Chapter 61: Slaying Complete!
♂ Smoker's order was given, and the Marine soldiers immediately sprang into action.
Ace had already beaten Buggy black and blue. He had just bent down to pick up the Seastone key that had fallen from Buggy when, unexpectedly, a Marine soldier fired a shot at the ground in front of him. Ace was startled and looked up to find several Marines aiming their guns at him.
"What are you doing?" Ace asked, stunned. He was helping Ian hunt pirates, so logically, he should be on the side of justice, right?
"This is Captain Smoker's order!" a Marine soldier said to Ace. "Even though you're a pirate hunter, we still have to arrest you!"
Ace glanced around, then suddenly clutched his hat and shouted loudly to Ian, "Sorry, Ian! The Marines are trying to catch me! I'm leaving now! The letter for the old man is at the inn—go get it yourself!"
"We'll meet again another time!"
With those final words, Ace turned and bolted for the exit!
The Marines never expected Ace to run. They had completely misjudged the situation. Ace wasn't a pirate hunter—he was a pirate. Why would he willingly let himself be arrested? Of course he would run!
By the time they reacted and tried to chase him, they realized Ace's speed was far beyond their reach.
But just then, a plume of white smoke drifted over, snaking toward Ace. Smoker had been watching both him and Ian closely, and when he saw Ace trying to flee, he intervened personally.
"What is this?" Ace wondered as the smoke coiled around him. Before he could figure it out, Smoker tightened his grip, and the smoke constricted around Ace's waist.
"D-Damn!" Ace reached down to pry the smoke off, but his hands passed right through it.
"It's useless!" Smoker laughed from a distance. "I'm a Logia ability user."
But before he could finish, Smoker was proven wrong. As Ace struggled, the Seastone cuffs on his wrist accidentally touched the smoke, destabilizing it. Ace managed to break free!
"Huh!?" Ace was surprised. He hadn't expected the cuffs to have this effect. Emboldened, he sprinted off again, heading straight for the harbor.
Smoker hadn't anticipated that Ace would be carrying Seastone. He realized he wouldn't be able to catch him now.
"Who is that guy? How does he have Seastone handcuffs?" Smoker wondered, baffled, but he could only watch helplessly as Ace disappeared.
Besides Ace, many pirates from the Krieg Pirates and Buggy Pirates were also desperately fleeing. The sudden intervention of the Marines had broken up the fight. The pirates' innate fear of the Marines drove them to escape instinctively. Smoker couldn't focus solely on Ace; with limited manpower, if he didn't rely on his Devil Fruit ability to capture people, he didn't know how many pirates would slip away.
On the other side, Ian had already stopped fighting Krieg, as several Marines were now shooting at him. To avoid stray bullets, Ian had to keep his distance. But then Ace called out to him, saying he was leaving!
"Hey, wait—"
Ian wanted to say a few words to Ace, but before he could finish, a sword suddenly swung at him from the side.
Ian parried the blow and found himself facing a young girl holding a sword.
"Kuina!?" The moment he saw her, Ian's eyes nearly bulged out of his head!
"Who's that?" The girl attacking him paused, asking instinctively.
Ian quickly realized that while this girl looked a lot like Kuina, she was wearing a pair of glasses. This had to be Tashigi, the one who always followed Smoker!
"Why are you attacking me?" Ian asked angrily.
"You can't leave!" Tashigi said. "If you hadn't lured these pirates here, Loguetown wouldn't be in such chaos!"
"So you want to arrest me?" Ian glared at her. "Are you crazy? I'm not a pirate!"
"But you're not a Marine either!" Tashigi retorted. "You don't have the authority to enforce the law. Who gave you the right to kill so recklessly?"
Hearing this, Ian laughed in anger. "I don't have the authority? So you're saying that when pirates come after me for revenge, I should just let them kill me?"
"Well..." Tashigi couldn't find a good answer to that.
Tashigi was now an 18-year-old girl (in the original material, she's two years older than Zoro), meaning she was about the same age as Ian and Kuina. Though she had already become a Marine Petty Officer at a young age, she still didn't understand the world very well. The Marine ideals of justice she had been taught made her believe that Ian killing pirates was wrong, but when faced with his question, she felt he was right. The clash of these two ideas left Tashigi stunned.
"I don't care!" she finally said through gritted teeth. "Captain Smoker's order is to capture you. I'm just following orders!"
With that, she charged at him again, and they clashed.
After a few exchanges, Ian gauged her strength. It seemed Tashigi had been trained by a Marine swordsmanship instructor, so her style was rigid and lacked adaptability.
In contrast, Ian had been practicing only basic sword techniques, but he executed them with ease. Tashigi's swordsmanship was far inferior to Ian's, and even worse than Kuina's.
Soon, Ian caught her off guard, swung the hilt of his sword, and struck her wrist, knocking her weapon out of her hand.
Seeming surprised that she had lost so easily, Tashigi stared at Ian, clutching her wrist.
"Don't worry," Ian sighed. "You don't have to arrest me. I'm not leaving. Since Smoker's here, I still need to collect the bounty from him!"
"What bounty?" Tashigi asked, confused.
"The bounty on Krieg's head!" Ian replied, then turned around and suddenly shouted, "Krieg!!"
He had to shout. That cunning Krieg was trying to slip away in the chaos!
Not just him—Buggy had also been quietly taken away by his subordinates, Mochi and Cabaji, at some point. With Smoker and his elite Marine troops showing up, neither side wanted to keep fighting. They naturally sought to escape.
The Marines' bullets couldn't penetrate Krieg's armor, but he couldn't challenge them outright. He claimed to have over three thousand subordinates, but he hadn't brought many to Loguetown, as he needed to leave some to guard the ship. Most of those he had brought were now captured by the Marines. If he didn't leave now, he might not get another chance.
He was the captain of the pirate crew; he couldn't afford to be trapped here.
While Ian was tied up with Tashigi, the Demon Man Gin staggered to his feet. Though Ian had slashed him across the abdomen, he hadn't died. Seeing the chaos, he stood up and said to Krieg, "C-Captain... you go first... I'll hold off the Marines..."
Gin had always been loyal to Krieg. He spread his arms in front of the Marines' guns, even though he was badly wounded, still trying to cover Krieg's escape.
But Krieg was a heartless man. Seeing Gin try to protect him, he didn't say a word and turned to leave!
When Ian turned around, that was exactly what he saw!
Hearing Ian's shout, Krieg turned back and sneered, "Kid, what do you think you're doing? I already let you off today. Don't you know gratitude?"
"Didn't you get that backwards?" Ian said, picking his ear dismissively. "Remember what I said earlier? Your bounty is mine!"
"Hahahaha!" Krieg laughed at Ian's words. "You want my bounty? On what basis? Your swordsmanship? Don't forget, you can't even cut through my armor!"
Their conversation was loud enough for many Marine soldiers to hear, including Tashigi and Smoker, who had been watching.
"What's he doing?" one Marine soldier asked his comrade, dumbfounded. "Krieg's armor can't even be pierced by bullets!"
"Yeah, does he really think he can cut through it with that sword?" his comrade agreed.
Tashigi had fought Ian and admitted he was a better swordsman, but she still didn't believe he could break Krieg's defense.
"Is that kid an idiot?" Smoker thought, puffing on his cigar. "Even my Smoke-Smoke Fruit can't do much against Krieg—at best, I can just grab him. Where does he get the confidence to think he can take him down?"
Just as everyone was thinking this, Ian raised his longsword and smiled. "Who said I can't cut through it!?"
The next moment, a third eye suddenly appeared on Ian's forehead!
Tashigi, standing nearby, was stunned. She thought her nearsightedness was acting up and rubbed her eyes.
Smoker and the other Marines nearly dropped their jaws: What was that!?
In reality, this extra eye was just an illusion, created by Ian activating the Evil Eye Master skill from his Flying Shadow card!
The Evil Eye Master skill, when passive, could roughly gauge an opponent's strength. But when actively used, it temporarily increased Ian's Psychic Power value by 100%!
This increase was temporary, costing Ian 10% of his health per second. That meant he could only use this skill for nine seconds at most!
He couldn't use it for ten seconds—if he did, his health would hit zero, and he might actually die.
Though it only lasted nine seconds, this skill was incredibly powerful. Ian's Psychic Power, which had been completely drained, was not only refilled but doubled! Now, he had 224 Psychic Power points!
This was Ian's first time using this skill. He had only intended to refill his Psychic Power and then use the Evil King Flame Slayer Sword to take down Krieg. Krieg's armor might be tough, but the Evil King Flame Slayer Sword could even melt Seastone—there was no way it couldn't cut through his armor.
But when Ian activated the skill, he realized he was losing control. The surging Psychic Power caused a sharp pain in his head!
Psychic Power was strange. When depleted, it caused mental fatigue; when too abundant, it also led to headaches. Ian hadn't anticipated this, so even though he had activated the Evil Eye Master skill, he found he couldn't control the output of his Psychic Power!
Flames erupted from his sword—this was because Ian had intended to use the Evil King Flame Slayer Sword. But as an endless stream of Psychic Power wrapped around his blade, Ian felt the flames' temperature rising, their color shifting toward a pale white. It seemed like it might spiral out of control.
No, he had to release this massive amount of Psychic Power!
Thinking this, Ian let out an instinctive roar and swung his blade forward!
Then, Tashigi, Smoker, and the crowd of Marine soldiers witnessed an astonishing sight!
A slash of pale white flame shot out from Ian's sword as he swung. The flaming slash flew so fast that before Krieg could react, it passed straight through his body. It then continued onward, slicing through the wooden scaffold of the execution platform behind him, and finally vanished after hitting a building at the edge of the square!
*Sizzle!* A long, smoking cut mark was left on the stone of that building!
A creaking sound came from the execution platform as it slowly tilted. The cut left by the slash was clean and precise. Due to the uneven weight distribution, the platform collapsed with a thunderous crash!
And Krieg? His face was filled with disbelief as he slowly fell to his knees. The incredibly hard alloy armor on his chest was now split open, with traces of blood seeping from the crack.
As Krieg knelt, half of his body began to slide diagonally toward the ground. Ian's flying slash had cleaved his chest and body in two!