“Damn it!”
All it took was that single minor error.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kaidou’s bloodthirsty grin was already right in front of his face!
“Flaw!!” Kaidou roared.
As if hopped up on stimulants, he swung his spiked club around in a full arc, smashing it straight toward Carlo’s face.
“You damn Lonz!”
Red light flashed in Carlo’s eyes.
In the split second before the spiked club could crush his face, he jerked his head back.
The spikes of the club grazed past his eyelids, leaving a few shallow, bloody scratches across his skin.
[Observation Haki +0.2!]
*Observation Haki went up too?* Carlo blinked, instantly overjoyed.
As expected of an instructor-level master—the curriculum was nothing if not comprehensive.
“You were just smiling, weren’t you?”
In the very second he rejoiced, a massive hand snatched out from above.
With a crushing bearhug, Kaidou lifted Carlo right off the ground.
Carlo’s neck was locked tightly in Kaidou’s terrifyingly thick left arm.
Meanwhile, Kaidou’s right hand clamped onto the crown of Carlo’s head, twisting with frantic power to tear his head right off his neck!
Kaidou’s move caught Carlo completely off guard.
This guy actually dropped his spiked club to fight him hand-to-hand!
His Observation Haki, which had been fully focused on guarding against the club, failed to react to such a sudden shift.
Damn it!
Kaidou wasn’t playing by the rules at all!
Carlo hesitated for only a fraction of a second, but warning bells were already screaming in his mind.
The horrific force grinding against his throat made his expression turn grave.
“Worororo!
Got you, you bratty Marine!”
“I’m gonna twist your neck right off your head!”
His eyes bloodshot and his face twisted in a brutal sneer, Kaidou locked his left arm tightly around Carlo’s neck and body.
His arm was simply too massive.
It clamped Carlo’s entire upper body, arms included, in a vice-like grip.
Muscles and veins bulged along his free right arm as he ruthlessly cranked against Carlo’s slender neck.
Carlo instantly heard the sickening popping sounds of his vertebrae straining under the immense force.
If he didn’t break free immediately, his neck would be snapped like a dry twig by Kaidou’s brute strength!
“You’ve got it fucking backward!!”
The shock of mortal peril made Carlo’s blood surge like a torrential flood.
His heart hammered in his chest, and his white hair stood on end.
But Kaidou wasn’t about to let him slip away so easily.
He poured every ounce of his savage strength into the hold.
For a moment, both men froze in place, locked in a hysterical, life-or-death contest of raw power.
Carlo’s neck was slowly forced to the left by Kaidou’s grip, only for Carlo, eyes bloodshot, to force it back straight millimeter by millimeter.
Waves of pitch-black Armament Haki surged out from deep within him, wrapping layer upon layer around his vulnerable neck.
“Snap already!!” Kaidou roared in frustration.
“Snap your mother!!” Carlo snarled back, stiffening his neck.
“Don’t talk about my mom!!” Kaidou flew into a fury.
“I’m not just cursing your mom, I’m cursing your mom’s mom too!!”
“Waaaaah!
I’m definitely breaking your neck today!”
“You can’t do it!
You’ll never fucking do it!”
The two red-faced, vein-popping men stood in the middle of Rocky Port’s shattered town square, locked in a duel of pure physical strain.
The very air across the island seemed to scorch with tension.
Throughout this mad, life-or-death grapple, the mechanical system prompts in Carlo’s mind sounded ceaselessly:
[Physique +0.5!]
[Physique +0.6!]
[Physique +0.5!]
[Armament Haki +0.2!]
[Armament Haki +0.15!]
Finally—
No one could say how much time had passed.
Perhaps a mere few minutes.
Or perhaps they had been deadlocked for hours.
The moment the attribute representing the physical limits of his body ticked from 69.9 up to 70.0 in Carlo’s mind, he suddenly froze in Kaidou’s grip, his eyes going blank as if falling into a trance.
Feeling Carlo stop resisting, Kaidou—whose muscles were already burning with exhaustion—was instantly overjoyed.
“Worororo!
Out of strength at last, you slippery Marine brat?”
Laughing madly, he flexed his thick right arm, gripping Carlo’s head to snap it off once and for all.
Kaidou believed that as long as Carlo wasn’t fighting back, snapping his neck would be as effortless as snapping a cannon barrel!
Yet, when his five fingers dug in and applied torque, the resistance pushing back against his grip didn’t lessen—it increased.
Carlo wasn’t even actively exerting himself.
And yet, a power far stronger than before burst forth from his neck.
“What the hell?”
In his bewildered vision, the muscles on Carlo’s neck were pulsing like living creatures.
Bundles of tendons seemed to come alive, twining and braiding together like writhing vipers, forming thick pythons and soaring dragons.
His bulging muscles seemed to transcend mere flesh, transforming into springs, into rubber.
While possessing immense elasticity, they bore the impenetrable density of steel.
To his fingers, it felt like pulling on a fully drawn bowstring, automatically rebounding with explosive force.
Incredible elasticity!
“This muscle texture…”
Feeling the springy density of Carlo’s flesh and watching his own left arm—which had been strangling Carlo’s neck—get forced open millimeter by millimeter, Kaidou’s expression turned into one of utter disbelief.
Wasn’t the explosive power surging within Carlo’s newly evolved body identical to his own innate steel-like physique?
But…
How was that possible?!
Carlo’s body had been so much weaker just moments ago!
He stared blankly at Carlo, whose face was breaking into a radiant, brilliant smile.
“Your body…”
“Did it get stronger?”
“To the point of matching mine?!”
“How is that possible?!”
“Impossible!!”
“That’s fucking impossible!!”
Kaidou’s entire worldview was collapsing.
What kind of joke was this?!
In the time it took to do a simple wrestling hold, this Marine brat’s physical body had become as monster-like as his own?
What kind of bullshit was this?!
Looking at the stunned Kaidou, the smile on Carlo’s face grew brighter than ever.
“Thanks for the hard work, Kaidou-sensei.”
“Thank you for your guidance.”
Feeling the tremendous power surging through his body like a tsunami, like an erupting volcano, and noticing his physique gains slowing down from 0.5 and 0.6 down to 0.02 and 0.01 in his mind, Carlo knew that Kaidou no longer posed a significant threat to him.
Kaidou’s current strength could no longer trigger his body’s instincts to rapidly evolve and grow stronger.
In that case…
Carlo raised his arms and flexed with explosive power.
*BOOM!!*
The air in front of them shattered with a shockwave as Kaidou’s arm locking his neck was violently hurled open by Carlo.
Carlo touched down and, with the gentlest push of his soles, launched backward like a coiled spring, landing and spinning around to face Kaidou from a dozen meters away.
He shook out his arms and looked at Kaidou, who was still dazed.
“Now…
it’s my turn.”