Before the echo of his words had even faded, Lucci's feet shattered the stone floor. With violent, teleportation-like explosive power, he appeared directly in front of Urouge.
His clenched fists pressed with pinpoint precision against the center of Urouge's thick chest. This was a terrifying internal force—a shockwave designed to bypass the skin and shatter internal organs into a bloody pulp.
The chill of death poured from Lucci's knuckles. At this range, there was no dodging.
The wild laughter on Urouge's face vanished, replaced by a grim, focused tightness. He didn't retreat. He didn't try to swat Lucci away. Instead, he reached back into the memory of the harshest lesson Ace had ever taught him during those three months in the clouds:
"When you cannot dodge, you must become the mountain."
The veins on Urouge's neck bulged like tree roots. His boiling blood and racing heartbeat were forcibly locked down in a split second. His massive frame compressed inward, reinforced by high-density Armament Haki.
"Iron Body: Golden Bell Shield!"
THUD!
The sound was like a massive bronze bell being struck by a battering ram. The unparalleled destructive shockwave of the Six King Gun slammed solidly into Urouge's heart chamber.
BOOM!
After a heartbeat of silence, the energy tore its way out of Urouge's back. His flesh split into bloody gashes, and the thick load-bearing wall of the warehouse dozens of meters behind him was vaporized by the exiting force, leaving a terrifying, fan-shaped hole in the masonry.
In the history of Enies Lobby, this strike was a final sentence. No one survived it.
Urouge's mouth fell open. A torrent of stagnant blood mixed with visceral debris sprayed into the rain. His iron-cast knees emitted a teeth-grinding groan. Unable to support the weight of the destruction, he collapsed into a half-kneel, splashing into a pool of murky, red-tinted water.
Silence returned to the warehouse, save for the patter of rain.
Lucci withdrew his fists, which were venting faint white steam. He exhaled deeply, shaking the water from his hands. Relaxing his muscles, he turned away without a second glance at the broken giant, intent on heading toward the other battlefields.
However...
"Ha... cough... hahahahaha!"
From the ruins that should have been a tomb, a series of hoarse, broken, yet strangely ecstatic laughs rang out.
Lucci's pupils contracted. He spun around, his face betraying genuine shock for the first time in his career.
In the rain, the giant was standing up.
Not only was he rising, but with every gasping laugh, Urouge's body began to writhe. The bone-deep lacerations and his sunken, destroyed chest cavity were expanding and reconstructing in a way that defied human biology.
This was the devilish feedback of Karma.
For every ounce of near-death torment endured, the "devil" returned an equal measure of brutal, extraordinary power. Muscle fibers surged under his skin like maddened pythons. Urouge's already massive frame grew savagely taller and wider, resembling an enraged Great Buddha stepping out of the depths of hell.
Heat and Haki radiated from him so intensely that the falling raindrops evaporated before they could touch his skin.
"What heavy power," Urouge rumbled. He wiped the blood from his mouth with a hand the size of a water vat. His signature unbridled smile had evolved into a look of divine reaper's intent. "You nearly destroyed half my cultivation. This generous 'incense of pain' must be returned to the benefactor!"
The sharpest alarm bells Lucci had ever heard rang in his mind. He pushed his body past its limits, bones creaking under the strain. Ignoring his exhaustion, he merged his hands once more, channeling every scrap of essence he had polished over a lifetime into one final, peak death trap.
"If you are a mountain, I will turn you to dust!"
"Maximum Wheel: Six King Gun!"
Lucci shot forward like a black leopard at the absolute limit of speed.
Urouge didn't move to dodge. He raised a giant fist coated in Armament Haki so thick it blotted out the light. In his state of peak, karmic expansion, he charged head-on.
"Namu! Karma: Heavenly Demon Pestle!"
Fist met shockwave.
In the first second of impact, Lucci's maximum output twisted into Urouge's right arm, shredding the skin and meat into a web of blood. The arm bones groaned under the pressure, threatening to snap.
Normally, such damage would cause an attacker's force to collapse. But not Urouge.
The pain was fuel. Dry wood thrown into a white-hot forge. The karma conversion happened instantly—the blood bursting from his arm only served to stimulate the kinetic energy of the strike. His power didn't diminish; it doubled. Then it tripled.
"What!?" Lucci's eyes widened as his maximum output failed to pierce the mountain. Instead, he felt the tremor of complete collapse beneath an irresistible mudslide of power.
Urouge's rugged, giant arm pushed forward. The pride and will of the "Strongest of CP9" shattered like a wooden board under a steamroller. The pitch-black fist broke through Lucci's defense and landed solidly on the leopard-man's sternum.
BOOM!
The outer wall of the timber warehouse and its entire supporting structure exploded outward in the vacuum wake of the punch.
Lucci, his trump cards shattered and his will crushed, was sent flying in a long, broken arc. His beast form flickered and deactivated before he even hit the ground. He crashed through several rows of shipping containers, landing in a pile of mud and blood. His eyes, unfocused and reflecting the gloomy sky, remained open in a mask of total astonishment. He could no longer move.
As the dust and wood clattered to the ground, Urouge deactivated his transformation. He touched his bloody, bald head and let out a hearty, triumphant laugh.
30+ chapters are available now and daily updates! @patreon.com/Authorzero