War Begins
When that aura burst out, everyone in the Sabody felt it. Those running away from the island because of the marines' arrival also felt it.
Even Akainu, who was rushing toward the Sabody, felt it. His eyes hardened as he made up his mind to destroy the Straw Hat Pirates as soon as possible.
"Is that?" Zoro instantly picked up this Haki and asked.
"Shishishi! No doubt about it. It belongs to Liam." Luffy burst into laughter when he felt this aura.
Although Liam's action was a bit evil, he didn't care.
Luffy was an idiot, but he wasn't naive. Now, he wasn't an idiot either. He knew the importance of strength and also understood just how ahead they were compared to Liam.
Not to mention him and Zoro, who regularly trained, even Sanji, who had bare minimum training, was miles ahead of Liam in terms of vitality and physical endurance.
That's why when they too took Strength Enhancing Medicine, he could only take Type B, which was one step lower than Type A.
That might sound like a small gap, but if he had taken that Type A, he would've been the same as before he took Crocodile and CP agents' vitality.
That was when he couldn't even do a simple training.
But even so, just Type B was more than enough to exhaust all of that potential he earned from their vitality until he was left with only a little bit.
He recovered after consuming Lucci's vitality, which helped him a lot.
So, he understood Liam's persistent action to devour others' vitality to speed up his growth.
"Does this mean Liam is stronger than you, Luffy?" Nami curiously asked. Because the gap between Luffy and Liam was small, most of the time they believed Luffy was stronger than Liam.
Simply because Luffy's Devil Fruit could multiply his strength through Gears.
Luffy thought for a moment and shook his head.
"Nope! I am still stronger than him."
"That's so cool, Captain."
Bonney shouted like a little girl. Because she had been with her dad for a while, she returned to her normal age and also started acting like that.
And since Luffy and Liam were stronger than her father, she admired them a lot.
Especially after knowing that he would become Nika after awakening his fruit, and also the fact that he was stronger than her father while being younger than him.
Luffy rubbed her head and said.
"As the Captain, I can't be weaker than my crewmate."
Bonney nodded her head. She was also stronger than her crew.
Suddenly, Luffy's eyes narrowed, and he spoke.
"A strong enemy has arrived. Those guys are also coming out of hiding."
Since CP0 agents wouldn't try to fight Straw Hats without the full force of the Admirals, they immediately went into hiding when Kizaru left.
But before Kizaru arrived, Akainu came running to the island, which made them come out.
Bang!
Akainu landed in front of the Straw Hat Pirates. Even though the full force of the Straw Hat Pirates was on the island, Admiral Akainu didn't seem to be afraid.
"Son of Dragon, this place will be your burial ground." Akainu spoke as his hand slowly turned into magma.
"Everyone, come closer to me! Vivi, I leave those to you."
Luffy instantly saw his next move and shouted. He didn't think he had a speed advantage to stop Akainu from using his attack.
[Meteor Volcano]
At this moment, Akainu pointed both of his hands toward the air and turned his hands into magma. He started shooting powerful magma blasts towards the sky.
When they reached a certain height, they were pulled by gravity, but they maintained the shape of a fist and charged down with great momentum.
[Gear Three]
[Gomu Gomu No- Elephant Gatling]
Luffy enlarged his fists into the fists of a giant and coated them with Advanced Armament. Since he knew these were Magma fists, he wouldn't be stupid enough to use normal armament.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Although Luffy couldn't cover a large distance, he was fully capable of destroying any magma fist coming his way.
Most of the attacks were destroyed by his fists, but many of the magma fists were still raining down.
Especially towards his fleet. That's where Vivi came to play.
She turned a large portion of the ground into sand and raised it towards the sky.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Those magma fists collided against her sand and failed to penetrate it. While the heat could turn sand into glass, these magma fists weren't hot enough to do that.
But they carried an incredible amount of force, making Vivi constantly reinforce her sand shield with more.
'Damn! Admirals are truly the monsters. Just a basic attack requires me to put so much effort into blocking it.'
Vivi gritted her teeth and persevered until the magma rain stopped.
When everything stopped, they looked around. The entire No.1 was surrounded by flame.
The trees were catching flames, and the ground was melting under the extreme heat of magma.
Even so, none of Luffy's crew got injured, including those from his fleet.
"Everyone, it's time to start!"
After he finished attacking, Luffy pulled his fists down and shouted.
Everyone else nodded.
Zoro and Sanji went straight towards the CP0 agents. Franky, Robin, Nami, Chopper, Vivi, Brook, Law, and Bonney did the same.
Maybe it was because of her age, Akainu didn't recognize her immediately.
Akainu saw their attention and also realized what they planned to do. Since the warship hadn't arrived yet, those Pacifista couldn't fly here.
So if Straw Hats took down CP0 agents before his warships came, it would be a problem.
'Damn it! I should've been more patient with the situation.'
"Huh?"
Just when he was cursing himself, Akainu's Observation Haki gave him a stern warning.
Before he could react, Luffy had already arrived in front of him. His fist was coated with Advanced Armament and Conqueror as he blasted forward with a punch.
[Gomu-Gomu No- Booming Pistol]
Akainu couldn't come up with a counterattack attack so he directly turned his fists into Magma and coated them with Armament Haki before placing them in front of his chest.
Bang!
Luffy's punch didn't penetrate through his fists. After all, he had coated them with Haki and had more strength than Luffy.
Whoosh!
But he underestimated Luffy's strength and motive. With a single punch, Luffy pushed Akainu back several hundred meters.
Before Akainu could assume his position, Luffy came up with another punch.
[Gomu Gomu No- Compressed Bazooka]
He compressed his hands as much as he could before dashing in front of Akainu. Akainu didn't see this coming, but he still had his guard up.
With his arms at the front, he was ready to take any kind of attack, but he was greeted with a powerful push.
Yes, push! It was a powerful attack, but for someone like him, it was no different than a push.
Bang! Whoosh!
This time, Akainu was pushed really far. In a single strike, Luffy managed to push Akainu into the next island.
Just when Luffy was about to rush forward with another push, he felt a strong light shining in his eyes.
"Oh my! You've gotten stronger, Monkey D Luffy. But Speed is Power."
Suddenly, a naughty voice came from afar as the light came closer and closer. Despite Luffy's Observation Haki sensing the presence, he couldn't react to it.
That's also because he wasn't truly ready to face Kizaru's attack, but Kizaru came too fast.
Unfortunately for him, someone was faster than him.
"You are right, Kizaru. Only speed is invincible."
Suddenly, a being faster than light appeared next to Luffy with his foot up. He kicked the light before the light could hit Luffy.
This figure was none other than Liam.
Unlike Kizaru, who was hard to see due to his light, Liam was visible to Luffy. Although he was surprised by Liam's attire, he simply smiled.
"I am leaving Akainu in your hands, Captain." Liam gave him a salute before disappearing in front of him.
Luffy's expression became a bit serious before he turned towards Akainu. This time, he didn't get a chance to sneak attack Akainu since Kizaru had already disturbed him.
But it didn't matter anyway.
He just needs to defeat Akainu. That's all that matters.
Bang!
On the third island, Kizaru crashed against several buildings before coming to a stop.
The light particles slowly disintegrated from the ground and appeared in the middle of the island, the exact place where Liam was standing
"That was quite a scary attack, Vice Captain Liam. And, I see. You are prepared to face me."
Kizaru spoke while wiping away a small drop of blood from the corner of his mouth.
Liam stood in front of him with a sword attached to his waist, sunglasses on his face, and strangely, a black suit like Sanji.
He gave Kizaru a nonchalant smile and said.
"Of course, I've to be prepared. After all, I am facing a monster like you, Kizaru."