"Con... Conqueror's Haki?!"
"No! It's not Conqueror's Haki!... They're all dead!"
"An ability?!"
"...Is this the World's Strongest Man?"
"Com... completely on another level!"
Watching their companions all killed by the pressure, the two rulers of the Mink Tribe, the Akazaya Nine, and the others all spoke with expressions of shock.
"Bastard, I'm going to send you flying!"
Seeing so many of his allies killed, Luffy was even more convinced that Link was a villain and shouted with a face full of rage.
But Luffy, with his extremely high combat IQ, could not sense any aura from Link.
It was precisely because he couldn't sense anything that he was more certain of the man's strength, the strongest existence he had encountered since setting sail.
This person was much stronger than Rayleigh!
Because after mastering Observation Haki, Luffy could at least sense Rayleigh's aura.
And so, without another word, Luffy bit his wrist and shouted, "Gear Fourth!"
His body rapidly inflated, steam evaporated from his body, forming a sash like a celestial cloud, Armament Haki manifested on his chest, and his expression resembled a Beijing opera mask. The tips of his feet constantly tapped the ground, making a sound like colliding metal.
After transforming into Bounceman, Luffy's feet suddenly retracted into his body, like the thrusters of a jet, and he shot into the sky with a swoosh.
Like his feet, his fists also retracted into his body.
Luffy flew rapidly towards Link while unleashing his strongest attack: "Gomu Gomu no... King Kong Gun!"
The punch that defeated Doflamingo, carrying the power of distorted air currents, blasted towards Link.
Watching this scene, Momonosuke, Kin'emon, and the others below had eyes filled with hope.
But in the next second, their hope turned to despair.
Link faced the massive fist without dodging, his body not even moving an inch.
Just as the fist was about to hit, an astonished expression appeared on Luffy's face.
Because his fist, when it was a few dozen centimeters from Link, could no longer advance.
Not just his fist, but his entire body as well.
It was as if an invisible wall stood between him and Link.
More importantly, this wall was indestructible; not even the King Kong Gun could shake it.
However, Link's next action told Luffy that there was no wall at all.
Link, floating in the air, lightly patted Luffy on the chest.
Swoosh—
In an instant, Luffy, like a giant cannonball, plummeted directly to the ground.
The scene was like a meteor falling, not only startling Momonosuke and the others into scattering.
When Luffy smashed into the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dust, the terrifying shockwave knocked Momonosuke and Kin'emon to the ground.
"Luffy!"
Seeing this, Ace and Sabo could no longer remain calm. They rushed into the dust cloud along with the members of the Straw Hat Pirates.
"Two-Sword Style: Dragon Twister!"
Zoro immediately drew his swords, unleashing a massive gust of wind that blew away the thick dust.
When the dust cleared, a meteor crater was revealed.
Luffy lay at the bottom of the crater, having reverted from his Gear Fourth Bounceman state, his eyes rolled back, unconscious.
With a single palm strike, Link had instantly defeated the Straw Hat boy, the super rookie with a bounty that had soared to 800 million, an existence who would be a top officer even in a Four Emperors' crew.
Just as Kaido had one-shotted Luffy with his club, it was perfectly normal for Link to instantly defeat a Luffy who had not yet mastered the advanced application of Haki.
The only difference was that unlike Kaido's Thunder Bagua, which was coated in Conqueror's Haki, Link's palm strike contained no Haki. It was a Sage's strike, a technique similar to the Hyuga clan's Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm and Kaguya Ōtsutsuki's Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack, only countless times stronger than the former and slightly weaker than the Kekkei Mōra-level latter.
During this time, as Link stabilized his power, besides familiarizing himself with Yin-Yang Release, he was also getting accustomed to Six Paths Sage Mode.
This mode was one of Naruto's trump cards for contending with Sasuke Uchiha in the original story, and the reason he had no fear of the Truth-Seeking Orbs.
As the ability inherited from Asura, Six Paths Sage Mode was the ultimate form of the Sage Body.
In this form, the chakra was not ordinary Sage Art chakra; it contained the power of the Six Paths.
In this state, Link's control over natural energy also reached its peak.
When using Ninjutsu, it became Six Paths Sage Art, capable of harming even Six Paths-level opponents.
When using Taijutsu, it was an existence that surpassed even the Eighth Gate of Death Formation in terms of mastery.
The palm strike Link had just delivered contained not only Sage Art chakra but also natural energy and the techniques of the Monstrous Strength fist.
If Link had materialized the chakra and struck out, it would have been a relentless punch capable of shaking the heavens, a perfect blend of offense and defense!
"Amaterasu!"
After defeating Luffy in one move, Link gave the army of heroes no chance to breathe.
His gaze swept over the Akazaya Nine and the Mink Tribe outside the crater, and Link unleashed one of his exclusive Dōjutsu.
Black flames appeared out of thin air and, under the control of Blaze Release, instantly covered the Mink Tribe and some of the Akazaya Nine.
"Aaaahhh..."
The sudden eruption of flames caught the Mink Tribe and the Akazaya Nine completely off guard.
Those who hadn't defended with Haki in advance were instantly turned into black, flaming figures.
"Put out the flames, quickly!"
Marco shouted with a shocked expression, simultaneously using his blue flames and the power of Haki to try and help extinguish the fire.
But when his flames touched the black flames, not only did they fail to extinguish them, they were instead tainted by a bit of the black fire.
Fortunately, Marco had used Haki beforehand, so the black flames touched his invisible armor rather than his own flames.
Marco quickly flung the black flames to the ground. Watching them continue to burn on the ground and seeing the unquenchable flames on the Mink Tribe and the Akazaya Nine, he finally realized the gravity of the situation and said in a deep voice, "Don't go near those black flames. They are inextinguishable."
Hearing this, Kin'emon and Kanjuro, who were using their clothes to try and beat out the flames on the Minks, saw their clothes being rapidly consumed by the encroaching black flames. They hastily threw the clothes away and distanced themselves from the burning Minks and Akazaya Nine.
Watching their comrades being burned to ashes by the black flames, both Kin'emon and Kanjuro wore expressions of grief and indignation.
As for Momonosuke, he was completely scared stiff.