"True strength? Are you talking about your lightning?" Kaido scoffed, his massive form looming over the battlefield. "Don't bring out those playthings and embarrass yourself!"
With a thunderous roar that shook the very air, Kaido leaped high into the sky before plummeting down toward Luffy, his kanabo raised high above his head.
This time, Luffy had no intention of meeting the attack head-on. He wasn't planning to continue his game with Kaido either. The moment had come to reveal another aspect of his power.
A flash of electric blue lightning crackled across his body, but vanished almost instantly—too quickly for an ordinary observer to notice.
Kaido didn't understand what technique his opponent was attempting. Undeterred, he continued his descent, kanabo poised to strike with devastating force. In his mind, it was not yet time for an upstart like Luffy to challenge the established order of the world!
As Kaido closed the distance with alarming speed, his weapon ready to crush Luffy into the shattered earth, something unexpected happened. Luffy simply extended his right hand toward the Emperor and made a grasping motion in the air.
In that instant, Kaido found himself suspended in mid-descent, unable to complete his attack or even move freely. The very air around him seemed to solidify, invisible chains binding his limbs and torso, severely restricting his movement.
"What kind of ability is this?" Kaido growled, genuine confusion in his voice. "Your Devil Fruit should be lightning-based!"
Luffy's lips curled into a knowing smirk. "That's why it's terrible to be ignorant," he taunted. "You don't even understand what methods your enemy is using."
His eyes hardened as he continued, "You should go down and ask the King of Hell yourself about this question!"
"Magnetic Field Disruption!"
Without Luffy making any obvious physical movement, a circular, transparent blue field materialized around Kaido. Unlike conventional attacks, this technique was nearly invisible—only a slight distortion in the air revealed its presence.
Trapped in the center of this field, Kaido suddenly felt his head swelling with pressure, pain splitting through his skull like a hot knife. His heartbeat accelerated dangerously, and the blood in his body seemed to respond to some unseen force, rushing chaotically through his veins and arteries.
Within moments, blood vessels beneath his skin began to rupture. Various internal organs—his heart, lungs, liver—suffered cascading damage as his body's natural systems were thrown into chaos.
Gradually, Kaido found himself struggling to breathe. The sensation in his limbs faded, replaced by a terrible numbness that threatened to consume him entirely.
In this state, the Emperor's natural electromagnetic field—present in all living beings but rarely manipulated—had been completely disrupted. Simultaneously, the minute iron elements present in his bloodstream were being influenced by the magnetic field, causing his blood to inflict damage throughout his body. Some was even flowing backward, directly against the natural tide returning to his heart.
Kaido's face flushed an alarming shade of crimson from the mounting internal pressure. It seemed as though his heart might rupture at any moment, bringing a swift end to the legendary pirate.
"Damn you, little brat!" he snarled through gritted teeth. "Don't think you can act so arrogantly just because you have a few strange tricks up your sleeve."
His voice rose to a roar that echoed across the shattered island. "WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?! I AM KAIDO, THE BEAST KING AMONG THE FOUR EMPERORS!!!"
After this thunderous self-declaration—so characteristic of the Emperor—Kaido's entire body, inside and out, was suddenly enveloped in the black sheen of Armament Haki. He strained against the magnetic field that Luffy had trapped him within.
His half-dragon body, still in human-beast hybrid form, shook violently as he fought to break free from Luffy's control.
Luffy's brow furrowed with concentration as he clenched his fist in the air, engaged in an invisible tug-of-war with Kaido's immense will and strength. His other hand remained active, raising toward the sky before directing a powerful bolt of lightning that struck Kaido directly, attempting to paralyze the Emperor's massive form.
But at that critical moment, Kaido unleashed a roar that seemed to split the heavens themselves. His body elongated and transformed, scales erupting across his skin as he assumed his full dragon form.
He broke free from Luffy's control almost instantaneously, just as the lightning strike found its mark. However, protected by both his legendary dragon scales and his Armament Haki, the attack caused minimal damage.
Luffy's eyes widened slightly at this development. He wasn't particularly surprised that Kaido had managed to escape his magnetic field—the Emperor's reputation for strength was well-earned. What caught him off guard was Kaido's tactical decision to transform into his full dragon form.
Doesn't he realize that in a battle between top-tier fighters, his enormous dragon form just makes him an easier target? Luffy thought, assessing the situation. With my speed after eating the Thunder-Thunder Fruit, his size is a disadvantage.
The Azure Dragon form that could decimate ordinary soldiers would be little more than a slow-moving target before Luffy's lightning-fast movements.
"Ha! You're asking for death," Luffy remarked with a confident grin. "Don't blame me for what happens next."
With a quick glance over his shoulder, he signaled to Hancock and the others to maintain their distance, indicating that the battle was about to escalate.
Koala looked up at Kaido's dragon form, which now dwarfed everything around it. After swallowing hard, she quickly directed her flame cloud away from the battlefield, the other women following her lead.
Kaido paid these "insects" no mind. All his focus remained fixed on Luffy, the only worthy opponent present.
"Little devil," he rumbled, his voice deeper and more resonant in dragon form, "I recognize your strength. From this point forward, I will fight with all my power!"
As he spoke, Kaido inhaled deeply, drawing in vast amounts of air. In an instant, he exhaled a barrage of wind blades, each one sharp as a sword and capable of slicing through stone.
"Boro Breath!"
When these wind blades struck the ground, they instantaneously carved gashes several meters long into the earth. Their numbers were so great and their pattern so dense that there seemed no space for an opponent to evade.
But such tactics were largely ineffective against Luffy. He simply needed to transform into his elemental lightning state, moving with impossible speed to avoid the area affected by Kaido's devastating breath attack.
Undeterred by his opponent's evasion, Kaido pursued relentlessly, continuously spitting wind blades while maneuvering his serpentine body through the air with surprising agility.
The Emperor began spinning at tremendous speed, his massive dragon form becoming a blur as he rotated like some colossal top. The resulting windstorm created a powerful tornado that raged across the small island, combining with the deadly wind blades that Kaido continued to expel from his maw.
The scene resembled nothing so much as a natural disaster—the kind of catastrophe that sailors told stories about in hushed voices. Had any ordinary people been present to witness it, sheer terror would likely have claimed their lives before the actual attack could.
Yet these devastating techniques proved entirely ineffective against Luffy. The wind blades couldn't connect with his lightning form, much less inflict damage. Even the massive tornado, for all its destructive potential, succeeded only in stirring up clouds of dust and debris.
Luffy hovered at the edge of the windstorm, watching Kaido's display of power with an unimpressed expression. When the Emperor's attacks finally began to subside, he called out:
"Is that all you've got? Then I guess it's my turn next."
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