There was no logic to it.
Plenty of people on the sea knew how terrifying Kaido of the Beasts' body was, and Shanks was naturally one of them.
Even hurting him under normal circumstances was already incredibly difficult.
Now, although Kaido seemed to be in a crazed, fanatical state and was not deliberately using powerful Armament Haki to defend himself, the result was almost the same.
That slash had not caused him any real damage.
"You're still far from killing me! Come on, try harder!"
Kaido's blood-red eyes locked onto Shanks, and a feverish grin spread across his face.
Boom!
The moment Kaido finished speaking, his towering figure appeared in front of Shanks with a roar.
Black lightning erupted from the kanabo in his hand as he swung it in a full arc toward Shanks.
"Thunder Bagua!"
With Kaido's roar, the huge kanabo smashed into the ground.
The earth it struck exploded instantly, and within a range of hundreds of meters, soil and shattered stone broke apart completely.
Amid the dust, Shanks leapt backward into the air, looking at Kaido with a somewhat helpless gaze.
In this state, the suppression from Conqueror's Haki had weakened a lot.
'Looks like I'll have to risk my life here.'
That thought crossed Shanks's mind.
He had no confidence in defeating Kaido in this state.
But simply leaving was not something Shanks wanted to do either.
Putting everything else aside, this insane version of Kaido could not be allowed to continue unchecked.
If Shanks withdrew now without drawing Kaido away, this entire archipelago would be destroyed by Kaido's hands.
Two types of Haki wrapped around Gryphon.
Black lightning faintly flickered along the blade as Shanks gripped his sword with one hand, his Observation Haki searching for the best moment to strike.
Inside the cloud of dust, Kaido, whose attack had missed, rested the kanabo on his shoulder and looked up at Shanks in midair.
Then he threw his head back and let out a strange laugh.
The demon-transformed Kaido was certainly mad, but he still seemed to retain some clarity.
Or rather, after turning into a demon, some emotion within him had gained complete dominance, thoroughly influencing Kaido's behavior and judgment.
Of course, it was also possible that Kaido was using that emotion to freely vent his rage.
"Red-haired brat, you're dying here today! I'll twist off your head and send it to Mary Geoise."
Kaido laughed loudly.
"If you can do it, then do so!" Shanks answered without even changing his expression.
...
In the distance, the members of the Red Hair Pirates exchanged looks.
"Benn, should we help the captain?"
After the previous exchange, they already knew how troublesome Kaido was.
Now that they saw Shanks facing him one-on-one, the crew immediately became anxious.
"We'd only get in the captain's way."
Benn Beckman shook his head directly.
A battle of this level was not something just anyone could interfere with.
If both of them fought at full power, then forget the others—even Benn himself could only provide support from a distance.
Getting close was out of the question.
"Then what do we do now?"
Yasopp gripped the gun in his hand, his eyes never leaving Kaido's body as he spoke.
He had fired several times earlier, and his bullets had struck Kaido perfectly, but the results had been disappointing.
They broke through his defense, but that was all.
They had no real effect.
Facing such a huge, hard lump of a monster, even a sniper like him really did not have many good options.
Unless he could send a bullet into a true weak point.
For example, the eyes.
But with the recovery ability Kaido had shown, Yasopp even doubted whether piercing Kaido's head with a bullet would actually kill him.
"We retreat for now and observe the situation."
Benn Beckman waved a hand.
Hearing this, the others retreated together, leaving the battlefield to Shanks and Kaido.
...
Thunder roared, followed by the sound of the air bursting apart.
Two figures, each trailing long streaks of black lightning, collided.
Shanks held his sword in one hand and slashed Gryphon heavily against the kanabo.
The weapons did not touch.
A mass of black lightning appeared between them, growing brighter and brighter.
Under its influence, both weapons seemed to twist slightly.
Shanks gritted his teeth and pressed down with his blade, while Kaido, swinging his kanabo upward, wore an exaggerated grin.
"Conqueror of Three Worlds: Ragnaraku!"
Feeling the force coming through his weapon, Kaido grinned and suddenly poured strength into both hands gripping the kanabo.
The contest of strength ended with Shanks, who was suspended in midair with nowhere to brace himself, being knocked backward.
Kaido immediately leapt after him, spinning the kanabo in his hands like a windmill as he smashed it toward Shanks's head.
Swish!
Shanks, who had been sent flying, did not hesitate.
He kicked off the air repeatedly and had already left his original position.
The kanabo, wrapped in black lightning, smashed down and shattered only the afterimage Shanks had left behind during his high-speed movement.
Shanks pushed off the ground with both feet.
His movements looked light, but his speed was frighteningly fast.
Gryphon gleamed dangerously as he cut toward Kaido's neck.
Although Shanks guessed that the current Kaido might not die even if he were beheaded, being decapitated would certainly require a longer time to recover.
And during that time, Shanks could do many things.
Whether he chose to continue attacking or lead his people away, the initiative would be in his hands.
Smack!
Kaido's palm blocked in front of his own neck, then clenched.
However, by the time his hand closed, Gryphon had already tapped his palm and used the force to retreat.
Kaido grabbed nothing.
But Kaido seemed to have expected that. With his right hand gripping the kanabo, he swung it in a wide reverse arc.
"Narikabura Arrow!"
A powerful shockwave flew from the reversed swing of his kanabo and struck Shanks in midair, sending him flying.
Shanks held his sword horizontally in front of himself and used the chance to pull away from Kaido.
His feet kicked against the air, stopping his backward momentum.
Then, with explosive cracks from each step through the air, the tip of Shanks's blade had already arrived before Kaido's pupil.
Just like Yasopp, Shanks did not believe that Kaido in this state truly had no weaknesses.
If cutting off his head would not work, then he would take away his sight.
Facing the blade stabbing toward his eye, Kaido twisted his head aside.
The blade light flashed past in front of his face.
He avoided the blade, but not the slash that flew from it.
However, a flying slash was still not as strong as a Haki-wrapped blade.
After barely cutting open the flesh of Kaido's face, the slash lost its power and disappeared.
Still, it had achieved its purpose.
A bloody line cut across both of Kaido's eyes.
Blood and some unknown fluid dripped from them.
"Bastard!"
Kaido gripped the kanabo with both hands and spun it like a giant windmill.
Seeing this, Shanks had not even relaxed when he saw Kaido open his eyes again.
Blood still hung beneath his eyelids, but his eyes had already fully recovered.
Even Shanks could not help cursing inwardly.
'That's way too fast.'
As long as that recovery ability did not disappear, there was simply no way to deal with him.
Unless someone had enough overwhelming power to suppress Kaido completely.
But the current Shanks clearly did not possess that kind of strength.
With his vision restored, Kaido locked his eyes firmly onto Shanks.
"Got you!"
Kaido's voice was full of rage.
His massive body moved with terrifying speed. Before his body even arrived, the kanabo in his hand had already struck.
The huge kanabo thrust straight toward Shanks.
Clang!
This time, Kaido, enraged, attacked with full strength. Shanks, who had tried to casually block the attack with one hand, clearly failed.
His entire body was sent flying and smashed into the ground, carving a long crack through the island below before he shot straight into the sea on the other side.
Fortunately, Shanks was not an ability user, he leapt out of the seawater.
He had no time to care about the water dripping from his body, because Kaido had already arrived before him again.
In his half-dragon form, Kaido's strength and speed rose once more.
His already terrifying defense also became even stronger.
The boost brought by the half-awakened Azure Dragon Fruit was astonishing.
Shanks, who had just jumped out of the sea, was smashed down again by another swing, plunging straight back into the water below.
The sea exploded. A huge wave of air directly blasted the seawater away, forming a massive empty cavity.
Shanks, driven down by the overwhelming force, crashed into the seabed. His clothes were torn, and blood marked the corner of his mouth.
Clearly, that attack was not something he could take lightly.
Then Kaido, carrying that unique laugh of his, descended from above.
Ignoring the seawater surging in from around him, he smashed down toward Shanks.
The kanabo in his hand swung again, and the fierce wind it carried swept up the incoming seawater.
"Die!"
The red light in Kaido's falling eyes was so thick it looked ready to drip blood.
Shanks rose and stepped forward, locking his eyes on Kaido above him.
Two types of Haki wrapped around his blade at once.
Whether it was easy to block or not, he had to block it.
Shanks gritted his teeth and swung upward at the towering figure above him.
This scene was exactly like before.
Only, their positions had been reversed.
Compared with Kaido, the strongest creature who had been famous for years, Shanks, who had only just stepped into his peak, was clearly not quite there yet.
If Kaido did not have that terrifying recovery ability, Shanks might have been able to fight him evenly.
Against an irrational Kaido, Shanks might even have gained the upper hand.
But all of that had changed completely because of Kaido's current recovery ability.
Kaido, who no longer needed to worry about anything else, could unleash his power as wildly as he pleased.
A terrifying collision erupted at the bottom of the sea, and dreadful shockwaves spread outward in ring after ring.
The seawater that had just surged down was instantly turned into white steam by the impact.
White mist rushed out in an instant, covering a huge stretch of the surrounding sea in a very short time.
Bang!
Just as Shanks was falling into disadvantage, a gunshot rang out.
Kaido, who had been suppressing Shanks, suddenly had his head knocked back.
One of his eyes burst apart completely.
Along with the eye, Kaido's eye socket also exploded.
The sharp bullet pierced through Kaido's left eye and flew out from the left side of the back of his skull.
Boom!
Sensing the change in force, Shanks immediately withdrew his sword and leapt away, escaping Kaido's range.
With no target left to receive the force, the kanabo smashed into the seabed.
The entire island and the surrounding sea trembled violently.
But that kind of injury could only delay Kaido for a few breaths.
Before the surrounding seawater could even surge back in, the wound from that shot had already recovered.
In the distance, Yasopp opened his eyes after firing, his face full of helplessness.
"It still doesn't work. He really is a monster."
"He really is."
Hearing Yasopp's words, Beckman sounded clearly disappointed.
"Retreat!"
Shanks's voice rang out.
When the members of the Red Hair Pirates saw how battered he looked, it was something they had never witnessed before.
"There's no better way to deal with this guy right now. Let's lure him away first." Shanks spoke again.
"Got it."
Beckman nodded and was about to take the others away first, but then everyone heard the air burst apart.
Kaido's body split through the white mist.
He had arrived.... Shanks could only meet him head-on.
Boom!
Shanks was sent flying backward, passing by the members of the Red Hair Pirates.
The gale stirred up by his body made many of them lose their footing.
After knocking Shanks away with one strike, Kaido turned his eyes toward Yasopp, who had fired the shot earlier.
Although that bullet had failed to produce an effective result, it had thoroughly enraged Kaido.
After being shot from the dark, Kaido's eyes fixed fiercely on Yasopp.
"Die!"
Along with Kaido's voice, the kanabo in his hand came crashing down.
Fortunately, Beckman reacted extremely quickly and dragged Yasopp back with all his strength.
When the kanabo struck the ground, the shattered stones blasted out and knocked down many members of the Red Hair Pirates.
Although they were only trainee crew members and pirate apprentices, anyone able to join the Red Hair Pirates had real ability.
But this opponent had clearly exceeded the standard.
Now, forget defeating Kaido. Whether they could safely retreat had become uncertain.
After failing to kill Yasopp with one blow, Kaido chased after him again.
Shanks, who had been sent flying, rushed back once more and blocked the charging Kaido with his sword.
The air distorted, and veins bulged on Shanks's forehead.
His powerful Conqueror's Haki erupted completely.
Under the influence of that overwhelming Haki, even Kaido, whose eyes were blood-red, regained a flicker of clarity.
But it was only for an instant.
After fully erupting with Conqueror's Haki, Shanks swung his blade and forced Kaido away, then immediately rushed in.
"Divine Departure!"
Black lightning followed the blade light, sending Kaido flying backward.
But aside from knocking him away for the moment, it caused no other injuries.
Seeing Kaido already stabilize himself, Shanks felt even more helpless.
He could not kill him.
He could not beat him.
He could not escape.
He could not get away.
The situation had frozen completely.
But Shanks understood very clearly that the longer this dragged on, the worse it would become for him.
Right now, he had to cover the retreat of the people on his ship.
If he could draw Kaido away, that would be even better.
As for how to deal with Kaido after drawing him away, Shanks had no good solution.
Perhaps he could redirect the trouble elsewhere.
He already knew the news that Whitebeard had been defeated by Cyrus, and he knew that Cyrus was currently on Candy Island in Totto Land.
If he could draw Kaido there, then with Kaido in his current state, conflict with Cyrus would be unavoidable.
The problem was how to survive Kaido's attacks on the way to Candy Island.
After all, this guy could transform into a giant dragon and fly through the sky.
"This is a huge mess."
Shanks sighed and prepared himself for battle.
At that moment, the surrounding temperature suddenly rose.
The white mist formed by their earlier clash with the seawater vanished under the intense heat in the blink of an eye.