"So many clouds," Luffy said, noticing the clouds around him as he turned around.
Huh, where was everyone?
"Did they get lost?" He seemed confused. He wasn't going that fast, so there was no way they could have gotten lost, right?
Heh, no biggie, they could find him. Though he wondered what Kairo was doing right now. He felt like Kairo was somewhere up in the sky.
Don't ask him how he knew—probably this weird mark he had. Speaking of it, he placed his hand on it, before moving it to his other shoulder.
There... it looked better.
Oh well.
"So many clouds."
Luffy jumped toward a cloud, about to land on it, yet before he could, his Observation Haki flared, and almost instantly—
"Gum-Gum Rocket!" Using his hand, he grabbed a branch and narrowly avoided the cloud.
As Luffy landed on top of the tree, his brow furrowed. Why the hell did his senses flare up because of this stupid cloud?
Taking a rock, he tossed it at the cloud.
As the two objects made contact... 16 spears shot out of the cloud, somehow managing to skewer the rock.
He almost got fucked.
"You have some good sense," a voice said.
Turning his head, he saw another figure.
It was...
"Wow, a talking egg."
Satori, who was about to do his grand speech, froze. The hell did this bastard mean by egg?
"I am Satori, one of God's four priests, and I govern this Trial of Balls!"
He even did his poses and all that stuff. Luffy just looked at him. So the guy had wings and all—that was cool.
Kairo's wings were longer anyway.
"If you wish to continue, you must defeat me first," the man said, confident in his ability to beat Luffy's ass.
So Luffy learned this was a trial. Well, no biggie.
"So you mean, if I beat you, I get to meet my friends?" He punched the palm of his hand, a confident smile spreading across his lips.
"That's only if you defeat me, and if your friends manage to survive their trials." The man sounded smug.
Luffy wasn't worried. He was confident in his friends' ability to win.
So, without hesitation—
"Gum-Gum... Rifle!"
His fist narrowly missed the man.
Luffy's brow furrowed as his hand retracted back to its usual state. From what he gathered...
This guy's senses were sharp.
Satori realized Luffy was strong. That punch, if it had landed, would have done a shit ton of damage to him—matter of fact, he would have been one-shotted.
However—
"Your punch packs quite a punch." Satori's eyes went toward the huge chunk of tree that was missing from Luffy's attack.
"However, all of this is meaningless if you cannot hit me. With my Mantra, you cannot defeat me." The man seemed quite confident in this whole Mantra thing—or whatever it was called.
"Oh, so you have Observation Haki too?" Luffy sounded excited.
...Yow. What the hell did this sea-blue dweller say? As if he had Mantra.
Using string, Satori pulled a cloud toward Luffy. As it was about to touch Luffy's head, the boy tilted his head, letting it pass harmlessly.
"Let's go. I get to practice some more. Stay alive long, okay?"
Was his opponent really begging him to stay alive just so he could practice his technique?
Luffy smiled, even pulling out a blindfold and putting it over his eyes. He viewed this as a chance to practice what he had learned.
"You idiot, you shall pay for your inso—"
He didn't get to finish his sentence as Luffy's fist barely missed him.
"So close," Luffy muttered to himself. He could still somewhat see even blindfolded. His Observation Haki needed improvement, but this would help.
Satori, not one to get one-shotted so easily, decided to give it his all.
"Bikkuri Tamakazura: Tama Dragon!"
Using his ultimate move right from the get-go, he fused around 30 or so Surprise Balls into one, slapping a dragon-like mask on it.
He launched the monstrosity at Luffy, who simply jumped over it.
"Gum-Gum... Pistol!"
Satori narrowly avoided the attack, using his string to pull his masterpiece back toward Luffy, hoping to catch him.
"Gum-Gum Scythe!"
Luffy wrapped his hand around a tree far away, stuck out his other hand, and pulled himself toward the tree at full speed.
Satori barely—and I mean barely—dodged it, or else he truly would have gone to meet God.
Swerving around the tree, Luffy launched at him once more.
"Gum-Gum... Bazooka!"
His hands stretched back, haki coating them as he slammed the attack forward at full force. Satori used his dragon as a shield.
It blocked about 95% of the damage.
KABOOM!
As the smoke cleared, Luffy looked a bit bruised, yet his hands—which took the brunt of the damage—were fine. The dragon, however, was gone, reduced to ash. Satori lay on the floor seeing stars.
He got one-shotted... the resulting explosion knocked his ass out. Damn, he was weak.
Luffy removed his blindfold. He was disappointed. This fight was supposed to be fun... but damn, he just one-shotted the guy.
Sad.
Well, maybe in another reality—when he didn't meet Kairo—this fight would have been harder. But ever since meeting him, spending 30 fucking days getting his ass kicked by Kairo and being healed by the 20 MDs, to learning about Haki, unlocking his Armament and Observation to a decent level, having access to Gear Second and Third already—this fight was anything but close.