"Yahahaha! I'll slaughter the lot of you! Turn to ash beneath the might of a God!"
Enel let out a derisive roar of laughter, throwing a punch into the empty air. Instantly, a pillar of lightning as thick as a water vat erupted from his fist.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The colossal Thunder God rampaged through the collapsing institute. Thick bolts of lightning snaked through the air with wild abandon, manifesting a terrifying destructive force that vaporized everything in their path and bored bottomless wells into the earth.
"Dammit, we can't let this go on!"
Law's ROOM expanded. He swapped places with a distant piece of masonry, narrowly evading a stray bolt.
CRASH—!
The spot where Law had stood a second ago was replaced by a charred pit five ters wide. The stone he had swapped with was instantly pulverized into dust.
"There's no opening! His entire body is high-voltage electricity! One touch and we're fried!" Sanji shouted, his face grim.
"I'm made of rubber! His lightning won't work on , so I'll take point!"
"GEAR 4!!!"
Luffy let out a sharp cry and bit down hard on his right forearm, which was already hardened by Armant Haki. He blew air into his body with massive force.
In an instant, Luffy's rubber body inflated as the air rushed in. He bulked up into a bouncing small giant.
Boing... boing... boing...
"BOUNDMAN!!!"
Luffy's hair stood on end, and most of his torso was coated in a deep red-and-black Armant Haki. Ribbons of circular steam coiled around his shoulders.
"Hey... are you kidding ?"
"Straw Hat-ya!"
Smoker and Law, having never seen Gear 4, looked on with visible skepticism. In a world where footing and leverage were everything, how could soone fight if they couldn't even stand still?
"So this is the 'Gear 4' the Captain ntioned... I guess this is how you beat that muscle-brained Orc, Otto!" Enel looked down at the bouncing Luffy from his height.
"Luffy, how much stamina do you have left for this?" Sanji asked. He knew the devastating power of Gear 4, but he also knew the massive toll it took on the body.
Luffy had already used it against the Orc, Dorot Otto. Sanji seriously doubted how much longer his captain could maintain such a high-output form.
"Enough to beat him!" Luffy said with iron resolve.
"Braggart! Don't think for a second that just because rubber doesn't conduct electricity, I don't have ways to kill you, Straw Hat!" Enel spat, his voice laced with venom.
Because Aeridar had seen Naruto, he placed a high premium on intelligence gathering. After his personal clash with Luffy, he had ticulously recorded Luffy's abilities and handed the data to Enel.
Enel rembered the encounter in Water 7 where Luffy had been immune to his lightning. After his crushing defeat at the hands of Kizaru, Borsalino, in the Kingdom of Bivins, he had retreated into secluded training to further develop the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's potential.
Moves like the Lightning Arrow and the Plasma Raijin Cannon were the fruits of those two years of training, and the source of his confidence in taking Luffy down.
Boing... boing... boing...
Luffy continued to bounce, his right fist already retracting into his forearm. "Co at if you've got the guts, Enel!"
Luffy bent his knees and rocketed forward, appearing before Enel in a blur, leaving a massive web of cracks in the ground where he had taken off.
"So fast!"
Enel was startled. He hadn't expected the bloated rubber brat to possess such explosive speed.
"Gomu Gomu no... Kong Gun!!!"
Luffy aid at Enel's massive torso, and his retracted fist snapped forward like a released spring.
"Don't get cocky!"
Enel snarled, eting the strike with a fist of his own.
BOOM—!
The collision sent a tremor through the air. A visible ring of pressure exploded between them, rippling outward like a gale. High-voltage sparks surged onto Luffy's skin, crackling and popping, while the ground beneath Enel's feet buckled and collapsed into a crater over ten ters wide.
"I told you, lightning doesn't work on !" Luffy said, ignoring the arcs of electricity dancing over his skin.
"Bastard!"
Enel, now in a blind rage, threw another punch.
WHAM—!
Luffy kicked off the air, skyrocketing upward to evade the strike.
However, Enel's massive fra suddenly lunged upward as well. He wasn't just jumping; he was flying, held aloft by an invisible force as he pursued Luffy.
"Nani?" Luffy cried out in surprise. "He can fly even with a body that big?!"
"You know nothing, Straw Hat!"
Enel's voice bood. His gargantuan form actually outpaced Luffy, smashing through the ceiling and intercepting him from above.
Crackle—!
"Luminous Forge: Spear of the Thunder God!!!"
Enel extended his left arm and opened his palm. Blinding light erupted as he manifested a twenty-ter-long spear of pure electricity. The tip of the spear was tipped with a matte-black trident head.
He had used the intense heat of his lightning to lt and reshape his golden staff into a trident, then hardened it with Armant Haki to serve as the spearhead, a modification specifically designed to inflict physical piercing damage on a rubber man.
WHOOSH—!
Enel dove downward, thrusting the spear of lightning toward Luffy.
"Crap!" Luffy gritted his teeth. Not daring to take it head-on, he kicked off the air, shifting his position.
KABOOM—!
The spear missed, burying nearly half its length into the floor and punching a ten-ter hole through the building.
"ROOM!!!"
Suddenly, the massive transparent do expanded. Law, holding his sword with both hands, swung it through the air toward Enel.
SLICE—!
The lightning spear was severed, leaving Enel holding only the back half.
"White Vine!!!"
At that mont, dozens of white smoke tendrils shot forward like spears, then coiled around Enel's massive body like binding vines.
THUD!
Enel hit the ground, his head, limbs, and torso tightly bound by Smoker's smoke.
"You aren't going anywhere!"
Smoker's head materialized on one of the tendrils coiling around Enel's face, his voice cold and resolute.
"Damn you!"
Enel struggled violently. But Smoker, a Vice Admiral of the G-5 branch, was no amateur. Under his full concentration, the smoke tendrils were as rigid as steel cables. Though Enel managed to snap a dozen of them, he couldn't break free imdiately.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Simultaneously, Luffy and Sanji streaked through the air toward him.
"Gomu Gomu no... Leo Bazooka!!!"
"Diable Jambe: Flanchet STRIKE!!!"
Luffy's hands retracted into his arms before slamming into Enel's head. Sanji's leg glowed red-hot with terrifying heat as he delivered a savage kick to Enel's midsection.
BOOM—!
RUMBLE!
Enel's massive body lurched backward. A white circular shockwave erupted, generating a hurricane that swept across the facility.
"We got him!" Law cried out in relief.
But a second later, Law's expression froze.
On Enel's head and abdon, where the attacks had landed, a layer of blue-white lightning armor had manifested. It looked almost physical, like a solid plate of crystallized electricity, and it had completely tanked the attacks from Luffy and Sanji.
"This is..."
Luffy and Sanji's pupils shrunk in shock.
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