"Nani!!!!"
The view slowly pulled back, starting from the three main fighters standing on full alert, then gradually revealing Sadgeo's full body.
He bared his teeth in a grin, then, as if struck by inspiration, started blowing air into his wrist as well.
"Fuuu!!!"
Smoke began to swirl around him. Along with it came the shockwave of a massive burst of compressed air, followed by a deep thunderous rumble.
Boom...
Boom...
Boom...
When the smoke finally cleared, a gigantic Bounceman was revealed, bouncing up and down across the ground. Every time he touched down, the earth shattered for dozens of meters.
"Gear Fourth, Bounceman Giant!!!"
Sadgeo's expression grew fierce, as if he still was not fully accustomed to his air-filled body.
"This is..."
The Straw Hat crew froze in place.
Because what stood before them was essentially an enlarged version of Luffy.
A forty-meter-tall Luffy.
"Stop copying me already!!!"
Creak creak creak creak!
With a furious roar, Luffy clenched his left fist and compressed it inward, producing a springlike creaking sound.
"Gum-Gum... Culverin Cannon!!!"
Sadgeo did not back down in the slightest. He compressed his own arm the same way, then hurled a fist even larger than Luffy's entire body straight forward.
Boom!!!!
Crack crack crack crack!!!!
Black-red lightning raged wildly.
The moment their punches collided, the ground within several hundred meters began to split apart.
"Well, I do hate you a little, but there's no blood feud between us."
"Join me. Let's seize this world together."
Sadgeo laughed wantonly, his ambition boiling over.
"I'm not interested in seizing the world at all!!!"
"I'm going to become the Pirate King and the freest man on this sea!!!"
Luffy glared at him, gritting his teeth as he flatly rejected the offer.
But Sadgeo only found him naive and foolish.
"Once you seize the world, what dream can't you realize???"
"This world may be free, but that freedom can only be granted by me!!!"
"What kind of freedom is that supposed to be!!!"
"Ahhhh!!!"
Luffy exerted all his strength, gas blasting continuously from beneath his feet as he forced out more power.
"That's right. That's our captain."
A slightly magnetic voice sounded from behind Sadgeo at that moment.
Blazing flames wrapped around a leg as Sanji came bursting down through the air with Sky Walk, then twisted his body and gathered power for a kick straight at Sadgeo's head.
"Diable Jambe, Dragonfin Shot!!!"
Sadgeo's pupils shifted. He could not turn around, but that did not mean he could not block it.
Clang!
Armament Haki hardened his arm in an instant, black Haki coating his elbow as he drove it backward to meet Sanji's flaming leg, producing a violent explosion on impact.
"Damn it!!!"
That kick had landed solidly, colliding directly with the Haki-coated elbow, instantly filling Sanji's eyes with blood vessels.
A faint cracking sound echoed from his leg.
The bone... had cracked...
"You won't beat me that easily!!!"
Sadgeo laughed, then suddenly increased the force in his arms, smashing Bounceman Luffy straight back into the ground with one punch.
Just as he was about to follow it up, several cannonballs suddenly dropped from above, along with a few strange plant seeds and streaks of lightning.
All of them came flying toward Sadgeo at once.
Though his Observation Haki let him coat himself in Armament ahead of time, the attacks still disrupted him.
Sadgeo's massive frame slowly turned toward the remaining Straw Hats.
There was seriousness on his face now.
"Don't think I'll hold back just because you're weak!!!"
Already huge to begin with, his transformed Bounceman Giant body was like a small mountain.
When that serious gaze settled on them, the sheer pressure was overwhelming. The rest of the Straw Hat crew turned pale.
"We're done for!!!"
"Damn it!!!"
Lightning was completely useless against rubber. Only Usopp kept firing plant after plant, but they had no real effect on Sadgeo at all.
Creak creak creak creak!
His fist sank back into his arm as Sadgeo began charging up power.
On the other side, Zoro, whose arm had already been injured from his previous clash with Sadgeo, saw this and instantly narrowed his eye.
"This is bad!!!"
Then he shot forward without hesitation.
"Gum-Gum..."
"Bounceman Gatling!!!"
Meter-wide fists wrapped in Armament Haki poured down toward the Straw Hat crew like a storm.
The punches came so fast they left afterimages behind. Every single blow pulverized dozens of meters of ground into dust, kicking up clouds of smoke that spread for hundreds of meters like a collapsing mountain.
"Zoro!!!"
Luffy, who had just crawled back out of the crater in the ground, cried out hoarsely.
Sanji, his bone cracked from that single elbow strike, stared blankly toward the others. His cigarette fell to the ground as his pupils trembled.
"No... no way..."
Despair surged up in him.
It felt just like two years ago at Sabaody, when they had faced an enemy they had absolutely no chance of defeating.
That helpless feeling of watching his comrades vanish...
Luffy and Sanji both stood there with mouths agape, unable to say a word.
But after the barrage, Sadgeo retracted his stretched fists and his eyes narrowed.
"What an incredible will..."
"You bastard!!!"
As the clouds of dust slowly cleared, watched by the fish-men living safely on the protected half of Fish-Man Island, Luffy and Sanji stared in utter disbelief.
Zoro was standing there.
Three swords crossed before him in a defensive stance.
Behind him, completely unharmed, stood the rest of the Straw Hat crew, wrapped in Chopper's reinforced fur protection.
"Zoro!!!" Luffy shouted excitedly.
"You mosshead..." Sanji finally let out a breath.
But then...
"Puah!!!"
A huge mouthful of blood burst from Zoro's mouth. His whole body looked like it was about to fall apart. His gaze almost lost focus as he dropped to one knee and collapsed toward the ground.
"Puah..."
He had taken every single one of Sadgeo's Gear Fourth attacks head-on, forcibly enduring them through raw physical toughness and Haki.
Now Zoro had entered critical condition, coughing up blood over and over.
"Zoro!!!"
"Zoro?!"
"You mosshead!!!"
Everyone cried out in alarm.
Luffy's expression turned terrifyingly cold, while red flowing Haki gradually began to emerge around him.
This was the power he had awakened in the two years of special training, forged in life-and-death combat against Old Gick's strongest bodyguard.
Ryuo!!!
"I won't let you lay a hand on my friends!!!"
Sadgeo's pupils contracted.
For the first time, he actually felt a trace of danger from Luffy's furious punch.
But only a trace.
Because...
He had long since mastered the same technique of making Armament Haki flow.
"I'll show you just how vast this sea really is!!!"
Gear Fourth, Ryuo, Bounceman Giant!!!
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