Meanwhile—on Ruroraka Island.
At the very center where their weapons collided, energy raged out of control.Kaido could clearly feel the terrifying force transmitted back through his kanabo—
For a brief moment, it was not inferior in the slightest to the full-power burst of the so-called "Strongest Creature Alive."
That realization sparked a flicker of incomprehensible confusion in him.
Taking advantage of the stalemate, Kaido couldn't help but let out a low, rumbling snarl:
"Gern! You bastard—you're human, right?!A pure-blooded human!So why… why the hell does your raw physical strength not lose to mine at all?!"
He was genuinely curious.
After all, as a mixed-blood being with extraordinary innate talent—further enhanced by a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit—his physical power surpassed all common sense.
Even Whitebeard, whom Kaido acknowledged, had possessed earth-shaking strength in his youth.
And yet—
When it came to this most primitive clash of pure arm strength, the Gern before him seemed to be… slightly superior?!
Hearing this, Gern tugged the corner of his mouth into a faint, self-mocking smile.The muscles in his arms bulged once more as he resisted Kaido's immense force, letting out a cold chuckle.
"Heh… who knows?""Maybe this is the only 'gift' I get—for being a guy with no 'system,' no cheats, who clawed his way up with nothing but his own fists."
Naturally, Kaido had no idea what "system" or "cheats" meant.
But in the instant Gern finished speaking, crimson light flared violently in his eyes.Every ounce of power in his body surged back into his arms!
"Get the hell—OFF ME!!!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
The spherical shockwave field that had been maintaining a delicate balance completely collapsed under Gern's sudden second burst!
The accumulated, horrifying energy detonated all at once!
BANG!With a sharp, violent explosion, the air at the point of stalemate was blown into a vacuum. The resulting backlash surged outward like a tidal wave!
Gern and Kaido were both hurled backward by the immense force, sliding dozens of meters across the ground before barely managing to stabilize themselves, deep trenches carved beneath their feet.
The deadlock—
Was forcibly shattered by Gern's superior instantaneous burst of power!
But the brief separation didn't even last a full breath.
Two streaks of Haki-laced lightning slammed into each other once more!
This time, there were no flashy Devil Fruit abilities or wide-area shockwaves—
They returned to the most primal form of combat:cold steel and Haki in a brutal close-quarters clash.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The black blade Bahuang and the kanabo Hassaikai became countless afterimages, colliding at speeds the naked eye could barely follow!
Each impact erupted with blinding sparks and thunderous detonations!
Pure Haki attrition—the ultimate contest of strength and technique!
The beach beneath their feet shattered again and again, only to be swept into the sky by the pressure waves of their exchanges.
Kaido seized the fleeting stiffness that followed one of Gern's blocks.His dragon-man form pushed its speed to the absolute limit!
WHOOSH!His figure vanished—
And in the next instant, he reappeared at Gern's side, the kanabo wrapped in black-and-red Conqueror's lightning whipping out at a vicious angle!
BOOM!!
Though Gern managed to block with the flat of his blade, the monstrous force still sent him flying like a baseball!
"Worororo!" Kaido pressed the advantage without mercy. Lightning flashed beneath his feet once more as his massive body—moving with agility utterly disproportionate to its size—
Blink-shifted directly above Gern's flight path.
The kanabo was raised high again, poised for a killing follow-up!
But at that very moment—
A sharp glint flashed in Gern's eyes!
"Hmph!"
In the next instant, he forcibly twisted his body midair, stabilizing himself with astonishing core strength.His right leg tore through the air like a battle axe, wrapped in high-frequency vibrations and blazing white light—
A razor-sharp spinning kick, aimed with absolute precision, slammed straight into Kaido's ferocious dragon face!
PA!!
A heavy, dull impact echoed out!
Kaido hadn't anticipated such a ferocious counterattack in midair. His face visibly deformed from the blow, his massive body reeling backward!
Seizing the opening, Gern pressed his left hand against empty air. A vibration wave erupted in reverse, propelling his body forward like a darting fish.
The Bahuang in his hand traced a cold, lethal arc!
SHRRRK!
The blade swept past, carving a wound across Kaido's broad back—blood bursting forth instantly!
But it wasn't over.
The moment Gern landed, he didn't pause for even a fraction of a second. His legs exploded into countless afterimages that tore at the eye!
"Black Tremor—Thousand Peaks Collapse!!"
Each side kick carried mountain-crushing vibrational force, detonating into spherical shockwaves the instant it struck!
Every blow came with the impact of a falling meteor and the devastation of an eight-magnitude earthquake!
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
Like war hammers pounding a drum, the relentless, destructive kicks slammed into Kaido's massive body—now slightly slowed from injury—
Caving in muscle, making his enormous frame shudder violently as he was driven back step after step!
But—
At the very instant Gern unleashed the final kick—
Kaido let out a furious, rage-filled roar. Enduring the agony by sheer force of will, a dragon-scaled arm shot out at an unbelievable speed—
And clamped down with perfect accuracy on Gern's ankle before he could withdraw it!
"—!?"
"Got you!!!"
The muscles in Kaido's arm bulged like rising mountains as he seized Gern's ankle.
"Get over HERE!!!"
In the next moment, like swinging a chained iron ball, Kaido whirled Gern through the air in a massive arc!
After spinning him who knows how many times with brutal force, Kaido hurled him violently toward the distant cluster of jagged reefs!
BOOOOOOM!!
"Cough—kh!"
Even with vibrational force and top-tier Armament Haki protecting him, the sheer, savage impact born purely of Kaido's brute strength sent Gern's organs churning. His throat tightened—and he couldn't stop a mouthful of blood from spraying out.
But Kaido gave him no chance to breathe or recover.
Before the dust even settled, a spine-tingling premonition of death descended from above!
Gern's Observation Haki screamed in warning as he snapped his head up—
Only to see Kaido's colossal dragon-man form already leaping high into the air.
His massive body blotted out the sunlight, casting a shadow of despair.
The kanabo Hassaikai, wrapped in black-and-red Conqueror's lightning, came crashing down toward Gern's position with the intent to annihilate everything!
The speed was too great—there was no time to fully evade!
"Thunder… BAGUA!!!"
Kaido's roar exploded in unison with thunder itself!
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!
The kanabo smashed squarely into where Gern had been standing!
A detonation far more terrifying than before erupted!
The ground was torn apart like tofu, ripped skyward as a gigantic crater nearly a hundred meters wide formed in an instant!
Everything within the pit—including the hardened reefs—was pulverized into dust!
Wild shockwaves mixed with crackling lightning surged outward, shattering even the more distant rocks!
Blinding light and billowing smoke swallowed the battlefield whole.
And then—
In the very next instant, at the edge of the explosion's radius, a slightly staggering figure flashed into existence like a ghost—
It was Gern!
He had exploited the razor-thin instant before Kaido's strike, using Vibration Flash to barely escape the core of the destruction—though the terrifying aftermath still caught him.
Now, Gern looked battered and ragged. Like Kaido, his upper body was completely bare, blood still clinging to the corner of his mouth.
Most striking of all—
Above his temple, a wound slowly leaked blood, dyeing part of his face and his left eye crimson.
"Huff… huff…"
Gern took a sharp breath, raised a hand, and wiped the blood from his eye.
Watching Kaido in the distant crater lift his kanabo and slowly turn around, Gern showed no fear at all.
Instead—
He split his lips into a blood-streaked grin, brimming with battle lust.
"Heh… just as advertised, Kaido."
"This kind of power and speed…""'The strongest creature in the world' really is—one hell of a monster."