Almost simultaneously, Charlotte Linlin felt a massive shock in her hand. Her grip loosened instinctively, and the giant sabre Napoleon, tightly held moments before, was knocked into the air by the immense force.
Even her massive body was forced to stumble backward, nearly toppling over.
"Hoo~"
Aeridar let out a deep breath of stale air, gazing at the Big Mom before him. His understanding of a Yonko's true strength had just deepened.
The disparity in body size led to a disparity in raw power, physical condition, and durability. Compared to Big Mom's colossal frame, a single punch from her could match Aeridar's entire height. Close-quarters combat was a significant disadvantage for him.
Facing a top-tier powerhouse of this size, Aeridar clearly lacked effective close-range offensive tools. It was similar to how Luffy developed Gear 4 to subdue massive monsters; that enormous body and elastic power were effective for fighting foes with great physical scale.
"Life Return: Universal Law!"
Aeridar shouted, and his skin immediately turned pink, emitting faint white steam.
Thump-thump-thump!
His heart pounded violently. With every beat, Aeridar's body grew taller and stronger.
In just seven violent heartbeats, Aeridar transformed into a robust man over three meters tall. His muscles were dense and powerful, radiating an intense bloodlust. If his clothes hadn't been specially made with excellent elasticity, they would have certainly been ripped to shreds.
"Hoo, still a bit too small!"
Aeridar exhaled a stream of white vapor, which extended three feet long and shot out like an arrow over ten meters, resembling the legendary immortals spitting flying swords in xianxia novels.
By controlling his consciousness over his body, Aeridar had developed this method to enhance his full-body strength and speed. The major drawback, however, was its extremely high consumption of stamina.
"AAAAGH—I'll slaughter you!"
Driven back and consumed by a frenzy, Charlotte Linlin, who was likely losing some clarity of mind, glared at Aeridar with blood-red eyes, truly enraged.
Charlotte Linlin snatched the giant sabre Napoleon that had been knocked into the air. She stamped her foot, shaking the ground, and her massive body, surprisingly agile, dashed out at high speed.
"Maximum Ring: Impact Wave!"
Aeridar slammed his fist out violently. A powerful impact force surged out of his body, exerting immense pressure on the air. The formless, intangible air solidified into a massive, fierce Ring-Shaped Impact Wave with a width exceeding twenty meters.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The ground shook violently, immediately cracking and collapsing. Before she could even swing her sword, Charlotte Linlin was enveloped by the powerful ring-shaped shockwave.
"Aaaahhhh—"
Even with her feet sinking deep into the ground, it couldn't stop her body from sliding backward. Charlotte Linlin roared ferociously, the colossal, deafening sound wave rushing out to directly counteract the force of the Impact Wave.
BOOOM!!!
A huge explosion occurred. A fierce wave of air spread outwards in a ring. Dust flew up, sweeping across a radius of several hundred meters. The area where Charlotte Linlin and Aeridar stood had been transformed into a gigantic circular crater over thirty meters in diameter, covered in dense, spiderweb-like cracks.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the swirling dust parted, and a giant sabre lashed out, its bright, sharp blade emanating a chilling aura.
Clang!
BOOM!
Aeridar's expression changed. He quickly crossed his arms, which simultaneously turned pitch-black like metal, and managed to just barely block the overhead strike.
However, the terrifying force transmitted from the giant sabre caused the ground beneath Aeridar's feet to crack and sink again, burying his feet deep into the soil. At the same time, a fierce kinetic blast spread outwards.
"Open up!"
Aeridar's face was flushed red as he roared, shoving aside Charlotte Linlin's giant sabre. He immediately followed up with a punch.
"Impact Wave!!!"
Buzz…
The air vibrated. A massive ring-shaped shockwave erupted, fracturing the earth inch by inch, and instantly blasting Charlotte Linlin backward.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
Charlotte Linlin flew back several dozen meters, crash-landing on the ground, and plowing a long, shallow furrow before finally stopping, the ground extensively cracked behind her.
"Hoo... That really is a monster!"
Aeridar exhaled sharply and quickly pulled his deeply-sunk feet out of the mud.
"Mama!"
Zeus, the thunder cloud, and Prometheus, the sun, cried out in alarm. Although they wished to stop Big Mom's rampage, it didn't mean they wouldn't fight with all their might. Especially seeing Big Mom knocked flying, the two of them became angry.
"You bastard! Die!"
Prometheus the sun flew into the air first, raining down a massive number of scorching fireballs that instantly raised the temperature significantly, making the air hot and dry.
Boom, boom, boom, boom...
One after another, the searing fireballs smashed into the ground, exploding into balls of flame that nearly turned the earth into a sea of fire.
However, Aeridar had already used his instant movement ability to fly into the air, avoiding Prometheus's assault.
Below, Zeus opened its mouth and blasted out a bolt of lightning that, with the speed of thunder and flash, instantly aimed for Aeridar.
"Mere lightning! Impact Cannon!"
Aeridar's expression was grim. He abruptly raised his arm, his muscles bulging and veins throbbing, and slammed a punch downwards.
Vwoom…
The air vibrated strangely. A large volume of air was instantly compressed by the invisible impact force, forming an air column three meters in diameter, like an elephant's foot. It collided directly with Zeus's lightning bolt.
BANG!
In a near-overwhelming blow, the lightning, which was powerful enough to sink a Navy battleship, was instantly shattered into countless electric arcs by the elephant-foot-like air column. It also slammed Zeus directly into the earth.
The ground shook violently. Massive amounts of dust billowed into the sky, and the shockwave spread outwards in a ring.
When the flying dust cleared, a massive, deep hole over three meters in diameter appeared on the ground. Zeus, however, wobbled, slowly floating up out of the deep hole.
"What a troublesome thing!" Aeridar frowned upon seeing this.
The core of Zeus was a thunder cloud, but Charlotte Linlin had used the power of the Soul-Soul Fruit to bestow her own soul upon it, anthropomorphizing it into a living being with self-awareness.
Therefore, it was completely immune to this kind of physical attack. Aeridar even speculated that Armament Haki might not be effective against it.
"Wait, if the Soul-Soul Fruit can grant a soul to an inanimate object, bringing it to life, then the power of the Animate-Animate Fruit should be similar. Could I also create something like this?" As this possibility arose, Aeridar's eyes lit up. He desperately wanted to immediately tear down a thundercloud and conduct an experiment.
Although against a top-tier powerhouse like Aeridar, neither Zeus, Prometheus, nor Napoleon, the bicorne hat wielded by Big Mom, was overwhelmingly powerful on their own.
However, they provided a massive boost to Big Mom's overall strength. In particular, the two high-tier Homies, Zeus and Prometheus, were almost entirely immune to all physical attacks, including those coated in Armament Haki.
As for the bicorne hat Napoleon, being Big Mom's primary offensive tool, it likely possessed even more powerful transformations.