ryethenovel Chapter 211: Kaido, You Bastard
Chapter 211: Kaido, You Bastard
Whitebeard didn't bother answering Kaido's ridiculous non-question. Instead, he hefted his blade and pressed forward, cutting his way through.
"Clear out these incubation nests first, then we'll go pay that big guy a visit!"
"Lord Roya equipped us with portable teleportation beacons—yes, for our safety, but also to allow flexible deployment of top-tier combat power."
"But does that mean we can use them as an excuse to cower and avoid battle?!"
Whitebeard's psychic transmission reverberated through the minds of the warband leaders. Their spirits immediately surged, battle intent burning brighter than ever as they pressed on toward the end of the tunnel.
At the far end, a swarm of vampiric demons blocked the way, defending the still-hatching and slumbering brood within. They too showed no fear of death.
Blades, spiked clubs, fangs, and claws clashed in a relentless storm.
With each clash, another demon fell. Yet with each clash, the armored exoskeletons of the power suits bore new gouges and bite marks from the vampires' savage attacks.
Individually, these scars seemed negligible—but accumulated, they shifted from quantity into quality, inflicting real structural damage to the mechs.
"These suits are too valuable. We can't keep this up forever. Rotate out and use psychic cannons to blast them!"
With a barked command, Whitebeard withdrew from the front line. Kaido, perfectly in sync, swung his spiked club in wide arcs to cover the gap left behind.
Freeing his hands, Whitebeard focused his mind, channeling psychic force into the core. Drawing raw energy from the warp, he funneled it through conduits into the twin shoulder-mounted cannons.
Twin lances of sky-blue energy roared forth, streaking past the edge of Kaido's club and ripping into the tightly packed swarm of vampires ahead.
The beams punched through bodies by the dozen. Limbs and torsos burst apart into fragments wherever they grazed. Any unfortunate enough to be pierced through the chest or abdomen had a gaping hole torn open, their life force consumed in an instant.
The twin blasts tore all the way through, colliding with something deeper in the brood chamber—triggering a violent explosion. Shredded limbs and gore blasted outward, splattering the corridor.
Whitebeard was pleased with the destructive power. After a brief pause to let the mech's energy flow stabilize, he once again charged in with his blade.
The cannons hadn't consumed an overwhelming amount of power—not like when linked together in a parallel discharge, which risked overload—but the drain on Whitebeard's psychic reserves was still immense.
Their psychic awakening was still recent. Their capacity and control had vast room for growth. After firing a twin salvo, rest was mandatory to recover strength.
As Whitebeard's Murakumogiri carved forward, Kaido pulled back in turn. Without even a moment of buildup, twin spheres of red and blue energy exploded from his cannons.
Trust Kaido to insist on being flashy in everything.
Even his psychic cannon fire was different—massive, spherical blasts for area devastation instead of Whitebeard's concentrated beams, heedless of collateral damage.
The detonation ripped through the clustered demons in a storm of flesh and blood. Mech armor was drenched in gore. The shockwave was so fierce that Whitebeard and the others had to stagger backward again and again to avoid being caught in it.
"Kaido, you bastard!"
"Hah! Now that's what I call satisfying! Damn, this thing feels incredible!"
Whitebeard's furious roar and Kaido's ecstatic laughter overlapped. Kaido surged forward into the disrupted swarm, club swinging wildly.
Two razor-thin psychic beams suddenly sizzled past his shoulder, close enough to raise cold sweat on his neck.
Yeah, blasting enemies with psychic cannons was exhilarating—but being hit by them was the last thing Kaido wanted.
Snarling, he glanced back—just in time to see Squard dart past with a slashing strike, shoulder cannons already unleashing another pair of narrow energy beams that lanced into the vampire horde.
These crimson beams were thinner than Whitebeard's, but moved in a sweeping, cutting arc. The killing efficiency was staggering.
And clearly, the energy cost was far lower than the wasteful blasts Whitebeard and Kaido favored—perfect for mowing down vast numbers of enemies.
But to fire like that required impossibly fine psychic control. Not just anyone could pull it off.
Whitebeard couldn't help but marvel: "This kid's really lucky… to have received Lord Roya's personal instruction in both training and combat technique. At least when it comes to energy control, we've already been left in the dust."
The least conspicuous of the group, Kizaru and Aokiji, exchanged glances—and then promptly tried imitating Squard's technique.
They hadn't forgotten how Squard once crushed them into the dirt, grinding them down without mercy.
If you can't beat him, join him. And learn how he fights.
Golden-yellow and icy-blue beams, varied in size and shape, began cutting through the vampire swarm.
But their control was clumsy. Unlike Squard's perfectly aligned cutting arcs, their beams wobbled drunkenly. Sometimes slicing through several demons at once, other times stabbing straight into a wall, missing everything.
Worse, their coordination was a mess. Firing cannons meant their melee attacks faltered. Swinging blades meant their cannons fell silent.
Squard, by contrast, moved with seamless grace—blade and shoulder cannons in perfect harmony, attacking exactly where needed with no hesitation or error.
Still, Kizaru and Aokiji were geniuses. Their adaptability was monstrous. Very quickly, their rhythm improved, strikes and cannon fire gradually meshing into smoother coordination.
Whitebeard and Kaido, however, weren't suited for that style. They stuck with alternating salvoes, adjusting power and timing to maximize efficiency.
Together, the group's advance grew faster and smoother with every clash.
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