https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-1175-How-Many-Moves-Can-You-Block-Now-/13541526/
Chapter 1174: Is Also a Combat Genius
Chapter 1174: Is Also a Combat Genius
“Luffy!”
When Kuro spoke, Zoro stared at him with wide-eyed shock. Truthfully, he’d had a vague inkling of this all along.
The others didn’t know, but Zoro did. Back when they first encountered Bartolomeo Bear in the Devil’s Triangle Sea Area, Bear had taken every injury Luffy suffered upon himself. It was from that moment Zoro realized the pain Luffy had been enduring all along—the agony after every battle, the cost of every fight.
Now it seemed clear: Luffy hadn’t suppressed the side effects. He’d simply trained to a point where he could endure them.
“Who cares about all that stuff you’re saying?!”
Luffy grinned at Kuro, his teeth flashing. “I just need to become One Piece, Incense Burner! If you try to stop me, I’ll have to defeat you first before claiming my destiny!”
Kuro lifted his Yokai Blade slightly, his expression prideful. “Did defeating Kaido inflate your confidence so much? Kaido and I are entirely different beings. Allow me to show you—the true strength of the Admiral and the world’s Greatest Swordsman!”
With a tremendous force, his Yokai Blade slashed downward. Crimson light erupted, unleashing a scarlet windstorm that enveloped Luffy’s entire body.
“Telekinesis Blade!”
The crimson wind solidified into a pack of Blood-Red Lions. The howling gale became their roars, the slashing wind their claws. With a thunderous growl, the lion swarm lunged forward, jaws gaping wide to tear into Luffy.
Merely evading them wouldn’t work. The attack spanned the entire area—those lion roars and growls were mere illusions. The true assault lay in the blood-qi slashes hidden within the windstorm.
This technique had evolved from the “lion bite” concept, merging into tangible Killing Intent. If one focused solely on the illusory lions, the consequences would be dire.
Luffy seemed to grasp this instantly. He inhaled sharply, crossed his arms defensively, and glared with blazing eyes. Conqueror’s Haki erupted from his body, instantly dispelling the dense Killing Intent. The Blood-Red Lions vanished in an instant, leaving behind a dense network of wind-blades that slashed his frame. The impacts reverberated like thunderous booms against a giant drum.
“Hmph!”
Luffy exhaled sharply, his breath like arrows. With a sudden motion, his hands snapped to his waist. Bam! His body’s elasticity exploded, instantly repelling the wind-blades.
“Hehe.”
“One Line Sky!”
Before Luffy could finish his smirk, Kuro’s form flashed like a wisp of blood-red light, instantly materializing before him.
“Gomu Gomu Eagle Rifle!”
Bang!
Luffy’s arm twisted like a coiled spring, delivering a punch that roared with an explosive boom. Black-Red blade light erupted from his fist, meeting Kuro’s attack. The moment the blade contacted, Luffy’s teeth clenched, his arm recoiling slightly. Yet the moment their weapons collided, the blade rebounded, pushed away from his fist.
Kuro froze for a split second from the counterforce.
Seizing the opening, Luffy’s recoiled fist launched forward like a cannonball.
The strike pierced Kuro’s head, but his body rippled like disturbed water, vanishing. A bone-chilling coldness prickled Luffy’s neck as he instinctively turned. There stood a towering figure, crimson eyes gazing down.
Kuro had raised his Yokai Blade high. As Luffy turned, the blade descended. “Swallow Return!”
In that instant, the blade split into three blood-red arcs, slicing toward Luffy’s neck, left chest, and lower waist.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Luffy blocked all three with his arms and left leg, each impact erupting in thunderous destruction. The force sent him skidding backward.
Wincing in pain, he suddenly lunged forward with his head. If his limbs couldn’t reach, his skull would become his weapon.
In this stance, stretching wasn’t needed—each strike carried even greater force than before.
The headbutt tore through Kuro’s blade, slamming into his chest.
Kuro snorted coldly. “Flock Return.”
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
A storm of blood-red slashes erupted around Luffy, encircling his body as they closed in rapidly. His frame trembled under the relentless bombardment.
“Uwaaa!”
Luffy cried out, his head thrown back. Under the dense assault, his body stiffened. His arms, which had blocked Kuro’s earlier three slashes, dropped from the relentless strikes. Forced to retreat, he staggered backward.
Kuro wasted no time. His blade descended like a falling mountain.
Crash!
The blade slammed into Luffy’s crossed arms. His elasticity still repelled the strike slightly, sending the Yokai Blade skittering upward. Yet the sheer force drove Luffy’s feet into the ground, carving deep craters into the earth.
“Blocked? But what good does it do?”
Kuro sneered, twisting his blade. The surrounding slashes multiplied, assailing Luffy again.
Invulnerable? Perhaps—but how long could he endure?
“Ow! Ow! Ow!”
Luffy screamed as he writhed under the onslaught. Every direction offered no escape from the all-encompassing slashes.
“Got it!”
Perhaps the pain sparked inspiration. Luffy’s arms trembled, elasticity reigniting. He repelled Kuro’s blade downward, then inhaled sharply, his body inflating like a balloon.
“Gomu Gomu Roar!”
Whoosh!
A shockwave of air erupted from his gaping mouth. Kuro frowned, instinctively pulling his blade back to slice the gale in two.
Simultaneously, the air current propelled Luffy backward like a deflating balloon, ejecting him from the slash storm.
“That hurt like hell!”
Landing at a distance, he shook his arms, exhaling in relief. “I won’t fall for that trick again!”
“Interesting.”
Kuro twirled his Yokai Blade at his side, eyeing Luffy’s frame coldly. “So your elasticity and tenacity aren’t invincible after all.”
By now, Luffy’s knuckles, forearm, and right calf bled from shallow cuts, his body crisscrossed with crimson welts.
The welts came from slashes. The cuts? Kuro’s doing.
Rubber feared slashes. No matter how perfectly he manipulated elasticity, no blade resisted better than his own.
Yet his elasticity held shades of Bear’s techniques.
Reflecting, Kuro raised an eyebrow. “Come to think of it, you’re a combat genius too.”
Most of Kuro’s techniques were learned from opponents.
The Second Gear, his scarlet, heat-boosted acceleration technique? Learned from CP.
Third Gear? Likely borrowed from observing giants.
Fourth Gear combined elasticity but was still unrefined at its debut.
As for this Fifth Gear, his Yamato-like muscular bulk? Culled from Kaido.
And his mastery of elasticity, the resilience of his rubber? Absorbed from Bear.
Truly, he was a man who’d inherited the pinnacle of countless masters.
One flaw remained—he hadn’t perfected them. If he had, those masters would’ve perished long ago.
(End of Chapter)
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