Frost breath?
Or a freezing beam?
Darren brushed his fingers over the skin of his neck, still faintly cold. He glanced at the silver-furred wolfman exhaling icy mist and sighed, sounding almost put-upon.
"Sometimes I feel like you Mythical Zoan types are just overkill. It's not enough that your raw combat power already eclipses normal Zoans—you all come bundled with a grab bag of ridiculous abilities."
He jerked his chin toward the frozen earth and sea.
"I thought Kaido was already broken enough. Lightning, wind blades, fire breath—the whole elemental buffet. And now you come in with freezing beams on top of that?"
He shook his head slowly.
"With you Mythical Zoans pulling stunts like this, you make the other Zoans and even most Logias look like trash."
Saint Michael sneered.
"Mythical Zoans are extraordinary by nature."
"They're countless times rarer than Logias—manifestations of beasts from ancient legends and myths."
He raised his right hand. Sharp wolf claws caught the light with a cold gleam as wisps of frosty air curled from his fingers and diffused into the void.
"This is power that can't be compared to your inferior Paramecia fruit."
"The Magnet-Magnet Fruit—controlling magnetic forces within a limited range, manipulating metal on a large scale. At best, it's a convenient way to sweep aside small fry or threaten lesser nations, just like your so-called North Blue Fleet. A crude external weapon—flashy, shallow, and only useful for propping up your fragile ego."
"In truly high-level combat, this kind of low-grade ability is meaningless."
"A powerful Devil Fruit shouldn't just add something on the outside. It should enhance the very core of its user."
Darren's first instinct was to scoff and spit back something sharp, but that last sentence made his eyelids twitch. A brief spark of understanding flickered at the back of his mind.
A truly powerful Devil Fruit… should enhance the user's very being?
Enhance my very being...
He felt like he was on the verge of seizing something crucial—only for Saint Michael's voice to cut in and scatter the thought.
"The Mythical Zoans," the silver wolf said coldly, "are the ultimate power."
Boom!
Saint Michael's legs exploded into motion. Driven by the monstrous strength and agility of his Mythical Zoan, the Frostshadow Silver Wolf shot forward with blinding speed.
Darren's eyes narrowed. An almost tangible pressure bore down on him.
This speed… it's on par with Kaido's Thunder Bagua.
But where Kaido's attack was a brutal, straight-line blitz of lightning-charged force, this was something else entirely—agility pushed to its absolute limit, honed into a killing style unique to this beast.
Light. Graceful. A lone wolf slipping out of the shadows, fangs aimed straight at the throat—silent, but lethal.
Clang!
The Dragon Claw flashed up just in time to catch the descending rapier.
Sparks burst from the clash. The Frostshadow Silver Wolf, hanging in mid-air, ignored the momentary recoil completely, his body folding and twisting in a bizarre, almost inhuman motion as he slashed with his free claw.
Shick!
Black-red lightning arced like a blade of silk across Darren's chest, carving through his Demon Form's "indestructible" defense and leaving a web of bloody gashes behind.
Scalding blood welled up, then instantly froze under the residual chill of the strike.
An invasive cold seeped into his flesh, threatening to burrow deep into his body.
Darren tilted his head slightly, briefly stunned.
A human body… can move like that?
The next heartbeat, his eyes lit with a burning excitement.
The human body… really can move like that.
At the first opening in the exchange, Darren suddenly grinned. He stamped his right foot, making the ground shudder, and twisted his torso, copying the werewolf's earlier movement. His left leg, wrapped in black-and-crimson lightning, whipped out like a steel cable, ripping through the air as it drove into Saint Michael's abdomen.
BOOM!!
A mountain-splitting crash detonated across the battlefield. The ground buckled and cracked, spiderweb fissures racing over the scorched earth.
The storm clouds overhead shattered under the shockwave of thunder.
Saint Michael caught the kick on his knee, but by now Darren had grasped something. Leaning forward, he suddenly dropped his weight and lunged.
"You—!"
Saint Michael's pupils shrank, shock flickering through his gaze.
He's trying to break down and learn the Frostshadow Silver Wolf's fighting style in real time?!
Bang!
Darren's knee slammed into Saint Michael's chest with a sickening impact. The force tore through his back, exploding outward in a rippling white shockwave.
The Frostshadow Silver Wolf's body was hurled away, plowing a trench hundreds of meters long into the ground before finally grinding to a halt.
A thin line of blood slid from the corner of Saint Michael's mouth.
"How'd that kick feel?" Darren asked, grinning. He dug his fingers into the wounds on his chest and, without a flinch, ripped out the embedded ice crystals—along with chunks of frozen flesh.
Saint Michael wiped the blood away, his eyes narrowing. "So it's not just your speed. Your body, your strength, your Haki… you've grown far stronger than you were at the World Noble Hunting Competition."
"That red-haired brat from House Figarland wasn't wrong. You are a terrible opponent."
"No wonder even those five old fossils suffered heavy losses against you… If you keep developing like this, it won't be long before you reach the ultimate tier."
A shadow of unease flickered in the werewolf's vertical pupils.
This man's ability to learn is monstrous. His talent for absorbing knowledge, copying techniques, and immediately turning them into fighting power—it's beyond anything I've ever seen.
People needed to understand: Mythical Zoans were fundamentally different from every other Devil Fruit type.
Each one was bound to the will of a legendary—or even divine—creature. As a user deepened their control and understanding, they could draw deeper and deeper from that will, unlocking more of the beast's nature.
And every Mythical Zoan came with its own distinct way of fighting.
Take Kaido's Azure Dragon form, for example. His ability to soar among the clouds, drown himself in lightning to drive his body past its limits, and crush enemies with feral, tyrannical brutality—every part of that was the Azure Dragon's true nature and battle instinct.
To be continued...