The battle had undergone a complete reversal.
Earlier, Loki had been chasing John around while firing arrows.
Now, hunter and hunted had switched places.
After John gathered metal into a gigantic steel hand, he took the initiative and went on the offensive.
Loki, meanwhile, kept firing arrows while trying to widen the distance between them.
But it was obvious that Heilig Pfeil was no longer working.
John slapped every arrow aside.
John might not have ranked among the absolute strongest members of the Rocks Pirates, but he was still a great pirate.
It was only natural that he was proficient in both his Devil Fruit and Haki.
“Hey, hey!
Stop running!
Weren’t you trying to prove your strength to everyone?
Come fight me head-on!”
John laughed loudly as he pursued Loki without letting up.
Loki didn’t answer.
He simply kept firing, and the entire harbor was soon reduced to a miserable wreck.
“Magnetic Impact!”
John reversed the attractive force of his magnetism, releasing a powerful repulsive force in the opposite direction.
The massive mechanical construct around his arm shot forward like a projectile.
There was nothing sophisticated about it; he was simply crushing his opponent with overwhelming mass.
Bang!
It slammed into Loki’s back, sending him stumbling forward before he crashed to the ground.
Once the metal left John’s control, it scattered apart.
Several blades mixed into the mass scraped across Loki’s body and left shallow cuts behind.
“Can you still stand, brat?!” John stopped with his hands on his hips.
A blurry silhouette could be seen inside the cloud of dust ahead.
Suddenly, something emerged.
John’s eyes sharpened on instinct, only for him to realize a moment later that he’d overreacted.
Loki simply walked out.
The beast-hide clothing covering his body was torn in several places, exposing the skin beneath.
The absurdly large bow had disappeared.
In its place was a longsword in his right hand and a round shield strapped to his left forearm.
“Yeah, I knew it.
Bows just don’t suit me.
They’re a pain to use.” Loki rolled his neck, producing a crisp crack.
John’s senses were sharp.
He immediately noticed that every wound he’d just inflicted on Loki had vanished.
Even Loki’s right index finger, which that berserk pirate had bitten earlier, had completely recovered.
It looked as though the finger had simply grown back anew.
‘What happened?
Did his injuries heal on their own?’
“Hey, don’t just stand there staring.
Where are those machine arms of yours?” The corner of Loki’s mouth rose.
“That was just the warm-up.
Round two starts now!”
“Warm-up?
You’ve got some nerve.” John grinned as well.
‘This brat really is interesting.’
He gathered metal once more, quickly forming two enormous mechanical arms that looked absurdly oversized compared to his own body.
A furious series of collisions followed, one deafening clang after another without pause.
The surrounding pirates stared with their eyes practically bulging out of their sockets.
“He’s actually going toe-to-toe with John!”
“John still isn’t serious, right?”
“He’s using his Fruit and Haki already, but he still doesn’t seem to have much of an advantage in close combat!”
“Why doesn’t John just control Loki’s weapons?”
No one knew which pirate had suddenly asked the question, but everyone around him froze.
Right.
Loki’s sword and shield were both made of metal.
Why didn’t John simply rip them away?
Standing there and trading blows like gladiators wasn’t John’s style at all.
The truth was…
John had already tried.
“Why?!” John swung both mechanical arms rapidly, colliding over and over with Loki’s sword and shield.
“Why can’t I control your weapons with magnetism?!”
“Ha!
Did I just shatter your common sense?” Loki stuck out his tongue and laughed.
“You think you can control the weapons of a god?!”
“What?” John clearly had no idea what he was talking about.
“This is Hoffnung—the Sword of Hope, wielded for the Sun God!” Loki’s tone changed, becoming feverishly devout as his strikes grew even more savage.
“You believe in gods too?
You’re getting more ridiculous by the second.” John scoffed.
“Whatever.
I’ll smash that crappy shield first!”
“Idiot!
I am the god!
And another thing…” Loki roared, “This is the Shield of Justice!”
‘What?!’
The hairs on the back of John’s head suddenly prickled.
After trading another blow with Loki, he hurriedly ducked.
Half a second later, the sturdy shield whistled over his head, missing the back of his skull by the narrowest margin.
John grinned, already preparing to mock Loki, when several strands of pale purple hair drifted past his eyes.
He blinked.
Then exploded with rage.
“Bastard!
You cut my hair!
I’ve been growing that for years!”
He hurriedly dismissed the mechanical arms and reached toward the back of his head.
He couldn’t see it, but one patch felt strangely cool.
The sensation became even more obvious whenever the wind blew.
Could it be…?
“Hahaha!
Baldy!” Loki pulled a face at him.
Exactly.
When Loki abruptly stopped using his shield defensively and hurled it instead, it hadn’t injured John—but the result was arguably even worse.
A patch on the back of John’s head had been shaved completely bald.
The long hair he’d carefully grown for years now had an obvious flaw.
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”
John threw his head back and howled.
His aura burst outward like a gale, and even the ground began trembling as though an earthquake had struck.
A massive quantity of metal rose into the sky.
It wasn’t just the weapons carried by the nearby pirates—even several ships docked at the harbor began coming apart!
The metal pieces piled chaotically over John’s body, causing his figure to grow taller inch by inch.
“Huh??”
Two invisible question marks practically appeared over Loki’s head.
He didn’t waste time thinking about it.
If your opponent gave you an opening, you beat him down before he could finish whatever he was doing.
“Take another one!”
Loki gripped his greatsword with both hands, strode forward, and brought it down on John.
Instead of flesh, however, the blade struck steel.
Loki’s expression changed.
A tremendous force traveled up through his arms and forcibly pushed his sword back.
John’s appearance had completely transformed.
The most obvious difference was his height.
He now stood more than a head taller than Loki, his entire body buried inside a chaotic mass of stacked metal that had become an entirely new body.
His left leg was built from clubs, iron pillars, anchors, and other debris.
His right consisted of iron plates, gears, and armor.
Chains, cannons, and huge metal wheels covered the torso.
His arms were built in the same crude manner.
There was no elegant transformation or precision engineering—John had simply compressed all kinds of metal together into a gigantic machine.
There was no head.
John himself had disappeared inside it.
“Magnetic Machine: Demon!”
John’s voice came from within the robot-like monstrosity built out of scrap metal.
Along with his voice came two iron fists.
Bam!
Bam!
The giant machine pounded Loki twice.
Loki felt his blood churn inside him as he staggered several steps backward, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Boom!
The cannons mounted on the machine opened fire.
Several shells struck Loki and burst into clouds of black smoke.
“Try this, brat!”
The machine tore a thick iron chain from its own body, spun it several times overhead, and hurled it at Loki.
A massive, heavy anchor hung from the end.
THUD!
The anchor smashed directly into Loki’s face.
His body swayed violently, stumbled several steps, then crashed to the ground.
The machine planted one foot on Loki and raised both arms, pounding its chest like a gorilla—an animal flaunting its victory after defeating a rival in the wild.
“Is that it?” Shiki asked.
“John went too far.” Newgate folded his arms, his enormous naginata resting behind him.
“They’re pirates.” Kyo’s meaning was obvious.
Among pirates, the winner was king.
How you won didn’t matter.
Rocks said nothing.
He simply glanced at Hua Ye.
Hua Ye’s expression remained calm, as though nothing in the world could truly stir him.
Then Rocks suddenly heard shocked cries erupt from the crowd.
His gaze snapped back toward the battlefield.
And even his expression changed at what he saw.