Chapter 116

Third person's point of view:

"The control room should be just ahead," Urouge said in a whispering voice as he followed behind Laffite along with the rest of Johnny's crew.

"Stop whispering like you bastard," Law said with twitching eyes. "It's honestly creepy when a muscular middle-aged man whispers like that," he added with a disgusted expression as he took a step back.

Hearing Law's words, Urouge merely shrugged his shoulders with a smile while Laffite smiled, and Kozue let out a light chuckle.

"Let's hurry up," Laffite's smiling expression quickly turned to a serious one as loud mechanical noises began emerging from the walls surrounding them as he rushed towards the control room.

"Quickly, Urouge, stop the defense systems," Laffite said in a hurried tone as he burst into the room and took down the three pirates within.

"It looks like they already activated the thunder cannon," Urouge said with a frown as he began looking through various dials that were installed on a weird board in the middle of the room.

"Do what you can, and do it quickly," Laffite instructed as he began checking out the surroundings.

-0-

"It's too late," Lokni said as he returned to his calm, indifferent expression. "Your friend will die, and you will be next," he concluded, and I could see the faintest of smiles on his face as he spoke.

I heard Lokni speak and ignored it, promptly activating berserk for the extra speed boost as I rushed towards Wilson while the thunder cannon was emitting even more blinding light and crackling with more electricity.

Luckily I was fast enough to arrive in time, tossing Wilson away and earning a scowl from him as the thunder cannon finally fired a purple stream of electricity in my direction.

'I'm resistant to thunder, but this could prove too much even for me,' I thought with a somber expression as I began applying armament Haki to my body.

'Still, I won't be able to phase through it in time, so I'll have to endure it for a second before doing that,' I concluded as I braced myself for the pain as the thunder's blinding light filled my vision.

"Hmm?" I hummed loudly as the attack submerged my body into the giant thunder beam. "This isn't as bad as I thought it would be," I remarked as I began moving my limbs and didn't feel anything wrong.

The thunder still stung like a motherfucker, but that's the keyword here, stung, as in it was a mere annoyance and nothing more.

'Is this related to the fact that my cyber ware grows and becomes stronger with me?' I questioned inside my head with a bewildered expression.

'No matter. I can think about that later,' I shook my head and with the useless thoughts out of my mind. 'I have a fight to win first,' I concluded as the attack dissipated, revealing my unharmed form.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," I commented with a grin as I turned to look at Lokni, whose faintly smiling lips promptly turned into a thin line as streams of cloud began rushing towards him for the ground.

"That can't be good," I said with a frown as I quickly charged towards him, trying to stop whatever Lokni was trying to do because whatever it was, it felt dangerous.

I quickly arrived in front of the pirate captain and began hammering him with Haki-infused punches, but he merely grunted in pain and endured my hits as more and more clouds began merging into his body.

"Why won't you die?" Lokni asked as he finally had enough of my attacks, releasing a wave of lightning from his body that sent me flying backward despite not taking any damage.

"Why does each and every one of them insist on standing in my way?" he kept talking, and it felt like he was to himself and not me. "I'll kill them all," he added with a deranged tone as his body began to enlarge.

"Starting with him," Lokni concluded as he turned to look at me after he finished his transformation. "Well, shit," I said with a frown as I looked at the thirteen meters long monsters that had a body of thunder clouds.

The monster's body looked humanoid, but his head looked like that of a dog with elongated horns, and he had purple eyes that looked like thunder orbs.

"Interesting," I said, as my frown turned into an eager smirk despite myself.

"Playtime is over, you insect," Lokni, the thunder cloud monster, exclaimed in a booming voice that reverberated in the surrounding area. "Now die, and stop getting in my way," he added as he launched his giant fist towards me.

"Flaming impact fist," I replied with an attack of my own, involuntarily raising my voice as battle lust took over my mind, launching a flaming, Haki-infused fist towards the giant.

Fire met thunder in a loud explosion that dispersed both and pushed me back roughly ten meters, while Lokni merely took one step back as he reformed his hand with more thunder clouds.

Lokni shouted in unabashed rage at the result of our clash as he moved to attack me again. I looked at the gigantic enraged monster, my grin becoming more pronounced as I flew towards him, dodging his fist and circling around it.

I quickly reached the monster's face and swung Triton, releasing a flying slash that cut off the monster's head in one swift motion, jumping back and watching as a new head formed on his neck.

'How troublesome,' I thought. 'Unless I can eradicate the entire thing, then I have to figure out where Lokni's actual body is inside that giant monster,' I concluded.

"Oh, well, the second option flew out of the window," I murmured with twitching eyes as I watched Lokni raise a hand over his head, causing thunderclouds to gather at the palm of his hand rapidly.

"I can do that too," I said with a smirk as I flew into the air away from the palace to avoid having my crewmates getting caught in the aftermath, releasing flames from my hand and compressing them into a giant flaming ball above my head.

"Thunder Burial," Lokni exclaimed as he brought his hand down towards me, releasing the giant ball of thunder cloud in my direction.

"Apóllon thymós (Apollo's wrath, in Greek)" I raised my voice, launching my mini sun at the thunder cloud ball that was double the size of my own. I began manipulating the air's density to push forward at a higher speed while simultaneously compressing it and making it smaller.

My mini sun met the giant thunder cloud halfway, promptly pricing through it and causing it to explode. Lokni's attack exploded in the air, and yet it was strong enough to create a crater in the ground that was a dozen meters below.

"DAMN YOU!" Lokni shouted with an outraged roar as his attack dissipated while my own kept charging towards him without losing any momentum, causing him to brace himself for impact.