Hancock stepped back outside the combat zone upon Alucard's order. Alucard and Kaido now stood facing each other, a sinister grin spreading across Alucard's face. "When was our last battle?"
Covered entirely in Armament Haki, a dark sheen tinged with deep crimson, Kaido twisted his neck. "Can't remember. If you want my life, come and take it."
"When did you start enjoying suicide so much? Whatever."
Alucard raised his hands high. The great mantle behind him lifted along with his arms, unfolding into a crescent shape resembling giant bat wings.
Surges of blood began to well up around Alucard's body as countless crimson eyes snapped open. The blood morphed into the contours of gargantuan arms, crashing toward Kaido like a tidal wave. Unfazed, Kaido swung his massive arm, grabbed two of the shadow hands, and lunged forward. His colossal, towering frame closed the distance in just three strides, bringing a heavy fist swinging directly at Alucard's face.
"Haaah!"
Alucard drove his left hand forward like a blade-sword, clashing dead-on with Kaido's fist.
At the exact point of impact between Alucard's fingertips and Kaido's knuckles, a miniature black hole seemed to form. The unleashed shockwave instantly snapped the surrounding trees like twigs, forcing the onlookers to cover their faces with their arms.
Alucard swiftly shifted his stance, sidestepping Kaido's arm. Drawing both of his dual firearms, Casull and Jackal, he began firing point-blank at Kaido's face.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Those rounds included Jackal's specialized Seastone explosive ammunition. No Devil Fruit user should have been able to emerge unscathed after taking those head-on.
Yet, Queen had just claimed that Kaido was a Fruit user. If that were true, why had he always been fine after being hit by Seastone bullets in the past?
Furthermore, the times he had been bound by Seastone chains and handcuffs were too numerous to count. If he were a Devil Fruit user, Seastone should naturally drain his strength.
To top it off, Kaido had a known history of jumping into the sea to commit suicide. For a hammer of the sea, he should have easily drowned.
Confused, countless eyes turned toward Storm, demanding an explanation.
"I told you, Captain Kaido is a user of the Parasite-Parasite Fruit. He can siphon a portion of another living being's traits into himself. It's essentially the inverse of Big Mom injecting her soul into objects."
Everyone present knew exactly what Charlotte Linlin's ability was. She could infuse fragments of souls into inanimate objects, granting them life and forcing them to serve her, with Zeus and Prometheus being the prime examples.
The Parasite-Parasite Fruit, on the other hand, parasiticly absorbed the power of others into the user's own body to force physical evolution.
Originally, over twenty years ago when Kaido first set out to sea, his physique wasn't this massive. Even twenty-five years ago, when Alucard and Kaido first crossed paths, his size wasn't nearly as exaggerated, and Kaido was already fully grown at that time.
It was his continuous use of his ability to absorb the traits of other lifeforms that caused his body to gradually mutate.
Had it been anyone else, their body would have broken down and died. But much like Blackbeard, Marshall D. Teach, Kaido possessed an abnormal body structure, allowing him to survive the strain.
Over the years, Kaido consistently siphoned the strengths of all kinds of beasts across the world: the agility of a snake, the ferocity of a lion, the raw power of a bear, and the cellular regeneration of a gecko... Combined with his own innate genius for combat, "King of the Beasts" Kaido was born.
As for why he wasn't a hammer in the water, it was because his true, original body was hidden deep within the layers of the mass created by the Parasite-Parasite Fruit.
The seawater could not physically touch his core body, meaning it couldn't trigger the standard weakness of a Devil Fruit user against Kaido.
"This bastard's physical makeup is way too convoluted."
Even with Ben Beckman's exceptional intellect, hearing Queen's explanation gave him a slight headache.
In other words, despite being a Devil Fruit user, Kaido had inadvertently used the unique nature of the Parasite-Parasite Fruit to bypass the two absolute weaknesses of seawater and Seastone. That feat alone was staggering.
"Then couldn't he just usurp the powers of other Devil Fruit users, similar to Alucard or Blackbeard? Why hasn't he done that?" Ivalis pointed out, catching a crucial detail.
"Devil Fruit powers always come with a catch. Absorbing humans means absorbing their consciousness and mental thoughts as well. If your mind becomes cluttered with foreign thoughts, you'll eventually lose your mind and forget who you are. Animals don't have that level of complex consciousness," Storm explained.
If Dr. Vegapunk were here, he would have realized that Kaido's ability bore a striking resemblance to a biological virus that absorbs biomass.
When it consumes too many sentient beings, it assimilates their memories and thoughts along with their flesh, eventually causing the host to suffer from an identity crisis.
In the past, Alucard had actively avoided relying too heavily on such assimilation traits precisely to prevent that exact outcome.
"I see... A true 'King of the Beasts' in every sense of the word," Beckman muttered, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
Suddenly, an explosion of pure killing intent made everyone freeze. A colossal hound wrapped entirely in chains, Baskerville, crawled out from the swirling River of Death.
Kaido's massive and chilling frame suddenly looked like a mere child standing before an adult when contrasted with Baskerville's sheer size.
"Abilities mean absolutely nothing to me."
Alucard flicked his wrist. Baskerville roared, charging forward like a battering ram, while Kaido braced both arms to intercept the beast.
The massive hound's head slammed directly into Kaido, sending him flying backward through the air with immense force.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In less than ten seconds, Kaido crashed through an untold number of mountain ridges before his momentum finally stopped. Just as Baskerville was about to return to Alucard's side, the hound suddenly paused. Kaido was clinging tightly to the top of its head, his hands buried deep within Baskerville's thick fur.
"Hah!"
With a violent swing of his arms, Kaido clamped down, preparing to slam the hound's body, which was dozens of times larger than his own, into the earth.
The exact instant Kaido braced to make his move, Alucard materialized right beneath him. He shoved his black and white dual guns, Casull and Jackal, straight into Kaido's open jaws.
"Checkmate, Kaido."
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