"Uorororororo!"
With a deafening roar, the Azure Dragon shot out from the gaping hole blasted open by its fiery breath.
Beast Kaido—
Had risen once again into the sky!
His earth-shaking return instantly drew the attention of every single person on the battlefield.
The Marines could only gape in horror, cold sweat pouring down their faces, necks, and backs. They were paralyzed with fear.
"Ka... Kaido!!!"
"He's alive?!"
"...!"
There was no doubt about it—the massive dragon before them was none other than Beast Kaido, the man they had all thought was dead!
Closest to him stood three of the Navy's top fighters: Kuzan, Borsalino, and Sakazuki.
Their movements stalled for a moment—this had just gotten a whole lot messier.
But where there was fear, there was also joy.
The scattered remnants of the Beasts Pirates erupted into cheers. Their boss was alive after all!
Not even the so-called "strongest man in the world" could kill him.
This—this was the real strongest creature alive!
Meanwhile, Whitebeard, the man bearing that "strongest" title, was breathing heavily, beads of sweat trickling down his face.
He couldn't help but wonder... Had he swung his blade wrong? No way—he wasn't so old that his aim would falter like that.
Roger had taken a blow like that once and nearly died on the spot.
So how the hell did Kaido recover this fast?
An even faster, even more ferocious shockwave came crashing toward Whitebeard, snapping him out of his thoughts.
Sengoku's face was as dark as ink.
Kaido was alive, which meant their entire battle plan was now crumbling apart.
At this point, their only option was to take Whitebeard down—fast—if they hoped to salvage this mess.
"Fufufufufu... Kaido-san, I was just about ready to arrange your funeral," Doflamingo drawled, though a strange unease gnawed at him.
Maybe it was just his imagination, but...
He could've sworn that Kaido looked just a little thinner.
Guess even a monster like him couldn't heal without paying some kind of price.
Hopefully, he wasn't half-crippled now, like Whitebeard appeared to be...
"Uorororororo! Shut it, brat! I was just hungry, that's all!"
With another laugh, Kaido's dragon form shrank down, transforming into a towering seven-meter-tall giant of a man.
Standing on flame clouds, he clutched his stomach and swept his eyes over the battlefield—
Looking for the Eight Trigrams gang that had been blasted away along with that fountain of flames earlier.
"Kaido-sama! H-Help—help meeee!"
Queen came scrambling over, desperation written all over his face as he tumbled and crawled his way forward.
The last thing he wanted was to be force-fed those damn recovery drugs again. Do you know how many oiran girls he'd have to skip out on if he kept doing this?!
"Uorororororo! What an ugly sight, Queen! Who did this to ya?!"
Kaido bellowed with laughter when he got a good look at Queen's current state.
The man's head looked like some tourist who'd gotten mugged by monkeys—lumpy and bruised all over.
All the fat he usually stored across his body had been drained dry, leaving his once-massive belly shriveled and sunken in.
If Queen had been more of a comic relief character before, now he just looked like a sleazy creep, right up there with Borsalino.
"That sleazy monkey bastard Borsalino!!!" Queen howled, voice dripping with resentment as he pointed a trembling finger at the slowly approaching Admiral of Light.
Whoosh!
"Useless idiot,"
King landed behind Kaido, glaring at Queen and hurling the insult like a stone.
Even behind his mask, there was no hiding the spark of excitement on his face.
He knew it.
He knew this man—Kaido—wouldn't go down that easily.
"Kaido-sama!"
"King! Good work, you guys!"
Kaido responded casually before turning his attention back to his precious Eight Trigrams gang.
With a wave of his hand, he summoned a violent gust of wind that swept up the scattered members like fallen leaves.
Meanwhile, Kuzan was closing in fast from the opposite side, sealing off their escape route.
Boom!!!
On another front, Vergo and Sakazuki clashed with a thunderous blow.
And just like that, Kaido, now transformed back into his black dragon form, started drifting toward Doflamingo.
Doflamingo didn't stop him.
He only needed Kaido to buy time, to get a little rest back when he was down.
But now that Kaido was awake—this was his fight.
In the blink of an eye—
Borsalino, Kuzan, and Sakazuki had formed a deadly triangle, closing in fast!
"Uorororororo! So... you brats wanna challenge me?!"
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Fanfic is finished 527 chapters in total on p@treon/tambeerg