"Kahahahaha! My dear Kaido-senpai, where are you running to?"
"Come and face me head-on!"
Amidst the ruined town, Carlo, with a pair of golden wings sprouted from his back and a playful smile on his face, was hot on the heels of the frantically fleeing Kaido.
The current situation was a complete reversal of before, when he was being relentlessly bombarded and crushed by Kaido.
The one being beaten into a pathetic, disheveled state was none other than the previously overbearing Kaido.
Meanwhile, Carlo, whose Physique had seen a massive improvement and who was now utilizing his Mythical Zoan Hybrid Form transformation, had become the victor.
Whoosh!!
Dust billowed over the ruins, pushed aside by a high-speed airflow like a dragon.
A pair of wings, brilliant as gold and seemingly composed of countless golden blades, flapped violently, stirring the air within dozens of meters.
They propelled Carlo's body, which had surged to six meters in height, through the collapsed buildings at a speed far exceeding his previous pace.
From time to time, he performed magnificent dives and climbs.
His entire being was like a high-speed fighter jet performing a spectacular aerial display.
His current speed far surpassed the Shave technique he had used earlier.
His physical flexibility was even further beyond the air-stepping Moonwalk.
This was the power of a Devil Fruit.
The Hybrid Form of the Garuda granted him the ability to fly freely in the sky.
It was incomparable to physical techniques like Moonwalk or Shave.
On the ground below, Kaido ran wildly with gritted teeth, his eyes full of frustration.
Sensing the sound of wind rapidly approaching from behind him once again,
he skidded to a halt, turned sharply to the right, and charged into the gap between two relatively intact buildings. He tried to use these two tall buildings to block Carlo's line of sight and take the opportunity to put more distance between them.
"Give up! You can't escape!"
"Kaido!!"
In the sky, Carlo also followed with a high-speed turn.
With just a flap of the wings behind him, the violent airflow they kicked up propelled his body into a clean, sharp right-angle turn, and he dived into the street where Kaido was.
The street surface here was only about five meters wide.
However, the wingspan spread behind Carlo's back already exceeded ten meters.
Kaido had clearly calculated this, hoping to use these obstacles to interfere with Carlo's flight.
Although both sides knew that these buildings were like blocks of tofu to power of their level,
even delaying Carlo for a second or two would be a win for Kaido.
However, Carlo, flying in mid-air, completely ignored the narrow slit of a street before him and charged straight in.
On his straight-spread wings, the golden feathers were like golden blades, shimmering with a dazzling yet extremely sharp cold light under the sun.
The taut wingtips, like the tips of the finest famous swords, silently sliced into the walls of the tall buildings on both sides.
The thick brick walls were pierced and sliced through without any hesitation.
It was as smooth as a hot knife through butter.
They failed to hinder Carlo for even a single second.
After Carlo passed between the two buildings,
the buildings on both sides, dozens of meters high, were as if severed at the waist by an invisible sharp blade, and the upper parts slid down with a thunderous roar.
Kaido, who had hoped to use the opportunity to pull away, not only failed to get his wish but was instead caught by the faster Carlo due to the sudden turn. With a dive, Carlo threw a punch toward the center of Kaido's back!
"Damn it!"
Kaido gnashed his teeth and cursed inwardly. He turned around without hesitation, swinging the spiked club in his hand to strike wildly at the charging Carlo.
"Get lost! You annoying navy brat!"
Carlo's wings suddenly folded. Brushing past Kaido's swinging spiked club, he spun like a spiral for over a dozen rotations before driving a fist into the hollow of Kaido's shoulder, sending Kaido flying backward and smashing a house behind him into pieces.
"Hahaha, starting to find me annoying now? Weren't you hitting me quite enthusiastically earlier, saying you were going to snap my neck?"
He flapped his wings again, the broad wings stirring up a surging airflow that blew a cloud of sand and stones in front of him.
A large amount of rubble was swept up by the gale and pelted toward Kaido.
At the same time, Carlo closed in, his clenched right fist once again striking toward the fallen Kaido's face.
"Get away from me!!"
Kaido was furious, his spiked club blasting through the air as he thrust it toward Carlo's face.
Clang-clang-clang!
Amidst a series of metallic friction sounds, two golden wings extended from behind Carlo and overlapped in front of him like two indestructible shields, meeting Kaido's spiked club a step ahead of Carlo himself.
Clang!!
An ear-piercing explosion erupted in their ears.
The overlapping golden wings merely jerked downward slightly.
The spiked club swung with all of Kaido's might was firmly parried and blocked!
And the only cost was a dozen or so inconsequential feathers being knocked off the wings.
"Devil Fruit Development +2!"
"As expected, as long as it's developed properly, any part of the body can be used for combat! Even wings transformed from a Mythical Zoan don't necessarily have to be used only for flying!"
Since eating the fruit, when he first discovered that the hardness and sharpness of the wings on his back were not inferior to ordinary Great Grade Swords,
the idea of using his wings to assist in combat had formed in Carlo's mind.
Now that he had applied it slightly, these wings gave him an even greater surprise.
Given that he had already mastered Life Return, an advanced body-utilization technique that allowed him to mobilize every single muscle in his body,
he had mastered the use of the wings on his back to a high degree in a very short time.
Easily blocking Kaido's strike just now
was equivalent to Carlo having two extra arms, two shields, and two precious swords that could cut through iron like butter.
Looking at Kaido, who was glaring at him through the gaps in his wings, Carlo's shoulder blades twitched, and the wings blocking his front suddenly flipped outward, knocking away Kaido's heavily pressing spiked club.
Almost simultaneously, Carlo's prepared right fist blasted through the air and slammed heavily onto Kaido's face!
Crack!
Kaido's high bridge of the nose broke under this punch, and two streams of nosebleed sprayed out.
Suffering such a heavy blow, Kaido was sent flying.
The world before his eyes was a blur.
His head was also groggy and completely blank.
Even the spiked club he held tightly in his hand was involuntarily released and fell to the ground.
Before his back could hit the ground,
Carlo's wings suddenly flapped and struck backward!
Whoosh!
His figure was suddenly propelled forward, shooting out like a projectile.
His outstretched right hand caught up with the flying Kaido and grabbed his ankle.
Five pitch-black fingers dug into Kaido's muscles, and he swung Kaido's massive body around, laughing wildly as he slammed him into the ground.
BOOM!!