Dust choked the air over Green Bit.
Five minutes ago, the center of the island had been a jungle. Now, it was a wasteland.
Luffy stood in the middle of a crater. Three CP0 agents circled him. The Mantis Zoan clicked its scythes. The Friction Paramecia slid across the dirt without moving his legs. The Glass Paramecia formed jagged blades on his forearms.
They lunged simultaneously.
A green star shot from the tree line. It struck the ground beneath the Glass Paramecia.
"Pop Green: Devil Trap!"
The ground exploded. Thick vines erupted from the soil. A massive, carnivorous plant snapped its jaws shut, swallowing the Glass agent whole. The plant chewed, its vines wrapping tightly around the struggling World Government assassin.
The Mantis Zoan spun around.
A blur of blue and gold dropped from the canopy. Vivi landed gracefully on the dirt. She held her Peacock Slashers created by Ben. The linked blades spun rapidly, humming like buzzsaws. Black Armament Haki coated the sharp edges.
"Peacock Slasher: Desert Storm!" Vivi swung her arms. The chained blades lashed out, deflecting the Mantis Zoan's scythes in a shower of sparks.
Usopp walked out from the tree line. He pulled back the band of his Kabuto slingshot. He coated the projectile in his own Armament Haki. He locked his eyes on the Friction agent.
"Luffy!" Usopp yelled. He didn't look away from his target. "We finished the rescue! The Tontatta tribe is safe!"
Vivi pushed the Mantis agent back with a flurry of strikes. "Go help Law! We will handle these three! You have a Warlord to beat!"
Luffy looked at his friends. He saw the resolve in their eyes. They are incredibly strong. He didn't need to worry about them.
Luffy nodded. He turned his head toward the southern cliff. He closed his eyes. His Observation Haki flared, stretching across the island. He felt Law's energy dropping. He felt Doflamingo's malicious aura rising. He saw the future. He saw Doflamingo's foot descending toward Law's skull.
Luffy opened his eyes. He kicked the ground.
Soru.
The earth shattered beneath his sandals. He vanished.
A mile away, Doflamingo brought his Haki-coated heel down to execute Trafalgar Law.
The air exploded.
A red and black blur intercepted the attack. Luffy's right foot met Doflamingo's kick. Their Haki clashed, grinding against each other. Sparks of raw willpower showered the battlefield. Red and black lightning arched into the sky.
Luffy stood over Law. He didn't budge an inch under the Warlord's weight.
"You're in my way, Mingo," Luffy growled.
Doflamingo narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses. He pushed down with all his might. The rubber boy felt like a mountain of solid iron.
Luffy twisted his waist. He pushed back. He kicked Doflamingo's leg away, forcing the Warlord to hop backward.
Luffy looked over his shoulder. "You did enough, Tra-guy. Rest."
Luffy cracked his knuckles. He turned his full attention to Doflamingo.
He coated his fists in invisible Armament Haki. Then, he pushed deeper. He drew upon the spirit of the Supreme King. Black lightning crackled around his knuckles. It trailed from his arms like dark smoke.
"I'm going to kick your ass," Luffy stated.
Doflamingo laughed. He spat blood onto the crushed grass. He raised his right hand. He flexed his fingers.
"You talk too much, Straw Hat. Goshikito!"
Doflamingo swung his arm. Five razor-sharp strings shot from his fingertips. They ripped through the air, aimed directly at Luffy's chest.
Luffy didn't blink. His eyes glowed slightly. Future Sight activated.
He saw the trajectory of the strings seconds before they arrived. He tilted his head to the left. He shifted his left shoulder back. He stepped his right foot forward.
The five strings passed through the empty spaces around his body. They missed him entirely. They struck the cliff wall behind him, slicing the solid rock into ribbons.
Doflamingo frowned. He raised his left hand.
"Tamaito!"
He fired a rapid barrage of string bullets from his index finger. Dozens of projectiles tore across the distance.
Luffy walked forward. He didn't run. He just walked. He swayed his torso. He bobbed his head. He sidestepped. The string bullets grazed his shirt, cutting the fabric, but they never touched his skin. His Future Sight mapped every projectile. He moved with absolute, terrifying efficiency.
He closed the distance. Ten paces. Five paces.
Doflamingo gritted his teeth. He swung his leg horizontally, aiming for Luffy's neck. "Athlete!"
Luffy ducked under the kick. He planted his left foot. He pulled his right fist back. He didn't stretch his arm backward.
"Gomu Gomu no..." Luffy muttered.
He threw the punch.
"...Meteor Strike."
Luffy's fist shot forward. He didn't aim for Doflamingo's face. He aimed for the Warlord's chest.
Doflamingo reacted purely on instinct. He crossed his arms over his chest. He coated both of his forearms in the thickest, blackest Armament Haki he could muster.
Luffy's fist met Doflamingo's crossed arms.
They did not touch.
An inch of empty space remained between Luffy's knuckles and Doflamingo's forearms. The Advanced Conqueror's Haki bridged the gap.
The impact sounded like a cannon firing inside a cavern.
The shockwave erupted. The ground beneath them disintegrated, forming a crater fifty feet deep. The sheer force bypassed Doflamingo's exterior Haki defense. The internal destruction ripped through his forearms and slammed directly into his ribs.
Doflamingo coughed a massive mouthful of blood. His sunglasses cracked.
He flew backward. He broke the sound barrier. He crashed through a limestone hill. He skipped across the ground like a skipped stone. He smashed into the base of a massive tree, snapping the trunk in half.
Luffy lowered his fist. The black lightning danced around his knuckles.
Two miles away, Doflamingo lay in the rubble. He gasped for air. His arms felt numb. His ribs throbbed. He forced his internal strings to stitch the micro-fractures in his bones.
He stood up. Veins bulged on his forehead. His pink feather coat was covered in dust.
"Advanced Conqueror's," Doflamingo hissed, wiping blood from his chin. "You mastered it. You actually mastered it."
Doflamingo raised both hands. He pointed them at the sky.
"Sora no Michi!"
He attached strings to the clouds. He pulled himself into the air, rising hundreds of feet above the jungle. He looked down at Luffy. He crossed his arms.
"Overheat!"
Doflamingo swung his right arm down. A thick, whip-like string of compressed heat lashed out. The string glowed bright orange, radiating immense thermal energy. It lengthened as it fell, aiming to cleave Luffy and the entire crater in half.
Luffy looked up. He didn't dodge.
He bent his knees. He kicked the ground.
Geppo.
Luffy launched himself into the sky. He met the descending flaming whip head-on. He coated his left arm in Armament Haki. He raised his forearm.
The flaming whip struck his arm.
Fire exploded. The heat flared, burning the sleeves off Luffy's shirt. But it didn't burn his skin. His durability, combined with his high-tier Haki, rendered the heat useless. Luffy grabbed the flaming string with his left hand.
Doflamingo widened his eyes.
Luffy pulled.
The strength of the pull yanked Doflamingo out of the sky. The Warlord lost his footing on the clouds. He plummeted toward Luffy.
Luffy pulled his right arm back.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
Doflamingo spun mid-air. He aimed both of his hands at Luffy. "Bullet Thread!"
Hundreds of hardened strings fired directly at Luffy's face.
Luffy didn't block them. He hardened his forehead with Armament Haki. The strings struck his forehead and bounced off, leaving tiny scratches. He ignored them. He focused entirely on his incoming punch.
"...Galaxy Impact!"
Luffy unleashed the punch. This was a direct imitation of Garp's signature move. He punched the empty air between them.
The Advanced Conqueror's Haki exploded from his fist in a massive, spherical shockwave. The sky turned black and red. The shockwave expanded instantly, covering a radius of a hundred yards.
The blast hit Doflamingo point-blank.
The air pressure alone crushed Doflamingo's ribs. The internal destruction bypassed his defenses. The Haki tore through his body.
Doflamingo screamed. He lost his grip on the clouds. He fell like a meteor. He crashed into the center of the island. The impact caused a localized earthquake. The ground buckled, sending waves of dirt rolling outward.
Luffy landed lightly on the edge of the new crater.
He looked down.
Doflamingo lay at the bottom of the pit. His pink coat was shredded. His white shirt was soaked in blood. His sunglasses had finally shattered, revealing his bloodshot, furious eyes.
Doflamingo slowly pushed himself up. He coughed up more blood. He swayed on his feet. He glared at Luffy.
"I am a Celestial Dragon," Doflamingo rasped. His voice shook with absolute rage. "I have the blood of the gods flowing through my veins. You are garbage. You are a monkey with a D in his name. You cannot defeat me."
Doflamingo raised his hands.
"Spider's Web! Full Enclosure!"
Millions of strings erupted from Doflamingo's fingertips. They shot into the air and cascaded down around Luffy. The strings wove together instantly, forming a massive, unbreakable dome around the rubber boy. The strings were coated in Armament Haki, glowing a dark, metallic gray.
The web contracted. It shrank rapidly, aiming to slice Luffy into thousands of pieces.
Luffy stood in the center of the contracting dome. The Haki-coated strings closed in. Ten feet. Five feet. Two feet.
Luffy took a deep breath. His chest expanded.
He activated Gear Second.
Steam erupted from his skin. His blood pumped at supersonic speeds. His skin turned pink.
He coated his entire body in Armament Haki. He overlaid it with Conqueror's Haki. Black lightning engulfed him entirely.
Luffy squatted down. He placed both hands on the ground. He compressed his legs like springs.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
The web closed in. The sharp strings touched his skin.
"...Dragon Cannon!"
Luffy released the tension in his legs. He launched himself straight up. He didn't throw a punch. He used his entire body as a projectile.
He collided with the roof of the Haki-coated web.
The web shattered. The strings snapped like cheap thread.
Luffy shot through the roof of the web, tearing a massive hole in Doflamingo's ultimate defense.
He soared into the sky. He flipped at the apex of his jump. He looked down at Doflamingo.
Luffy bit his right thumb. He blew air into his bones.
Gear Third.
His right arm expanded. It grew to the size of a giant's arm. He coated the massive limb in dense, black Armament Haki. Then, he let the Conqueror's Haki flow into it. The black lightning danced across the giant fist, arcing into the clouds.
Doflamingo looked up. He saw the descending shadow. He felt the overwhelming pressure of the King's Haki pressing down on his shoulders. He couldn't move. Fear, raw and primal, gripped his heart.
"I don't care who you are," Luffy shouted from the sky. His voice echoed across the entire island.
Luffy swung his massive, Haki-coated fist downward.
"Gomu Gomu no..."
Doflamingo raised both hands in a desperate, final attempt to block. He summoned every ounce of Haki he possessed. He created a thick shield of strings above his head.
"...Roc Gun!"
Luffy's giant fist struck the string shield.
The shield held for a fraction of a second. Then, it disintegrated.
The Advanced Conqueror's Haki struck Doflamingo before the fist even touched him. The shockwave drove the Warlord into the bedrock.
Then, the fist hit.
The island of Green Bit cracked down the middle. A massive fissure opened across the entire landmass. The ocean rushed into the crack. The shockwave leveled every remaining tree. The sheer force of the impact created a temporary vacuum, silencing the battlefield for a single, terrifying second.
Then, the sound returned in a deafening roar.
Luffy's fist buried itself deep into the earth.
He deactivated Gear Third. His arm shrunk back to normal size. He let out a long breath of steam.
He landed softly on the broken ground. He looked down into the massive cavern his punch had created.
"I am Monkey D. Luffy," he said quietly. "And I am the man who will become the Pirate King."