It had to be said that after his head returned to its cone shape, Don Chinjao's attacks became significantly more powerful.
The most obvious improvement was in the strength of his Eight-Impact Fist.
His cone-shaped head functioned like a natural concentrator. It gathered and compressed the shockwaves of the Eight-Impact Fist into a single point, allowing them to erupt with far greater destructive force.
During their clash, Chinjao's cone head successfully blocked Kaito Arisawa's Armament Haki.
But it only blocked the Armament Haki.
The moment Kaito realized his attack had been stopped, he withdrew his leg decisively.
Without hesitation, he switched stances.
His left foot touched the ground, stabilizing his body, while his right leg whipped around from the opposite direction in a lightning-fast kick.
Chinjao was still focusing all his strength on resisting the Armament Haki from Kaito's earlier strike.
How could he possibly keep up with such a sudden change in attacks?
When Kaito withdrew his left foot, Chinjao couldn't even steady his balance, let alone counterattack.
By the time Kaito's right leg struck, Chinjao had no chance to defend.
Boom!!!
Armament Haki coated Kaito's right foot as it slammed directly into Chinjao's head.
With a miserable cry, Chinjao was kicked flying into the distance.
As he was launched through the air, he spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with several broken teeth.
Kaito's left leg bent slightly to support his body.
Even before his right foot returned to the ground, Kaito pushed off with his left leg and vanished in a blur, chasing after the airborne Chinjao.
Later arrival, first strike.
Leaning forward, Kaito overtook Chinjao in midair.
Before Chinjao could recover, Kaito swung his leg again, whipping it down onto Chinjao's head.
Despite the unnatural hardness granted by Chinjao's unique skull, the repeated heavy blows were beginning to take their toll.
Chinjao's head spun.
His vision blurred.
His consciousness began to fade.
Boom!!!
Unable to react at all, Chinjao took another brutal kick to the head.
The violent impact of Kaito's Armament Haki changed his direction once again, sending him flying further through the air.
The pattern continued.
Chase.
Kick.
Send flying.
Again and again.
Kaito treated Chinjao like a ball.
Each time he caught up to the flying pirate, he delivered another whip kick, sending him flying in a new direction.
The cycle repeated dozens of times.
Only then did Kaito finally stop his assault.
Boom!!!
With the final kick, Chinjao's body was blasted back toward the original iceberg.
Like a cannonball, he smashed into it once again, carving out a massive crater.
Ice shards exploded outward.
Inside the crater—
"Cough… cough…"
The earlier impacts had been tolerable for Chinjao.
But after suffering continuous blows, his body had finally reached its limit.
The violent shock forced him to drop to his knees.
He coughed violently, spitting a large pool of blood onto the ice beneath him.
At the same time, his head had changed once again.
Originally flat.
Then restored to a sharp cone.
Now—
It had become cylindrical.
In simpler terms—
It had swollen from the repeated kicks.
Tens of meters away, Kaito stood calmly.
His expression was relaxed.
He hadn't even broken a sweat.
Looking at Chinjao kneeling in the crater and coughing blood, Kaito sensed the weakening aura of his opponent.
It was time to extract the last bit of value from this battle.
"Armament Haki has almost completed its external release testing."
"The final strike will be used to test the new technique."
Kaito slowly raised his right leg, drawing his knee up toward his abdomen.
Buzz—
Armament Haki began gathering around his foot.
Layer upon layer of haki compressed and condensed, forming an extremely dense and powerful coating.
At the same time, an even more violent energy flowed within his leg.
It was stronger and more domineering than the shockwaves of the Eight-Impact Fist.
"What… is that…?"
Inside the crater, Chinjao was severely injured.
But he had not lost the ability to move.
He had remained kneeling intentionally, pretending to be too injured to act while secretly recovering.
But now—
He could no longer maintain the act.
Because his Observation Haki sensed the terrifying change in Kaito's aura.
Chinjao raised his head abruptly.
His eyes locked onto Kaito.
Danger.
Death.
The moment he saw Kaito's raised leg and the terrifying energy surrounding it, Chinjao's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
His body screamed warnings.
His instincts erupted into alarm.
The sense of danger was so overwhelming that hallucinations seemed to form before his eyes.
Huge blood-red characters filled his vision.
Death.
"AAAAHHH!!!"
Without thinking, Chinjao reacted purely on instinct.
Letting out a desperate roar, he exploded forward with all the strength he had left.
He shot out of the crater and charged straight toward Kaito.
"Eight-Impact Fist Secret Technique: Cone Dragon Drill!"
As he rushed forward, Chinjao leaped into the air.
His body spun violently.
He transformed into a human tornado, spiraling forward with his strongest attack.
It was clear what he intended.
Either strike first—
Or force Kaito to interrupt his own attack.
Kaito watched calmly as Chinjao turned into a raging tornado.
His eyes sharpened instantly.
"One Form of Subduing the Dragon—"
"Dragon Fighting in the Wild!"
His body became the base of a cannon.
His right leg transformed into its barrel.
When Kaito kicked forward like lightning, a deep roar resembling a dragon's cry echoed through the air.
A massive dragon-shaped shockwave blasted outward from his foot.
Boom!!!
The dragon-shaped blast was over ten meters in diameter.
From a distance, it resembled a massive beam of light.
As it tore through the air, the surrounding atmosphere collapsed inward, forming rings of compressed air expanding outward.
Chinjao's spinning tornado attack was swallowed instantly by the dragon-shaped blast.
The energy carried him along as it surged forward.
It continued traveling—
Until it slammed into the massive iceberg behind him.
The explosion that followed was deafening.
The roar echoed across the entire Treasure Jade Iceberg, shaking the surrounding landscape.
Even the pirates fighting along the distant coast froze in shock.
"Was that… the captain's fight?!"
"It must be coming from inside the iceberg… but that explosion is insane!"
"Not just the sound—the ground is shaking!"
People like Robin, Mangu, Law, and the others turned their heads in surprise.
They stared toward the interior of the Treasure Jade Iceberg, trying to see what had happened.
Inside the iceberg—
A massive hole had appeared in one of the giant ice formations.
But not just one.
Several icebergs behind it had been pierced through in a straight line.
Each one had a massive hole blasted clean through it.
All of them were created by Kaito's dragon-shaped shock cannon.
The ice of the Treasure Jade Iceberg was known for its incredible durability.
An attack powerful enough to pierce a mountain elsewhere might only leave a small crater here.
And yet—
Kaito's dragon-shaped shockwave had pierced multiple icebergs in succession.
The sheer power of the technique was terrifying.
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