Luffy's expression changed completely when he saw Queen push Dragon out of the shadows, battered from head to toe and unconscious.
His earlier anger, anxiety, hesitation, deliberation...
All those tangled emotions became something utterly pure and blazing in that instant.
It was the fury of a blood bond trampled upon, the rage of seeing someone precious humiliated, an instinctive retaliation that no reason or calculation could hold back!
He did not roar.
In the next instant, Luffy vanished!
He moved so fast that he left a faintly rippling afterimage behind!
He drew his right fist back, coating it in Armament Haki, with faint flickers of Haki lightning!
There was no technique name for this punch. It hurtled straight toward Gern's face!
Gern seemed to have expected it.
Without moving his feet, he simply raised his left hand naturally, spreading his fingers with his palm facing forward.
Only Conqueror's Haki could defend against Conqueror's Haki!!
Bam!!!
Luffy's full-force punch slammed squarely into Gern's palm!
A deep boom rang out like a tolling bell!
A violent shockwave erupted where fist met palm, shattering another ring of flagstones beneath their feet!
Gern did not budge.
His arm did not even bend noticeably. His palm merely yielded an inch before stopping the attack cold.
Luffy's fist was gripped firmly in that hand, frozen in midair, unable to advance another fraction.
Luffy slowly raised his eyes.
Those eyes, always filled with sunshine and laughter, now held no warmth at all, only icy coldness.
He no longer called him "weird old guy." Instead, he clearly, coldly forced that name through clenched teeth.
"Gern!!"
The instant the words fell-
Boom!!!!
A vast, pure surge of dark-red Conqueror's Haki erupted, filled with indomitable will and the spirit of liberation!
The Haki took the tangible form of dark-red lightning,