Chapter 159: Flying Projectile
As psychic power continued to be infused, the Black Dragon Wave quickly took shape on Ian's right hand. Like a black tattoo, the dragon formed by flames coiled around Ian's right arm, appearing ready to soar out at any moment. Scorching flames burst forth, the immense heat distorting the air around Ian's arm.
"Wha... what is the captain doing?"
"It looks like that move he used against Aokiji!"
"Not good, get farther away!"
Ian's crew members quickly left the scene, retreating to a safe distance to watch. Generally speaking, within a pirate crew, the captain represents the pinnacle of strength, especially for combat-oriented crews—the captain as the backbone must be powerful. These crew members knew that their captain Ian was formidable, capable of trading blows with a Marine Admiral. So despite Ian's youth, no one dared challenge his authority. However, they weren't entirely clear on just how strong he could be. When Ian fought Aokiji, they were too far away to see clearly.
But now, as Ian tested the Flame-Slaying Black Dragon Wave on the ship, they finally got a direct impression. Even hiding near the cabins, they could still feel the heat radiating from Ian's arm from a distance! This left everyone on board deeply shocked.
Ian had no time to pay attention to their reactions. All his focus was on the Black Dragon Wave, comprehending this ultimate skill. The card's upgrade to five stars brought the most significant change—the ability to use such powerful ultimate skills. However, these skills typically consumed a large amount of Ian's psychic power. To fully summon a Black Dragon Wave, Ian had to inject a full three thousand psychic power points! This was achieved through a process of simultaneous injection and recovery, with the total summoning time lasting over ten minutes.
Such a long casting time made it clear that summoning mid-combat was impractical, unless he activated the Evil Eye skill and used the Ice Tear Stone for recovery, as he did during the fight with Aokiji. But then, after one Black Dragon Wave, Ian would have no psychic power left to continue fighting. The drawbacks were obvious, making Ian realize that his current priority was to quickly raise his level, equip more cards to boost his psychic power, and simultaneously keep up with his Haki and physical combat training. He didn't need much—just reaching over five thousand psychic power points would allow him to fight for a long time. At the very least, he could unleash a second Black Dragon Wave.
Such an astonishing ultimate skill could be summed up by the saying: there's nothing one Black Dragon Wave can't solve. If there is, then send another one...
Ian gently swung his right arm, causing the air to twist and dance. He had asked the system: the three-thousand-point psychic power cost for the Black Dragon Wave was the base summoning requirement. In fact, he could inject even more psychic power to increase the wave's duration and flight distance, preventing it from dissipating shortly after being launched. Of course, this injection had limits—it couldn't go on indefinitely.
According to the Black Dragon Wave's ultimate skill description, Ian could temporarily boost his psychic power by devouring the wave. This enhancement effect after devouring was even stronger than actively using the Evil Eye, reaching a staggering 300%! However, Ian dared not experiment with this devouring effect right now. His current physical condition likely couldn't withstand such a powerful psychic power boost. Moreover, Ian's current psychic power was only a little over a thousand. Spending three thousand points to triple it seemed somewhat underwhelming. This enhancement would yield greater benefits the higher Ian's psychic power became.
This time, Ian summoned the Black Dragon Wave mainly to test if he could use it for flight. If he remembered correctly, the Black Dragon Wave could transform into flame wings, allowing the user to fly. This felt somewhat like a Devil Fruit user developing their abilities. Ian tried to focus his attention on the black dragon on his arm while imagining the flames turning into wings.
At first, nothing happened. But soon, Ian suddenly noticed the black dragon on his arm moving! As if coming to life, the dragon twisted its body a few times and then instantly vanished from Ian's arm. At the same time, two massive black flame wings formed behind Ian's shoulders!
With the spreading of these wings, a surging wave of heat swept across the entire ship. The crew members watching from the cabins were knocked over by the sudden gust of wind stirred up by the heat. Some thin, flammable items on the ship even caught fire!
"Quick! Put out the fire!"
The crew scrambled to their feet, shouting in a flurry. They wanted to call out to Ian to stop, but when they looked up, they were all stunned speechless. Because Ian was actually flying! The burning black wings weren't flapping, but Ian's body had already floated up, hovering above the ship. As he rose, the heat on the ship decreased, and the items stopped catching fire, averting a disaster.
At this moment, Ian was ecstatic. He hadn't expected using the Black Dragon Wave for flight to be so easy. In his excitement, he flew off the ship and began circling freely over the sea. Humans have always yearned for the sky. Since ancient times, people dreamed of being able to fly. In his previous life, Ian had flown on planes, but flying in a plane and flying on his own were two completely different experiences.
Flying over the sea, feeling the sea breeze against his face, Ian was so thrilled he wanted to shout out loud. However, tragedy soon struck. The flame wings on Ian's back suddenly disappeared. Losing power, Ian fell into the sea with a splash! Even when transformed into wings, the three thousand psychic power points couldn't sustain Ian's flight for long. Calculating it, Ian had only been in the air for about ten seconds...
"Not good! The captain fell into the water!"
Ian's crew members shouted in panic, and some even jumped into the water to rescue him. But at that moment, Ian surfaced on his own. He hadn't fallen far from the ship, so after swimming a short distance, he reached the side and climbed back on board.
"What bad luck. I didn't expect it to last so long!" Ian said dejectedly as he got back on the ship.
The crew stared at him in shock, asking in surprise, "Captain, aren't you a Devil Fruit user? How can you still swim?"
"Ah, I am, but I'm a Pay-to-Win Fruit user!" Ian had long prepared this answer. "So I can also exchange for swimming ability!"
Devil Fruit abilities were notoriously hard to explain. Since Ian's ship didn't have a genius like Vegapunk, the crew readily believed him. In fact, they became envious of him. They had all heard that Devil Fruit users were landlubbers, but their captain was an exception—that was great. Now they wouldn't have to worry about the captain falling into the water.
Testing the Black Dragon Wave had caused quite a commotion, so Ian didn't dare play around anymore. Moreover, the Black Dragon Wave's flame temperature was extremely high, so Ian didn't want to mess around on the ship again, in case he accidentally set it on fire. He would have to wait until he bought out Flying Shadow's exclusive treasure before conducting further experiments.
However, during this monotonous voyage, Ian had nothing else to do. Since he couldn't test the Black Dragon Wave, he would test something else. Among the four four-star cards obtained from the ten-draw, aside from the two Bleach series cards—Uryu Ishida and Orihime Inoue—the other two cards Ian hadn't tested yet.
Among the remaining two cards, one was from King of Fighters: Shingo Yabuki! This was a pure physical combat card, classified as four-star, likely due to his frequent appearances in the game as a sub-boss and hidden character. Ian wasn't very interested in this card. In regular combat, he still preferred using his sword.
But the last four-star card, Ian definitely wanted to try out. Because this card was none other than a character whose fragments Ian had drawn before. The Railgun—Misaka Mikoto!