Chapter 51 – Gear Third

"OK." Thought Luffy "I've got to beat this guy without destroying the pillar and killing everyone below us. This is sooooo hard!"

"What's taking so long brat?" aksed Eshu "Have you no more tricks left to show me?"

"Man he's annoying." Groaned Luffy

Eshu laughed and swung his large green mist arms at Luffy who leaped away as they hit the ground causing it to explode. Eshu did not give up, he quickly spun around swing his arm at Luffy who leaped into the air and began to spin.

"What the hell?" asked a confused Eshu

"Gomu Gomu No FIREWORKS!"

Arms and feet exploded everywhere and several of them plowed into Eshu's body sending him and his giant crashing to the ground which then exploded.

The ground shook violently and to everyone's shock the water in the lake began to overflow on one side.

--

"What's causing that?" asked Usopp

"The tower is probably on a tilt." Answered Robin "Meaning that if this continues the tower will fall and us along with it."

"NOOOO!!" howled Usopp in fear "I must do something about this!"

"Like what?" asked Zoro lazily as he sat down and closed his eyes

"I don't know yet!" answered Usopp.

--

"I've got it!" grinned Luffy as he landed on the ground with a thud "Hey green dude follow me."

Luffy ran forwards through the palace rubble and straight forward and just like he thought he had come to the tier's edge, he looked over it and saw the ground far far below him.

Eshu's large green body came stomping after Luffy.

"You plan to knock me off the tier to stop it from collapsing." Laughed Eshu "Nice try but I can just do this."

Eshu raised his fist and aimed it straight at the ground.

"SHIT!" roared Luffy "Gear Second!"

Luffy sped directly underneath Eshu's fist and inflated himself like a balloon, his whole body blocked the mist abut he paid the price when it exploded all across him.

Luffy yelled in pain as several explosion sped across his body all one after the other.

"Look like this is over." Grinned Eshu

"No." said Luffy

"You're still alive!" gasped Eshu "No way."

Luffy's body was smoking from the explosions and gear second was gone, he slowly sat up then got to his feet. Eshu was finally where Luffy wanted him, between himself and the edge.

"Gomu Gomu No…" started Luffy

But Eshu's large green foot kicked out and slammed straight into the rubber man.

Luffy's body exploded again as he sailed backwards and slammed into the ground.

"You're speeds gone way down, you can barely move." Said Eshu "You can't beat me now."

Luffy got up again and stretched out his hands, they flew through the mist which exploded several times and burned away at Luffy's rubber skin.

"Why do you not withdraw!" cried Eshu as Luffy's hands clamped down on his shoulders

The mist covered Luffy's arms and continued to exploded.

Luffy gritted his teeth and then he leaped up of the ground and rocketed towards Eshu

"GOMU GOMU NO ROCKET!"

"Are you insane boy!" roared Eshu as mist flooded forwards towards Luffy.

Luffy sped into it headfirst and then everything was covered in black smoke form the resulting explosion.

To Eshu's horror Luffy came rocketing out and slammed headfirst into his chest.

Eshu shrieked in pain as Luffy completely smashed his rib cage.

Eshu flew backwards and rolled across the ground before kicking back up to his feet, he saw that he was only a few feet from the edge of the tier.

"N-nice…try…brat." Wheezed Eshu "Y-you… a-almost… got… me. B-but in… the end… I'm simply… stronger than you!"

Luffy stood before Eshu, his body was still smoking, his clothes were in tatters, his straw hat lay several feet behind him, but his eyes were filled with determination.

"Y-you still… think you… can beat me." Laughed Eshu slowly

Luffy grinned

"Bastard!" snapped Eshu as the mist began to surround him once more and was encased in the green giant again "I can recreate this giant as long as I have my powers! I'll kill you then I'll kill all those people below us and then I'll kill Samedi!"

Luffy had raised his arm and placed his thumb into his mouth.

"What are you doing now?" asked Eshu

"Gear Third." Said Luffy and he bit into his thumb and blew as hard a she could.

Air flowed into his arm and it began to expand, more and more his arm grew and grew until it was the size of a giants.

"WHAT THE HELL!!" shrieked Eshu in disbelief "What the fuck are you!"

"Gomu Gomu No Gigant Pistol!"

Luffy's huge giant like arm slammed straight into the giant Eshu's body with Eshu caught dead in the centre of Luffy's fist.

Eshu was smashed by the fist and flung backwards where the ground no longer existed and Eshu's motionless body fell to the earth below.

Luffy then exhaled deeply and his arm returned to normal size.

Luffy collapsed and his body then began to shrink until there was a miniature Luffy lying on the ground laughing. Around a minute later he was back to normal. Luffy sat up and grabbed his hat placing it firmly on his head. Luffy looked up at the dark clouds in the sky, a few drifted away and the sun shone through. The light cast the shadow of a bird down on him and a second later Pucho landed next to him in his owl form.

"I won." Grinned Luffy "Need food."

"Hop on." Said Pucho as he lowered his back for luffy to climb on to.

They flew back to the ship where the crew awaited them.

"I thought for sure this whole place would be destroyed." Sighed Usopp wiping sweat from his brow

"So how do we get down from here to the sea?" asked Zoro

"There's a large pipe at the north of the lake that leads downwards, the water flows into it." Said Pucho "I saw it while I went to get Luffy, don't know if it will work but there's no way out of this lake unless we go by foot."

"Ok then we're heading north." Grinned Luffy "Sanji food!"

"Yeah when we get outta here." Sighed Sanji

"NOW!" roared Luffy "I'm hungry!"

Sanji ignored him and walked across the black ship.

The boat sailed north to the large pipe which could easily fit two or three ships the size of merry into it. They looked at the pipe, the water flowed down into darkness.

"It'll be hard if we can't see where we're going." Said franky

"What if there are rocks at the bottom?" asked Robin "The ship could smash."

"We're not going to find out anything sitting here talking about it." Grunted Zoro "Let's just go."

"Into the mystery tunnel." Grinned Luffy as the ship entered the pipe.

Suddenly the boat was caught in a downward current and it sped downwards at a rapid speed. Usopp and Chopper screamed, Luffy laughed and then they popped out on the moat around Port city.

"We're at thye bottom." Laughed Nami

The gang gave a sigh of relief, they had the boat and the ordeal at Port City was over.

"So now we head north right?" asked Franky

"Yip." Grinned Luffy "I'm going to save Ana."

"How long do we have left?" asked Skadi

"About two weeks." Answered Pucho "Maybe more."

The crew looked out at the moat, both end led out into the ocean but they didn't know which way would take them east.

"To be specific." Laughed a voice "You have 19 days to save Ana."

The gang saw a shadow on the banks between them and the city.

"Who're you?" asked Luffy

The being waved his hand and to Luffy's shock a girl appeared, her hair was ruffled and messy, she wore a black robe and has a few cuts and scrapes across her afce.

"ANA!" roared Luffy

Ana looked up at Luffy and then buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

"I'm Samedi." Said the being and he pointed to the top hat he was wearing.

"I'm giving all ten of you a chance to take Ana back right now, just knock my hat off within five minutes and she's yours."

"Gomu Gomu No Rocket!" Luffy and grabbed the ship's side and propelled himself towards Samedi

"LUFFY STOP!" screeched nami "We have no idea what this guy is capable of."

Luffy was inches from Samedi with his fist clenched tight.

Samedi grinned