novelraw Chapter 472: Prince Loki vs. Shanks
Chapter 472: Prince Loki vs. Shanks
At the distant horizon, a flash of white light exploded without warning, instantly erasing the boundary between sea and sky.
It was as if a nuclear bomb had detonated above the ocean, dyeing the entire sky a stark white.
"Fleet Admiral! Fleet Admiral!"
Perona's shouts pierced the tranquility of the deck.
Instinctively shielding her eyes with her sleeve, her voice carried a hint of excitement, "Come quickly! The sky ahead has split open!"
Before her words faded, Orion's figure materialized like a ghost beside her.
Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and the other trainees, drawn by the astonishing phenomenon, rushed onto the deck and stared collectively at the radiant white light.
"Whoa! Such a dazzling light!" Luffy's eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"What intense energy fluctuations!" Zoro's hand unconsciously rested on his sword hilt.
Before anyone could recover from the shock, Orion slightly lowered his eyelids.
His supreme Observation Haki surged forth like a silent tide, sweeping across the turbulent sea at an unimaginable speed and reaching the island engulfed in white light in an instant.
His "sight" pierced through the violent thunderclouds and raging energy storms, precisely locking onto two fiercely clashing auras.
One was as violent as a landslide or tsunami, the other as steady as a mountain.
Orion slowly withdrew his Observation Haki, his expression unperturbed.
"No need to panic."
He glanced sideways at the trainees gathered on the deck and said calmly, "It's Loki fighting Shanks."
At these words, Perona's eyes instantly lit up, and she exclaimed excitedly, "Wow, that big guy moves so fast?"
Floating over to Orion, she continued in disbelief, "We left Elbaf less than two days ago, and he's already stormed Red Hair's base? Seems he's nursing quite a grudge!"
Then, she eagerly grabbed Orion's arm and shook it vigorously, "Fleet Admiral, let's go check it out! Rolly wants to see the big guy fight Shanks!"
...
In the territory of the Red Hair Pirates, on that nameless island.
The battle had spread from the beach to the island's interior.
Loki's towering figure, over sixty meters tall, stood like a moving fortress.
With each step he took forward, the entire island trembled violently, the ground cracking with spiderweb-like fissures.
Every swing of his massive hammer 'Iron Thunder' summoned a sky full of terrifying lightning, purple-black bolts raining down like a storm, indiscriminately striking every inch of the island.
The members of the Red Hair Pirates' subordinate crews, who had just been reveling moments before, were now utterly reduced to casualties in this clash of titans.
"Run! It's lightning!"
"Help me!"
Screams and wails rose one after another as the subordinate crew members of the Red Hair Pirates scrambled in panic, yet they couldn't escape the island-wide thunderstorm.
One after another, people were struck by lightning and turned into afros, or were sent flying by the violent shockwaves like kites with cut strings, crashing into mountains, rocks, and forests.
Shanks had no time to worry about his crew on the island.
Faced with Loki's relentless, and unreasonable onslaught, he could only rely on his agility to dodge left and right, using his Observation Haki to predict Loki's attack trajectories at the last possible moment and counterattack.
Shanks' strength was undeniable.
Amid Loki's frenzied assaults, he sometimes leaped into the air by stepping on collapsing boulders, other times swaying his body to slip through the gaps between two intersecting lightning bolts.
Two distinctly different yet equally terrifying Conqueror's Haki clashed violently above the island, sparking visible black-red arcs of electricity.
Mountains crumbled under the aftershocks of their confrontation, vast stretches of primal forests were flattened, and the entire island groaned in agony.
In the distance, the core members of the Red Hair Pirates watched with grave expressions, forced to retreat step by step under the terrifying pressure released by the two combatants.
Beckman, cigarette in mouth, appeared calm on the surface, but his furrowed brow betrayed his inner turmoil.
Yasopp's gaze grew focused and sharp, adopting a stance ready to join the battle at any moment.
Lucky Roux, for once, stopped eating, holding a massive ham hock in one hand while his other tightly gripped the pistol at his waist.
They all saw that Shanks was being forced back step by step under Loki's assault.
However, when their eyes swept over the beach and saw the Giant Warrior Pirates members standing like statues with their giant axes and shields, poised for battle, they forcibly suppressed their urge to intervene.
It wasn't that they couldn't win.
But they knew in their hearts that this battle was about the longstanding grudge between Loki and Shanks.
If they intervened and formed a siege situation, that already raging giant prince would undoubtedly descend into complete madness.
At that point, Loki would absolutely not hesitate to slaughter every single subordinate crew member on the island.
Just as the core members were burning with anxiety, Loki—who had been relentlessly pursuing and bombarding Shanks—suddenly let out an ear-splitting roar of laughter.
The laughter was filled with undisguised contempt and scorn for Shanks.
"HAHAHAHA! A coward will always be a coward! Only knows how to jump around like a fly!"
Loki grinned widely, revealing a bloodthirsty smile, his voice rumbling like thunder.
"Shanks! If you keep dodging like a clown, do you believe I'll stop right now and smash all those crying, sniveling wastes on this island into pulp?!"
Before the words had fully left his mouth, he suddenly raised Iron Thunder high above his head.
The hammerhead blazed with intense lightning, and he brought it down with devastating force toward Shanks, who had just dodged aside.
Amidst the deafening explosion, the sky and earth seemed on the verge of being split apart by this hammer strike!
At that very moment, Shanks, who had just dodged away, slammed both feet onto a massive tree trunk bent to the point of snapping under the pressure of Conqueror's Haki.
In the next instant, the tree trunk rebounded like a spring compressed to its limit!
Propelled by this tremendous force, Shanks shot back at a speed barely visible to the naked eye, his sword Gryphon emitting a piercing screech as its tip aimed straight for Loki's massive throat.
Shanks moved with blinding speed!
In the blink of an eye, the sword tip enveloped in black-red Conqueror's Haki was already at Loki's throat.
Yet, faced with this lethal thrust, Loki showed no trace of panic.
Instead, a cruel smile flickered in his enormous eyes.
Possessing powerful Observation Haki himself, he had long predicted Shanks' attack!
Just as the sword tip was about to pierce his throat.
Loki abruptly lowered his head and snapped his bloody maw shut.
A grating metallic clang erupted in everyone's ears!
Gryphon—the sword that had accompanied Shanks through countless battles to become one of the Four Emperors in the New World—found its Conqueror's Haki-infused tip firmly clamped between Loki's teeth!