Brilliant lights flickered as if a thousand blades were flying toward Kaido's black-and-crimson dragon claw. The instant those blades reached him, Hawk-Eye willed it, and a thousand slashes burst out at once.
The scene dazzled everyone. A thousand slashes appeared near-simultaneously.
"Useless. Kaido's body is far beyond imagination. Even ten thousand slashes wouldn't hurt him, much less when he's coated in Armament Haki."
Shanks' expression darkened. At this point he had no choice but to reveal his real power. If the Marines recorded his combat strength from this battle, it would seriously affect his future plans. But right now, Kaido had to be stopped.
"Hawk-Eye Dracule Mihawk! Even the world's greatest swordsman has stepped in?"
Zoro remembered their first meeting. Back then, he was so ridiculously naïve that he actually challenged Hawk-Eye to a duel. What a joke.
Just like Hawk-Eye told him, a frog in a well never knows how vast the world truly is.
Back then, Hawk-Eye used a sword the size of a fruit knife, and Zoro almost lost his life.
Though he admired Hawk-Eye's strength like a mountain towering overhead, Kaido's sheer monstrosity still shook him to the core.
Mihawk… the world's strongest swordsman… can he even injure that monster?
"Can slashes like that really shake him…?"
After all, Hawk-Eye was only one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. That didn't mean everything, but it showed the difference in class.
The Four Emperors and the Warlords weren't even on the same level.
On the Moby Dick, the 3rd division commander, Diamond Jozu, an ability user who could turn parts of his body into diamond, known for the strongest physical defense on the seas, also shook his head.
Even he didn't believe those thousand slashes could hurt him.
To him, such an attack would feel like scratching an itch.
"Kaido's body is already absurdly tough, and covered in Armament Haki. His hardness should be comparable to mine. There's no way Hawk-Eye's slashes will work."
When the thousand slashes struck Kaido's dragon claw, everyone expected the sword energy to bounce off harmlessly.
But Hawk-Eye thought otherwise.
For the first time, he coated Demon Blade Thousand Edge with Ryou.
The swordsmanship rules he once considered absolute… had been shaken ever since he saw Blaine's first video.
Now, Thousand-Edge's Ryou slashes and Kaido, the so-called strongest creature on land, sea, and air, would be the perfect test.
When the thousand slashes made contact…
Nothing was deflected.
Nothing bounced off.
Instead, every slash simply vanished.
"What?!"
Shanks' eyes went wide. This made no sense. His incoming strike froze in midair; he couldn't even think straight.
What just happened?
Kaido's dragon claw, descending from above the clouds with unstoppable, crushing force… suddenly stopped moving.
It hung there in midair.
Shanks was completely stunned.
Could it be… Hawk-Eye's attack worked?
No, impossible!
Why did the slashes disappear?
Shanks couldn't comprehend it. After battling Kaido hundreds of rounds, he knew Kaido better than anyone. Nothing should be able to stop that claw.
"Hawk-Eye's slashes…? Why did they disappear?"
Zoro was stunned. Had Hawk-Eye weakened that much?
Were the slashes so weak they didn't even rebound?
Or was Kaido's defense so terrifying that it simply swallowed the attacks whole?
Was this the gap between a Warlord and a Yonko?
Maybe he should aim to surpass a Yonko instead… could he truly keep walking the swordsman's path?
"The Warlords are still weaklings in the end. To a monster like Kaido, slashes like that are meaningless. An elephant never cares how sharp an ant's fangs are."
Akainu snorted. Even though the Warlords were technically allies, he despised them. Cooperating with pirates was shameful.
Someday, if he became Fleet Admiral, he would abolish the Warlord System. The Marines couldn't tolerate such filth.
Absolute justice demanded: all pirates must be eradicated.
"Kaido's strength is too overwhelming. Perhaps we shouldn't have let Hawk-Eye join the battlefield. If we forced him back to Marineford, he could've served as a major force in the war against Whitebeard."
Sengoku looked grim. He had considered this carefully before giving the order… but Kaido was beyond all expectations.
Garp stared at the live broadcast without blinking, afraid to miss a single moment.
"No, wait! Something's off! Kaido's dragon claw stopped! Look!"
"What? It stopped?! How?!"
Sengoku was dumbfounded. After Hawk-Eye's attack, the massive dragon claw really hung in midair. What exactly happened?
"I said it already. Hawk-Eye's sword isn't normal."
Aokiji pretended to stay calm. Because he understood Hawk-Eye's character, whenever something defied logic, he simply attributed it to that sword,
Demon Blade Thousand Edge.
From the very first video Blaine released, he already noticed that this blade was different.
Even shattered, it displayed terrifying power.
If not for Scissor Seven's limited strength, the sword's true potential would be far beyond this.
Dragon roars echoed through the clouds, rage, pain. The dying thunderclouds churned once more.
Hidden in the clouds, Kaido's enormous dragon body twisted and rolled in agony, but no one could see it.
Pain.
Excruciating pain.
He almost missed this feeling. This pain made him feel alive again.
The thousand slashes, empowered by Ryou and released through Demon Blade Thousand Edge, had pierced through Kaido's iron-hard dragon scales, ignored his Armament Haki, and invaded deep into his flesh,
Rampaging wildly.
Kaido let out a furious roar, emerging from the dark storm clouds with bloodshot eyes.
Dragon flames gathered in his maw, both sides of his jaws swelling as power built up.
"Mihawk!! You actually managed to hurt me?! Hahahaha, this excites me even more!"
"Now DIE! DRAGON BREATH!!"