On the Navy warship, along the edge of the deck railing, Zephyr and the cadets could only stare blankly at the battlefield ahead.
They were completely stunned.
"W-what the hell?!"
"Teacher Zephyr… did you see that?!"
One cadet blurted out in shock.
Before Zephyr could answer, the rest of the cadets erupted.
"Good grief…"
"That monster Kai is actually fighting that giant evenly!"
"Teacher Zephyr, are you sure that giant really has strength comparable to those pirates worth hundreds of millions?"
"A pirate on that level actually can't overwhelm Kai?"
"They look evenly matched!"
"My god!"
"Kai… has become this strong?!"
The cadets were shaken to the core.
Smoker and Tina were no exception.
Both of them stood there with wide eyes, staring at the violent battlefield in the distance.
Watching five-year-old Kai trade blows back and forth with a giant six to seven meters tall—
they were speechless.
"S-so strong…"
Tina's lips parted slightly, her beautiful eyes unfocused with shock.
Beside her, Smoker took a deep breath and barely managed to suppress the turbulence in his heart.
"Kai that monster…"
"He's become this strong already?!"
"It's only been one year!"
He could hardly believe it.
In truth, Zephyr felt much the same.
"Kai…"
"He's actually reached this level already?"
His throat felt dry, and for a moment he could barely speak.
He remembered the warning he had given Kai earlier—
and then looked at the sight in front of him, where Kai and Weevil were fighting toe-to-toe.
Zephyr was starting to question reality.
"Could it be…"
"That kid never lied?"
"When he said that after a year of training, he already possessed combat power no weaker than a Vice Admiral…"
"He wasn't exaggerating?"
Zephyr inhaled sharply.
At first, he had dismissed those words entirely.
But now—
after seeing Kai clash with Weevil firsthand—
he had no choice but to believe them.
"And even Vice Admiral-level strength…"
"shouldn't be enough to fight Whitebeard's 'son' to a standstill, should it?"
"Even if neither of them has gone all out yet and this has only been a probing exchange…"
"The strength Kai is showing is absurd."
"The enemy he's facing is a monster said to possess the strength of Whitebeard in his youth! Whitebeard—the man known as the strongest man in the world!"
The more Zephyr thought about it, the more shocked he became.
He didn't know every detail of Weevil's strength, but the sea was full of rumors and reports about him.
And from those alone, Zephyr knew Weevil was absolutely no weaker than the kind of great pirate with a bounty in the hundreds of millions.
Yet such a pirate—
was currently being fought to a standstill by a five-year-old child.
How was that supposed to make sense?
"Kai is only five…"
"How can he possibly be this strong?!"
Zephyr stood there in a daze.
After a long moment, he forcefully suppressed the shock in his heart and spoke to the cadets beside him.
"Don't relax yet. Whitebeard's 'son' still hasn't gotten serious. The real battle is only just beginning."
At those words, Smoker, Tina, and the others turned their attention back to the battlefield.
Far away, the two fighters remained locked in a tense standoff.
"Weevil, kill him!"
"Kill him now!"
Miss Bakkin's shrill voice tore across the air.
She glared at Kai with unrestrained hatred.
Then she shouted another order at Weevil.
"Go all out! Don't give that brat any chance to breathe! Use everything you have—kill him as fast as possible!"
Weevil had always obeyed Miss Bakkin without question.
"Yes, Mom."
He fixed Kai with burning, murderous eyes.
"I'm going to kill you."
The next second, the power inside his body surged violently, rushing into both arms and then into the heavy naginata in his hands.
In an instant—
a layer of black armor wrapped itself around the blade.
His arms were coated as well, as though covered in polished black stone.
Armament Haki.
A heavy, chilling pressure spread from Weevil's body.
Compared to before, his aura was much more terrifying.
The black coating on his arms gave off a cold, sinister edge.
The sense of oppression was immense.
Seeing this, Kai laughed softly.
"Looks like I can't avoid getting serious either."
He admitted it—
Weevil was the strongest opponent he had ever faced.
Against someone like this, he had to go all out.
If he didn't fight at full power—
the one who would lose was definitely him.
Kai was already very strong.
But Weevil was no joke either.
This was a monster said to possess Whitebeard's youthful strength.
Facing that kind of enemy, Kai naturally didn't dare relax.
"Armament Haki—on."
At a thought, a sharp light flashed in Kai's eyes.
A surge of force burst from within him and traveled into both arms.
Then black liquid-like substance rapidly spread across his forearms and fists.
Pitch black, like ink.
In the blink of an eye, the liquid hardened into solid armor.
His fists and arms were fully wrapped in a black coating, like gauntlets formed from darkness itself.
A terrifyingly sharp presence began to radiate from the black armor.
Cold.
Dangerous.
Oppressive.
That was Kai's Armament Haki.
At the same time, his mind moved again—
and he activated Observation Haki as well.
"Observation Haki—on."
HUM—
An invisible wave spread outward from Kai, covering a radius of several hundred meters.
Within that range—
nothing could escape his perception.
Every movement, every shift in the air, every subtle detail was magnified countless times in his mind.
Even with his eyes closed, he would still be able to sense everything around him clearly.
That included every tiny movement from Weevil—
and even the slightest action from Miss Bakkin in the distance.
In short, everything within that several-hundred-meter area was now inside Kai's awareness.
Nothing could hide.
"Come on!"
"Now…"
"let's continue this fight."
"Only now are we entering the true stage of a life-and-death battle!"
Kai grinned.
He lifted his head, crimson light flashing in his eyes again, and an aura like a prehistoric beast burst out from him, sweeping across the battlefield.
"Die!"
Weevil attacked first.
Holding the naginata coated in Armament Haki, he moved at terrifying speed and appeared in front of Kai in an instant, slashing down brutally.
With Armament Haki reinforcing it, the naginata carried an even more horrifying level of force and destructive power.
Facing the strike—
Kai didn't dodge.
He simply looked up.
The blade bearing down on him was several times larger than his own body.
Weevil himself towered over him, more than ten times his size.
Compared to the giant in front of him, Kai looked like a tiny ant.
And yet he still showed no intention of retreating.
Instead, he met the attack head-on.
"Good!"
Kai's smile didn't fade.
He clenched his right fist—
the one wrapped in black Armament Haki—and hurled it upward like an indestructible diamond.
The punch ripped apart the air itself.
A shrill sonic burst exploded from it.
The speed of the blow exceeded the speed of sound.
It was so fast it left afterimages behind.
A heaven-shaking punch.
Then—
Weevil's Haki-coated naginata and Kai's Armament-clad fist collided head-on.
In that instant, their two monstrous attacks crashed together with all the violence of a falling meteor smashing into the earth.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
A world-shaking explosion roared across the sea.
The sound was deafening, like thunder splitting the heavens apart.
It spread across the surrounding ocean for kilometers, rolling through the sky like endless thunder.
The entire sea echoed with that one colossal blast.
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