Chapter 284: Crushing Haki! The Dead End of a Madman and the Sky-Blocking noah
"Don't be so... arrogant!"
Facing Luffy, who stood before Shirahoshi like a great mountain, the completely crazed, white-haired Hody let out a shrill, inhuman roar.
Under the wild overdraw of excessive Steroid drugs, his grotesquely swollen muscles erupted with terrifying power once again.
Hody's underwater movement speed instantly broke his previous limits, his entire form turning into countless white afterimages.
He swung the heavy trident in his hand, soaked in deadly venom, stirring up violent undercurrents as he attempted to tear the human wearing the Straw Hat before him into pieces from all directions.
However, facing this dazzling, lethal, and desperate assault, Luffy simply stood still, making no effort to deliberately track Hody's movements.
Over the past two years, "Pluton" Rayleigh had conducted hellishly strict training for him on that island infested with ferocious beasts.
Now, Luffy's Observation Haki had already been honed to perfection.
In his field of perception, Hody's seemingly lightning-fast attack trajectory, every muscle contraction, and even the subtle changes in the water flow, were as clear as a slow-motion movie scene.
"Whoosh! Swish!"
The poisoned blade grazed his clothing, the water ripples turning into blades that sliced through the air.
Luffy simply tilted his head, turned his body, or took a light half-step back with composure.
He dodged Hody's deadly attacks, which were like a violent storm, as easily as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.
"Too slow."
Luffy's gaze suddenly sharpened, his carelessness vanishing.
His right arm snapped back, and a layer of high-level Armament Haki, radiating a cold, hard metallic luster, instantly covered the surface of his skin.
Seeing Luffy's counterattack, Hody let out a beast-like roar, actually opening his bloody mouth filled with sharp teeth and launching a suicidal bite, viciously snapping at Luffy's Haki-covered arm.
"Gum-Gum — Fire Fist Gun!"
Facing Hody's crazed bite, Luffy had no intention of dodging.
He let out a low shout, and his right arm, charged to its limit, blasted out like a heavy cannon from its chamber!
"Crack — Boom!"
This heavy punch, filled with Luffy's rage and the fruits of two years of training, not only unhesitatingly met Hody's teeth—which were strong enough to crush steel—shattering them instantly.
Furthermore, under the friction of extreme speed and the collision of Haki, it ignited a dazzling flame that burned fiercely even in the deep sea!
The violent flames instantly engulfed Hody's upper body.
Accompanied by a dull, explosive roar, Hody's massive, deformed body was sent flying backward like a meteor, plowing a long, scorched trench into the hard ground of the plaza.
Seeing their Captain gain the upper hand with such absolute, crushing dominance, the Straw Hat crew's morale soared, and excited smiles appeared on their faces.
"Everyone, push hard! Clear out the rest of the small fry!"
Zoro and Sanji took the lead.
Leading the high-spirited Neptune Army soldiers, they began the final sweep of the New Fish-Man Pirates members, who had long since collapsed.
Meanwhile, a chaotic yet incredibly firm sound of footsteps came from the streets around the plaza.
It was the tens of thousands of Fish-Man Island civilians, inspired by Princess Shirahoshi's tearful speech!
They had not received professional military training, and most held simple weapons like shovels, fishing nets, and kitchen knives.
But at this moment, there was no longer fear or prejudice toward humans in their eyes.
This crowd of ordinary people, like a broken levee, flooded into Gyoncorde Plaza.
They did not retreat in the slightest, but bravely charged forward to fight side-by-side with the Neptune Army soldiers.
Countless civilians converged into an insurmountable human wall, surrounding the scattered and resisting New Fish-Man Pirates members.
"Drop your weapons! Get out of our country!" The roar of the civilians converged into a sea.
Hody's reign of terror, which he had tried to establish through violence and fear, was shattered in this moment by the awakening of the people of Fish-Man Island.
...
Somewhere in the deep sea of Gyoncorde Plaza.
Vander Decken IX, who had been hiding in the shadows and watching everything like a sewer rat, was staring fixedly at the screen through the Den Den Mushi broadcast in his hand.
He saw Shirahoshi's public speech, no longer cowardly but full of courage.
He saw the group of terrifyingly strong human pirates beside her.
And he saw the firmness and light in Shirahoshi's eyes that he would never be able to reach.
In that instant, a bottomless despair welled up in Decken's heart.
He finally realized clearly that Princess Shirahoshi, whom he had coveted for ten whole years, would never belong to him, no matter how many weapons he threw.
This extreme distortion of unrequited desire, combined with his long-term pathological, paranoid love, completely transformed into a madness that wanted to destroy everything the moment his hope was shattered.
Decken's strange, four-legged body trembled violently in the dark cabin.
He clawed at his hair, his bloodshot eyes bulging, and let out a chilling, shrill, and manic laugh:
"Hee hee hee hee..."
"Shirahoshi! My Shirahoshi!"
"Since I am destined never to have you in this life, then let the entire Fish-Man Island, along with those hateful humans, be buried with you!!!"
...
Gyoncorde Plaza.
Just as Luffy slowly retracted his steaming right fist, preparing to step forward and deliver the final blow to Hody, who lay dying in the ruins, an unexpected change occurred.
Above the plaza, the sunlight that had originally spilled down through the "Sunlight Tree Eve" suddenly dimmed without warning.
At first, people thought it was just a huge cloud blocking the light.
But just a few seconds later, a massive, suffocating shadow enveloped the entire Gyoncorde Plaza and even the surrounding buildings!
Feeling the terrifying pressure from above, everyone on the battlefield—whether the Straw Hat, the Neptune Army, the civilians, or the remaining rebels—all stopped what they were doing in shock and slowly looked up at the sky.
When they saw the true form of that shadow, everyone's breathing stopped completely at that moment.
In the deep blue, ten-thousand-meter-deep sea above Fish-Man Island, a super ancient giant ship—the "noah"—several times larger than the entire Gyoncorde Plaza and the size of half an island, was like a deep-sea beast awakening.
It was violently breaking through layers of hard currents, falling straight down toward the center of the plaza, where Princess Shirahoshi was located!
That was the final madness unleashed by Vander Decken in his utter despair.
Hody, beaten until he was vomiting blood and charred all over, lay in the ruins.
When he struggled to open his eyes and saw the noah falling at high speed in the sky, he was stunned for a moment.
Then, he burst into laughter even more maniacal than Decken's:
"Hahahaha! Cough, cough... noah! It's actually the noah! Fantastic! Let's all die together!"
Although Hody had fallen into madness, a trace of cunning remained in his mind.
He knew the characteristics of the Mato Mato no Mi well: once Decken, the ability user, was killed by someone else or fainted from severe injury and lost consciousness, the tracking ability of the Mato Mato no Mi would instantly fail.
The noah, having lost the guidance of the Devil Fruit ability, would completely become a piece of gargantuan scrap metal.
Under the terrifying gravitational acceleration of the deep sea, this ship, the size of half an island, would directly smash into Fish-Man Island below without any control, completely wiping out every living thing here!
To ensure the absolute destruction of Fish-Man Island and to complete his ultimate revenge, Hody struggled to crawl out of the ruins.
Ignoring his shattered bones, he dove directly into the nearby backflowing deep sea.
He wanted to use his last bit of strength to swim toward the falling noah.
He wanted to kill that incompetent Decken with his own hands and turn the noah into the guillotine that would destroy Fish-Man Island!
"Don't even think about running!"
Seeing Hody attempting to flee the battlefield, Luffy keenly sensed his intention.
He roared and immediately prepared to rush into the water to pursue him.
But as a Devil Fruit user, he would immediately lose all his strength upon coming into contact with a large amount of seawater.
Just at this critical moment,
"Brother Luffy, step on this!"
the deep voice of Knight of the Sea Jinbe rang out nearby.
Seeing him quickly weave seals in the seawater, using the unique techniques of the Fish-Man race and deep-sea coral, he instantly created a tough and huge transparent bubble film, precisely and tightly wrapping Luffy's entire body inside.
With this magical bubble that could isolate seawater and provide oxygen, Luffy did not hesitate.
He exerted force with his legs, stepping on the bottom edge of the bubble, and using the bubble's buoyancy and his own jumping power, he sped toward the sky-blocking noah above.
On the plaza, everyone stared blankly at the sky, watching the massive noah bring its cataclysmic shadow closer and closer to the bubble dome protecting Fish-Man Island.
The violent water pressure had already caused the bubble dome to begin dangerously twisting.
A feeling called "despair" spread rapidly among the crowd like a plague.
The entire island instantly fell into unprecedented, massive panic.
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