"Who's there?!"
Kaido, leaping through the air, felt his heart pound wildly as a figure suddenly appeared before him.
On the deck of the Prodence Kingdom's ship ahead stood a man over five meters tall, his muscles bulging like they might explode.
A golden crown sat on his head, and a crimson cloak draped across his shoulders.
Two stubby legs supported an enormous upper body.
His proportions were even more outrageous than Kaido's.
The classic look of someone who lifts but never trains legs.
He appeared downright comical.
With a downturned mouth and the expression of a wronged child, he looked ridiculous.
The ordinary straight punch he threw seemed even funnier.
But as the red-gloved fist rushed toward him, Kaido's amusement vanished in an instant!
All he could hear was his heart thundering, as if it meant to burst from his chest!
Danger!
Extreme danger!
A terror as though death itself had come swallowed him whole, every hair on his body standing on end.
Instinct screamed at him to flee, to escape that oncoming fist.
Yet the moment the thought surfaced, his face flushed red.
"Like hell I will!!"
"I'm Barbarossa Kaido!!"
"Some nobody makes me run scared? Never!"
As the distant punch was about to land, Kaido roared, gripping his spiked club in both hands and raising it high.
A sheath of black Haki surged across his frame, and he smashed the weapon down toward Elizabeth I's crown.
"Raimei—Hakke!!"
But… Elizabeth I's Kings Fist, charged to the peak, was faster than Kaido had imagined!
And far more powerful!
His spiked club had only descended halfway toward his foe's head, its points not yet touching the golden crown, when the shockwave from the punch bent him backward like a bow.
A volcanic blast slammed into him, twisting his muscles and sending ripples through his cheeks as if a giant slipper had swatted a cockroach.
"D—damn it!!"
Kaido managed only that anguished howl before the impact hurled him helplessly away.
Boom!!
His back struck the bow of an oncoming pirate vessel, smashing it from prow to stern, leaving only splinters.
Gunwales, deck, masts, cabins—everything shattered under the collision.
The relentless shockwave reduced the wreckage to even finer dust.
More than a hundred pirates aboard, ready for slaughter, were caught in the blast, bursting into clouds of blood.
After blasting Kaido aside and obliterating one ship, the remnants of Kings Fist tore into another.
It reduced half of that vessel to matchwood before plunging into the sea.
To the horror of hundreds of pirates on the remaining two ships, a straight trench a hundred meters long and a dozen wide was carved into the ocean.
Gale-force backwash heeled their ships over as though they might capsize.
As for the unfortunate Kaido, no one knew where the punch had sent him.
Aboard his steamship, Elizabeth I admired the devastation he had wrought.
He blew the steam from his fist with satisfaction.
"You petty thugs dare raid my fleet?"
"My Kings Fist can fell an Admiral with one blow!"
"Even Rocks himself wouldn't dare take this punch head-on!"
He lowered his fist and swept an arm behind him.
"Open fire! Blast these pirate scum!"
"Aye, King of Battle!" The soldiers of Prodence answered, executing their monarch's order without hesitation.
At once the broadside guns of three great steamers roared, raining shells upon the last two pirate ships.
Order given and mood buoyant, Elizabeth I turned to return to his cabin.
Suddenly a soft thud sounded on the deck behind him.
Something—or someone—had landed aboard.
At the same moment a calm voice reached his ear.
"You just claimed you can kill an Admiral with one punch, didn't you?"
"Who?!"
Elizabeth spun, settling into a guard stance.
No attack came.
Behind him stood a white-haired youth three meters tall.
Carlo tossed the stunned Old Buck to the deck, cigar clenched between his teeth as he regarded the towering blond man.
The fellow resembled the Elizabello II who had fought in Doflamingo's coliseum—most likely his father.
Elizabeth I, the reigning king of Prodence, known as the King of Battle.
That mighty blow which had sent Kaido flying and shattered ships was the famed Kings Fist.
Its destructive power was indeed impressive; judged by sheer impact, it far outclassed techniques like the Eight Impact Fist or Battle Preservation Boxing.
Even compared with Elbaf's signature Ikoku it came off second to none.
Yet the claim it could kill an Admiral in one hit… "I can't just pretend I didn't hear that."
Carlo's lips curled into a grin aimed at Elizabeth.
"Protect His Majesty!"
Soldiers on deck shouted.
In an instant hundreds of muskets snapped up, their triggers pulled without hesitation.
A tempest of lead converged, leaving Carlo no room to dodge.
He never intended to.
He didn't even bother using Haki; he simply walked through the hail of bullets toward Elizabeth.
Bangbangbangbang—!
Round after round slammed into him, bursting in flashes of fire and smoke.
Every step brought another hundred bullets, yet aside from shredding his clothes they failed even to scratch his skin.
Neither musket fire nor cannonade could slow him for a second!
Elizabeth's pupils shrank.
"What?!"
Gritting his teeth, he swung his right fist once more as Carlo strode through the storm of shot.
"Lightweight—Kings Fist!!"