The eyes behind the goggles shifted slightly.
King recalled the corresponding intelligence.
The man blocking his path possessed a unique sword technique capable of cutting through flames.
His name was... Kin'emon.
In terms of strength alone, he was unremarkable among the nine, but his technique for dealing with fire was indeed troublesome.
But that was all it was.
With a whoosh, the extinguished flame behind his head reignited.
Ignoring the attacks Inuarashi and Cat Viper landed on him, King tightened his grip on his sword and became a blur, charging straight at Kin'emon.
Once he pulled out this thorn, the rest would be nothing to worry about.
At the other end of the battlefield, a furious roar drowned out the clash of weapons.
"Kaido!!!"
That roar was steeped in twenty years of pent-up anguish and resolve.
"The only head I want is yours."
The ** rose in a cross, dark fluid rapidly coating the blades.
The air began to tremble, black-and-red lightning winding around their edges.
Iron-gray clouds had long since swallowed the sky, while tongues of flame sprang up across the ground.
The instant he leaped, those two pitch-black blades actually shone with a clear radiance-utterly at odds with the world rapidly darkening around them, strangely unsettling.
No, that was not truly light.
It was darkness condensed to such an extreme that it made people's eyes ache.
That darkness carried the will to cut down every living thing, tightening the throat of everyone still standing on the battlefield, as though an icy blade pressed against their spine.
The two blades swung forward.
Their two paths seemed to skip through time, imprinting themselves directly upon the enormous dragon's chest as it spread open in astonishment.
The voice calling out the technique's name had yet to fade.
The enormous dragon opened