Chapter 54: The Cadres Engage
Jack stomped his elephantine feet, and his towering form appeared in front of Ian in an instant.
Shing! Shing!
The two massive sickles fell in quick succession, relentlessly pursuing Ian's evading figure.
Slow!
So slow!
It was hard to believe that among pirates with a billion-berry bounty, there was one with such sluggish attack speed. He possessed immense impact resistance and formidable recovery, but these advantages came at the cost of agility. Ancient Zoan types like him seemed to have only two real strengths: brute force and being incredibly hard to kill.
Watching the sickle blades carve gouges into the earth, Ian darted forward, closing the distance to Jack's mammoth legs in a flash.
BOOM!
Ian launched a kick empowered by Armament Haki, striking directly at the elephant's knee joint. The explosive force caused Jack's colossal body to lurch violently to one side. As Jack looked down, Ian's figure had already vanished, reappearing like a ghost directly above his head.
"Human Fist Storm!"
BOOM!
At the critical moment, Jack's trunk, also coated in Haki, swung up to barely parry Ian's punch.
Armament Haki clashed against Armament Haki!
To his shock, Jack found himself on the losing end of the exchange. It wasn't just Conqueror's Haki; this kid's Armament Haki had also reached such a terrifying level? This was a Major General? This guy was only eighteen?!
CRASH!
Already off-balance and now overpowered by Ian's superior Haki, the half-fishman, half-mammoth hybrid was slammed headfirst into the ground with embarrassing force.
Ian leaped back out of the settling dust, his expression grim. In that last exchange, his speed had been undeniable. Yet Jack, using his Observation Haki, had still managed to track and block his fist. This opponent was on a completely different level from any he'd faced before. No wonder Jack, with a Mammoth fruit, could hold his position as one of the Three Disasters among a crew full of powerful Ancient Zoan users.
The strongest opponent yet.
At this stage in his growth, Ian had been constantly measuring his own strength, and he had been eagerly anticipating the emergence of a foe like this.
"You damn brat...!" Jack's voice growled from within the dust cloud. He reappeared, his trunk looking slightly disheveled and twisted, but no other significant injuries were visible on his body. Damage of this level was practically nothing to an Ancient Zoan's resilience.
"Haha, you're really hard to kill!" Ian exclaimed, a fierce, excited grin spreading across his face as he clenched his fists. Crack! Crack! "This is more like it!"
In the surrounding ruins, the Gifters of the Beast Pirates recovered from the pressure of Ian's Conqueror's Haki just in time to witness Jack being slammed into the ground again. Such a sight was rare in the battles of the New World. Yet here it was, happening on the Sabaody Archipelago, against an eighteen-year-old Marine Major General.
"What is Boss Jack doing? Is he being suppressed?"
"We're prospective senior officers of the Beasts Pirates too!"
"We didn't come all this way just to sit back and watch!"
Speed, the Gifter, nocked two arrows to her bow once more.
BZZZT!
The arrowheads were instantly sheathed in Armament Haki. To hold a cadre position in a Yonko crew, proficient Haki use was a fundamental requirement.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Speed seized the moment Ian paused, letting the two empowered arrows fly. But in the very next instant...
BANG!
A single, flaming bullet pierced through the dust, intercepting one of the arrows mid-flight with impossible accuracy. The collision erupted in a shower of dazzling sparks.
"A sniper?" Speed's eyes widened. "And not just any sniper! To break my two Armament Haki-infused arrows with a single bullet...!"
She peered in the direction the bullet had come from, barely making out a small figure perched on a tilted building in the distance.
Under Ian's command, Sniper Skylark!
"I will never allow you to interfere so cheaply!" Skylark whispered, her cheek pressed against the stock of her rifle, her gaze steady through the scope. "Clearing obstacles for Major General Ian is my duty! Luckily... I packed a lunch today. I can give it to Major General Ian later if he gets hungry." A faint blush colored her cheeks as she focused.
"Did these damn Marines set an ambush?!" Holdem roared. "I'll kill him myself!"
He strode forward arrogantly, but the moment his foot landed, a severe sense of crisis made him yank it back instantly.
CRACK!
A whip snapped through the air precisely where his foot had been a split second before.
"What a pity, I missed," a voice laced with mock disappointment said.
"Are you ugly little animals the famous Beasts Pirates?" Peacock brandished her unique whip, the "Peacock Slasher," staring down the Gifters with undisguised disgust. "You're not cute at all!"
"Armament Haki!" Holdem noted, eyeing the weapon. "That strike just now was filled with it. It seems there are other elite Marines around that kid. To kill him, we have to get through you first, right?" He drew his scimitar, the lion head on his abdomen, Nijiro, snarling. "Nijiro! Get ready to bite that woman's neck!"
On another part of the battlefield.
"Hey, you despicable horned pirate! Your opponent is me!" T-Bone declared, stepping out from the side of the ruins. Arriving at the scene, he had immediately joined the fray as instructed. Seeing that Lieutenant Peacock had chosen her target, T-Bone turned his attention to the "Sheep Man," Sheepshead.
"Hmm? An old man? Such a withered face!" Sheepshead mocked, drawing the massive sword from his back. "Are you also an officer under Ian? Hahaha, it's truly pitiful you still have to work so hard at your age."
"I will not attack until I see you draw your sword. I despise sneak attacks," T-Bone stated solemnly, drawing his own sword, "Bamboo." His eyes held a sharp, focused intensity.
"Lord Sheepshead, I'll help you deal with him!" Ginrummy, the Springbok Gifter, chirped, readying herself to assist.