Loki Takes on the Rocks Pirates Alone 4

The battle had taken a dramatic turn!

Before, Loki had chased John while shooting arrows at him. Now, pursuer and pursued had switched places.

After manipulating metal into a giant steel hand, John had gone on the offensive, while Loki shot arrows and tried to put some distance between them.

But it was plain to see that Heilig Pfeil no longer worked. John swatted every arrow away.

John might not have been among the very strongest fighters in the Rocks Pirates, but he was still a great pirate. Naturally, he had mastered both his Devil Fruit ability and Haki.

"Hey, hey! Don't run! Weren't you trying to prove your strength to everyone? Come at me head-on!"

John laughed as he pursued Loki relentlessly.

Loki didn't answer. He simply kept shooting, leaving the entire harbor in a dreadful state.

"Magnetic Impact!"

John reversed the attraction generated by his magnetism, unleashing a powerful force in the opposite direction.

As a result, the enormous mechanical device on his hand shot forward! There was nothing precise about it; it was simply a move that used a massive object to crush his opponent.

Bang! Loki was struck in the back. He staggered forward and fell to the ground.

The metal slipped from John's control and scattered on its own. Some of the sharp objects caught up in it slid across Loki's body, leaving small cuts.

"Can you still get up, brat?" John stopped and planted his hands on his hips.

A blurry figure stood in the dust ahead.

Suddenly, something emerged! John's eyes moved instinctively, but he quickly realized he had overreacted.

Loki walked out, his beast-hide-like clothes in tatters, exposing his skin.

The flamboyantly shaped greatbow was gone. In its place, he held a longsword in his right hand and wore a round shield on his left forearm.

"Just as I thought. Bows and arrows don't suit me. They're really hard to use." Loki rolled his neck, producing a crisp crack.

John's senses were sharp. He noticed that the wounds he had just inflicted on Loki had all vanished.

Even the bite on Loki's right index finger from his earlier fight with Mad Demon had healed. It looked as though the finger had grown back.

What had happened? Had his injuries healed on their own?

"Hey, don't just stand there like an idiot. Where's your machine hand?" The corners of Loki's mouth rose. "Let's call that a warm-up. Now, round two!"

"A warm-up? You've got some nerve." John smiled too, thinking that this brat was interesting after all.

With that, John summoned metal again, quickly forming it into two enormous mechanical arms that contrasted sharply with his own size.

Then the sounds of fierce collisions rang out, one after another, merging into an unbroken din.

The others watched with their eyes wide.

"That guy's actually taking John on head-on!"

"John isn't serious yet, is he?"

"But he's using both his Devil Fruit power and Haki, and he doesn't seem to have much of an advantage fighting with metal!"

"Why doesn't John control Loki's weapons?"

Some pirate suddenly said that, leaving the others stunned.

That was right. Loki's sword and shield were both made of iron, so couldn't John just take them away? Fighting it out like a gladiator wasn't John's style either.

In fact... John had tried that long ago!

"Why?" John swung his arms rapidly, clashing with the sword and shield in Loki's hands. "Why can't I control your weapons with magnetism?"

"Ha! Shattered your understanding, did I?" Loki stuck out his tongue and laughed. "You want to control a god's weapons?"

"What?" John clearly hadn't understood.

"This is the Sword of Hope, wielded for the Sun God!" Loki's tone changed, growing fanatical, just like the frenzied slashes he was delivering.

"You believe in gods too? This is getting more and more ridiculous." John scoffed. "Whatever. I'll smash that damn shield of yours first!"

"Idiot! I'm the god! And another thing..." Loki roared, "This is the Shield of Justice!"

What?!

John suddenly felt a tingle on his scalp. After exchanging a blow with Loki, he hurriedly ducked.

Half a second later, the sturdy shield swept over his head, barely skimming past the back of it and coming within a hair of hitting him.

John grinned and was about to mock him, but suddenly, a few strands of pale purple hair flew past his eyes.

He blinked, then flew into a rage.

"Bastard! How dare you cut off my hair! I spent years growing it!"

He hurriedly discarded his mechanical arms and reached back to feel his head. Though he couldn't see it, the back of his head felt a little cool, and the breeze made it even more noticeable.

Could it be...

"Ha ha! Baldy!" Loki pulled a face and laughed.

That was right! Loki had suddenly switched from using the shield to defend and thrown it. Although he hadn't hurt John, the effect was even worse.

A patch on the back of John's head had been shaved bald! The long hair he had deliberately grown now had a flaw.

"I'm going to kill you!"

John threw back his head and roared. His aura spread like a gale, and even the ground trembled as though an earthquake had struck.

After the ground shook, a vast amount of iron came together from the sky. Besides the other pirates' weapons, even several ships docked at the harbor were dismantled!

The metal covered John all at once, with no particular arrangement, and his body rose inch by inch.

Huh??

Two question marks popped up over Loki's forehead, but he didn't give it much thought. He would strike while his opponent was vulnerable; he didn't care what John was planning.

"Take this!" Loki gripped his greatsword with both hands, strode forward, and brought it down on John.

But the sound of scraping steel rang out.

Loki's expression changed. He felt a tremendous force travel through his hands, forcing his sword upward.

By now, John had completely changed.

The most striking difference was his height.

John was more than a head taller than Loki, and his whole body was covered in a jumbled pile of metal and iron objects, which served as an entirely new body.

His left leg was made of clubs, iron pillars, anchors, and the like; his right leg was made of iron plates, gears, and armor. Chains, guns, cannons, and a huge iron wheel covered the surface of his body.

His arms were the same. There had been no precise transformation; he had simply compressed all kinds of metal into a machine using extremely crude methods.

There was no head, and John was nowhere to be seen.

"Magnetic Machine: Demon!"

John's voice came from inside the robot, which looked as though it had been built from discarded parts.

Along with his voice came a pair of iron fists.

Bang, bang! The giant robot's fists slammed into Loki. Loki felt the blood and energy inside him churn as he staggered back several large steps, blood spilling from his mouth.

Boom!

The cannons on the robot's body fired. Several shells hit Loki, exploding into clouds of black smoke.

"Try this, brat!"

The robot pulled a thick iron chain from its body, swung it around several times, and hurled it at Loki. A heavy, enormous anchor hung from the end of the chain.

Boom!!

The anchor smashed into Loki's face. His body swayed violently, and after staggering a few steps, he fell.

The robot planted a foot on Loki and raised both hands to pound its chest several times like a chimpanzee, showing off like an animal in the wild that had brought down a mortal enemy.

"Is that the end?" Shiki said.

"John went too far." Newgate folded his arms, a massive naginata on his back.

"They're pirates!" Kyo's meaning was clear: as pirates, the victor was naturally king, and how he won didn't matter.

Rocks said nothing and glanced at Kaya.

Kaya's expression remained calm, as though nothing could draw his attention.

Just then, Rocks suddenly heard cries of alarm from the crowd, and he immediately turned his gaze back to the battlefield.

That single glance changed even his expression.