Swish!
Before Lafitte could finish his sentence, a pitch-black blade light shot from Luffy's direction like lightning tearing through space, heading straight for Lafitte.
"Hmm?!"
Blackbeard's pupils contracted. He reacted extremely quickly, his fat body bursting with speed that belied its size as he yanked Lafitte backward!
Chsss!
The blade light grazed the edge of Lafitte's top hat, slicing off a few strands of his hair before embedding itself deep in the wall behind him.
That had been a hair's breadth from decapitation.
"Your negotiation skills are useless against this man, Lafitte."
Blackbeard's expression darkened as he stared at Luffy.
"Ze ha ha ha!"
He then let out another burst of laughter, clenched his fist, and darkness smashed open the space before him.
"I'd also like to settle a score with you, Straw Hat! Back at Mock Town, that punch of yours nearly sent my whole crew to the bottom of the sea!"
"What a shame I didn't kill you back then."
Luffy flicked Magi, his eyes cold. "But it doesn't matter now, Blackbeard. The stench coming off you all disgusts me from the bottom of my heart."
The aura around him began to rise steadily. White steam mixed with black-red arcs of electricity started to swirl around him. "Since we've run into each other, let's finish it here and now!"
As he spoke, Luffy's figure suddenly blurred. In the next instant, he had vanished from his original position!
Blackbeard felt only a flash of white light before his eyes. Luffy's presence seemed to have completely merged into the air, yet it also felt like it was pressing down on him from all directions simultaneously.
He and Luffy had had an informal clash back at Mock Town, but that had been under extremely bad weather conditions. Blackbeard had always believed he had simply been at a disadvantage because of the environment.
Now, facing each other directly, the crushing pressure of being stalked by a primordial beast set off alarm bells in his mind.
Had Straw Hat not been going all out back then?
Blackbeard absolutely refused to believe that Luffy's strength could break through several levels in just a few months.
"Boys! Give these big shots a proper welcome! Otherwise, you're going to die!" Blackbeard roared.
"Worry about yourself first."
Boom, crash!
A massive explosion burst in front of him.
Luffy's figure appeared like a ghost. His fist, coated in flowing Haki, was already swinging toward his face!
Blackbeard's expression changed abruptly. He crossed his arms in front of his face. Bam! Teach went flying backward.
"So fast!"
Adjusting his posture in midair, Blackbeard dared not be the slightest bit careless. He clenched his left fist. A mass of pitch-black smoke materialized out of thin air and wrapped around his fist.
This was the ability of the Yami Yami no Mi—the power he had dreamed of and waited so many years to obtain!
"Luffy, be careful! His ability is strange. It can nullify Devil Fruit powers!"
Ace, seeing this, immediately shouted a warning.
He had personally experienced the weirdness of this ability and had suffered quite a bit from it.
But Ace's warning was completely unnecessary.
The moment the darkness appeared on Blackbeard's fist, Luffy could feel a powerful attraction coming from it, as if it were trying to pull his entire being over and swallow him.
"Kurozu!"
Blackbeard grinned maliciously. This was one of his signature abilities. It could attract an ability user from a distance and temporarily nullify their powers!
Even someone with the speed of light was no exception.
For an ability user, suddenly losing their power would cause considerable panic. He could already imagine Luffy's flustered expression.
The Yami Yami no Mi was the natural enemy of all Devil Fruits!
But Luffy's pupils just flashed with a red light. Facing this attracting force, instead of resisting, he engaged his core. The power of his Gomu Gomu no Mi gave him unparalleled elasticity and kinetic energy. Using the pull of the Kurozu, his speed increased even more!
"What?!"
The malicious smile on Blackbeard's face instantly froze.
This guy... was going on the offensive?
"Eat this!"
His ability hadn't been nullified. That meant Luffy hadn't used his powers at all. Relying solely on the attraction of the Kurozu and pure physical technique, Luffy's outstretched fist—now crackling with black-red arcs—was already in front of Blackbeard's face.
Before Blackbeard could even register his shock, the fist slammed hard into his face.
Bam!
A dull thud rang through the air.
Blackbeard's medium-build, slightly plump body was sent flying backward off the ground like a cannonball exiting a barrel. He crashed hard into the wall behind him, kicking up clouds of dust.
Luffy landed lightly, shook his fist, and watched the billowing dust with narrowed eyes.
"I hit him, but it felt strange."
Back at Mock Town, he had sent Blackbeard and his crew flying—ship and all—from a distance using a long-range, super-wide impact technique like Gomu Gomu no Hakoku.
This was his first time fighting him blow-for-blow like this.
How to put it?
Although he had landed a solid hit, and the feedback from his fist confirmed it had connected, there was a sense of dissonance—a feeling that the force had been absorbed and dispersed.
The Yami Yami no Mi sounded like a Logia type.
But when his Haki-coated fist hit him, it didn't produce the special feedback he got when hitting a Logia's elementalized body.
It seemed like a very special ability.
"Cough, ptoo!"
The dust slowly cleared, revealing Blackbeard's slightly disheveled figure.
He was clutching his rapidly swelling cheek, the corner of his mouth leaking blood. Where his hand covered, dark-colored smoke visible crept and wriggled as if repairing something.
"That hurt, Straw Hat! How the hell did you train your Haki?!"
He felt like half his face was numb, and his head was ringing. "I won't forgive you! I'll make you pay!"
Even as he roared, Blackbeard's movements were anything but slow. He slammed both hands onto the ground!
"Anketsudō!"
In an instant, a large area of darkness spread out from him like a living thing, quickly covering a vast surrounding region.
The ground, gravel, even some unconscious guards—anything that touched this darkness seemed to sink into quicksand, rapidly being sucked in, sinking until disappeared without a trace.
"A Devil Fruit ability? Definitely strange."
Luffy frowned slightly, pushed off with his feet, and quickly leaped backward to avoid the darkness's encroaching range.
Then, misty black hands like tentacles extended from the Anketsudō, swiftly reaching for Luffy in the air.
If he got caught, it would be trouble.
They were everywhere?
Black hands were reaching for him from both front and back.
Midair, as he leaped backward, Luffy's pupils suddenly erupted with crimson light. A massive black-red torrent poured out from him, crashing into the black tentacles.
Sizzle!
Black-red lightning and pitch-dark shadows intertwined together. The escaping energy carved charred pits into the ground one after another.
"Ze ha ha ha! So you really do have it! That overbearing disposition!"
Blackbeard laughed loudly. "Slaying a Celestial Dragon and having this kind of kingly disposition is only natural!"
"But you don't have it."
Luffy looked at him coldly as he landed steadily. "Enough nonsense. What are you really trying to do here in Impel Down?"
"Ze ha ha ha! Finally willing to talk, Straw Hat!"
Blackbeard spread his left hand. A dense mass of pitch-black energy condensed in his palm. "Didn't I tell you just now? My purpose here is the same as yours—to recruit strong crewmates!
Only those monsters locked up in Infinite Hell are worthy of accompanying me to the New World!"
His eyes were wide open, filled with fanaticism. "We're all pirates! You understand, don't you, Straw Hat? We can settle our grudges in the New World. At least until this war is over, we're not enemies. We can cooperate!"
A look of disdain appeared on Luffy's face. "I prefer to settle grudges on the spot. Even if the sky falls, you're leaving something behind here today."
"We're really not on the same page."
Blackbeard said unhappily. "You should be accepting my proposal right now. The Marines and the World Government are your real enemies, aren't they?"
Luffy said no more. He raised the black blade Magi again. When the flowing, pitch-black Haki wrapped around the blade, visible black-red arcs of electricity began leaping along it.
"Oh ho ho. Did you learn that, kid?"
Not far away, Golden Lion's pupils contracted, then he burst into loud laughter.
That was the mark of highly entwined Conqueror's Haki!
When he had fought him, it had only been a prototype.
This kind of talent... Garp, he really is your grandson!
"A Devil Fruit that counters other Devil Fruits? Sounds troublesome,"
Luffy said. "But who told you I have to rely on that kind of power to fight?"
Looking at the black blade in Luffy's hand, which radiated an aura of destruction, and the terrifying Conqueror's Haki Infusion, Blackbeard felt another bead of cold sweat on his brow. He let out a dry laugh. "You're more and more like that man I once knew!"
He had left a scar on that man's face, but that had been before he obtained the Yami Yami no Mi.
After getting the Yami Yami no Mi, he had sacrificed further growth in his physique to adapt to this special fruit, shifting his focus instead to developing its abilities.
But that didn't mean his physique was weak!
"That man knew when to adapt. He understood how to weigh the pros and cons."
Blackbeard's voice suddenly rose. "Not like you—a stubborn bastard who only thinks one way!"
Luffy sneered. "That's just because you haven't yet earned the right to make me weigh anything!"
Before the echoes of his words faded, Luffy swung his arm down.
Swish!
A pitch-black sword slash, entwined with purple-black lightning, descended.
Like a new moon tearing through the air, it carried a sharpness that could cut through anything, arriving instantly in front of Blackbeard.
"Straw Hat! Do you know how long I endured on Whitebeard's ship, waiting for this day?!"
Blackbeard was thoroughly enraged by Luffy's words. The flesh on his face quivered as he roared. "Twenty years! Twenty whole years! Do you know how I lived those twenty years?! There's no way I'm failing here!"
His left hand wrapped around even more viscous darkness as he punched out!
"An Tei!"
A massive, dense sphere of dark energy met the sword slash. Wherever it passed, even light seemed to be twisted and swallowed.
The pitch-black sword slash and the darkness energy sphere that absorbed everything collided violently in midair.
A visible ring-shaped shockwave exploded from the center of the collision, spreading outward like a tsunami.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The walls on both sides of the passage, as if struck by an invisible giant hammer, instantly became covered in cracks. A large amount of gravel rained down.
Some unlucky guards who had been standing too close were blown away by the blast, their bones breaking.
The impact from the shockwave blew Luffy's black bangs across his forehead, and also rustled Blackbeard's messy, curly hair.
The two men, separated by the center where the energy had been annihilated, locked eyes once more.
"You've turned my prison into a complete mess."
A low, suppressed angry voice came from the other end of the passage.
Everyone turned to look.
Magellan—who had been sent flying from Level Six all the way back up to Level One—had returned.
His face bore an undeniable expression of rage. Venom flowed around him, emanating a deadly aura.
He glanced at Luffy and Blackbeard, who were facing off. He was slightly surprised, but then remembered that Fire Fist Ace had been brought in by Blackbeard, and it made sense.
Magellan considered Blackbeard a dangerous man.
He had come to Impel Down without any orders, launched indiscriminate attacks—he was still a pirate at heart.
But Magellan also felt that, given the current situation, having Blackbeard on their side was a good thing.
He hadn't expected Blackbeard to be strong enough to face off with Straw Hat. Among the Seven Warlords, Blackbeard was one of the stronger.
"Don't underestimate the power on our side, criminals," Magellan said coldly.
"Arara. Quite a gathering of impressive big names we have here."
Behind Magellan, Aokiji Kuzan, wearing his "Justice" coat, walked out slowly with his hands in his pockets.
He looked at the chaotic passage and the several clearly defined forces within it, then ran a hand through his hair with a slightly helpless tone. "Hey, hey, hey, if you keep fighting like this, I'm afraid this fortress called Impel Down really won't hold up."
"Yaaah! The Admiral is here too!"
Ivankov screamed exaggeratedly at the sight of Aokiji.
"This is perfect!"
Golden Lion, seeing Aokiji appear, was not alarmed but delighted. He let out a laugh that seemed to relish chaos. "The Admiral is here too! What about Sengoku? Call him over too! Let's make this banquet even livelier! jihahaha!"
Aokiji scratched his head and said, "Fleet Admiral Sengoku is still keeping an eye out for the Whitebeard crew, who haven't shown up yet. I'll have to deal with you troublesome people myself."
His gaze swept across the chaotic battlefield and finally landed on Golden Lion. "Weren't you defeated by Straw Hat and thrown in here? Making an alliance with the man who defeated you just to gain freedom—that doesn't sound like you, Golden Lion."
Aokiji was unusually talkative, because the situation before him was indeed troublesome to the extreme.
Especially Golden Lion's Fuwa Fuwa no Mi ability. If not handled properly, he could fly away with key figures at any moment, rendering the Marines' encirclement useless.
"Jihahaha! Kid, don't act like you know me so well."
Golden Lion immediately caught the implication in Aokiji's words. "Don't worry. What this old man wants to see most right now is this world-shaking war. The question is, you Marines—are you ready for the coming storm?!"
Aokiji exhaled a stream of cold air. "Yes, we're ready."
Meanwhile, Blackbeard stared intently at Luffy. The brief exchange just now had made him understand completely.
The Luffy before him was not only a Devil Fruit user with a bizarre and powerful ability—his physical body and his Haki were both at monstrous levels.
This defied all logic!
A Paramecia "Gomu Gomu no Mi" user, theoretically, shouldn't have such an extreme boost to his physique. How the hell did he train to get this kind of terrifying strength and defense?
Blackbeard felt that if it were Kaido standing in front of him right now, it wouldn't feel out of place at all.
How long had it been since he set sail?!
No matter how much training, you couldn't reach this level.
Blackbeard had probably figured out Luffy's ability.
It absorbed damage and converted that damage into pain.
A special type of Logia that couldn't elementalize, but at the cost of sustaining double or even more pain.
If the intensity and frequency of the attacks exceeded the threshold of pain he could bear, he could be truly wounded.
So, in a sense, he wasn't that tough of an opponent, because every attack could land on him. But in another sense, he was a very tough opponent, because he had an enormous health pool.
Then,
"Hoo."
Luffy exhaled a hot white breath. The aura around him began to change.
His skin turned slightly red. The white steam gradually disappeared. Black-red patterns started to grow deeper on his body, interweaving with the leaping arcs of lightning.
He stomped his foot hard on the ground!
Thud!
With a dull impact, a deep footprint was crushed into the hard rock floor. Cracks spread like a spiderweb.
And Luffy's body, propelled by explosive power, instantly crossed the distance between them, appearing in the air in front of Blackbeard.
"Gomu Gomu no Raiken!"
Crackle~
The lightning stored within his body erupted simultaneously with his fists. His fists, coated in Ryuo-infused Haki, turned into countless blurs—difficult for the naked eye to track—as they rained down like a storm on Blackbeard's chest and abdomen!
Bam! Bam!
The immense force and impact of the punches made Blackbeard's body tremble violently as he stumbled backward. Even his screams got stuck in his throat.
Luffy spotted an opening. He leaped into the air, aimed at Blackbeard's head, and brought down a fist entangled with lightning and Haki.
"Don't underestimate me, bastard!"
Amidst the screams, Blackbeard reluctantly raised both arms, entangled with the power of darkness and Haki together.
He suddenly pushed with all his might, meeting Luffy's fist.
"Anken!"
Fists entangled in darkness and lightning collided again.
Their extreme power distorted the air. The resulting shockwave even made the others nearby turn their heads slightly.
Golden Lion and Aokiji had already started fighting. Neither side left any room for anyone else to interfere.
Jinbe and Ivankov, leading the New Okama Pirates, faced off against Blackbeard's subordinates. Crocodile and Ace blocked Magellan's path.
Because of the clash between these two, everyone turned to look and showed solemn expressions.
That clash... it was strong.
"The young people these days are terrifying."
Golden Lion laughed.
Straw Hat was even stronger than before, and Blackbeard's strength seemed equally unfathomable.
"You old guys are terrifying too."
Aokiji was a man of few words but many actions. He nearly drove a block of ice into Golden Lion's chest.
Golden Lion leaped backward. The lion he had raised from the ground bit toward Aokiji.
That clash was also a high-intensity battle!
***
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