Chapter 118: Azure Dragon And Black-winged Great Demon
Dark clouds piled up above the sky, muffled thunder rumbling from time to time, sending out visible shockwaves of storm rippling outward like surging tides in all directions. Such terrifying might falling onto the sea below caused an exceptionally vicious situation.
The climate around this deserted island had been quite normal in recent days, with calm waves in the sea area, presenting a serene and peaceful scene. Even with Jack and Dillon’s fierce battle, since the combat took place on the island, all the destructive power was basically absorbed by the sturdy island land. Although the island was wrecked messily, the damage was limited to on the island.
But now,
Elus and Kaido clashed fiercely in the clouds, with the battle’s aftershocks wantonly falling onto the surrounding sea area below. Moreover, the destructive power from their struggle far exceeded that of Jack and Dillon, with just the aftershocks summoning wind and rain and a tsunami.
Fortunately, the deserted island had a natural good harbor where the fleet brought by Elus was anchored, unaffected much by the wind and rain. As for the tsunami, Fran obliterated it before it could approach the fleet. The maid’s combat experience was less than that of aides-de-camp like Dillon, but her power was genuine.
Smashing a tsunami like this was no trouble for Fran.
Fran raised her delicate and cute fist, aiming at the towering tsunami pressing in, and punched out expressionlessly.
“Boom!”
The atmosphere wailed in sorrow as it was torn apart, the fierce invisible fist force clashing head-on with the tsunami.
The petite maid, with just one punch, shattered the tsunami carrying immense power. The unrelenting fist force carved a gully across the sea, though it only existed for a brief instant before surrounding waves filled the gap.
But the strength displayed by this punch was enough to earn recognition.
“Good fist!”
On the island, the mammoth standing on a large rock let out a deep sigh of amazement.
Such a powerful punch—Jack reckoned that if he were facing it head-on, he’d need to exert all his strength to block it. If he held back, even if not knocked down by one punch, he’d suffer serious injuries.
He rolled his eyes, glancing at the plate-horned rhino standing on a slightly shorter large rock nearby, a hint of wariness flashing in his eyes, with a layer of ferocity faintly emerging.
The Eckmond Kingdom’s influence was even stronger than expected.
After two days and two nights of fierce battle, Jack clearly realized that Dillon was no weakling like those he’d faced before—this was a major enemy requiring 200% focus. And it was said that the Black Prince had four aides-de-camp by his side, with Dillon being just one of them.
And the maid who just punched was not one of the four aides-de-camp.
That meant the Black Prince had at least five experts like Dillon under him. Additionally, it was said that the ‘Sea Knight’ Jinbe had recently joined the Black Prince’s banner—this influence… was already unimaginably powerful.
“What are you looking at? Want another beating?”
The equally burly and tall plate-horned rhino shot a sidelong glance, his malice-filled eyes naturally not escaping Dillon’s notice, though he showed little emotional fluctuation. As enemies, malice toward each other was normal.
“Huff!”
Two streams of rough air snorted from the long trunk, and Jack met Dillon’s gaze coldly: “Haven’t had enough of those slashes earlier? If not, I can give you a few more.”
“Ha! Jack, heal that bone I broke first before talking big.” Dillon retorted, not yielding an inch in their verbal sparring.
“That minor injury healed long ago. Your leg’s still bleeding!”
“You know shit—I’m draining the bruised blood!”
“You know shit…”
One mammoth, one plate-horned rhino—the two traded barbs hotly, but neither made a move, keeping the confrontation to words. This wasn’t because they lacked strength to continue fighting, but because neither wanted to fight anymore for the moment.
The battle in the distant sky had drawn most of their attention. After two days and two nights, both knew that even three more days and nights wouldn’t settle the opponent. Without the captain/Your Highness nearby, the fight would likely drag on until one or both ran out of strength.
And now, with Elus and Kaido engaged,
Continuing their fight here held no meaning—the outcome in the sky would decide the future. Both tacitly stopped, maintaining beast form to maximize the Zoan Devil Fruit’s recovery power.
At the level of Devil Fruit awakening, Zoan ability users could generally sense differences in forms. The Devil Fruit’s power fluctuated subtly—the closer to the animal’s posture, the stronger the abilities.
Thus,
【Drought】 and 【Executioner】 crouched on rocks in ancient beast postures, bickering while recovering strength.
Dillon usually disliked idle talk, but unable to teach the other a lesson with fists, he resorted to verbal jabs. Fortunately, Jack was equally inarticulate, turning their bickering into crude cursing. Sadly, their cursing skills were poor, recycling each other’s scant vulgarities repeatedly.
…..
In the sky,
The Azure Dragon coiled above the dark clouds, manipulating wind, thunder, and flames, launching waves of extremely ferocious attacks. Especially Kaido’s hot breath, reaching kilometers with extreme destructive power—vast seawater below evaporated, leaving a massive hole in the sea surface.
The rushing seawater created a huge vortex due to its speed, sucking in a previously fainted Sea King over five or six hundred meters long, twisting the colossal beast out of shape.
Body twisted like a hemp rope, it was naturally dead beyond dead.
“…..Fire Fist, quite pitiful.”
Elus glanced at the vortex with deep red shadows, recalling the astonishingly hot breath—that temperature… far exceeded Ace’s flames at Sabaody Archipelago. And thinking of BIG·MOM with ‘Sun·Prometheus’.
Even Caesar, that combat-inept waste, had a ‘Azure Flame Sword’.
Flames,
Too many powerhouses wielded this power. Flare-Flare Fruit… sigh!
“Brat, distracted in battle? Underestimating me?”
A roar boomed in his ears.
A massive shadow loomed overhead, the four-fingered dragon claw slashing down at Elus’s head. This strike, enough to tear a large warship, achieved nothing. Compared to the huge dragon claw, a toothpick-thin pale blue lightsaber blocked it.
Well,
Though the next instant, Elus plummeted like a cannonball.
Purely in strength, Kaido surpassed BIG·MOM. In his second-stage release form, Elus wasn’t her match in power, but not to the point of being batted away like a baseball.
Yet now, in second-stage release Black-Winged Great Demon form, he was still sent flying by Kaido.
BIG·MOM relied on innate monstrous strength to punch Giant Race members barehanded, while Beasts had not only astounding natural strength but also Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit power boosts—especially the ‘dragon’, a power-packed mythical beast type.
Nothing else, just that massive body swimming in the sky—its weight alone carried enough impact to shatter a mountain.
“Hiss!”
Elus’s eye twitched.
Before crashing into the sea, he flapped his wings to dissipate the falling impact, unleashing lightning-fast movement speed to dodge three consecutive thunderbolts from Kaido. He didn’t counterattack yet—his interrupted right arm hadn’t recovered!
Looking at his right arm twisted in a weird pose, Elus gritted through the pain to straighten it, then regeneration quickly mended the broken bone. But the pain lingered, making the right arm’s muscles twitch slightly.
“Crack!!!”
Another thunderbolt chased after.
Elus vibrated his wings, barely dodging. But that wasn’t all—Kaido, knowing to press an advantage relentlessly, pursued at extreme speed. Despite his huge body, his aerial movement was frighteningly fast, and highly agile too.
“Cero.”
Ink-green light shone at Elus’s left index fingertip, high-density spiritual pressure blasting like a laser cannon at the massive Kaido.
However,
The Azure Dragon in the clouds twisted aside effortlessly, the ink-green glow flying past, extinguishing a large swath of dark clouds but leaving no other mark. The dispersed clouds reformed in a blink, filling the gap.
At the same time,
Razor-sharp wind blades slashed down one after another.
Kaido’s onslaught was ferocious like endless tides, giving no breathing room.
“As expected of the strongest in single combat!”
Elus looked at the Azure Dragon in the sky, praising aloud.
He’d just wanted to test Kaido’s strength, but ended up eating a big loss and being chased—truly impressive, well-deserved reputation!
“But don’t underestimate me!”
Elus slowly exhaled.
His pitch-black wings vibrated violently, boosting his already astonishing flying speed to another level. Kaido’s pursuit instantly missed, and Elus instantly reversed direction, feet treading air rapidly with ‘Sound Step’, appearing ghostly above Kaido’s head, slashing fiercely at the dragon head with his Moonlight Sword.
Kaido’s reaction was equally fast,
Not headbutting the slash, he jerked his head, branched dragon horn ramming over, forcing Elus to parry with his sword.
Hasty reaction limited the horn’s power; Elus wasn’t sent flying this time. He withstood the impact, and his Moonlight Sword left a deep gash on the horn.
“Ha! Tough indeed!”
Elus laughed, swinging his Moonlight Sword again.
But before he could strike the dragon head again, Kaido roared, rearing up and headbutting Elus, ramming him skyward while Armament Haki-reinforced the attacked spot on his head.
Elus’s blade left no mark on the dragon head this time.
Dragon scales’ natural hardness plus Kaido’s peak Armament Haki made its defense no less than BIG·MOM’s Steel Balloon.
Kaido suddenly retracted, pulling back from Elus.
Then,
Pounced forward.
Two dragon claws slashed in succession; Elus didn’t meet the heavy strikes head-on, instead using speed to tangle with Kaido, aiming for hard-to-defend spots like above the head, back, belly. But success was unlikely—battle-hardened Kaido wouldn’t allow easy approaches.
Elus’s repeated attempts failed, but likewise, Kaido’s attacks yielded nothing against Elus’s extreme speed and regeneration.
The battle reached a stalemate,
Time ticked away until the sun set and the moon rose high.
“Boom!”
Hot breath against black Cero.
Scorching thermal torrent clashed with pitch-black spiritual pressure in the void; the two extreme destructive forces canceled each other, their collision unleashing a massive shockwave. Even Elus and Kaido retreated slightly, unwilling to take the close-range impact.
Once the shockwave faded, Kaido didn’t charge again. Elus narrowed his eyes, gripped his Moonlight Sword tighter, and halted too.
“Brat!!! You run fast!”
A grand dragon roar resounded.
Kaido raised his dragon head, coiling high above the black cloud sea, looking down disdainfully at tiny Elus like a gnat. But this time, the huge dragon eyes held no initial doubt—replaced by recognition of the Black Prince.
Though verbally unwilling to admit Elus’s equal standing, his voluntary halt proved his attitude.
“Your strength is huge too.”
Elus said.
“Hahaha! You’re not bad!” Kaido laughed heartily, stopping only after, then continued: “Brat, tell me—how do you plan to compensate for my losses?”
