“How can someone have such monstrous strength?” Kaido muttered, shaking his throbbing head.

His vision spun, and he slapped his massive face to stay awake.

Kuke stood at the edge of the deep crater, looking down into the dark, bottomless abyss.

No movement. After several minutes, a large hand emerged from the pitch-black hole, followed by Kaido’s overwhelming presence bursting out.

Kaido casually stretched his body, trying to maintain an air of nonchalance.

“Not bad. You finally managed to wake me up. Not a bad effort.” He grinned.

“Oh, so staying down there for a few minutes gave you time to recover, huh?” Kuke’s voice cut through Kaido’s attempt at composure.

Kaido’s prideful expression froze for a moment. His eye twitched—he had been seen through.

Without a word, Kaido silently picked up his kanabo and shifted into his hybrid form. He dared not transform into his dragon form again.

“Forget what just happened. The real fight starts now,” Kaido said, his bravado returning.

He eyed Kuke’s physique. His plan to exhaust Kuke hadn’t worked; maybe a battle of pure endurance would. He had faith that, in terms of resilience, he was unbeatable.

“Your mouth is tougher than your body,” Kuke scoffed.

“Pathway to Hades!”

A massive slash of sword energy erupted from Kuke’s supreme-grade sword, Ace, heading straight for Kaido as he charged forward.

“Indra Cannon!”

Kaido swung his kanabo, unleashing a similarly massive energy blast.

“Oh?” Kuke observed Kaido’s choice with curiosity.

Instead of blocking the attack, Kaido charged through, opting to take the blow head-on while retaliating at the same time. A mutual destruction tactic.

BOOM

Both attacks landed on their respective targets, striking each other’s chests.

“Didn’t see that coming, did you?” Kaido laughed as he endured the blow, his eyes locked onto Kuke with a hint of smugness. “People aren’t all built the same.”

Even as Kaido was sent flying, his smile remained.

He stared at Kuke, expecting him to be blown back just as he had been. After all, Kaido could recover quickly.

But Kuke…?

Kaido’s eyes widened, his grin fading.

Kuke hadn’t moved an inch.

He had taken Kaido’s attack head-on without flinching.

“Tch.” Kaido spat out a mouthful of blood. “So it’s just Haki, huh? Let’s see how long you can keep that up.”

Refusing to accept it, Kaido charged once more.

“Thunder Bagua!”

“Let’s test that body strength of yours,” Kuke said calmly.

He spread his arms, letting his supreme Armament Haki retract.

“Your Haki’s gone? Did you already exhaust it?” Kaido’s eyes lit up in delight.

So, Kuke was strong in bursts but lacked endurance. That meant Kaido had won.

The Thunder Bagua struck Kuke’s body, reverberating with a thunderous crash. Kaido let out a triumphant roar, “I win! You’re done—”

But the force in his hand felt off.

Kaido glanced down, stunned to see Kuke still standing firm. He wasn’t blown away, nor was he bloodied or broken.

“That force is about as strong as the massages my beautiful crew members give me,” Kuke said, pushing the kanabo aside.

Kaido stared at him as if he’d seen a ghost. He rubbed his eyes desperately, but it was true—Kuke had taken the hit without Armament Haki, relying purely on his physical body.

“Impossible. There’s no way,” Kaido muttered, disbelief washing over him.

Even that old hag couldn’t take Thunder Bagua head-on without using her body to shield herself.

“What kind of special ability are you using?” Kaido refused to believe it was merely raw strength.

It had to be some sort of special ability.

Rumors had long circulated across the seas about Kuke being a mysterious ability user—his regeneration, his impenetrable defense—but nobody had ever pinpointed exactly what his power was.

“Right, it must be that rumored invincible defense,” Kaido convinced himself.

“So what if it’s a power? If I test it a few times, I’ll find its weaknesses.” Kaido started to swing his kanabo with reckless abandon.

He was attacking wildly, pouring all of his strength into each strike with no regard for defense—this was Kaido’s fighting style.

A style that had given many of his opponents severe headaches.

“Even Whitebeard never dared to fight me like this,” Kaido sneered as he unleashed his fury.

The air cracked under the pressure of Kaido’s relentless swings. Meanwhile, Kuke wielded his blade with precision.

A battle without defense? That was familiar to him.

Their attacks moved faster, and every strike seemed to carry the weight of mountains.

Any lesser fighter who dared to engage in such an exchange without defense would have been obliterated instantly.

Despite the chaos, there was no deafening clash of weapons. The two avoided directly clashing weapons, instead aiming only for each other’s bodies.

Each attack landed without fail.

The area behind Onigashima was reduced to rubble under the pressure of their relentless exchange.

“It hurts,” Kaido admitted, his eyes bloodshot, feeling as though he’d been slashed a thousand times.

But his glare hardened. If he was suffering, Kuke had to be suffering more, unable to endure it for long.

“He’s bound to run any moment now… Oh, to hell with it!” Kaido cursed, staring at Kuke’s unscathed figure.

Although Kuke was enveloped in Armament Haki, Kaido knew that such a frenzied exchange couldn’t be fully mitigated by Haki alone.

“Is it not an ability?” Kaido’s eyes widened.

There were no signs of any power in play—it was purely a combination of raw Haki and physical strength, resulting in an impenetrable defense.

“His Armament Haki isn’t much stronger than mine, so why am I hurt, and he’s not?”

Kaido’s confidence started to crumble, a painful realization dawning on him—he now wore the same anguished expression that so many of his past opponents had.

“Judgment of the Three Realms! Bring Down the Inferno!” Kaido roared, his kanabo surging with the fierce crackle of Conqueror’s Haki lightning.

“Divine Strike—Golden Crow Soars!”

Kuke charged at Kaido, aiming at his body with a powerful, Haki-infused slash.

Kaido shivered, hurriedly shifting his stance to block instead of attacking.

The clash of Conqueror’s Haki ripped the sky asunder.

Kaido stumbled backward, each step causing the earth to quake.

Leaning on his kanabo for support, Kaido’s breathing grew ragged. His chaotic breathing mirrored his mental state.

“What kind of monster are you?” Kaido asked, echoing the words many had once asked him.

He looked at Kuke, unscathed, and then glanced at his own battered form.

He couldn’t accept it.

“Your body is weak,” Kuke said with disdain. “Not even as tough as your words.”

This wasn’t satisfying at all.

Kaido’s spirit broke completely.

Those words—he had heard them so many times before. Whenever he crushed a weaker opponent, he’d say them.

He never imagined that one day, someone else would ridicule his physique in the same way.

Kaido’s face contorted as if he were on the verge of tears.

“No wonder that old hag is so obsessed with you,” Kaido said, realization dawning on him.

Why Big Mom cared so much for Kuke made sense now—such a body was like an addictive drug to her.

“What?” Kuke’s brow furrowed, Big Mom’s unsettling image flashing in his mind.

“Looks like I took it too easy on you earlier,” Kuke’s eyes grew cold, his aura exploding with ferocity. “Playtime is over.”

Kaido was stunned, blinking in disbelief.

Playtime?

It seemed he had provoked a true monster.

“That’s not what I meant. It’s the old hag’s idea, not mine,” Kaido hurriedly explained.

His response was met with a ferocious slash from Kuke.

Each strike hit harder than the last.

Every blow was a monstrous attack.

Seeing his own favored fighting style being used against him by Kuke, Kaido finally realized just how infuriating and oppressive it really was.

This time, he was on the receiving end—and it was unbearable.

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DONT FORGET POWER STONE

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P/S: If you are interested, you can read up 40+ chapters at patreon.com/Emik01.

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep