Chapter 111: Flame Tornado
Thinking this in his heart, Ian landed and crouched slightly, placing his right hand on the sword hilt at his left waist.
When the origami dinosaur missed its attack and swung its tail at Ian, he finally made his move.
"One-Sword Style Iaido · Flame Flash!"
In an instant, he crossed paths with the origami dinosaur, appearing behind it. With a "clang," he sheathed the last segment of his blade.
Behind him, the massive origami dinosaur was split in two, and the cut edges began to burn fiercely.
Lucius saw this and his eyes turned red! He realized immediately that he had been fooled! This swordsman before him was not like any he had faced before—he could actually use flame sword techniques!
Ever since entering the Grand Line, Lucius had relied on his Paper-Paper Fruit ability to defeat many enemies. Since he was immune to physical attacks, cold weapons were utterly useless against him. Even if hit by a gunshot, it only punched a few holes through his paper body. This had once led the members of the Flay Pirates to believe their captain was invincible.
However, only Lucius himself knew that invincibility was a complete lie. A paper body feared two things most: one was water—just a bucket of water thrown at him would render his ability useless—and the other was naturally fire.
Wet by water, ignited by fire—these were the properties of paper, and Lucius could not eliminate them.
If he had known earlier that this swordsman could use flame sword techniques, Lucius would have fled long ago! Why would he have stayed to fight Ian!?
The origami dinosaur was quickly burned to a pile of ashes. Lucius could have recreated that piece of origami, but he chose not to. Turning in midair, he floated away, intending to escape.
After cutting down the origami dinosaur, Ian had hoped Lucius would try some new attack method, but he didn't expect him to flee so decisively.
"Stop!" Ian immediately gave chase.
Lucius looked down at him with a cold sneer, thinking, So what if you can use flame sword techniques? If you can't touch me, what can you do to me?
By turning his body into paper, Lucius could float away through air currents, and as long as Ian couldn't fly, he would never catch him.
Ian understood this as well, so he released a flame sword slash toward Lucius above.
The flame slash flew diagonally upward, cutting Lucius's body in two. The cut edges began to burn, just like the origami dinosaur.
However, Lucius actively detached the burning parts of his body, while the unburned parts recombined. He laughed smugly at Ian below, "Idiot! Even if only a tiny piece of paper remains of my body, I can recover! Your flame slashes are useless!"
Ian was a bit troubled, but when he looked around, a smile suddenly appeared on his face. He looked up at Lucius and said, "Is that so?"
Lucius was startled, not understanding what Ian's smile meant.
Just then, he saw Ian jump.
"Relax, there's no way he can jump this high!" Lucius thought with a start, but he comforted himself with this and stopped looking at Ian, instead trying to float further away.
However, when Ian quickly reached the same height as Lucius ahead of him, Lucius's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
In any other place, Ian indeed couldn't jump to Lucius's height, but Lucius forgot one thing—they were fighting on Sabaody Archipelago!
Here, the ground constantly produced bubbles. These resin bubbles were tough enough to support a person's weight. Ian had just used these bubbles scattered in the air to leap continuously, finally reaching the same height as Lucius!
"Stay calm!" Lucius told himself, staring intently at Ian. He planned to quickly scatter his body into countless paper pieces to dodge when Ian unleashed a flame sword slash.
Even if the opponent could use fire, as long as one piece of paper survived, he could be saved.
However, Ian seemed to have seen through Lucius's intention long ago. Instead of a flame sword slash, he swung out a... flame whirlwind!
This flame whirlwind, though called a whirlwind, was essentially a spinning mass of flame. The wind was invisible, but it fueled the fire's burning effect, causing the flame whirlwind to expand rapidly as it flew. By the time it reached Lucius, it had become a flame tornado connecting directly to the ground, its momentum astonishing!
Not only did those below—the Flay Pirates members and Ian's subordinates—stare in shock, but even Ian himself was surprised by the effect of this move!
This was a flame tornado as tall as five or six stories!
After advancing to Advanced Nen Training, Ian had tried for the first time to combine the tornado from Yasuo's card with the flames from Flying Shadow's card, and he had unexpectedly created such a powerful technique!
Given the tornado's coverage, it was more than enough to engulf Lucius. Even if Lucius turned his body into countless paper pieces, they were all swept into Ian's flame tornado.
When the Nen Ian had infused into the tornado was exhausted, the flame tornado slowly dissipated and vanished into the air.
The Flay Pirates members below had already lost the will to fight when their captain, Lucius, tried to flee. Now, seeing the aftermath of the flame tornado, they knelt dumbly on the ground, smelling the burnt scent in the air. They knew their captain was likely doomed.
Meanwhile, Ian's family members, led by the Cripple, erupted into thunderous cheers!
If they had previously worried whether their new boss could defeat Lucius, with his 86 million Berry bounty, those worries vanished after witnessing this astonishing flame tornado!
They finally realized that their new boss was a monster who couldn't be judged by ordinary standards!
Everyone was stunned by the flame tornado. At that moment, the remaining Ian family members suddenly felt full of confidence in their future...
In midair, Ian stood on a bubble, slightly out of breath. The Nen he had used seemed a bit excessive. Now he was worried instead—had Lucius been completely burned up by the flame tornado?
If so, that would be bad. Burned to ashes, he wouldn't be able to claim the bounty!
Just as Ian was worrying about this, he suddenly saw a single piece of paper drifting down from higher in the sky. It seemed to have escaped the tornado. As it floated down, it expanded and eventually turned back into Lucius's body.
Damn, even after that, he's still fine!? Is the Paper-Paper Fruit that broken?
Just as Ian placed his hand on his sword hilt, ready to unleash another flame tornado, he saw Lucius fall straight to the ground...
Thud! Lucius crashed into the soft ground, creating a small crater, but he lay there motionless.
Ian had overthought it. Immortality or invincibility always depended on the situation. When Devil Fruit users activate their abilities, they consume their own stamina. Ian's flame tornado had burned almost all of Lucius's transformed paper pieces. To recover from that, Lucius had to consume a massive amount of stamina. Although his life was saved, he was now completely unconscious from exhaustion...
Jumping back to the ground, Ian approached Lucius. Seeing his eyes rolled back, Ian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The guy hadn't been burned to death—his bounty was secure.
While Ian checked on Lucius, the Cripple led Ian's family members to surround the Flay Pirates. With guns pointed at them, the Flay Pirates members could only obediently raise their hands in surrender.
What else could they do? Their captain had fallen!
"Some of you, come with me to escort them to the Marines for the bounty!" Ian instructed. "The rest, find out where the Flay Pirates' ship is and loot their valuables!"
"Yes, Boss Ian!" the Cripple and the others raised their arms in cheers, their voices filled with respect.
Only after witnessing Ian's power firsthand did these people finally accept him as their true boss.
Since Lucius was a Devil Fruit user, the Seastone handcuffs had been confiscated by Tina and couldn't be retrieved, so Ian had to personally restrain him. By questioning the surrendered Flay Pirates members, Ian learned that some of their crew were still on their ship, waiting for the coating to be completed. However, only about a dozen people remained. The Cripple led a team of over twenty Ian family members to find the Flay Pirates' ship, leaving just two or three people to help Ian escort the prisoners.
Even so, the Flay Pirates members dared not resist. With Ian present, no one dared to try anything. They could only hang their heads dejectedly as they were tied up and led away.
Although he hadn't gradually increased his bounty by catching smaller pirates but instead jumped straight to capturing a high-bounty pirate like Lucius, Ian considered this an experiment.
Devil Fruit abilities had inherent strengths and weaknesses. With the right intelligence, exploiting these weaknesses could lead to an easy victory.
He knew well that on Sabaody Archipelago, pirates with bounties under 100 million were mostly similar. Lucius, with his 86 million Berry bounty, wasn't necessarily much stronger than a 50 million Berry pirate—he had probably just committed more crimes.
Lucius's current bounty was even higher than Crocodile's, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. But could you say Lucius was on the same level as a Warlord?
This was why Ian targeted high-bounty criminals. Whether he could beat them, he'd only know after trying, right?
Of course, Ian estimated that a 100 million Berry bounty might be a threshold. The Marines rarely issued bounties that high, but when they did, it meant the criminal's strength had caught their attention. Such pirates were worth dispatching Marine officers of at least Rear Admiral rank to pursue.
Ian didn't know if he could capture a 100 million Berry pirate yet, but he wanted to try and challenge himself.
For now, there were no pirates with bounties over 100 million on Sabaody Archipelago, but Ian wasn't in a hurry. He could steadily improve his strength by capturing lower-bounty pirates.
In gaming terms, this was called "farming safely, then gearing up with full legendary items to carry the whole match!"