Chapter 58 - War of the best: Raw power (5/?)

Just as Ian's feet hit the floor, he pushed at it hard, in the direction of the Pacifista, reaching it barely in a second.

As Sentomaru commands the Pacifista to begin, a pirate tries to smash one with an enormous club; however, the club shatters on impact against the Pacifista, who retaliates by firing a laser beam from its mouth. But Ian had reached him in time, and grabbed him by the neck as he jumped with him away.

"Such a weak stupid person, doesn't belong here…' He thought to himself, as all the Pacifista starts to fire their lasers indiscriminately.

The marines, fearing for their reputation, started shutting down the cameras. Of course, Ian knew that of them was in the hands of the pirate clown. As such he told the old man to have someone retrieve it in order to air the rest of the war.

Meanwhile Whitebeard, who was disgusted at the Marines' willingness to sacrifice their own sh.i.p.s, commands his men to ignore the attacks from the rear and continue onwards to the execution platform.

"Don't be afraid, guys. That 'guy' can take care of the rear." Whitebeard yelled at his men down below.

"Let's charge the Plaza without stopping!" He then finished with a loud voice, to which the pirates cheered as they continued their assault.

Sengoku in return to the old man's orders tells the Marines to draw back from the ice slowly and to keep the pirates away from the platform at any cost.

Back to Ian.

He threw the guy he was holding with a kick in the ass.

"Idiot, fight someone in your league next time" He muttered as he turned his attention back to the killing machines.

He stepped closer, and as they were charging another laser shot, Ian suddenly used his energy to catch them all and pull them closer to him, as they had already jumped into a ship full of pirates.

Once they were close, they all started identifying him and focused on eliminating him.

Ian sped up towards one, as he c.o.c.ked back his hand. Once near he dodged its laser by a simple head tilt as he punched with his fist in its mid-section. HE did not use his Haki, nor did he use his scaly mode which increases his strength, he only used his body's raw power.

He then stepped back, and watched how it became stiff for a few seconds before it suddenly exploded violently, throwing a few of the nearby units back a few meters.

Not waiting for people to react to that, Ian starts running at the next unit. And as soon as he reached it, he unsheathed his sword in a fast speed before sheathing it back and running at another one. He had already cut it.

He was so fast that the most people had seen was him putting his hands on his sword, before changing directions to another Pacifista.

But soon, the original Pacifista had split into two parts as it exploded in a much more smaller scale than the first one he destroyed.

'I have reached such a height now, that even these killing machines, are cut like butter from my sword.' Ian thought amused.

"Hey you, quit destroying the Pacifista!" The fat guy that was on the marines side, whose name he had forgot, was standing in his way as Ian was heading to destroy another unit.

He tried attacking Ian, but Ian just dodged his attacks time and time again.

'Such a weak guy, heh' Ian sarcastically thought inside his head.

He continued dodging him easily as he went around destroying all the units of Pacifista. He couldn't pay the fat guy much attention until he destroy them all. As once he was entangled with him, the machines would start killing pirates again. And he didn't want that. It was after all the whole reason he risked the plan for.

As he destroyed his sixth or seventh one with Sentomaru unable to do anything to him, the admirals and Sengoku finally took notice of his strength…

The old man back at the ship was thankful as he saw Ian take care of the machines. He knew that if he hadn't done so, a lot of his sons, would end up dead. And he couldn't do anything about it too. As if he did then all the marines' will focus on him, including the admirals. And while he was strong the combined attack from all of them will end up tiring him in the end.

Even now he knew that now that Ian had made his move, the marines would start paying him attention, which would make his mission to save Ace quite harder than before. Of course since he jumped people still thought nothing of him. But once he destroys everything, then even admirals would be wary of him.

He turned to the side as he saw his son who couldn't be contacted earlier, Squard, stepping closer to him.

In his mind, a memory of a talk with Ian was playing. He remembered it as if it was today he had talked with Ian.

#Flashback#

"Old man, as much as I know you love your sons… I have to say this." Ian took a deep breath as he prepared what to say.

"You know how crafty the marines are. They will have many underhanded tactics to use against us." Ian said. "Now think about it carefully old man… what is the thing that is related to you that they could use against you?"

"Don't answer yet. Just listen now." He said. "First there is Ace. They could use the hastening of his execution to make you panic. Second, they could use your sons against you. At the very least the ones who don't like Ace." Ian finally finished and allowed the old man to think about it.

And after a few minutes he finally nodded his head.

"I understand. And I'm not so foolish to not have thought of this before. However everybody liked Ace, and I have faith in my sons. Sigh, if I didn't, their father, then who would?" He said with a tired sigh at the end.

"Everybody likes Ace, are you sure? Then how about someone who had a problem with Ace's father Roger?" Ian continued on trying to make more cautious in the war.

Someone came to mind in the old man's mind. But he tried to trust in his son.

"He could from time to time vanish in the battlefield and no one can contact him… then suddenly he'll come towards you… all I'm saying is that you should be more cautious. The hardest blows to guard are the ones you do not expect to come after all." Ian said his final piece, as he started walking back to his room.

Back to the present.

When the old man thought about it, everything was going on as Ian had said it could happen.

His son Squard had vanished when he tried to contact him, and now instead of leading the pirates below like the hot-blooded person he usually was, he was here near him.

'Squard, I really hope that it is just an old man being suspicious of his son, and it's not really your fault…' Whitebeard would rather take the blame of being wary of his own son, than for his son to really betray him…

"Squard. I'm glad you are alright." He genuinely said.