Starting as a Roger Pirates Apprentice

Chapter 577: Chapter 577: To Deal with an Ultimate Stat Monster, Only Mechanics

"Not here yet..."

Dante gazed into the distance and frowned.

His body’s craving for sweets made his chest feel increasingly stifled, and a restless irritation mixed into his normally calm personality.

But Luffy on the opposite side was completely unaware of this. He was furious over the loss of his friend, charging at Dante with a barrage of attacks in his Gear Fourth Snakeman form.

Dante, however, couldn’t even be bothered to observe the rapidly darting Snakeman fists. He simply let the Armament Haki–coated punches land on his body while he stood in place, impatiently waiting.

To him, it was as if nothing more than a few flies were buzzing around his ears.

This was a gap created by the very essence of biological hierarchy!!!

Luffy also seemed to realize that his attacks were incapable of causing Dante any effective damage. He pulled back his fists and began frowning in deep thought, trying to figure out what to do.

Gradually—perhaps his intuition finally reaching its limit—

He recalled the scene from earlier, when Kaido and the others had fought Dante, the way they condensed Conqueror’s Haki into a single point and unleashed its power.

With the buff of a dead friend driving him on, the strands of Conqueror’s Haki that had originally been scattered throughout Luffy’s body were gathered together into a single point.

And then...

"Gum-Gum..."

His blackened arm compressed continuously. Luffy glared at the young man with long pink hair and roared as he launched his attack.

Bang—Bang—Bang—

As the fist continuously twisted through the air, constantly releasing rubber elasticity and changing directions, it became faster and faster, its trajectory increasingly impossible to see.

It shot straight toward Dante’s face.

This strike finally worked!!!

Under Dante’s slightly puzzled gaze, the Snakeman punch landed on his face, and a rare sensation of pain surged into his brain.

A few strands of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth, finally making Dante take it seriously.

"Good!!!"

"It finally worked!!!"

Luffy shouted loudly, clearly satisfied with the result, as he once again assumed a stance to launch another attack.

But at this moment, Law noticed something.

Dante, who had been looking into the distance before, had already turned his head back because of that punch.

"Conqueror’s Haki Infusion, huh?"

"Now this is a little interesting..."

Dante no longer wanted to wait.

After all, this wasn’t his world anyway. The restless irritation inside him was completely unleashed after that punch.

"I’m not afraid of you!!!"

Facing Dante’s terrifying gaze, Luffy showed no fear at all. He compressed his Snakeman arm again, wrapped it with Conqueror’s Haki Infusion, and struck toward Dante.

This was the kind of Snakeman punch that even Katakuri’s Observation Haki would struggle to evade.

"Gum-Gum..."

"Black Mamba!!!"

Like a swarm of serpents dancing wildly, countless fists bent sharply through the air as they struck toward Dante, seemingly intending to deal him heavy damage.

Yet in the face of this series of attacks, Dante remained completely unconcerned.

He stared directly at Luffy’s figure, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Thump—

Under Luffy’s eyes, which were nearly splitting with rage, a crimson light burst from Dante’s pupils.

Then, as if he were simply walking and casually twisting his body a few times, every single attack brushed past him, unable to touch his body at all.

"This is... the same as that guy Katakuri’s..."

Luffy understood that feeling all too well.

A crimson flash in the eyes, and suddenly every attack could be avoided.

And Dante was dodging punches from the Snakeman form—his Observation Haki might even be stronger than Katakuri’s.

Law frowned as he searched for an opportunity to strike, but he was puzzled.

Dante’s current state clearly showed he was extremely irritated—so why could he still use such an advanced application of Observation Haki?

What he didn’t know was that...

There are also differences between living beings.

Setting aside Orin’s heaven-defying talent for Observation Haki, even Katakuri, the second son of Linlin, was a genius in Observation Haki.

Having inherited such excellent bloodlines, Dante’s mastery of Observation Haki had long been engraved into the very genes of his bones.

It would never malfunction because of emotional fluctuations.

"If this is your limit, then you can die now."

Dante took a step forward.

[More-More · Hundredfold Speed · Soru]

Almost indistinguishable from teleportation, the Rokushiki technique combined with his fruit ability burst forth. In an instant, Dante appeared in front of Luffy and grabbed the constantly stretching arm.

"You—"

[More-More · Hundredfold Power]

A cross-shaped red glow flashed in his hand as Dante aimed directly at Luffy’s head, seemingly intending to kill him in a single blow.

Luffy naturally sensed the danger and desperately tried to evade, but his arm had already been seized. There was no way to escape.

At the critical moment—

[Room]

A pebble instantly swapped positions with Luffy.

Dante’s punch struck out, and a shock crater hundreds of meters wide instantly appeared!!!

"Thanks a lot!!!"

Cold sweat appeared on Luffy’s forehead. He had a strong premonition—if that punch had truly hit him, he would have died.

"Don’t say useless things like that..."

Law ignored Luffy’s condition. Instead, he gritted his teeth and stared at the terrifying figure in the distance.

A perfect hexagon... No, a monster whose stats had already overflowed.

If they fought head-on, they would have almost no ability to resist.

After awakening his ability, Law had actually been confident that he could break through Linlin’s [Iron Balloon] defense with his Devil Fruit power.

It would likely require him to withstand Linlin’s attacks while activating the ability, but with enough willpower, it should have been possible.

But if he tried to use his awakened fruit ability on Dante—stabbing his sword into his body to activate the power...

Dante’s punch would probably cause Law’s head to explode on the spot.

Against a monster that had reached the ultimate level in raw stats, only mechanics could offer even the slightest chance of struggle.

The Op-Op Fruit was simply too forced when facing such a monster.

In an instant, Dante also noticed that Luffy had escaped.

He raised one leg.

A slash instantly formed, then rapidly grew larger... larger...

[More-More · Hundredfold Form · Rankyaku]

Even larger than Hawk Eyes’ slashes, a Rankyaku thousands of meters long filled with overwhelming visual impact now tore across the earth toward Luffy and the others, carrying black-and-red lightning storms.

At this moment, the charm of the More-More Fruit was displayed to its fullest.

"Get out of the way!!!"

"No!!! The range is too large!!!"

Everyone widened their eyes at the sky-covering slash. Law tried to activate his ability to avoid the sharp edge as much as possible, but for some reason the room space could not perform teleportation.

"Damn it!!!"

At this moment, a figure stepped forward to meet the attack.

It was a black-haired rubber man.

He inflated his arm enormously.

"You all get out of the way!!!"

"Gum-Gum - King Cobra!!!"