"Mr. Apoo! There is a monster in the sky too!!"
In midair, the running pirates were on the verge of tears.
The cruelty of the New World far exceeded their imagination—stronger Marines, more terrifying pirates, weirder weather, and even the animals were incredibly dangerous.
The leader of this pirate crew was Apoo. As a Super Rookie of the Worst Generation, he had been relatively lucky after entering the New World. He hadn't encountered any terrifying opponents and had safely reached this island.
While they were resupplying, a wild boar on the island suddenly attacked them.
Apoo defeated that wild boar, but it had cost him a fair amount of effort. He had thought that the boar was the king of beasts on the island, only to discover that there were a whole group of identical wild boars.
Their previous luck had turned into misfortune, and Apoo's group began the life of being hunted by wild boars.
They had intended to jump off a cliff to escape the boars, but somehow ended up running onto an air wall, and began running in the sky.
Apoo and the others had no idea where this sky path led, or where it ended, but forced by the pursuing boars, they had no choice but to keep running.
The wild boars hadn't given up the chase yet, but now, something even more terrifying had appeared.
"Mr. Apoo! It's flying toward us! What do we do?!"
"You're asking me?! Who the hell do I ask?! Who knew those wild boars would have anything to do with that monstrous dragon?!"
Apoo and his crew had no choice but to stop. But just then, they realized the wild boars behind them had also stopped.
These wild boars dared to hunt down pirates like Apoo and his crew, but when faced with Hydrachton whose aura was far more terrifying, they were scared.
After just a moment of hesitation, the wild boars immediately turned around and began fleeing for their lives, with Apoo's group following behind them, because no matter how you looked at it, the flying Hydrachton was far more terrifying than the boars.
However, running speed cannot surpass flying. Hydrachton's flight isn't slow, it just depends on who you compare it to. It couldn't catch up to Kaido or Yamato, but chasing those on foot wasn't difficult.
With a flap of its wings, Hydrachton flew directly past Apoo's group and landed in front of the wild boars. These oversized boars looked tasty to it, but after eating just one, Hydrachton lost interest.
It usually lived like a prince within the Beasts Pirates, either eating specially-made Pokémon food from Berry or sea beasts roasted by chefs, all of which tasted far better than wild boar.
The boars could fill its belly, but there was no need for that.
But the wild boars didn't know what Hydrachton was thinking. They just ran desperately, wanting to get as far as possible from this monster in the sky.
After losing interest in the boars, Hydrachton turned its gaze toward Apoo and the others.
It didn't eat people, it was just bored. Kaido and Yamato had been fighting for a long time, and it wanted to have some fun too, like scaring these tiny "bugs" a little.
Kaido loved fighting, but Yamato didn't. Although Hydrachton was classified as Kaido's mount, its creator clearly favored Yamato more. Because of that, Hydrachton was considerate of Yamato's feelings, so it chose to scare rather than harm.
"ROAR!"
Hydrachton turned around and faced Apoo's group, letting out a deafening roar from all eight of its heads at once.
But Hydrachton had underestimated its own intimidation factor. Kaido always called it "cutie." Emboar and Tyranitar also described it as an adorable younger brother, and even Robin gave similar comments.
Most of the other members of the Beasts Pirates also called it majestic and cool. As a result, Hydrachton didn't have a clear sense of self, it had always thought it wasn't very scary, so when it roared, it tried its best to look as ferocious as possible.
And the result of this was that those in front of it became even more terrified, so much so that their legs lost the ability to run due to overwhelming fear.
"Damn it, has that monster locked onto us?"
At that very moment, the shattered pieces of ice mountain flew in from the distance, crashing toward Apoo and his group.
Seeing the incoming attack, Apoo immediately began to play his own body.
His teeth transformed into piano keys, his arms into trumpets, his chest into a drum surface, and even his chin became a cymbal; his whole body became a one-man band, and he started playing music.
As he played his body, explosions suddenly erupted on Hydrachton's body, and the resulting shockwave deflected the incoming ice chunks mid-air.
"Mr. Apoo! Won't this make that monster even angrier?!"
"There's no other choice! Otherwise, we'd be crushed to death! And that monster has already been eyeing us."
He was a Paramecia-type user of the Tone-Tone Fruit, capable of transforming his body into various instruments, creating slashes or explosions through sound waves.
But this fruit had a fatal weakness. The range of its attack depended on the target's ability to hear. For Apoo to attack someone, the enemy had to hear his music.
Even just plugging one's ears could completely nullify his attacks.
Ice chunks had no life, and no hearing ability, so his fruit's powers wouldn't work on them. In order to blow up the ice, Apoo had no choice but to trigger the explosion on Hydrachton's body.
While he did manage to deflect the ice, he also completely enraged Hydrachton.
If earlier Hydrachton only wanted to scare them, now it was ready to get serious.
"ROAR!!"
"Cough, cough… Damn old man! You're still hitting this hard?!"
While Hydrachton was fighting, the battle between Yamato and Kaido was also reaching its end. Yamato had originally wanted to try Jack's deep-dive tactic, dragging Kaido into the sea with her.
After all, she could swim. As long as she pulled Kaido underwater, she could win.
Unfortunately, Kaido had been guarding against this all along. As they neared the sea surface, he transformed into his Beast Form, and boosted by Dragon Dance, unleashed immense power, whipping Yamato into the sea with his tail and making her gulp a large mouthful of seawater.
But at that moment, Kaido suddenly stopped and stood atop the floating ice Yamato had created.
"Not bad. Simple brawling doesn't work on you anymore. If we keep going, I might not be able to hold back. Let's end it here for today."
Yamato didn't respond. Instead, she gripped her weapon tightly. Based on past experience, Kaido could be faking it, waiting for her to relax so he could land a brutal blow.
But this time, Kaido actually dispelled his transformation and put away his weapon.
"Still remember what I said before? If you can last three days against me or your Dad, no one will bother you anymore."
"So does this mean there won't be any more of this in the future?"
Only now did Yamato realize that, without noticing, three days had already passed. Although Kaido still had many trump cards unused, she had endured until the end, taking one more step toward her goal.
According to the agreement back then, she had now officially "graduated."
"Worororo! Dream on! It's only over for now. Once I come back after undergoing special training with your Dad, I'll prepare a new curriculum for you."
Yamato's fantasy was crushed by Kaido. She had graduated. Her current performance had earned Kaido's recognition, and the growth in her intellect also satisfied him quite a bit.
Even if it had only been triggered temporarily during battle, it was still far better than nothing.
But graduation came with academic advancement. She didn't step into society but instead entered a higher institution arranged by Kaido.
But before that "school term" started, she could enjoy a very long vacation, since her private tutor also planned to sign up for an advanced class to improve himself further.
And at that very moment, Hydrachton arrived in front of Kaido, carrying the spoils of its hunt…
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