Luffy was beginning to realize something.
Moria's armor was tough. It was thick, and while Ryo could bypass it, his Ryo output wasn't high enough to accomplish what he wanted, so he needed to find alternatives—and fast.
'Too tough.'
'Too heavy.'
'Too much surface area.'
He could use Snakeman, but that shit was made for speed and also to kinda keep up with Kairo's speed. That was a long shot to try on Moria, as while he would have the speed, he wouldn't have enough power to destroy Moria's barriers.
He needed concentrated force. He needed something new, and quick, since his ribs were currently kissing his lungs—he did not have much time.
He needed concentrated force.
A lot of it.
Something that could break armor.
Something that didn't waste power across his whole body.
Something focused.
His grin slowly came back.
"...Alright."
Moria frowned slightly.
"...What?"
Luffy bit into his arms, blowing into his muscles. His arms would grow to be massive as he kept blowing through that shit. He had a plan for something he could do.
He didn't pour it into his whole body—just his arms.
His legs slightly.
His torso—
Compressed.
Tight.
Dense.
Steam began pouring out violently.
Haki flooded into his arms—
Not coating—
Filling.
Compressing.
Condensing.
Like he was building pressure inside a cannon.
Black lightning flickered violently.
Moria's eyes narrowed. The fuck was this guy doing?
Luffy would lower his stance.
His arms were now massive, inflated with a shit ton of air and Haki. He would then begin to use Haki to compress his muscles like no other. He was making that shit dense—and hard as fuck.
A sword would break trying to slash through it.
He felt his core twist, yet he didn't care. He was using his rubber physiology to its full advantage, making every part of his body work like a spring ready to snap.
"I was hoping to use this on Kairo."
His muscles compacted even more, steam flowing out of him, Conqueror's Haki and Ryo keeping his muscles in line.
This build was basically made to deal with tanky characters, as its main focus was doing a shit ton of internal damage.
Yes, from his short fight with Kairo, Luffy had realized that even his grandpa's full-power punch would not do lasting damage to Kairo. While yes, that shit would hurt, it was the kind of pain that vanished after a minute or two.
If Garp did not use Ryo or Conqueror's Haki, shit would not do too much damage.
David was heavily underestimating himself. He believed himself low Yonko tier, but he could beat most of the Yonko, with Shanks and Kaido winning—and it wouldn't be an easy fight.
It would be extreme diff or hard diff for whoever won. Yet, if he tried to fight Big Mom, he would lose, as Big Mom had a whole crew to jump his ass.
So he had Yonko-level strength, and if he were to eat a Zoan, he would be further into that Yonko tier. But a fight with a Yonko would probably have him losing since, you know, Yonko have whole ass armies.
And his ass could not run the gauntlet.
His name wasn't Sukuna, and even if it was, that motherfucker got cooked by his nephew.
Who later proceeded to steal his bag and his spot as the stronguest...tragic.
"Gear 4," Luffy said, steam coming out of his mouth. This form wouldn't last long—he gave it 30 seconds tops.
Steam would come pouring out of him.
"Lionman."
Luffy looked different. He now looked like an actual threat.
His body felt the force of this new power.
Moria was not impressed. Luffy simply had two big-ass arms, a big torso, short legs, and a lion mane—more like his hair was now longer and resembled a mane, you get the gist.
If this was what he called power, then this boy was going to get touched.
"Is this your al—"
Moria did not get to finish his sentence, and Luffy was already in front of him.
Pistol
As Luffy's fist slammed into Moria's gut, Moria's eyes widened. The warlord puked blood, falling to his knees and vomiting more blood.
Luffy would jump away, more like pouncing forward and backward, circling Moria as if looking for weaknesses.
Moria puked blood. 100 shadows escaped his mouth, returning back to their owners as Moria felt like 25% of his HP had just vanished in that instant.
His internal organs had just gotten fucked.
'This bastard... all of his punch power is focused on internal damage.'
The man realized this a bit too late. All of Luffy's damage was internal in this mode—a mode fully made to counterattack Kairo.
While yes, this form wasn't as fast as Snakeman, it was only slightly slower than a potential Boundman. Though the only purpose of it so far was to deal a shit ton of internal damage.
This form was made to deal with people too tanky for regular hits to do anything against them—so like the Kaido, Big Mom, and Kairo of the world.
Three more hits from this and Moria was going to get fucked over... raw.
Luffy would pounce toward Moria. Moria's eyes lit up just as Luffy took off—shit, if he didn't want to get his guts more rearranged than an OF creator, he needed to block this.
Shadow Dominant
He would remove some shadow from his armor and himself and summon countless shadow creatures to catch Luffy's attack. He was not going to get dream-bulled.
Luffy cocked his fist back, everything compressed.
Gum-Gum
His muscles compressed even more, to the point that his fists, which were the size of a King Kong Gun, were now the same size as Snakeman's normal fist—yes, that compressed.
He compressed more Haki into it.
And threw the punch.
LION BREAKER!!!
It was a straight punch. No bounce. No changing direction.
However—
The moment his fist connected with the ground—
BOOOOOOOOM!!!
A focused shockwave erupted forward like a railgun.
Everything in its path—
Shadows.
Spikes.
Constructs—
ERASED.
Not blown away.
Not scattered.
Deleted.
The attack tunneled straight through the battlefield and slammed into Moria again.
"—WHAT THE—!!"
CRASH!!!
He got blown back again.
Moria's eyes went white. 50% of his HP was gone now. One more hit and he was gone. Going from 75% HP to 25% in a single punch was crazy shit.
He was going to die at this rate.
A/N chapter 36 out