78: Chapter 78 Luffy's Shadow

"On this vast ocean, apart from old man Garp, no scum has the qualifications to point fingers at people from Foosha Village!"

"Moriah, today is the end of the road for you."

Moriah watched as Rice walked into the ice chamber, the fat on his chubby face trembling violently. He recalled the terrifying scene in the cemetery outside where the other party smashed the bones of hundreds of zombies with a single punch.

Without any hesitation, Moriah grabbed Luffy's shadow tightly with both hands, turned around, and aimed it at the huge iceberg that froze the Ancient Giant.

"Kishishishi! So what if your muscles are strong!"

Moriah shoved the black shadow in his hands fiercely into the ice, into the wide-open bloodthirsty maw of the Ancient Giant Oars.

Silence.

A full ten seconds of absolute dead silence.

Immediately following, a dull vibration, like ancient war drums, emanated from inside the huge iceberg.

Thump... thump... thump...

With the integration of the shadow, the heart of the Ancient Giant, which had been stagnant for hundreds of years, began to beat wildly again.

Inside blood vessels as thick as underground pipes, blood boiled once more. Every contraction of the massive heart chambers erupted with astonishing thrust, delivering power to the thousands of tons of muscle fibers throughout its body.

On the surface of the Ancient Giant's massive torso, muscle groups began to expand and exert force violently.

Crack... crack... BOOM!!!

The thick ice layer, dozens of meters high, could no longer withstand the terrifying expansion force coming from within, and it underwent a shattering explosion.

Thousands of tons of crushed ice splashed wildly in all directions like heavy artillery, smashing the granite stone walls surrounding the ice chamber.

The Ancient Giant, Oars, had completely awakened.

"Meat... so hungry, want to eat meat!"

Oars opened his abyss-like giant mouth, letting out a deafening, violent roar.

The massive sound waves reverberated back and forth within the enclosed ice chamber.

The load-bearing arch overhead developed large cracks under this vibration, and huge stone blocks fell one after another. The implantation of Luffy's shadow endowed this giant with a fanatical, warlike instinct.

Moriah stood at the feet of Oars, laughing maniacally.

"Kishishishi! Do you see that! This is overwhelming hugeness! This body possesses the destructive power to destroy the entire island. No matter how hard your fists are, under the giant's feet, you can only be trampled into a pile of mush!"

Rice stood where he was, letting those falling boulders smash onto the stone slabs around his body, not even blinking an eyelid.

He tilted his head, looking up at the ninety-meter-tall red giant. There was no fear in his violent black eyes, only a kind of fanatical excitement belonging to a predator encountering top-tier prey.

The massive difference in size completely ignited Rice's deep-seated bloodthirsty desire for destruction.

A two-hundred-pound human body, facing a multi-thousand-ton ancient mountain of flesh—what kind of sparks would collide when they clashed?

"Everyone, take Luffy and retreat from the ice chamber. This building won't last thirty seconds before it completely collapses."

Rice issued the order coldly.

The female crew members of the White Dove Adventure Group did not hesitate, quickly hoisting the unconscious Luffy and coordinating with Zoro and the others to retreat rapidly toward the safety passage in the rear.

In the center of the ice chamber, only Rice, Moriah, and the rampaging Ancient Giant remained.

Oars' giant, lantern-like eyeballs slowly rotated, locking onto the tiny human below who was emitting astonishing heat waves.

Oars raised his right foot.

That sole's area was even larger than the deck of a medium-sized sailing ship. Carrying thousands of tons of terrifying gravity, it aimed at Rice's position and stomped down fiercely!

The air under the giant sole was forcibly compressed, exploding into a ring of pale white shockwaves.

Gale winds howled, and the granite ground had already begun to crack in advance under the massive wind pressure.

"Dodge? In the fighting style of this body, the word 'retreat' simply does not exist."

Rice bent his legs slightly.

The fibers of his thigh muscles and calf gastrocnemius muscles were stretched to the limit at this moment.

The surging power of Qi in his body burned crazily.

BOOM!

The granite ground beneath his feet completely collapsed into a deep pit dozens of meters in diameter.

Rice's figure transformed into a black meteorite rising against the trend, carrying the massive kinetic energy of breaking the sound barrier, heading straight to meet the giant foot stomping down.

In mid-air.

Right fist retracted to his waist. All the power of his body gathered crazily.

Jet-black Armament Haki sprayed out along his arm, forming a substantial black airflow shield on the outside of his fist.

Not only that, a strand of black-red Haoshoku lightning violently coiled around the Ryuo aura, emitting terrifying fluctuations that tore through space.

Advanced Armament Ryuo, combined with Haoshoku infusion.

Compressing all destructive power onto the tiny contact surface of his fist, in order to confront the thousands of tons of heavy pressure head-on!

RUMBLE—!!!

Rice's right fist slammed solidly into the very center of Oars' giant sole.

Two forces of completely different magnitudes engaged in a violently unreasonable collision in mid-air.

Blinding bright light erupted from the point of contact.

A visible circular shockwave, like a sharp blade of raw iron, cut wildly into the surrounding space.

The stone walls of the ice chamber, several meters thick, were like fragile biscuits in the face of this shockwave, instantly severed at the waist. The huge dome lost its support completely and collapsed with a roar, revealing the gray and gloomy sky outside.

In mid-air.

Oars' stomping giant foot actually stopped its downward trajectory abruptly in mid-air!

Thousands of tons of gravity were completely canceled out by the Haki attached to Rice's punch.

Not only that, the terrifying internal destructive power of the Ryuo Haki drilled directly into the depths of the giant's flesh and blood along the sole of Oars' foot. The internal flesh and blood exploded violently under the ravages of the Haki.

"AWOO—!!!"

Oars let out a painful, shrill roar. The intense pain coming from the sole of his foot caused this rampaging giant to instinctively retreat backward.

The massive body lost its balance, retreating several steps in succession. Each step stomped huge deep pits into the island's surface, triggering a round of earth-shaking tremors.

Rice's body fell downward under the push of the reaction force.

His feet slammed heavily into the ruins, carving out two deep trenches.

Shaking off the electric arcs coiled around his right fist, Rice's black eyes became increasingly violent.

"The flesh is too thick, and the muscle density is comparable to refined steel. Simply hitting the epidermis will greatly reduce the destructive power."

The massive body size brought unparalleled strength, but it also came with a fatal flaw.

The larger the body, the greater the burden on the bones and joints. These cartilage parts used to connect the limbs were the most fatal weak points on the giant monster.

Moriah stood on the ruins in the distance, watching Oars being repelled by a single punch, his eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets, cold sweat pouring out crazily.

"Are you kidding me! Relying purely on a human body, he forcibly blocked Oars' stomp?! Is this still a normal person!"

"To dismantle this moving mountain of flesh, I just need to break the joints."

Rice snorted coldly.

His body turned into a black lightning bolt tearing through the air again.

[Soru].

Moving at a speed too fast for the naked eye to capture, Rice instantly appeared in front of Oars' right knee, which was as thick as a load-bearing pillar.

Although Oars possessed Luffy's combat consciousness, his massive body led to extremely sluggish reactions. There was a fatal time lag between the brain issuing commands and them being conducted to the legs.

Rice did not give the opponent any gap to react at all.

His left leg was like a lead-filled iron whip, dragging a residual image in mid-air. Armament Haki covered the surface of his military boot tightly, and he whipped it down fiercely at the side of Oars' knee joint.

BANG!!!

The terrifying destructive power was accurately and unerringly concentrated on the fragile part of the knee joint. Oars' kneecap suffered a severe dislocation under Rice's whip kick. The thick ligaments connecting the thigh and calf bore pulling forces beyond their limits, emitting a dull snapping sound.

"ROAR—!"

Oars' right knee instantly lost its load-bearing capacity, and his massive body tilted violently to the right.

The thousands of tons of body lost the support of its vertical center of gravity, like a collapsing mountain peak, slamming fiercely toward the ground.

RUMBLE!

Oars knelt on one knee, his huge knee smashing all the surrounding Gothic architecture, kicking up a sky full of dust.

The violent dismantling project had only just begun.

Rice followed Oars' tilted torso, his feet treading on the air.

[Moonwalk].

His figure rose, arriving directly at the elbow of Oars' thick right arm.

Ryuo Haki wrapped around his fists again.

His waist and abdominal muscles twisted crazily, driving all the power of his upper body. He threw dozens of iron-like heavy punches, invisible to the naked eye, directly at Oars' elbow joint.

Every punch carried the force to smash a mountain, and every punch hit precisely on the same coordinate.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

The dull sound of beating iron connected into one in mid-air.

Oars' elbow joint was completely shattered under such high-frequency bombardment. The elbow bones suffered a comminuted fracture, and the entire right arm hung down limply, completely rendered useless.

Moriah watched as Oars had his right knee and elbow rendered useless by Rice like dismantling a toy in just a few dozen seconds, trembling all over, his legs shaking.

"This isn't a fight at all... what kind of monster is this!"

Moriah waved his hands frantically, trying to manipulate the shadow inside Oars to make a desperate counterattack.

Oars endured the intense pain of the broken joint, his only remaining left hand suddenly opened, like a huge fishing net covering the sky, slapping fiercely toward Rice in mid-air.

The area of this palm was enough to block out the sky.

Rice hovered in mid-air, with no intention of dodging.

Looking at the huge palm slapping down, a cruel arc curled at the corner of his mouth. Instead of retreating, he Advanced, his figure like a tiny steel nail, charging directly toward the center of Oars' giant palm.

At the moment of contact, Rice suddenly reached out with both hands, gripping the edge of Oars' left middle finger tightly.

Compared to Oars' massive body, Rice was like an ant clinging to a tree trunk.

But this ant contained terrifying monster strength that defied common sense.

The Qi and blood in Rice's body exploded completely, stimulating every muscle fiber to operate at overload.

The muscles in his arms bulged, and his veins popped out.

His feet stepped on the surface of Oars' palm, using friction to fix his center of gravity.

Exerting force from his waist, he let out a wild, beast-like roar toward the direction of the joint's reverse.

"For this body... BREAK!!!"

[Haoshoku: Gun King Gun]

CRACK—!!!

The crisp, huge sound of bone breaking overwhelmed all the noise in the arena.

Oars' middle finger, as thick as a stone pillar, was actually snapped backward into a strange right angle by Rice with pure, barbaric, monster strength!

The giant let out a miserable howl that shook the clouds.

Oars' left hand instinctively wanted to pull back.

Rice gripped the broken finger bone tightly, not giving Oars any chance to pull away at all.

Using Oars' finger as a fulcrum for force.

With all his body's strength concentrated in his waist and abdomen, and utilizing the huge inertia of Oars pulling back, Rice suddenly twisted his center of gravity.

A shoulder throw that transcended the weight ratio by countless magnitudes was staged brazenly on this ruin.

RUMBLING—!!!

Oars' massive red body, ninety meters tall and weighing thousands of tons, had its feet completely lifted off the ground under the traction of Rice's unreasonable monster strength.

The huge body drew a terrifying semicircular trajectory in mid-air, then smashed head-first toward the island's surface.

A man-made super earthquake erupted completely on Thriller Bark.

The entire mobile island let out an unbearable wail at this moment, and the surrounding seawater was shaken into monstrous waves dozens of meters high.

Oars' head and back slammed heavily into the rubble ruins, smashing out a huge abyssal crater.

Bones broken, flesh collapsed. After enduring such a terrifying shoulder throw, this ancient body completely lost the possibility of standing, lying in the huge pit and twitching constantly.

Rice released Oars' broken finger bone and landed lightly on a rock at the edge of the ruins.

His breathing was steady, and the temperature on his body surface was still scorching.

Looking down at Gekko Moriah, who was already paralyzed with fear in the distance, his bronze-colored body was like a god of death in charge of the Law of destruction.

Cutting off Luffy's shadow, this lopsided collision of flesh could only end with the tyrant's pure, cold, and flawless violent dismantling, putting a violently extreme full stop to it.