Seeing Teach pounce toward him with his mouth wide open, Luffy looked surprised for a moment. Then he suddenly copied Teach, opening his own mouth even wider than the Munch-Munch Fruit user.
With a powerful kick off the ground, Luffy shot forward straight at Teach.
"Rubber, Big Mouth Swallow!"
Luffy's mouth rapidly expanded in Teach's vision, causing Teach's eyes to widen in shock. Technically, Teach could have enlarged his own mouth further, but by the time he realized it, it was already too late.
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Teach was swallowed whole by Luffy's enormous mouth.
Luffy did not actually swallow him. Instead, he simply held Teach inside his mouth.
Blinking a few times, Luffy shook his head violently, tossing Teach around inside like a ragdoll. The wet clattering sounds coming from inside his mouth made it painfully obvious how miserable Teach must have felt.
The Revolutionary Army instantly erupted in excitement.
"Good!"
Kildeo shouted first, and the others quickly followed with cheers.
To them, Luffy was unquestionably one of their own, the young master of the Revolutionary Army.
Even Lindbergh, who had nearly lost the will to fight earlier, regained his energy. With a swift burst of speed, he appeared in front of Burgess and the others. His metallic claws crackled with silver electricity as he stared at them with hostile intent.
Burgess completely forgot that Lindbergh had blasted him away earlier. Cracking his massive fists, he prepared to charge forward again.
At that exact moment, Luffy suddenly spat into the distance.
A massive lump of "black phlegm" shot out from his mouth. It was Teach, curled into a miserable ball.
Teach rolled across the ground several times before finally stopping. Covered from head to toe in saliva, he staggered upright unsteadily.
Luffy pointed at him and burst into loud laughter.
However, midway through laughing, his expression suddenly changed.
The grin disappeared instantly, replaced by an unusually solemn look.
It was as though he had become an entirely different person.
Lowering his head slightly, Luffy muttered to himself in a deeper voice,
"Time's almost up. Let's finish this quickly."
After speaking, he fell silent for a brief moment.
Then he slowly raised his head.
Golden light exploded within his pupils like two blazing suns.
Teach finally snapped back to his senses. After suffering two humiliating defeats in a row, he no longer dared to underestimate Luffy. Swallowing nervously, he stared at the distorted air surrounding Luffy as his expression gradually turned serious.
Buzz!
Violent tremors reappeared around Teach's fist.
Kildeo's pupils shrank instantly. Looking toward Axiu and the others, who were still trapped as frozen statues nearby, he hurriedly shouted:
"Luffy! Axiu and the others...!"
Before he could finish speaking, the ground beneath the frozen cadres suddenly began to move.
The earth softened and transformed into liquid-like rubber, wrapping around the ice sculptures and protecting them.
In the distance, Luffy shifted his gaze back toward Teach.
Then he slowly raised his right hand.
Armament Haki coated his arm completely while thick red and black lightning erupted around him. Conqueror's Haki lightning crackled wildly through the sky.
As the violent energy surged, Luffy's right hand rapidly expanded into a gigantic fist large enough to blot out the sky itself.
The instant he clenched it, all the lightning raging across the battlefield gathered toward his enormous hand.
Teach's expression changed drastically.
The tremors around his fist intensified several times over. Even before he attacked, tiny cyan cracks had already begun spreading through the surrounding air.
Powerful winds swept across the battlefield.
Luffy's body trembled slightly, and tears slowly streamed down his face.
The howling wind reminded him of Dragon.
Unlike the original timeline, the bond between Luffy and Dragon in this world was extremely deep.
But in that moment of distraction and grief, Teach immediately seized the opportunity.
He slammed his fist forward violently.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Spiderweb-like fractures spread through the air as overwhelming tremor waves surged outward, tearing apart the rubberized ground along the way.
Luffy's eyes sharpened instantly.
Dragging the enormous fist behind him, he swung it forward with terrifying force.
"Great Ape God Gun!"
BOOM!!!
The moment the giant fist collided with the tremors, a deafening explosion erupted across the battlefield.
The rubberized earth fluctuated like raging ocean waves, throwing everyone off balance as they crashed helplessly onto the ground.
At the center of the collision, Teach was drenched in sweat.
He desperately pressed his fist against the air in front of him while the tremor energy around his hand flickered unstably. It was obvious he was reaching his limit.
This was not because Teach was weak.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit possessed terrifying destructive power, stronger than most Logia Devil Fruits in terms of raw devastation.
However, the burden it placed on the user's body was equally monstrous.
An ordinary person would likely die from shattered internal organs after using it even once.
The fact that Teach could continuously unleash such overwhelming tremor power already proved how monstrous his physique was. Even an older Whitebeard might not have sustained such output for this long.
Unfortunately for Teach, his opponent today was Luffy, the user of the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Nika.
The ridiculous flexibility and freedom granted by the Nika Fruit naturally countered the Tremor-Tremor Fruit extremely well.
After several moments of deadlock, Luffy's Great Ape God Gun slowly pushed through the tremors and advanced forward.
Compared to the massive fist descending upon him, Teach looked unbelievably small.
The overwhelming force finally shattered his defense completely.
Teach was blasted backward like a broken kite before crashing heavily onto the ground in the classic spread-eagled posture of a defeated pirate.
His eyes rolled back as several more broken teeth flew out of his mouth.
Seeing this, Chiffon screamed hysterically.
"Husband!!!"
Van Augur and the others wore grim expressions.
Laffitte glanced toward Van Augur, who instantly understood.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several bullets shot toward Lindbergh.
Lindbergh easily dodged them, but the brief distraction gave Laffitte enough time to spread the wings on his back and soar through the air toward the unconscious Teach.
Just as Lindbergh prepared to stop the remaining Blackbeard Pirates, Kildeo and the others suddenly cried out in alarm.
"Luffy!!!"
Lindbergh froze and immediately turned around.
The godlike Luffy from moments earlier was now lying on the ground, his body shriveled and aged like a dying old man.
Seeing this, Lindbergh abandoned any thoughts of chasing the Blackbeard Pirates and instantly rushed to Luffy's side.
Meanwhile, Laffitte successfully retrieved Teach and carried him back.
He placed Teach atop Doc Q's half-dead horse while Van Augur and Burgess, who was carrying Chiffon, climbed aboard as well.
The poor horse immediately collapsed to its knees from the weight.
Doc Q casually pulled out a strange purple apple from his bag and shoved it into the horse's mouth.
After swallowing the apple, the horse suddenly snorted violently. Its veins bulged across its body as it released a ferocious roar.
In the next instant, it transformed into a streak of gray lightning and shot into the distance at terrifying speed, disappearing from the Revolutionary Army's sight completely.