Garp Makes His Move! Sending the Golden Lion Flying with One Punch!

Luo Tian's eyes narrowed. Since dodging was no longer an option, he had no choice but to—

Void Manifestation!

Luo Tian merged into the void, his body becoming translucent and ethereal.

Zephyr's Fist passed right through Luo Tian's manifested body, as if striking empty air.

Seeing this, Zephyr's pupils dilated in shock.

"Elementalization?!"

No, this wasn't elementalization, because even against an elemental form, his Haki-infused Fist should have been able to inflict damage.

With Zephyr held back by Luo Tian, Golden Lion Shiki dashed rapidly toward the treasure ship.

"Hahahaha... the Heavenly Tribute belongs to me now!" Shiki laughed maniacally, swinging Kogarashi and Oto with reckless abandon as golden slashes poured down like a torrential rain.

The Marine soldiers on the deck could only curse and scramble to dodge, their attempts to retaliate with cannons failing as Shiki predicted every move with his Observation Haki.

Greed and fanaticism flickered in Shiki's eyes.

As soon as he touched the hull, the entire treasure ship would be freed from gravity and ascend ten thousand meters into the sky.

By then, no matter what tricks or strategies the Marines had, they could only stare at the sky and sigh in frustration!

Ten meters, five meters, three meters...

The distance closed rapidly.

Just as his fingertips were about to graze the hull—

Inside the cabin, amidst the darkness.

A fist moved.

There was no buildup, no warning, and not even a hint of killing intent leaked out.

The fist simply punched out from the shadows, plain and unremarkable.

Yet, the Armament Haki coating its surface was so pitch-black that it seemed to swallow all light.

Shiki's Observation Haki screamed a frantic warning in the final tenth of a second!

Danger! Danger! Danger!

He wanted to retreat, but his forward momentum was too great.

He wanted to block, but his arms were still extended forward.

"BANG!!!"

The fist slammed solidly into the left side of Shiki's face.

"Cough—Pfft!!!"

Shiki was sent flying backward like a cannonball, not in a straight line, but tumbling and spinning, carving a deep, hundred-meter-long trench across the surface of the sea.

He barely managed to stabilize himself a moment before hitting the water, his Float-Float Fruit ability forcibly holding his body aloft.

But the left side of his face was already swollen purple-black, his cheekbone visibly sunken, and the blood spilling from his mouth was mixed with shattered teeth.

"Cough... which bastard...?!"

Shiki's rage exploded in his chest, nearly burning his sanity to ash.

But when he saw the figure slowly stepping out from the treasure ship's cabin door—

Shiki's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

"Gar... Garp?!"

"Why is a mad dog like you here?!"

According to the intelligence gathered by the Rocks Pirates, the highest-ranking Marine combatants on this Heavenly Tribute escort fleet were supposed to be only two: Buddha Sengoku and Black Arm Zephyr!

Garp the Fist was supposed to be with the other team escorting the Heavenly Tribute!

"Yo, Shiki, long time no see."

Garp picked his nose as he hopped onto the railing, grinning to reveal a mouthful of white teeth.

"Want the Heavenly Tribute? Keep dreaming—"

Garp's smile vanished instantly, his eyes sharp as blades:

"Today, none of you Rocks Pirates are getting away!"

Shiki's expression turned grim.

They had been played.

Completely and utterly played.

The Marines had set a double trap from the very beginning—no, it was a triple trap!

On the surface, Sengoku and Zephyr led the main fleet in a frontal encirclement, drawing the full attention of the Rocks Pirates.

In the shadows, that god of slaughter Garp hid within the treasure ship, waiting like a rabbit for a stump.

On the other side, Luo Tian, who was locked in a fierce battle with Zephyr, suddenly detected danger through his Spatial Perception!

The threat did not come from Zephyr in front of him, but from the shadow of an escort warship thirty meters to his rear, a vessel already riddled with holes from cannon fire.

A figure shot out from a shattered porthole like a ghost.

That figure pressed her hands into the air, causing a substance as transparent as flowing water to condense.

The watery substance spread rapidly, fanning out like a spiderweb, with its target being none other than Luo Tian's back!

Luo Tian's eyes sharpened; without turning around, he pressed his left hand into the void—

"Void Barrier!"

The next instant, a massive, semi-transparent spatial barrier appeared behind Luo Tian, deflecting and shattering the incoming watery substance!

Luo Tian then used Space Leap, teleporting to a safe position, adjusting his stance, and eyeing the ambusher with a cold gaze.

It was a female marine whose demeanor was cool and capable to the extreme.

"So it seems you must be Vice Admiral Tsuru." A complex, inscrutable smile tugged at the corners of Luo Tian's mouth:

"A truly fine scheme. Garp hides in the treasure ship to ambush and severely wound Shiki.

And you hide in the warship, preparing to ambush me?!"

His gaze swept over Zephyr and Tsuru standing side by side, finally landing on the figure in the dog-head hat on the distant treasure ship, his smile deepening:

"However—aren't there too few of you?"

This sentence caused both Zephyr and Tsuru to frown simultaneously.

"What do you mean?" Zephyr demanded in a deep voice.

Luo Tian did not answer; he merely tilted his head, looking toward the direction of the Rocks Pirates' main ship.

At the front of the deck, that figure draped in a pitch-black cloak remained standing with arms crossed.

"Hmph!"

Zephyr forcibly suppressed the unease in his heart, laughing out of pure rage:

"Arrogant brat! Today is the day of the Rocks Pirates' destruction! Garp has arrived; you have no chance of winning!"

Garp was, after all, the strongest among the four of them!

"Tsuru, let's suppress him together!"

Tsuru nodded gently, her hands once again rippling with transparency.

This time, the speed at which the moisture in the air gathered increased tenfold!

It was not condensing naturally, but being forcibly "washed" out by her fruit ability and then reorganized and controlled!

The humidity within a hundred-meter radius plummeted as all moisture was frantically extracted, condensing into an increasingly massive transparent water sphere in her palms.

The water sphere looked clear, yet it exuded a dangerous aura that sent Luo Tian's Observation Haki into a frantic warning.

It was said that the Wash-Wash Fruit could not only wash away the evil in a person but also wash away their strength, rendering them unable to move freely.

Wash-Wash Fruit Ultimate Technique—

"Purification: Sea Burial!"

Tsuru's voice was as calm as an ancient well as she slowly pushed her hands forward.

The water sphere burst silently, transforming into a sky-covering transparent giant wave that engulfed the entire space where Luo Tian stood.

Almost at the same instant—

Zephyr moved.

"Black Arm: Meteor!"

He sprinted forward, the Armament Haki wrapped around his right fist hardened to the extreme, the black-purple flowing light tearing through the air and leaving a vacuum trail in its wake.

Luo Tian stood in mid-air, slowly raising his right hand with his five fingers slightly spread, whispering:

"Shinra Tensei!"

Hum—

An invisible repulsive field expanded instantly from his center like a barrier.

The air was compressed into visible ring-shaped ripples, colliding with the transparent giant wave.

The giant wave then shattered in all directions as if it had struck an absolute wall!

At the same time, Luo Tian clenched his left hand into a fist.

White light patterns resembling spiderwebs appeared on the surface of his fist, and he punched calmly toward the direction from which Zephyr was attacking.

Crack, cr-crack—

The space let out a groan of unbearable strain.

Starting from his fist, the cracks spread forward along the path.

Web-like white fissures expanded through the air, as if the world itself were a shattered mirror.

"Quake Shock: World Collapse!"

A seismic shockwave erupted!

The shockwave collided with the heavy fist of Black Arm Zephyr—

BOOM!!!

A ring-shaped blast exploded outward...