Beyond those SSSS-tier abilities, there was also a seven-hued treasure chest floating above Kaido's head!
Creed had seen golden, purple, tri-color, even five-color chests before—but never seven colors. That set his heart pounding. He didn't know what was inside, but based on past pulls from tri- and five-color chests, it had to be something unprecedentedly good.
Of course, with his current strength, taking down—or killing—Kaido was wishful thinking. Kaido outclassed him by two full tiers. Creed did have other ways to patch some of that gap, but even so, it would be hard.
So he shelved the idea of felling Kaido and switched to extracting an ability from him instead.
Whether it was the SSSS+ "Dragon Power (Undying)" or the SSSS "Armament Haki," both were powers Creed coveted badly.
However, with Creed's present overall rating at SSSS-, he couldn't extract two SSSS-tier abilities at once—he had to pick one.
Needless to say, his first choice was the SSSS+ Dragon Power!
With Dragon Power, his Endurance stat would likely break through to SSSS-—maybe even higher! And it could pull his overall strength up another step.
Except—
"Host's overall strength is SSSS- level 480. You cannot extract SSSS+ Dragon Power yet. You must reach SSSS to extract an ability one tier higher."
The system prompt made Creed pause.
He'd gotten used to extracting SSSS- abilities while he himself was at SSS+, and assumed SSSS+ wouldn't be a problem either.
"Then extract the SSSS Armament Haki!"
Creed immediately switched targets.
"Ding! Target: Kaido. Begin extraction of SSSS Armament Haki. Required time: 10 hours."
Creed blinked. "SSSS- took three hours. Why does SSSS take more than triple—ten hours? You expect me to wine and dine Kaido and become sworn brothers while I steal his power?"
Outwardly, he gave nothing away. In secret he started the extraction; on the surface, he pointed southwest toward a lonely island and suggested, "We can't fight freely here. Let's move to that uninhabited island."
Kaido had intended to start immediately, but when he heard this, he took it as Creed being mindful of innocents and grunted in approval. "A man of compassion—fine. Have it your way!"
Then he swayed his serpentine body and flew toward the deserted island, horns cutting the clouds. Watching that slightly unsteady glide, Creed could tell the guy had rushed over straight out of a bender.
Kaido's greatest vice was drink—practically his lifeblood. He drank sober, he drank drunk, and he did it several rounds a day.
Of course, Creed's main reason for changing venues was to buy time.
The shift of battlefield made plenty of onlookers curse under their breath. Those with decent skills went after them anyway—risking becoming collateral damage—for this was a once-in-a-decade spectacle:
A freshly minted Sea Emperor challenging an old-guard Sea Emperor! A show you see maybe once every ten years!
The island was barren and unpeopled, eight to ten li across, mostly naked rock with hardly a tree or flower—just a wind-scoured hunk of stone.
"Haa."
Creed alighted atop a massive boulder near the center, standing with his sword, eyes on Kaido not far away.
Kaido kept his dragon form, hiccupping now and then, clearly not fully past the hangover. Creed could only sigh inwardly: odds were the beast had been drinking on the way here, too.
"Come on then. I hear from King your swordplay is no joke—almost on par with that bastard Shanks. Don't disappoint me."
Kaido yawned and spoke lazily.
"Dark."
Even if he hadn't said it, Creed would have answered with his Rinne no Ken (Samsara Sword).
Since advancing to SSSS-, the internal balance of Kyokuaku no Ichi Ken (Utter Evil One Sword) and Shizen no Ichi Ken (Ultimate Good One Sword) had loosened and kept climbing. After the nonstop fighting at the Golden King Hotel, the dual-sword percentages had already reached seventy percent; if he fenced Kaido for ten hours, ninety percent wasn't out of reach!
With his other hand he drew Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi (Heavenly Gathering Clouds Sword).
Nitoryu: Raikō Sōken (Two-Sword Style: Thunderlight Twin Blades)!
Against Kaido he dared not hold back—not unless he wanted to end up like Luffy in Gear Fourth, flattened within ten moves.
"A bit interesting."
Kaido struck first.
A colossal dragon claw swooped down, rumbling with thunder, and smashed for Creed.
"Clang!"
"Boom!"
Creed crossed both blades and caught the blow—but the rock under his feet shattered to gravel as he was driven nearly a meter into the ground. The overflow of raw force and shearing sword-qi blasted the rocky spires within a hundred meters flat.
"What a brutal, heaving power! Is this four-emperor-class might—or is it strength only his dragon form has?"
Veins stood out on Creed's forehead as he gritted through the weight of it. Both hands trembled on the hilts. He'd thought his raw Strength matched Kaido at SSSS-, but the clash showed how wrong he was.
Clearly, in dragon form, Kaido's Strength jumped at least a tier!
Add the layer of Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) on top, and Creed getting buried off one exchange was only natural.
On top of that, Kaido manipulated lightning as well—blunting Creed's thunderblade advantage.
"Crack."
Sensing the mismatch, Creed stripped the lightning from the Rinne blade and transmuted it into a glacial edge—an instant burst of Hyo no Ken'i (Ice Sword Intent)—and froze Kaido's dragon claw solid.
"Oh? You wield ice, too?"
The chill bit enough to sting, surprising Kaido. He withdrew his talons, then opened his jaws and exhaled a dragon's breath.
"Boom!"
The searing beam roared like a lance of light, gouging a crater several hundred meters across and baring rolling magma—yet Creed had already flickered aside with a bolt of thunder.
And that wasn't even Kaido's strongest breath; even drunk, his exhalation could level Oden Castle in the Land of Wano with ease.
The man and the dragon were still only testing each other.
Szzz—!
A braid of thunder cracked; Creed reappeared in the sky—and then vanished again in another flash.
"An amusing Kaminari Datō (Lightning Evasion)."
Kaido's other claw whipped up—and, impossibly, intercepted Creed mid-flicker.
"Boom!"
They crashed again—and again Creed came off worse.
Kaido glanced at the talons that kept re-freezing and frowned. "That frigid sword intent is really annoying."
"—Hah!"
His tail lashed; the sweep caught Creed materializing behind him and clubbed him away like a fly.
In dragon form, every base stat of Kaido's spiked hard. Even with Creed's speed edge, it no longer felt decisive.
"This is a headache."
Creed became a streak of light and fell back, slipping past another wash of dragon's breath. A hundred thoughts knifed through his head—breakdowns, simulations—chasing the optimal path.
And this was the drunk, draconic Kaido. If he sobered up and went human… would the fight become even more impossible?
(End of Chapter)
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