Chapter 356: Chapter 356: Birth of the New Strongest
Chapter 356: Birth of the New Strongest
Kaido’s four claws stepped on the flame clouds and soared. His body moved rapidly like a dragonfish in water, as fast as lightning. With a flick of his tail, he instantly flew in front of Reiner. The azure dragon claw’s sharp tips glinted with a cold light as it swiped down!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The dragon claws easily pierced the earth, continuously leaving dark round holes. Dust and rubble flew everywhere.
Reiner dodged backward, flipping a few times to a stone pillar, and with his feet on it, he squatted and pushed off!
The stone pillar shattered, and his body, covered in pitch-black Armament Haki, shot out like a cannonball, his speed so fast it left an afterimage in the air.
Bang!!
"Roar!!"
The armed human cannonball smashed into the giant dragon’s body. Reiner’s two horns pierced through the flesh and into Kaido’s abdomen. Kaido’s eyes widened and became bloodshot, and he couldn’t help but throw his head back and let out a painful roar.
"I’m going to tear you to shreds!"
Kaido angrily lowered his dragon head, opened his mouth to reveal his sharp teeth, and bit down fiercely!
Faced with the ferocious, bloody maw, Reiner’s arms were cocked at his waist, ready to strike. A ball of white energy flowed and condensed into a circle, enveloping his fist.
Just as the two rows of sharp fangs bit down, Reiner fiercely stomped on the void, creating a blast wave. He instantly pulled back one body length, his eyes hardened, and he punched out at the two rows of clamped dragon fangs!
Bang!!
The atmosphere cracked open. The iron-like sharp fangs were shattered with a hole, and fragments flew.
As Reiner fell, he grabbed onto a dragon whisker, and after landing, he pulled hard to drag the dragon’s head down, raising his leg in a violent whip kick.
Bang! The whip kick sent the dragon’s head flying. Reiner pushed off with his foot and was about to give chase again when his ear suddenly twitched.
With a sharp whistling sound breaking through the air, in Reiner’s peripheral vision, a giant dragon’s tail lashed out swiftly!
Slap!!
Reiner felt as if he had been hit by a train. His entire body instantly went numb and was stuck to the front of it, unable to move. The dragon’s tail fiercely whipped him, sending him flying!
Bang! Bang!—Bang!!
Reiner’s body crashed through several small hills in a row and was finally embedded within a mountain.
The azure dragon’s body began to shrink. Kaido changed back into his dragon-man form and leaped across the stone peaks, grabbing his spiked club with both hands and swinging it above his head like a propeller at high speed.
Reiner punched through the collapsed ruins. His figure emerged, and just as he looked up, his gaze immediately froze.
Rumble!!
A dense barrage of purple lightning erupted from the sky of Wano, the ’crackling’ sound of it piercing the air echoing across the land. A meteor, dragging the snake-like, intertwining bolts of wild lightning, fell from the sky!
"Die for me, Black Snake Reiner!!"
Kaido roared as he descended from the sky! He raised his spiked club high with both hands, and his full-powered Conqueror’s Haki coiled around it, almost twisting the pitch-black iron club. The bulging muscles in his arms and chest had veins popping, exuding a wild, terrifying, oppressive feeling.
"Daiitoku: Raimei Hakke!!"
A murderous, ferocious glint flashed in Kaido’s eyes as he smashed down with the lightning-wreathed spiked club!
"Goshu Akujin!!"
Reiner hurriedly summoned the pitch-black heavy shield to defend himself.
Bang!!!
A loud bang, like thunder, exploded in everyone’s ears. Conqueror’s Haki, in the form of dark red lightning, furiously blasted out from the spiked club and the pitch-black shield.
Reiner gritted his teeth, his arms crossed, desperately holding onto the black shield, which was trembling and humming, unable to bear the load.
"Just seeing this thing makes me sick!!"
Kaido’s face was ferocious. The blood vessels on his entire body bulged, and his veins popped. With a roar, his aura surged again!
"You stinky old hag! Break for me!!"
Crack—Kaka!
A crisp sound of bone breaking was heard. Cracks appeared on both the shield and the spiked club at the same time.
"Kongo: Kōma Kabura!!" (Adamantine: Demon-Subduing Spiked Club!!)
Kaido was undeterred. With an angry roar, he put even more violent strength into the spiked club!
Bang!!
A hole was blasted through the heavy shield. The spiked club shattered a section, passed through the shield, and crashed into Reiner’s hands. A surge of Haki impact was released and pierced his chest!
"Puwaah—!"
Reiner couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood. His eyes were bloodshot as if they would split. His feet plowed the earth as he was sent flying back, until with a bang, his back crashed heavily against a mountain.
His entire chest was caved in. The sharp pain of his broken bones pierced his heart, and an expression of pain appeared on his face.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Reiner clutched his chest and coughed up two more mouthfuls of blood. He couldn’t help but feel a lingering fear. He gritted his teeth and looked up at Kaido.
Fortunately, the undead heavy shield had resisted most of the power.
If he had taken those two moves head-on, even his body, which had been greatly enhanced in its semi-undead state, would have been down for a while.
Bang!
Kaido’s legs also buckled slightly. His spiked club smashed onto the ground, propping up his body. His chest heaved violently as he gasped for breath. The continuous, extreme bursts of power had also forced him to stop and catch his breath.
"Hah—"
Soon, Kaido let out a turbid breath and straightened his body again. He waved his hand and threw away the shattered spiked club. The aura on his body, which had subsided, began to climb again. He shook his arms at his sides, and a fierce, chaotic wind blasted out.
Suddenly, a strange aura rose from the other side. Heaven and earth seemed to freeze.
Kaido’s brow hardened, and his grave gaze shot towards Reiner.
He saw a large amount of azure flames gushing from Reiner’s body, enveloping his entire form. A terrifying aura gradually spread out, making even the surrounding air tremble.
In an instant.
The wind and clouds changed color. The sky became even darker, as if even the thunder was afraid of the figure below.
The ball of azure flame leaped. A humanoid figure could be vaguely seen, spreading its legs into a half-squat. Its arms were held back at its waist, its body slightly bent.
The next moment.
Bang!!
A deep, cracked pit exploded in the ground. The azure flame transformed into a streak of light, streaking across the ground and weaving rapidly through the stone forest.
Kaido’s body sank, gathering power. Just as the azure flame reached him, the two of them punched out at the same time!
Boom!!
The air let out a muffled sound, and a fierce, chaotic gale blasted out.
The moment their fists met, Kaido’s pupils suddenly constricted into a pinprick!
The terrifying strength that came from the other’s fist, he had already experienced. But what shocked him was that it was a bone arm!
"What is this form? Your trump card?"
After the shock, a corner of Kaido’s mouth lifted as he looked with great interest.
He saw that in the ball of azure flame, Reiner had already lost his human appearance, and had completely transformed into a cold skeleton, with not a trace of emotion flowing from his pitch-black eye sockets.
"If I remember correctly, you are a Mythical Zoan, Model: Necro-Lord. So this ghostly appearance is the true form of the undead?"
Boom!
Kaido teased, his arms shaking.
The two of them each took a few steps back. Their feet pushed off, and they charged out again!
"Black Bones!!"
Armament Haki covered him. Reiner’s skeleton body turned from white to black, with a dark, flowing light, as if it were a tough steel with a matte black finish!
Bang!!
Bang!!
Bang!!
The four fists of the two men madly clashed! Kaido’s body was beaten until his flesh rippled like the surface of water. Reiner was also bombarded until the flames on his body flickered violently.
After being kicked back two steps, Reiner quickly raised his leg in a whip kick in return, violently lashing the other’s abdomen, sinking into the flesh.
"Puwaah—!"
Kaido spat out blood, gritted his teeth, and blood, that he couldn’t hold back, squeezed out from between them.
What’s with this guy? From the moment he changed into this state, he’s been giving off a strange sense of dissonance.
Kaido was secretly shocked. His left hand, taking the opportunity, gripped Reiner’s leg tightly, and his right hand, in a fierce elbow strike, chopped down at the azure-flame-wreathed skeleton leg.
The skeleton, covered in powerful Armament Haki, was very hard. Hitting it felt like being struck by steel, a pain that went straight to the bone. But flesh was also a very important part of protecting the body.
In Kaido’s view, Reiner’s act of abandoning his flesh-and-blood defense in exchange for a negligible increase in power was undoubtedly foolish.
Crack!!
As expected, with Kaido’s elbow chop, a crack appeared. Bone fragments flew, and the hard, black bone, glowing with a dark light, directly broke!
In a battle of evenly matched opponents, breaking a leg would undoubtedly have a huge impact on the fight.
However, before Kaido could get too pleased, the next moment...
Schlick!!
With the sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh, Kaido’s pupils constricted, and his eyes filled with bloodshot veins. Blood gushed from his abdomen.
Reiner’s five fingers came together to form a hand-blade. His entire pitch-black bone arm plunged into Kaido’s abdomen from below, piercing through his skin and flesh and coming out his back!
How is this possible!
Kaido’s eyes widened, full of disbelief.
Never mind his hard scales and Armament Haki being easily broken, how could the other launch such a powerful counterattack while his leg bone was being broken?!
Doesn’t this guy... feel pain?!!
That’s right, pain!!
Kaido was secretly shocked. In an instant, he understood where the sense of dissonance that had been lingering in his heart had come from.
In the continuous brawl between the two, the other had given up all defense. No matter what part of his body, no matter what move he took, he would only counterattack at the fastest possible speed.
It wasn’t just this life-sacrificing way of fighting that had shocked him. More importantly, the other’s movements were as unchanged as a machine’s, just as if he wouldn’t be injured at all.
But how could he not be injured!
"Urgh, aaah!!"
Schlick!!
Kaido gripped the bone arm tightly with both hands, gritted his teeth, and endured the intense pain that almost stopped his breathing as he pulled it out. He coiled his tail around Reiner’s leg and, with all his might, flung him away.
"—Phew! —Hah! —Hah!"
Cold sweat poured from his forehead. Kaido’s face was pale. His legs gave out and he knelt on one knee, propping himself up with one hand as he glared fiercely at Reiner.
The other couldn’t possibly not be injured. This was his confidence in his own strength and Haki. No one could take such a beating from him unharmed, not even Linlin.
Including himself. When faced with Reiner’s beating, he also had to defend while counterattacking. After being attacked, his counterattack movements would also deform.
This abnormal behavior of Reiner’s left only one possibility. The other truly had no sense of pain!
"I see. So this is the true meaning of this form. No pain. Is this also a characteristic of the undead?"
Kaido’s combat intelligence was very high. In a flash, he had seen through the secret of Reiner’s undead form.
No wonder. Whether it was speed, strength, or defense, the other was no different from before, but he had inexplicably made him feel a sudden increase in pressure...
"Sacrificing the sense of pain in exchange for a posture more suitable for a desperate battle... it’s enough to earn my admiration. But you’re too naive."
Kaido stared at Reiner with burning eyes, then sneered coldly:
"By fighting so recklessly, your body must already be overwhelmed. When you can’t even lift your hand without realizing it, that will be the moment you die."
"Pain is an instinctive reaction of a living creature to external stimuli in order to better protect the body. Giving up the sense of pain doesn’t mean you won’t be injured. It will even make you more easily injured."
He acknowledged the stance of fighting to the death, but in the end, it was just a clever trick.
Looking at the small cracks appearing on Reiner’s skeleton body, Kaido’s eyes showed admiration, but also a hint of contempt.
"It’s you who’s too naive, Kaido."
Reiner’s tone was low and cold. The azure flames on his body gradually swelled and became more intense. The next moment...
The dense cracks on his skeleton body, along with his broken bone leg, were miraculously restored as if reborn from the flames!
He can even do such a thing...?!
Kaido finally furrowed his brow.
This familiar ability, coupled with that azure flame, couldn’t help but make him think of Marco from Whitebeard’s ship again.
The phoenix that could quickly recover from any injury, and could also rely on its flying ability to pursue and stick to people. Relying on this death-defying skill, he had, in the past, driven away almost all the powerhouses who had challenged Whitebeard, before they could even meet him.
The difference was that Marco was someone no one wanted to fight, regardless of whether they could win or not.
But Reiner really had the strength to beat anyone to death.
"The undead don’t just have no sense of pain. They have no concept of injury at all."
Reiner suddenly spoke, his face still cold.
In this state, only Seastone or some special abilities could restrain him. Otherwise, there was only one way to defeat him.
And that was to fight until he died of exhaustion!
An immortal monster... is that what an undead is?
Kaido was lost in thought.
As a fellow Mythical Zoan, he knew that a mythical beast’s ability was not just one. Like himself, he could not only summon wind and rain, create flame clouds to ride, and draw lightning, but also breathe fire and create tornadoes...
As long as it was an ability corresponding to the legend of the azure dragon, he could develop it.
And speaking of legends related to the undead, the first impression of most people, including Kaido, was immortality.
It sounded invincible, but Kaido knew that there was no such thing as an unbeatable ability. Even Devil Fruits had their limits. Seastone was the absolute nemesis of ability users, and besides that, there were some restraining methods...
"Haki. As long as you have strong enough Haki, it might not be enough to nullify your ability, but it can slow down your recovery speed, or make you consume more stamina to recover. I’m right, aren’t I?"
In just an instant, Kaido had thought of a countermeasure. He didn’t need an answer. He knew he was right.
A fighting-to-the-death undead form... this stirred up the battle-lust in Kaido’s heart even more, and fighting spirit burned in his eyes.
Reiner did not deny this, but what Kaido didn’t know was that his only daily training was focused on stamina. He was also an awakened Zoan ability user. In a one-on-one situation, to exhaust his stamina...
"If that’s the only thing you’ve realized, then the battle ends here, Kaido. The winner is decided."
Reiner spoke faintly, spread his legs, and sank into a half-squat. His skeleton, filled with azure flames, made his aura even colder.
The next instant.
Bang! The ground exploded into a cracked pit, and the undead figure instantly disappeared from his spot.
Kaido’s eyes hardened. His pupils, following his Observation Haki’s perception, moved rapidly. He had clearly captured Reiner. His right arm fiercely swung out to the side!
"Here!"
Bang!!
As expected, Reiner instantly appeared at the position he had attacked. His pair of pitch-black bone arms were held parallel in front of him, blocking.
Just as Kaido was about to attack again, a dazzling electric light flashed before his eyes. Kaido was instantly shocked, and the warning from his Observation Haki stung his temples!
"Four Hundred Million Volts: Thunder Death Ray!!"
Reiner reversed his grip and grabbed Kaido’s arm. From within his two pitch-black skull eye sockets... two extremely concentrated beams of blue lightning shot out instantly!
Swish! Swish!
The undead has this kind of technique?!!
Kaido, his hand grabbed, was in a panic. He pushed off with both feet, flipping his body to the side, and barely dodged the two terrifying beams of lightning that carried a destructive aura.
Crack!
Reiner’s palms turned, and Kaido’s arm joints emitted a crisp sound. His entire arm, which had already been twisted more than half a circle, was violently broken!
Although he gritted his teeth and endured the intense pain, Kaido still lost his balance when he landed, staggering back a few steps.
It was this very instant. Reiner flashed in front of him. He used the same familiar yet strange move that Kaido knew, his five fingers coming together as a hand-blade.
Schlick!
The pitch-black hand-blade glowed with a cold, dark light. It contained a sharp sword energy that would make all swordsmen take notice, and it tore through his hard scales and pierced fiercely into Kaido’s chest!
Scalding scarlet blood gushed out and flowed down his bone arm. Cold sweat broke out on his pale forehead.
"Why... would you..."
Kaido gritted his teeth and stared deadly at Reiner. He endured the pain and reached out to grab his bone arm. Before he could exert force...
"God-Killing Fist: Impulse."
Reiner’s faint voice fell. A terrifying vibrating force instantly erupted from the bone arm that had pierced Kaido’s chest!
Boom!!
A fierce wind blasted out from Kaido’s body, and a red mist spread out. The smell of rust-like blood was pungent.
Blood flowed from Kaido’s seven orifices. His ferocious face gradually went slack. His body hung motionless on Reiner’s hand, his hands hanging down.
Thus, the strongest, of which there can only be one, has officially changed hands!
(End of Chapter)
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