Thunder ripped the air apart as a black kanabo, wreathed in crimson sparks, came screaming across the battlefield with world-shattering force.
Clang!
BOOM!
Metal rang out first, sharp and jarring, followed by a shockwave that tore outward like a hurricane.
Crimson lightning speared into the sky, rending the sea of clouds and blowing it into whirling chaos.
The black kanabo, as if it could crush anything in its path, met a Three-Fingered Dragon Claw head-on. Sparks burst between them, lighting up Kaido's rugged face.
"Boss Kaido!!"
Queen's cheeks flushed bright red. Tears welled in his eyes as he stared at the towering back in front of him, Kaido's cloak billowing like a war banner.
In that moment, looking at that mountain-like silhouette, every savage beating he'd ever taken from his captain suddenly felt worth it.
"I knew you'd come save me! You always beat me half to death, but you still care about me!"
"Stop humiliating yourself and get lost."
Kaido didn't even turn his head. He just spat the words out, cold and flat.
"Right away, Boss!"
Before Kaido's voice had even faded, Queen's legs were already spinning like twin wheels. He bolted backward in a blur, fleeing with startling efficiency for someone his size.
Kaido shook his head and narrowed his eyes, fixing his gaze on the figure in front of him—Darren, wrapped in lightning, like a god of carnage made flesh.
In those bestial eyes, for the first time, a hint of unprecedented solemnity and unease flickered.
The aura Darren was giving off now was completely different from anything Kaido had ever felt from him.
"Little brat Darren," Kaido rasped, voice hoarse, "I let you stay on my turf to heal, and this is how you repay me—by beating my subordinates bloody. Don't you think you've gone a bit too far?"
As he spoke, his massive body began to swell. Jagged dragon scales rippled across his skin, and a thick, heavy tail sprouted and lashed from his spine.
The overwhelming majesty of a legendary beast slammed into Darren's berserk aura, the two forces colliding and grinding against one another in midair.
Darren only sneered.
"If I didn't beat that fat pig up, you'd still be sitting there spying on me with your Observation Haki, wouldn't you, old bastard?"
"Your aura concealment really is flawless. Under normal circumstances, I'd never have noticed you."
Kaido froze for a heartbeat, then burst into booming laughter.
"Wororororo! Interesting. Utterly fascinating."
"So this is what you've cooked up lately? A technique that lets your body completely surpass its genetic limits?"
"But if I recall correctly, your Devil Fruit is Paramecia-type."
"A Paramecia Awakening isn't supposed to give you this kind of physical power. It's supposed to twist the environment around you."
Darren bared his teeth in a feral grin.
"Who decided Paramecia Awakenings have to be outward-focused?"
His knee snapped up.
The air detonated with a sonic boom, a white ring of compressed air exploding outward from his leg.
Like a divine whip, the kick tore through the atmosphere and hammered straight toward Kaido's skull.
Kaido's eyes narrowed slightly.
Without any visible shift in his stance, his serpentine tail lashed out like a battering ram.
BOOM!!
The impact detonated the air. Black-red bolts of Conqueror's Haki crackled and arced wildly, turning the battlefield into a storm of thunder and shockwaves.
The two figures were driven back at the same time, skidding dozens of meters across the shattered earth. Their right feet dug deep trenches as they ground to a halt, then both men bared their teeth in savage smiles and lunged forward again.
"Come, Darren!" Kaido roared, eyes blazing scarlet. "Let me see if you can really take my title as the Strongest Creature in the Sea, Land, and Air!"
His aura surged even higher—wilder, older, more brutal, shaking the air with raw, feral power.
Gripping Hassaikai with both hands, Kaido bent his knees and exploded upward in a single monstrous leap.
Zzzzzzzzz!!
Purple lightning filled the sky, writhing like dragons through the clouds.
All that condensed thunder poured into Hassaikai, cloaking the kanabo in a writhing shell of radiant power.
His cloak, emblazoned with the Beasts Pirates' emblem, snapped in the wind as Kaido hung in the sky, looming over the black-haired youth below like a falling god.
Then he dropped.
"Great Demonic Power: Thunder Bagua!"
He plunged like a meteor.
From a distance, Dragon and Queen saw only one thing—a streak of lightning drilling straight into the earth.
"Don't think I don't know what that move really is…" Darren growled, power finally bursting out of him without restraint. "It's just a Conqueror's-coated swing with your kanabo!"
With a single step, he disappeared into motion. His Three-Fingered Dragon Claw sliced forward, leaving a phantom behind.
Blue lightning exploded into a river of stars behind him.
"Magnetic Storm: Dragon Claw!"
A heartbeat later, they met.
Kanabo and Dragon Claw crashed together.
For one instant, the world went utterly silent.
Then blinding white light swallowed everything, birthing a storm that looked like the mouth of Hell opening.
The next moment, a roar like the sky collapsing tore through Onigashima.
In Kaido's blood-red vertical pupils, a shocking scene played out—
The descending Hassaikai that had smashed countless enemies into submission… was being pushed back.
Slowly but inexorably, it was forced upward by Darren's Dragon Claw.
"This power…"
Darren roared with savage delight and wrenched the kanabo aside.
"Times have changed, Kaido-sensei!"
---
"Those two… are monsters."
Dragon stood rooted to the spot in the distance, eyes unfocused as he watched them tear across the scorched battlefield—two silhouettes locked in a madman's duel, eyes bloodshot, laughter skirting the edge of insanity.
They no longer fought like humans. They fought like beasts—like apex predators locked in a vicious struggle for dominance in some primordial wilderness. Every strike went straight for a vital point. Every blow carried enough power to crush a Vice Admiral through full defense.
Blood sprayed from their bodies with each collision, painting the ground in violent bursts of red, yet neither man's movements slowed, as if pain and fatigue were meaningless to them.
As the fight raged on, Dragon's gaze gradually focused.
He could win.
He could finally see it now—a faint but undeniable edge.
Empowered by Magnetic Field Rotation, Darren had begun to force Kaido back in a pure contest of strength.
Even though Kaido had already mastered the most advanced application of Conqueror's Haki—infusing it into his attacks—Darren was still managing to push him.
"He's just too strong…"
Dragon's blood surged. His fists clenched without him realizing.
No one else could truly understand what this meant the way he did.
Like Darren, Dragon had come to Wano Country again and again to challenge Kaido. Again and again, he had been crushed, his bones broken, his life hanging by a thread. He had lost track of how many times he had stared down death, how many times that black kanabo had haunted him in his nightmares.
To this day, a glimpse of Hassaikai still made him instinctively want to retreat.
"No… This can't be real…"
Somehow, Queen had ended up at his side. His expression was completely blank as he stared at the raging battle, eyes wide and empty.
"How can anyone on this sea… overpower Boss Kaido head-on…?"
To be continued...