Wilder retreated, his mind racing.
The Great Jiao charged after him, a path of destruction in its wake. Mountains crumbled and thick smoke billowed wherever it passed.
"ROAR!" A deafening hiss echoed through the heavens, startling birds from the trees and sending them fleeing in a panic.
Baika and the others covered their ears, their eyes glued to the catastrophic scene in the distance.
While retreating, Wilder was blocked by a large boulder and nearly tripped.
"Damn it!"
His eyes turned cold as he faced the Great Jiao. "No choice. I have to face it head-on."
BOOM!
He stomped his foot hard. A shockwave erupted, and the boulder behind him exploded, sending fragments flying in all directions. With a whoosh, Wilder's body appeared beneath the Jiao's massive form.
"Great Serpent!"
A transparent fist imprint shot through the Jiao's abdomen and out its back, soaring into the sky.
The Great Jiao let out a terrifying hiss and twisted its body. On its massive head, a bloody maw opened, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs. It lunged at Wilder, bringing with it a foul wind.
Wilder's arms were coated in a thick, black layer of Armament Haki. Instead of dodging, he spread his hands and caught the Jiao's fangs. His body, under the terrifying force, stood as firm as a mountain, bringing the massive creature to a dead stop.
"A monster!" Baika and the others felt their eyes and jaws were about to drop to the floor.
But it wasn't over. The Jiao was, after all, enormous. Though Wilder had stopped it for a moment, he was quickly thrown high into the air. Seizing the opportunity, the Jiao raised its head, opened its mouth, and lunged toward the sky.
"Moon Walk!"
A series of muffled booms echoed as Wilder kicked off the air, rapidly moving from his position. The next second, the Jiao's massive mouth snapped shut on empty air. It turned its head in a renewed fury and charged at Wilder again.
BAM!
Wilder appeared on the Jiao's back. In an instant, he threw a flurry of punches, each one slamming into the giant beast's spine.
Every punch was coated in thick Armament Haki, each one carrying immense force. If these blows had landed on a person, they would have been knocked unconscious long ago. Yet the Great Jiao only let out a series of enraged roars. The scales where he had struck were completely unmarked.
"Still not working… These scales are too hard. And this thing's reflexes, perception, and body control are too strong. It can instantly gather all its Armament Haki to the point of impact to block my attacks."
As he spoke, Wilder's body flashed, and he quickly leaped off the Jiao's back. An instant later, the Jiao's tail swept across the spot where he had just been standing. If he had been a second slower, he would have been sent flying by the blow. Now that the Great Jiao had awakened its Armament Haki, a hit like that would definitely have injured him.
"ROAR!" Missing its target only made the Jiao more frenzied. It let out a long roar to the heavens, its crimson eyes locking onto Wilder as it shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
Its two massive, sharp horns were coated with a dark, black Armament Haki, glowing with a cold light.
All traces of carelessness vanished from Wilder's eyes as he retreated again and again.
"I can't let this continue. I have to find a way to break through its scaly defense," Wilder thought calmly as he backed away.
The next time the Jiao charged, Wilder ducked low, then flashed away, reappearing on its back.
BAM! BAM! BAM! He landed several more punches on the Jiao's spine. Unsurprisingly, they failed to cause any damage.
No, perhaps there was a slight change. After several consecutive hits on the same scale, a faint mark had appeared, but it was far from being damaged.
"It seems the idea of breaking through its scales to hurt it is unrealistic. In that case, I have no choice but to bypass the scales and damage it internally," Wilder muttered to himself after retreating to a safe distance.
"But I've already tried the Great Serpent Fist, which is designed for that, and it didn't work…" Wilder's brow furrowed deeply. Just then, the Jiao attacked again, and he was forced to retreat once more.
BOOM! The massive tail slammed into the small hill where Wilder had just been standing, shattering it completely.
"Great Serpent!"
Wilder launched another transparent fist imprint. It passed through the Jiao's body, causing it to roar in pain, but at the same time, it only became more enraged. It shook its massive head and charged forward recklessly.
"The Great Serpent Fist causes it pain, which proves it can actually damage it. The only difference is the degree of damage. In the end… the reason it can still move after being hit is that the damage isn't severe enough."
"So, if I want to defeat it, I still have to attack it from the inside, to cause enough damage with the Great Serpent Fist to incapacitate it. The Great Serpent Fist… how can I increase its damage?"
A glint appeared in Wilder's eyes. "When I developed the Great Serpent Fist, I focused on range, penetration, impact, and explosive power. The goal was to allow a single attack to damage multiple targets in a straight line. That's why the attack creates a long tunnel that passes through obstacles and targets, continuing on to strike targets further behind."
A flash of insight struck Wilder's mind, as if he had just grasped something. "But in doing so, a portion of the power is actually dispersed outward, creating a large-area attack like a shockwave. This reduces the internal damage. If… I could concentrate all the force on the inside…"
Wilder's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
"It's worth a try, but the specific way to exert the force is the problem." Wilder instantly calmed down, realizing that this was all just a theory. Whether concentrating the attack internally would actually increase the damage still needed to be tested. And most importantly, how could he do it?
"No matter what, this is an opportunity. I have to try." Wilder hadn't considered using his Swamp-Swamp Fruit to fight, but he ultimately dismissed the idea. His current goal was to temper his own body. Opportunities like this were rare. If he resorted to using his abilities to cheat at the first sign of trouble, his physique would never have grown to its current level.
He decided to act on his thought. Wilder moved, clenching his fist and controlling the surging power in his arm, suppressing it and unleashing it in the manner of a hidden force strike.
"Great Serpent!"
BOOM! A long, transparent fist imprint shot from his fist and instantly entered the charging Jiao's body.
Wilder watched intently.
The next second, as expected, accompanied by the Jiao's pained hiss, the white, transparent fist imprint tunnel pierced through its back.
Wilder didn't give up. If once didn't work, he'd try twice. If twice didn't work, he'd try three times.
The Jiao's hisses became frequent, almost without pause. Wilder's figure flickered around the Jiao, one fist imprint tunnel after another shooting from his fists, passing through the Jiao's body and causing the surrounding hills to constantly collapse.
A beast was a beast, after all. Although the Jiao was fast, that was relative to its size. In the end, Wilder had the upper hand in speed. Whenever the Jiao lunged, Wilder could always flash away, avoiding its bloody maw and sharp horns.
And the moment after dodging, he would appear in another direction and launch an attack.
Soon, Wilder's breathing became ragged. Continuously using a high-cost attack like the Great Serpent Fist was a challenge even for him now. Watching the fist imprints pass through the Jiao's body one after another, Wilder knew his idea was likely to fail.
"No, it's still not working. How do I concentrate the attack on the inside?" Beads of sweat trickled down Wilder's face as his body flickered around the Jiao.
Gradually, he felt the punches he threw growing weaker. The Jiao didn't even hiss anymore, instead snapping at him repeatedly with its giant mouth.
Wilder's heart hardened. He flashed onto the Jiao's body, clenched his fist, gathered his strength, and struck its scales.
"Great Serpent!"
The white fist imprint instantly passed through the scales and into the Jiao's body.
"This is…" Wilder felt a strange sensation. Although this punch also passed through to the other side, the Jiao's hiss was clearly more pained than before.
"ROAR!"
The giant serpent's body began to writhe frantically, crashing into the surrounding hills. Wilder's heart leaped. Without hesitation, he seized that fleeting sensation and threw another punch, landing it on the Jiao's back.
"ROAR!" The Jiao let out an even louder hiss, its body twisting more violently. It swung its massive tail toward Wilder.
WHOOSH! The tail whistled through the air. If it hit, Wilder felt he would be severely injured, if not killed. He didn't dare stay where he was. His body flashed, and he appeared in the distance.
Wilder felt his mind and body enter a wondrous state. The power within him was like a stampede of ten thousand horses, surging and powerful. Yet at the same time, he felt as if he had become a reef on the shore, standing firm no matter how violently the waves crashed against him.
He felt like the commander of that stampede, directing the horses wherever he pleased. Sometimes he would let them scatter, sometimes he would gather them into a torrent, sometimes they would leap suddenly, and sometimes they would stop in an instant.
Stop!
Wilder felt as if he had grasped something. A flash of insight shot through his mind. He appeared on the Jiao's back once more. He raised his hand, feeling that strange and special way of exerting force. Without hesitation, he slammed his fist onto the Jiao's scales!
BOOM!
A hurricane erupted from around Wilder's fist. A white fist imprint passed through the hard, thick scales, reaching the muscles deep inside the Jiao's body. For an instant… the fist imprint struck the muscle and stopped!
Wilder's brow twitched. Before he could react, before the fist imprint could exert greater pressure on the muscle, it instantly passed through, shooting out the other side of the Jiao's massive body!
"ROAR!" The Jiao's body thrashed and crashed about frantically, its pained hisses audible from a great distance.
Wilder's feet were as if rooted to the Jiao's back. No matter how much it thrashed, he stood firm, unmoving.
He had closed his eyes at some point, carefully savoring the feeling of that last punch. The method of exerting force was correct, so why did the fist imprint still pass through the Jiao's body in the end?
He already had the answer in his heart. He slowly raised his hand again, but this time was different. His hand was not clenched in a fist, but open, a palm, his five fingertips slightly curved. The moment he opened his eyes, he slammed it down on the Jiao's spine!
"Great Serpent—Cleaving Palm!"
As his voice fell, a palm print instantly appeared from beneath his hand and sank into the scales.
Wilder activated his Observation Haki, the scan function instantly seeing through the Jiao's body. The white palm print passed under the skin and reached the muscle, where there were even some blood vessels and meridians. Then, the palm print slowly settled into that area of meridians, blood vessels, and muscle, and vanished without a trace.
POP! POP! POP! The next second, Wilder saw that area of meridians, blood vessels, and muscle begin to rupture, layer by layer, exploding like a string of firecrackers. Blood instantly seeped from the muscle.
"ROAR!" The Jiao's thrashing body instantly froze, pausing for a moment before it began to writhe and twist even more violently, its pained roar piercing the heavens.
However, Wilder soon discovered that a certain part of the Jiao's body was unable to move, or rather, it was difficult to move. And the center of that area was precisely where the meridians and muscles had ruptured.
"Did I inadvertently hit some kind of vital point?"
Now, Wilder no longer needed to dodge. The part of the Jiao's body that couldn't move happened to be connected to its tail. An excited smile spread across Wilder's face. He leaped down, arriving under the Jiao's abdomen. He raised his palm and pressed it against its belly.
"Cleaving Palm!"
With a hum, a shockwave of air blew out from his palm. The transparent palm print didn't cause much of a commotion as it gently sank into the Jiao's abdomen.
Before the Jiao could even begin to hiss or writhe, Wilder's body flashed and disappeared again. When he reappeared, he was on its left side, roughly where its ribs would be.
Without any unnecessary movements, he raised his hand and pressed his palm against the cold scales.
"Cleaving Palm."
The Jiao's body instantly went still, twitching slightly. Only its head and the area near its head were thrashing wildly, trying to turn back and swallow Wilder.
But Wilder wouldn't grant its wish. He leaped onto its back, walked to what would be the equivalent of its neck, bent down, and gently placed his palm on the scales.
"Cleaving Palm."
The Jiao's body went completely rigid. Apart from a few reflexive twitches, its entire massive form was motionless.
In the distance, Baika and the others were completely stunned, their mouths agape, at a loss for words.
To witness a single human defeat such a massive and ferocious creature… the shock was simply beyond words.
Even now, they couldn't believe what they were seeing was real. They couldn't believe that Wilder had actually… conquered the monster.
Yes, conquered.
Under Wilder's blade-like gaze, the Great Jiao slowly lowered its proud head.