# Chapter 544: No One Interferes
Just as Vice Admiral Momousagi was establishing a defensive position on the fourth level, a massive battle had erupted on the sixth level of the prison!
All the prisoners confined to the sixth level were super-heavyweight criminals. To put it in terms of bounty amounts, the prisoners here had bounties conservatively estimated at over 200 million, with no upper limit!
Anyone below that amount didn't even qualify to be locked up here!
However, among the remaining seventeen prisoners, the ones Ian was truly focused on were the four who would have originally become Blackbeard Teach's companions.
Shiryu, Sanjuan Wolf, the Evil King, and the most vicious female criminal, Catarina Devon—these four were the strongest on the sixth level! Although Ian didn't know their exact bounties, he estimated they were probably around 500 million, possibly even higher than his own!
Bounty wasn't necessarily a representation of strength, but it could serve as a reference value. If Ian were alone, dealing with this bunch simultaneously would be quite troublesome.
Fortunately, Ian wasn't alone either—he had plenty of allies! And these allies were also incredibly strong!
Jinbe was facing off against Sanjuan Wolf, the Giant Battleship. Jinbe was considered tall himself, but before Sanjuan Wolf, he looked like a tiny speck. And this was with the prison space restricting Sanjuan Wolf's size.
Such enormous size naturally brought devastating destructive power. Although Sanjuan Wolf wore a specially made giant pair of Seastone shackles, he wasn't a Devil Fruit user, so the Seastone only limited his movement without affecting his abilities. He used the Seastone handcuffs as weapons, smashing them heavily toward Jinbe.
Jinbe dodged to the side. Sanjuan Wolf's hands struck the ground, causing it to crack inch by inch. The tremendous vibrations made one wonder if the entire Impel Down prison was trembling.
Sanjuan Wolf swung again, and Jinbe dodged once more. But this time, an unfortunate sixth-level prisoner who had been fighting with Ian's subordinates was hit by Sanjuan Wolf's arm. With a sickening squelch, the man was instantly crushed into minced meat! It felt like stepping on a fat bug, with juices flying everywhere...
At this moment, only Sanjuan Wolf's arms could move. His body was too large—even though the sixth-level prison space was also huge, most of his body was stuck.
After missing Jinbe twice in a row, he grew irritated and tried to stretch his body.
This stretching caused the walls of the sixth-level prison to crack, with sand and stones raining down, signaling that even the ceiling above was about to collapse.
"We're at the bottom of the sea—you can't just go wild here!" Jinbe saw this and stopped in place. He steadied himself, gathered his strength, placed his left fist at his waist, and suddenly struck out with his right fist toward Sanjuan Wolf!
"Three Thousand Tile Fist!"
Boom! As Jinbe's punch landed, the surroundings shook violently. The force of the punch blasted through the air like a cannonball, hitting Sanjuan Wolf directly on... his groin!
There was no helping it—Sanjuan Wolf was squatting, and Jinbe's height was far too small compared to him. This punch could only reach that spot...
When Sanjuan Wolf was hit, his eyes bulged out!
Jinbe's fist strength was no joke. Sanjuan Wolf's squatting body was knocked backward by the impact, landing on his rear.
But Jinbe pressed his advantage, striking again with Three Thousand Tile Fist, all hitting the same spot...
Ian watched this scene with cold sweat dripping down his back. He realized for the first time that being too huge was definitely not a good thing!
Seeing that Jinbe seemed intent on beating the guy's balls to death, Ian dared not watch any longer and turned his attention to Crocodile's side.
Crocodile's opponent was Vasco Shot, the Big Drunkard. Although he was also a large, burly man, he was far smaller than Sanjuan Wolf. However, Crocodile had run into some trouble choosing him as an opponent because he hadn't expected Shot to have alcohol on him!
Crocodile didn't know if the prison provided alcohol to inmates or if this was Shot's Devil Fruit ability—perhaps a Drink-Drink Fruit, with the alcohol being something he preserved using his powers.
In any case, the gourd of alcohol Shot carried caused Crocodile no small amount of trouble.
Crocodile had originally planned to use his sandification ability to drain the moisture from Shot's body and finish the fight quickly. But Shot had found the weakness of Crocodile's sand and doused himself with alcohol to prevent being harmed. He then fought Crocodile with his gourd, attacking ferociously. With each movement, alcohol splashed from the gourd, severely interfering with Crocodile's performance.
"Hey, Old Sand! Can you handle it or not?" Ian couldn't help shouting. "If not, let me take over!"
"Even if I've joined your pirate crew now, don't interfere with my fight!" Crocodile was irritated by Ian's doubt and replied without turning his head.
Ian shrugged and shifted his gaze, seeing Trafalgar Law and Urouge leading their crews in a fierce battle against Catarina Devon.
This most vicious female criminal, Catarina Devon, lived up to her reputation. Since she was wearing Seastone handcuffs, it wasn't clear whether she had a Devil Fruit ability, but this heavily made-up woman possessed considerable Haki mastery. Facing the combined attacks of Law and Urouge, she relied on the black Armament Haki covering her entire body to endure.
Ian noticed that Law's Surgery Fruit ability couldn't cut through Catarina Devon's body!
This was partly because Law didn't have Haki yet, but from this alone, Catarina Devon was at least no weaker than Vergo, whom Ian had killed earlier!
However, after watching for a while, Ian found that Law and the others were fine. Urouge was exceptionally fierce—Catarina Devon's counterattacks were almost all blocked by him. His Devil Fruit ability was strange: the more Catarina Devon hit him, the more ferocious his counterattacks became.
Compared to these sixth-level prison heavyweights, Ian's side—aside from Crocodile and Jinbe—lacked some strength. But their advantage was being able to use their Devil Fruit abilities while their opponents couldn't, which to some extent leveled the playing field.
So, in Ian's view, victory was only a matter of time.
With that, Ian turned his attention to Zoro's side.
Luffy, Sanji, and the others were leading Buggy, Mr. 3, and the other prisoners in fighting the remaining sixth-level criminals, leaving Zoro to duel Shiryu of the Rain alone.
This was Zoro's request, so Luffy and the others didn't plan to interfere.
But the gap between Zoro and Shiryu was still too large. When Ian looked at him, he saw several long wounds on Zoro's body, and he was panting heavily.
These were wounds Shiryu had inflicted during their earlier exchanges...
The wounds weren't too deep—Zoro had apparently tried to protect himself when struck—but they were bleeding profusely, and the blood loss was accelerating Zoro's stamina depletion.
Yet, even with such injuries, Zoro's eyes still burned with fighting spirit!
"Three-Sword Style: Demon Slash!"
Zoro charged forward, his swords crossed in his hands, slashing fiercely at Shiryu of the Rain. At the same time, the sword in his mouth swung out with the movement of his head!
Shiryu gripped his crimson-glowing cursed sword and blocked the intersection point of Zoro's three swords, stopping Zoro's attack. However, he was pushed back several steps by Zoro's momentum.
"Get lost, kid!" Shiryu suddenly exerted force, swinging his sword horizontally to throw Zoro off.
Zoro flew backward, rolled, planted his feet on the ground, and sprang forward again, slashing at Shiryu.
"Tiger Hunt!!"
But as they passed each other, another bloody wound opened on Zoro's chest as he landed, while Shiryu was completely unharmed!
At the moment Zoro launched his attack, Shiryu had caught his opening and struck him again.
Zoro tried to stand up, but staggered as he rose. The heavy blood loss had made him slightly dizzy.
Seeing this, Ian's expression darkened. He placed his hand on the hilt of his Thousand Cherry Blossoms and prepared to intervene.
But Zoro seemed to know what Ian was about to do. Without turning his head, he spoke: "Ian, don't come over!"
Ian stopped in his tracks, frowning. "Zoro, you're no match for him yet..."
Before he could finish, Zoro interrupted: "I know! But I still have to fight!"
With his back to Ian, Zoro's figure stood taller than ever before. He said, "Ian, I swore I would become the world's greatest swordsman! I won't live forever in the shadow of you and Kuina. If you interfere in my fight, I'll never forgive you for the rest of my life..."
Although Ian couldn't see Zoro's eyes at that moment, he could imagine how resolute they were.
This brat had always been stubborn since childhood. When Ian heard these words, he understood Zoro's determination. He silently lowered his hand from the sword hilt and said, "If you die in battle, I'll avenge you!"
"I won't give you that chance!" Zoro grinned, his back still to Ian. He crouched slightly, gripping his swords tightly.
Then, Ian saw the air around Zoro seem to distort, and his two swords appeared to tremble and shake!
"Demon Beauty: Sleepless Night!"
With a loud roar, Zoro's entire body shot forward like an arrow from a bowstring, charging at Shiryu...