Whoosh!
Luffy tilted his head slightly, his body bending backward at an almost impossible angle.
Two enormous smoke fists grazed past his nose and chest, smashing into empty space and exploding into a spray of water.
"What?!" Smoker exclaimed in shock. The discomfort of his attack missing caused his movements to stall for an instant.
In that moment, when his old force was spent, Luffy snapped his body upright. A sharp gleam flashed in his pitch-black eyes.
"Hehehe, not bad speed, Smoke Guy!"
Luffy's right arm drew back— the classic wind-up of a Gum-Gum Pistol.
But this time, there was no rubbery texture to his fist. Instead, it was coated in a pitch-black, steel-like sheen—deep and heavy.
Armament Haki — Hardening!
Seeing Luffy's seemingly reckless counterattack, Smoker curled his lips into a disdainful sneer. He didn't even bother to fully turn intangible, instead puffing out his chest to take it head-on.
"Fool! Don't think you can hit a Logia just by throwing a punch—"
His mocking words were abruptly jammed in his throat.
BOOM—!!!
A dull, thunderous impact exploded against his abdomen!
There was no hollow sensation of striking smoke—this was a solid, bone-shaking pain, like being rammed head-on by a siege hammer!
Luffy's iron fist, wrapped in Armament Haki, completely ignored the Smoke-Smoke Fruit's intangibility and slammed squarely into Smoker's stomach!
"PUH—HAH!!"
Smoker's eyes bulged violently, blood vessels bursting across the whites.
He opened his mouth, spewing a mouthful of blood mixed with stomach fluid, splattering into the rain.
In that instant, the smug superiority on his face was replaced by utter disbelief and terror.
Whoosh—CRASH!!
Smoker was blasted backward like a cannonball, flying more than ten meters before smashing into the stone wall at the edge of the plaza.
The solid wall caved in with a thunderous crack, rubble cascading down and burying half his body.
"Cough… cough…"
Smoker struggled out of the wreckage, clutching his agonized abdomen, staring in disbelief at the straw-hatted boy shaking rain off his wrist in the distance.
"That was… Armament Haki?!"
His voice was hoarse with shock.
"In the weakest East Blue… how can someone wield this kind of power?!"
Luffy shook the rain from his hand and grinned, flashing a row of white teeth.
"If I didn't know Armament Haki, dealing with a smoky guy like you would actually be pretty annoying!"
"Don't get cocky, Straw Hat!"
Smoker wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes turning vicious.
He grabbed his fallen special weapon—the jitte.
At its tip was embedded Seastone, the natural nemesis of all Devil Fruit users.
One touch was enough to sap an ability user of all strength.
"Don't think you've already won!"
Smoker straightened up, the coat of Justice on his back whipping violently in the wind and rain.
"Beating me… you're still far too early!!"
He stopped using large-scale Devil Fruit attacks—he knew that against Armament Haki, that would just make him a live target.
All his hope now rested on close-quarters combat and the Seastone jitte.
"Soru!"
As a Headquarters colonel, Smoker might not know Haki, but he was still versed in the Six Powers.
He stomped the ground hard, his figure vanishing into the rain in an instant.
The next second, he appeared at Luffy's rear flank, the jitte stabbing forward with a shriek of tearing air, aiming straight for Luffy's waist!
"Die!"
But Luffy didn't even turn around.
"There."
Luffy's eyes sharpened as his body slid left like a loach.
Slash!
The jitte struck nothing.
Smoker gritted his teeth, twisting his wrist as the jitte swept sideways.
Luffy ducked, jumped, sidestepped.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
In the stormy night, Smoker's jitte became a flurry of afterimages. The attacks grew faster, the angles more vicious, every strike aimed to kill.
Yet Luffy was like a seabird in a tempest—no matter how fierce the wind and waves, not a single feather was touched.
Every time, at the very instant the jitte was about to land, he evaded with the smallest possible movement, precise and effortless.
"Damn it! Why can't I hit him?!"
The longer Smoker fought, the more his heart sank—panic and despair creeping in.
Then, a terrifying realization surfaced in his mind.
"Prediction… sensing…"
Smoker's eyes widened as he shouted,
"Observation Haki?!"
"How is that possible?! Armament Haki alone would already be absurd, but Observation too?! These are advanced techniques even Marine vice admirals struggle to fully master!!"
In that moment, Smoker's worldview shattered.
The elite strength he took pride in as a Headquarters colonel looked laughable in front of this East Blue rookie.
"No time to waste here anymore…"
Luffy ignored Smoker's shock.
He glanced at his waiting crewmates, then at the rain growing heavier by the second.
"Let's end this."
Luffy stopped dodging.
As the jitte stabbed toward him again, this time he advanced instead of retreating!
"Armament Haki — Hardening!!!"
Luffy's right arm turned pitch-black in an instant. The condensed Haki was so intense that even the falling rain seemed to veer away.
Facing the Seastone-embedded jitte, Luffy drove his fist straight into the metal shaft!
"Gum-Gum — Bullet!!!"
CRACK—!!!
A sharp, piercing sound of metal snapping rang out across the plaza, louder than even the thunder.
In Smoker's horrified gaze, the jitte that had served him for years—hard and unyielding—was shattered cleanly in two by Luffy's Armament-coated punch!
The broken halves spun through the air.
Luffy's punch didn't stop.
It passed through the destroyed weapon and slammed squarely into Smoker's unguarded chest!
BOOM!!!
Smoker was struck like he'd been hit by a high-speed train. His ribs gave a sickening crack as he was launched dozens of meters backward.
This time, he smashed straight through the wall of a shop, collapsing the entire structure and burying himself in rubble.
For a long while, there was no movement from the ruins.
White Hunter Smoker—defeated.
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