Boom!
Cain forcibly withstood Kaido's hammering blow.
The pressure from that heavy strike instantly reminded him of the feeling of being smashed into the ground by Rocks before, but the Cain of now was no longer unable to resist.
Even though Kaido's attack was unbelievably powerful, Cain's own move had its advantage too.
His Eighty Gods Vacuum Strike carried a slash within it.
In that instant, the slash rode the violent wind straight toward Kaido's face, and Cain seized that opening to force Kaido's attack back.
Unfortunately, Kaido had been using his kanabo and Conqueror's Haki coating to firmly protect his body the whole time, preventing the slash from directly cutting into his flesh.
Under that heavy pressure, the slash was forced off course and slid past him instead.
The coat draped over Kaido's shoulders was instantly sliced apart, and the lingering force carved a massive trench several hundred meters long behind him.
"Interesting move…"
The azure-blue scales on Kaido's body gradually darkened, and his sharp teeth showed.
"Now it's mine…"
"Drunken Mimicry: Eighty Gods Vacuum Strike!"
Kaido was already drunk, though Cain had sobered him up a little with that punch.
He took advantage of the moment to enter his Drunken Dragon Bagua state and directly copied Cain's move.
Kaido suddenly pulled back his strength, adjusted his stance again, and swung out at extreme speed.
A slash over a hundred meters long came cleaving down from above.
This vertical strike likewise tore a trench several hundred meters long through the ground.
Kaido lowered his head and froze slightly.
"You dodged? No… wait. Observation Haki?"
"Don't just casually use my moves, you bastard!"
At this moment, Cain had also entered a state similar to Kaido's drunken dragon form.
Stacked with his human-beast form, his body darkened further until he was red all over.
He had been frustrated to the extreme.
While using Six Paths of Reincarnation: Human Path to make Kaido's attack miss, he slammed his weapon hard onto Kaido's head and shouted.
"HOW HAVE WE BARELY EXCHANGED TWO MOVES, AND YOU'RE ALREADY ENTERING THE NEXT PHASE AGAIN?! ISN'T THIS SUPPOSED TO START WITH A FEW PROBING ATTACKS BEFORE GRADUALLY BUILDING UP?! THE FIRST MOVE ISN'T EVEN FINISHED, AND YOU'RE ALREADY USING A BIG FINISHER! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
"Wororororo! Since when does a fight to the death have that many rules? Of course you use whatever comes to mind, brat!"
Kaido did not dodge and let Cain smash a bloody mark onto his head.
He grinned savagely at Cain, then erupted with force and pushed him back.
With a casual flick, he threw the remaining half of his coat onto the ground.
Cain stared at Kaido's movement.
The next second, his Observation Haki sounded a violent alarm.
He had just swung fiercely to the side when he suddenly realized something was wrong and hurriedly gathered all his Haki around his head.
Boom!
Kaido's kanabo had already smashed hard into Cain's skull, instantly drawing blood from his forehead.
After taking that hit, Cain's mind contained only one silent scream.
'Fuck, that was my Human Path!'
Kaido shouldered his kanabo and walked toward Cain, grinning as he said,
"But I have to admit, those two moves of yours are both pretty good… Too bad you're still just a brat. Otherwise, I really might have to call you 'teacher.' Wororororo!"
'Son of a bitch, so this is how you're turning the tables, huh?!'
Cain's mental state was close to collapsing.
Sure, quite a few of his moves had been inspired by Kaido's techniques from his memories…
But after finally fighting him in real combat, not only had Cain failed to learn a single thing from Kaido, the other guy had stolen his moves instead.
What the hell was this?!
He could not casually use new techniques anymore.
The same applied to Observation Haki.
After all, Human Path was essentially a high-level application of Observation Haki.
Against a monster like Kaido, who had spent years mastering Haki, it was not exactly surprising that his Drunken Mimicry could pick it up.
So the skill set Cain could use now was basically limited to the few tricks he had already shown before.
Just as Cain's head started aching, he suddenly remembered something he had been ignoring the whole time.
The reason he had fought Kaido in the first place was to stop him from causing trouble! That had been the whole point at the start.
Big Mom's side had already been left to Katakuri.
As long as they could desperately buy time and find a way to let that "Emperor" regain her reason, half of Totto Land's crisis could be stabilized.
But the Kaido of the Beasts standing in front of Cain had already completely forgotten why he came here.
His eyes were focused only on fighting Cain.
Cain did not mind fighting Kaido, but that had to be under circumstances where no one would interrupt them.
If they really fought properly, it would take at least several days and nights.
How could he afford that?
Setting aside the need to find Pudding, tomorrow's banquet alone was a problem.
Once that "scruffy bird" Morgans arrived, the world situation would probably be thrown into chaos again.
For now, the Marines and World Government still had not received news of Kaido appearing in Totto Land.
He could not let this matter spread and cause more trouble for his grandfather.
In other words, there were currently only two strategies to stop Kaido from rampaging.
First, Cain and Kaido kept fighting until the sky went dark and the earth collapsed, until one side was completely beaten down.
Since he had to find Pudding, there was absolutely no time for that. Cain rejected it.
Second, make Kaido remember his original purpose for coming here. But even if Kaido remembered, Cain was still included among his targets, making it hard to get away.
'Damn it, why did I only remember something this important now?'
Cain cursed inwardly.
"What's with that expression?"
Kaido looked down at Cain and saw his strange, shifting expression.
Instead of taking the chance to attack, he spread his arms wide and provoked him wildly.
"That warm-up just now wasn't bad. Come on, what other strange hidden moves do you have? Use them all. I can take them!"
Perhaps because they were both Mythical Zoan users of the Fish-Fish Fruit, Kaido had developed an extremely strong interest in Cain's endless stream of strange abilities.
This "curiosity" had even surpassed his killing intent.
"Oh? Is that so? Then I have one more move. I wonder if you can take it."
Cain abruptly snapped out of his thoughts.
In his heart, he had already settled on the third strategy for dealing with Kaido.
Since Kaido was clinging to him like this and making it hard to escape, Cain could only use "that move."
With a solemn expression, Cain returned his weapon to his back.
His fingers spread slightly, then slowly clenched again, as if he were adapting to something.
Seeing this, Kaido's expression became especially serious. He stared fixedly at every tiny movement of Cain's hands.
Because future sight had caught him off guard earlier, Kaido simply gave up on Observation Haki this time and prepared to focus entirely on taking this earth-shaking strike head-on.
At this critical moment, Cain moved.
He suddenly swung his fist out, using all his strength to shout, "LOOK! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"
Kaido almost instinctively twisted his head sharply in the direction Cain pointed.
In that single instant, Kaido suddenly came back to himself, only to discover that Cain was already gone from in front of him.
He angrily raised his head and saw that brat had already transformed into a pink dragon, desperately fleeing into the night sky.
"HEY! BRAT! WHO RUNS AWAY HALFWAY THROUGH A FIGHT?! I HAVEN'T HAD ENOUGH YET!"
Kaido roared and instantly transformed into an azure dragon to chase after him.
Cain, flying ahead, completely ignored Kaido's shouting.
He contacted the Den Den Mushi he had taken out and connected earlier, then quickly explained to Uta the third strategy he had come up with.
First, he would use flight to stall for time.
Then, once Big Mom fully regained her senses, he would throw Kaido directly to her to deal with…
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator