You can read ahead up to 90 chapters on my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395
'Why didn't Kaido try to break free?'
After the battle years ago against Whitebeard, those with well-informed sources knew all too well the downside of the Dragon-Locks-Heaven technique. To break free from it, one had to pay a certain price.
And Kaido could undoubtedly afford that price.
But only Rowen knew the real drawback of forcefully breaking free, and that was exactly what he urgently needed to exploit. Electric currents surged across Rowen's muscular body, lightning coursing through every cell, leaving Kaido's entire body numb and paralyzed.
His blue-scale armor flickered intermittently. With control over his body lost, even maintaining his form change had become difficult.
"You… did it on purpose?" Suddenly, Kaido snapped awake, looking at Rowen in disbelief.
He was deliberately provoking him, pushing him to forcefully break out, thereby building up lightning within his body to a critical point, causing a paralysis effect too strong to resist.
"Correct. So here's your prize!" Rowen gave a cold smile and leaped forward.
Sensing the intense danger, Kaido tried to raise his hand to block, but his movements were sluggish, as though he was being crushed by a thousand-pound weight. It was painfully slow.
It was like that numb feeling you get when you wake up and your arm's gone dead, no matter how hard you try, you can barely twitch your fingers.
That kind of speed was naturally useless against Rowen. He tilted his head to dodge Kaido's slow swipe, then pulled a streak of blue lightning as he closed the distance.
Pa-da... Pa-da...
Rowen stepped on Kaido's shoulder and arm to stabilize himself, then pressed a crackling lightning orb to his face.
God's Cry: Falling Thunder Guns – Maximum Power--- Fire!!"
Boom...!!
Thunder exploded from Rowen's palm. In the instant it burst forth, both of them were blown apart by the sheer surge of energy. The power was immense!
A blinding white pillar of lightning stretched from Rowen's hand straight into Kaido's head, blasting him deep into the ocean in an instant.
"AOOOUUHH!!!"
Lightning and screams erupted simultaneously. Just before the seawater crashed back down, Rowen leapt upward and soared above the sea.
"Hah... hah..."
Panting from exhaustion, Rowen locked eyes on the churning ocean below, the corners of his mouth curling into a smile.
"By the way, maybe you didn't know, "
"The paralysis effect from thunder eruptions may fade quickly, but the electricity stored inside doesn't diminish much. On the contrary, with each of my attacks, the outbursts will happen more and more frequently, until they cover the entire fight. You know the saying: once is strange, twice is familiar."
"What?!"
As the words fell, a towering figure suddenly froze midair. Somehow, Kaido had also emerged from the ocean, trying to ambush Rowen.
But the net of Heaven has wide meshes, yet nothing escapes it!
"Urrgh!!"
That familiar paralysis came again, Kaido's body spasmed, convulsing as groans escaped his lips. By now, he had been knocked out of his transformed state, reverting to his normal form.
His left eye was completely torn open, with a gash diagonally splitting his brain, truly horrifying. Blood poured down, staining his entire body red.
His remaining right eye was filled with shock. Gritting through the numbness, Kaido let out a furious roar and forced his scale armor to reform.
"Too slow!"
Titan Mode!
A transformation that normally took an instant now happened sluggishly under the effect of paralysis. Rowen kicked Kaido hard in the jaw, launching him away. Lightning burst across Rowen's entire body as he charged again.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thunderous collisions echoed through the sky and sea as Titan-mode Rowen, now matching Kaido in size, pummeled him with heavy fists.
Pffft!!
Military Wrists: Thunder God – Eight Gates Cannon!!
Three successive heavy punches, one of Kaido's teeth flew out, and he spat out a mouthful of blood as he finally regained control of his body.
"Damn you!!!" Eyes bloodshot, Kaido roared in rage and threw a punch upward at Rowen's incoming fist.
BOOM!!!
The atmosphere trembled violently. The entire ocean leapt as if boiling, and the air split with visible cracks; this world was on the verge of collapse under the pressure.
Rowen's punch exploded into a shockwave cloud, his forearm shattering instantly. Without a big finisher like "Deep Gate," he couldn't truly match Kaido in brute strength.
But it was enough!
Suppressing a grunt of pain, Rowen stepped on Kaido's abdomen and, from above, launched a punch with his left hand,
"Get the hell out of my way!"
Facing Rowen's insane, all-out fighting style, a trace of fear appeared in Kaido's eyes. It wasn't that he was afraid of Rowen himself; he was afraid of that feeling resurfacing.
But of course, the more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen, like trying to suppress a hiccup only to fail repeatedly.
Just as his arm was halfway through a swing, that familiar sensation surged through his body again.
Zī Zī Zī!
Strands of heavenly blue lightning slithered over Kaido's exaggeratedly muscular frame, even flickering faintly within his eyeballs. The terrifying electric force didn't physically injure him much, but it froze his arm mid-motion.
Rowen naturally wouldn't let this golden opportunity slip away. All his reckless attacks had been building up to this moment.
Seizing the chance, Rowen slammed in the fourth punch.
Boom!!
Kaido's forehead caved in a large dent, enough to give someone the illusion of a biscuit being crushed. The punch was brutally heavy and vicious. Even Kaido couldn't help but open his mouth wide and cough up a mouthful of bloody phlegm.
But that wasn't the end.
"Fifth punch!"
Kaido's defense and offense were even more terrifying than Garp's, but unlike Garp, he lacked that peerless combat instinct honed through countless battles, and his offensive rhythm was nowhere near as fluid.
One had maximized defense and physical burst, while the other had perfected offensive flow and striking, each with their own strengths and flaws.
After his battle with Garp, Rowen had gained new insight.
That old bastard used his own death to teach me how to fight Kaido.
"You're all a bunch of idiots!"
Letting out a long sigh, Rowen's eyes sharpened, and he struck again.
Sixth punch!
Seventh punch!
Eighth punch!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three deep, muffled impacts echoed one after another.
On the sea's surface, Kizaru had just regained his footing. Looking up, he was startled by the massive figure descending from the sky.
"Kaido… fell from above? Don't tell me--!"
Boom...
Splash--!!
A massive impact smashed into the ocean, sending tidal waves into the heavens.
Within the cascading water spray, Kizaru suddenly noticed a streak of blazing blue lightning darting through the sky.
"It is Rowen… but how the hell is he doing this?!"
To make that Kaido fall into the sea in such disarray, this scene was completely unprecedented.
But no one had time to answer Kizaru's question.
The impact from Kaido's rapid descent re-opened the recently calmed ocean, creating a massive crater. The shockwaves blasted everything nearby away. Kaido slammed violently into the seabed rock, fracturing it into deep trenches.
"You son of--!"
BOOM!!!
Before Kaido could even finish his curse, a massive hand smashed down on his face, slamming him hard into the ground and shoving the rest of his words back into his throat.
Rowen descended from the sky like a meteor. The moment his feet hit the ground, he didn't pause for even a second, he threw another punch.
His expression was cold, but a wild frenzy burned in his eyes. Blood mist gushed from his throat, each breath accompanied by searing pain, a symptom of overwhelming stamina consumption and a body on the brink.
But Rowen knew exactly what he had to do.
Hit!
Hit until his guts tremble!
Hit until he's begging for death!
Only by beating the undying…
Can one make him feel true pain!
Thunder God Fist: Heaven Bursts, Earth Cracks!
The brute force of Hellform Violent Ape Mode was fully transferred into Titan Mode. Rowen's arms bulged with power as he straddled Kaido's waist and let out a thunderous roar, bringing down a storm of frenzied blows.
In just a second, hundreds of punches rained down!
The wind pressure from the punches became a physical wall, roaring against the ocean itself, completely blocking the seawater from getting near.
No energy overflowed; just the sheer wind force of raw punches was enough to shred any encroaching waves to mist.
The deafening tremors from the distant sky were so overwhelming that Kizaru's head buzzed violently. He couldn't hear anything anymore.
All he could see was Rowen sitting on top of Kaido, hammering him endlessly, blood mist exploding with every impact, staining the very air crimson.
Kizaru swallowed hard.
Gū lū…!
"I feel like something inside Rowen's been switched on… Am I imagining things? No, it has to be my imagination, right?"
How could the famously cunning Azure Dragon have such a terrifyingly brutal side?
(End of Chapter)