One Piece: The user of the Nen-Nen Fruit, who overturned the sea.

Kaido stood in the middle of the ruins, with the Eight Guards on his shoulder, looking at the trembling Straw Hat boy with his head down, his disappointment growing heavier and heavier.

That's it?

Roy raved about this kid like crazy, calling him some kind of sun god Nika.

What a joke, Joey Boy, he got a few whacks and ended up like this.

He couldn't even speak.

Kaido shook his head, the smell of alcohol emanating from his nostrils.

"It's boring."

He strode towards Luffy, each step making a dull thud on the gravel.

"I thought you could hold on a little longer, but it seems I was wrong."

Luffy kept his head down, the brim of his straw hat obscuring his face.

His body was trembling, his fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Kaido walked up to him and looked down at the brat who wasn't even as tall as his waist.

"If you can't speak, then never speak."

The eight precepts are raised high.

The black and red lightning wrapped around the spiked club pulsed wildly, drawing a ferocious arc across the night sky.

Kaido didn't hold back with this strike.

He didn't want to play anymore.

Since this kid is already useless, let's just send him on his way.

The eight precepts, imbued with destructive power, crashed down.

Just as the spiked club was about to smash into Luffy's head, Luffy moved.

He didn't look up, but his right arm lashed out like a whip.

The arm underwent a dramatic change the moment it was swung out—Armament Haki erupted from its pores, turning the entire forearm a deep, dark black, even more so than the night itself.

Immediately afterwards, black and red lightning exploded from the fist.

It wasn't the faint, scattered arcs of electricity from before, but a real, well-formed, domineering lightning bolt that spread in all directions like tree roots.

Lightning and Armament Haki intertwined, forming an energy layer on the fist that kept expanding and contracting.

Kaido's pupils suddenly contracted.

He tried to pull back and defend, but it was too late.

Luffy's fist slammed solidly into his abdomen.

The power of that punch was completely different from before.

It wasn't the penetration of Ryuo, nor the hardening of Armament Haki, but the true entanglement of Conqueror's Haki—

He compressed his Conqueror's Haki to its limit, then wrapped it around his fist, releasing it all at the moment of attack.

Kaido felt his dragon scales being dented by the impact, and then the domineering energy penetrated through the scales and skin, exploding in his muscle layer.

Black and red lightning shot out from behind him, exploding into a dark red spark in the night sky.

Kaido was blasted away.

His massive body, nearly seven meters tall, rolled across the ruins, smashing through several boulders before finally crashing heavily onto a broken stone pillar.

The stone pillar snapped in half, and rubble collapsed down, burying half of Kaido beneath it.

The entire roof of the Skull Hall fell into a deathly silence in that instant.

Everyone stared blankly at Luffy.

Zoro stood up, leaning on his sword, his golden eyes filled with disbelief.

Sanji dropped the cigarette he was holding onto the ground, and his mouth opened so wide it could fit an egg.

Kidd's metal arm stopped halfway through its formation, and his expression looked like he had seen a ghost.

Apoo's right arm was ruined, but he forgot about the pain at that moment, staring wide-eyed at the black and red lightning still dancing on Luffy's fist.

"...Conqueror's Haki enveloping me?!"

Hawkins' hand, which was about to flip the card, froze in mid-air, and for the first time, a look of discomposure appeared on his poker face.

"When did he learn that?!"

Kin'emon, one of the Nine Red Scabbards who was still conscious, knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his wrinkled face, but he wasn't crying; he was laughing.

The kind of smile that appears only after witnessing a miracle.

"Lord Luffy...you did it..."

At that moment, in a secret room deep within Ghost Island, Roy opened his eyes.

His telekinesis constantly covered the entire Skull Palace, and nothing that happened on the battlefield escaped his perception.

Luffy's punch just now—it wasn't a coincidence, nor was it a fluke; it was a true manifestation of Conqueror's Haki.

Although it was still very rough, and the way it was condensed was still clumsy, it was indeed a powerful binding force.

In just a few days, he went from knowing nothing to having a basic grasp of the subject; this speed of progress cannot be explained by talent alone.

Roy put down his coffee cup and shook his head.

He recalled the countless battles he had fought in order to master Conqueror's Haki.

It took a lot of practice to hone this skill.

And what about this kid?

He learned it after getting hit a few times.

"That's really...unreasonable."

Roy muttered a curse under his breath, but a smile crept onto his lips.

He closed his eyes again, his telekinetic energy continuing to cover the battlefield.

Luffy's awakening is still one step away from completion. He has only mastered the Binding Technique and is still some distance away from the true awakening of Nikka.

But at least, he has taken the most crucial step.

Amidst the ruins, Luffy looked down at his fist.

The black and red lightning was still slowly dancing on the surface of the fist, making a faint crackling sound.

He could feel that power—completely different from Ryuo, it didn't seep in from the outside, but erupted from within.

When he was hit by Kaido's spiked club, that domineering force entered his body in that way.

Now he finally understands.

Conqueror's Haki Entanglement involves compressing Conqueror's Haki to its maximum and then wrapping it around the fist.

Release all of this power at the moment of attack.

Very simple.

But it's also very difficult.

If he hadn't been hit by Kaido so many times, he would never have been able to master the secret of this power.

Luffy looked up at the pile of rubble that buried Kaido.

Kaido stood up from the pile of rubble, his body still steaming.

He looked down at his abdomen.

There was a deep fist mark on the dragon scale there, and the edges of the scales were broken, with a few traces of blood seeping out.

Kaido reached out and touched the fist mark, his fingertips stained with a smear of dark red blood.

He held his finger up to his eyes and looked at it, then burst into laughter.

"Ooh lol lol lol lol lol!!!"

Kaido's Conqueror's Haki erupted once more, and black and red lightning spread wildly outwards from him.

The rubble was shaken and bounced off the ground, and a suffocating sense of oppression filled the air.

He finished laughing, lowered his head, and stared at Luffy with his vertical pupils burning with fighting spirit.

"Straw Hat Boy—you really didn't disappoint me!!!"

Luffy grinned.

His fist clenched again, and the Conqueror's Haki lightning coiled around him once more, even more steadily than before.

Luffy clenched his fist and turned to look at his wounded companions behind him.

Zoro could barely stand by supporting himself on his sword, and blood dripped from his hand down the hilt of the sword.

Sanji's right leg was still trembling slightly; the numbness from being struck by lightning hadn't completely subsided.

Although Kidd's metal arm had reformed, his breathing was heavy like a broken bellows, and his magnetic force had been exhausted to the limit.

Luo leaned against the broken stone pillar, his face deathly pale. The continuous use of the Op-Op Fruit had nearly exhausted his strength.

The Nine Red Scabbards fared even worse; less than half of them could still stand, and all of them were injured.

Luffy looked at them and suddenly spoke.

"Terraman".

"You still have the energy, right?"