Chapter 1036: Aging Like Fine Wine, a Reliable Old Man

Chapter 1036: Chapter 1036: Aging Like Fine Wine, a Reliable Old Man

"Ah—help me!"

"Oliver-sama!!"

"No, don’t—!"

"..."

The massive, hundred-meter-tall swells of water surged downward, slamming into the sea with enough force to fill the immense crater left by the previous blast. More than a dozen pirate ships from both sides were capsized instantly, vanishing into the ocean depths amidst a chorus of desperate, fading cries.

The already turbulent waters churned into a frenzy.

Oliver, however, had no time to concern himself with such trifles. Kaido hadn’t even deigned to acknowledge him; after unleashing a single Bolo Breath, the beast had simply turned tail and soared toward Unzan Port.

"Doflamingo! Tesoro! We’re moving out!"

Oliver shouted to his allies before barking orders at his subordinates to turn the ship and give chase.

When Doflamingo heard the command, he nearly coughed up blood. Damn it all, he thought. Is he blind to the fact that Kaido is the one person I fear most? And he wants me to engage him in direct combat?

Doflamingo’s first instinct was to turn and run, but he froze after taking only a single step.

Wait a minute...

Kaido was alone, and the entire Chris Pirates fleet was ahead. The main force of the Big Mom Pirates was already decimated; the Chris Pirates had more than enough personnel to spare to stall Kaido.

No matter how terrifying the man was, he couldn’t possibly take on the entire Chris Pirates crew by himself. After all, this was the man who had been captured 18 times, subjected to over a thousand sessions of brutal torture, and sentenced to death 40 separate times, all because he had dared to challenge the Marines and the other Yonko solo.

"If I combine my efforts with Oliver and Tesoro, holding Kaido back shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, either Zephyr or Arlan will surely be available to support us..."

Doflamingo’s eyes glinted with calculation. Moved by the thought, he turned around just in time to see the Gran Tesoro, that colossal golden fortress of a ship, veering toward Unzan Port.

Seeing Tesoro take the initiative, Doflamingo grit his teeth, suppressed his inner dread, and took flight toward the port.

Meanwhile, Unzan Port had descended into chaos. The Chris Pirates had been in high spirits, mopping up the remnants of the Big Mom Pirates, when they looked up and froze at the sight of a legendary dragon descending from the heavens.

"Damn, am I hallucinating?"

Many rubbed their eyes until they bled, thinking they had lost their minds, but the sight remained, indisputably, terrifyingly real.

When it dawned on them that the dragon was actually Kaido of the Beasts, the Yonko himself, the confusion only deepened.

Kaido of the Beasts? Why in the hell is he here? Most would have preferred it to be a mindless mythical dragon; at least the world at large feared Kaido far more than a fairy tale.

Shock, terror, and bewilderment rippled through the ranks. Both the Chris Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates ceased their fighting, all eyes fixed on the sky, desperate to understand why the man had appeared.

The Chris Pirates feared being caught in a pincer attack between two Yonko, especially since their own captain was currently locked in a battle with Big Mom inside the Mirror World.

The Big Mom Pirates were even more terrified. If this were a reinforcement for the Chris Pirates, their situation, already grim enough thanks to the Golden Ring Aeridar, would be hopeless. If a monster of Kaido’s caliber were added to the mix, they might as well commit suicide; with no sign of their own fleet arriving, escape was impossible.

"ROAARRR—"

Kaido let out a thunderous dragon’s roar. A wave of terrifying Conqueror’s Haki erupted from him, distorting the very air as it swept across the majority of the port.

He was searching. He was hunting for the two people locked in mortal combat: Aeridar and Big Mom.

But they were in the Mirror World, a separate dimension entirely. He could search every inch of the physical world and never find them.

After circling for a while, Kaido grew impatient. He lowered his massive form, his eyes fixed on Smoothie, who stood ten meters tall below. He roared, "You little brat from Linlin’s crew, tell me! Where are Aeridar and Linlin fighting?"

"Kaido... why are you looking for Mama?" Smoothie asked, her expression tight and guarded. "I don’t recall Mama ever making any sort of agreement with you!"

As one of the Big Mom Pirates’ Sweet Commanders, she would have known if Charlotte Linlin had entered a pact with Kaido.

"Agreement?"

Kaido’s dragon eyes widened, and he rumbled, "A battle this interesting? Of course, I’m going to stick my nose in! I want to see if Aeridar and Linlin can actually kill me!"

"Shigan: Wrathful Fist!!!"

Suddenly, a dark silhouette surged forward, riding the gale. A single, powerful fist slammed into Kaido’s skull.

BANG—

A muffled thud echoed out, accompanied by a circular shockwave of white air that rippled outward.

RUMBLE—

Kaido didn’t even have time to react. His multi-hundred-meter-long dragon body was sent careening sideways, crashing into the earth hundreds of meters away. The ground shattered, and a dense cloud of dust and debris erupted into the sky, swallowing everything within a kilometer.

"Kaido... he was blown away!"

Thousands of people watched with eyes bulging in sheer, unadulterated disbelief.

"Black Arm Zephyr!"

Smoothie gasped, retreating a step and tightening her grip on her longsword as she stared at the man standing before her.

"Zephyr-san!"

Not far away, Arlan was equally stunned. He hadn’t expected the old man to put Kaido down with a single blow. As expected of a former Marine Admiral, he thought, aging like fine wine, he’s truly reliable.

"The Captain already has the upper hand against Big Mom. We can’t let this bastard interfere. I’ll hold him off until Oliver, Doflamingo, and Tesoro arrive," Zephyr commanded without looking back, charging headlong into the massive cloud of dust toward where Kaido had fallen.

A few dozen meters away, Smoothie overheard Kaido’s earlier words and sucked in a sharp breath.

Mama... is currently on the losing side against Golden Ring Aeridar? H-how is that possible? It’s a lie! It must be!

Even as she tried to console herself, her resolve wavered. A part of her even wanted Kaido to join the fight, hoping it would ease the pressure on her mother. After all, if the Big Mom Pirates were to fall, it was inevitable, but if her mother could defeat Aeridar, the status quo would be maintained, and her mother’s position as a Yonko would remain unshaken.

But if the Big Mom Pirates fell and her mother was defeated alongside them... that would be the end of the entire crew.

Meanwhile, Zephyr had plunged into the dust cloud. The sheer speed of his movement created a localized wind that dispersed the grime around him.

"Hm? Where did such a massive target disappear to?"

Zephyr searched for two or three hundred meters, but Kaido was nowhere to be seen. Even in the thickest dust, the silhouette of a multi-hundred-meter beast should have been impossible to miss.

WHOOSH—

Suddenly, a gust of wind flared. A towering figure emerged from Zephyr’s right, closing the distance in a blink.

"Thunder Bagua!!!"

A deep, guttural roar sounded as the figure swung a colossal club, a kanabo, with blinding speed, aimed directly at him.