Queen’s face turned beet red, bloated with righteous fury.
I didn’t do anything wrong! he fud. I was just following orders—Boss Kaido’s orders! I even used our newest, most vicious virus strains on those brats in prison. Who the hell could’ve guessed they’d make the Marine stronger?!
"I’ll deal with you later!" Kaido roared, glaring at him with murderous heat.
His body surged and warped, rising over a ter in height. Sharp, curved dragon horns erupted from his skull, spiraling skyward. Azure scales crawled across his skin like living armor. A long, muscular tail snapped into place behind him.
Dragon-Human Form.
A monstrous bloodlust burst forth from Kaido’s transford body—raw and violent, like a battlefield soaked in centuries of slaughter. He gripped his spiked club tighter, the weapon groaning under the strain of his fury.
Muscles bulged. Veins throbbed like writhing serpents beneath his scaled skin.
Darren’s expression sharpened. The pressure behind the club—Kaido’s signature Eight Precepts—had just doubled. It pressed against him like a mountain tipping forward, ready to fall.
"Don’t get cocky, brat!" Kaido growled, teeth clenched.
Zzzzzzz...
Conqueror’s Haki exploded from him in violent arcs, wrapping around the club in a storm of black-red lightning.
BOOM!!
The next blow detonated like a thunderclap. The shockwave rippled across the battlefield, blinding white and deafening.
Darren didn’t have ti to dodge.
He was launched like a cannonball, crashing into the rocky valley below. Earth cracked and cratered. A kiloter-wide depression collapsed inward, smoke and debris belching into the air.
Then Kaido descended.
He hit the ground like a falling star, the impact collapsing the crater even deeper. Dust choked the air. His breath ca out in visible white puffs as he strode forward, each footstep shaking the mountain.
"I don’t care how strong you’ve beco..."
His voice rumbled like a storm.
"...but if you think that ans you can tear through my territory unchecked, you’re dead wrong."
Kaido’s eyes burned crimson, wild and untad. Black-red lightning sparked and snapped around him, shattering the clouds overhead. His presence bent the very air.
"Observation Haki?" he bellowed. "That’s basic! You want to survive in this sea? You need a body forged in fire, brute strength beyond reason, and Haki that breaks mountains!"
From within the smoke, a foot stomped forward.
Darren erged slowly, his face streaked with blood, but grinning like a madman.
And then—he laughed.
A deep, manic laugh, not born of arrogance... but hunger.
Bang!
He launched himself from the crater like a missile, charging headlong toward Kaido.
He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t flinch.
Didn’t hold back.
"I know what it takes!" Darren roared. "You think I ca to Wano for a damn vacation?!"
Despite the pain gnawing at his body, he was intoxicated by it—by the risk, the adrenaline, the thrill of dancing at death’s doorstep.
And in the aftermath of Kaido’s strike, sothing else stirred inside him.
Physique: 0.121
Strength: 0.183
Speed: 0.168
Armant Haki: 0.629...
It worked.
He could feel it—his body, pushed to its limits, evolving. Training had long stopped yielding results. Even Queen’s torture cocktails would’ve only boosted him marginally, and only once.
But this—this was real.
I’ve finally found a training thod that works.
No. More than that.
I’ve found a real teacher.
The progress was slow—asured in fractions of a point—but steady. And honest.
This wasn’t so protagonist cheat. It was earned with blood and grit.
Co on, Kaido-sensei...
Even if every bone in his body shattered—even if he lost every tooth in his skull—he wouldn’t stop this lesson early.
He surged forward, blood roaring in his ears. His fingers stretched wide, then folded inward, snapping into that familiar, deadly shape.
Dragon Claw Fist.
Three fingers curled, two braced—sharp, precise, brutal.
Dragon’s Claw!
The air hissed behind him as the technique tore forward, its blackened trail distorting space itself.
Kaido’s eyes twitched—taken aback by Darren’s fearlessness.
He swung the club upward in defense, sparks flying as tal t force.
CLANG!
Shockwaves rippled out from the clash.
"Co on, Kaido!" Darren snarled, face gleaming with blood and madness. "Got the guts to kill , or not?!"
Kaido’s pupils constricted.
"YOU’RE ASKING FOR DEATH!!"
The full weight of his Mythical Zoan strength surged through him. The air twisted. Lightning coiled. His muscles tightened like drawn cables.
Thunder roared.
Roaring Thunder Eight Trigrams.
A full-power strike—infused with Conqueror’s Haki.
The sky cracked as the black-red Haki swallowed the space between them. Even the landscape began to warp.
Darren’s breath caught—just for a second.
This pressure... it was unlike anything he’d faced before.
But he didn’t blink.
He pushed through it, released his own storm of Conqueror’s Haki, and t the blow with everything he had.
Fist Bone!
He hurled his fist forward—straight into death’s mouth.
BOOOOOOM!!
The resulting explosion wasn’t a sound—it was a command. Everything shook. Mountains swayed. Thunder scread from above.
Cloak and hair whipped in opposite directions as the shockwave burst through them.
The earth shattered.
A gaping trench tore open beneath them—miles long, black as the void. The air filled with dust, fla, and flying debris.
Kaido snarled and swung again.
CRACK!
Darren’s Armant Haki shattered under the blow. Blood exploded from his forearms. His body was hurled back like a ragdoll, slamming into a distant mountainside.
BOOM!!
Stone fractured. Peaks trembled. Debris cascaded down in a deafening landslide.
Far off, Queen’s eye twitched. He watched in disbelief.
"Boss Kaido’s gone totally berserk..."
He glanced around.
"Which ans I’m probably safe now."
Reverting to his human form, Queen lit a cigar with a smug smirk and barked orders to his shaken subordinates.
"Alright, put out those fires already! What are you, tourists?! Move!"
He blew a puff of smoke. "Even a dinosaur like would be flattened by that strike. Heh... those Marines are—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
His mouth hung open. The cigar drooped, forgotten.
A figure burst from the crushed mountainside, bathed in blood and fury.
Still moving.
Still grinning.
Still coming.
Charging at Kaido like he hadn’t just tasted death.
Queen’s jaw dropped.
"What the hell... is going on?!"
To be continued...
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