Chapter 743: Metal Storm
It wasn't surprising that Ian felt suspicious. Even though Fujitora had mentioned earlier that the Mink Tribe valued their fur greatly, Ian didn't believe she would fight to the death against all of them just because he had singed some fur on her face.
If this had been Jack the Drought, that reckless brute, Ian wouldn't have had any doubts—he would just beat him to death. But she was Queen the Plague!
Back in the day, Ian had theorized that among the main executives of the Beast Pirates, there should be one who acted as the brains of the operation, and that intellectual figure was most likely Queen the Plague. Now that Ian had suddenly encountered her here, and her behavior seemed somewhat irrational, he naturally had to stay vigilant.
The range of his Psychic Field expanded once again as Ian began to sense his surroundings, trying to determine if there might be any ambush nearby.
But the area was completely empty. Queen the Plague had truly come alone!
This only deepened Ian's confusion. After thinking it over, he gritted his teeth and decided that sometimes, overthinking wasn't necessary. Since Queen dared to stay and fight, all he had to do was capture her and not let her escape. Even if she had some backup plan, he would just overpower it with brute force!
With that thought, Ian spread his Flame Wings and soared into the air!
He sheathed both blades at his waist, then aimed his now-free hands at the ground. A massive surge of electric light burst from his palms, crackling as it struck the earth.
Countless metallic sand particles broke through the ground and emerged, suspended in the air under the influence of Ian's electromagnetic field!
Iron Sand Storm!
While Marco and Izou were still entangled with Queen, Ian focused his energy on controlling the iron sand. This time, the range of his control was especially vast, covering several hundred meters in all directions. The sight of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of iron sand particles floating together was truly astonishing. Queen the Plague noticed Ian's movements. One of her heads turned toward him, opening its mouth to spew a stream of venom. But Ian ignored it, simply rising slightly higher to easily dodge the attack.
At this point, Queen still didn't know what Ian was planning. She only had a gut feeling that something was wrong and believed she absolutely couldn't let him complete his setup. So, after missing her shot, she immediately lunged at Ian again!
As she launched herself, she seemed annoyed by Marco and Izou getting in her way. Her claw, coated in Armament Haki, swung at Marco. Marco countered with a leg coated in the same Haki, but the difference in strength was immense. Marco was sent flying by her claw, crashing heavily into the ground.
At the same time, one of her heads opened its mouth to bite at Izou. Izou's strength was far inferior to Marco's, so he didn't dare take the attack head-on and could only roll out of the way.
Describing it takes time, but it all happened in an instant. Queen broke free, kicked off the ground with all four legs, leaped into the air, and aimed her three fang-filled mouths at Ian.
However, facing Queen's charge, Ian showed no panic. He freed his right hand and spread his fingers toward her.
Clang! A sound like shattering glass rang out. The three-headed giant fox beast couldn't reach Ian at all, because the moment she got close, he used the Great Serpent's skill, Manifestation: Mirror Reflection, to shatter the space in front of him!
The immense impact from the spatial fracture sent the massive beast flying backward. All three of Queen's heads let out a simultaneous cry of pain as she crashed to the ground.
But as a Zoan Awakener, her body was incredibly resilient. She rolled on the ground and stood back up.
However, the middle head, which had been closest to Ian and would have bitten him first, had also taken the brunt of the force. The impact shattered many of its teeth, and the broken fragments, mixed with blood gushing from her mouth, dripped onto the ground.
Queen glared fiercely at Ian, a look of hatred in her eyes.
Ian looked down at her from above, snorted coldly, but didn't continue attacking. Instead, he focused again on controlling the iron sand around him.
Under Ian's control, the scattered iron sand began to converge and slowly spin.
Queen spat out a mouthful of blood, then raised all three heads toward Ian in the air. Opening her mouths, she prepared to spew venom and fire pillars again.
"Fire Fist!"
But at that moment, Ace's voice rang out. A massive ball of flames flew in, slamming directly into one of Queen's mouths. The venom just released from that mouth collided with the fire, causing an explosion. The green venom turned into green smoke under the high heat.
That head let out a pained cry, but before her other two heads could turn toward Ace to counterattack, a powerful gravity suddenly descended, yanking her massive body downward!
It wasn't just Ace—Fujitora had now joined the battlefield as well. Ian's Twin Heaven Return Shield had successfully expelled the sponge parasites from their bodies as foreign objects. Without the parasites' interference, both of their Devil Fruit abilities could finally be used normally!
Now that Fujitora had acted, he applied a massive gravitational field on Queen. Though she struggled to support herself with her limbs, she could feel her bones creaking under the strain.
Knowing she couldn't stay in Fujitora's gravity field any longer, Queen pushed off the ground with all four legs, trying to leap away.
With her current Sulong form's strength, escaping to a distance far enough to break free from the field was certainly possible. But Fujitora had anticipated her move. Just as she was about to spring, he suddenly increased the gravity's intensity.
Boom! The ground beneath Queen sank under the immense pressure. The power she had just gathered was suppressed by the increased gravity, and this time, her entire body was crushed flat against the earth.
"This time, you don't have any allies to help you escape!" Fujitora said, his eyes closed as he gripped his staff sword. He walked slowly alongside Ace, continuing, "So stay down and wait for the captain's technique to finish!"
"Roar!" Queen's response was a furious bellow.
As mentioned earlier, the Sulong form is somewhat akin to a berserk state. Even under such immense gravity, Queen didn't give up resisting. Her fighting spirit burning fiercely, she tried to stand up again.
But to her surprise, Fujitora increased the gravity once more!
"This level of gravity isn't even my limit. Are you sure you want to test it?" Fujitora said.
In truth, Fujitora had never used his gravity field technique at full power before. He found it somewhat cruel—if used at maximum, it would crush an enemy into a flat meat pancake. Given his personality, he wouldn't go that extreme even against an opponent.
But Queen the Plague's transformed three-headed fox beast was indeed ferocious. Fujitora's gravity field was now about twenty times normal gravity, and it was barely enough to hold her down. It was a testament to the power of a Zoan Awakener.
Seeing Queen suppressed, Marco descended from the air and stood beside Fujitora and Ace with Izou. He looked up at Ian in the sky and asked curiously, "What's he doing?"
"I don't know," Ace shook his head in confusion. "But it looks like some kind of new technique?"
They had seen Ian's Iron Sand Storm before, but this time it seemed different. Within the gradually converging storm, they noticed a massive amount of electric light flowing between the spinning iron sand particles.
At first, Ace and the others were puzzled, but gradually, they began to understand.
Ian was using lightning to accelerate the iron sand!
Yes, acceleration. The spinning iron sand particles, under the powerful electric field, spun faster and faster, to the point where the eye could barely track them. They looked like countless threads whirling at incredible speed.
Ian had quietly activated the Final Release of Thousand Cherry Blossoms to provide more Psychic Power output. This new technique, born from another of his wild ideas, was naturally a massive drain.
As the iron sand storm accelerated, a growing suction force began pulling everyone toward it. Sensing the danger, Ace and the others quickly retreated.
But Queen, pinned in the center by Fujitora's gravity field, couldn't escape. Even in her current state, as she found herself inside a roaring storm, a flicker of terror appeared in her beast-like red eyes!
This was a powerful storm made of countless iron sand particles. Spinning so fast, the black storm had become a solid-looking, massive cylindrical iron barrel. Trapped in the storm's center, Queen's vision was completely blocked by the black iron curtain!
Suddenly, her feet felt lighter. Fujitora had chosen that moment to cancel his ability. The sudden disappearance of the gravity field meant that Queen, the massive three-headed fox beast, was instantly sucked into the iron curtain storm!
Outside the capital of Wano Country, a black storm appeared, seemingly connecting heaven and earth. Within its twisting form, a flash of fiery red suddenly mixed in!
Once Queen was pulled into the storm, she finally understood its true terror. Every iron sand particle in the storm had been accelerated by Ian using the principle of his Railgun technique. Though accelerating so many particles at once was incredibly draining, preventing them from reaching the speed of a full Railgun, they were still comparable to bullets fired from an ordinary pistol!
This meant that the moment Queen was caught in the storm, she was hit by tens of thousands of bullets!
Even though she had prepared herself, coating her entire body in Armament Haki for defense, she still suffered severe damage. All three of her fox heads simultaneously spewed blood into the air!
Within this torrent of bullets, Queen lasted only two seconds before collapsing. Her body rapidly shrank as she deactivated both her beast transformation and Sulong form.
This inadvertently saved her life—a smaller body meant a smaller surface area to be hit.
When Ian deactivated his ability and let the storm dissipate, Queen fell from the air and crashed to the ground, already unconscious.
Her bones were shattered into pieces. If not for the powerful life force of a Zoan Awakener sustaining her, Ian's single move would have instantly killed her...
After the storm had fully dissipated, silence finally fell. Ace stared wide-eyed at the spot where the storm had been. The grass and flowers there had vanished, leaving only a spiral pattern of grooves carved into the ground by the countless iron sand particles.
"Now I believe you really do have the strength of a Yonko," Ace said, turning to Ian with a lingering sense of awe. "Every time I see you, you seem to have developed an even more powerful technique..."
Marco, Izou, and Fujitora all nodded in agreement with Ace's words.
Only Bonney ran over, poked the unconscious Queen the Plague, and then hesitated before saying to Ian, "Aren't you being too harsh on this woman? At this rate, how are you ever going to find a wife?"
Ian nearly choked on Bonney's words...