"What's wrong? Can't even lift your shoulders?"
Ryan watched Golden Lion's hanging arms, twirling Wind Splitter in his hand. The flat of the blade tapped rhythmically against his palm. "If I'd known your old bones were this fragile, I wouldn't have wasted these four days."
Golden Lion's Adam's apple bobbed violently, and a spark ignited in his previously dim eyes.
He slowly raised his head, his face beneath the golden hair twitching with rage. The anger tugged at the wound where his leg had been severed, making him grit his teeth in pain. "Brat, you're too arrogant!"
Before the words faded, he suddenly pressed his hand against the ship's wheel embedded in his skull. The old injury piercing through his cranium seemed to become a floodgate of power at this moment, as Conqueror's Haki erupted like a volcano, more violent than at any time in the past few days.
"Do you think... I've truly grown old?" Golden Lion's voice was hoarse, torn, yet carried a heart-palpitating madness.
Blood seeped from the stump where his leg had been severed, clearly from forcibly pushing his power and aggravating old injuries. Yet the pride in his eyes burned even more fiercely. "Today, I'll show you what it means to be a legend!"
Before the mockery could fade from Ryan's face, he saw a pitch-black blade light tear through the morning mist.
Golden Lion moved with unimaginable speed. "Cherry Ten" and "Withered Tree" had somehow returned to his hands, their blades wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, tracing two intersecting trajectories of death.
"Not good!" Ryan's pupils contracted sharply. Flame Clouds erupted at his feet as he tried to evade, but the blade light followed him like a shadow.
In his haste, he crossed his blade to block. With a deafening clang, Wind Splitter was knocked from his grasp. The residual pitch-black sword energy swept across his chest, tearing away a large chunk of flesh.
"Guh—"
Ryan flew backward like a broken kite, crashing heavily onto a floating rock. The wound on his chest was deep enough to reveal bone, instantly dyeing his clothes red with blood. Even breathing brought tearing pain.
He struggled to get up, only to find his left arm had lost all sensation. Most of his Dragon Transformation Scales had shattered, revealing the mangled flesh beneath.
How... How could this old fossil still unleash such power?
Ryan gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead—not from pain, but from shock. He had believed Golden Lion was already spent, never expecting the other could erupt with such a terrifying strike fueled by sheer pride.
These old monsters from bygone eras truly weren't to be underestimated.
Golden Lion hovered before Ryan, chest heaving violently, face pale as paper. Fresh blood stained the ship's wheel on his head.
But his gaze as he looked at Ryan held a trace of detached control. "Now... do you understand the gap?"
He slowly raised his blade but didn't attack immediately, speaking coldly instead. "I'll give you one more chance. Kneel and admit your fault. With your strength, assist me in reclaiming the New World. In the future, half of these seas will be yours."
Ryan's power made him wary—such strength should be put to his use.
Kneel and admit his fault?
Ryan was momentarily stunned, then began to chuckle lowly as if hearing the world's greatest joke. The laughter grew louder, eventually becoming nearly maniacal roaring laughter.
"Haha... HAHAHA! You want me to kneel to you? Old man, has that ship's wheel crushed your brain?"
His laughter was filled with resentment and rage—the days and nights spent as a test subject, the moments teetering on the edge of life and death, the dignity and freedom stripped away—all surged into his heart at this moment.
For the past two years, just to survive one more day in the laboratory, he had curled up like a dog in the corner, allowing Indigo's needles to pierce his skin. To stay alive in the arena, he had fought like a beast, tearing and biting, all for the sake of survival.
"My life was earned by me," Ryan's voice was as low as if it came from hell, each word tinged with bloody foam. "Not given by your charity!"
He thought that as long as he grew stronger, he could escape the control of fate. But in the end, there were still those who wanted him on his knees.
Why?!
Ryan suddenly raised his head, his eyes blazing with fury—the final roar of a cornered beast pushed to the brink. "My fate has always been mine to command! No one will ever make me kneel again!"
As his words fell, a thunderclap exploded across the sky. Ink-black clouds, as if stirred by an invisible giant hand, surged from all directions, shrouding the entire sky in the blink of an eye.
Ryan's body began to undergo a shocking transformation. Peach-colored Scales rapidly spread across his entire body, the cracking sounds of his bones louder than the roar of the waves. His form swelled wildly amidst excruciating pain.
Most astonishing was the deep, bone-exposing wound on his chest—flesh and blood visibly writhed, and broken ribs snapped back into place with audible clicks. In mere moments, the gruesome wound was covered by newly formed Scales, leaving only a faint, pale trace.
"Boom—!"
Another bolt of lightning tore through the clouds. Under the stark white light, a massive dragon abruptly rose from the ground. Its nearly hundred-meter-long body was far larger than the dragon Momonosuke transformed into. Though not as sky-obscuring as Kaido's dragon form, it radiated a youthful, savage aura.
As its Dragon Tail claws tore through the air, the resulting airflow stirred the heavens, summoning thunder. Blue-white electric serpents danced among its Scales, intertwining with the peach-colored dragon body to create a terrifying glow.
Around the hundred-meter-long dragon form, faint golden Flame Clouds billowed like a flowing belt. The moment it spiraled upward, the sea erupted into violent waves, and lightning and thunder followed in rapid succession.
The thunder was an accompaniment to the Dragon Roar; the lightning, the edge of its draconic might. Where the Flame Clouds clashed with the storm clouds, blinding sparks burst forth, dyeing the world in an eerie mix of gold and blue.
As the Dragon Tail swept across the sea, it sent towering water spouts piercing the sky, connecting with the lightning above and instantly forming water dragons that linked heaven and earth, shattering the low-hanging clouds.
"Roar—!"
The dragon hovered in the air, its immense Dragon Pupils fixed intently on Golden Lion as if ready to devour him. Its thundering Dragon Roar resonated with the storm, the sound waves spreading like a tangible force.
Where the sound waves passed, the sea, cowed by the dragon's might, surged into waves dozens of meters high. Wild deer fleeing through the jungle collapsed instantly; pirates hiding in rock crevices were knocked unconscious by the overwhelming pressure. Even distant birds in the sky seemed struck down by an invisible hand, plummeting one after another into the churning waves.
For the first time, Golden Lion's expression turned grave. His hovering figure wavered slightly amidst the raging waves and lightning. He could feel the power emanating from Ryan swelling rapidly—and that faint, emerging Haki!
"Not only has he awakened his ability, but he also triggered Conqueror's Haki."
His heart was roiling with shock. He had originally thought victory was assured, yet he never expected Ryan to still have such a trump card. This kid's growth speed simply defied all logic.
"Golden Lion."
The dragon's maw opened and closed, the human speech emanating from it carrying a metallic, grating quality, yet it was exceptionally clear. Its pale golden vertical pupils were locked firmly onto the floating figure, reflecting the syringes, iron cages, and pools of blood from the past two years, and also mirroring the world-shaking fury of this very moment.
Either tear the enemy before him to shreds, or burn out his own life.
Whatever the outcome, this dragon that had crawled back from hell would never bow its head to anyone again.
Flame Clouds churned violently around the dragon's body, intertwining with the lightning in the sky to form a blazing, heaven-scorching momentum, as if the next second would plunge the entire world into a purgatory of flames and thunder.