Chapter 306: The Hound's Obsession! Fierce Battle with the Snow Monsters and Caesar's Trump Card
Facing Luffy's carefree greeting, Smoker bit down hard on the burning cigar in his mouth, feeling a mix of helplessness and irritation.
Without hesitation, he activated his Smoke-Smoke Fruit ability, and his entire right arm instantly elementalized, turning into rolling clouds of thick smoke.
His fist at the end gripped the Sea Stone Jitte tightly, instantly coating it in a layer of pitch-black, cold, and hard Armament Haki. It tore through the surrounding poison mist and smashed ruthlessly toward Luffy in mid-air.
"Stop acting like we're friends! Straw Hat!"
"I am the natural enemy of pirates!"
"Take this, White Vine!"
Facing this menacing and powerful attack, Luffy sat calmly on the back of the Centaur, not even making a move to stand up.
He simply raised his right arm casually, his fist also quickly wrapping in pitch-black Armament Haki, meeting Smoker's Jitte and smoke in a heavy collision.
BOOM—!
A deafening muffled explosion erupted across the wasteland.
A violent shockwave rippled outward from the center of their clash, instantly blowing away the snow and poison mist on the ground.
Luffy grinned, his body not moving an inch, easily blocking the angry strike from the Marine Vice Admiral with just one hand.
Feeling the incredibly solid Haki on Luffy's fist, Smoker's pupils shrank slightly, and a storm of shock surged within him.
He realized clearly that the Straw Hat boy who, two years ago in Loguetown and during the Marineford War, still needed to rely on desperate escapes and being saved by others, had now completely transformed. He had grown into a monster-level powerhouse capable of dominating the seas.
Just as Luffy clenched his fist, preparing to jump down from the horse's back to "catch up" with this persistent "Smoke Guy," Tatsuya, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly frowned slightly.
He spoke calmly, interrupting Luffy's high battle spirit:
"Luffy, stop playing around."
"The cook and Nami's group are in trouble over there."
Hearing that his companions were in danger, the relaxed smile on Luffy's face vanished instantly.
He pressed down on the back of the Centaur Brownbeard beneath him and shouted an order:
"Everyone, hold on tight!"
"Centaur-old-man, full speed ahead!"
"Target: our friends' location!"
Brownbeard was completely intimidated by the terrifying residual power Luffy had just unleashed, and he was so scared that tears streamed down his face like wide noodles.
How could he dare say a single "no"? He immediately galloped on all fours, like a speeding chariot, running madly through the lightning storms and poison mist.
Smoker watched the Straw Hat's departing back, initially wanting to turn into smoke and pursue immediately.
However, the complex and rugged ruins and the lethal fog with extremely low visibility severely limited the movement of the Marine main force.
He could only grit his teeth, waving his Jitte to order the subordinates behind him to force their way forward:
"Don't just stand there dazed!"
"Even if we have to chase them to the ends of the earth, we must not let them escape!"
...
The abandoned branch base where the stay-behind group was hiding.
Under the cover of the howling blizzard and poison mist, the Yeti Cool Brothers were using their thick body hair, which was the same color as the mist, to perfectly cloak themselves in the harsh environment.
Like ghosts hiding in the shadows, they continuously fired specialized hypnotic gas shells at the cave entrance and occasionally took treacherous sniper shots from the dark.
Sanji and Franky were trying to prevent the pungent toxic gas from drifting into the cave, which would affect Chopper's concentration while he extracted the life-saving medicine inside.
The two stood like two insurmountable gate gods, blocking the cave entrance firmly.
Bang! Bang!
Several powerful sniper bullets accurately hit Franky's chest.
However, only a few crisp metallic clangs were heard as sparks flew; Franky was completely unharmed.
He used his indestructible cyborg body of steel to tank the sniper rounds, then pounded his broad chest hard, letting out a heroic laugh:
"SUPER—!"
"Soft bullets like these aren't even enough to scratch an itch for a hard-boiled steel man like me!"
"Come at me again if you have the guts!"
On the other side, although Sanji dodged most of the attacks with his agile movements,
His long legs were still accidentally grazed by the electric current attached to a bullet, leaving a charred mark.
However, there wasn't a hint of panic on the blond cook's face.
He took a deep drag of the burning cigarette in his mouth, slowly closed his eyes, and instantly pushed his Observation Haki to the limit.
His perception was like an invisible net, sifting through the deafening thunder, howling winds, and thick mist to capture the breathing patterns and faint heartbeats of those two massive beings.
"Got you... So you're hiding there."
"Two big rats who only know how to hide!"
Sanji snapped his eyes open, a sharp killing intent flashing in his gaze.
His legs rubbed rapidly against the air, instantly igniting with scorching high-temperature flames.
Without hesitation, he performed "Sky Walk," stepping continuously on the air.
His whole body became like a burning meteor piercing the darkness, charging resolutely into the pitch-black fog:
"Diable Jambe: Flambage Shot!"
Accompanied by a shrill scream that pierced the clouds, one of the snow monsters hidden in the mist was struck squarely in the face by Sanji's scorching kick.
Its mountain-like body instantly lost balance and crashed to the ground, kicking up a spray of snow.
Its thick fur was ignited by the high temperature, and the blazing flames became exceptionally conspicuous in the dark mist, like a giant living target.
"Franky! Now!"
Sanji flipped and landed in mid-air, shouting a reminder.
Seeing the bright marker lit up in the mist, Franky laughed and immediately assumed a combat stance.
He pressed his thick steel arms together in front of him, and a terrifying, blinding light glowed deep within his palms:
"I've been waiting for this! Taste the crystallization of the genius scientist Vegapunk's technology!"
"Franky Radical Beam!!"
BOOM—!!!
A devastating blue laser cannon roared from his palms, instantly vaporizing the one marked by Sanji as well as the snow monster that was about to ambush Sanji from the rear flank.
The cold-blooded killers Caesar specifically sent to silence them were easily taken out by the perfect cooperation of the Straw Hat's two main powerhouses.
Just as Sanji and Franky had neatly dealt with the enemies,
Luffy, Tatsuya, Zoro, Robin, and the others, riding the panting Centaur, finally arrived at the cave entrance, and the two groups successfully reunited.
Luffy and the others dismounted and walked into the cave.
When they saw the haggard, giant children tortured by the drugs inside, everyone's expressions instantly turned dark as water, and an uncontrollable rage burned in their eyes.
Fortunately, at that moment, Chopper ran over from the makeshift workstation holding several vials of medicine emitting a blue glow, announcing loudly:
"Everyone! The sedative has finally been successfully extracted!"
"The children's pain can be relieved immediately!"
Hearing this good news, the grim faces of the group finally showed a bit of a relieved smile, and they hurried forward to help comfort the children and administer the medicine.
...
Meanwhile, in the luxurious control room deep within the Punk Hazard research facility,
Caesar's pale and bizarre face was now completely distorted by extreme fear and anger.
Through the listening devices scattered across the island, he clearly knew that everything had spiraled out of control.
The tough Marine Vice Admiral Smoker, the terrifyingly powerful Straw Hat crew, and that scheming Shichibukai Trafalgar Law.
All these factions had now converged on this poison gas island that should have been forgotten by the world.
What made him even more desperate was that his precious experimental subjects used for the gigantification experiments were now all lost and had fallen into the hands of the pirates.
Once these secrets were exposed, "JOKER" Doflamingo would absolutely send someone to ruthlessly eliminate him without hesitation.
Caesar turned his entire body into gas, floating anxiously back and forth in the control room.
He realized clearly that the situation before him had completely spun out of control and was beyond salvation.
To completely cover up all this inhumane evidence and leave no survivors,
Caesar's eyes became bloodshot, and he let out a piercing, ghastly laugh:
"Shurororororo!"
"Since you idiots all love this island so much and insist on ruining my plans,"
"Then you might as well go to hell forever along with this island!"
With a mad roar, Caesar suddenly reached out and pulled down the red emergency lever on the control panel that was heavily locked.
RUMBLE—!
As the lever was pulled, a giant pit in the center of the island, which had been tightly locked by heavy steel and seals, burst open amidst a world-shaking roar.
Almost at the same time, the purple-green poison mist permeating the entire island seemed to receive a powerful summons from some evil force and began to madly converge toward that abyssal pit.
Then, amidst the rolling thunder and pouring rain, a nauseating, massive object emerged from the edge of the pit.
It was a creature as large as a mountain range, its entire body dripping with lethal purple toxic slime.
Furthermore, it was a terrifying gelatinous monster that continuously released dangerous high-voltage static electricity—the ultimate gas monster, "Slime."
This monster, a convergence of endless poison gas and resentment, slowly crawled out of the abyss, its massive and disgusting body writhing amidst the interlacing lightning.
It let out a hair-raising, muffled roar toward the sky...
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