Zephyr shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. The Justice coat billowed behind him, snapping violently in the wind, and an overwhelming aura rolled off his massive frame.
In an instant, he drew countless eyes.
"It's General Zephyr!" A Marine on the battlefield lit up with joy. "With General Zephyr here, Kaido won't be able to act so arrogant!"
The surrounding soldiers heard it and immediately straightened, morale surging.
A Marine "admiral candidate" was a rank that sat just beneath the Marines' absolute top combat power. They were not vice admirals, and their strength was far beyond vice admiral level. Some might already be admiral-tier, lacking only achievements. Others were only a hair's breadth away.
Their power was hard to define, much like the Seven Warlords. Some were terrifying. Some were merely strong.
In many stories, this category even had its own name.
Quasi-Admiral.
Their pirate counterpart was the Emperor's right-hand man.
"Armament… Impact!"
Falling diagonally from the sky like a meteor, Zephyr clenched a fist the size of a soup bowl. Veins bulged, twisting over his arm like living tattoos. Terrifying power surged through the limb, along with the Armament Haki he had honed for years.
"Thunder Bagua!!"
Kaido had already noticed Zephyr's movement behind him. He gripped his massive kanabo with both hands, muscles swelling along his arms. With his broad back and hulking frame, he unleashed brutal force and whipped around in a savage counterstrike, crude and violent like a spear thrust from horseback.
Clang!
A black fist like a sandbag smashed into the kanabo. Armament Haki coated both weapons, and pale light flashed along Zephyr's defined knuckles.
The air around them churned like a cauldron of boiling mud, spiraling into fierce gusts. The atmosphere roared and rolled, as if the very sky had been stirred into a storm.
Kaido lifted eyes like a man-eating beast, glaring at Zephyr as he snarled,
"Zephyr of the Marines! Why the hell are you here at G-1?!"
"Because of justice."
"Justice is locking monsters like you, bloodthirsty pirates, into Impel Down and making you rot there for the rest of your lives!"
A sharp gleam flashed in Zephyr's eyes. His biceps swelled with a boom, bulging like an inflated basketball.
"Armament… Wrist Strength: Double Stack!!!"
Power slammed down in an instant. It was as if a massive force had abruptly doubled, catching Kaido off guard. The ground beneath Kaido cracked open violently, dirt and rock exploding outward.
Whoosh!
A Marine officer used Soru, appearing behind Kaido in a blink for a sneak attack. His blade flashed coldly as it chopped down.
Rip!
The sound of cloth tearing rang out.
Kaido's waist suddenly sprouted an eerie, powerful arm. In one unexpected punch, he shattered the ambusher's bones. Blood sprayed as the officer was hurled away like a kite with its string cut.
"Hmph. That's supposed to take my head?" Kaido sneered. "Worororo… I'm not getting jumped by trash. That's a pirate's shame."
A savage crimson glinted in his eyes.
Then, in a heartbeat, more arms burst from his sides.
Black fur, dense as steel needles, covered them. Beneath the fur, cords of muscle stood out like iron bars, packed with terrifying strength.
But even more shocking than eight arms
Kaido's head began to change.
Front, back, left, right.
Identical faces emerged.
A colossal prehistoric demon ape appeared in the Marines' sight.
They already knew Kaido was a Mythical Zoan user, but seeing it with their own eyes still turned faces pale and drenched backs in cold sweat.
Kaido seemed to savor their fear. His lips curled, revealing sharp fangs.
"Worororo… fear me."
"One day, I'm going to be a man the Marines will tremble at!"
His swollen fist launched forward, whipping up wind pressure so heavy it stole breath itself, smashing toward Zephyr.
Boom!
A ripple spread through the air beneath Zephyr's feet. He shot sideways more than ten meters, dodging Kaido's fist and then surged forward again like he had rockets strapped to his back.
"Black Arm… Secret Art!"
His punch drove out, and visible ripples formed in the air. A terrifying shockwave of force charged straight at Kaido's head.
"Kaido, you think you can make the Marines afraid?" Zephyr's eyes flared with fury as he shouted. "Today is the day you filthy pirates die!"
A golden sheen spread across Kaido's arms. Eight forearms crossed in front of him, forming an airtight wall like a steel shield. At the same time, a faint golden glow coated his entire body.
Boom!
The shockwave slammed into Kaido's guard like a rampaging beast, like a self-destructing truck hitting head-on. The sheer impact forced Kaido to slide backward, still braced in defense.
When the fiercest burst passed, Kaido flexed his arms. The remaining power shattered, kicking up savage winds that tore across the battlefield.
The Marines around them paled.
"Zephyr's attack got blocked by his body! That bastard's tougher than steel!"
"That kind of strike didn't even hurt Kaido! His arms don't have a single scratch, how is that possible?!"
Zephyr's powerful shockwave had been completely stopped by Kaido's arm-shield, leaving not even the smallest wound.
Even Zephyr was startled.
"Worororo…"
"This is fun. Fighting strong opponents is the only thing that feels good!" Kaido laughed wildly, excitement flushing beneath his dark skin.
His blood heated, and something primal inside him began to multiply and surge.
A "battle gene" awakened, breeding at terrifying speed.
Kaido had grown up bathing in war from childhood. His obsession with conflict was beyond anything normal people could understand. Battle wasn't rare to him.
It was routine.
It was life.
It was why he joined the Rocks Pirates in the first place because he knew that under Rocks, there would be more wars, bigger wars, wars grand enough to shake the world.
Zephyr saw that "fanaticism" in Kaido's eyes and spoke coldly.
"Last time, I couldn't catch you."
"This time you won't escape."
"Even if you're a Mythical Zoan user, you're still not my opponent."
He descended from the air. The Marines around him looked on with reverence and automatically parted, opening a path.
Zephyr tore off his Justice coat in one motion. His broad, powerful body stretched his purple suit tight, shoulders and back rising like a wall. The posture was unyielding hard as iron.
A Marine leader had to set the example.
And that stance was like an anchor in the hearts of the soldiers, crushing their fear and unease.
"Heh." Kaido gave a defiant, arrogant grin. "Last time was last time."
"Back then, I'd just gotten this Devil Fruit. I barely knew how to use it."
"But now?"
"It's different."
"I'll show you what a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit really is!"
Memories flickered through Kaido's mind.
Ever since he gained the Mythical Zoan, Model: Hanuman, he had been thinking nonstop about how to develop it.
Mythical Zoans were the most mysterious and powerful Devil Fruits on the sea.
Each one carried abilities that belonged to demons and gods from ancient legends.
After returning to Hachinosu, he trained constantly with Tengetsu Ares. He got beaten down again and again by Ares, but through failure after failure, he learned. He mastered. He evolved his fruit's power.
His strength had grown.
His development had advanced.
He was no longer some soft target that could be kneaded at will.
Of course…
Tengetsu Ares didn't count.
Seeing Kaido's confident, soaring expression, Zephyr's eyes turned grave. He moved, kicking up a burst of wind as he shot toward Kaido at a speed too fast for the naked eye.
For Zephyr, Rokushiki was second nature. Effortless. Precise. Controlled.
The next second
Zephyr slammed to a stop, his face shifting.
"Gone?!"
Darkness swallowed him. A shadow fell over his body, and an ugly feeling crashed into his chest like ice water.
Cold sweat burst down his back.
The enemy had appeared behind him without him noticing.
That speed
It genuinely shook Zephyr.
Kaido's voice drifted into his ear, low and chilling.
"The power of a Mythical Zoan is something you'll never understand."
"Speed is my specialty."
"And of course…"
"Strength is too!!"
There was a reason villains died from talking too much.
Kaido's words gave Zephyr the split second he needed.
Zephyr twisted his waist, turned, and punched blocking Kaido's massive fist.
Boom!
A deafening impact exploded, and at the same time a sharp crack of air tore through the battlefield like a whip snapping.
Zephyr's expression sank.
His Observation Haki captured it instantly.
Kaido's demon ape tail was lashing toward him.
And in that same moment, several arms huge as palace pillars hammered in from both sides.
In Zephyr's vision, it was nothing but fists.
"He really has gotten stronger!" Zephyr's veins bulged as he set both fists, meeting Kaido head-on.
Boom boom boom!
The collisions were heavy and dull, like muffled thunder rolling again and again. It made the skin crawl. It made hearts shudder.
Kaido laughed, unrestrained and wild.
"You've seen my speed."
"Now I'll let you see…"
"Real power!!!"
With every clash, Zephyr felt it. Flood-like strength, unstoppable, pouring out of Kaido's fists.
Zephyr was forced back again and again, while those massive fists slammed into the ground without mercy. Each punch made the earth shudder as if shells were detonating on impact.
Kaido was in his element.
He wanted to prove himself through battle.
Then he drove his hands into the ground.
The earth lurched violently like an earthquake, throwing countless people off balance.
"What's going on?! Why is the ground shaking?!"
"Hey look at Kaido! What is he doing?!"
"Is he trying to flip the ground over?!"
Crack crack crack!
The earth split open. Fractures spiderwebbed outward. Marines scrambled back in panic.
Kaido roared.
"Watch me destroy this Marine base!!"
He threw his head back and howled, thick veins bulging along his neck like writhing pythons. The land trembled harder. Even the nearby walls began to collapse.
With multiple arms braced, Kaido heaved
And tore a gigantic mountain of stone straight out of the ground.
Even Kaido's several-meter-tall body looked small in front of it.
It dwarfed even the iceberg Diamond Jozu once ripped free at Marineford.
Kaido raised the mountain high with eight arms, then hurled it toward the G-1 fortress.
The visual impact was overwhelming, like an island falling from the sky.
Despair spread across the Marines' faces.
"Not good!!" Zephyr's expression warped as his eyes went bloodshot. "We have to stop that thing!"
If it came down, half of G-1 would be crushed to powder. Tens of thousands of Marines would die in that single strike.
Zephyr moved.
He exploded into the fastest speed of his life, using Soru and Geppo, climbing up the fortress structures in rapid bursts desperate to reach higher ground and destroy the mountain before it struck.
"Faster…"
"I have to be faster."
The massive stone mountain plunged, casting G-1 into endless shadow.
Gion's face turned paper-white. Cold sweat coated her skin. The famed blade Konpira was already drawn.
"Even if I'm going to die… I'll fight. Maybe I can live."
"Don't panic." Vice Admiral Tsuru's voice remained calm. "Someone will act."
"The Marines aren't so weak that Kaido alone can cripple us."
When the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up.
And the "tall one" she meant…
Had already moved.
Gion's eyes widened, joy surging as she stared at the figure in the sky.
"It's Fleet Admiral Kong!"
The Justice coat thundered in the wind, the golden tassels on his shoulders whipping violently.
Kong drove a single punch into the falling mountain.
Cracks burst from the impact point and spread like lightning, racing across the entire mass.
Then the stone mountain shattered completely, breaking apart into countless boulders that rained down like hail.
One punch.
The crisis ended.
"Fleet Admiral…"
"Steel Fist Kong?!"
Shiki, fighting Garp, went pale. Distracted for even a moment, he was smashed flying by Garp's punch, crashing into the hard wall and blowing a hole straight through it.
Garp bared his teeth in a grin.
"Daring to lose focus while fighting this old man? You'll feel that one!"
At that moment
Kaido's face sank. His savage eyes locked onto the figure in the sky, towering and mighty like a savior to the Marines.
"The Fleet Admiral is here too…"
"And Admiral Sengoku… and Garp… and Zephyr…"
"G-1 has gathered the Marines' entire top tier."
"This isn't random…"
"This is prepared."
Kaido had already felt something was off.
Now, with Kong's appearance, it confirmed everything.
With their fighting power, taking a Marine base should've been easy. There were nearly a dozen bases like this in the New World.
But now…
This wasn't about taking a base anymore.
Kaido's heart sank into the abyss. The feeling of being kept in the dark made him sick.
"Something's wrong."
"Did they predict we'd attack G-1 ahead of time?"
"Or did someone tip them off?!"
Either way
What stood before them now was a planned ambush.
A trap designed to drag them straight into a life-or-death pit.
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