Kaido laughed up at the sky, blood oozing from his mouth. "Great."
Kaido wiped the blood and looked at the unharmed Caelan, truly feeling the crisis of death.
He had been seriously injured by a single slash from Caelan, and with his physique, he would need a week of rest to recover.
But Caelan had not been hurt at all after taking his strike. It was as if his blow had only relaxed Caelan's muscles.
He had not experienced such a massive gap, such a life-and-death moment, in many years.
Ever since he became a Yonko, he had been invincible. Even Whitebeard at his peak could not have forced him into this situation.
But now.
Once again, he felt that overwhelming disparity.
"Like when I was a trainee on Rocks' ship."
Kaido murmured.
Facing Caelan felt like when he, as a trainee, fought Rocks.
But now, he was already a Yonko, one of the top sea emperors in the world.
Who could create such a huge gap against a Yonko?
Was there really someone this powerful?
Kaido had not believed it at first, but after meeting Caelan, he had to.
The fervor of battle and the flood of adrenaline from mortal peril kept stimulating his nerves.
The rationality in Kaido's eyes gradually faded, replaced by feral instinct.
He looked toward the battlefield around them and saw the Beasts Pirates being pushed back step by step by Caelan's skeleton army, while King, Queen, and the Tobiroppo were struggling to hold out under the siege of several strange skeletons.
He could not defeat Caelan, and his men could not defeat Caelan's army of bones.
It seemed the Beasts Pirates were doomed to lose.
"Roar!"
Kaido let out a dragon's roar as loud as thunder, and his body suddenly swelled.
Its horns were like a deer's, its head like a camel's, its eyes like a rabbit's, its neck like a snake's, its belly like a clam's, its scales like a fish's, its claws like an eagle's, its paws like a tiger's, and its ears like a cow's.
In the blink of an eye, a giant dragon with blue-green scales, over six hundred meters long, appeared before Caelan.
"If you want to end this battle, then step over my dead body!"
Kaido bellowed at Caelan.
Defeat was already decided, and it was impossible for him to accept it.
If this war was to end, the only destination was death.
"What a domineering dragon."
Caelan ignored Kaido's words.
He looked at the mighty and imposing azure dragon Kaido had become, his eyes shining.
What a magnificent azure dragon.
It would be a pity to turn it into a corpse. Better to make it his mount.
"Kaido, be my mount."
Caelan laughed heartily and regarded the azure dragon in front of him as already his.
"Are you still going to humiliate me at a time like this?"
Kaido's draconic face darkened, and he spat two streams of flame. "Forget it, humiliating the loser is the right of the winner."
"Let me, the loser, see just how strong you are."
He would certainly be defeated by Caelan, but his defeat would be spectacular.
"Fire Dragon's Torch!"
Sheets of superheated flame overflowed from the dragon's mouth. The flames flowed like liquid, then completely covered the entire dragon's body.
In an instant, the azure dragon turned into a fire dragon.
The flames that wrapped the dragon burned the air itself, and even inert gases were forced to ignite.
This was not the end.
Purple-black lightning wrapped around the fire dragon's head, and Kaido fused his peak Conqueror's Haki into his fruit ability.
This was his most powerful move, and also his last.
After using it, his remaining stamina would not be enough to keep fighting Caelan.
If it were Aokiji or Kizaru or the like, what would it matter to fight for ten days and ten nights?
But the one before him was Caelan. In just half an hour he had been gravely wounded, and the recovery he was so proud of could not keep up at all.
And this strongest strike might still fail to inflict serious injury on Caelan.
But surrender was impossible.
"Rising Dragon, Flame Bagua!"
Kaido's burning dragon body soared a thousand meters into the sky.
Then he dove toward Caelan with unstoppable momentum.
The six-hundred-meter dragon, wreathed in flames and carrying the potential energy of gravity and its own might, kept accelerating in both speed and power.
The Conqueror's Haki shrouding the dragon's head pushed its force to the extreme.
This could be considered the pinnacle of single-target attacks in the pirate world.
"This is a bit tricky."
Caelan felt a headache coming on when he saw Kaido unleash his ultimate technique.
It was not that he could not defeat it. On the contrary, he was afraid his azure dragon mount would be destroyed in one blow.
The power of Rising Dragon, Flame Bagua almost surpassed most of his techniques.
Those it did not surpass, like sacrificing one's life to fire the divine spear, would scatter Kaido's ashes outright.
A bit difficult.
But if one move would not do, then try two.
In a flash, a golden divine spear condensed in Caelan's left hand.
Then he suddenly hurled the spear upward.
"O Brahma, cover the earth!"
A layer of golden-red flame wrapped the spear as it flew toward Kaido at high speed, carrying Caelan's tremendous power.
From the front, it was like the rising sun.
"Boom!"
The rising sun collided with the diving fire dragon.
Golden flame and the fire dragon struggled against each other, and the roar of incendiary explosions was endless.
Tidal waves of flame spread in all directions, and part of Caelan's skeleton army was burned to ash.
However, this loss was not a big deal, since they could be resurrected by spending some mana afterward.
The golden spear and the dragon's head shrouded in Haki were locked in stalemate in the air.
In the end, the diving fire dragon had the advantage.
The sun was shattered by the fire dragon, and the divine spear flew back into Caelan's hand.
Seeing this, the descending Kaido did not look pleased at all.
Because the Golden Divine Spear had weakened him, his Rising Dragon, Flame Torch had already lost its edge, down to only twenty or thirty percent of its original power.
Against Caelan, who had taken Mighty Thunder Bagua without injury, the remaining power was no different from a tickle.
Caelan looked at the vastly weakened Flame Bagua and smiled.
Then, he used the golden spear as a staff and smashed it down on Kaido's draconic head.
"Bang!"
The remaining power of the flaming torch dissipated with that blow.
Under Caelan's tremendous strength, the six-hundred-meter, hundreds-of-tons dragon body twisted in midair like a hemp rope.
"Roar!"
Kaido roared in pain, and his dragon body crashed to the ground uncontrollably.
His head spun, and he lay there, unable to get up.
"The force is just right. Enough to make you dizzy without hurting your brain."
Caelan landed lightly on Kaido's dragon head and said with a smile, "From today, you are my mount."
"You're dreaming. I'd rather die than be anyone's mount."
As soon as Kaido came to, he felt humiliated to the extreme.
What a joke. How could the dignified Yonko Kaido become someone else's mount?
Not to mention Caelan, even a true god could not do it.
He tried to control his dragon body and thrash again, attempting to throw Caelan off his head.
"Whether you become a mount is not up to you."
Caelan let Kaido roll around, always standing firm atop the dragon's head.
Then his mana surged, and he activated Riding, rank A.
Mana poured into Kaido's dragon body, and the violently thrashing dragon instantly calmed.
Eyes that had been full of fighting spirit turned into pure beast-like obedience.
Caelan reached out and stroked the dragon's mane. The azure dragon did not resist at all, even lowering itself flatteringly so Caelan could pet it more easily.
(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.)