Even when using Devil Fruit abilities, he wouldn't eventually run out of energy due to excessive physical exertion in a short period of time... this was a massive buff!
Luffy even felt that he could transform into various forms and fight for an entire day without feeling tired!
"Gear Fourth!"
Luffy's body reverted to its original normal size, then he opened his mouth wide and ferociously bit his forearm!
A large amount of air was directly blown into his body!
"Muscle Balloon!" This compressed air seemed to directly inflate the muscles within his body!
This made Luffy's already swollen body and muscles even more gigantic, and extraordinarily elastic!
Luffy's Devil Fruit ability inherently granted him a strange power similar to rubber. "Elasticity" has always been an indispensable part of Luffy's abilities.
Now, by blowing compressed air into his body,
Luffy had significantly enhanced his body in terms of "elasticity"!
Compared to the "Gear Third" form, where parts of his body swelled to the size of a giant,
Luffy in "Gear Fourth" had a more uniformly inflated physique, though perhaps not quite as massive in individual sections.
Gear Third only strengthened local fists or legs, which already consumed a fair amount of energy.
Gear Fourth, while enhancing all of his inherent power, also somewhat compressed the consumption.
But even so, Luffy's physical and mental energy were still constantly being depleted.
However, in this world, Luffy's body was also constantly absorbing the external forces of this new world.
While consuming physical and mental energy, the body's fatigue was also continuously being erased by the power of the new world...
Luffy could continue fighting for a longer time in this form!
...
"This... what's going on again? He seems to have changed again?"
Kakashi and Asuma had not witnessed more of Luffy's actual battles.
Kakashi was the first to encounter Luffy.
However, at that time, because Luffy needed to finish the fight quickly, he directly used the awakened power of "Gear Fifth."
In the blink of an eye, he dealt with Kakashi, this powerful and famous "Copy Ninja" of the ninja world.
However, it also seemed that precisely because of the two battles between Kakashi and Danzo,
Luffy seemed to have a rough idea of how strong the ninjas in this world truly were.
Kakashi and Danzo, both of them, were even directly taken as benchmarks by Luffy!
Although it is said that a lion exerts full effort even to catch a rabbit, theoretically, when facing an unfamiliar enemy, directly using Gear Fifth to deal with such sudden situations is the most reliable.
However, the consumption of physical and mental energy is no joke.
Even if he could gain powerful replenishments far exceeding those on the Grand Line in this new world,
Fatigue was still genuinely settling upon him.
Even Luffy understood how to allocate his physical strength during battle.
If the enemy's strength is 9, then use 10 units of power to strike the opponent.
There's no need to directly use a hundred or two thousand; that would be too much self-depletion.
What Orochimaru encountered was Luffy in this state.
Kakashi and Danzo indeed provided Luffy with quite a bit of "reference material."
But it was clearly not enough.
Luffy needed to fight more ninjas in this world.
To understand their strength and classify them into different tiers and levels in his mind.
Only after fighting ninjas of various tiers and levels in this world
would he truly understand the power system classification of this world.
Luffy, although usually boisterous in his daily life and seeming not very smart,
This guy was indeed a rare genius in terms of combat.
...
"This body... is truly a superb vessel, truly a superb vessel!!!"
Although constantly prepared to escape, Orochimaru at this moment looked at Luffy's body, salivating greedily.
The reason he was prepared to escape was because Orochimaru's body at this time was no longer his original one.
Although the body he had stolen from another ninja could grant Orochimaru the other's power,
Combined with Orochimaru's own experience and techniques in battle, as well as some ninjutsu he mastered,
Even if his soul and body were mismatched, Orochimaru could still unleash the power that only top ninjas in this world could possess.
Unless facing the Kages of the great villages, or beings of Jiraiya and Tsunade's level,
Otherwise, Orochimaru probably wouldn't suffer too much due to the mismatch of body and soul.
Of course, now, on the list of these difficult opponents, Luffy had to be added...
Whether it was the initial sneak attack, or the close combat with Luffy during their later retreat,
They all made Orochimaru realize that to deal with Luffy, his current body was probably still not qualified enough.
And in fact, Orochimaru was at this moment greedily eyeing Luffy's body.
It was precisely because he saw Luffy's strange characteristic of being able to stretch and soften his body...
There was no such physique in the ninja world...
If Orochimaru possessed this exquisite "vessel,"
Then perhaps his power could also be perfectly contained within it.
Luffy's body extensibility was so good that all of Orochimaru's various ideas and thoughts could be realized in this step of body vessel!
What a pity... The current Orochimaru truly had no way to deal with Luffy.
This superb vessel, it would probably be impossible to obtain in a short period of time...
"What a pity, what a pity... truly a pity..."
Orochimaru looked again, this time at Luffy, who had completely transformed into his Gear Fourth form.
"Thump thump thump..."
Luffy's enormous physique was like a balloon filled with air.
But compared to the localized swelling of Gear Third that made him gigantic, Luffy in Gear Fourth looked much more uniformly proportioned.
But he still resembled a balloon. He couldn't even stand steadily on the ground. His feet, after inflating, would bounce up if they touched the ground because the compressed gas in his muscles was too dense.
This made Luffy, in his Gear Fourth form, look even more like a round, bouncy ball.
This was also the reason why Orochimaru decided to escape at this time...
In Orochimaru's view, Luffy was clearly excessively pursuing power, causing his body to over-inflate.
He even sacrificed mobility and speed for these powers.
In this state, it was almost impossible for Luffy to walk normally, so how could he chase himself and launch an attack?!
Whether attacking or escaping the battlefield, one needs to choose the appropriate timing to make a decision.
Without a doubt, Orochimaru felt that the timing for him to make his escape was extremely good!
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