Ares's shout sent a thrill through Kaido. The demon-ape's face grew even more fearsome as he roared,
"Ares-ani, focus on that guy! Leave this side to me!"
He drew his gaze back from his big brother. The warmth in his eyes cooled to something feral.
"So you're the Navy's admiral candidate, Zephyr, huh?"
"Remember my name. The one who kills you is Kaido!"
He strode in like a maddened beast. Ten meters vanished in two or three steps. The bulging muscles of his many arms looked like blackened steel as four fists clenched and hammered down.
Where his punches fell, the air rippled like water, waves spreading out in rings. Even by sight alone you could feel the overwhelming force riding in those blows.
"Arm Strength Enhancement!"
Zephyr drew a long breath. His forearms swelled to twice their girth, and in the same instant they hardened in deep, glossy Armament Haki.
"Armament… Impact!"
Veins climbed his neck and jaw as his fists blurred, afterimages fanning out with each strike. Wind howled between them.
Thud
Thud
Thud
Each collision landed like a muffled thunderclap. Meeting force with force, Zephyr felt the explosive power coiled within Kaido's punches. The ground beneath them crazed into a spiderweb. With every exchange the cracks grew more and more, wider and deeper.
Dozens of clashes later there was still no winner.
Kaido barked a laugh, elated. "Worororo… now this is a fight!"
"Feels good!"
At last he had broken free of battles where he was either trampled or crushed. He reveled in the flood of strength surging through his body and the long-missed joy of knuckles on flesh, the raw release that came with letting power loose.
For a muscle-born brawler, nothing was sweeter. He was drunk on it. He could not stop.
Zephyr shifted first. He vanished with Soru from the Six Powers, leaving Kaido's next string of blows to pound empty air.
Kaido scowled. "Gone."
Then his eyes flashed. He grinned wide.
"Worororo… slipped behind me? Useless."
Zephyr's face changed the instant he struck from the rear. "Why is there another face on the back of his head?"
Shock rippled through him. The monster before him did not just have eight arms. It had four faces. Zephyr had thought there were only three. He had been wrong. Truly a fiend.
If not for Kaido's feet giving away his orientation, Zephyr might have mistaken the back for the front.
The demon-ape's rearward face split in a grim smile.
"So a backstab won't help you."
"Whichever angle you try, I see you clearly."
The arms that sprouted from his back moved as freely as the front, each carrying that same invincible brute force. They caught and smothered Zephyr's strike with ease.
"This guy…" Zephyr's look hardened. "From any angle there are no obvious openings."
The Kaido before him was a headache in the shape of a man.
Not far away, Sengoku was fighting two at once, Captain John and Silver Axe. When he sensed how things were going on Zephyr's side, his heart lurched. A weight settled on his chest.
"Damn it. How did the situation turn into this?"
"Weren't we supposed to smash them with thunderous force?"
In Sengoku's mind, the Navy's iron trio against a handful of wounded Rocks officers should have been simple work. On paper, their side should have crushed the enemy outright.
Reality was nothing like his numbers.
Ares's squad's own Kaido was holding the Navy's admiral candidate by himself.
Sengoku's hope swung to Garp, and what he sensed there made his eyes widen. His thoughts tangled into knots.
"What is going on?!"
"Even Garp can't put down that weird fish-headed thing?"
His scalp prickled. He hated this answer.
Garp had been suppressing Slardar early on. On land, the sea fiend's power was cut in half. He was fighting on physique and Armament alone.
Then Kaido peeled Wang Zhi off and threw him into Garp's lane. Even injured, Wang Zhi still had fangs. His constant harrying meant Garp could not put his full weight on Slardar.
Now the whole field was grinding into a stalemate.
Elsewhere, Ares kept mauling forward at Redfield like a maddened lion, taunting between blows.
"Coward, how long do you plan to run?"
"So this is the world's strongest swordsman? Hmph. What a disappointment."
"Do you even have the guts to swing your blade?"
He wanted nothing more than to force Redfield to go all out and fight him head-on.
Redfield would not bite. He stayed cold, his face only a shade darker, and let Observation carry him. He slipped each strike by a breath.
"Ares, I am not your enemy," he said, voice cool. "Your enemies are the Marines. Your companions are under attack."
"Will you abandon them just to scratch your battle itch?"
He tried to talk Ares down, to keep the berserker from pouring all that hunger onto him. If Ares cooled, Redfield could leave. He preferred solitude. He did not want the whirlpool closing around him. Rocks had courted him openly before; he had gone to ground for a long time to make Rocks give up. As for the Navy, they were everywhere. If they put eyes on you, they chased like a rabid hound.
"Back to the point," Ares answered. "My companion already told me. He will handle his enemies."
"I believe him."
Failing to pry Redfield's full strength free only made Ares more manic. His offense swelled larger still. Dragonfire and gale-force winds roared from him in turn, tearing trenches across the island.
The effect was limited.
"It is useless," Redfield said, cleaving aside a tide of flame and splitting a wind burst where it was thinnest. "My Observation has reached the level where I can read a little of the future. Every move you make, I see it coming."
"So you cannot beat me."
"Observation… Haki?"
Ares blinked. He knew the basics, but leaned on raw reflex and instinct. He had put most of his grind into body, fruit, and fist. He had not pushed Observation far.
Hearing Redfield's words, something clicked.
Ares locked his bright, burning eyes on the man. "So if you hone Observation to the limit, you can glimpse the future for a moment?"
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