Boom!
With a huge roar, a massive crater appeared on the ground, and even Smoker far away clearly felt the shaking.
A giant fist retracted rapidly, and Luffy returned to his normal size. After throwing so many punches and using 'Giant Pistol' twice, he felt exhausted even after just recovering.
"You straw hat kid, I'll kill you!"
However, before he could rest for long, an angry roar came from the crater. Kibutsuji Muzan burst out. His body had become even more deformed, covered in a lot of blood. This blood wasn't from Luffy's attack, but rather armor that had formed from his own seeping blood.
And where the blood covered him, many mouths appeared. The next moment, a large number of thorny whips shot out from these mouths. (I have to complain a bit, the Crocodile's depiction of Muzan's fight is a bit tragic. The Upper Moons all have one big move after another, but Muzan, the boss, just whips and whips. His combat performance is far worse than his subordinate Kokushibo.)
The whips lunged at Luffy with astonishing speed. Luffy quickly dodged. If it were before, he wouldn't have been able to dodge with his speed, but after arriving at this island, he had already learned Gear Second. In this state, his speed was much faster than before.
Otherwise, he would have been pierced by countless thorns.
Luffy had seen Muzan's attacks before. Just a graze before was enough to incapacitate Zoro and himself. If he were pierced by so many thorns, he would definitely be dead beyond saving.
But just as Luffy was about to dodge the thorns, Muzan himself had already charged over. His arm transformed into a giant, thick tentacle again, like a giant hammer pounding into Luffy.
Bang!
Luffy was like he'd been hit by a tank, sent flying far away. However, he was made of rubber, so this kind of blunt force damage wasn't too severe. He was more vulnerable to sharp attacks.
After tumbling several times in the air, Luffy stabilized himself, his feet landing on the ground. At that moment, he extended his hands again, throwing punches so fast they looked like a blur, throwing an unknown number of them.
"Technique."
Muzan raised his hand, and the next moment, a massive shockwave spread out, forming a ring around him.
Bellemere and Nami, who had barely regained some ability to move, had their hands crushed into bloody mist by the shockwave. Their bodies were sent flying hundreds of meters away!
Smoker, who was about to unleash an attack with the straw hat kid, had his Logia-transformed body scattered by the shockwave. After reforming, he spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying far away, like two devils.
Luffy, who was closest to Muzan, suffered even more terrifying impact. Even though he had been trained by Zephyr and Garp since he was a child, he was instantly sent flying back and felt immense pain, as if his body was twisting and his brain was utterly chaotic. His body convulsed uncontrollably, making it difficult to even move.
Luffy coughed up another mouthful of blood and was blasted far away. The direction he was sent was their initial battle location, the house that belonged to Kaya.
Luffy smashed through the wall of the house and fell into it, his eyes rolling back, clearly defeated once again.
"Lu... Luffy!"
Kaya trembled. Though she didn't know what was happening outside, she had witnessed her cousin turn into a monster with her own eyes. She could only huddle in the corner, shivering, hoping Usopp would come to her rescue.
But before Usopp arrived, she saw Luffy being blasted in.
Usopp had told her Luffy's name. Before, a green-haired swordsman had suspected her cousin, and she had been angry. But now, it seemed their suspicions were completely justified.
Luffy had only recovered recently. Although he had used Gear Third twice and two sets of Gear Second combos, he clearly hadn't inflicted much substantial damage on Kibutsuji Muzan.
On the contrary, Muzan's recovery ability was too strong. He could recover from any damage instantly. And Luffy, despite being rubber, was not immortal. After being hit by Muzan's shockwave, he had barely recovered before he passed out with his eyes rolling back.
This time it was more dangerous; Luffy was on the verge of death, but he was still murmuring something.
Shivering Kaya cautiously approached and heard Luffy mumbling "Meat... meat..." She quickly said, "Yes, yes! I'll go get some for you!"
After seeing her cousin turn into a demon, Kaya unconditionally believed Usopp. Luffy was a comrade brought by Usopp, so she also believed in Luffy.
Her servants had already been killed by Muzan, and even her parents were unconscious. This was because Muzan wanted to control her family and make them his representatives under the sun. Kaya obviously didn't want that.
So, all she could do now was hope that someone could defeat Muzan!
Meanwhile, Kibutsuji Muzan felt a sense of exhaustion after using the shockwave. This was basically his strongest move, but he had monstrous stamina, so the exhaustion was not a big deal.
"Why, why are you still not dead!"
Kibutsuji Muzan sensed that Luffy was still alive and was furious. "You're clearly not a demon, why do you have such tenacious vitality!"
"Isn't it said that only demons have tenacious vitality?"
As soon as Muzan's words fell, a voice echoed.
Smoker, who was severely injured and temporarily unable to fight, widened his eyes. He couldn't believe what he was seeing...
Another Kibutsuji Muzan had appeared?!
What...
What was going on?
One Kibutsuji Muzan was already annoying enough, why was there another one now?
This wasn't just his question; even the original Kibutsuji Muzan seemed surprised. He looked at the other him walking from the distance. "Who are you?"
"King of Demons!"
Another Kibutsuji Muzan loudly declared his identity. Although they looked the same, one could immediately tell from their personalities that this was not the real Kibutsuji Muzan.
He attacked first, unleashing his signature thorns while speaking!
Muzan seemed a bit surprised but his reaction was extremely fast. As the thorns swung towards him, he also unleashed a large number of thorns, which were faster and stronger!
"Inferior imitation. If I had met you at another time, I might have used you as a substitute. But now, all of you will die!" Kibutsuji Muzan ruthlessly cut through the other's thorns. The imposter, seeing his thorns ineffective, immediately dodged and ran away.
Muzan, seeing this, immediately gave chase. However, as soon as he took a step, the imposter turned around and unleashed a move he had used before.
Shockwave!
Compared to Muzan's 360-degree, all-encompassing shockwave, this imposter's shockwave had a much smaller range, forming only a straight line. But his opponent was only Kibutsuji Muzan, after all.
Facing his own attack, especially at this distance, Kibutsuji Muzan's expression changed. His arm immediately extended to act as a shield, blocking the path of the shockwave.
In an instant, the arm turned into bloody mist. However, by the time the shockwave reached him, much of its power had been absorbed by the tentacles, but the remaining force still forced him to retreat quite a distance.
His arms that had turned into bloody mist instantly healed, while the imposter immediately launched another attack.
Although the imposter's strength was not as good as the real Kibutsuji Muzan, the difference in strength was not particularly large. By seizing the initiative, he was able to fight Kibutsuji Muzan head-on.
Even though the imposter was clearly at a disadvantage, he also possessed Kibutsuji Muzan's characteristic terrifying regenerative ability. Even after being attacked, he could recover instantly.
However, the imposter was still an imposter, and it was the first time he had transformed into this form. After fighting for about seven or eight minutes, the imposter was flung away by Muzan's whip.
As he tried to get up, a faint glow suddenly appeared on his body, and the next moment, his body rapidly shrunk, quickly becoming a...
Child!
It was Tian Xiaoban, who had appeared on Luffy's ship not long after Luffy set sail. The imposter Kibutsuji Muzan was actually him using the 'Super Device' in his hand to transform.
The Super Device had functions like DNA storage and retrieval. It could not only extract genes from Devil Fruit users of the Zoan type but also collect information from many intelligent beings, including the genes of Kibutsuji Muzan, the 'demon race.'
Tian Xiaoban was an 'android' created by Genichi. Genichi didn't control him at all times, but gave him a persona to develop freely. Therefore, his arrival here was not Genichi's intention, though he certainly knew about it.
Tian Xiaoban was collecting information on intelligent life forms worldwide. When he learned of the existence of demons, he naturally wanted to collect demon genes, which is why he came here.
Through the continuous battles between Luffy, Smoker, Nami, and Bellemere against Kibutsuji Muzan, he had successfully collected Kibutsuji Muzan's information factors and gained the ability to transform into him.
Generally, transformations from the watch lasted for ten minutes, but this depended on any additional consumption.
Since he had come to this world, he naturally had to abide by its laws. The law of this world was that 'Haki is everything'. No matter what special abilities you had, you had to rely on Haki to maintain them, even the transformations of the Super Device.
The stronger the Haki, the stronger the transformation.
Of course, any transformation had a basic strength. To become stronger on top of that required Haki enhancement. In this sense, it was similar to Devil Fruits.
Tian Xiaoban did not maintain his transformation for ten minutes because the battle with Kibutsuji Muzan had consumed too much energy. So, at the eight-minute mark, he had almost reverted.
His expression changed. Without the transformation, he was definitely no match for Kibutsuji Muzan!
"Brother Luffy, save me!"
Tian Xiaoban hurriedly shouted. He had been saved by Luffy once before, and it was on that occasion that he had recommended Zoro, the pirate hunter, to Luffy.
He shouted instinctively, but to his surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, a loud roar came from the still 'intact' house.
"Muzan!"
Luffy leaped out of the house and appeared in front of Kibutsuji Muzan.
"How... How is this possible? How could you recover so quickly?!" Kibutsuji Muzan was surprised and angry to see Luffy suddenly appear. "You're just a human!"
"Because of my willpower!" Luffy shouted loudly. "I won't fall until I defeat you!"
"You brat! You've been defeated by me three times, why are you still challenging me! You can never win against me!"
"There's no why, it's because I'm going to defeat you!"
Tian Xiaoban's eyes lit up, and he quickly added, "Luffy, Kibutsuji Muzan has five brains and seven hearts. He has no weaknesses! The only way to defeat him is by relying on the sun!"
Since he had transformed into Kibutsuji Muzan before, he had some understanding of Muzan's body. He immediately said, "He can recover quickly from any attack, but there's a wound inside his body that has never healed. Maybe you can try attacking there!"
Kibutsuji Muzan glared at Tian Xiaoban, but he said coldly, "Yes, that was a sword from that man. But even that man couldn't do anything to me, so what are you guys?"
"Zoro's master?" Luffy said with a grim expression.
"That's right, that was the closest I've ever been to death. But you won't get that chance again!" Muzan's body suddenly became even more deformed. His face split open, and a bloody gash extended downwards from his face, like he had transformed into a man-eating maw!
He intended to swallow Luffy whole!
"Now, I've eaten enough!"
Luffy looked at the monstrous Kibutsuji Muzan fearlessly and shouted, "This time, I will defeat you!"
Luffy had eaten a lot of meat at Kaya's house, and with meat, he could recover quickly. After repeatedly falling-getting up-falling again-getting up again, his strength grew stronger.
He already had extremely high potential and was naturally born with double holy marks. He should have been a 'born saint,' but for some reason, the immense power from his double holy marks had not erupted. However, with combat, that power would gradually be unsealed!
In the fourth battle, Luffy will definitely win!
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