Chapter 165: Guardian Angel
"How are you doing this? Even if you're the Dark King...you shouldn't be able to resist my poison..." panted a nearly five-meter-tall and very burly man with features reminiscent of a mandrill, sharp teeth, pointed ears, a pair of detachable, demon-like horns, similarly detachable, bat-like wings, and a thick, well-groomed, afro-like beard. His attire consisted of a black, military-style trenchcoat with a popped collar and fifteen silver buttons, a maroon undershirt, a black tie, a brown belt, olive-green military trousers, and black leather boots, and his hands appeared mechanical, with metal plates over his knuckles and multi-segmented fingers vaguely reminiscent of metallic hydraulic lines.
"Honestly? I have no earthly idea," responded Rayleigh, sporting a smile as he, alongside Luffy and Robin, stood across from the demon-like man, Warden Magellan, on a fifteen-meter-wide, hundred-meter-long catwalk that loomed over a pit of thousand-degree flames. Magellan had eaten a Devil Fruit known as the Doku Doku no Mi(Venom Venom Fruit), allowing him to produce and control various types of poisons. Even island-sized Sea Kings could be felled by simply coming into contact with his poison, so while he could understand Robin's ability to resist with an enclosed, ostensibly impermeable suit, Luffy and Rayleigh should have succumbed simply breathing in the sleeping, paralytic, and hallucinogenic gases that filled the air.
Representing Magellan's greatest source of frustration, Luffy, covered nearly head to toe in gelatinous purple poison that made his skin hiss and produce hazy white steam, defiantly asserted, "I'll admit it...you're really powerful, bat guy...but it doesn't matter how much pain I have to endure! You can't stop me from saving my brother...!"
Midway through his declaration, Luffy's body gained a ruddy sheen as even more steam erupted from his pores. Then, at a rate exceeding one hundred punches a second, he exclaimed, "Gomu Gomu no—Jet Gatling!" and bombarded Magellan with heavy punches that could leave deep fist imprints in thick, reinforced steel.
Demonstrating why he was the Warden of Impel Down, Magellan endured most of Luffy's near-hypersonic punches, including multiple direct hits to his face, without flinching. He was pushed back centimeter by centimeter, but any ground he gave up was quickly recovered as he occasionally took a resolute step forward.
"Veinte Fleur~!"
Accompanied by the resonant sound of Robin's voice and numerous pink flower petals spreading through the area, a total of twenty arms sprouted across Magellan's body, grasping at his head, covering his eyes, pulling at the sides of his mouth, locking his joints, and holding his ankles to prevent him from stepping forward or defending his vitals. Luffy took advantage of this by throwing his hands back several tens of meters before launching a hypersonic double-palm strike against Magellan's abdomen, but even that barely caused the man to tumble backward and plop onto his bottom, and only because Robin had a hold of his ankles.
"Aaaaaaaaagh! He's not a Logia, so why do my attacks barely affect this guy...!?" exclaimed Luffy, the muscles in his face spasming as the poison from Magellan's body soaked through his hands and forearms from simply coming into contact with him. Fortunately, as intense and numbing as the pain was, it only seemed to affect the surface of his skin, allowing him to keep fighting.
"It's because you still have a ways to go as a pirate..." hummed Rayleigh, causing Magellan's circular eyes to widen and his pupils to contract as he directed a crimson-hued slash at him, leaving a second deep scar across his chest. Were it not for Rayleigh's presence, he was confident he could have defeated Luffy and Robin within moments, but the aging man wasn't known as the Dark King for nothing.