novelraw Chapter 473: Conqueror's Haki Suppresses the Red Hair Pirates!
Chapter 473: Conqueror's Haki Suppresses the Red Hair Pirates!
Shanks' pupils constricted violently.
He had foreseen his 'Divine Departure' being blocked, but never in this manner.
No earth-shattering collision, no explosive surge of Haki.
The Giant Prince Loki had simply opened his massive jaws and seized Gryphon's tip between his teeth in that split second!
"SCREEEECH!!"
The nerve-grating sound of metal scraping made eardrums ache.
Shanks felt overwhelming shock as an immovable force traveled up his sword arm, making him feel as if he'd struck not flesh and blood but an ancient, unyielding mountain range.
"Heh heh... HAHAHAHA!"
Loki laughed maniacally around the sword in his teeth, crimson eyes fixed on the ant-like Shanks.
"Is this all you've got, Shanks?"
"Four Emperor? HAHAHA, not so impressive after all!"
Before the words faded, pitch-black Conqueror's Haki erupted from Loki's mouth.
To Shanks' horror, Gryphon's tip was crushed to pieces between those teeth!
Before he could process the damage to his beloved sword, a destructive gale swept toward him.
Loki's massive warhammer Iron Thunder—wreathed in tangible black-red lightning—descended toward his head with a sky-rending howl!
In the distance, the ever-calm Beckman's expression changed abruptly.
He too hadn't anticipated the battle turning so abruptly, nor Shanks' sword being shattered so brutally.
Seeing the hammer about to fall, he drew his pistol with lightning speed and fired decisively at Loki's head.
"Beckman, don't—"
Shanks' warning came too late.
The Armament Haki-coated bullet tore through the air, heading straight for Loki's enormous left ear.
Yet, just before impact.
An eerie low-frequency vibration suddenly spread through the air.
The entire island seemed to be instantly stripped of all sound, plunging into a world of absolute silence.
The wind ceased, the waves froze, and even the flow of time became incredibly sluggish at this moment.
The bullet, moving at an extreme speed, abruptly slowed down just before it could pierce Loki's head, like a snail struggling in thick amber, dragging a trajectory visible to the naked eye.
Mid-air, Shanks, whose descent had also slowed, sharply turned his head.
Not far away, Beckman, who had fired the hasty shot, stood frozen in place, his pupils contracting as he immediately looked up toward the sky.
With just one glance, both their pupils dilated to the extreme.
In front of their line of sight, a figure rose from the surface of the distant sea, then stepped onto the void as if strolling through a garden.
With each step he took, the space beneath his feet seemed to contract for him.
Despite his seemingly unhurried pace, he traversed thousands of meters of sea in the blink of an eye, arriving above the island and landing lightly on Loki's left shoulder.
It was none other than the Fleet Admiral, Orion.
Before Shanks and Beckman could recover from this miraculous entrance, Orion, standing on Loki's shoulder, casually extended his index and middle fingers.
The snail-paced bullet was effortlessly caught between his fingers.
The moment his fingers touched the bullet—
A deafening explosion tore the world back to reality.
The suppressed kinetic energy and Armament Haki erupted violently, the wild shockwave recklessly whipping up Orion's Fleet Admiral coat, making it flutter chaotically.
This single scene alone delivered a visual impact that everyone present would never forget.
Everyone on the island, including Shanks and Beckman, forgot to breathe at that moment, forgot where they were, and could only stare blankly at the godlike, towering figure standing on the giant's shoulder.
"Fleet Admiral... Orion!"
After a brief silence, Lucky Roux was the first to break it, exclaiming in shock.
"How did he get here?!"
Amid his astonished cry, Shanks crashed heavily to the ground.
The Iron Thunder in Loki's hand slammed down with immense force!
In the earth-shattering roar, the ground let out a pained groan, unable to withstand the terrifying power any longer, fracturing and cracking into a spiderweb of enormous fissures.
However, due to Orion's sudden appearance, Loki did not pursue Shanks but instead turned his head to look at Orion standing on his shoulder, grinning widely as he said.
"Fleet Admiral, you've saved me again."
Orion smiled and raised his hand to pat Loki's massive head.
Then, he took a step forward, looking down imperiously at the slightly disheveled Shanks on the ground and the gun-wielding, vigilant Beckman in the distance.
"Shanks, Beckman."
"Are you planning to defeat Loki again using the same methods?"
As he spoke, the smile on Orion's face vanished abruptly.
"It seems Loki wasn't wrong to call you a coward."
Before his words faded, Orion flicked his wrist sharply.
The bullet he had held between his fingers shot back at a speed even more terrifying than before!
The bullet that roared out instantly expanded infinitely in Beckman's pupils.
Wrapped around the projectile, a black and red Haki—more domineering than the Conqueror's Haki released by Loki and Shanks—quietly erupted, instantly enveloping Beckman, Lucky Roux, Yasopp, and all the other officers of the Red Hair Pirates.
Accompanied by a deafening explosion, Beckman and the others, caught completely off guard, were swept away by the ensuing shockwave.
Some were thrown back in disarray, while others were sent screaming through the air before crashing to the ground several meters away.
Before Beckman, Yasopp, and Lucky Roux could steady themselves after being thrown back, a new wave of Conqueror's Haki descended from the sky.
Immediately after, Orion's voice exploded in their ears like a divine decree.
"Kneel before me!"
The familiar low-frequency vibration resonated once more.
In the next second, Beckman was the first to succumb, dropping uncontrollably to one knee.
Soon after, Lucky Roux, Yasopp, and the other Red Hair Pirates officers who had been sent flying prostrated themselves one by one, trembling uncontrollably under the suppression of the Conqueror's Haki.
"!!!!"
Even Loki, upon seeing Orion suppress all the Red Hair Pirates officers with Conqueror's Haki alone, couldn't help but widen his eyes beneath the bandages, his pupils contracting in shock.
Was this the true strength of the strongest Fleet Admiral in naval history?
It was simply unreasonable!
After suppressing the entire scene with overwhelmingly dominant Conqueror's Haki, Orion immediately shifted his gaze to Shanks, who stood opposite Loki, and said coldly.
"Shanks, you don't actually think I've been holding back from making a move against you out of fear, do you?"
Shanks, standing dozens of meters away from Loki, also felt his pupils contract sharply.
He hadn't expected Orion to make an entrance in such a manner, nor had he anticipated that his crew—who had fought alongside him undefeated in the New World for years—would be unable to withstand Orion's Conqueror's Haki!
After a brief moment of shock, Shanks slowly straightened his posture, then lifted his head to meet Orion's piercing gaze.
He smiled and said, "Fleet Admiral Orion, you jest. Having become the Fleet Admiral through a military coup and even forcing the Holy Land to concede and sign the Mariejois Treaty with you—who in the entire Grand Line could possibly make you feel threatened?"
"Of course, that's not important."
"What matters is that you didn't immediately finish us off, which suggests you're willing to offer us a way out."
"In that case, why don't we sit down and talk?"
"You want to sit down and talk with me?" Orion laughed, then stepped forward into the void, leaving Loki's shoulder to hover in mid-air.
"Fine! But first, you have to let Loki beat you up."
Before Shanks could react, Orion immediately turned his head to Loki and commanded.
"Go on, Loki. Beat him up!"