Chapter 9: Kaido, First Meeting, Please Teach Me!
The pirates packed into the narrow alley turned pale.
The sinister-eyed Leech Rick and Levi the Slasher, wrapped entirely in a black coat, exchanged a glance and without any hesitation, exploded into action simultaneously, one left and one right, attacking Carlo.
"Get him together! Kill him!"
Rick raised his hand and scattered a mass of black things all over Carlo's body.
He himself followed close behind, swinging his right palm in a strike toward Carlo's heart.
Those black things were still writhing—they were dozens of fat, ball-like leeches.
And Rick's right palm striking toward Carlo's heart split open at the center, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs, ready to tear through Carlo's chest.
He was a Zoan Leech Fruit user.
On the right side, Levi the Slasher suddenly flung off his black coat.
Taking advantage of the moment the coat blocked Carlo's vision, his small body suddenly began spinning.
Like a rapidly spinning top.
But during the rotation, his body rapidly twisted and deformed, becoming layers upon layers of spiral blades.
His entire body became like a drill covered in sharp edges, emitting explosive sounds as it cut through the air, coordinating with Leech Rick to slice toward Carlo's left side.
This was the Paramecia Quick-Slash Fruit.
Two criminals with bounties over 100,000,000 coordinated instantly, putting Carlo in a dangerous position.
Seeing this, Patcheus gritted his teeth and drew his long blade.
"I'll help too—"
His right foot had just lifted, his shout not yet fully out, when he saw Carlo, cigar still burning in his mouth, step forward and raise his hand, slapping the air.
The air in front of him twisted and exploded under his palm, stirring up a surging airflow.
Dozens of disgusting, greasy leeches hadn't even reached his body yet when they were blasted apart from a distance, turning into exploding clouds of blood that splashed back toward Leech Rick.
Having slapped the flying leeches to death with one palm, Carlo's momentum didn't stop. He smoothly changed from palm to claw, curved his five fingers, and grabbed Rick's incoming right hand.
"Damn it! Let go!"
Rick was shocked and reflexively tried to pull his wrist back.
But Carlo's fingers were like steel clamps weighing ten thousand tons, gripping his wrist tightly.
Not only could he not break free, but the wrist bone being gripped was visibly compressing, about to be crushed into powder by Carlo's grip.
However, to Carlo's surprise, he didn't succeed.
Because Rick's wrist, just as it was about to be crushed, softened like rubber and became a slippery blue-green tentacle.
So slippery it couldn't be held.
At the same time, on the left side, Levi the Slasher, spinning madly and stirring up sharp airflows, also came in for the kill.
The rapidly rotating blades pointed directly at Carlo's body, ready to shave off his flesh like peeling a potato.
Their coordination was so seamless that even an average Marine vice admiral would probably have to temporarily avoid their attack.
Even Carlo couldn't help but praise them.
"Worthy of New World pirates. With bounties barely over 100,000,000, you already have this kind of strength. Not bad."
But he didn't retreat.
Not only did he not pull back, but under Levi's puzzled gaze, he actually extended his left arm toward Levi's rapidly spinning, blade-covered body.
"This guy... is he planning to sacrifice his arm to save his life?"
The instant this thought appeared in Levi's mind, he saw Carlo swing that extended left arm and whip it toward the spinning him.
"Smack!"
A crisp, loud crack.
Levi only felt his face get viciously slapped.
Then his spinning body, like a top being struck, spun even faster.
And the direction of rotation was forcibly changed, narrowly veering away from Carlo's body by a hair's breadth.
Under Rick's terrified scream, it crashed into him.
"Shhhk shhhk shhhk—!"
The teeth-aching tearing sound made Patcheus, frozen in place with his blade raised, feel his scalp go numb.
Under his terrified gaze, Leech Rick, transformed into a half-human, half-tentacle form, let out a piercing shriek under the cutting of the high-speed spinning Levi.
He was sliced alive into countless pieces of meat that scattered with a clatter.
"Damn it!"
Having accidentally killed his ally, the assassin Levi burned with fury.
His spinning body bounced up from the ground and sliced toward Carlo again.
And Carlo once again swung his arm like cracking a long whip, lashing it toward him.
"The same move won't work on me twice!"
"Blade Storm!"
Levi roared and crashed into Carlo's incoming arm.
But the tearing sound he expected, of Carlo's arm having its flesh sliced off, didn't reach his ears.
What came instead was a series of metallic collision sounds.
"Clang clang clang—!"
Simultaneously, dazzling sparks kept bursting forth.
"What?"
Levi opened his eyes in shock, and what met his gaze was an arm black as ink, colliding against his madly spinning body and producing a shower of sparks, yet completely unharmed.
"Armament Haki!"
The moment this thought appeared in his mind, his head was grabbed by Carlo's large hand.
He was a Paramecia Quick-Slash Fruit user.
Every part of his body could transform into steel blades and simultaneously possess the properties of steel—that is, extreme hardness.
But as Carlo's five fingers gradually closed, his steel-transformed head was unstoppably deformed.
With a piercing twisting sound, it was crushed flat by Carlo's single hand.
Crushing iron into mud—what terrifying finger strength!
His head crushed, the man dead, yet Levi the Slasher's body's rotation still hadn't stopped.
The effect of the Quick-Slash Fruit seemed to linger briefly on his corpse, not yet completely faded.
Taking advantage of this moment, a mischievous smile appeared on Carlo's face.
He suddenly swung and threw Levi's corpse forward.
"Break through the heavens! Drill!"
The next moment, under the terrified gazes of the pirates in the alley, Levi's corpse-formed drill, under Carlo's violent throw, became a meat grinder harvesting lives.
In just an instant, it stirred up a storm of blood and gore in this straight alley.
Wherever the drill passed, pirates unable to dodge were mercilessly ground up, turning into scattered corpses all over the ground.
And the white-haired Carlo, like a demon bathed in blood, walked toward the port where the pirates had come from, still biting that unfinished cigar, stepping over the sticky ground.
Having personally buried a ground full of pirates, his expression hadn't changed one bit.
He maintained that same carefree demeanor throughout, as if those who died by his hand weren't living beings at all, but mere livestock.
Carlo was surprised to discover that one pirate had actually survived by luck.
Patcheus's body shook like a sieve, his entire being collapsed and kneeling in the blood and shredded flesh covering the ground.
His eyes glazed over, he looked up at Carlo slowly approaching, warmth flowing through his pants.
"What's your name?"
On the verge of collapse, Patcheus heard a voice in his daze and instinctively answered, "Patcheus."
"Your luck is good."
"If you survive, come find me at Hachinosu."
"Hachinosu?"
That voice passed by his ear, snapping Patcheus out of his daze.
He stared blankly and turned his head, watching that tall white-haired figure step over the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, walking with firm steps toward that terrifying horned demon king.
Then Patcheus witnessed a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.
He saw the white-haired man accelerate, begin to run.
The narrow alley exploded under his feet into crater-like depressions.
The entire street trembled under his sprint.
The cigar smoke in his mouth was pulled straight like a white line.
He ran faster and faster.
Though his frame didn't look massive, during his sprint he seemed like a galloping beast.
His entire body finally became almost a blurred afterimage.
With an earth-shattering boom, he launched from the ground in the city district like a rising missile, shooting straight into the sky.
His raised right arm bulged with muscle after muscle, his clenched fist blasting forward with explosive force.
But not toward Kaido—toward the back of Samro, who was being sent flying by Kaido's attack.
Samro, flying backward, was still glaring at Kaido ahead through gritted teeth, preparing to respond to Kaido's next strike.
But the sudden death crisis behind him made his scalp explode.
"Who's there?!"
He wanted to turn and look, but it was already too late.
An explosive force, swift as lightning, slammed into his back.
Almost at the same time, Kaido, sprinting wildly across the ground ahead in pursuit, seemed to also see something interesting. His bloodthirsty, battle-hungry eyes brightened like never before.
The kanabo gripped tightly in his hand smashed straight toward Samro's chest with even more ferocious force.
Carlo and Kaido, one in front and one behind, attacked from both sides.
Almost simultaneously, they drove fist and kanabo through Samro's flying body, slamming into him.
"BOOM!"
In just an instant, Samro's powerful, battle-hardened body was crushed by these two savage forces.
His broad chest exploded, flesh and blood flying as a huge hole was blasted straight through him.
A pitch-black fist punched through his spine and extended from his ruptured chest, colliding with the pitch-black kanabo in Kaido's hand.
"CLANG!"
In the piercing explosive sound, two pairs of equally bloodthirsty, battle-hungry eyes met through the gory hole in Samro's chest.
Feeling the mountain-like force coming from the tip of the kanabo, the smile on Kaido's face grew wider and wider.
"Wororororo!"
"Didn't expect there'd be a real fighter on this island?"
"Brat, who are you?!"
"Soros Carlo!" The corners of Carlo's mouth also bloomed with long-absent excited joy.
His free left hand slapped out, blasting Samro's mangled upper body in half with one strike and hurling it at Kaido opposite him.
"Kaido, first meeting—please teach me!"[1]
[1](https://dict.cn/Carlo)