"Haaah!"
Even though Kaido's regeneration had ground to a halt, it didn't stop Hancock from continuing her relentless assault.
She had to keep attacking, over and over again. Otherwise, there was no telling when this bastard's body would start healing itself.
Hancock's right leg was completely enveloped by the River of Death, looking as if black flames were blazing around it as she drove a heavy kick straight into Kaido's neck.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sickening sound of bones fracturing echoed through the air. To the onlookers, the flesh on Kaido's neck looked completely twisted, his head forced entirely to the opposite side. Had it been any ordinary person, they would have been dead several times over.
Yet Kaido survived. He swung a massive fist, as large as a war chariot, and smashed it directly into Hancock.
Boom!
Hancock's elegant figure was sent flying backward. Sandersonia, Marigold, and the other women of the Kuja Pirates cried out in sheer panic, "Snake Princess! (Onee-sama!)"
She tore through countless number of trees before finally coming to a halt.
That unexpected, jarring blow mid-attack sent a violent shockwave through Hancock's internal organs, including her heart, which was the greatest weakness of her Vampire Physique.
"Ugh..."
Hancock pushed herself back to her feet. Her clothes were torn, exposing her jade-like skin, but the River of Death on the ground quickly liquefied, flowing into the shredded gaps of her outfit. Within seconds, her attire was fully restored to its original state.
On the other side, Kaido grabbed his own head with both hands and gave it a violent wrench, forcing it back into its proper alignment. However, the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth proved that he hadn't escaped unscathed either.
"Do you know why our Captain was given the title of 'Emperor' and known as 'King of the Beasts'?" Queen asked out of nowhere. Despite having his Seastone chains removed, he remained under strict surveillance.
"Huh?"
Beckman took a drag from his cigarette and replied, "Isn't it just because he loves recruiting Zoan-type ability users?"
Kaido had made a name for himself years before Alucard even arrived on the scene. Back when he first gained the moniker of "King of the Beasts," it was widely understood to be because his top executives were entirely comprised of Zoan-type users.
Of course, back then, he hadn't yet been dubbed the "Undying Monster" or the "Strongest Creature in the World."
"Though that's what the world believes, the truth is entirely different," Queen said, shaking his head slightly.
The next instant, the two disproportionately matched opponents clashed once more. Kaido's massive frame was suddenly coated in a deep layer of burgundy-colored Armament Haki.
In that single moment, Alucard's expression shifted slightly. The terrifying aura radiating from Kaido was something he had felt once before. It was the same pinnacle-tier Armament Haki that Garp had unleashed during their clash at Mt. Corvo.
However, every individual's Haki manifests differently. Kaido was almost certainly someone who had honed his Armament Haki to the absolute peak, but whether it possessed the exact same property as Garp's remained to be seen.
Hancock unleashed another heavy kick coated in Armament Haki, slamming it against Kaido's body.
Although her own Armament Haki hadn't reached the absolute pinnacle, the combined enhancement of her Love-Love Fruit and her Vampire Physique made her strikes no weaker than a top-tier Haki attack.
Crack!
A shattering sound rang out. Just as the members of the Immortal Pirates assumed bones were breaking, they looked closer and realized that wasn't the case. What had shattered was Kaido's Armament Haki itself!
"Get lost!"
Kaido swatted at her as if she were a mere mosquito. His massive hand swiped forward, gripping Hancock by the shoulder and slamming her ruthlessly into the ground.
An instant before her head could impact the earth and be smashed to pieces, Hancock dissolved into a swarm of bats and dispersed. Kaido's fist struck the empty ground instead, triggering a violent, fiery explosion.
The bats reformed behind Kaido, and Hancock immediately unleashed a rapid succession of kicks directly into his back.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Under a tempest of continuous blows, the Armament Haki coating Kaido's skin began to fracture repeatedly like breaking glass.
"It's literally acting like a suit of armor."
Seeing Armament Haki break apart in such a manner, Jinbe could hardly believe his eyes.
He considered himself a well-traveled man of the sea, but he had never heard of Armament Haki functioning this way. Normally, when Armament Haki is penetrated or overpowered, the physical body beneath it takes the damage directly, and the wound bleeds.
But Kaido's situation was completely unprecedented. How could Armament Haki literally shatter like a physical shell?
'So that is Kaido's trick,' Alucard thought to himself.
Garp's pinnacle-level Armament Haki could be explained as a perfect, seamless fusion of Haki and his own flesh. It armored him from the outermost layer of his skin all the way down to his internal organs.
Kaido, conversely, separated his Armament Haki from his physical body, treating it as an external suit of armor to completely block out damage. Even if the Haki layer was bypassed or broken, the enemy's attack still couldn't directly reach his actual flesh.
Furthermore, his Haki could continuously regenerate and mend itself. Not only was his physical body undying, but even his Haki possessed a form of "immortality."
As if validating Alucard's hypothesis, the Armament Haki that Hancock had just kicked into splinters fully repaired itself within a matter of seconds. The sight left even Hancock inwardly startled. It was no wonder this brute had challenged her Master hundreds of times and lived to tell the tale; he truly possessed real monstrous ability.
"The ferocity of a lion and tiger, the resilience of an elephant, the agility of a mole, the absolute defense of a tortoise shell... merging the supreme evolutionary traits of countless beasts into one body. That is the true reason why our Captain is called 'King of the Beasts'."
Queen finally bared the ultimate secret of Kaido's anatomy. "Captain Kaido is a user of the Parasite-Parasite Fruit."
"The Parasite-Parasite Fruit? What does that even mean?" Ivalis and the others demanded urgently, completely disregarding whether they might offend Hancock by interrupting the explanation.
"Exactly what it sounds like. It allows him to usurp a portion of another person's abilities and make it his own, and then—"
"Step down, Hancock."
At that moment, Alucard finally stood up from his boulder. "Against this mad dog, your current strength is still a bit lacking."
A slow, chilling smile spread across Alucard's face. "Well, after all these years of tedious stalemates, it's about time I put the final period on his story."