Chapter 794: Amazon Lily Chaos
The moment he saw Uranus descending, Teach was almost scared shitless!
He thought Uranus had spotted them still alive from midair and was coming down to finish them off for good!
Just thinking about the power of Uranus's light spheres made Teach tremble. If it caused another massive explosion on the ground, then they would have no chance of survival at all. So Teach quickly grabbed Golden Lion and found a secluded corner to hide.
However, when Uranus landed, Teach and Shiki were stunned to discover that it showed no signs of searching the island. Instead... instead, it crouched on a cliff, folding its wings and standing completely still!
Teach, Lafitte, and Shiki exchanged bewildered glances, unable to understand what was happening.
Just as they were puzzling over this, a sudden surge of intense heat erupted from Uranus's body!
Uranus stood silently on that rock, its body radiating enormous heat like a giant fireball. Moments later, the cliff beneath its feet began to slowly melt! It gradually turned into magma, flowing down the cliffside.
"It's... releasing heat!?" Teach stared at Uranus in surprise, whispering to Shiki.
Golden Lion Shiki, now a complete mess, had never been beaten so badly before. Uranus made his Float-Float Fruit feel almost useless. But seeing Uranus's current state, he somewhat agreed with Teach's guess and nodded quietly: "It really does seem that way!"
"Our chance has come!" Teach looked at Uranus on the distant cliff, grinning viciously: "We can't beat it in the sky, but since it's landed, this is our opportunity!"
"What do you plan to do?" Golden Lion Shiki asked Teach.
"We get onto its back!" Teach said sinisterly: "Doflamingo once said that all Ancient Weapons need operators, so Uranus is no exception. Uranus is so massive, its operator must be somewhere on its body. If we can find him and kill him, this dragon won't be a threat anymore!"
Admittedly, Teach was quite clever. His suggestion was the right approach, but... the problem was how to get close enough?
It wasn't until the three of them sneaked carefully, avoiding the raging fires on the island, and reached the base of the cliff where Uranus stood, that they realized the heat radiating from Uranus's body was astonishingly high. Compared to its heat, the massive fires burning across Amazon Lily were nothing!
Even standing hundreds of meters below it, they were already unbearably hot!
"This... damn it!" Teach hadn't expected this situation either, cursing bitterly: "Damn it, this heat is almost the same as that brat Ian's flames!"
Lafitte wiped his sweat, finding his makeup smeared, and said: "It's hard to imagine. If there really is a controller on it, how can he possibly stay on Uranus's back in this kind of heat?"
"How do we get onto it?" Golden Lion was also drenched in sweat, frustrated: "Maybe we should just attack directly. It looks like it can't fight back right now. We need to find a way to kill it! If we can get a little closer, I can try to slash it from a distance!"
Teach thought it over and agreed, so they decided to act.
Having made up their minds, Teach tore off his own arm!
His hand had been cut off by Ian before, but since obtaining the Soul-Soul Fruit, he had turned the dark-element Homie "Azathoth" into the shape of his arm, always carrying it with him. Now, as Azathoth released its arm form, it immediately reverted into a mass of pitch-black clouds, with a human-like face appearing within the darkness.
"Go, Azathoth!" Teach commanded: "Envelop Uranus!"
Azathoth obeyed, frantically expanding its body, turning into boundless shadows that spread across the entire mountain range, quickly engulfing Uranus completely.
Within this darkness, Golden Lion Shiki and Teach prepared to attack Uranus...
……………………
Boa Hancock braved the raging flames and returned to Amazon Lily. However, she naturally saw Uranus perched on the peak of Amazon Lily Mountain. Up close, Uranus was astonishingly massive. When it spread its wings, it was almost as large as the entire Amazon Lily. Such a colossal creature made a single person standing before it seem utterly insignificant.
But Boa Hancock had no time to dwell on that. Even knowing she was about to face an unimaginable existence, she still charged toward Amazon Lily Mountain without hesitation.
She was the Empress of Amazon Lily. This was her country, and here lived the people who worshipped her. She couldn't let this demon ravage her island.
Yet, before she could reach the mountain's base, she noticed a massive shadow spreading across the island, continuously expanding until it covered the entire Amazon Lily Mountain!
"It's... Blackbeard!?" Boa Hancock's heart skipped a beat as she quickly realized.
Though she had never dealt with Blackbeard personally, because of Ian, she knew who he was and what abilities he possessed.
"Ian-sama has been hunting him down. Why would he come here?" Boa Hancock calmed herself, thinking in confusion: "Could it be that the person on that flying ship earlier was him?"
Seeing the shadow constantly expanding, Boa Hancock also realized that Blackbeard seemed to be trying to attack the giant dragon. So she instinctively retreated from the edge of the shadow and hid nearby to observe.
It was this caution that saved her life. Not long after the shadow completely enveloped Uranus, a massive burst of flames suddenly pierced through the darkness!
Azathoth was born from Teach's Dark-Dark Fruit power. Its body was made of dark element energy, naturally possessing abilities similar to Teach's own.
One of these was attracting the opponent's Devil Fruit power and nullifying it! In theory, within the area covered by this shadow, even Uranus's Devil Fruit power would be rendered ineffective.
But... Teach and Shiki had never considered that dragons, as creatures, could naturally breathe fire!
And most importantly, Uranus was not a mindless beast. It possessed intelligence, and everything its eyes saw would be shared with its 'Guide,' allowing it to respond and counterattack correctly under the Guide's commands!
This was similar to Zunesha...
Uranus indeed needed to release heat. The chain reaction within its body consumed its own cells, generating enormous heat. If it didn't dissipate this heat, its entire body would be burned and destroyed. This was determined by the unique nature of its Devil Fruit.
Every nuclear explosion attack from Uranus was devastatingly powerful, but the more frequently it used such attacks, the more heat it generated. Even without using them, its body would continuously accumulate heat.
That was why it had landed. It needed to temporarily halt its Devil Fruit ability to eliminate the accumulated heat.
But even so, Uranus was not someone anyone could easily attack. After all, it was a ferocious dragon! Even without its Devil Fruit power, it was still a mighty weapon!
The pillar of flame from Uranus's mouth directly pierced through Azathoth's shadow. Teach and the others, who were charging toward Uranus in the darkness, were caught directly in the blast!
Golden Lion Shiki dodged just in time, but his wild golden hair was singed. He frantically patted out the flames on his head. Teach, however, was hit directly by the fire, his entire body ablaze. He screamed and rolled on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames.
As for Lafitte, he managed to turn his arms into wings and fly up, but his clothes were on fire. Unfortunately, he became too obvious a target. Before he could put out the flames on himself, he felt a massive shadow looming behind him. Turning around, he saw Uranus open its enormous jaws and bite toward him!
Lafitte dodged with all his might, but Uranus still caught one of his legs. The giant dragon's mouth closed, its sharp teeth not severing Lafitte's leg but trapping him.
Feeling it had caught something, Uranus shook its head violently. Lafitte screamed as he was flung around, feeling like his thigh was about to be torn off.
But soon, he stopped screaming. Uranus opened its mouth again, tossed Lafitte upward, and then caught him!
With a crunch, Lafitte's screams ceased abruptly as Uranus swallowed him whole!
Teach had just gotten up from rolling on the ground when he looked up and saw Lafitte being devoured. He was completely stunned!
That was his last companion!
"Lion's Thousand Cuts Valley!"
At the same time, Golden Lion Shiki finally seized an opportunity and launched a powerful slash at Uranus. The two famous swords replacing his legs, "Sakuraju" and "Kareki," whipped up countless golden sword energy waves, striking at Uranus's neck.
However, when these energy waves hit Uranus's neck, they produced a metallic clang. These powerful slashes could only leave scratch marks on Uranus's scales, unable to penetrate them and damage its body.
But clearly, the attacks had some effect. Uranus seemed to feel the pain in its neck and grew enraged. It let out a high-pitched dragon roar and slammed its massive claw down at the spot where Teach and Shiki were!
"Run!" Teach grabbed Golden Lion Shiki and dragged him away.
Boom! A thunderous sound shook the earth. The spot where Teach and Shiki had been was rocked like an earthquake. Countless dust and debris exploded outward, and the ground cracked with numerous fissures from the giant claw's impact.
Missing its target, Uranus didn't stop. It crawled forward, striking repeatedly at the fleeing pair, causing Amazon Lily to tremble continuously.
Teach fled in panic, while Golden Lion Shiki used his fruit ability to float. Only Teach was running on the ground, and Uranus seemed to target him specifically, relentlessly pursuing him.
Boom! Uranus opened its mouth again and bit down at Teach's position. Teach rolled awkwardly to dodge, causing Uranus to only bite the ground, leaving a huge crater.
Teach got up again and ran toward the shore. But just then, a figure suddenly appeared from behind a nearby rock and kicked Teach right in the face!
Bang! Caught off guard, Teach was hit squarely and sent rolling back like a tumbleweed. At the same time, he felt the spot where he was kicked grow stiff and numb. Half of his face had turned to stone!
Needless to say, the attacker was Boa Hancock!