Chapter 231 - Figuring it out!

When Shanks said he will no longer play around, he was not joking.

He got all close to Ian and with a speed the others watching failed to follow he swung his sword trying to decapitate Ian's head with a single strike.

But, Ian right now was comparable to speed with him so he found it easy to dodge.

He bent his back backward dodging with a hair's breadth the air blade containing red lightning coming at him with vengeance.

A single swing of Shanks's sword in Ian's direction sent a massive destructive air blade that gave Ian the same dangerous feeling of earlier.

Meaning it contained Haki. Even though the only thing apparent over Shanks was his serious look. He didn't show any sign that he was using Haki. It was as if the Haki became part of his body completely and he didn't need the process of hardening or imbuement…

'Since it's apparent he won't explain what I need to learn, it means he is waiting for me to grasp it on my own…' Ian thought to himself.

He started to examine the clues he had while formulating ideas of what it could be.

Ian having dodged the air blade casually sent by Shanks didn't stop it though, as it continued on to reach a mountain and cleave it cleanly into two with relative ease.

The size of the mountain was huge, and normally it wouldn't be possible to cut it into two, except maybe for Mihawk, but these two were emperors of the sea. Such things were child play for them.

But for the others…

'What the hell… Such a monster…' This was the thought going through the heads of those watching.

Ian's side thought of that while admiring how Shanks could reach such a level, meanwhile, the red-hair pirate also thought the same, but there was pride in their eyes. That was their captain, which they sailed under proudly.

Ian righted his position and attacked soon after with his spear, except his was coated with Haki and lightning.

He thrust the spear at Shanks, and for a second it appeared as if it was going to pierce right through him before Shanks turned on his leg making the spear pierce nothing.

Shanks then swung his sword with the momentum he gained from his spin. His sword came bearing down on Ian all of a sudden.

This time he was targeting Ian's arm to maim.

'He isn't joking around…' For a while, he noticed that Shanks's attacks became more deadly…

'Well since he is serious about this… I have to give him what he wants, no?' He thought to himself.

And then a massive amount of bloodl.u.s.t exploded from him, momentarily making Shanks flinch.

Ian kicked Shanks's sword away with his Haki-coated left leg and c.o.c.ked his right arm back before gathering his energy in a second and attacking.

[Rokuōgan: Honō no shōgekiha] (Flaming Shockwave)

A shockwave exploded from his fist towards Shanks in a second. But what separated it from normal was that it was a flaming shockwave.

It was so huge in size that Shanks couldn't dodge it and was engulfed completely.

The flames cut through the earth and left a wide burning trench on its path that Ian followed with his eyes to the end.

What lied there was Shanks who had his sword in a guarding position and was… Completely unharmed.

So far he was starting to reach a conclusion. It gave you the ability to use Haki naturally as if it was a part of you. He already witnessed it let you hide yourself even from future sight users. He also took damage from conquerors Haki and armament combined without it showing, and now, such a massive attack that should have left quite a bit of injury, didn't do anything.

This was the showing of armament Haki being used defensively.

But in the direct line of Ian's eyes, Shanks had no Haki coating him. At least visibly.

So with this, Ian concluded that it lets you use all types of Haki. And they were on another level completely. Observation, armament, and conquerors, all of them had been used so far and Ian was sure about that.

But people could already use that, so what was different? For one Ian knew that it lets you hide which type you are using at a time.

He needed to observe more to see what else. As he didn't believe that was all.

"I didn't expect that," Shanks said.

He didn't know about Ian being able to use fire attacks.

But it didn't change much to him. He only had to be more careful from now on.

And suddenly he was gone from where he was and appeared right behind Shanks who still hadn't moved from his position.

He swung his spear at him and just when it appeared that Shanks was going to get cut into two parts, he moved his sword into the path of the falling spear and guarded against it.

The moment the two made contact, a huge shockwave resulted from it and black and red lightning started to dance around.

The weather from a sunny one started to turn chaotic, rain, hail, tornadoes, snow, everything started to change rapidly.

Shanks grunted feeling he couldn't move the sword away, so he settled for redirecting it by moving his body weight slightly to the side letting Ian overpower his guard, but since the spear attacked on his side he was safe.

The spear being redirected sent a huge air blade that unearthed the ground they were fighting on leaving a long trench through it and when it reached the end it exploded on a mountain breaking it into various pieces of earth with different sizes.

The rocks started to fall down on the ground, but Ian wasn't done with his attack.

He released his spear for a second, and put both hands over each other, and released a massive fire beam at Shanks.

Once again since it covered a huge area, Shanks couldn't dodge it, but he was not overly worried.

The flames then turned the rock into small meteorites, and with a grin, Ian controlled them telekinetically to fly and target Shanks.

Shanks g.r.o.a.n.e.d at this. In his surroundings, thousands of flaming rocks came at him with an impressive speed.

But he was not one to lose.

He started to dodge them all, cut them apart, redirect some, kick others…

By the time all the rocks had fallen and broken apart.

Ian watched all of this with a small frown on his face.

He was sure that even if he pushed his observation Haki to its limit, he wouldn't be able to dodge all the rocks. And that was HIM.

The way Shanks dodged, reminded Ian of his own instinctual ability to dodge, except it was better.

At this thought, Ian had suddenly reached a conclusion.

"You are using Haki instinctively! You don't need to choose which type to use consciously!!" Ian muttered.

It would explain it all. He was using this form of Haki where all types of Haki came to him naturally. He didn't need to think about coating his arms in Haki before each attack, he didn't need to think which type of armament to use and whether it should be for defense or for an attack, and he didn't need to use observation to dodge, all of it came to him instinctually…

This would explain the way Shanks was dodging everything perfectly. If didn't have to consciously activate observation to dodge and instead came to him on an instinctual level, it would make his reaction speed explode through the roof. And what he had done before, just proved that.

And Shanks who heard Ian say this, sported a massive grin on his face.

"Congratulations on figuring it out!"