Crushing Kaido

What was going on?

A flicker of doubt crossed Kaido’s mind, and he immediately spread out his Observation Haki.

Then he felt a sharp pain in his back. His whole body was sent flying like a cannonball, and with a thunderous crash, he slammed into a distant cliff.

"Urgh—cough, cough, cough—blegh!" Kaido crawled out of the hole he had blasted into the cliff, vomiting blood as he felt that his spine had been broken. If he had not awakened his Mythical Zoan-type and mastered Life Return, he probably would not even have been able to stand now.

Yet what truly shocked him was Yota, standing where he had been just moments ago, completely unscathed.

No, he was not merely unscathed. This guy’s combat power had increased by an unknown amount. Even at his peak, Kaido probably would not have been able to withstand the power of that punch.

Yota lightly shook his hand and glanced at the stunned Yamato and Ace. "What’s with those looks? Did I scare you?"

"Yota, so you’re okay!" The easygoing Yamato laughed twice, looking delighted.

As for Ace, he was beginning to question his entire life. He had just seen Yota’s body burned into charcoal. He could be absolutely certain that Yota had been dead beyond doubt in that state. This was not something that could be explained away by having a tough life force and doing a few sit-ups.

If Ace was questioning his life, then Kaido felt like his entire world had shattered.

Damn it, he had finally used his ultimate move to kill that unbreakable, unkillable monster, only for the other guy to demonstrate what it meant to revive on the spot.

Revival would have been one thing, but he had even gotten stronger in the process. What Devil Fruit had this guy eaten?

Kaido had more authority than anyone else on whether Yota had died just now. At that time, Yota had withdrawn the Haki protecting his body. His organs had melted, and even his bones had been charred. It would have been stranger if he had survived.

So Kaido was certain that Yota had truly revived, rather than regenerated.

"Brat, what Devil Fruit did you eat?"

Seeing Yota talking with the excited Ace and Yamato, Kaido directly interrupted.

Yota smiled. "What Devil Fruit I ate has anything to do with you? Still, I think we can continue our fight from earlier."

Having died once, the seal within Yota had now been lifted. Otherwise, he would not have been able to severely injure Kaido with one move so easily just now—because Yota had secretly opened the Third Gate of the Eight Gates.

Yota was not a Saiyan. He did not possess the ability to struggle back from the brink of death and gain a massive increase in combat power.

"Heh heh, brat, you’re quite confident, aren’t you?" Even though he could sense that the situation had turned unfavorable, Kaido still had no intention of retreating. Conqueror’s Haki wrapped around the spiked club in his hand, while a cold glint flickered in his eyes.

"I don’t believe any Devil Fruit can do something like this! Your revival must have some flaw!"

Kaido’s reasoning actually made sense. The Eight-Headed Serpent Fruit could not revive someone indefinitely; at most, it allowed eight revivals. It certainly did not have any abilities like revival enhancement or body modification.

However, not to mention that Yota possessed three Devil Fruit abilities, just having eight lives was enough to wear Kaido to death.

More importantly, after the battle just now, all the pressure Kaido could bring Yota had already been converted into combat power, further improving Yota’s Haki.

Kaido had already exhausted all his tricks. Clearly, he had no way of helping Yota improve any further. Naturally, Yota would no longer seal his Chakra or the abilities of the Dark-Dark Fruit.

"Whether there’s a flaw or not, ask my fists!"

With a long roar, Chakra surged within Yota’s body. Golden streams of energy cracked the ground and blew tiny pebbles into the air. Even Yota’s hair stood on end.

"Eight Gates—Sixth Gate, open!"

A suit of dark metallic armor slowly emerged around Yota’s body, covering him from head to toe. A pair of dark-gold wings even grew from his back, giving him the impression of a god descended into the world. It was the compressed Susanoo armor.

"Susanoo Armor!"

The explosive aura radiating from Yota was so overwhelming that even Yamato, Ace, and Kaido, who possessed no Chakra-sensing ability whatsoever, could clearly feel it. The three wore different expressions. Yamato and Ace were shocked yet delighted, while Kaido was simply terrified.

Whoosh! Yota spread the wings behind him and tore through the air. At the same time, the Super Light-Weight Rock Technique and the gravitational interference of the Rinne Tenseigan activated together. He moved so fast that he resembled a streak of black light, vanishing from before Kaido in an instant.

Even though Kaido’s future-seeing Observation Haki had foreseen Yota’s attack, Yota’s extreme speed still surpassed Kaido’s physical reaction speed. With a thunderous boom, Kaido was blasted straight into the sky.

Kaido spat out a mouthful of blood as he rose to the highest point in the air. Before he could react, his vision blurred, and Yota appeared before him. Clasping both hands together and raising them high above his head, Yota smashed Kaido down viciously.

"Urgh! Crack!"

The sounds of breaking bones and spraying blood rang out at once. Kaido crashed into the ground like a meteor, causing the earth to shake violently and leaving behind a ten-meter-wide crater.

A black shadow flashed, and Yota instantly entered the crater, appearing before Kaido, who lay sprawled at the bottom with his limbs spread wide. Clenching his fists, he unleashed a barrage of punches like a machine gun. "Ora Ora Ora Ora!"

Unfortunately, other than continuously vomiting blood and breaking bones, Kaido had no ability to reply with Muda.

Ace and Yamato stared blankly as they felt the ground beneath their feet continuously shake and watched the crater’s cracks spread wider and wider.

How should they put it? It was like when Sun Wukong first participated in the World Martial Arts Tournament, only for Little Goku to throw away the stick in his hand halfway through the fight and tell Kame Sennin, "I’m done pretending. I’m actually a Saiyan, the strongest race in the universe," before transforming into a Super Saiyan.

It was… rather sudden.

The companion they had spent every day with, whom they had always believed to be slightly weaker than themselves, had suddenly become strong enough to pin down and utterly crush Kaido—the very goal they had been striving toward. For a moment, both of them felt as though they were dreaming.

Yota kept up his Ora Ora barrage for two minutes before the earth finally stopped shaking. Shortly afterward, they saw Yota fly out of the hole, which had nearly been punched down to the magma layer, with Kaido dangling from one hand like a limp pile of mud.

Only Kaido, the Strongest Creature in the World, could endure such a beating from Yota. Even so, Kaido was now taking more breaths out than in. Left alone, he might just kick the bucket.