The style of the battle had become rather strange.
Loki kept smashing his enormous iron club into the ground as if he were giving the island a massage.
John, meanwhile, would occasionally sit on top of the club and drink.
At other times, he would simply lie down on it and start snoring.
Was that thing Loki’s weapon, or John’s bed?
To anyone with a trained eye, however, what John was doing was obvious.
Every time Loki attacked, John seized the instant after the blow landed and all of its momentum had been exhausted.
And that wasn’t all.
John was a Paramecia-type Magnet-Magnet Fruit user, giving him the ability to manipulate magnetism and metal.
With only a slight adjustment to where Loki’s iron club landed, John could make sure Loki would never touch him no matter how long they fought.
“Haaah…
haaah…”
After swinging for a while, even Loki had grown tired.
He leaned against his club and panted heavily, glaring furiously at John through the bandages around his eyes but clearly having no idea what to do.
“What’s wrong?
Is this all the prince of Elbaph has?” John asked.
“Then I’ll be blunt.
With this level of ability, you wouldn’t even qualify as an apprentice on the Rocks Pirates.”
John stood there swaying from side to side, the bottle in his hand seemingly bottomless as liquor ran down his chin.
His posture was completely relaxed and full of openings.
But Loki knew that none of his attacks could touch this infuriating bastard.
“Who the hell wants to be an apprentice?!” Loki snapped.
“I’m the Sun God who’s going to bring about the end of the world!”
The entire harbor suddenly went silent.
Pirates looked at one another, mouths hanging open, every face equally dumbfounded.
Then, in the next instant, the whole crowd erupted into laughter.
“Pfft—HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
“Does this idiot even hear himself?!”
“The Sun God?
Then I’m the Moon God!”
“Ending the world?
Yeah, yeah, sure.
When I was three, I wanted to overthrow the World Government too!”
“Hahaha!
Same level of bullshit!”
There was no helping it.
Loki’s declaration had far too many things worth mocking, and paired with his appearance, he looked exactly like an immature brat making ridiculous boasts.
And in truth…
He really was boasting.
As laughter poured in from every direction, Loki slowly exhaled.
For some reason, his mind became calm.
There was no helping it.
He had originally intended to save this move for his challenge against Rocks…
Over the years, every time Rocks visited Elbaph, Loki had begged him to take him along.
Rocks had rejected him every single time.
Loki had even challenged Rocks to a fight.
He had been defeated almost immediately.
Of course he had.
It would’ve been stranger if Loki could actually beat him.
But now Loki understood something.
If he couldn’t even get past one of Rocks’ subordinates, then what right did he have to talk about standing against Rocks himself?
After reading Loki’s intentions, Hua Ye wasn’t quite sure what to say…
Bang!
Loki suddenly dropped his iron club.
The enormous weapon crashed into the ground with enough force to shake the surrounding area.
“Giving up?” John looked up at him.
“Don’t make me laugh.
I’ve never once thought I’d lose to people like you!” Loki said slowly.
He raised one hand and pulled back his black glove, revealing a silver chain wrapped around his wrist.
John’s eyes sharpened.
He sensed something.
The next instant—
Whoosh!
A massive burst of light washed over John’s face, brighter and more dazzling than sunlight.
“That’s…”
John narrowed his eyes and finally saw it clearly.
A gigantic pinkish-purple bow had appeared in Loki’s hand out of thin air.
As his fingers drew back, energy from the surroundings gathered together and condensed into an enormous arrow.
John had no time to think.
He immediately retreated to avoid the descending projectile.
BOOM!
The gigantic arrow struck the earth with a deafening explosion.
Dust erupted violently, rocks rolled across the harbor, and the ground shook as though a localized earthquake had just struck.
And that was only the beginning.
Explosion after explosion followed.
Loki fired continuously, trying to catch John, but before he could hit his actual target, the surrounding pirates suffered instead.
“AAAAAH!
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!”
“RUN!
HURRY!”
“DAMN IT!
THAT BASTARD’S GONE CRAZY AGAIN!”
“HELP—!”
Countless pirates were caught in the attacks and killed on the spot.
No one was laughing anymore.
Loki, however, was growing increasingly irritated.
That bastard John was as slippery as a flea.
Even firing as quickly as possible, Loki still couldn’t hit him.
“Haaah…
Heilig Pfeil!”
Loki drew in even more Reishi from the surrounding space, using the increased quantity to strengthen his attacks.
What he was doing now—firing these arrows—was fundamentally just Heilig Pfeil, one of the most basic Quincy abilities.
In other words, it was basically a normal attack.
Loki simply followed the knowledge that had automatically been imprinted into his mind and used the technique accordingly.
“Licht Regen!”
Countless arrows shot forward at once, dense as rainfall and covering a massive area.
Rather than firing them straight down from above, Loki launched them diagonally.
As a result, not only the target zone but everything far behind it was caught in the barrage.
Bzzzt!
Newgate punched empty air.
Cracks spread through the atmosphere itself.
Every stray arrow that reached their position froze in midair before shattering apart.
“Trying to hit us too?” Newgate snorted.
“What the hell is that?
Some kind of giant fighting technique?” Shiki asked, visibly surprised.
“John can only run around getting chased?” Kyo’s eyes gleamed.
“This might be…” Ochoku began, then stopped himself.
“Don’t worry!
None of that matters!” Rocks suddenly declared, excitement creeping onto his face.
“Keep going!
Show me your power!”
Hua Ye chuckled quietly.
Was Rocks saying that to Loki?
Or to him?
Unfortunately for Rocks, what Loki had shown so far was only the foundation of Quincy power.
Whether the truly advanced abilities appeared would depend on whether Loki was willing to reveal them now.
Unlike Shiki, Ochoku, and the others who had claimed the best seats to watch the fight, one man hidden among the crowd stared at Loki’s power in shock.
“Hey, hey…
that giant brat was chosen by him too?
Isn’t he being a little too flashy?”
The man was none other than Gill Bastar.
Gill had only come over to watch the commotion.
He hadn’t expected to see something this interesting.
There was no doubt about it.
Just like him, Loki had received power from Hua Ye.
The only thing Gill wasn’t sure about was whether Loki counted as a member of the Sternritter as well.
Bzzzt…
bzzzzzt…
Suddenly, a strange fluctuation spread across the entire harbor.
Gill raised an eyebrow.
Several pistols hidden beneath his clothes began to tremble as though pulled by an invisible force.
He could hold them in place with brute strength, but not every pirate was capable of doing the same.
Weapons began flying out of people’s hands one after another.
“RUN!
JOHN’S GETTING SERIOUS!”
A pirate screamed.
The crowd no longer cared about their weapons being pulled into the sky.
Everyone fled in panic.
The battlefield expanded once again, leaving a much wider open space than before.
Guns, swords, blades, and all kinds of other heavy metal objects floated overhead.
Black arcs of electricity flickered between them as they formed a vast shadow over the harbor.
“Big Eater!”
John spread his arms, his long hair whipping wildly around him.
Using the power of the Magnet-Magnet Fruit, he drew every nearby piece of metal toward himself.
With such an obvious display, Loki naturally noticed what he was doing.
“DIE!”
Loki drew his bow and fired.
Another Heilig Pfeil tore through the air toward John.
But this time, John didn’t dodge.
“Iron Grip!”
John clenched his fist.
Metal objects rushed onto one of his arms, assembling themselves into an enormous mechanical limb.
He stepped forward and punched.
The Heilig Pfeil shattered head-on beneath the blow.
Loose Reishi swept past John’s face as a cruel, cold grin appeared across it.
“I may not look like much, but I’m still a member of the Rocks Pirates!”
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