Chapter 173: VS Loki
"Calamity Kai, I heard you're strong."
Loki hefted the monstrous warhammer Iron Thunder in one hand and slowly rose to his full, towering height, a wild, unruly grin spreading across his face. "Dogahahaha! Come have a real fight with me!"
Kai only wagged a finger lazily at Loki's challenge. "They call me 'Calamity.' I don't argue with them about that. But you, Loki…"
His tone shifted, carrying a king's weight. "If you still call yourself a son of Elbaf, then you should be calling me King Kai."
"You bastard, what's that supposed to mean?!"
Loki's heart dropped. A bad feeling clawed up his spine.
"Exactly what it sounds like," Kai said with a shrug. "My people hate your 'crimes' from back then. They begged me to drag you back to Elbaf."
He went on, voice turning almost light. "But I am a merciful king. So here's your chance. Surrender now and come back with me, and I'll let you explain yourself."
He gave Loki a sidelong look. "After all, that little incident back then… the truth probably wasn't as simple as it seemed, was it?"
Loki's whole body jolted. For the first time, shock crossed his bandaged face.
In all these years, no one had ever even considered he might have been wronged.
The flicker of doubt was smothered in a wave of fresh rage.
His father's throne had been taken by a human?
Had Elbaf's giants all become worthless?
"A mere human dares sit on Elbaf's throne? Drop dead!"
Loki roared, swinging Iron Thunder up toward the sky. The moment the hammer rose, thunder rolled overhead.
In the span of a few breaths, dark clouds rushed together across the once-clear blue. Lightning writhed inside the mass as the heavens dimmed.
"Oh?"
Kai tilted his head back at the brewing storm, amusement in his tone. "Kowai ne. You can call lightning, too?"
Name Loki. Job description: Thor.
Still, trying to play weather god in front of him?
That was like showing off your axe in front of a master carpenter, your blade in front of a sword god, your mid lane in front of Faker, or your looks in front of the reader.
Kai simply swept a hand through the air.
The freshly gathered thunderheads tore apart like a curtain being ripped. They evaporated at a speed visible to the naked eye, and sunlight poured down again.
Man-made sky-split, kid.
That casual dispersal of the storm left everyone watching on Fluffy Island utterly stunned.
"Sh-should we be getting off the island?"
"Do you even have to ask? Run!"
When gods fought, mortals got crushed.
You did not stick around as debris.
Some of the more clear-headed residents spotted Chiffon still near the center of the battlefield and shouted frantically, "Chiffon-sama! Come with us, hurry!"
She had always treated them well. They could not just stand and watch her die here.
In the crunch, Chiffon made her choice immediately. She sprinted toward the harbor while barking orders to the Homies, directing them to shepherd the civilians out as fast as possible.
Neither Kai nor Loki moved to stop the "noncombatants."
Soon, the space around them was empty and bare.
"No more nuisances in the way," Loki said, lips peeling back in a savage smile.
Without another word, he swung the hammer. Blazing lightning coiled around the head of Iron Thunder as it came down on Kai like the fist of a god.
The thing had to weigh billions of tons, and he swung it like a twig. Every arc ripped the air with a shriek.
The next instant, the hammer slammed into Kai's crossed, Armament-coated forearms.
The impact lasted only a few seconds. Kai had meant to test Loki's strength.
Instead, he got launched like a fastball off a bat.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
He blew through rows of cake buildings like they were houses of cards and punched out the far side of the island.
His momentum carried him straight off the coast. He skipped across the sea, carving a long, white gouge in the waves that took a long time to smooth out.
Loki's single blow had physically hammered Kai clean off Fluffy Island.
"That strength is insane. No wonder they say he wiped out the Nether Realm the moment he was born."
As he spun through the air, Kai still found time to crack a joke, watching the scenery streak by on either side.
In pure raw power, his human form really was below this Cursed Prince.
Hiss. That just made him want Loki even more.
Something familiar flickered at the edge of his vision.
A giant ship loomed in his peripheral vision.
"Oi, Kai! What are you doing back here?"
Yamato waved energetically from Rayquaza's rail.
Kai tapped his left foot on thin air, twisted, and killed his momentum. He dropped lightly onto Rayquaza's deck.
"Arere. Got careless and got knocked flying. And you just had to see it. That's pretty embarrassing," he said, rubbing the back of his head.
Not great for a captain's dignity.
"That Loki's really strong?" Yamato's eyes lit up instantly, battle hunger flaring.
"Yeah. If I don't transform, I can't take him," Kai admitted bluntly.
"Then I'll go!" Before he could get a word in, Yamato vaulted over the side.
As she fell, white fur raced across her body. Her silhouette blurred and shifted in a burst of light.
White Wolf Yamato entered the field.
In full beast form, she froze the sea under her paws and bounded from patch to patch of ice, vanishing from sight in moments and leaving only a winding trail of frost.
"This girl's learning. Strike first, explain later," Kai said with a helpless chuckle.
Forget it. She had been cooped up for a while. Let her get a few punches in.
"Kai-sama, will Yamato be okay?" Hiyori asked, eyes fixed anxiously in the direction Yamato had gone.
If even Kai could not easily bring down that opponent, Yamato's odds were even slimmer.
"Don't worry. I'll be right behind her."
Kai soothed her. "You all hurry up and follow. Once they hear the news, the Charlotte Family will be here fast."
He had no intention of underestimating Linlin's appetite for giant power.
As Kai predicted, on Whole Cake Island…
Charlotte Linlin was basking in the bliss of sweets when the words "Loki" and "Fluffy Island" hit her ears. Her massive frame shot up off the throne. She did not even notice her beloved cake hit the floor.
"Zeus!"
"I'm here, Mama!"
The white cloud with a red-and-white cap and lazy-cute face bobbed over at once.
Linlin vaulted onto Zeus's back. "Go to Fluffy Island. Now."
"Right away, Mama!"
Zeus had just started to move when a calm, steady voice spoke up. "Mama, please allow us to accompany you."
Katakuri stepped forward with Smoothie and Cracker at his back. "According to the report Chiffon sent, Calamity Kai is there as well."
"That damned brat Kai?"
Just hearing his name pricked Linlin's temper. But she had to accept that with Kai in the picture, her plan to reel Loki in might fall apart easily.
"Then you're all coming."
With a sweep of her arm, Linlin scooped her core children up onto Zeus. "Move out."
…
By then, Fluffy Island was nearly rubble.
"Ice Fang Slash!"
"Phantom Steed Blade!"
"Piercing Arrow!"
With each clear cry from Yamato, her kanabo and Loki's hammer crashed together. The thunder of their blows shook the sky.
The shockwaves alone from their exchanges flattened the delicate dessert buildings for kilometers around.
Even giving it everything she had, Yamato still found Loki fighting with room to spare.
"You think you can beat me with that? You're nowhere near enough."
He laughed wildly and barked a word. The hammer bloomed with black and red lightning as he brought it down with enough force to crack a continent.
Fresh wounds striped Yamato's body, but his sneer only made her grin wider, eyes blazing. "Exactly. That's why beating you is worth something."
She swung her kanabo up into a Thunder Bagua.
Their weapons, both wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, never quite met; an invisible wall seemed to form between them. The two top-tier auras clashed and devoured each other in the gap, sending waves of murderous pressure rippling outward.
Boom.
The shock of their Haki lance-punched into the sky.
The heavens split.
"You've mastered that power too?" Loki said, a flicker of surprise in his voice that twisted quickly into a cruel smile. "But just knowing the trick isn't enough."
His right foot shattered the ground as he stomped. He rode the recoil, muscles bulging again as power roared up his arms.
A denser, fiercer Conqueror's Haki flooded out of him and coiled tighter around Iron Thunder.
"Not good."
Feeling the swelling force through her kanabo, Yamato gritted her teeth and tried to hold. It was pointless.
Against a gap like this in raw might, all resistance might as well be wind.
Crash.
Yamato went the way Kai had.
Up above, Kai had just returned in beastman form and saw it all. He shot forward, catching her before she could hit anything.
"Kai… he's really strong."
Blood stained the corner of her mouth, her breath was rough, and her aura was noticeably weaker. But her eyes were brighter than ever, face glowing with the exhilaration and satisfaction of clashing with a true top-tier.
"I know. You did great. Rest now."
Kai carried her gently back to the safe zone behind the line, then turned and looked at the hulking figure in the middle of the ruins.
Seeing Kai apparently unharmed, Loki sounded almost impressed. "Back already? Looks like you're a lot tougher than that white-haired brat."
He let his tongue loll with a mocking cackle. "But your ending won't be any different."
He did not wait. The smaller giant charged the bigger one, taking the initiative.
"Sun Hammer!"
"Dragon Claw!"
Hammer and dragon talons smashed together in midair.
Two top-class Conqueror's auras slammed into each other, detonating in a deafening blast. The resulting gale rolled over Fluffy Island like a tsunami.
Buildings crumbled like cookies in a fist, shattered and powdered by the shock.
The aftershocks of a single clash between them were enough to erase the island from the map.
"Dogahahaha! Only someone with this kind of strength is worthy to be my opponent."
The long-absent thrill of combat flooded Loki's veins. His hammerwork grew even more ferocious.
Kai answered in kind, shifting into a more compact, close-combat hybrid form and meeting Loki blow for blow.
Every collision made the ground jump.
Even as they fought, both of them felt it—an odd wrongness.
Each kept finding his strikes dodged or parried a heartbeat before they should have landed, as if the other had read them in advance.
Still attacking hard, Kai spoke with easy certainty. "Just as I thought. You know it too, right? Future-seeing Observation Haki."
"Of course I do. Something that simple could never stump me," Loki laughed.
"Is that so? Then do you know how to beat someone with Future Sight?"
Kai's smile went crooked with meaning.
"Extreme Speed."
"What?" Loki's instincts screamed.
A moment later, Kai vanished from his eyes.
Then a green streak tore through his guard faster than sight could follow and crashed into his chest.
"Gah—!"
The impact twisted Loki's insides. He spat a mouthful of blood as his huge body flew, flung like a stone from a trebuchet, blasting across the island from end to end.
"As long as you're fast enough that even once they see it, they still can't react… that's all you need."
Kai stayed where he was, laughing softly.
He had realized it in their earlier exchanges. Next to his absurd strength, Loki's biggest weakness lay in his speed.
Even if that "shortcoming" only existed relative to his own insane power, for someone like Kai, that tiny gap was all the opening he needed to decide the match.
But it was not over yet.
That hit would have instantly killed most of the strong on the sea. For Loki, it was a serious blow, but far from fatal.
"Bastard! Now you've really pissed me off!"
His bellow shook the sky. A pillar of white-hot flame erupted from the far side of the island, spearing into the clouds.
The fire scattered, revealing a towering flame giant over a hundred meters high, its whole body wreathed in searing blaze.
The heat bleeding off him alone was enough to dry a man's blood in moments. Trees around him withered and spontaneously ignited, crumbling to ash.
The earth under his feet could not take it. The ground melted into a sluggish red sea of magma.
"No wonder the Elbaf royal family guarded that Devil Fruit for generations and never ate it themselves."
Kai stared at the fire giant striding toward him and understood at once.
No matter how hard Treasure Tree Adam was, it was still wood. Wood feared fire.
With Elbaf built atop the great tree, of course, its kings had never dared let that fruit take root in their own hands.
Before long, the flame giant's steps brought him face-to-face with Kai.
The heat alone could have baked all the water from a human body. Kai did not even flinch. He actually sounded impressed. "So what is it? The Hito Hito no Mi, Mythical Zoan, Model: Surtr?"
"How do you know that?"
Loki blinked.
That fruit had been a tightly held royal secret, a treasure even most giants had never heard of.
"Just a guess," Kai said with a shrug.
A classic fire giant form like that was too distinctive. Combine it with Elbaf's Norse roots, and the answer was practically written in flames.