As the iron rod was swung, Sage's outstretched hand swiftly changed direction, crossing to take on the heavy blow, sending his body flying rapidly.
Even with tenfold amplification... it couldn't withstand the force of that strike!
Bang!
Sage's body crashed into a towering stone mountain like a pillar behind him, embedding forcefully into its base, causing the entire mountain to collapse.
"Oh ro ro ro ro!"
With one swing, Kaido laughed heartily, not caring about the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, "It hurts, little brat Sage!"
At the position where the attack landed on his chest, there were exploding wounds as if from a blast, with blood gushing out, but to him, it was just pain.
Double internal destruction?
And some strange power that can stop someone's movements?
This level of attack won't leave wounds.
Bam!
Kaido stepped forward, ready to take action, but from within the rubble, a black tornado suddenly erupted, sweeping forward like a hurricane.
A red dot flashed in Kaido's eyes. The moment the hurricane appeared, his iron rod smashed forward fiercely.
"Hundred-Slit Heroic Spin!"
In the hurricane, Sage presented his rapidly spinning body, launching a direct kick.
Bang!
Under the influence of Haki, the leg and the iron rod didn't make direct contact, keeping a slight distance before exploding with even greater force.
Sage's foot stepped into the air, leaving a series of smoke rings. As they lingered in the air, his right hand's back pressed into his left palm, and the black flames on his body converged onto his palm, forming a black light.
"Annihilation Slash!"
Boom!
The black light formed by Haki descended, occupying the sky. It seemed to turn everything around into darkness.
"Oh ro ro ro ro! Haki can be used like this, huh, little brat, your Haki is quite special!"
Kaido laughed loudly, gripping the iron rod with both hands, his eyes widening as he smashed fiercely at the descending black light.
"Thundering Hakke!"
Boom!
The iron rod entangled with lightning and the black light clashed, initially creating a shockwave that blasted away the ground's rubble and soil.
The Haki covering the iron rod kept the black light at bay by a small margin. In the vacuum where the two forces met, an unstable small point gradually formed.
Boom!!
Then that small point erupted into a shockwave larger than before, sweeping rapidly outward, collapsing the stone mountains standing nearby.
Rumble...
At the location of the port city, Lily only felt a momentary tremor beneath her feet. She looked up toward the distance just in time to see the black light descending from the sky dissipate, while the resulting airwave blew all the way over, flipping the rooftops of buildings.
"Faster!"
Lily shouted, "Hurry, get them all on the ship, bring a group with me, we're going to the village to capture people!"
The fluctuations from this battle, even if the island doesn't get destroyed, the buildings on it won't escape unscathed.
"I'll help you!"
Suleiman appeared before Lily at this time, saying, "I'm familiar with this place, I'll lead the way."
Lily gave him a glance, said nothing, and simply nodded.
The kick Sage delivered to Suleiman, along with the acupoint strike, didn't last long; he could move now.
As for why he changed his mind...
It's simple.
Sage might be despicable, but Kaido is even more so.
Sage just wants people, Kaido doesn't care about anything.
Suleiman knows what matters.
Helping Sage now means at least the people here can survive.
An island like Tias can't be fully developed either. So far, the only place fully developed into a city is Water Seven, and that's because it's not inherently large.
Places like Dressrosa are only half developed on the main island, with scattered villages and towns on the other half, not to mention Greenbit, the Vice Island.
Tias is the same; apart from the port city, other places are also just scattered villages and towns, and where Sage sent Kaido flying to was just a rocky terrain.
Now even the rocky terrain is gone, leaving only flat ground and piles of rocks.
The explosion's airwave stirred up clouds of dust on the ground. Sage leapt, maintaining his form in mid-air, and in just two breaths, his Haki fully recovered. He focused intently on the smoke, his expression grim.
In terms of Haki strength, he was completely surpassed.
Even with the combined Haki and his Fist Bone technique's Haki Shock, it didn't inflict much damage on Kaido, who managed to fend it off.
As for his attack...
Frankly, Sage didn't want to take another hit.
Even though that blow was blocked, the mental shock from it left him momentarily dazed.
It felt like a Supreme King impact, but different, with greater power and a more vicious mental assault than ordinary Supreme King, like a concentrated attack.
"Is that what Supreme King Coiling is?" Sage asked solemnly.
Woosh!
The smoke was abruptly dispersed, then swept up like by a wind, gathering into a mass below him.
"Oh ro ro ro ro, you know... but can you use it? Only a handful of true warriors on the seas can really wield it!"
The smoke, gathered by the mysterious force, slowly dispersed with Kaido's voice, revealing a tint of azure scales.
The more the smoke cleared, the more the azure scales were exposed, forming an extremely long body.
"Roar!!"
Something emerged from the smoke, letting out a fierce roar. That entity had four horns, the topmost being antlers, while on its forehead sides were Kaido's original pair of dragon-like horns.
As the roar echoed, strokes of thunder rained from the sky.
Its claws were four, and clouds formed beneath them with each movement.
Soaring through clouds and fog, commanding the winds and rain, lightning flashing and thunder roaring...
Dragon!
Fish-Fish Fruit· Mythical· Azure Dragon!
"Evil Wind!"
The Cyan Dragon suddenly opened its mouth, the surrounding air swirling and distorting, forming wind blades with immense cutting power, charging straight towards Sage in the sky.
Wind blades...
Not easy to block!
Such elemental things are always hard to block.
Haki is merely willpower and cannot take on physical form...
Otherwise, it wouldn't be surprising if someone could resist fire with sheer determination.
"Attack with attack!"
Sage took a deep breath, his hands at that moment gathering flowing black fire, which shot out like a meteor shower with accelerated arm movements.
"Tenha Kassatsu: Meteor Shower!"
The falling meteors collided with the roaring wind blades, causing waves of shock while his body flashed open with speed, darting through the air and dodging the thunderbolts descending from the heavens.
The Cyan Dragon's eyes glinted with mockery, its long body hovering in the air suddenly spun around, bringing forth vortices that ravaged the ground.
"Tornado Evil Wind!"
This was no ordinary tornado. Each vortex appearance split the earth, and the debris it churned up was first sliced apart and then swallowed by the tornadoes.
Above, lightning prepared to strike, and below, hurricanes destroying everything.
The power of the Mythical species was on full display!
"You think you're the only one who can do it?!"
Sage moved at high speed to the ground, suddenly stomping down to shake loose a square stone block from the ground. He twisted at the waist and kicked the stone block.
"Southern Dipper Giant Stone Strike!"
The stone block, upon contact with Sage's foot, was first covered with Haki, then expanded a hundredfold and accelerated by a hundredfold speed, directly dispersing the hurricane and crashing towards the twisting dragon body in the low sky.
Boom!!
With a force more terrifying than a meteor descending from the sky, the gigantic stone block crashing into the ground made the whole island violently tremble, stirring up surrounding sea waves and creating tidal bursts.
The intense changes in terrain caused the ocean to ripple in response, triggering even more substantial vibrations.
Where the stone block crashed, debris exploded into a rain of fierce stones, and at the center, an enormous crater appeared!
Sage could not use such amplification on himself, but with objects, there was no such restriction.
"Hot Breath!"
Amidst the scattered stone rain, a burst of firelight suddenly ignited, projecting a fiery blaze capable of melting anything, rushing rapidly towards Sage.
Sage's figure flickered, and as he landed to the side, the Cyan Dragon, as if anticipating it, moved swiftly in low flight, circling behind Sage, transforming into Kaido's form, wielding a club.
Sage's pupils contracted, bending his upper body downward while his legs and feet moved, rotating low in the air at 180 degrees, with a punch placed in front of the swinging iron club, momentarily stalling its swing.
At the same time, his other foot quickly swept forward along the ground.
"Southern Dipper Sand-Throwing Strike!"
The pebbles and sand swept from underfoot instantly covered in Haki, amplified a hundredfold, turning into lead and cannonball-sized projectiles, hitting Kaido's face at high speed. The barrage forced his body to lean back, blurring his vision.
In the blur, Sage took the opportunity to lift his legs and feet, turning into afterimages, rapidly striking Kaido's body.
"North Star Soft Breaking Slash!"
Thud!
The hyper-speed hundred kicks caused more wounds to erupt on Kaido's body. At that moment, Sage planted his lifted legs and feet firmly downward. Using the force, he jumped to Kaido's chest, his body turning into afterimages, surrounding him.
"North Star Seven Stars Death Point!"
Unstoppable, full Secret Hole attack!
Whether it's a Galaxy Strike or an Annihilation Slash, they're nothing more than straightforward moves.
Because reaching this level, few could force him to fully utilize the North Star Divine Fist, as secret hole strikes accompanying normal attacks sufficed for most.
Only such figures, top powerhouses of the sea!
Could compel him to this extent!
While Sage's Haki and Physique couldn't match Kaido's, his destructive power was equal, and what truly mattered, in terms of Body Techniques mastery... he was peerless, top of the ocean!
All the afterimages struck Kaido's body, targeting head, chest, kidneys, joints... all secret holes attacked by afterimages simultaneously, emitting a single sound.
Boom!
From Kaido's heart position, a wound first burst open, followed by a chain of internal explosions, erupting bleeding-like jets, transforming him into a bloodstained figure.
Yet the bloodstained figure's arm suddenly twitched, and before all the afterimages vanished, an iron club swung down fiercely, sweeping the front.
"Thundering Hakke!!"
Boom!!
The thunder-entwined iron club fiercely imprinted on Sage's face, sending him flying like a cannonball.
"You're no Joyboy either!"
Kaido raised his iron club, speaking in a deep voice towards the front.
The low-flying Sage continued to soar in the distance, his body trembling before sinking, spinning to land on the ground, half-kneeling.
He grit his teeth, his body shaking slightly at that moment.
That club strike left his consciousness somewhat blurred again.
"I'm an emogirl instead!"
Sage growled lowly: "Joyboy or not, I'm damn well the landlord!"
Joyboy?
He didn't want to be some ghostly thing, but landlord, that he was firmly!