn't spent half an hour down there taking those punches head-on, this really might have turned into a battle of endurance."
The ten-thousand-meter Buddha statue slowly shrank before disappearing altogether. Standing on the yellow sand once more, Liu Qing looked at the cracked ground and the island battered beyond recognition, feeling helpless.
"Sigh... I can't bear to see people suffer. I'll turn your Yuba into a forest, then. Consider it compensation for the destruction from the battle." With that thought, he clapped his hands together.
"Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees!"
This time, there was no sight of the ground cracking open and roots surging out.
Instead, the roots grew downward, then spread toward the cracked and collapsed areas, beginning to reinforce the island.
As the forest appeared, a group of people walked over.
Before you continue