Giants possessed bodies and monstrous strength far beyond those of humans.
A single Giant warrior could easily destroy an entire pirate ship, crew and all.
That was why Elbaph was known as the strongest nation in the world—the Kingdom of War.
But in the world of One Piece, being born with an enormous body and tremendous strength did not make Giants invincible.
Quite the opposite.
Against truly powerful opponents, their oversized bodies could actually become a burden, turning them into enormous targets just waiting to be hit.
Imagine a cockroach with the same strength as a human.
Now imagine it could fly, moved incredibly fast, and had absurd reaction speed.
What would happen?
“What’s wrong, brat? Can’t keep up anymore?”
“Tch… You sure can run.”
Thor clicked his tongue in annoyance.
After Rocks realized just how terrifying Thor’s raw strength was, he immediately changed tactics.
He absolutely refused to confront Thor head-on.
Using Observation Haki to anticipate Thor’s attacks, Rocks took advantage of his comparatively tiny human body and extraordinary speed to continuously evade, all while launching flying slashes at Thor in return.
Thor might have possessed tremendous strength, but right now he was like someone chasing a cockroach around with a slipper.
After finally spotting an opening, he would bring the slipper crashing down— only for the cockroach to predict the attack and dodge at the last moment.
Then it would laugh mockingly and fire a flying slash back at him.
That was essentially Thor’s current situation.
Fortunately, Thor had admired Linlin’s nearly indestructible “Iron Balloon” body ever since childhood, so he had deliberately trained his own body to withstand punishment.
As a result, even Rocks’s flying slashes—powerful enough to cut through mountains—could only break through the outer layer of Thor’s skin.
Thor looked badly injured, with multiple wounds across his body and blood staining his chest red.
But in reality, these injuries barely affected him.
Those steel-like muscles, powerful enough to shake the earth, weren’t something Rocks could cut through so easily.
“Hey! Thor! Are you okay?!”
In the distance, Loki saw his twin brother’s chest covered in blood and immediately became alarmed.
This was the first time in his life he had ever seen someone other than himself injure Thor.
“Hey, Giant brat! Where are you looking?”
Distracted in the middle of battle, Loki was caught off guard when Whitebeard punched him directly in the stomach.
BAM!
Loki was blasted violently backward.
“Bastard! Are you people really human?!”
That human who stood nearly six meters tall—
Did he have Giant blood or something?
That monstrous strength was far beyond what an ordinary Giant warrior possessed.
“Don’t worry about me, Loki! Just take care of yourself!”
After shouting to his brother, Thor focused completely on Rocks.
It seemed Observation Haki really was important.
The main reason Thor couldn’t land a hit was because Rocks was using Observation Haki to anticipate every one of his attacks.
No matter how powerful a strongman was, if he couldn’t swat a fly, then even strength capable of lifting a truck would be useless.
In that case…
He would use that move.
What true powerhouse in the One Piece world didn’t have a finishing move of their own?
Thor had learned plenty of traditional Giant combat techniques during his training in Elbaph.
By combining several useful techniques, he had created a finishing move of his own.
Thor gripped the enormous Mjölnir with both hands.
Armament Haki surged forth.
A pitch-black sheen covered both his hands before spreading across the entire warhammer, coating and reinforcing it.
Rocks’s expression instantly turned serious.
His Observation Haki sensed danger.
But this time, strangely enough, he couldn’t predict what kind of attack the Giant brat was about to use.
“Feel the burning heat of Járngreipr!”
In Norse mythology, Thor’s hammer Mjölnir was a divine weapon that would never miss its target and would always return to Thor’s hand no matter how far it was thrown.
However, the weapon possessed one flaw.
Because of Loki’s mischief, Mjölnir had not been properly quenched during its forging, leaving its handle perpetually scorching hot.
To wield Mjölnir, Thor had to wear a pair of iron gauntlets known as Járngreipr to keep the burning handle from injuring his hands.
Now, with Armament Haki reinforcing both of Thor’s hands, it was as though he were wearing a pair of iron gauntlets himself.
Gripping Mjölnir with both hands, Thor swept the hammer horizontally toward Rocks with overwhelming force.
This time, Thor certainly didn’t dare smash downward into the Underworld again.
So his finishing move took the form of a full one-hundred-and-eighty-degree horizontal sweep.
A terrifying, scorching shockwave erupted.
A flying slash?
A flying hammer strike?
No.
He was simply ridiculously strong!
Thor had coated both his hands and Mjölnir in Armament Haki and unleashed the Giants’ Hakoku Sovereignty.
It was obviously just Hakoku Sovereignty, yet Thor had insisted on giving it a more sophisticated name.
At that moment, Rocks finally understood why his Observation Haki had failed to predict the Giant brat’s attack.
There was nothing to dodge!
Everything within the enormous one-hundred-and-eighty-degree area in front of Thor was inside his attack range.
Since Thor couldn’t hit the annoyingly fast cockroach that was Rocks, he had chosen the simplest possible solution.
Just scrape away the entire patch of ground along with him!
After the earlier earthquake, the Giants of Elbaph were suddenly struck by a violent gale.
The wind came roaring up from the Underworld.
Thick snow was swept into the air and slapped directly into the Giants’ faces.
The Giants of Elbaph were utterly bewildered.
What in the world was Prince Thor doing down there?
…
“Damn it, Thor! Were you attacking me too?!”
Loki cursed loudly.
He and his beast underlings had also been inside Thor’s attack range.
When that terrifying shockwave swept through, it nearly blew all of them straight into the sea.
“Sorry, sorry! That guy was too slippery. I couldn’t hit him at all, so I had no choice.”
Thor apologized with his mouth, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of remorse on his face.
He looked toward the other side of the battlefield.
Rocks and his companions were all floating in midair.
“Hahahaha! Pretty embarrassing, Captain.”
Golden Lion Shiki, user of the Float-Float Fruit, had used his ability to gather Rocks and the others after Hakoku Sovereignty sent them flying.
Then he manipulated the thick snow covering the Underworld into a massive shield, forcibly blocking the shockwave powerful enough to send even Giants flying.
“What an incredible brat.”
Rocks showed no anger whatsoever at his embarrassing predicament.
Quite the opposite.
He was delighted.
“Harald wasn’t exaggerating at all. I thought that bastard was just bragging.”
Rocks had come all the way to Elbaph specifically to find powerful companions like this.
He stared directly at Thor.
“Hey, brat!”
“Join my pirate crew.”
“Let’s conquer the world together.”