Chapter 96: Unmatched

"Fia, get inside my castle, you'll be safe there," Bege said gently, picking up the trembling little girl. He comforted her briefly before using his ability to shrink Fia, along with Gabo and Limu, pulling them into his internal fortress. He quickly did the same for his crew members, leaving only his core combatants – Moria, Weevil, and a few others – outside with him.

Ingram was sent flying by Kira's powerful punch. Moving at speeds approaching Soru, Kira appeared instantly before Bege. A horrifying, bloodthirsty laugh echoed from the monster as its tiger claw, stained with blood and gore, descended towards Bege's head.

"Dare to touch my brother?! You wanna die?!" Weevil roared, intercepting the attack with a massive punch of his own that slammed into Kira's enormous body, sending the monster flying backward.

As Kira hurtled through the air, he was suddenly struck by another powerful force – Ingram had appeared behind him in mid-air, delivering a vicious kick that slammed Kira down into the earth below.

Kira burst upwards from the resulting crater, his bloodshot primary eyes and dozens of swiveling compound eyes scanning everyone present. His gaze held nothing but pure, frenzied killing intent and overwhelming bloodlust.

"Let's take him down together!" Bege shouted, exchanging a determined look with Ingram. The group – Bege, Ingram, Moria, and Weevil – charged Kira simultaneously.

Kira threw a punch at Ingram. Moria instantly flashed out from behind Ingram, his shadow extending rapidly along the ground, coalescing into a sharp Shadow Horn Spear that erupted violently upwards towards Kira. Kira reacted with blinding speed, shattering the spear with a single punch.

Weevil roared, swinging his massive Bisento down in a powerful arc. Just as Kira began to move to dodge, Ingram lunged forward, locking onto Kira's arm and momentarily halting his movement. Weevil's blade slammed mercilessly onto Kira's leg, carving out a gruesome wound. Strangely, however, despite Weevil's immense power – enough to cleave through mountain-sized Sea Kings – the blow didn't sever the limb, highlighting Kira's unnatural durability.

Kira stumbled back uncontrollably for two steps. Ingram pressed the advantage, his thick bear fists becoming a blur, unleashing a flurry of overlapping punches that struck Kira's chest like boulders, driving him back further. Bege suddenly appeared behind Kira via Soru, slashing down hard with the Fire Cloud Sword. A wave of fiery sword energy struck Kira's back, leaving another deep, bleeding gash.

Yet, Kira seemed utterly impervious to pain. His left hand flashed out with lightning speed, catching Ingram's incoming fist. His grip tightened like iron pincers. Ingram instantly coated his arm in Armament Haki, but Kira simultaneously hardened his tiger claws with an even denser layer of Haki. Crack! Crack! Crack! With a sickening sound, Kira tore a large chunk of flesh and skin directly from Ingram's arm. Cold sweat broke out on Ingram's brow from the searing agony.

"One Sword Style – Rhino Horn!" Bege unleashed his technique, sending a massive flaming rhinoceros construct charging forward, its three-meter horn capable of shattering a small mountain. Kira spun abruptly, meeting the charge head-on, clapping his massive tiger claws together onto the fiery horn. The entire rhinoceros construct exploded violently upon impact, the force flattening the ground across a ten-meter radius.

"Raging Slash!" Weevil roared, taking a deep breath as his muscles bulged beneath his skin. He swung his Bisento with tremendous force, unleashing a colossal wave of pure sword energy that ripped through the air towards Kira at astonishing speed.

Kira let out a crazed howl, meeting the incoming slash with a barrage of incredibly fast punches, like cannon fire, managing to shatter the sword energy wave through sheer brute force. However, his hands were mangled in the process, flesh torn open, exposing raw bone beneath the blood dripping from his tiger claws.

At that exact moment, another thick Shadow Horn Spear shot down from above, piercing straight through Kira's body from back to chest.

Kira unleashed a horrifying shriek of agony, frantically smashing the shadow spear protruding from his chest.

Bege had been waiting for this opening. Flames erupted along the Fire Cloud Sword. "Myriad Flame Dragons!" he bellowed, unleashing over ten searing, dragon-shaped slashes of fire that converged on Kira. Kira's numerous compound eyes whirled frantically as he coated his body in Armament Haki. The flame dragons exploded against his defenses.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" With a shriek like tearing metal, Kira staggered back several steps, his body engulfed in flames, blood spraying wildly from over ten new, deep-to-the-bone gashes across his chest.

Ingram appeared instantly above the staggered Kira, bringing both fists down hard onto the monster's head, driving him deep into the ground. Ingram didn't stop, pinning Kira down and raining down a furious barrage of blows until the monstrous figure finally stopped resisting.

"It's finally… over," Ingram gasped, breathing heavily, relief washing over him.

Bege also let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, though his brow remained tightly furrowed. Kira had endured their combined assault, suffering multiple wounds that should have been instantly fatal. Yet, somehow, he wasn't dead. Bege watched, disturbed, as the gruesome injuries on Kira's body already began to visibly knit themselves back together.

His most pressing concern now resurfaced: Who could have created such terrifying Modified Humans? Who exactly was Fia's father?

But the ordeal wasn't over yet. Suddenly, the downed Kira's hand shot out, grabbing Ingram's arm with surprising strength and violently throwing him aside. Kira pushed himself back to his feet, his body beginning to undergo another shocking transformation.

He rapidly swelled in size again. His skin shifted from its previous hue to a sickly green, thick veins bulging grotesquely beneath the surface like writhing snakes. The keratinous plates on his cheeks grew quickly, merging together to form a complete, terrifying mask that covered his face from the eyes down. The massive wounds on his chest were squeezed shut and rapidly healed as his body expanded. When the transformation finally ceased, Kira stood a towering nine meters tall, easily twice as muscular as before – a true muscle-bound giant of horrifying proportions.

Inside the damaged steel building hidden within the shattered mountain at the island's center, a middle-aged man in a white doctor's coat watched the distant battle through a pair of binoculars. Seeing Kira's second transformation, his eyes lit up with manic excitement.

"Another transformation! Excellent! Kira's latent potential has been stimulated once more! Just as I suspected, his potential is the greatest of them all!"

His excitement quickly turned to dismay. "But this is terrible… After transforming three times, Kira's strength will have surged exponentially. There's no one left on this island capable of stopping him now!"

The transformed Kira was exponentially fiercer. He vanished, instantly appearing before Bege and kicking him contemptuously, sending him flying. His speed was now even greater than before. Moria and Weevil, who had just recovered, were similarly blasted away moments later before they could even react. Ingram charged back into the fray but was immediately slammed down onto the ground by Kira, who then grabbed Ingram's head and brutally ground his face along the earth like a runaway train, carving a trench hundreds of meters long before finally smashing him deep into the shattered terrain.

Kira threw his head back and let out a triumphant, deafening roar that shook the entire island, causing the native wildlife deep within the forests to tremble in terror.

He turned his head, his myriad compound eyes fixing onto Bege and the others struggling to rise. He took one step, then blurred across the distance in a series of flashes, appearing directly before Bege. He threw a devastating punch, the force ripping the air with a deafening sonic boom that exploded in Bege's ears.

Bege pushed Soru to its absolute limit, barely managing to evade the savage blow.

But Kira's next punch connected squarely, blasting Bege dozens of meters away once again. Weevil and Moria climbed painfully back to their feet, only to be immediately smashed back down by Kira with contemptuous ease.

"Damn it!" Bege spat out a mouthful of blood, glaring with hatred. "If I weren't already so injured, you think you could act so smug before me?!"

Kira stood amidst the wreckage, looking down imperiously upon them all, his eyes radiating nothing but pure, unrestrained, murderous insanity.

Yet, before he could launch another attack, Kira's monstrous body suddenly... convulsed. Then, without warning...

BOOM!

It exploded. Violently. Chunks of green flesh, shattered bone, and gore rained down, splattering across the devastated landscape, leaving only a large, rapidly spreading pool of foul-smelling blood where the seemingly invincible monster had stood just moments before.

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