A massive dragon covered entirely in pale scales stood tall, occupying a vast clearing amid the ruins.
The transformation brought both opponents to a halt.
They had encountered many users of Zoan Devil Fruits at sea.
In their ordinary state, their human forms merely gained a beast's toughness and stamina. Unless the fruit itself was unusual, there was little else remarkable about them.
Fully transforming into a beast granted sharp fangs, claws, or heavy armor and accelerated stamina recovery, but it often meant abandoning the combat skills honed through countless trials as humans. In a true fight to the death, that form was instead the clumsiest and most dangerous.
It was mostly used to travel long distances, avoid an enemy's strongest attacks, or gain a moment to breathe when nearing exhaustion.
What truly transformed a Zoan user was the form between those two extremes-it retained the beast's physical advantages and recovery without hindering the use of sophisticated techniques.
Then what was she trying to accomplish by turning completely into a dragon now?
Even for a dragon, an excessively large body would only make a more conspicuous target.
On a battlefield where both sides possessed Observation and Armament Haki, sheer size offered no overwhelming offensive advantage, unless... some unconventional method lay hidden.
"Cover your ears!"
Katakuri, still locked in combat with Rossi, abruptly turned and shouted sharply toward his younger siblings.
But his warning came a moment too late.
"Too late."
The pair of long blades wreathed in black-and-red lightning in Rossi's hands slashed toward him again, forcing Katakuri to devote his full attention to responding.
On the other side, Tani's chest heaved in her white dragon form.
She began to inhale.
It hardly seemed like breathing. It was as though she intended to forcibly seize all the air above the