Hiding by the crevice, Baika and the two young men stared, dumbfounded, at the scene unfolding in the distance.
Wilder flashed onto the Great Jiao's back, his hardened fist descending with ferocious speed!
CLANG… VMM!
Sparks flew. Wilder's pupils dilated and contracted. The Great Jiao's body twisted, and before Wilder could think, he quickly leaped off its back, landing on a distant hilltop, his expression grave as he muttered to himself.
"Incredible defense. Those scales are like armor. A full-power punch didn't cause any damage at all… It didn't even leave a scratch on the scales."
Watching the scene, Baika and the others felt their hearts tremble with fear.
It was the first time they had ever seen someone try to fight such a terrifyingly massive creature with their bare fists.
The Great Jiao, seemingly enraged by Wilder, let out a hiss. Its enormous body turned, and the crimson eyes on its massive head fixed on Wilder. The next second, its body shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
In an instant, dust and smoke billowed as the giant Jiao vanished from its spot.
"So fast!"
Wilder's expression shifted slightly, then broke into an excited grin. "Now this is interesting."
The ground beneath his feet exploded with dust as his body vanished from the hilltop.
The next second, the Jiao's massive, ferocious head slammed into the spot where Wilder had just been standing. The mountain peak instantly crumbled.
With a great rumbling sound, huge boulders rolled down. With just one strike, the towering peak had been flattened.
"How terrifying…!" The young man next to Baika couldn't stop his legs from shaking as he watched. Baika himself swallowed hard, his eyes filled with horror.
Wilder landed on a smaller hill further away, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "This speed and destructive power… If I could make it mine, it would be a powerful ally!"
Once the thought appeared, it refused to be extinguished, growing stronger and stronger. Wilder's clenched fists trembled, not from fear, but from exhilaration.
A creature this massive and powerful would be a terrifying reaping machine on the battlefield. Its impact on the tide of battle would be immense!
Wilder moved. His body shot forward like a hurricane. Halfway there, he clenched his fist again, this time coating it in Armament Haki. He arrived beneath the Great Jiao's body and threw a powerful punch!
WHOOSH! The punch carried a fierce gale.
But it hit nothing but air.
The Great Jiao's body was like a bolt of lightning. Despite its immense size, its movements were so fast they were difficult to track with the naked eye. With a single flick of its body, it vanished, causing Wilder's punch to miss.
Wilder's expression changed slightly. "That reaction… is it Observation Haki?"
No!
Wilder quickly dismissed the idea, his face growing serious. "It's not Observation Haki. It seems Baika was right. This thing has terrifying hearing. It can even use its hearing to sense the subtle air currents caused by movement."
"And even if that last punch had landed, it probably wouldn't have caused much damage."
"Speed, reflexes, strength, destructive power, defense… This thing is a perfect war machine!"
The more Wilder analyzed it, the more excited he became, and he charged toward the Great Jiao once more.
"Madman! Madman! That guy is an absolute madman!" Baika and the others watched, their hearts pounding in terror. They found Wilder's choice to actively seek out the Great Jiao to be insane.
"That kind of creature can't be defeated by a human. I admit, this guy is incredibly strong, maybe even beyond human limits. You can tell just from the speed at which he disappears and reappears. But even so, there's no way he can beat a creature like that. What is he trying to do? With that kind of speed, shouldn't he be running away? Why is he actively provoking it?" Baika was going mad himself watching Wilder's reckless actions, growing anxious for him.
"Why do I get the feeling he's excited?" the steamed-bun boy interjected. His words made Baika's expression freeze. In truth, he felt the same way.
"What… what kind of person is this?!"
Wilder didn't care what Baika and the others thought. He had noticed them sneaking after him a long time ago but hadn't had the time to deal with them. He certainly didn't have time now. He and the Great Jiao were on a collision course!
In an instant, Wilder's body was sent flying backward like a cannonball, even faster than he had charged in. He crashed into a mountain, blasting a deep, dark hole into its side. He was embedded within it, buried under a pile of massive rocks like a tomb.
CRASH! The next second, the rocks tumbled away, and Wilder shot out from within, completely unharmed. He burst from the cave with a booming, excited laugh and charged at the Great Jiao once again.
"Why is he still laughing so happily after that? And is this guy even human? He's fine after taking a hit like that!" Baika and the others roared in disbelief, their minds reeling from the shock of seeing Wilder emerge from the cave.
"ROAR!" The Great Jiao tilted its head back and let out a terrifying roar. It was clear that Wilder had thoroughly enraged it. In its eyes, this was just a tiny ant, something it could crush at any moment, nothing more than food. But this piece of food had repeatedly provoked it, and that was something it could not tolerate.
The roar materialized into a physical sound wave that spread outward. In the distance, Baika and the others instantly clutched their ears, rolling on the ground in agony.
Wilder, however, was at the very center of the sound wave. The blood in his body churned like a tidal wave, causing his face to flush red and a flicker of pain to cross his features.
But this only made Wilder more excited. Instead of retreating, he advanced, his speed increasing. His steel-like muscles tore through the air, creating a series of sonic booms.
Seeing that the sound wave was ineffective against Wilder, the Great Jiao turned its head and charged at him with its massive, bloody maw wide open.
The two collided in mid-air. Wilder's body was like a fly before the massive head. Just as he was about to be swallowed by the gaping mouth, he stomped his foot hard on the air, instantly reversing his direction. He shot upward, escaping the mouth's range and landing on the Jiao's nose, just above its upper jaw. Then, his already-clenched fist was instantly coated in a thick layer of Armament Haki, and he brought it crashing down on the tip of its nose!
CLANG!
A shockwave of air and sound radiated outward from the point of impact between his fist and the Jiao's armored scales.
The air currents instantly became violent and chaotic, raging outward in all directions.
Baika and the others were stunned by the sight.
High in the air, Wilder and the Great Jiao's head were locked in a stalemate. The fierce winds whipped his cloak behind him. Wilder's eyes were as sharp as blades, a grin of excitement on his lips as immense power flowed through his arm and into his fist.
Sparks of electricity crackled between his fist and the scales. Suddenly, the wind died down, and the energy dissipated. Wilder's expression changed slightly.
His eyes moved to the scales beneath his fist.
"It's…"
Wilder's eyes narrowed.
The scales beneath his fist were completely unharmed. There wasn't even a single scratch. His Armament Haki-clad fist was like a tickle to it, unable to cause even the slightest bit of damage.
WHOOSH! A powerful gust of wind rushed toward him. Wilder's expression changed. He looked up to see the Great Jiao's massive tail whipping toward him like a heavenly scourge!
In an instant, Wilder crossed his arms in front of him and stomped his foot, retreating backward.
Although Wilder's reflexes and speed were incredible, the Great Jiao's tail was simply too massive. It descended like a dark cloud, a vast shadow that was impossible to dodge. He looked up, his pupils shrinking as the shadow fell upon him.
BOOM!
Under the force of the blow, Wilder's body was smashed into a pile of mud and slammed into the ground below by the immense power of the strike!
CRASH!
Rocks tumbled away as Wilder pushed them off his body and stood up from the pile. He was, of course, unharmed. The force of the blow was heavy, but it couldn't hurt him. The Great Jiao didn't possess Armament Haki, and Wilder wasn't foolish enough to take a hit like that without turning his body into its elemental form. He wanted to use this fight to temper his body, yes, but he wasn't stupid enough to endure a blow like that head-on.
In the distance, Baika and the others were completely stupefied, staring blankly at the unharmed Wilder as he rose from the rubble.
"What… what kind of monster is this guy?"
"Did you guys see that just now? His body…?"
"It looked like… it was smashed to pieces."
"Am I seeing things? Why is he perfectly fine now?"
The three of them gasped in unison, looking at each other as if they had just seen a ghost.
A single thought appeared in all their minds.
A monster!
Two of them!
Two monsters are fighting!
One in the shape of a man, the other in the shape of a serpent!
BOOM!
Wilder burst from the pile of rocks. He looked up at the Great Jiao, which held its massive head high, staring down at him coldly, and grinned. "How terrifying. You really are a monster. If I can't break through those scales, I probably can't hurt you at all. I don't know how they grew, but this is the first time I've seen scales that even Armament Haki can't break."
The only person Wilder had met with such terrifying defense was Big Mom. Of course, that didn't mean this monster was on par with her. After all, Big Mom didn't have scales. The fact that her ordinary human skin had such an effect made her far more terrifying.
And it wasn't as if there was no way to break these scales. Unlike Big Mom, who was immune to swords, axes, fire, and lasers, which was truly terrifying.
"Since I can't damage the scales directly, then I'll just have to bypass them and strike the inside. The Great Serpent Fist should be a good way to deal with this."
Wilder clenched his fist, a series of cracks echoing from his knuckles. A slight smile played on his lips as he looked up, his eyes shining with excitement.
BOOM!
A violent torrent of air erupted from around Wilder. In the distance—though for the Great Jiao, it was only a stone's throw away—it saw Wilder's movement and instantly charged, opening its massive mouth and bringing with it a foul wind.
"ROAR!"
A sharp glint flashed in Wilder's eyes. With a loud shout, he threw a punch from his waist.
"Great Serpent!"
A translucent, whitish fist imprint shot out from his own, leaving a long tunnel in its wake. It collided with the charging Jiao's body, instantly passing through to the other side and shooting straight into the sky!
"What was that?" In the distance, Baika and the others stared in horror at the white fist imprint that shot toward the heavens.
BOOM! ROAR!
The Great Jiao's massive body suddenly began to writhe, letting out a series of hisses that were clearly filled with pain.
"Heh…" Wilder pulled back his fist, a smile on his lips as he looked down, his eyes glinting with excitement.
His goal had now changed slightly. Now, he wanted to tame this Great Jiao.
The commotion from the Great Jiao's thrashing could be described as earth-shattering. Its massive body rolled among the hilltops, kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke. Its roars were deafening, and terrifying shockwaves spread outward with its movements.
"This power…"
Wilder narrowed his eyes, holding his hands in front of him as the fierce winds made it difficult for him to stand.
After a while, the Great Jiao's thrashing gradually subsided.
A sense of danger crept up Wilder's spine, instantly making his scalp tingle. His pupils shrank as he looked up.
He met a pair of crimson eyes that radiated a cold, bloodthirsty aura. A chill ran from his back to the top of his head.
"This is…"
Wilder's expression changed.
Looking at the faint, dark sheen that now covered the Great Jiao's body, his pupils trembled. "Armament Haki…"
Wilder quickly retreated, not stopping until he was a good distance away. His shoulders began to tremble slightly as he let out a low, suppressed laugh.
"A monster like this… I can't let it get away!" He looked up, his eyes radiating excitement.
The Great Jiao moved. The faint Armament Haki covering its body began to contract, finally converging on the two sharp horns on its head.
"That thickness and concentration… incredible. If I get hit by that, I'll be killed," Wilder said, his face grim as he looked at the two sharp horns that now glowed with a dark, cold light. The deadly aura they emitted sent a chilling premonition through his very soul.
The Great Jiao charged, its sharp horns aimed downward. Wilder quickly leaped out of the way.
"I can't face it head-on. And with its unbreakable scales, a direct confrontation is useless. I still have to use the Great Serpent Fist to deal with it." In a matter of seconds, Wilder had decided on his battle strategy.
But to his shock, his subsequent attacks failed to make the Great Jiao writhe in pain as before.
Instead, it only fueled the Jiao's rage. It ignored the pain of the Great Serpent Fist and charged at him.
For a moment, Wilder was caught off guard by the ferocious assault, forced to retreat again and again. He threw several more Great Serpent Fists, but he couldn't stop the frenzied serpent.
They were either dodged or knocked off course by a single blow.
This gave Wilder a new appreciation for the beast's hearing and perception, and it only made him covet the serpent more.
"It seems I have to get in close. Against a creature of this size, ranged attacks will probably put me at a disadvantage. But if I get close… its thrashing will also create a terrifyingly wide-scale attack. What should I do?"
Wilder's mind raced as he continued to retreat.
"If… I can just restrict its movements…"