"What a powerful display of Conqueror's Haki. To think the Young Lord could actually keep up with Big Brother is truly astounding," King muttered, his voice muffled by his mask. He shifted his weight and transformed, his body lengthening and his arms turning into great, leathery wings. Taking to the skies in his Pteranodon form, he circled the battlefield, watching the father and daughter trade blows with a sense of mounting shock.
With every clash between the two, the sound of the surrounding earth shattering echoed across the skull-dome of Onigashima. Yet, there was a strange, haunting absence of sound where the weapons met.
"They really aren't touching," King thought, his heart shaking. This was the second time he had witnessed this rare phenomenon—the pinnacle of Haki where the force was so great it projected outward, creating a void between the strikes.
A terrifying aura washed over the rooftop. Even from his vantage point high in the air, the sensation made the hair on King's body stand on end. The very atmosphere seemed to be screaming under the pressure of their combined wills.
"The sky... it's splitting," King whispered, looking up. Above the combatants, a massive rift had appeared in the dark, swirling clouds. The heavens themselves were being torn apart, the clouds on either side rolling and churning away from the center as if they were on the verge of being shaken into nothingness.
"Yamato!"
"Idiot Old Man!"
Yamato and Kaido were completely immersed in the violence, looking for all the world like they were trying to kill each other. To any outsider, it appeared they had both gone completely berserk.
Bang!
In the next second, King watched as Kaido and Yamato swung their spiked clubs directly at each other's heads. Neither of them attempted to dodge, and neither moved to block. The result was a sickening crack as both their faces were knocked sideways simultaneously. Blood sprayed from their mouths, painting the cracked stone of the roof.
King shuddered at the sight. "Big Brother, that's your daughter. Can't you take it easy? Don't hit the Young Lord in the face! What if she's disfigured for life?"
Unfortunately, Kaido paid no mind to King's silent concerns. Right now, he was lost in the heat of battle, driven by a singular, drunken desire to beat his "Good Eldest Son" into the ground.
As the fight continued, Yamato and Kaido completely abandoned any pretense of defense. They went all out on offense, trading injury for injury in a brutal display of endurance.
"Worororo! Yamato, you've become quite proficient with it! Then let's make this even more intense!" Kaido laughed, his voice booming like thunder. His body began to swell and shift, his muscles bulging as his skin took on a different texture.
Soon, Kaido's appearance changed drastically. Blue scales shimmered across his skin, covering his chest and face. His teeth sharpened into fangs, two pairs of jagged dragon horns sprouted from his head, and a heavy dragon tail thrashed behind him. He stood as a towering dragon-man, radiating a terrifying and dangerous aura. This was his Hybrid Form, the absolute manifestation of his combat power.
"As if I'm afraid of you, Idiot Old Man! Bring it on! Today I'm going to knock out every single one of your teeth!" Yamato responded rudely, her own body beginning to transform in a flash of light.
She shifted into her own Hybrid Form, a reflection of her father's power. Her body was covered in elegant pink dragon scales, with two pairs of red horns crowning her head and a matching pink tail swaying behind her.
"Come on!"
As the words left her lips, Yamato and Kaido turned into streaks of pink and blue light. They flickered across the roof, colliding again and again, each impact erupting with combat shockwaves that sent debris flying into the sea. The dark clouds that had previously split were now being shaken away entirely by the sheer force of the encounter.
"This is simply a battlefield of monsters!" King flew to an even higher altitude, his golden eyes wide. Looking at the two figures fighting fiercely below, he felt his scalp go numb.
Flames, storms, and lightning constantly emerged from the clash, swirling around the combatants like a natural disaster come to life. If any ordinary pirate saw this scene, they would likely be paralyzed with fear, unable to even stand.
One hour passed... then two... then three.
"It's been three hours already. Is their energy still this high? This has reached the level of a life-and-death struggle!" King was getting tired just watching from above.
From the start until now, neither Yamato nor Kaido had shown any signs of fatigue. In fact, they seemed to be in peak form, their strikes gaining weight with every passing minute. Every blow was delivered with full force, causing blood to splatter from both of them onto the white stone. Even as a spectator, King felt his whole body tremble.
"Big Brother really isn't showing any mercy, and the Young Master is exactly the same. It's like they're truly trying to kill each other," King frowned. Was it really necessary to be this serious? It felt excessive, even for the Beasts Pirates. No matter their differences, they were father and daughter—a bond that should have meant something.
"Even if I wanted to persuade them to stop... no, they won't listen to anything right now," King said, shaking his head.
Another two hours passed. The sun began to dip, and both Kaido and Yamato had finally exited their Hybrid Forms, returning to their human states, yet they continued to swing their clubs with relentless fury.
"This is truly terrifying," Maria whispered. She and Haruko, who had originally been enjoying the festivities below, had made their way up to the roof. They stood frozen at the entrance, shocked by the carnage.
They had felt the terrifying Haki from the floors below, but seeing it in person was a different matter entirely.
"Why did you two come up? How's the banquet?" King landed near them, retracting his wings and returning to his human form.
"The banquet is still going on. We saw that Yamato and Lord Kaido hadn't appeared yet, so we came to check on them. It's been several hours—is it still not over?" Maria asked, her brow furrowed with worry.
Watching the battle was frightening; it looked less like a sparring match and more like an execution.
"Lord King, shouldn't we have the Young Lord and Lord Kaido stop? If this continues, won't something terrible happen?" Haruko added, her voice trembling.
Hearing them, King sighed heavily. "If I could have persuaded them to stop, I would have done so hours ago."
"Can't you think of something? If they keep fighting like this, what if there's an accident?" Maria looked at King expectantly; as the Lead Performer, this was supposed to be his responsibility.
King felt a surge of embarrassment. Looking at him was useless; he had already tried to intervene with words, and they had nearly hit him too.
"Just wait. When they get tired of fighting, they'll stop naturally," King said, the words feeling hollow even to him. It sounded pathetic, but he really had no other choice.
"Sigh," Maria and Haruko joined him in his frustration. If even King couldn't do anything, they certainly wouldn't be able to stand between those two monsters.
The three of them watched from a safe distance, waiting for the fire to burn out. They ended up waiting for another three full hours.
"Yamato, you Stinky Brat! You still refuse to go down? Hurry up and fall for your old man, do you hear me?" Kaido shouted. He stood hunched over, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, yet his voice was still full of vigor.
Opposite him, Yamato stood tall, her breathing heavy. Like him, she was stained with blood and heavily injured, her clothes torn and ragged.
"Idiot Old Man, did I finally knock your brains loose? To think you'd spout such nonsense!" Yamato panted, her golden pupils glowing with an undying flame. Her Haki had not weakened in the slightest.
After a short pause to catch her breath, she added, "Idiot Old Man, does it hurt when I hit you? It must hurt a lot! A brute like you definitely couldn't be bothered to learn any real techniques, right? Hahaha... cough! Cough!"
While laughing, Yamato coughed up a mouthful of blood, wiping her chin with the back of her hand. Although her Haki wasn't as refined as Kaido's, she was proficient in the advanced application of Armament Haki known as Ryuo. Combined with her Conqueror's Haki coating, she could definitely make even the "Strongest Creature" howl in pain.
However, she had been beaten just as badly. Both she and Kaido were clearly in a state of extreme physical distress.
"I see. It's that technique... the one Kozuki Oden used. I don't know where a Stinky Brat like you managed to learn it, but I have to admit, it really does hurt... Worororo!" Kaido said, unable to help but laugh loudly despite the blood foaming at the corners of his mouth.
He hadn't expected his "Good Eldest Son" to be able to fight him to this extent. He had originally thought he could beat Yamato into submission in a matter of minutes.
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