(Sorry, I put the chapter in the wrong volume)
Chapter 34: Suppression
Make no mistake, the Kaido summoned by Yumesaki was naturally not the real Kaido.
Rather, after Yumesaki switched to the Inu Inu no Mi, Model: Bake-danuki, he utilized the abilities of the fruit to manifest Kaido directly from his memories.
While it wasn't the actual Kaido, and his power couldn't fully match the original, he still possessed roughly half of Kaido's true strength.
Gairōta was completely stunned.
He had initially thought of himself as a yokai with a exceptionally robust build.
But the moment he laid eyes on Kaido, he finally understood the true definition of a massive physique—a seven-meter-tall colossal frame coupled with bulging, mountain-like mass of muscles, all of which practically screamed absolute dominance.
When Gairōta noticed the two horns protruding from the top of Kaido's head, he couldn't help but mutter, "The Oni Race?"
He felt as though he were standing before Kaido like a small child who hadn't even finished growing up.
This sheer height was simply too absurd.
Kaido looked down, casting his gaze toward Gairōta, "Interesting. Are you the challenger this time? Come on then, let me see what kind of strength you possess, and whether you have what it takes to kill me."
The moment those words left his mouth, an invisible pressure erupted violently, and visible ripples began to distort the air.
A terrifying wave of Conqueror's Haki pressed down upon Gairōta without a shred of mercy.
Gairōta's hands began to tremble.
This wasn't born out of cowardice; he considered himself powerful and wouldn't easily fear an opponent.
Yet this trembling was completely outside the control of his own will—it felt as though the marrow deep within his bones was shaking on its own accord, as if every single drop of blood inside his body was screaming to flee from the presence of the man standing before him.
In this exact moment, Gairōta suddenly understood.
This sort of trembling had nothing to do with his own resolve; it was a pure, instinctual response generated by a living creature when facing absolute death.
It also meant that between him and his opponent lay a massive chasm that was nigh impossible to cross.
"So you didn't run away?" Kaido chuckled softly.
Yet that quiet chuckle only served to make Gairōta feel an unprecedented sense of humiliation.
Gairōta gnashed his teeth together fiercely, a low growl seeping from between his jaws—the final, stubborn defiance of a beast backed into a corner.
Then he moved, charging straight toward Kaido.
It might have looked incredibly foolish, but this was his way of fighting.
He raised his lightning club high into the air, a faint blue light coursing across the weapon. This was his concentrated Fear, the light flowing, wrapping, and exploding across the surface of the iron club, unleashing immense power.
Every single step he stamped into the ground left an imprint several inches deep.
The club swung downward alongside the brilliant light, looking as though it would crush Kaido into oblivion.
However, Kaido merely extended a single hand in a casual manner, completely shutting down Gairōta's assault.
His five fingers clamped tightly around the tip of the lightning club.
Before Gairōta could even formulate a reaction, his entire being was hoisted into the air along with his weapon.
His massive body felt like nothing more than a light piece of bamboo in Kaido's grip. The moment both of his feet left the ground.
Kaido swung him clean over his head, then slammed him ruthlessly downward.
A tremendous crash resounded.
The ground exploded.
The floor shattered into countless fragments in every direction from the sheer impact, golden shards flying outward like shrapnel from a cannon, embedding themselves into the walls to form innumerable deep craters.
Gairōta's body was buried within the fractured earth, his ribs emitting a sharp groan as they cracked, and a spray of blood erupted from his mouth.
Kaido released his grip and took a step back.
He looked down at Gairōta lying inside the massive crater, as if he were looking at a block of stone that hadn't been fully pulverized yet.
"Not dead yet?" This caused Kaido a bit of surprise. He had expected this guy to be completely shattered upon impact, not anticipating that he would still be breathing.
This physical durability was easily comparable to the Tobi Roppo under his command.
A few seconds later, Gairōta's fingers twitched, followed by his hand, and then his arm.
He forced his body up out of the crater, chunks of shattered debris falling away from his frame. Blood streamed down from his forehead, passing the corner of his eye, and pooling into drops at his chin.
His vision was stained crimson, but within that red haze, he clearly discerned Kaido's position.
Once again, he hoisted the lightning club, immense power concentrating upon the weapon once more.
This time, the light flared far more radiantly than before, shifting from a dull blue into a blinding purplish-white. It was the manifestation of him pouring the absolute entirety of his Fear into the weapon.
This time, the light no longer merely clung to the surface of the iron club; instead, it fused completely with the metal, transforming the entire lightning club into a pillar made of pure light.
With a roaring battle cry, Gairōta unleashed his second strike.
The speed of this attack was faster than the first, its power vastly more devastating.
Kaido tilted his head with an incredibly minute movement, just enough to let the lightning club graze past his ear and strike squarely upon his shoulder.
A dull, heavy impact thudded out. Kaido didn't budge an inch. An attack so profoundly powerful and overflowing—one capable of shattering stone monuments, turning boulders to dust, and reducing solid steel to mush—landed upon Kaido's body as if it were nothing more than the punch of a three-year-old child.
Weak and utterly ineffective.
It failed to inflict any noticeable damage upon Kaido.
At the exact same time, Kaido's right fist shot upward from below, like a massive cannon suddenly firing toward the heavens, striking Gairōta squarely in the abdomen.
The fist bore no special technique name, carried no elaborate build-up of strength, and couldn't even be considered a proper attack from Kaido in any true sense.
It was just an incredibly casual punch.
Yet Gairōta's body bent at an angle that defied all natural logic. His entire self was launched upward like a fired projectile, tearing straight through the dome of the Aestus Domus Aurea, smashing the colossal golden reliefs apart before pausing for a brief second at the highest point, then beginning its descent.
A sharp clattering echoed.
He crashed back down heavily into the center of the stage.
Golden shards rained down like a sudden storm, pelting the surrounding area and creating a dense, metallic pattering sound.
From the very beginning, Kaido had never shifted his footsteps. He stood amidst the golden debris in his original spot, looking at Gairōta, who lay panting heavily within the ruins.
Gairōta's ears rang incessantly. Kaido's figure appeared dim in his sight, sometimes splitting into two, sometimes blurring together into a single mass.
He could feel that at least three of his ribs were broken, and he didn't know where exactly a fracture had formed in his left arm bone. Every breath he took felt like introducing a piece of molten iron into his chest cavity.
Yet he still stood up, for the third time.
This caused Kaido a bit of genuine surprise—to be beaten so thoroughly to this extent and yet still find the strength to stand.
Perhaps this guy's raw power wasn't extraordinary, but the strength of his will was definitely an existence at the absolute peak.
"Perhaps, I underestimated you."
Kaido's figure underwent a transformation at this moment.
Bluish-green scales began to emerge across his skin, spreading from his shoulder blades to his arms, and from his back down to his waist and abdomen, the scales multiplying and forming like a living organism.
His body expanded, his bones lengthened, and the tip of his spine extended into a massive dragon tail, while curved dragon horns sprouted from his head.
The human outline faded away, replaced by a far more ancient form that belonged to the age of mythology.
The Human-Beast Form.
The most balanced form for offense and defense among Kaido's transformations. He no longer approached this battle with a dismissive attitude.
Even though his opponent was exceptionally weak, his will was immensely unyielding. He was a decent enough adversary, worthy of being taken a bit more seriously.
At the exact same time, Gairōta launched his third assault.
He bellowed and screamed, raising the lightning club high above his head, staking every ounce of his power, his entire fighting spirit, and his complete dignity as a yokai into this single strike.
This was an attack where he squeezed dry the absolute limits of his Youki, even going so far as to gamble away his very vitality.
Following this strike, the yokai who originally possessed a vast lifespan began to visibly age.
Yet his power expanded rapidly like an inflating balloon.
He leapt high into the air, bringing the club down toward the crown of Kaido's half-dragon head.
Faced with an attack so immensely powerful, overflowing, and staking absolutely everything.
Kaido raised his right arm.
Upon the kanabo in his right hand, a layer of reddish-black light coiled tightly. It was the infusion of Conqueror's Haki—an advanced technique that compressed, solidified, and coated the raw power of a supreme ruler, enough to change the very color of heaven and earth, onto the surface of an attack.
Reddish-black lightning continuously crackled outward from the coiling Haki, carrying an unparalleled force as it swung down heavily.
"Thunder Bagua."
Simultaneously with the utterance of those two words, the Haki-clad kanabo collided with Gairōta's lightning club.
In that fleeting instant, the interior of the Aestus Domus Aurea lit up as brightly as broad daylight.
Immediately afterward, Gairōta's lightning club within this clash began to crumble into powder from the very tip onward, unable to withstand even a single breath before that absolute power.
The bases of both of Gairōta's thumbs exploded simultaneously. Before the blood could even hit the ground, it was instantly vaporized by the shockwave generated from the collision of the two forces.
Both of his arms, his shoulders, and his ribs—every single bone in his upper body issued a cracking sound in unison, like a mountain peak beginning to collapse from within.
The speed at which he was sent flying backward was faster than any time prior.
His body bounced across the golden floor, crashed down, and bounced again, every single impact leaving a smeared trail of blood.
By the time he finally came to a halt, he was already lying at the absolute edge of the stage, half of his body hanging loosely outside the shattered golden floor.
Kaido released his half-dragon form. The scales receded, the dragon horns retracted, and he returned to his human appearance.
He walked over to stand before Gairōta, looking down at the yokai lying amidst the pool of blood and golden fragments.
Gairōta's eyes were still open.
"Can you still stand?" Kaido inquired.
Gairōta offered no answer, for his consciousness had faded to the absolute extreme. Yet within that pair of eyes, something still burned bright—the purest instinct belonging to a warrior.
This earned him Kaido's deep admiration. "If the real me were here to witness this, I would probably demand that you join my pirates."
He knew full well that he was merely a replica summoned by Yumesaki from memory; to encounter such a pure warrior and yet be unable to take him as a subordinate was truly a profound pity.
But Gairōta didn't hear a single word Kaido said clearly. He merely raised his remaining right hand that could still move, clenching it into a fist, and launched a punch toward Kaido's shin.
The blow failed to even graze Kaido's skin, losing all of its momentum halfway through, and thumped heavily back onto the ground, emitting a soft, dull sound.
The light within his pupils dimmed bit by bit, yet that pair of eyes remained wide open, refusing to close.
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