Blue-purplish flames slid along the ground, heading straight toward Lafitte at breakneck speed. As Lafitte quickly realized he might not be able to dodge the flames, he didn’t hold back.
Suddenly, his arms transformed into a pair of wings, and with a powerful flap, he took off into the air, narrowly avoiding the Dark-hook flames (the 108 Shiki Yami Barai) that brushed against the soles of his feet.
“Humph?! A Devil Fruit user?” Ian looked at Lafitte somewhat surprised.
The pair of wings that Lafitte transformed his arms into were like white bird wings, but Ian couldn’t quite figure out what type of Devil Fruit user he was facing.
Ian initially thought Lafitte was a Zoan-type bird user, but strangely, Ian couldn’t see any animal-like features on Lafitte except the wings.
Animal-type Devil Fruit users generally have three forms: a human form, a beast form, and finally a human-beast hybrid form, and the closer they were to the beast form, the more they could harness the power of their Devil Fruit.
However, Lafitte had already transformed his arms into wings, which should be in the hybrid form, but Ian couldn’t determine what animal Lafitte was supposed to resemble!
“Can a Zoan fruit user perform such a specific partial transformation?” Ian couldn’t help but ponder.
However, Ian didn’t dwell on it too much. He didn’t care what type of Devil Fruit user Lafitte was. Upon seeing Lafitte take off to the air, he stretched out his hand and pressed down.
Zap! A blue thunderbolt erupted from the ground beneath Lafitte’s feet and flashed towards him at an incredible speed. Even though it had originated from the ground, the bolt looked as if it had come down from the sky.
Lafitte couldn’t react in time to dodge it and was struck by the lightning bolt… covered in blue flames, he fell to the ground.
Ian didn’t hold back at all, delivering a knockout blow to Lafitte. While the attack wasn’t lethal, it was enough to paralyze Lafitte.
However, just as Ian was about to turn his attention towards the shocked Van Augur, a massive shadow suddenly loomed over him.
Looking up, Ian found that it was an incredibly huge stone that was smashing towards him.
It was Burgess! He punched a nearby building, breaking it, and then threw the largest piece of debris towards Ian!
“Hmph! foolish!” Ian coldly sneered. This kind of attack looked impressive, but it was useless. He planned to leap lightly into the air, easily evading the chunk of the building.
However, as the sniper of the Blackbeard Pirates, Van Auger was quite good at seizing attacking opportunities. Seeing Ian preparing to jump, he immediately fired several shots in rapid succession.
It was not unreasonable for Ian to want to take out Van Auger at the beginning. Having a marksman with long-range attacks like him around was simply infuriating, as he would keep constantly harassing Ian during the battle.
If he jumped, he would definitely be shot by the bullets. But if he didn’t jump, he would be pummeled by the stones hurled by Burgess. The teamwork of the Blackbeard Pirates’ members was quite impressive.
Ian was getting a little annoyed by their coordination, so he decided to stop dodging. Facing the giant rock thrown by Burgess, Ian directly blasted it with a Black Dragon Wave!
The moment the dragon wave hit the rock, it melted it, turning it into magma and dripping down!
The raging demonic flame dragon, with teeth and claws bared, roared as it flew into the sky, landing back on the outside of the town.
Feeling the scorching heat in the air, Van Auger and Burgess were sweating profusely. It was their first time fighting against Ian, and in just under half a minute of fighting, they were completely suppressed by him.
Three against one, not only did they not gain an advantage, but Laffitte was taken out by Ian in an instant!
Meanwhile, the battle between Ace and Teach had reached a fever pitch.
At the start of the fight, Ace landed a punch directly on Teach’s face, igniting his Flame-Flame Fruit power and burning him all over.
“It hurts! It hurts so much!” After being burned, Teach writhed in pain, rolling around on the ground for several rounds before finally extinguishing the flames on his body.
When he got up, Ace shot two Higan “Fire Gun” towards Teach at the same time.
It was not until this moment that Teach realized that they had just escaped from a shipwreck and were tired and hungry, so their bodies were in a weakened state, and their reactions were delayed.
Yelling in pain, Teach decided not to waste any time and activated his Dark-Dark Fruit power. He knew that if he couldn’t handle this situation, the entire Blackbeard Pirate crew would be in danger.
The void shadows began to appear behind Teach, twisting and turning in the wind. His five fingers gripped into a vortex-shaped shadow, as he unleashed it.
“Kurouzu (Dark Water)!”
Teach pointed his palm at Ace, who was rushing towards him, and activated his devil fruit ability.
Ace suddenly felt like his body was out of control, and he was pulled towards Teach’s hand as if by an invisible force.
“Damn it! What the hell is happening!?”
Before Ace could make sense of it, Teach grabbed him with one hand.
Teach, who was tall and had a bigger body, grabbed Ace like a little chicken and then punched him hard in the face!
Bang! Ace was knocked out of the air and smashed into the ground. He felt a sharp pain in his face and couldn’t help but spew out a mouthful of blood. For a brief moment, his mind went blank.
“What’s going on!? My body… I’m made of fire, how could he grab me!?”
When he came to his senses, the first thing that came to Ace’s mind was this thought. He was caught off guard and didn’t understand the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit.
The power of this Devil Fruit was unique in that it could create gravity that could not only pull people or objects towards it but also directly “attract” the opponent’s Devil Fruit ability. Just like the sea stone, but quite different.
Once caught by this gravity, even a Logia fruit user wouldn’t be able to use their own powers, can’t even turn their bodies into their elemental form.
Ace had been careless, assuming that his Flame-Flame Fruit ability would make him invincible to physical attacks once he turns to his elemental form. He didn’t expect the Dark-Dark Fruit’s restraining effect on him to be so pronounced, which lead him to get hit hard.
Teach’s physical skills were also quite formidable. This punch on Ace’s face almost broke his neck. Ace tremblingly got up, and spat out a tooth with a lot of blood.
“Zehahaha! Did you see that, Captain Ace?” Teach couldn’t help but laugh and said, “This is the power of my Dark-Dark Fruit! You can’t defeat me!”
However, just as he was laughing so arrogantly, a voice suddenly sounded behind him, “Really? Is that so?”
Teach was taken aback and felt a sharp pain in his back the next second.
The person who took action was, needless to say, Ian. While using his Black Dragon Wave to force Burgess and Van Augur to run around, he also noticed the situation on Ace’s side. When he saw Ace being at a disadvantage, he immediately rushed over to help him.
Teach didn’t notice Ian because he was so focused on fighting Ace that he hadn’t noticed Ian approaching from behind. In the next instant, Ian delivered a devastating blow that cleaved through Teach’s flesh and left a gaping wound, almost revealing his bones.
Although the Dark-Dark Fruit was powerful, its side effects were also obvious. Its drawback was that any damage inflicted on its user was doubled. Ian was well aware of this, and he didn’t hold back.
Teach screamed in agony and turned around to Ian!
“Ian!!!” Teach opened his fingers to grab Ian, wanting to use Dark Water to take him down as he did with Ace!
But to his horror, his Dark Water ability was suddenly ineffective. He couldn’t understand why his technique, which had always worked before, had failed him now!
Ian was prepared to be sucked by Teach’s ability, but after he tried to use this ability, Ian found that he had not been caught.
What’s going on!? Ian was puzzled, but then he realized that this might be related to him not being a real Devil Fruit user!
So, Ian, who reacted instantly, pulled his left hand violently back, and unleashed a dazzling electric light. With a sizzling sound, he shot a “lightning spear” at Teach!”
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