Chapter 78: The Power of Runes

After reaching their destination, a large clearing surrounded by rocky buttes, Smoker said, "This is far enough," before drawing his custom-made, seastone-tipped jitte from its sheathe.

In response to Smoker's words, Tashigi got into an iai stance while his subordinates, numbering seventy-three people in total, formed a loose encirclement around the area, rifles aimed at Thomas.

Though he was practically bulletproof, Thomas still felt 'itchy' whenever someone pointed a gun at him. Despite this, he did his best to appear calm, staring down Smoker as he asked, "How do you want to do this? As much as I'd like a high Bounty, I don't want to severely injure or kill any of your men."

With a characteristically grim expression, Smoker stated, "My men aren't cowards. They knew what they were getting into when they signed up to become Marines..."

Without waiting for Thomas to respond, Smoker's left arm turned to dense white smoke before his still-solid hand, wielding his jitte, shot forward fast enough to break the sound barrier.

Though he wasn't at the level of being able to dodge supersonic attacks, Thomas surprised Smoker, Tashigi, and their subordinates by standing his ground. The tip of the jitte should have pierced his shoulder, disabling his Devil Fruit powers. Instead, a sound similar to a sledgehammer striking metal echoed through the area as the flesh beneath Thomas's clothes gradually turned black.

Feeling a little more confident, the nervous expression on Thomas's face became noticeably more relaxed as he said, "Time to earn my Bounty..."

As Smoker retracted his jitte, Thomas ripped away his shirt to reveal his muscular upper body. His physique was eye-catching in and of itself, but the thing Smoker and Tashigi paid attention to was the black metallic hue spreading through his skin and the circuit-like pattern emanating from the glowing 'ᛇ' between his shoulder blades.

Taking advantage of the duo's surprise, Thomas charged toward Smoker, his movements leaving behind a bluish-white trail as he accelerated far beyond his physical limitations. Smoker dodged by launching himself into the sky like a smoke-propelled rocket, but the Marines behind him weren't as lucky. Thomas controlled his momentum to ensure he didn't turn them into meat paste, but with the Eihwaz run making his skin and muscles as hard as tungsten, even his casual 'swats' were enough to dent metal and shatter bone.

Before Thomas could 'rampage' too much, Smoker sent a massive column of smoke crashing into him like a bullet train. A normal person would have been blown away, but Thomas was barely sent stumbling, almost as if his body weighed thousands of kilograms.

As the smoke attempted to coil around him, the magical energy veiling Thomas's body gained a luminous green hue, followed by a fierce wind swirling around him.

Seeing Thomas counteracting his powers by simply blowing his smoke away, the expression on Smoker's face darkened. Ordinary wind had no hope of dispersing his smoke, but the peculiar green swirl surrounding Thomas's body seemed like a natural counter to his Devil Fruit abilities.

Recalling Thomas mentioning that his 'Mana' functioned similarly to Haki, Smoker concluded it would probably be impossible for anyone below the rank of Vice-Admiral to apprehend him. He wasn't going to give up, but there wasn't much he could do against Thomas's apparent invulnerability and ability to resist seastone.

Sheathing his jitte, Smoker punched both fists into the ground, grunting, "White Eruption...!"

Feeling the ground beneath him rumbling, Thomas looked down just in time to see it explode, an enormous geyser of smoke propelling his body into the air faster than he could disperse it.

Determined to test the limits of Thomas's durability, Smoker extended his limbs as smokey tendrils, grabbing two of the larger pieces of debris and attempting to smash them together.

Realizing Smoker was trying to crush him between two boulders, any thoughts Thomas had about holding back disappeared. It didn't matter that he could easily endure such a blow in his current state, protected by the Eihwaz Rune Chloe had carved into his nape. Such an attack would be lethal in most other circumstances, so Thomas's expression darkened as he extended his hands outward, obliterating the two boulders with blasts of magical energy.

With the threat of the boulders taken care of, Thomas suspended himself in the air, shouting, "You're starting to piss me off!" as he aimed his finger in Smoker's direction. There was no bright light, but, having seen Kizaru's light-based powers in action, Smoker immediately realized Thomas's aim, exploding into a massive cloud of smoke just as a laser-like beam pierced the area where his left thigh had been.

Though it wasn't the first time someone had evaded his much-slower-than-lightspeed laser, Thomas clicked his tongue, muttering, "Tricky bastard..." before making finger pistols and taking aim at the Marines scattered throughout the area. His training with Chloe, Illya, and Ruby included lessons in Rune Magecraft. He wasn't at the point of being able to carve Runes directly, but he could now utilize one of the core skills of any 'proper' Magus, Gandr Shot.

As tiny black spheres collected at his fingertips, Thomas began rapid firing beams of magical energy that contained about as much power as a strong punch. More importantly, they were hundreds of times more cost-effective than his standard laser attack. As a result, he wouldn't exhaust himself even if he unleashed hundreds of 'rounds' per minute.

Feeling a little like a mecha, Thomas strafed the Marines that had been peppering him with gunfire the moment he was launched into the air. His attack was eventually interrupted by Smoker's jitte erupting from a cloud of smoke and striking him in the back, but it didn't cause him any harm. It did, however, knock him out of the sky.

As he was still under the effects of the Eihwaz Rune, Thomas impacted the ground like a meteor. The penalty for increasing his durability to rival tungsten was a weight increase of nearly 20x. This clocked him in at over 5200kgs, so his collision with the ground created a thunderous sound and produced a rather sizeable crater.

Fortunately, as the Eihwaz Rune also increased the density of his bones and muscles, Thomas's Strength Parameter was boosted from 15 to 30, roughly the same as a Heroic Spirit with C-Rank Strength. He felt like he was trying to move through syrup or an area of increased gravity, but he could still move about freely.

Rising to his feet, Thomas swept his hand, producing a gust of wind to clear away the cloud of dust obscuring his vision. What awaited him when he did so was an encirclement of rapidly moving white smoke, giving the impression he was in the eye of a hurricane.

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Just as Thomas began to wonder what Smoker's aim was, a foul aroma assaulted his senses, causing his throat and lungs to feel itchy. One of the traits of the Moku-Moku-no-Mi was a debilitating effect on other people's respiration. Smoker rarely made use of this ability, but seeing Thomas fire off hundreds of black lasers caused him to get 'serious.'

Having endured a gas chamber while in boot camp, Thomas immediately realized what Smoker was attempting to do. Fortunately, he had already developed countermeasures during his anti-sea training with Chiron. If he needed to, he could even breathe in a vacuum by recycling his breath and converting it using Material Transmutation, so filtering out a bit of smoke was relatively simple.

Cracking a smile, Thomas condensed magical energy around his body as he confidently asserted, "You'll have to do better than that if you want to take me out. Now, what say we wrap this up before more of your men get hurt? They may have joined the Marines with the conviction to face death but are you really going to force them to go all out against someone who hasn't even committed a crime? Well, besides defending myself."

Realizing that Thomas wasn't being affected by his asphyxiation attempt, Smoker emerged from the swirling white vortex to state, "We can't just let you go. Whether or not you were falsely accused doesn't matter. We have our orders..."

Exhaling a sigh, Thomas muttered, "I thought you might say that..." As someone who had served in the armed forces in his previous world, he understood the pressure of 'having' to follow orders. He couldn't count the number of times he had been forced to do something against his will, so he couldn't condemn others for doing the same.

Meeting Smoker's gaze, Thomas asked, "Then how do you propose we settle this? As it stands, neither of us can harm the other. Your attacks are too weak to penetrate my defenses, and I'm too slow to land a solid hit on you. If I find myself backed into a corner, I'll have no choice but to target your subordinates or utilize one of my trump cards..."

Understanding that Thomas's words were an expression of reluctance, not an implied threat, Smoker took a moment to consider his response before asking, "Why did you come to Alabasta? You mentioned that the people here were 'victims' of the World Government..."

Shaking his head, Thomas replied, "I also said it doesn't really matter. As it stands, you and your men are patsies of the Celestial Dragon, incapable of exerting your own will. Even if you learned one of the Shichibukai was breaking the law and tormenting the people of an affiliated Kingdom, you would have no choice but to ignore it. Now, enough chatter. Let's end this before things become even more complicated."

Without waiting for Smoker to respond, Thomas pulled out a bright purple gemstone with a Rune resembling the letter M. When he told Smoker his attacks were too slow to land, he hadn't been lying. However, the moment he smashed the gem-like stone against his chest, right over his heart, the world around him slowed to a crawl as his own 'time' accelerated.

Accepting that he would spend the next few hours bedridden, Thomas forced his arms and legs to move, enduring the pain as he rushed toward Smoker. The latter blinked in surprise, but his actions were so slow that his eyelids were still in the process of closing when Thomas slammed into him with his shoulder.

As time abruptly started flowing normally, Thomas clenched his teeth and clutched his shoulder while Smoker was sent flying into a butte more than 300m away in an instant. However, instead of crashing into it like a normal person, his body exploded into a large plume of smoke before reforming a few seconds later, revealing a still-conscious Smoker with blood pouring from his mouth.

Adopting a blood-stained smile, Thomas remarked, "Tough bastard..." before pulling out a green Runestone with an angular 'ᛒ' carved into its surface.

Instead of smashing the Runestone against his chest, Thomas threw it into his mouth and swallowed. Doing so without water was difficult, but it was worth it as the moment it reached his stomach, steam rose from his body as his wounds rapidly healed. Even his dislocated shoulder set itself, allowing Thomas to roll his right arm as he shouted, "You ready for round two!?"

In place of Smoker, Tashigi abruptly appeared behind Thomas, answering, "I'll be your opponent!" as she drew her green-hilted katana in a sweeping arc. Unfortunately, while her attack managed to land, it only left a thin red line across Thomas's back, failing to break the skin.

Resisting the urge to backhand the bespectacled swordswoman, Thomas stared down at Tashigi as he stated, "Try again once you've learned the Rokushiki techniques or mastered Haki..."

Undeterred by Thomas's words, Tashigi tried to slice across his chest but only succeeded in dulling the edge of her katana. In response, the former aimed a blast of air at her, blowing her off her feet and sending her flying back several meters as he said, "Tend to your Captain and subordinates. This fight is over..."

After looking over to confirm that Smoker was still sitting on the ground, too injured to pursue, Thomas allowed the effects of his Eihwaz Rune to dissipate before leaping into the sky and 'flying' away. It was extremely Mana intensive, but running away was a lot slower and incentivized the Marines to give chase. Seeing him fly into the sky gave the impression it was impossible to chase him, so none bothered trying. That was fortunate for Thomas, as, midway through his flight, he nearly fell out of the sky and crash-landed in the middle of Nanohana. Instead, just as he began to fall, Astolfo and Griff appeared out of nowhere, the former catching him in her arms before carrying him back to the Merry...

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(A/N: Rune Magecraft is OP...)

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