Carl casually placed his left hand into his coat pocket while catching Luffy's incoming punch with his right. "This is your Haki?"
The planks beneath them cracked. In the wake of the blow, only a massive, human-shaped crater remained. Luffy's rubber body snapped back into form from where Carl had launched him with a single kick—like a stretched band yanked by a violent force.
"Hit!" Luffy grinned excitedly—only to freeze mid-celebration, as if someone had pressed a pause button.
Shff!
Carl's figure blurred in the air, vanishing. "Oh?" A flicker of curiosity crossed his face. "Seems like your Observation Haki's gotten sharper."
"That's…" T. Penn, still observing from above, clenched the ship's railing in disbelief. "Straw Hat… has he really grown that strong?"
"Thunderbolt Tempo!" Nami's Clima-Tact surged with lighting, releasing a precision bolt.
But in that same instant, just after Luffy had landed his kick, everything fragmented. Reality itself seemed to skip a frame. Even she couldn't follow what happened next.
"T. Penn, detain them." Carl tapped ash from his half-smoked cigar and lit a fresh one, casually gesturing up.
Sanji, already in mid-air, instinctively sensed danger. He halted his spin abruptly, deflecting off an air current.
[Golden Experience Requiem!]
"Execution Move – Soaring Meteor!"
Sanji's flaming foot landed squarely on Carl's chest—yet the man didn't budge. Not a twitch. Two monsters had just collided—the highest level of combat power below the throne itself.
Crack!
"Oh, there you are." T. Penn smiled faintly from the bow of the Oak Dragon, eyes narrowing on Luffy's landing.
Luffy scrambled to his feet at the ship's edge. Usopp behind him gritted his teeth and shoved him forward.
In the next blink, a kick infused with Armament Haki whipped through the air, cracking against Luffy's ribs.
"Hit!" Sanji stared, stunned. In Marineford, he didn't even know how to use Haki…
Even a rubber body couldn't disperse that level of force.
Brook lunged, his Soul Solid rapier stabbing at Carl's chest, coated in the chill of the underworld.
"This monster…" Sanji gritted his teeth, falling back. Another blazing kick struck—this one even faster!
Boom!
Yet it was useless. Carl's silhouette remained unshaken. He stood as though he hadn't been touched.
"How…?" Sanji couldn't fathom it. "This guy… it's like we're not even in the same dimension…"
A massive aura erupted from Luffy's body as he screamed, "I'm not going down that easy!"
Carl's eyes gleamed crimson for a moment. He arched a brow. "In that case… you coming back for more?"
"Diable Jambe – Grilled Beast–MEAT SHOOT!"
Sanji's blazing leg rocketed toward Carl.
Carl exhaled smoke from his cigar and simply blew—a gust of air neutralizing the fireball before it could detonate.
Sanji's foot stopped inches away from him.
After two years of hellish training in Kamabakka and on the run from the Newkama, Sanji thought he had become one of the top fighters. But Carl hadn't moved an inch.
"Oh, and you," Carl turned his gaze to the trembling blue-nosed creature behind Nami, "the little civet cat in the hat."
Chopper flinched. Carl leaned down with his hands still in his coat pockets, cigar tilted. "You don't belong on this battlefield."
"I'm not a civet cat!" Chopper puffed up, forcing courage into his voice. "I'm a reindeer!"
"Rubber – Kong Gun!"
Luffy's arm swelled massively, compressing and launching at insane speed.
At the same moment, Zoro, teeth clenched around Wado Ichimonji, launched forward.
Ka ka ka—!!
Three tightly condensed Haki-enhanced slashes flew at Carl, along with Luffy's cannon-fist. The air screamed as the deck splintered.
Chopper attempted to transform, but Carl didn't allow it. He simply flicked his finger at Chopper's forehead.
Thwack!
Chopper was knocked across the deck like a marble.
"Hmph." Carl's body remained untouched. Every strike—Zoro's slashes, Luffy's massive blow—vanished into thin air as though reality erased them.
"Three-Sword Style…" Zoro grunted, Asura looming in the back of his mind, but even he wasn't sure it'd matter here.
Brook's follow-up strike phased through Carl like a ghost.
All attacks simply returned to nothing.
Carl let out a breath of smoke, shoulders unmoved.
A bomb exploded point-blank on his coat—and vanished, with not even a wrinkle left behind.
Usopp fired a Pop Green explosive.
Sanji growled, "Now's not the time to play hero, moss-head!"
Zoro grunted. His feet skidded on the fractured deck as the explosive shattered near Carl.
From all directions, attacks rained—heat, steel, smoke, lightning.
Luffy, rubber body stretched, twisted, slammed—
Carl stood unfazed, brushing embers from his coat. "That all?"
"Gum-Gum – Giant Bazooka!!"
His massive arms clapped forward.
"Three-Sword Style – 1080 Pound Phoenix!"
Carl's pupils flickered gold.
One punch. One golden flicker.
Blood splattered. Luffy was suddenly airborne—his massive arms folded in—crashing through the deck railing.
He was launched into the sea.
WHAM!
A tidal wave erupted.
Zoro slashed again—too late. Carl's image flickered across the entire deck as if he were simultaneously everywhere.
"So," Carl lifted one foot, setting it forward gently. "Did you misunderstand the level between us?"
The impact from his step alone cracked the mainmast.
"Is there no other way…" Luffy's breath was ragged, his will fierce.
Carl raised his empty hand. Not clenched. Not threatening.
Just calm.
No matter how many blows rained down on Carl, he remained rooted on the deck of the Thousand Sunny, unmoved and seemingly unaffected—as if even the combined power of the Straw Hats couldn't reach him.
For a moment, only Carl stood there, casting a long shadow over the deck under the Wano sun.
As soon as his voice dropped—
"Yes!" T. Penn responded with a sharp salute, pivoting crisply as he barked, "All units prepare to descend! Target: Arrest the Straw Hat Pirates!"
"What?!" Zoro's pupils shrank, his instincts flaring with danger.
"Luffy…" On the coastline, amidst the sand and crashing tide, Rayleigh locked blades with Yamato while simultaneously holding off Nobita. A flicker of concern crossed his face as he glimpsed the ship from the corner of his eye.
Boom!
"Too slow," Carl's cold voice whispered—behind Sanji.
It was a maneuver reminiscent of Kaido's sudden strikes and infused with the same overwhelming Conqueror's Haki that Carl had once inherited from Admiral Garp's training. His presence distorted the air.
Sanji's Observation Haki tingled with urgency, his mind flashing with foresight. "This guy's Kenbunshoku… it's evolved—he's not just sensing, he's predicting."
With clenched fists and a sudden intake of breath, Luffy's muscles inflated like giant balloons.
"Gear Third!"
"Ha—Hah—Gear 1.5…?" Luffy wheezed, trembling on the deck. He had barely caught his breath, chest heaving. He had never faced someone like this—someone who looked straight through his punches.
Usopp, Nami, Robin, Chopper, Franky, and Brook stood at the ready, expressions grim. Each of them had seen war… but this? This was something else.
Carl gripped Luffy's enlarged fist casually. The rubber limb, once capable of shattering iron, now seemed to crumple in his palm like wet parchment.
Silence fell over the deck.
Even Zoro, veteran of wars and wielder of Enma, hesitated. This wasn't a swordsman he could simply cut down.
"Luffy!" Usopp leaped from the quarterdeck, slingshot shaking in his trembling hand.
"Diable Jambe: Prime Ground Beef!" Sanji's leg exploded into red-hot fire as he rocketed toward Carl.
In that instant, the hair on Zoro's neck stood up—his instincts screaming.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
They all moved as one.
"Still charging him head-on…?" Zoro grit his teeth, switching back into his Three-Sword Style, blades gleaming with Armament Haki.
Chopper's eyes rolled back and he fainted on the spot, overwhelmed by the burst of Conqueror's Haki that clashed invisibly across the deck.
"Let go of Luffy!" Usopp shouted desperately, a Firebird Star streaking from his slingshot.
Boom!
Luffy's arms and legs turned black with Armament Haki, and he bit down again—puffing his body up for another gear shift.
He had heard the rumors—how several of the Level Six escapees from Impel Down, the ones thought to be untouchable, were wiped out by this Marine-turned-monster Carl—who bore the epithet of the "Rubber Dragon" Vice Admiral.
Pop! His swollen fist ballooned with a sickening sound.
One by one, the Straw Hat Pirates fell around him.
Carl raised a brow. "Ka… 'Seven-Twenty,' huh?" His left hand stayed calmly tucked in his pocket while his right released Luffy's fist and extended forward.
A jet-black fist wrapped in Hardening Haki slammed Luffy straight into the deck.
A soaked hand slapped the edge of the Sunny.
Luffy's body rebounded, inflating.
Sanji, still upright, trembled—not from pain, but from the cold sweat running down his back.
Boom! Boom!
Carl's voice was low, unshaken. "You said… what kind of king do you want to be?"
Even a fist cloaked in Haki… it didn't matter. Carl's body had been honed under Borsalino and Garp, forged on the battlefield, and now radiated an invisible force—somewhere between science and Haki.
Sanji's Hell Memories ignited. Red flames bloomed behind him as he rocketed toward Carl with a roundhouse mid-air.
Luffy was hurled forward again.
With a thunderous cry, his massive fist connected with Carl's chest… or so it seemed.
Crash! The whole ship lurched violently, thrown off balance by the counter-force. The Sunny tilted dangerously toward the sea.
At the same time, Nami shouted, voice cracking with fear, "Everyone! Attack together—or we're really going to die here!"
On the deck's front line, Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji stood shoulder to shoulder, bodies radiating tension.
"Let's go," Luffy growled, blood dripping from his mouth. He bit his thumb—Gear Fourth was coming.
With an Iron Body reinforced by his unique technique and years under Carl's command, he was no longer just a pirate; he was a war machine.
Sanji stared at his feet—where blood pooled silently.
"Is… time being cut apart?" he whispered.
Suddenly, Zoro launched himself forward, green aura exploding as Asura threatened to manifest.
He crashed through the deck like a green comet—headed straight for the heart of the Sunny.
He actually connected—no illusion, no afterimage.
Boom!
"I am the man who's going to be King of the Pirates!" Luffy bellowed, rage distorting his voice.
Luffy stared upward in shock. "Why?! I hit you—I felt it land!"
But where Carl once stood, only flickering afterimages remained, scattered like ripples across the deck.
"Shining Blade: Direct Severance!" Carl's voice rang out like a bell, slicing the tension—and air—cleanly.
On his hand, black Haki crackled like lightning.
"Ahhhhhhh!!!" Luffy screamed as he was sent hurtling back across the deck.
He had trained under Carl for two years… and still couldn't match him.
Carl didn't just wield Haki. He evolved his Devil Fruit to the edge of madness.
Luffy gritted his teeth, pounding his trembling arms together.
"How… is this even possible?!" he cried.
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