"So strong!"
"Too strong!"
"Kai… this guy's a monster!"
Every punch was like thunder. Every blow exploded a body, taking a life. Watching this bloody carnage unfold before his eyes, Ace felt his vision blur, his mind reeling from the sheer impact.
Kai's overwhelming power was carved deep into his bones, forcing Ace to acknowledge it.
At that moment—
A bandit crept up behind Ace, cold steel flashing in his trembling hand. The dagger pressed against the child's throat.
"Don't move!" the man barked, his voice shaking. "Brat, stop right there!"
His eyes were locked on Kai's blood-drenched figure, bare chest lined with muscle, a storm of killing intent radiating from his body. Fear twisted the man's face.
He didn't dare face Kai head-on. His courage had already shattered. Desperate to live, he had chosen the only path left—take Ace hostage.
Maybe this way… maybe he still had a chance.
"Kid, I don't care how strong you are!" the bandit shouted, voice cracking. "You'll let us go, or I'll slit this brat's throat right now!"
The dagger quivered in his grip. His hand shook violently—betraying the terror that had consumed him. That terror came from Kai alone.
Ace froze.
For the first time in his short life, he felt death's icy breath brush his neck. The steel against his skin was colder than any winter. His throat went dry, his lips trembled, his young face drained of color.
He dared not move. Instead, his gaze drifted toward the one figure that still filled him with a fragile sense of safety.
"Am I… really this weak?"
It was the first time Ace hated his own helplessness.
A moment ago, watching Kai slaughter hundreds, he'd thought—maybe he too could fight like that.
But reality struck him like a cruel slap. One bandit—just one—was enough to push him to the brink of death.
Compared to Kai…
The difference was like heaven and earth.
"Kai… that monster could crush me with a single finger." Ace bit down hard, despair pooling in his chest.
Meanwhile, Kai turned slowly. His eyes, calm and flat, locked on the bandit holding Ace. His body dripped with blood, muscles taut, his ghostly tattoos writhing across his skin. He was like a tyrant who had crawled out of a mountain of corpses.
Drip. Drip.
Blood fell steadily from his body, staining the earth beneath him.
"Don't move! I just want to live! Let me go free!" the bandit stammered, panic swelling under Kai's silent gaze. His entire body shook, and only sheer desperation kept him from collapsing outright.
But Kai suddenly chuckled.
"Didn't I already say?"
"No one here… not a single one of you is leaving alive."
The bandit's eyes widened.
In the next instant—
Kai's eyes snapped open. A storm burst forth.
BOOOOM!
A tidal wave of willpower exploded from his body, surging outward like a volcano erupting after centuries of pressure. It swept across the battlefield, crushing everything in its path.
Conqueror's Haki!
The invisible force rippled outward in all directions, a storm of pure dominance covering a hundred meters in an instant.
The bandit holding Ace didn't even have time to scream. His eyes rolled white, foam spilling from his mouth as his body crumpled like a puppet with cut strings. The dagger clattered harmlessly to the ground.
Thud!
He hit the dirt, unconscious.
And then—
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One after another, the remaining bandits—those who had somehow survived Kai's earlier massacre—collapsed in unison, their minds shattered by the overwhelming will pressing down upon them. Even the injured, who had been groaning and screaming moments before, went silent, fainting where they lay.
In the blink of an eye—
The last of the mountain bandits fell.
Three hundred men.
All annihilated by one child.
The clearing was silent.
Only corpses and unconscious bodies lay strewn like broken dolls. The ground was soaked in blood, the stench of iron thick in the air.
Ace stood trembling, the only one left conscious besides Kai.
Kai's Haki had spared him, a sign of deliberate control. That alone revealed how terrifyingly refined his mastery had become.
"This… this is…" Ace stammered, his eyes wide as he stared at the fallen bandits.
"That legendary power… Conqueror's Haki?"
The memory burned into him—the moment when hundreds had been felled at once by nothing but sheer willpower. His body shook, his heart pounding with awe.
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