Golden Island Adventure (4)

Boom!

William lightly raised his right hand, and a cannonball actually fired from the opening in his palm. Inside that opening was a miniature cannon, and anyone with sharp enough eyes would have seen that the person standing beside it looked exactly like William.

However, William had not yet gathered his own "soldiers." Otherwise, he could have used the castle's abilities as freely as "Gang" Capone Bege.

"Who are you people?" Seeing his men blasted into disarray by the sudden cannonball, Eldoraggo once again demanded to know where the Straw Hat Pirates had come from.

"I'm Luffy, the man who'll become the Pirate King!"

"Pirates? Then you're after the gold too!" Eldoraggo, who loved gold above all else, naturally would not allow anyone to take the gold he considered his. The moment Luffy called himself a pirate, killing intent surged in his heart.

Still, he felt there was no need for him to act personally. Once Goras dealt with Zoro, it would be time for the Straw Hat Pirates to be wiped out.

The moment Goras heard Eldoraggo raise the price, excitement filled his heart. Though he was also a swordsman, he was not fighting Zoro to defeat him and build his reputation. He simply wanted to get more gold coins from Eldoraggo.

"You brute!" Although Zoro had already seen through Goras's moves, which were nothing more than simple slashes, Goras possessed tremendous strength. Every time he blocked one of Goras's strikes, Zoro had to use all his strength. Otherwise, Goras would split him in two with a single blow.

"Go, Goras! I'll give you one gold coin!" Seeing that the swordsman he had hired could not kill Zoro with one slash, Eldoraggo immediately raised the price.

When Goras heard the offer of one gold coin, he somehow unleashed enough power to suppress Zoro.

"Hey, why do you look ashamed?" Goras immediately grew tense beneath Zoro's sharp gaze. Just as Zoro had said, he felt a kind of shame in his heart as a swordsman.

"Your eyes say that you're ashamed of swinging your sword for money! Those are the eyes of someone whose sword has already abandoned him!" Zoro, who had been suppressed by Goras all this time, suddenly shoved him away. It was impossible to tell whether Goras had weakened or Zoro had grown stronger.

"Your swordsmanship is good, but someone who has no pride in his sword will always hesitate for an instant when he swings." Between two experts of equal strength, even that brief instant of hesitation was enough to create an irreversible gap.

Enraged by Zoro's words, Goras charged at him again with his sword raised, while Zoro unleashed his strongest slash—Oni Giri.

"I avoided your vital points. Come challenge me again after you reclaim a swordsman's honor. I'll face you anytime!" Arrogant—Zoro's words were simple, but they carried the arrogance a strong man ought to possess.

Before long, though, Zoro's strength would rise to heights Goras could never catch up to. Even so, this battle changed Goras's life, sending him out to sea in the future as a swordsman with honor.

"Tch, useless!" When Eldoraggo saw the assassin he had hired, Goras, defeated by Zoro, then looked at his heavily injured men sprawled across the ground, he knew he had no choice but to act himself.

"This is bad, run!" When Usopp saw Eldoraggo take that attacking stance, he immediately shouted. But before he could even say anything, William had already taken Nami and fled. Who would stand there like an idiot and make themselves a target?

Boom! A terrifying Laser Cannon shot out from Eldoraggo's mouth.

"Luffy got hit head-on?" Usopp and the others had not expected Luffy to actually be the kind of idiot who stood there and became the enemy's target.

Even though Luffy was a rubber man, and the Rubber Fruit's ability protected his body from the Sound-Wave Laser Cannon, he was still blasted away.

"Gum-Gum Rocket!" Although Luffy had been sent flying, one of his hands tightly gripped a massive rock. Using the powerful force generated when rubber contracted, he launched himself into Eldoraggo and sent him flying.

"You're a Devil Fruit user too?" Eldoraggo was startled by Luffy's ability, but only because he was surprised by Luffy's Devil Fruit power.

"Rubber Gun!" Unfortunately, Eldoraggo caught Luffy's Rubber Gun between his teeth, preventing it from landing an effective blow.

"It hurts! Let go of me, bastard!" Blunt attacks had no effect on Luffy's rubber body, but Eldoraggo's teeth could still hurt him.

Yet Eldoraggo had no intention of releasing him. He even grabbed Luffy's arm and leaped into the air, using the force of the rubber contracting to rebound and slam Luffy away.

"This bastard copied my move?" Rubber attacks were originally Luffy's specialty. He had never expected someone to use his own Devil Fruit ability against him, and it had truly caught him off guard.

It had to be said that Eldoraggo possessed tremendous combat talent. Despite encountering Luffy's ability for the first time, he could already turn Luffy's own power against him.

Eldoraggo turned both hands into blades and repeatedly thrust at Luffy. Since his fingernails were golden ornaments, they could also harm Luffy despite his rubber abilities. Although Eldoraggo was enormous, twice Luffy's height, his speed was unexpectedly fast.

Moreover, Eldoraggo only stabbed at Luffy with his hand blades, clearly having discovered the Rubber Fruit's weakness. Sure enough, Luffy was too slow to dodge several times and had his skin cut open.

"Luffy, need help?" William called.

"No! I can handle him myself!" Luffy refused William's and the others' help because he had decided to fight Eldoraggo one-on-one.

"Rubber Whip!" Under the attack of Luffy's Rubber Whip, Eldoraggo's golden armor actually shattered, showing just how powerful the strike was.

"All the gold is mine! Die, Straw Hat brat!" Enraged, Eldoraggo prepared to use his strongest roar, the Sound-Wave Laser Cannon.

"Gum-Gum Balloon!" But Luffy refused to back down as well. While Eldoraggo's Sound-Wave Fruit was preparing the Laser Cannon, Luffy took huge breaths, inflating his belly into a giant Gum-Gum Balloon.

Boom! In Eldoraggo's eyes, even if Luffy's ability made him immune to the Sound-Wave Laser Cannon, this island was not large. As long as he blasted Luffy into the sea, he would win.

But to Eldoraggo's surprise, although Luffy's body was pushed back considerably after being struck by the Laser Cannon, he was not sent flying. Instead, he withstood Eldoraggo's attack. While taking the Laser Cannon head-on with Gum-Gum Balloon, Luffy had stretched out his limbs and wrapped them around Eldoraggo's body.

"Take it back!" The Laser Cannon that had struck Luffy's belly did not disappear when Eldoraggo stopped roaring. Instead, it concentrated within Luffy's inflated stomach.

Boom! The immense destructive force of the Laser Cannon was reflected by Luffy's belly straight back at Eldoraggo, blasting a massive crater into the ground. Eldoraggo lay in the pit, his fate unknown.

"That was way stronger than a cannon!" Seeing the crater with an entire layer of earth blasted away by the Laser Cannon, Usopp was relieved that the enemy had finally fallen.

"Usopp, why don't you pick up all that scattered gold first?" William pointed at the golden armor fragments strewn across the ground while he searched Eldoraggo's body for Woonan's treasure map.

"If the whale's head faces east, then its tail points toward the treasure!" The treasure map did not mark the treasure's location, but it contained that cryptic message.

"If the whale's head faces east, then the whale's tail should face west, right?" Usopp said cleverly.

"Wouldn't that mean it's here?" Nami looked at the map, then used her telescope to glance at the whale-shaped rock on the hill opposite them. She also believed that the tail pointed west, and the only place west with any buildings was where they were standing, though those buildings had already been blasted into ruins by Eldoraggo's Laser Cannon.

"Not necessarily. Let's go check out the whale first!" Judging from the places Eldoraggo and his crew had dug earlier, this clearly was not the true treasure site.

"You mean the gold is buried somewhere else?" Although Usopp did not think there was anything wrong with his deduction, he still decided to go take a look at the whale-shaped rock.

"Who knows?"