Kurozumi Orochi looked at the people before him.
The young man in the lead wore a long sword at his waist and scanned the area calmly.
Three beautiful women surrounded him, rarer even than the dancers Orochi had collected.
There were more than forty attendants who looked like Marines, all a bit tense and gripping their weapons, ready for battle.
There were dozens of pirates, too, and the leading one could barely contain his excitement.
This strange group was not the Kozuki remnants he had imagined.
Why did that young man in the lead look so much like Caelan, the one Kaido intended to deal with?
"You are the God Slayer, Caelan?"
Orochi sounded uncertain.
Kaido had only declared war on Caelan the day before yesterday, and their army was not even assembled yet. If this was Caelan, he had come far too quickly.
"You guessed right, I should reward you with a slash."
Caelan chuckled and placed his hand on his sword hilt.
Kurozumi Orochi was the villain who stole Wano's shogunate. The decent folk in Wano were not all that appealing, and the enemy of that supposed hero was even more loathsome.
He looked extremely ugly, a veritable freak.
In short, seeing this man made cutting him down feel like self-defense.
Caelan placed his right hand on Shusui's hilt.
He drew and resheathed in one smooth motion, a cold white flash appearing as the blade returned to its sheath.
Bang.
In an instant, sword light filled Orochi's vision, and a human head dropped to the ground.
"What a fast blade, what a powerful man."
As Orochi's head fell, he thought in shock.
With his strength, he could not even see Caelan's movement before his head was cut off.
As expected of the God Slayer Caelan, a man so powerful that even Kaido had to mobilize his whole force to attack him.
"But if you want to kill me, cutting off one head is not enough."
He had eaten the Snake-Snake Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Yamata no Orochi, which had nine heads.
Cut off one head and eight would grow back.
Yet he had no intention of getting up. He had been truly frightened by Caelan's slash.
He had not even seen the draw or the sheath. In a single moment, a head was lopped off.
Even if he grew eight more heads, that would only amount to eight more moments. Added together, perhaps a single second.
He decided to lie on the ground and play dead until the battle between Kaido and Caelan was over.
Just as he was thinking this, he was horrified to find himself slowly losing consciousness.
His body was splitting, from top to bottom, into nine neat sections.
In a single instant, Caelan had slashed eight more times.
He was going to die.
The Yamata no Orochi had eight heads but only one body.
If the body was chopped to pieces, the Yamata no Orochi would die.
"No! No!"
Orochi screamed in terror.
At the moment of death, he stopped pretending and immediately activated his fruit ability.
He turned into a massive eight-headed serpent, thrashing on the ground. The serpent's body was cut into nine pieces, an utterly miserable sight.
With the powerful vitality of a Mythical Zoan, he could cling to life a bit longer, but only barely.
In the end, Kurozumi Orochi died in despair as he looked into Caelan's indifferent eyes.
"He killed him just like that?"
Both Yamakaji and Momonga were a little stunned.
Orochi's aura had been quite strong, especially the Yamata no Orochi form he showed before dying. It was clearly a powerful Mythical Zoan.
Yet this enemy, one who would normally require a massive battle, was slain by a single stroke from Caelan.
They had no doubt that if Caelan could kill Kurozumi Orochi as easily as he killed underlings, he could just as easily kill them.
Even easier, they did not have such vitality. They would not need to be cut into nine pieces. Two would do.
Caelan stood before everyone like a towering mountain, solid, heavy, and unshakable.
At this moment, even though Momonga still doubted they could seize Onigashima with so few people, he was completely convinced of Caelan's strength.
Beside Caelan, Ain held her sword in a daze. Just as she had been about to act, Caelan had already dealt with Kurozumi Orochi, making her role as captain of the guard seem unnecessary.
"With such a commotion, someone should be coming, right?"
Caelan rested Shusui on his shoulder and looked around calmly.
Hundreds of pirates surrounded them, but none dared act.
The thunderous noise from Orochi's death attracted the attention of a large number of people on Onigashima.
More than thirty thousand Beasts Pirates surged toward Caelan's group like a tide, a black mass blotting out the ground.
They had originally planned to sail to Dressrosa to fight Caelan, but had met their opponent early, at their own base of Onigashima.
Soon after, several figures vaulted over the tens of thousands and landed before Caelan.
The Beasts Pirates' six strongest true fighters, the Tobiroppo.
At this time, X-Drake had not yet infiltrated the Beasts Pirates, but the Tobiroppo were still the six most outstanding Zoan users in the crew, always the most capable.
Next arrived the three leaders of the Beasts Pirates, King the Wildfire, Queen the Plague, and Jack the Drought.
"The three All-Stars and the Tobiroppo."
Yamakaji and Momonga suddenly felt massive pressure, and even Gecko Moria, who believed in Caelan, changed expression.
Tens of thousands of pirates, a black sea that nearly covered sky and earth. The Tobiroppo, comparable to elite vice admirals, the All-Stars, nearly admiral candidates, and hundreds of Zoan users.
This was the terrifying power of a Yonko, a force that dominated the New World.
Although the strongest, Kaido, had not appeared, the oppressive might of a Yonko crew was already on full display.
They surrounded Caelan's group but did not attack rashly.
"Caelan, I did not expect you to come so soon."
King looked at Caelan.
They had clearly planned to be the aggressors, yet Caelan had arrived at their base camp first.
And he had brought few people, as if he did not take them seriously at all.
"You declared war on me, so of course I came." Caelan rested Shusui against his shoulder. "But I cannot let you sail to Dressrosa and wreck my territory."
"You mean to kill us all here?" King sounded amused. "With only a handful like you?"
They had tens of thousands here, including Kaido and his elite troops.
Caelan had only a small group, outnumbered by hundreds of times.
"They are enough."
Caelan's tone was calm.
They were only here to receive the spoils. He felt this number was sufficient.
King stared at Caelan, expression grave.
He really wanted to rush in and fight him.
But reason told him that the man who had defeated three admirals in a row was not someone he could handle.
For now, they could only wait for Kaido to wake and let him deal with Caelan.
These subordinates would kill all those Caelan brought, then help Kaido hold the line.
The two shrewd men, King and Queen, exchanged a look and decided, simultaneously, to wait for the real battle.
In an instant, the Beasts Pirates' army surrounded Caelan's group, but did not dare to make the first move.
"You will not fight, and you will not retreat." Caelan laughed lightly. "Why so hesitant?"
King and Queen did not respond, but Jack could not hold back.
"Do not be so arrogant!" Jack snorted, then charged at Caelan in a hurry.
Before King and Queen could stop him, Jack transformed into a ten-story mammoth and rushed at Caelan.
Every step shook the ground under the terrifying force.
Even the air grew heavy under the pressure of the ancient beast.
"Boss Jack, amazing!"
"Boss Jack, invincible!"
The soldiers cheered, eyes full of worship.
When he grew angry, earth shook and mountains trembled. His power was unmatched.
These were their three greatest figures, second only to Kaido.
"Roar!"
Jack bellowed.
His thick elephant leg lifted high and stomped down toward Caelan.
The massive bulk, under gravity's pull, accumulated force and potential energy to the extreme.
Boom.
The atmosphere warped under the speed and power, bursting with a deafening roar.
Beside Caelan, Ain could not help feeling frightened under the immense pressure.
If that stomp landed on her head, she would be reduced to paste.
Ain glanced at Caelan and saw him calmly raise Shusui, still in its sheath, and hold it above his head.
He was going to take that stomp with the scabbard?
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)