Chapter 297: Tagging Along Again

What Ian didn’t know was that when he displayed his combo on Hawkins, there were several bizarre deaths in the Lvneel Kingdom near their location!

And these victims, without exception, were all bad Pirates.

One of them was peacefully drinking in a pub, and suddenly four deep blade marks appeared on his waist at the same time. Two slashes from each side, and blood sprayed out in all directions.

Before his companion could react, the pirate suddenly flew up from his chair, and his figure was split into halves from the middle…

Another victim was killed in a different way. Two pirate groups were fighting, and all of a sudden a guy in the middle was engulfed with purple flames… the poor guy turned into a scorched black corpse in a couple of seconds. His death scared everyone present and no one was able to comprehend what happened to him… (Spontaneous human combustion!)

Many mysterious deaths occurred in this period. Someone fell down with countless stab wounds on his body, and he kept on trembling on the ground, while another one was walking on the road, then his forehead exploded with purple flames… A big guy was dropped dead with a large hole in his chest, and even though the wound was very sharp, the edges were burnt by a high temperature… Finally, several people turned to smoking “coal” by some strong electric shocks…

Although these quirky pirates seemed to have no connection, if they look deeper, they all have encountered the Hawkins Pirates…

This is what makes Hawkins’ Devil Fruit very powerful. As long as he has enough pre-set voodoo dolls, he will be able to redirect any type of damage received to the substitutes, which causes such strange deaths. If his enemy wasn’t familiar with his ability, they may really think that he is immortal.

This kind of ability could quite easily cause fear to most people. When Hawkins fights someone, and the latter tries everything in his power to kill him, and then finds that his opponent was still unscathed, he would for sure panic… With that, Hawkins has killed a lot of pirates, and his reputation has grown by a lot…

However, just like many other Devil Fruit Users who rely too much on their abilities, Hawkins’ other fighting skills don’t seem to be that great. After turning into a scarecrow, or the demon phase as he likes to call it, his attacks were very straightforward and he was easily restrained by fire.

Moreover, it doesn’t seem that he’s capable of using Haki. Such a simple Devil Fruit User may still be able to sail freely in the first half of the Grand Line, but it would be much harder for him to go further if he doesn’t improve…

So, the only thing Ian felt while beating Hawkins was that he is a great meat shield. This is Ian’s evaluation of the tall pirate.

Obviously, Ian has reached a level that makes him able to crush Hawkins effortlessly, and Ian’s casual moves may cause fatal damage to him, but Hawkins has no means to defeat himself from the half-naked guy.

The members of the Hawkins Pirates looked at Ian’s figure at this time, as if they were looking at a demonic creature. Then they remembered that on this day, their captain received a scary prophecy of encountering a huge threat that could eliminate their existence…

When Ian spoke, they hurriedly jumped into the sea to rescue their captain, and the others who stayed on the boat were like quails, crouching on the deck with their heads in their arms, and no one dared to move.

The only thought they have now is to hand over the ship without any unnecessary violence… Please don’t pay attention to us, we are invisible…!

Hawkins was quickly picked up. As Ian thought, he’s still alive. After getting on the ship, several damaged puppets crawled out of his scarecrow’s body, they were either burnt or sliced. These substitute puppets climbed out of the gap of straw in his arm, fell to the ground, and remained motionless.

Ian was amazed by this scene, because he felt that those puppets seemed like living creatures… such a magical show!

Hawkins’s demonic phase disappeared immediately and he changed back to the tall, blond guy. He still had the dead fish-eyed expressionless face, but started to talk: “I discovered who you are now! You are that New Shichibukai, right?”

“Oh? You have heard of me!?” Ian said.

“Why did a person like you come to the North Blue?” Hawkins was a little nervous.

Although he survived Ian’s moves with his black magic, Ian’s blows made him lose most of his voodoo dolls. After all, these substitutes are only subjected to serious damage or fatal blows. That is to say, almost every time Ian attacked him, Hawkins would be badly injured!

This was the first time Hawkins has encountered such a crushing strength, so looking back to what happened, he felt overwhelmed.

“Is this the power level of a Shichibukai?” Hawkins thought so, but wondered why Ian would appear here.

Everyone knows that most of the Shichibukai recruited by the World Government were located in the Grand Line, and they were rarely to be seen in other oceans, and Hawkins didn’t know whether he was lucky or unfortunate.

“It’s none of your business!” Ian didn’t have to tell Hawkins what he was doing, he just said: “it’s OK to take a ride on your ship now, isn’t it?”

Hawkins stroked his chest, bent over, and said: “I am willing to help you!”

Although Hawkins is a bit older, this world operates like this. Strong people will always be respected by others without considering age difference. Hawkins was easily defeated by Ian, so he didn’t have any problem saying this.

In fact, it was only after seeing Ian’s true power that he finally understood what the probabilities mentioned in his previous divination were about. He knew that Ian was absolutely capable of killing him. As long as he keeps attacking, Hawkins’ dolls would run out eventually, then he would have to rely on his resistance to withstand the damage…

Therefore, the so-called fate actually means whether Ian is willing to stop beating him or not…

Now that Hawkins recognized him, Ian didn’t care so much. He took his hat from his trouser pocket and wore it. Then he looked around and locked his gaze at a member of this pirate group, he pointed at him and said: “You! Yes, you! Wash your clothes and give them to me!”

The hat can be stuffed into his trouser pocket, but his other clothes were gone, fortunately, he found a pirate wearing a windbreaker close enough to his style, so he asked for it directly. (T/N: that’s a lie xD all of Hawkins’ crew wears black robes! jk)

The guy Ian called shivered at first and was so scared that he almost pissed himself. After hearing that Ian only wanted his clothes, he breathed a sigh of relief and rushed to wash them.

Ian looked so cruel, which made the poor guy wash his clothes several times before he could offer them to this beast…

Before getting the clothes, Ian asked Hawkins: “Is there something to eat? I am hungry!”

Hawkins certainly didn’t dare to say no, so he asked someone to bring food. Ian started eating, and said: “It’s not as delicious as my chef’s food, I suggest you change your cook!”

As a result, the cook who was eavesdropping in the cabin was paralyzed…

Fortunately, Ian was not a tyrannical person, he just said this casually.

Seeing Ian eating the food without hesitation, Hawkins sat down and said strangely: “Aren’t you worried? We could’ve poisoned your food?”

Ian raised his head, narrowed his eyes, and said with a smile: “Believe me, if the food is poisoned, you will definitely be the unlucky ones! Before the poison takes effect, your entire pirate group will be wiped out of existence!”

Hawkins didn’t dare to dive deeper into this issue. He said, “Are you going to the reverse mountain? Let’s say first, if we encounter nice weather, it will take at least 15 days from here to your destination.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, I’m not in a hurry!” Ian nodded.

After a few simple exchanges, Hawkins discovered that Ian, the youngest Shichibukai, is not as difficult to get along with as he imagined, so he carefully asked: “You came from the Grand Line, right!? So can you tell us about the Grand Line?”

Ian glanced at him, said with a smile: “What? Do you want to go to the Grand Line?”

Hawkins didn’t speak, just looked at Ian blankly.

“It’s quite simple to enter the Grand Line and sail there!” Ian said. “Would you like to consider joining my pirate group? In that case, I can take you directly to the New World…” (T/N: thoughts guys!!)