Ever since suffering that humiliating, bone-crushing defeat at the hands of Bardock, Enel had actually learned a sliver of caution.
Seeing that Smoker—who was fully aware that Enel was a Logia user—was still recklessly charging at him with a blunt weapon, Enel's instincts flared. He immediately deduced that the jitte was dangerous and deliberately avoided blocking it with his physical body.
If this had been the old Enel from a few months ago, he would have arrogantly crossed his arms, stood perfectly still, and allowed the Marine to strike him, intending to watch the man's expression crumble in despair before electrocuting him.
Smoker wielded his massive jitte furiously, launching a relentless barrage of strikes. Watching from the sidelines, Bardock easily analyzed the Marine Captain's martial arts. 'His hand-to-hand combat is decent. He clearly has a foundation in the Navy's Rokushiki, but he hasn't mastered any of the techniques to a high level.'
Relying on his overwhelmingly powerful Mantra, Enel casually dodged every single thrust, occasionally parrying with his golden staff or briefly dissolving into lightning to avoid getting cornered.
However, when Enel launched his counterattacks, he quickly realized a massive, incredibly frustrating problem. Smoker was also a Logia user. Enel's standard physical strikes and casual electrical blasts passed harmlessly through the Marine's smoky body.
Realizing that Enel couldn't physically harm him without Haki, Smoker completely abandoned all defensive maneuvers. He switched to a purely offensive, hyper-aggressive fighting style, completely ignoring Enel's retaliation.
'Is this what it feels like to fight a Logia?! They're so utterly annoying!'
For the very first time in his life, Enel finally experienced the exact same infuriating helplessness he had inflicted upon his victims for years.
"White Snake!"
Frustrated by Enel's speed, Smoker transformed his entire right arm into a dense, billowing stream of smoke. His fist shot forward like a heat-seeking missile, relentlessly chasing Enel across the deck. Theoretically, this attack could track its target indefinitely until it landed a hit.
After dodging the tracking fist several times, Enel grew irritated and simply stopped moving. He allowed the smoky fist to slam directly into his bare chest.
"Ngh!"
Instead of Enel getting hurt, Smoker let out a sharp grunt of pain. A vicious jolt of electricity had traveled up the smoke stream. If Smoker hadn't instantly dissipated his arm back into ambient smoke, he would have been severely electrocuted.
"Yahahahaha!" Enel laughed maniacally. "You are just smoke, but I am lightning! Even among Logias, there is a strict hierarchy! How can your pathetic smoke ever compare to the absolute destructive power of lightning?!"
Enel had allowed the hit specifically to test a theory. He had deduced that Smoker didn't know Haki either. Sure enough, the moment Smoker made physical contact, the Marine got shocked.
"Don't get too cocky! You can't hurt me either!" Smoker roared, charging forward again with his jitte.
Facing a Lightning Logia, almost all of Smoker's standard capture techniques were rendered useless. Even if he transformed into a massive smoke cloud and successfully entangled Enel, the 'God' could effortlessly blast the smoke away with a shockwave or simply teleport out of the trap as a lightning bolt.
"Hmph! El Thor!"
Enel's wrist dissolved into lightning, firing a concentrated bolt straight at the Marine.
Unable to dodge at close range, Smoker took the blast head-on. His body instantly shattered into a cloud of white smoke... and then seamlessly reformed a second later, completely unharmed.
Lightning was incredibly destructive, but it didn't possess any natural elemental superiority over smoke. Perhaps an apocalyptic blast of 100 or 200 million volts would violently disperse the smoke enough to cause damage, but standard lightning wasn't going to cut it.
"Hey, Enel!" Bardock called out, casually leaning against the railing. "He's aggressively trying to hit you with that specific weapon! Don't you think there's something special about that stick?!"
Bardock had been watching the fight with a mix of amusement and sheer frustration. Why hadn't Enel just stolen the jitte and beaten Smoker with it yet?!
Honestly, Smoker's fighting style was incredibly flawed. Carrying a weapon explicitly designed to neutralize Devil Fruit users while being a Devil Fruit user himself meant he was willingly carrying around a fatal weakness!
"I obviously knew that!" Enel snapped back defensively, his pride refusing to admit he hadn't thought of it. Truthfully, stealing the weapon hadn't crossed his mind; his original plan had been to just dramatically increase his voltage until the smoke evaporated.
"You arrogant bastards! I will arrest every single one of you!" Smoker roared, his fighting spirit burning brighter despite the stalemate.
His entire body dissolved into a massive, sprawling cloud of thick white smoke, rapidly expanding until it completely engulfed the entire deck of the golden galleon.
"White Out!"
With the crew's vision completely obscured by the dense smog, Smoker silently materialized directly behind Enel, thrusting his Seastone-tipped jitte forward with lightning speed.
But Enel's Mantra was absolute. He easily predicted the sneak attack, sidestepping at the very last microsecond. Before Smoker could retract the thrust, Enel's hand shot out and firmly grabbed the metal shaft of the jitte.
"1 Million Volt: Discharge!"
A vicious surge of electricity shot through the metal weapon. Smoker's hand violently spasmed, forcing him to drop the jitte.
'Crap!' Smoker panicked.
A split second later, the blunt, Seastone-tipped end of his own weapon was brutally jammed into his chest. Enel aggressively pushed forward, pinning the Marine Captain directly against the mainmast.
The moment the Seastone made contact with his skin, Smoker's strength instantly vanished. His body went completely limp, his Devil Fruit powers entirely neutralized. He couldn't even struggle.
Enel roughly swept Smoker's legs out from under him, pinning him to the deck with the jitte firmly pressed against his throat.
"Yahahahaha! Excellent weapon, Marine!" Enel laughed gleefully. It was an incredibly satisfying victory; this was the very first time he had successfully defeated another Logia user.
With Smoker incapacitated, the massive smoke cloud rapidly dissipated.
Cough, cough...
Bardock dramatically waved his hand in front of his face. "Man, the secondhand smoke from that Devil Fruit is incredibly lethal. Did you guys know that for every 60 seconds you breathe in secondhand smoke, your lifespan decreases by exactly one minute?"
"AHHHH! Is it really that serious?!" Chopper shrieked, instantly panicking and frantically checking his pulse. "How long were we breathing it in?! Am I going to die?!"
"Fufufu..." Robin giggled softly, gently patting the terrified reindeer's head. "Chopper, Bardock is just messing with you. No matter what you breathe, your life decreases by one minute every 60 seconds. Because 60 seconds is one minute."
Chopper blinked, his brain slowly processing the math before he let out a massive sigh of relief.
"You bastards..." Smoker gritted his teeth, glaring up at the crew from the deck. "Are you planning to officially become pirates? You just brazenly attacked a Marine warship and assaulted a Captain!"
"Oh, that reminds me!" Bardock snapped his fingers, completely ignoring Smoker's furious lecture. "Sai, hop over to that ruined warship and raid their armory. Check if they have any Seastone handcuffs and bring them all here."
Bardock had wanted to secure some Seastone cuffs for a very long time to use as specialized training weights. The Island Clouds of Skypiea possessed the same energy-draining properties, but those clouds instantly evaporated when brought down to the Blue Sea.
"On it, Captain!"
Sai effortlessly leaped across the gap, landing on the charred Marine warship. Ignoring the groaning sailors, he kicked open the armory door.
"You're actually looting a Marine vessel?!" Smoker roared, completely flabbergasted by their sheer audacity.
When he originally received this assignment, he had assumed Nico Robin was the only genuine threat in the crew. Now, he realized naval intelligence was completely wrong. This wasn't a group of harmless adventurers; they were a crew of absolutely lawless, terrifyingly powerful monsters!
A few minutes later, Sai returned carrying three pairs of heavy Seastone handcuffs. Typically, a standard Captain's vessel wouldn't be issued such high-grade, expensive equipment. However, because Smoker was a Logia user who frequently engaged in close-quarters combat with other ability users, Marine HQ had granted him special clearance for the cuffs.
Bardock pointed at the pinned Marine. "Slap a pair on him."
Without hesitation, Sai clamped the cuffs onto Smoker's wrists. Enel finally stepped back, casually tossing the jitte over his shoulder. The weapon was incredibly useful; he planned to keep it until he finally awakened his own Armament Haki.
"Bardock," Robin spoke up, looking at the incapacitated Marines on the other ship. "We should probably just let them go. There's no benefit in permanently antagonizing the Navy by executing a Captain."
"Don't worry, I have no intention of killing them," Bardock smiled, pointing up at the sky. "Look over there. Perfect timing."
A News Coo was rapidly flying toward their ship, a fresh batch of newspapers clutched in its talons.
"Wait... did you already send the photos of the Golden City to Morgans?" Robin asked, her eyes widening in realization.
"Exactly," Bardock grinned, casually tossing a coin into the bird's pouch and taking a newspaper. "Right before we left Sky Island, I contacted Morgans on a secure Den Den Mushi frequency. He was practically drooling over the scoop. If everything went according to plan, we are the front-page headline today."
He had originally intended for the newspaper to be a fun surprise for the crew to celebrate their return to the Blue Sea, but Smoker's sudden ambush had slightly derailed the mood.
Bardock unfolded the World Economy News Paper.
He was incredibly curious to see how the Five Elders would react. If a group of world-famous, globally celebrated adventurers who had just successfully discovered the legendary City of Gold—proving an ancient myth true—were suddenly branded as vicious pirates with massive bounties a few days later, the global public backlash and conspiracy theories would be absolute chaos!
'And if the World Government actually decides to escalate things... I'll just force Enel to apply for a Warlord position!' Bardock thought, a wicked smirk forming on his face. 'A terrifying Lightning Logia... plus guaranteed endorsement votes from Crocodile and Moria? The Gorosei wouldn't be able to refuse!'