In the next instant, Enel's figure solidified completely.
In Luffy's view, this man had distinctive features.
Bare-chested, with extremely long earlobes, four large drums etched with tomoe patterns on his back, and holding a golden staff. He lounged on a throne woven from lightning, looking down on them from above with a cat-and-mouse, playful smile.
If he were a true powerhouse, any pose could be seen as the stance of a powerhouse. But was he strong?
Luffy didn't think so.
"You traitorous beast! You dare betray the master of these skies?" Enel showed no self-awareness either, his icy gaze sweeping over the Sky Lord. "You'd become a mere Blue Sea human's slave?"
The Sky Lord's massive body trembled slightly, instinctively wanting to lower its head. But after Luffy gently tapped its head with his foot, it barely maintained its posture, though its vertical pupils were filled with tension and unease.
"So you're the guy calling himself God?" Luffy looked up, meeting his gaze directly. "That omnipresent Observation Haki... that's you using it, right?"
Luffy could feel the omnipresent surveillance. Enel's Observation Haki seemed strong, yet also felt weak. A bit contradictory.
To use a metaphor: the breadth was sufficient, but the depth was too shallow.
"I don't like your expression." Enel's tone was sinister. "And here, you should address me as God!"
"Bullshit God! Little Sky here tells me you're just some guy using your measly lightning powers to throw your weight around here, imposing a brutal rule!"
The Sky Lord instantly felt its serpentine life was hopeless, its huge head drooping a bit further. Bro, we're heart-to-heart, but don't go spilling all the truths!
Sure enough, Enel flew into a rage upon hearing this. If looks could kill, the Sky Lord would have died countless times over.
"You beast! You're looking to die!"
Enel's body instantly turned into his elemental form. Lightning flashed violently around him as he prepared to transform into a brilliant bolt of thunder and strike at Nami and the others atop the Sky Lord's head.
Kill the chicken to scare the monkey!
However, lightning is fast, but Luffy was faster!
The instant the lightning bolt Enel had transformed into was about to reach the Sky Lord, Luffy's figure appeared before it like a ghost. His right leg swept out like a battle-axe!
"Gomu Gomu no... Stamp!"
Thud!
With a dull impact, Enel's elementalized body took the full force of the kick. He screamed as he was sent flying like a broken kite, crashing hard into the dense cloud forest beside them, snapping several giant cloud trees before coming to a stop.
"You... you can hit me?!" Enel clutched his instantly swollen cheek, struggling to stand from the wreckage of trees. His eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.
He was a Logia-type Goro Goro no Mi user! He could become his element! Physical attacks should be ineffective!
Luffy hadn't even used Armament Haki. It was just a normal kick.
"You're lightning. I'm rubber."
"Rubber is an insulator, immune to electricity. So your elementalization is useless against me!"
It could be explained with physics!
Seeing Enel's utterly confused expression, steam began to rise from Luffy's body. His skin visibly reddened.
"Rubber?" Enel's pupils contracted sharply, his face instantly turning grim. The Logia elementalization he relied on to dominate Sky Island, seen as a divine right, was actually perfectly countered by a mere Blue Sea human's Devil Fruit?
Immense shame and fury surged within him. But seeing Luffy's relaxed posture and that lightning-fast strike earlier, Enel forcibly suppressed the urge to attack immediately, trying to maintain his divine dignity.
"In light of your... minor exceptional ability to touch this God's form, I shall grant you one final opportunity."
"Kneel and beg for mercy! Swear allegiance to me! I can overlook your past transgressions and grant you the qualification to follow me to Fairy Vearth!"
"You got kicked flying and you're still talking tough here?" Luffy found it somewhat amusing. No more talking. He crouched slightly, assuming an attacking stance.
"Stubborn fool!" Seeing Luffy directly enter combat mode, Enel's eyes flashed with killing intent.
However, in the very next second, an unprecedented, intense sense of crisis poured over his head like ice water, instantly spreading to every limb.
So fast!
His Mantra screamed warnings, but he only had time to see a red afterimage flash across his vision before Luffy's fist once again slammed into his face.
Thud!
Crack!
Enel's cheek took another heavy blow. He was sent flying back again, crashing hard against a giant cloud tree so thick it would take several people to encircle it.
The trunk, unable to bear the impact, emitted a cracking sound. Fissures rapidly spread until, with a deafening crash, it toppled to one side.
Ptooey!
Enel spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with several shattered teeth. His expression twisted with pain and humiliation. He felt his jawbone might be cracked!
On the Sky Lord's head...
Nami, Vivi, Robin, and even Gan Fall, who was on his own mount Pierre, watched this scene with somewhat peculiar expressions.
"This Sky Island God doesn't seem all that impressive?"
"It looks like a one-sided beating?"
Much of the fear Nami and the others had felt toward the "God" dissipated.
Even Robin's expression was a bit odd. She felt that for Luffy, this Enel seemed... easier to beat than Crocodile?
"Don't be ridiculous..." Gan Fall's mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg, his jaw almost hitting the ground.
As the former God of Sky Island who had fought Enel, he knew Enel's strength all too well. That untouchable elementalization and island-wide Mantra made Enel nearly invincible.
But this pirate from the Blue Sea before him not only had a body perfectly immune to Enel's powers, his speed and strength were on a completely crushing level.
Beating Enel seemed as easy as an adult beating a child—just as Enel used to beat him.
Just who was this Straw Hat kid?
Gan Fall watched Luffy's back, his mind roiling with shock.
Within the smoke and dust, blue lightning flashed again. Enel's figure reconstituted atop another cloud tree.
He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his gaze now ferocious, fixed unwaveringly on Luffy below.
"Bastard! Bastard!"
"You ungrateful lowlife! You dare to insult this God again and again! Now, I'll make you understand completely the insurmountable gap between a God and a mere mortal!"
"Two Million Volts: Discharge!"
Dazzling lightning erupted from his hand like a savage electric serpent, instantly engulfing Luffy!
However, as the lightning dissipated, Luffy stood in place, tilting his head slightly. He brushed off some non-existent dust from his shoulder and looked at Enel. "I told you, I'm rubber."
And was this little bit of electricity supposed to tickle him?
Million volts felt about as effective as a light itch to Luffy. For a moment, it was hard to tell who the real Goro Goro no Mi user was.
***
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