"Bastard! How dare you insult Kaido-sama?!"
A sharp roar, accompanied by a terrifying whoosh, combined into a grating noise, like fingernails scraping a blackboard. King transformed into a jet-black Pteranodon, like a spear, fiercely charging towards Renji.
The Pteranodon was incredibly fast, capable of producing a sonic boom, indicating its speed exceeded the speed of sound.
Kizaru's eyes flickered slightly. With so many people watching, he felt he couldn't just keep slacking off. Otherwise, after the war, Sengoku would surely cut his salary.
Buzz!
Golden particles swirled around his body, and he was about to intercept the Pteranodon's surprise attack, but then, he saw a cold smirk on Renji's lips.
At the same time, a flash of Haki flickered in Shanks's eyes, who had temporarily remained still. Having trained his Observation Haki to the point of foreseeing the future, he had already seen a brief glimpse of the future before everyone else.
"Is this power... the capital you pride yourself on, Marine?"
Under Shanks's gaze, the jet-black Pteranodon rapidly approached Renji. In an instant, the distance between them was less than ten meters.
Just then, a crimson point of light suddenly ignited.
As Renji's palm clenched, the blade of Kurai glowed crimson. With the perfect fusion of swordsmanship and Cursed Energy, terrifying power was suddenly unleashed.
Crimson Blade!
The Pteranodon's pupils rapidly constricted. As the blinding red light completely filled his vision, countless sharp slashes infused with dark red Cursed Energy tore through the Haki wrapped around his wings, piercing his body with this single Crimson Blade.
"Ugh! Ahhhhh—"
After a muffled groan, King, with an expression of disbelief, felt a heart-wrenching pain from his chest that instantly shot to his brain.
King of Curses' boosted pain effect, even without breaking through defenses, could inflict unimaginable, inhuman pain upon the opponent, akin to being in the deepest hell.
Moreover, King, in order to maximize the speed of his attack, did not hesitate to extinguish his flames, which meant that once his technique was broken, his defense relied entirely on his Haki and physical body.
However, it was evident that in the One Piece world, most characters had high defense and low attack.
In a direct confrontation, basically, apart from Four Emperors-level techniques, no one could withstand Renji's Crimson Blade, upgraded to Lv. 5.
After King's body was instantly pierced, terrifying Cursed Energy fluctuations condensed into slashes, wildly ravaging his body.
In pain, King wanted to reignite the flames to reduce the damage, but unfortunately, with his mind occupied by the continuous immense pain, he couldn't issue the correct commands.
His internal defenses disintegrated layer by layer, and Crimson Blade rapidly destroyed his vitality like a decaying force.
"King!"
Kaido, in his dragon form, roared furiously.
Kaido, who knew King best in the entire world, heard the latter's scream and instantly realized that King had suffered far more damage than he had anticipated.
No longer standing by, his massive dragon body stirred up violent winds, and his ferocious dragon mouth widened to inhale, condensing astonishing power in less than a second.
"You bastard! Die!"
Demolishing Wind!
After Kaido's angry roar, countless extremely sharp wind blades erupted from his massive dragon mouth.
Buzz!
A golden light shot into the air, followed by golden particles forming a human shape.
Kizaru quickly formed a circle with his hands, and a dazzling golden light instantly flared.
Yasakani no Magatama!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Kizaru and Kaido's attacks collided in mid-air, creating a terrifying network of firepower amidst dense, metallic crashing sounds, making the Marine soldiers and pirates on the field tremble with fear.
Even Vice Admirals couldn't help but feel parched.
"Is this a Four Emperors? They're really like monsters."
"To be able to suppress Admiral Kizaru's Yasakani no Magatama. Is this Kaido?"
Amidst the exclamations, Renji's eyes flashed, and a vibrating force erupted from Kurai in his hand.
With the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, each strike reached deep into King's body, making him tremble uncontrollably.
Boom!
The Pteranodon's body flew backward, the terrifying force cracking the hard rock floor and creating a huge crater. Countless smoke and debris flew out, and King's life or death was unknown.
This scene astonished some of the people on Shanks's ship.
"He actually took down Kaido's main signboard in one hit, rendering him unable to fight?!"
Yasopp raised an eyebrow. As a formidable sniper, who had honed his Observation Haki towards reconnaissance, enemy detection, and discerning details, he had realized at the last moment that King's body was severely injured by Renji's strike. Although not dead, he would find it very difficult to get back up.
Lucky Roux tore off a piece of a Sea King's thigh meat, chewing and muttering, "Huh? Wasn't he supposedly very strong in defense? He withered in one hit?"
Recalling Renji's recent strike, Yasopp's expression became solemn, and he frowned tightly. "I just... I don't know if I saw it wrong, but the power that guy used was like Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit ability."
"What?!"
—
"King! You damned brat!"
In shock and anger, Kizaru and Kaido's fierce clash came to an end.
Beads of sweat seeped from Kizaru's forehead. Although he was slacking off, slacking off in front of Whitebeard still consumed a lot of stamina. Plus, hastily blocking Kaido's Demolishing Wind for Renji, Kizaru had truly given his all this time, with a clear conscience.
"Scary, isn't he? An Emperor."
Renji put away Kurai, and the dark, obscure Cursed Energy fluctuations slowly returned to calm. In fact, if he had gone all out just now, he could have unleashed Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine and a series of combos to kill King, that hothead.
But he didn't do that, the reason was simple. With his Lv. 5 Heavenly Six Eyes, he could faintly sense that Shanks had been paying close attention to him ever since he had made his move.
An Emperor with astonishing speed and explosive power. Being closely watched by such a person, Renji could never fully let loose and attack.
After all, if he wasn't mistaken, Shanks was one of the few people in the world who could pose a fatal threat to him.
His azure eyes swept towards King in the dust, and he couldn't help but sigh in regret. He hadn't paid attention to King's bounty, as he hadn't expected Kaido to show up during the Marineford War. But somehow, he remembered it was over 1.3 billion.
However, with Shanks watching from the side...
Unlucky.
With this thought, Renji's gaze met Shanks's, and he spoke coldly, "What kind of trash is worthy of confronting me?"
***
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