Garen and Luffy's duel took place on the beach not far from the tavern.
The duel caused quite a stir and drew a great deal of attention. Garp, Nami, Buggy, and many Foosha Village villagers all eagerly came out to watch.
Yet the duel ended incredibly quickly, with nothing entertaining about it at all.
But that was inevitable:
Fifteen- or sixteen-year-old Luffy was already far weaker than Garen, and his Rubber Fruit Ability was completely countered by Garen's silence effect, leaving him unable to fight back at all.
Garen's Fatal Strike only had to brush against Luffy's body slightly, and he could no longer freely control the stretching and retracting of his rubber body.
Moreover, the silence effect only restricted the activation of abilities; it did not alter transformations that had already taken effect:
For instance, Garen's silence could not make the thorns Miss Doublefinger had already sprouted disappear. It could only prevent her from sprouting more thorns for the time being.
And when that silence effect was used on a rubber man like Luffy, it produced an entirely different kind of amusement:
Once silenced by Garen's skill, Luffy could not even restore his deformed body.
His stretched-out arm could not retract, so Luffy could only drag a hand more than ten meters long around as he fought Garen.
In merely two or three exchanges, Luffy was completely defeated by Garen's sword. Then, true to his word, he had no choice but to shout the slogan, "King of Navigation."
After shouting that slogan, Luffy immediately clenched his fists and roared at Garen:
"Knight!"
"One day, I will definitely, definitely defeat you and take back the title of Pirate King from you!"
"Hm?"
Garen raised an eyebrow and said with an amused smile:
"You haven't beaten me yet, so you can't