As Thor stood before Xebec, who was grinning like a madman with two fingers raised, he could feel his pulse quickening.
His blood boiled beneath his skin, as if a fire had been lit inside him that refused to die down. The air around Xebec felt heavy and alive, filled with raw, untamed power.
Thor could sense the oozing strength coming from the man's body, the sheer confidence that could only belong to someone who was born to command others — a true conqueror.
'It's exactly as I've imagined,' Thor thought, his grin slowly forming to mirror Xebec's own.
'That kind of pressure… it should only belong to those who carry the Conqueror's Haki. This presence alone is enough to make any warrior's blood run wild.'
The men behind Xebec were already noticing the giant child standing before them, whose shadow towered above their entire group.
"What a huge giant," one of them said in disbelief, his long blond hair flowing down his back, his mustache curling upward as the wind brushed through it.
The black trench coat he wore moved slightly with each step, and on his shoulder rested a massive naginata.
Thor instantly recognized him — it was Whitebeard, or rather, Edward Newgate before he earned his title as the world's strongest man.
"Oi, kid," Xebec said, tilting his head slightly, irritation blending with amusement. "Didn't you hear me? I said I have two questions for you."
Thor had heard him, but his focus had momentarily drifted to measuring their presence, their strength, and their confidence. He looked back at Xebec and replied calmly, "I heard you. You just didn't ask your questions yet, so I thought you might've forgotten them."
That answer caught everyone off guard. A few of the men behind Xebec began laughing, and even Whitebeard smirked faintly. Xebec, however, didn't get angry — instead, his grin grew wider.
"I like you, kid," Xebec said, his voice carrying a strange kind of excitement. "Alright, here's my two questions. First — is this Elbaf? Second — is Harald here?"
"This is Elbaf," Thor answered immediately, his tone casual. "But pops isn't here. He's out on a voyage right now."
"Pops?" Xebec repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Did you just call Harald 'pops'? Are you his son?"
"Yes," Thor said without hesitation. "Why?"
Xebec chuckled lightly, the sound low and amused. "Even if Harald's away, he'd still rush back if he heard his son got hurt, wouldn't he? Tell me your name, kid."
"It's Thor," he said, his grin widening as he sensed where this conversation was heading. The anticipation alone made him excited, his body already preparing for what was about to happen.
"Alright then, Thor," Xebec said with a grin that showed all of his teeth. "Do exactly what I tell you. Go home and tell your people to contact your father. Tell them that Thor got seriously hurt."
For a brief moment, the world seemed to pause — and then Thor laughed, not mockingly, but in pure excitement.
The idea of being "hurt" by someone like Xebec thrilled him. Even knowing that Xebec's strength far surpassed his own, Thor still believed he could last against him for a while, maybe even push him enough to make him serious.
"That's not gonna be enough to convince pops to come home," Thor said with a smirk, his voice steady and confident. "Honestly, no one would believe that I got hurt."
Xebec's grin didn't fade. He slowly pulled back his sword, the steel humming with a strange vibration.
In the next instant, lightning began crackling around the blade, faint arcs of blue light dancing across the air.
Thor's eyes followed every motion closely, memorizing every detail — the stance, the angle, the weight behind each breath. He wasn't afraid; he wanted to learn.
When Xebec swung, the air itself split apart. The strike came faster than Thor expected, and when it hit, he felt the full force of it crash into his body.
The impact was so strong that he instinctively compared it to his fall from the Heaven Realm — but even that was nothing compared to this.
His entire chest ached, his vision blurred, and his knees buckled under the sheer weight of the blow.
'So this is Xebec's swordsmanship… incredible,' Thor thought as he was flung backward, crashing into the ground and rolling across the snow.
Despite the pain, his grin didn't fade. He was lying flat on his back, but his eyes burned with excitement.
"There," Xebec said confidently, lowering his sword as he turned away. "It won't be a lie anymore."
But before he could take another step, a faint rumble echoed behind him. Thor was standing again, slowly rising from the crater his body had made.
His aura began to change, and frost started forming beneath his feet.
He raised his hand, summoning his weapon — Stormbreaker — which appeared in his grip with a low hum.
Xebec stopped walking. His grin widened again as he turned to face the young giant.
"Hakoku!" Thor shouted, swinging Stormbreaker with all his might. The air itself screamed as the attack formed — a massive wave of compressed force, slicing through the distance toward Xebec.
The ground cracked and split apart under the pressure. Xebec's grin faltered for just a moment before returning, and he swung his sword to meet the attack head-on.
The moment the two forces collided, a thunderous shockwave tore through the field. Xebec's crew jumped backward, not wanting to be caught in the explosion of air and ice.
Before the impact could fully settle, Thor lifted his other hand and used his Devil Fruit, summoning several blocks of ice in midair.
He grabbed one and hurled it straight toward Xebec, who was still blocking the Hakoku's aftermath.
When the ice reached him, it burst apart, spreading frost across his body until he was completely encased in thick ice.
Thor didn't waste a second. He leapt high into the air, holding Stormbreaker above his head as lightning began gathering at its edge.
"Elbaf Guillotine!" he roared, bringing the axe down with his entire strength. As he fell, lightning struck from the clouds above, merging with the weapon, wrapping it in bright blue and white energy.
Inside the ice, Xebec's eyes flickered with surprise, then amusement. He could feel the power behind the incoming strike and realized he couldn't simply ignore it.
Using his advanced armament Haki, he released a burst of power, shattering the ice around him just as Thor descended.
For the first time, Xebec's grin faded into a look of focus. He raised his sword with both hands and muttered, "Curse of the Abyss."
The air twisted, his sword pulsing with Haki, Conqueror's energy, and his own mysterious technique.
When the two weapons met, the sound was deafening. Lightning, ice, and shockwaves erupted at once, creating a dome of force around them.
For a brief moment, their powers seemed equal — then Xebec's strength broke through.
Thor's attack shattered, and his body was thrown backward, scattering into fragments of ice. The fragments fell and shattered again upon impact with the ground, turning into snow and mist.
When the dust settled, Xebec lowered his sword and glanced around. At first, he saw nothing, then spotted half of Thor's body forming from ice nearby.
It looked broken and battered, but Xebec knew the truth — the giant was still alive.
Slowly, the shattered ice began to gather and reshape, piecing itself together until Thor's full body reappeared.
However, this time, blood was running down from Thor's mouth, nose, and ears. The internal shock of the attack had torn through his entire body. He could barely stand, his breath uneven and ragged.
For the first time in his years in this world, Thor truly felt pain — deep, burning pain that reached all the way to his bones. Not even the time Estrid had hurled him from the Sun Realm had hurt this much. And yet, as he stood there, barely holding himself upright, his grin returned — wider, brighter, and filled with respect.
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A/N: THANK YOU FOR RYAN AND WOLFTEAM THAT SUPPORTED ME ON KO-FI, IT'S VERY MUCH APPRECIATED, AND FOR THOSE THAT WANTED TO SUPPORT ME JUST BECAUSE, HERE'S MY KO-FI ACCOUNT.
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THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN.