Chapter 456: Meeting Jackal Again
After sending that massive dog flying, even Ian was stunned, because he had never seen a dog of such enormous size. Compared to Buggy the Clown's lion, Richie, this dog was like the difference between a wild boar and a mouse.
Thinking back, it seemed that all the species on this Sky Island were vastly different from those on the Blue Sea. The mantis shrimp from earlier was the same. On this Sky Island, perhaps to gain more buoyancy, the animals all seemed to have an inflated, hollow-balloon-like feel...
"Th... thank you!" While Ian was still amazed, he heard an excited voice of gratitude.
When that giant dog suddenly lunged out with its mouth wide open, the ragged pirate in front of Ian thought he was about to be bitten to death. In terror, he instinctively crouched down, covering his head with both hands.
But then, he only heard a yelping cry of pain. When he looked up, he realized he had been lucky enough to be saved, so he quickly began to thank his rescuer.
However, judging by his expression, he didn't seem to recognize Ian.
A thought crossed Ian's mind, and he couldn't help asking, "You're a pirate? How long have you been here?"
"S... six years!" The ragged pirate's face turned pale as he mentioned this, as if recalling some unbearable memories.
But as he spoke, Ian understood. No wonder this guy, being a pirate, didn't recognize him as the newly appointed Warlord of the Sea. He had been imprisoned on this Sky Island for so long.
Ian was about to ask him something else when, at that moment, a dark shadow suddenly appeared in the sky to Ian's upper left, diving straight toward them.
"Watch out!" Ian grabbed the pirate by the collar and flung him aside. The next moment, the shadow in the sky swooped down at incredible speed, passing right over the spot where the pirate had been kneeling.
"Th... they're here!" The pirate, having narrowly escaped, said to Ian in a panic, "Quick... run!"
But Ian ignored him, looking up at the shadow in the sky. He noticed that after circling around, the shadow was coming back.
The shadow was a man riding a large bird. Ian could see he wore an aviator's cap and goggles, and held a knight's lance similar to Gan Fall's.
That must be one of the Four Priests, Shura... I think that's his name.
Ian remembered that Enel had four priests under him, but he couldn't recall their names clearly.
Shura turned around in the air, standing on the bird's back, gripping his knight's lance, and looked down at Ian. "Another Blue Sea person! How dare you trespass into this forbidden land and steal my prey!?"
Before he finished speaking, another voice rang out, "What do you mean, your prey? It's clearly mine!"
With that, a round, white, chubby figure appeared. This white fatty wore round glasses, a black hat and gloves on his head and hands, and floated ethereally in front of Ian.
This white fatty was naturally another priest, Daigo. Seeing him appear, Shura sneered, "Fine, you can have the previous prey. I'll take this new one!"
He seemed to sense that Ian, this new "prey," was far more interesting than the broken pirate before, so he decided to strike first.
But then, another new voice shouted, "Hold on!"
Ian turned to look and saw, at the spot where he had sent the giant dog flying, a third priest appeared. He was a bald man wearing sunglasses, carrying a massive longsword on his shoulder, but his expression was furious.
This was the owner of the giant dog, Ohm, one of the Four Priests. The dog Ian had sent flying couldn't get up for a long time. Seeing his beloved pet in that state, Ohm was naturally enraged. He said to Shura and Daigo, "This guy must be mine! I'll tear him apart and feed him to Holy!"
Holy was the name of the giant dog. It seemed Ohm wanted to avenge his pet.
"Why should we let you have him!" Shura didn't care about that. There wasn't much thrill in slaughtering criminals who couldn't resist. So after saying this, he rode his large bird and dove toward Ian, aiming his knight's lance at him.
Shura wanted to steal the kill, and Daigo and Ohm weren't willing to fall behind. So the three of them charged at Ian from three different directions, each trying to see who could land the first hit.
Nami, watching from afar on the cloud sea, couldn't help but scream, "Ian! Watch out!"
The pirate hiding behind Ian also fell to the ground again, trembling in fear, clutching his head...
"...Damn it, they're underestimating me!"
Ian felt a mix of anger and amusement. Although he knew from memory that Enel's four priests were arrogant, seeing was believing. They weren't just arrogant; they were off the charts!
As the three charged at him together, Ian couldn't even be bothered to draw Thousand Cherry Blossoms. He spread his palms, and two purple flames sprang up from them...
By then, the three were right beside him. Shura came from the left, his lance tip glowing with a flame—a special heat shell embedded in the tip. Daigo came from the front, extending his right arm, his gloved hand aimed at Ian's chin, with an impact shell hidden under the glove. Ohm came from the right, his blade made of iron cloud, which, as he thrust, turned into soft, swirling clouds spiraling toward Ian.
The three attacked Ian together without mercy, but not to kill him together—they wanted to see who could claim his head first.
When they were close enough, Ian finally moved. He crossed his arms and then swung them left and right, forming an X!
The next second, within a radius of dozens of meters centered on Ian, a violent wave of purple flames erupted!
"Three Hundred and Sixty-Six Style: Jackal!"
This wave of Jackal flames instantly engulfed the three priests who had just reached Ian. The raging flames, under Ian's burst, shot up hundreds of meters high, even surpassing the towering trees on the island!
Nami, still standing on the Waver, didn't see what happened clearly. In a flash, the scenery in her vision was replaced by blue-purple flames. The heat wave, mixed with a strong gust of wind, blew toward her, making her scream and crouch down on the Waver. The Waver itself wobbled dangerously, nearly tipping over.
Even on Angel Island, dozens of nautical miles away, the color of the flames erupting from the forbidden land could be seen clearly. Against the backdrop of the white cloud sea, the blue-purple flames were especially striking...
"What happened?"
"What's going on in the forbidden land?"
The residents of Angel Island stared in terror at the direction of the forbidden land, anxiously guessing...
The towering flames of Jackal disappeared, but in front of Ian, a huge crater remained—the cloud ground melted by the fire. The crater still emitted faint smoke, and the forest in that area of the forbidden land had caught fire, with crackling sounds of burning trees echoing around.
The trembling pirate behind him looked up and saw this scene, and he was completely stunned...
On the smoking ground not far away, three people and one bird lay motionless. The three were naturally Shura, Daigo, and Ohm, their bodies charred black. As for the bird, it was Shura's mount, now like its owner, its feathers completely burned off—or rather, roasted!
In one move, Ian had taken out three of the Four Priests...
"Yelp!?" When Ian looked up, Ohm's giant dog, Holy, was immediately terrified. It had avoided the attack because it hadn't followed Ohm in the charge. Otherwise, Ian might have smelled dog meat by now. Seeing Ian look at it, it let out a yelp and tried to run away.
"Damn dog! Stop right there!" Ian saw it trying to flee and instinctively shouted.
At that shout, Holy immediately stopped, sitting down with its legs together.
"Uh..." This change caught Ian off guard. He then remembered that Ohm's dog not only knew boxing (named after Holyfield) but had been trained to obey anyone's commands.
It was actually just a dumb dog...
Just as Ian was about to call the dumb dog back, he suddenly sensed something and spun around, looking toward Nami's direction.
He then noticed that, at some point, a Shandian man wearing a mask and carrying a rocket launcher had appeared not far behind Nami. His cannon was slightly raised, aiming in Ian's direction.
"What do you think you're doing?" Ian saw this Shandian and asked with a dark expression.
He was certain that this Shandian had been planning to attack the three priests. Since the three priests were about to attack Ian, Ian guessed this guy wanted to take the opportunity to fire a shot at Ian's position, taking out Ian and the three priests together.
He had no doubt the Shandian would do that, because to the Shandians, both Sky Islanders and Blue Sea people were bad guys...
Now that Ian turned to look at him, he didn't dare act rashly and slowly lowered his rocket launcher.
"Truly astonishing..." He wore a mask, so Ian couldn't see who it was, but he said to Ian, "This is the first time I've seen a Blue Sea person this powerful."