...
On the light screen, the shocking aftershocks from Luffy's earth-shattering declaration of "perseverance resists fire" had not yet fully dissipated. He also gave the two Yonko no extra time to digest this "fallacious reasoning."
Taking advantage of the brief mental blank in Kaido and Big Mom, the battle fire burning in Luffy's eyes had once again boiled to its peak!
Anger at his comrades being injured, the desire to challenge a powerful enemy, and that pure, almost instinctive battle intuition drove him to pour out all his remaining strength without reservation!
"Gomu Gomu no... King Kong Gun Barrage!!!"
Accompanied by a throat-tearing roar, Luffy in his Gear 4 Bounce Man state shot forward like a spring that had been compressed to the extreme!
His figure moved at high speed through the air, leaving afterimages. His fists transformed into a violent storm!
No longer single heavy punches, but countless rubber fist shadows wrapped in flowing Ryuo Haki!
Every punch contained terrifying power capable of collapsing city walls. More deadly was that layer of flowing, almost living Ryuo Haki, which specifically targeted internal defenses!
The massive azure dragon Kaido, with his enormous size and obvious target, was now an excellent living target in Luffy's eyes!
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!!!
Dense as drumbeats and heavy as muffled thunder, the sounds of impacts exploded wildly atop Oni Island!
Luffy's fist shadows poured down like a storm onto Kaido's winding dragon body!
From the dragon's neck to its abdomen, then to its back — almost every relatively vulnerable area was covered!
Every punch that landed was accompanied by the faint cracking of dragon scales and the muffled sound of Ryuo Haki invading flesh, tendons, and bones!
Kaido's massive azure dragon body, under this violent barrage, was actually being struck so hard that it continuously trembled and shook in mid-air, even showing signs of losing balance!
In the ruins below, Law and Kid, who had just barely regained a sliver of consciousness from the lightning strike and were struggling to climb to their feet, looked up at this insane scene and were completely dumbfounded!
"That... that idiot Straw Hat..."
Kid's mouth twitched. Supporting himself with his metal arm, he stared in disbelief at Luffy wildly throwing punches in the air. "He... is actually that strong! This kind of attack frequency and power..."
Law, clutching his still faintly aching chest, had a complicated look in his eyes.
As a doctor, he could see even more clearly the precision and ferocity of Luffy's attacks at this moment!
This was not random punching. Every strike landed precisely on the nodes of the dragon's body or the relatively weak points of the scales, combined with the penetration of Ryuo to maximize destructive power.
What kind of astonishing battle intuition and physical stamina did this require?
Even Charlotte Linlin in the sky was momentarily stunned.
Watching Kaido's massive dragon body being struck in mid-air with loud "boom boom" sounds and continuously trembling, a trace of barely perceptible panic even flashed through her huge dragon eyes. An absurd feeling welled up in her heart.
Kaido...
They knew each other inside and out. They were old rivals, both Emperors of the Sea, both called the "strongest creature on land, sea, and air"...
There would actually come a day when he would be beaten so "brutally" in mid-air by a "snot-nosed brat" in such a savage manner?!
This was simply... unheard of!
Luffy's "King Kong Gun Barrage" continued for several minutes. To the onlookers, these dozen or so seconds felt as though they had been stretched into a century.
Finally, with an even louder roar, Luffy gathered his last remaining strength into his right fist. The Ryuo covering his fist carried the momentum of overturning rivers and seas as he fiercely smashed it into the face of Kaido's Azure Dragon form!
"BOOM!!!"
An unprecedentedly loud explosion!
A terrifying shockwave exploded outward in a spherical shape. Even the clouds in the sky were shaken apart in a ring!
Kaido let out a muffled groan of pain. His massive azure dragon body could no longer maintain flight.
Like a dragon shot down from the sky, he fell heavily toward the skull of Oni Island below with a piercing sound of tearing through the air!
"RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!!"
The earth shook and the mountains trembled...
The entire Oni Island seemed to shake violently!
At the spot where Kaido fell, smoke and dust shot into the sky like a mushroom cloud. Rubble flew everywhere, obscuring everyone's vision!
This massive commotion even penetrated the thick rock layers and reached the banquet hall below, where fierce fighting was still ongoing!
"What was that sound?!"
"Up there... What's happening up there?!"
"It's Lord Kaido! Lord Kaido must have finished off those intruders! Haha!"
"That's right! No one is a match for Lord Kaido!"
Many members of the Beast Pirates were startled at first, then excitedly shouted, blindly believing in their invincible governor.
However, the members of the Straw Hat crew, along with the other rebel warriors who were still fighting bitterly, all raised their heads at the same time and looked toward the direction of the loud noise above.
"Luffy..." Nami gripped her Clima-Tact tightly, her eyes filled with worry and trust.
"That guy... is definitely causing trouble again." Sanji exhaled a smoke ring, but the corner of his mouth slightly curved upward.
"Luffy..." Chopper looked a bit panicked, but his eyes remained firm.
"Believe in him."
Jinbe's steady voice rang out. "He's the man who's going to become the Pirate King."
Atop the skull, the smoke and dust slowly dispersed, revealing a massive crater dozens of meters in diameter.
In mid-air, Luffy maintained his punching posture. His chest heaved violently as he panted out thick white steam.
The white steam gushing from his Gear 4 state had now become much thinner.
That earlier round of insane outburst had almost completely drained all of his stamina and Haki.
Everyone's gazes nervously turned toward the center of the deep pit below.
Kaido's massive azure dragon body was half-embedded in the bottom of the pit and half exposed outside.
His eyes had rolled back, his dragon mouth was slightly open, and he seemed to have lost consciousness. For a moment, he remained completely still.
That appearance, combined with the smoke and ruins surrounding him, truly gave people a shocking illusion of... "an Emperor of the Sea being shot down"!
"D-Did we...?" Kid's eyes widened, his breathing rapid.
"Did we succeed...?" Law also held his breath. Even the hand gripping Kikoku trembled slightly.
Even Charlotte Linlin temporarily stopped moving. Her huge eyes were fixed on the bottom of the pit, her face filled with disbelief.
At this moment, time seemed to freeze.
In the hearts of Kid and Law, the seemingly unshakable throne of the Yonko seemed to have truly developed a clear crack along with Kaido's "miserable" fall!
"Now's the chance... one final blow!"
Luffy's eyes sharpened. Enduring the fatigue and emptiness in his body, he once again raised his fist. Ryuo slowly began to re-condense on it with difficulty.
He wanted to seize this opportunity and deliver a decisive finishing blow to Kaido!
However...
Just as he was gathering power to throw the punch, a sudden, intense feeling of dizziness and disorientation struck him!
Luffy's vision instantly blurred. His ears rang. An indescribable weakness and emptiness spread through his limbs!
"Sh-Shit..."
Luffy's heart sank. He inwardly cursed.
This familiar feeling...
The moment this thought appeared in Luffy's mind, it immediately came true. His inflated Gear 4 body began rapidly shrinking at a visible speed, like a balloon with a leak!
"Pshhh!!!"
The sound of leaking air was clearly audible!
Like a kite with its string cut, Luffy lost balance in mid-air and began uncontrollably bouncing and tumbling around!
His Gear 4 form could no longer be maintained. It was forcibly released!
"It's over! Straw Hat captain!" Law's expression changed drastically.
"Tch! Why at a time like this?!" Kid also clenched his fists.
Outside the light screen, God Valley.
"We're in trouble!"
Gaban's brows were tightly locked, his face filled with regret. "Straw Hat's Gear 4 form really couldn't overcome the weaknesses of time limit and massive consumption after all!"
"Combining fully released Haki with Devil Fruit abilities produces great power, but the burden on the body and mind is fatal!"
Having previously witnessed Luffy's battle against Bullet, Gaban was very clear about the advantages and disadvantages of this form.
However, Gloriosa rested her chin on her hand. A thoughtful and puzzled light flickered in her perceptive beautiful eyes.
She pointed at Luffy on the light screen, who was currently leaking air, spraying white steam all over, and rapidly shrinking in size, and raised a question that had previously caused quite a stir: "But... don't you all find this very strange?"
Her voice carried a trace of amusement. "Looking at it now, Straw Hat Luffy's so-called Gear 4 form looks much more like... a Zoan transformation!"
"Look, his body shape has undergone a massive change, and there's that unique white steam..."
She paused, then turned her gaze toward the bottom of the pit, where Kaido had just begun to stir and similar clouds of mist were beginning to rise from his body.
"Take another look at Kaido. When he transforms into an azure dragon, doesn't he also have similar mist swirling around him? Although the color and nature are different, the external characteristics it brings are incredibly similar!"
Gloriosa's words were like a stone thrown into a lake, stirring up new ripples.
"Previously Shakky also said that the Paramecia-type Rubber Fruit... possesses transformation abilities similar to a Zoan?"
Many Marines and pirates repeated this in low voices, expressions of disbelief appearing on their faces.
This truly went against the basic common sense of Devil Fruit classifications!
Little Loki also seemed to remember something and excitedly joined the conversation: "That's right, that's right! And don't forget, this straw hat brat can also turn into that 'pure white warrior' form!
That posture really looks a lot like the 'Liberating Sun God' of our Elbaf! Back then, old man Aruru and the others saw the silhouette on the light screen and were all completely stunned!"
"Pure white warrior... Liberating warrior..."
These words linked together, causing the atmosphere at the scene to suddenly become subtle and profound.
The pirates' eyes flickered with even more curiosity and investigative light, while the people on the World Government side, especially the Five Elders, although they still appeared calm on the surface...
The subtle exchanges in their glances had suddenly become much more frequent and grave!
Saint Saturn's fingers, clasped behind his back, moved slightly. Saint Nusjuro's eyelids twitched almost imperceptibly.
Luffy's abnormal Devil Fruit ability and its possible connection to that forbidden legend had always been the biggest thorn in their hearts.
Seeing Luffy's Gear 4 display characteristics that resembled a Zoan, along with Gloriosa and Little Loki's words, this thorn had been driven in even deeper.
Saint Nusjuro gave a slight nod. A cold light flickered in his aged eyes.
At this moment, Saint Saturn spoke to his colleagues in his usual calm tone, which carried a trace of barely perceptible anxiety, voicing the shared hidden concern in everyone's hearts:
"I now have a very bad feeling. This straw hat brat, Monkey D. Luffy — his growth speed and the potential he has shown... have already exceeded our initial estimates."
"Even the future Kaido was once suppressed by him to this extent... If we cannot effectively restrain or even eliminate him in time in the future, I'm afraid..."
He did not finish speaking, but the unspoken implication hung over the Five Elders like a cold, dark cloud.
Straw Hat Luffy — this seemingly reckless, erratic-thinking youth who often did things that left people torn between laughter and tears — the mysteries surrounding him and the power he displayed...
Were truly growing larger and larger like a snowball, more and more clearly pointing toward a terrifying future that none of them wished to see.
...…