Unbelievable.
Big Mom staggered back several steps, Napoleon raised high in her hand before she abruptly stabbed it into the ground. Even her face briefly betrayed shock.
How long had it been since she'd felt this? Since someone had overpowered her with sheer strength in a head-on clash?
Her silver teeth clenched beneath crimson lips as she struggled to halt her retreat.
But in that fleeting instant, Ozz was already upon her, blade in hand, his blood-red eyes locked dead on.
"Pointless."
He kicked away Prometheus, who had tried to entangle him, sending the fiery homie flying. In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind Big Mom, then drove a vicious kick into her slender waist.
That single strike, brimming with monstrous might, sent the towering Linlin, over eight meters tall soaring helplessly into the air before she could even react.
"OZZ!!!"
Big Mom roared in fury, immediately swinging back to retaliate.
"Stay still, Linlin."
Buzz...
For a fraction of a second, Charlotte Linlin felt as if her body had become disconnected from the world around her.
Though she quickly broke free using her Haki, for a warrior of her caliber, even a momentary delay was enough to decide an outcome.
In that instant, Ozz's hand clamped around her skull. The terrifying strength made her feel as though her head might explode.
Though Linlin had already reverted to her youthful, beautiful form, Ozz clearly had no intention of going easy on her just because of that.
Lightning crackled across his arms conqueror's Haki. A twisted grin spread across Ozz's face.
His blackened hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her completely. Her wide, bloodshot eyes stared at him in disbelief.
She was... completely overwhelmed.
In his grip, she felt something dangerous deep, terrifying.
This man... could it be…?
"If you've got the guts to come after me, Linlin," Ozz said, eyes burning with the thrill of combat, his twisted smile matching his blood-red gaze like a demon risen from hell, "then you'd better be ready to watch your whole damn home go up in smoke!"
In a brief moment of tension, he gathered every ounce of strength into his hand, then hurled her downward with full force.
The strike was infused with both Armament and Conqueror's Haki. With his Devil Fruit's boost, the speed at which he threw her almost seemed to tear through space itself.
"Flash Drop – Abyssal Plunge!!!"
BOOM!
A thunderous shockwave tore through the air.
"MAMA!!!"
Her countless children cried out, voices cracking in disbelief.
That overwhelming figure who had ruled the seas with absolute might who had crushed all opposition had just...
KABOOM!!!
A crater over a hundred meters wide exploded like a missile strike, the shockwaves spreading across the island in a monstrous ripple.
Already battered and scorched, Whole Cake Island finally began to collapse for real splitting apart at the seams.
CRACK! CRACK!
High above, the News Coo snapped frantic photos, but by now, no one cared.
Everyone struggled to stay balanced atop the crumbling fragments of the island. Amid the chaos, a worried thundercloud darted toward the crater below.
"MAMA!!!"
But Ozz didn't even glance at the cloud.
He knew full well that one attack wasn't enough to take Big Mom out of the fight.
His attention was already drawn to another presence.
"Hey!! Linlin!!!"
BOOM RUMBLE CRACK!!!
The sky suddenly darkened, like the coming of the world's end. People instinctively looked upward.
A colossal head broke through the clouds a blue-scaled dragon, eyes filled with domineering pressure and silent fury.
"Zoan full-beast form, huh?"
Ozz looked up. It was Kaido in his Azure Dragon form.
No one knew what this madman was doing flying around up there.
But Ozz didn't care. He only wanted one thing: to beat both of them into the ground.
Make them feel just a sliver of the pain he had just endured.
Kaido looked down at the persistent brat below him.
Their thoughts were the same.
Kaido's maw slowly opened, fangs bared, and a terrifying energy began to gather at the base of his throat.
"Heat Breath!!!"
Kaido was no fool. At this point, he no longer expected to land a direct hit on Ozz.
After witnessing that bizarre regeneration ability, he had shifted his strategy entirely this was a battle of attrition.
And his beast form was perfect for that. Its endurance and massive area-of-effect were unparalleled.
But Ozz had no intention of dodging.
He'd tanked Hakoku Sovereignty head-on.
As for a little heat breath?
Just another light workout.
In the face of that mountain-splitting, ocean-boiling blaze, Ozz shot forward and stopped just short of Kaido's massive snout. His fists gleamed with black-and-red cross-shaped lightning, Conqueror's Haki, mastered and refined.
The glow from his fists even eclipsed the flames themselves.
"BRING IT ON, KAIDO!!!"
"OZZ!!! YOU BASTARD!!!"
Kaido's slit pupils contracted. Just as the human figure flashed into view, he twisted his massive head and adjusted his breath's trajectory.
Flames. Cyclones. Armament Haki.
Layers of defenses instantly snapped into place. He even used his massive dragon body to buffer some of the impact.
That was his style.
When it came to taking a hit, Kaido had never feared anyone.
He was a six-stat monster just like Ozz but while Ozz leaned toward speed and power, Kaido specialized in defense.
And since dodging was out of the question anyway, he'd rather take it head-on like a true beast.
The destructive breath erupted, engulfing the tiny figure barely over three meters tall.
BOOM!
"Heat Breath!!!"
"Bone Fist – Galactic Impact!!!"
Ozz's fists, wrapped in peak-level Conqueror's Haki and brute strength, shattered the firestorm bursting straight through the flames.
BANG!
WHOOSH!!
KABOOM!!!
The moment his fists collided with Kaido's dragon-scaled skull, a wave of destruction surged through the beast.
It was like his brain had been hammered loose.
The devastating force, which could have flattened an island, was instead absorbed entirely
by Kaido's head.
In an instant, the massive dragon, blood streaming from his mouth, plummeted toward the ground like a meteor.
The impact was just as catastrophic as Big Mom's fall.
The Island-Destroying Battle...
...had reached its climax.
Whole Cake Island began to splinter apart, slowly but surely sinking into the sea.
Everyone fled in every direction, using whatever means they could.
Katakuri bound his younger siblings together with mochi, even risking injury from Crocodile to get them safely to the distant Queen Mama Chanter.
Meanwhile, Hawk stood silently at the edge of the battlefield, then found a piece of wreckage from a ruined ship.
He stepped onto the broken plank, drifting over the seawater that had flooded the edges of the crumbling island like rowing a tiny boat.
As for the paddle...
A certain aloof black blade had no choice but to resign itself to an undignified duty.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
p@treon.com/_theon
Change @ to "a"