Alucard had once said that one of his biggest regrets was not being able to fight Shanks when the latter was truly at his peak.
Even so, the current Shanks still possessed power surpassing that of an Admiral, though still slightly inferior to a Yonko. However, once harnessed by a Yonko-level individual, he became an extremely terrifying asset.
Boom! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sound of thunder and clashing echoed. When Kaido surged out of the sea again, he saw that a massive hole, slowly rotating, had opened in the clouds above. The crimson lightning on the tip of Shanks' sword was pointing directly at the center of this sky-vortex.
Instantly, Shanks swung his sword down. In a flash, the sea surface was cleaved open by a seemingly bottomless and boundless fissure. Even as the surrounding seawater rushed in, it couldn't be restored immediately.
Kaido joined his hands above his head, blocking the lightning sword strike from Shanks.
"Ugh... this guy..."
Kaido gritted his teeth and held firm, but his body sank deeper into the sea. After over ten seconds, there was still no sign of Shanks' special attack stopping.
"Not bad. If that's the case, we can try the next move."
As Kaido was busy blocking Shanks' technique, he suddenly heard Alucard's voice. Driven by curiosity, he barely managed to look in the direction of Alucard.
The familiar scene appeared again: blood sludge erupted from Alucard's body, separated and spread, and a person gradually walked out from within. Like Shanks, the person was connected to Alucard's body by threads of blood and retained the blood pool.
The person who emerged wore a Marine uniform, the hood concealing the upper half of their face, allowing only a glimpse of slightly darker skin below the nose.
Unlike Shanks, Kaido couldn't immediately recall who this person was.
"Go, Sakazuki!" Alucard smiled wickedly.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Like the sound of boiling water bubbles popping, in the blink of an eye, the hands of the summoned Sakazuki were completely enveloped in molten magma, releasing scalding bubbles that made one instinctively want to retreat.
"Magma-Magma Fruit?"
Kaido's pupils constricted. His goal was to form an army composed entirely of Devil Fruit users, so he had studied them somewhat, especially the most famous Logia types.
And the most recent user of the Magma-Magma Fruit was... the late Marine Admiral candidate, Sakazuki!
The one in front of him, using the Magma-Magma Fruit and wearing a Marine uniform, could it be Sakazuki?
The Admiral candidate who died by Alucard's hand five years ago?
If it truly was him, and considering Shanks' current situation, even the dullest Kaido could guess at least three parts of Alucard's ability.
"Great Eruption!"
Sakazuki punched out heavily, unleashing a massive magma fist that grew larger as it flew. By the time it reached Kaido, it was almost as large as his own body.
Kaido had just countered Shanks' spirit of all things attack. Facing a second attack, Sakazuki's Great Eruption, no matter how fast he was, he was unable to dodge.
"Ugh! You bastard, Alucard!"
If he couldn't dodge, he'd take the blow head-on!
Kaido desperately resisted the explosive attack of the Great Eruption, as magma splattered onto his body.
"A beautiful block. I'll give you another present."
Alucard aimed his white pistol, Casull, at the giant magma fist and fired a killing shot.
The bullet, with its powerful penetration, instantly shattered the huge magma fist into countless smaller chunks of lava.
Kaido, who was using both hands to block, reacted too late. Countless pieces of molten rock flew through the gaps between his hands, striking his face, stomach, and legs...
"AHHHH!!!"
Finally, Kaido couldn't help but let out a cry of pain. This was something neither Shanks nor Sakazuki could have achieved alone. It was precisely their consecutive, coordinated attacks that achieved this effect.
Not to mention, he had engaged Alucard in a brief melee at the start.
Kaido's scream caused looks of alarm on the faces of Ain, Stragus, and even Zephyr and Ivalis back on Arderay Island.
Zephyr frowned and asked a nearby Immortal Pirates subordinate, "How long has the battle been going on?"
The crew member was stunned for two seconds before replying, "About forty minutes."
"He suppressed Kaido to this extent so quickly?"
A cold bead of sweat dripped down Zephyr's face.
The most recent fight between Alucard and Kaido before this was six months ago, where Alucard defeated Kaido after a grueling battle lasting over eight hours.
Yet, this battle had only lasted forty minutes, and Kaido was already screaming in pain.
Had Kaido gotten weaker?
The moment this thought arose, Zephyr shook his head violently. Setting aside the terrifying power he had witnessed from Kaido just moments ago, given his battle-crazed personality, it was simply impossible for him to regress.
Zephyr might believe that the aging Whitebeard or Big Mom, who spent all her time indulging and left everything to her subordinates, had regressed, but Kaido? Impossible.
Then, had Alucard improved?
But was it possible to improve this dramatically in just six months?
Zephyr also found this hard to believe, especially since Alucard hadn't been particularly active in the past two years.
After much thought, he could only arrive at one conclusion: Alucard didn't use his full power last time.
"That scream... was that really Kaido's?"
Ain's already large eyes widened even further, practically bursting from their sockets. The Kaido she knew, who was almost unbelievably powerful in her mind, had actually let out a scream.
"D-Damn it..."
Kaido slowly surfaced from the sea. He was wounded, but his injuries were visibly healing.
"It seems that strike wasn't enough. I'll need to give you another one," Alucard said with a smile. Suddenly, the pool of blood expanded, enveloping the entire area. The blue sea had been turned into a Sea of Blood!
This sight greatly shocked Kaido. He had previously assumed Alucard couldn't utilize this ability on the sea.
On the other two sides, Sakazuki and Shanks also began to concentrate their power. The two of them slowly and distinctly shouted the names of their ultimate techniques.
"Ryusei Kazan!"
"Spirit of All Things!"
Controlling two Admiral-level figures at once put some strain on Alucard's concentration. Since he had utilized this version of the River of Death, he might as well use an ultimate move to settle it quickly. Otherwise, the longer the fight dragged on, the more likely he was to fall into a disadvantaged position.
———
TN: From what I remember, the "Spirit of All Things" is basically the "Voice of All Things." I think the author is tying it to nature and Conqueror's Haki, which might be why Shanks has that red lightning and (I can't remember if this is already mentioned in the previous chapters, so this might be a spoiler) can summon nature's lightning. Though we know that's not really the reason and it's just the animation, but remember, this fic is super old, so we can't really comment on that.