Chapter 170: Angel vs. Azure Dragon
On the massive plaza of the King's Plateau, Louis stood with his sword and spear in hand, his eyes crossing an extreme distance to gaze at the massive figure looming in the dark clouds.
Behind him, Yelena slowly took out her heavy World-Breaker war hammer, a shadow of gloom flashing in the scarlet eyes beneath her gas mask. She still remembered the scene of her brief clash with Kaido on the ice field. Kaido's powerful Haki and physique had directly ignored her curse-infused blow. Although Kaido had said he would come looking for her and Louis again, Yelena still felt quite surprised. Kaido had come much earlier than she had imagined. In such a short time, she felt she hadn't grown much and couldn't truly contend with him.
Not far from Yelena, the Golden Lion silently lit a cigar, a strange light in his eyes. "That guy Kaido... has he become this strong already? The feeling he gives me is no different from Whitebeard back in the day."
To this, Ochoku crossed his arms, his fingers tapping lightly on his armguard, an unshakable apprehension in his eyes. "You've been away from the sea for too long, Shiki! Nowadays, Kaido has been getting stronger over the years as if he has no limits." As a pirate who had come from the Rocks Pirates, Ochoku had a faint feeling that Kaido was already on par with a peak-period Whitebeard, Rocks, or Roger.
The words of Ochoku and Shiki clearly reached Louis's ears, but they were not enough to make him, who had never known how to write the word "coward," feel any fear.
Then, under everyone's gaze, the aura of Louis, who had seemed peaceful and warm, suddenly changed. His entire being became dazzling and incomparably scorching.
A halo forged from fire rose, hovering and slowly rotating behind his head. Searing flames wreathed his flawless white wings. As the firelight flared, the surrounding temperature rose rapidly, instantly causing the Mink, Serena, who was secretly observing from a distance, to be drenched in sweat.
Louis's gaze, combined with his Observation Haki, firmly locked onto Kaido of the Beasts at the edge of his vision. Then, with a beat of his wings, Louis leaped a thousand meters into the air, plunging into the high-altitude clouds. The next moment, a sun-like firelight exploded, vaporizing the clouds in the air.
The figure with spread wings, accompanied by a sky full of searing firelight, streaked across the firmament, heading straight for the distance. A brilliant golden fiery trail cut through the atmosphere, and a fierce sonic boom followed, impacting the eardrums of the citizens of Dressrosa and making them subconsciously look up at the sky.
"What—is that?" At this moment, a question about the unknown enveloped everyone's hearts.
In the distant sky, Kaido, who was flying leisurely, naturally also noticed the figure flying toward him at high speed from Dressrosa. Seeing this, a cruel smile appeared on his ferocious head. "He's coming?"
Then, Kaido's immeasurably long dragon body coiled in the sky, and a dangerously bright firelight brewed in his cavernous mouth.
"BLAST BREATH—"
In an instant, a searing flame erupted, piercing through the ink-black dark clouds, lighting up the sky, and meeting the high-speed attacking figure head-on.
In Dressrosa, the tens of thousands of citizens saw the ink-black clouds suddenly light up. Immediately after, an orange beam of light tore out, like a sharp arrow shot toward the horizon, aimed straight in the direction of Dressrosa.
For a moment, the citizens were in chaos, panicked expressions on their faces. Terrified cries spread throughout the entire city. Although the pirate grunts and sheriffs were trying to calm them, it was still very chaotic.
However, the chaos soon subsided, because many people had noticed that the flame was not actually falling toward Dressrosa, but was heading straight for another flame that was leaving from Dressrosa's direction.
High in the sky, Louis's expression did not change in the slightest as he faced the fiery breath that was powerful enough to pierce mountain ranges. In his high-speed flight, Louis raised the Seven Star Sword, which was emitting a gloomy green light, and his gaze became sharper.
The next moment, he swung the sword in his hand violently, directly splitting the incoming pillar of fire in two, causing it to either plunge into the high-altitude clouds and vaporize them, or fall into the deep sea and kick up waves hundreds of meters high.
Amidst the scattered, falling flames, Louis wreathed his blade in Conqueror's Haki, and black and red arcs of electricity coiled around his body.
In the distance, the Azure Dragon, high in the sky, took all this in, a look of joy flashing in its huge dragon eyes. "Worororo!" Kaido of the Beasts directly flung aside the flame cloud that was carrying the children of his old acquaintance and the Devil Fruit.
Roaring, he transformed into his strongest dragon-man form. He picked up his Hassaikai and, also wreathing it in powerful Conqueror's Haki, swung it without showing any weakness.
"Divine Departure!"
"THUNDER BAGUA!"
In an instant, the blades wreathed in Conqueror's Haki and the kanabō collided without physical contact, yet they were met with a roar as if the heavens were falling.
BOOM!
Black and red lightning intertwined and spread, directly occupying the entire sky. The extreme impact that burst forth scattered the dark clouds, pushing them past the horizon. The clash of Conqueror's Haki tore through the clouds in the sky, forming a canyon-like rift that stretched to the edge of vision. Wisps of clouds were swept up by the shockwave, pouring upward along the rift.
On the distant King's Plateau, everyone who was watching this scene was dumbfounded, feeling that their worldview had suffered a violent blow.
"The—the sky was torn apart by the collision?!"
At the front of the crowd, the Golden Lion and Ochoku stood with their arms crossed, a look of reminiscence in their eyes. "This scene... how long has it been since I've seen it—" Ochoku said, his face filled with emotion.
The Golden Lion subconsciously caught the two swords that had flown toward him, a smile on his cigar-chomping face, his mind full of the glorious years of the past. Scene after scene of his clashes with Whitebeard, Roger, and the others flashed before his eyes like a slideshow.
Then, a formidable Conqueror's Haki burst forth from the Golden Lion, kicking up a fierce hurricane in mid-air that made the forest that had been spawned by a Devil Fruit ability shake violently, and one by one, the pirates fell.
This scene made the members of the Archangel Pirates look displeased.
"What do you think you're doing, Golden Lion?" Yelena was no longer silent. She gripped her World-Breaker war hammer and slowly stepped forward, also unleashing her own Conqueror's Haki to face off against him from a distance.
On the other side, a petite figure swam over from the direction of the castle, holding a sword-like instrument and hovering in mid-air.
The Golden Lion was first shocked that Louis's second-in-command had Conqueror's Haki, and then he bit down on the cigar in his mouth, revealing a bloodthirsty smile. "Nothing. I'm just going to join the battle!"
To this, Ochoku frowned slightly and advised in a cold voice, "Louis was right. Your Haki hasn't recovered yet."
To this, the Golden Lion turned his head, his gaze falling on the direction where the sky was torn, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. "Fighting is the best way to recover Haki!"
The next moment, the Golden Lion soared into the air, charging without showing any weakness toward the place where the fierce battle was taking place.
The violent roar continued to sound. The vibrations and shockwaves continued to burst forth, completely tearing apart the originally ink-black dark clouds and allowing the sunlight to shine down on the churning sea.
Louis, his wings spread high, held a spear and a sword, wreathed in Conqueror's Haki, in each hand and launched a fierce assault on Kaido. With every move, black and red arcs of electricity coiled around him, and the atmosphere rippled visibly. Slashes and shockwaves scattered across the sky, cutting terrifying trenches in the surface of the sea.
"HAKOKU!"
The strongest spear of the giant race, after Louis had seen it once, was used by him with ease, bursting forth with a power that surpassed the combined might of Dorry and Brogy, and blasted toward the tall, burly dragon-man.
A shockwave wreathed in black and red arcs of electricity streaked across the atmosphere, meeting Kaido with a terrifying roar.
To this, the smile on Kaido's face grew even wider. He gripped the Hassaikai, which was wreathed in black and red arcs of electricity, at his side with both hands.
"ROARING THUNDER BAGUA!" And then he swung it out with the sound of ten thousand thunders.
BOOM—
With a loud crash, the Hassaikai collided with the almost unstoppable shockwave and then violently knocked it aside, causing it to land on the sea beside him and create a terrifying scene like a falling meteor.
Then, a red light flashed in Kaido's eyes. He foresaw everything that was to come and quickly leaned back, letting a sharp slash graze past his long mustache and disappear behind him. At the same time, the long tail that was hanging behind him whipped out, turning into an azure whip that lashed toward Louis, who was approaching with his longsword.
Just as the long whip, wreathed in black and red arcs of electricity, was about to land on Louis's waist, Louis beat his wings. The searing flames erupted, propelling him to instantly fly several hundred meters away. He raised his spear, which was wreathed and crackling with two-colored lightning, and threw it straight out.
Kaido's dragon eyes widened. He had foreseen this as well and quickly sidestepped, attempting to dodge this blow that was powerful enough to pierce his throat. The next moment, the spear, wreathed in Conqueror's Haki and lightning, flashed past, cutting a bloody gash in Kaido's neck.
SPLAT. Crimson blood splattered, raining down from the high sky.
"So fast." In pain, Kaido frowned, then reached up to cover the wound on his neck. The spear, wreathed in both lightning and Conqueror's Haki, was even faster than he had imagined. Even with future sight, Kaido still hadn't completely dodged it.
But at this moment, Kaido had no time to think too much. He raised his Hassaikai with his other hand and swung it fiercely at the high-speed attacking Louis. "VAJRA ARROW!"
A blow combining Haki and a shockwave, radiating a strange light, flew instantly toward Louis.
To this, Louis, as if he hadn't realized the power of this blow, raised a hand and casually slapped it away.
Kaido saw this and raised an eyebrow. He then let go of the hand covering his neck, and gripped his kanabō with both hands, leaving the wound, which had already stopped bleeding and was slowly healing, exposed.
The next moment, the shockwave Kaido had unleashed was slapped away by Louis's bare hand, landing on the distant sea. And then, Louis, holding his double-edged sword, appeared before Kaido.
"Not bad at all." The veins in Kaido's eyes were bloodshot. The muscles on his arms bulged, and the face of his dragon-man form became more and more bestial. His cavernous mouth, which originally had only four fangs, now grew a dense mass of them.
This was the second hybrid form that Kaido of the Beasts had developed through decades of battle. His already beast-like figure became even more ferocious. The muscles on his arms bulged, and his entire body radiated a fierce aura. In this form, Kaido's strength grew again, and he became even more wild and dangerous.
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