Chapter 199. This Place is Already Full
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In truth, it's not just Kira who is surprised.
Even the other spectators were shocked that Iggy managed to escape Pet Shop's attack. Without hesitation, Iggy cut off his own foot to escape.
To put it nicely, Iggy is a member of the Egyptian DIO-Defeating gang.
But to be blunt, he's just a filler character.
It seemed as if Iggy was created specifically to counter N'Doul and his Stand, [Geb], with his own elemental Stand, [The Fool].
Even his species— a dog with a highly sensitive sense of smell—was designed to counter [Geb], a long-range Stand.
Aside from being coerced by Jotaro, Iggy had two choices: either get killed alongside Jotaro by N'Doul or help Jotaro find N'Doul's location.
Forced to choose the latter, Iggy almost switched sides to N'Doul out of fear of dying.
But Jotaro, always one step ahead, used Iggy's fear of death to make him fight N'Doul. That was the only reason Iggy had that initial battle.
At other times, whenever Jotaro and the others were about to fight Stand users, Iggy would quickly use the Joestar family's signature move—"Nigerundayo!"—and run away without a trace.
With this attitude, it was no surprise to any of the spectators that Iggy was defeated so miserably by Pet Shop.
After all, they weren't watching "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" for nothing.
What decides the outcome of battles between Stand users, or even Ripple warriors?
The strength of their Stand (or Ripple)?
Their combat experience?
Their wisdom in strategy?
No, none of these.
If any of that were true, then the absolute prophecy of [Thoth], or the thousands of years of combat experience of the Pillar Men, or their intelligence in learning entire languages from just a few words would have meant that JOJO and his friends would have already lost.
In "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", these factors are important, but not decisive.
As long as the gap isn't too large, the key factor that decides victory is one thing: resolve.
Only those who can carve a bright path forward in the pitch-black wilderness have the right to become victors.
This is why neither Kira nor the audience believed in Iggy.
Based on Iggy's previous display of resolve, his chances of defeating Pet Shop were slim to none—about as slim as dropping a marble from the top of Tokyo Tower and landing it in a glass bottle on the ground.
Unless a miracle happened...
"Waaah! My... my leg...! My leg was severed by those ice spikes!!"
Iggy, who had narrowly escaped Pet Shop's attack by fleeing through a sewer to the bottom of a lake, cried out in agony as he clutched his severed leg. "But if I hadn't cut it off, I'd be dead by now!"
"I'll... I'll just hide here for a while. For now, I'll lie low and avoid that guy. Then I'll ask the SPW Foundation to make me a prosthetic leg."
Despite his fury, Iggy, who had never suffered such a humiliating defeat before, wanted nothing more than to crush Pet Shop's bird head immediately.
But the constant pain in his lower body, coupled with the fact that he couldn't beat Pet Shop at full strength—let alone with one leg gone—forced him to follow his instincts.
"I'll settle this with you later! Damn it!"
Iggy's tough talk but weak resolve made the audience watching this scene understand why Iggy had managed to perform a miracle earlier.
It turned out he had cheated.
Dropping a marble into a glass bottle from the top of Tokyo Tower is difficult, no doubt.
But if you place the marble in the bottle first, then drop the bottle off the tower, it's much easier.
That's exactly what Iggy had done.
Having learned from Joseph's prosthetic leg that losing one foot wouldn't be fatal, Iggy had chosen to sever his leg to save his life.
This decision was easy to make.
But with only this level of resolve, could Iggy really escape?
Thinking he could hide underwater and protect himself by using [The Fool] to create a bunker-like structure around him, Iggy seemed to forget one crucial thing:
Birds eat fish.
Seabirds that live near the ocean only have one prey to hunt—fish living underwater!
And since Iggy had chosen to fight at the bottom of the lake, he had wrapped himself up with his Stand to survive.
In other words, he had built himself a cage!
Pet Shop didn't need to do much.
He just had to add a layer of solid ice outside the cage and seal off Iggy's air supply with ice, cutting off his path to the surface.
Iggy would suffocate in his own trap!
"No! He's not trying to suffocate me—he's going to crush me to death!"
Iggy screamed.
He had realized that as more and more ice formed around his cage, not only was his chance of escape diminishing, but under the pull of the Earth's gravity, the sand shell of his bunker would be crushed by the weight of the ice, killing him in the process!
Escape!
He had to escape!
After all, the water surrounding him was endless, and Pet Shop could summon as much ice as he wanted!
"I'll have to dig my way out!"
Looking at the lakebed—the only area water couldn't invade—Iggy, with one injured front paw, grimaced in pain. "What kind of horrible day is this? First, my leg gets cut off, and now this damn bird is so strong!?"
But no matter how bad things got, he had to keep digging.
Even with his injured paw, Iggy forced it to move and accelerate his digging.
Unless he wanted to be crushed.
But then...
"Huh?"
"What's going on? Why is there suddenly a hole here?"
As Iggy furiously dug through the dirt, he noticed a strange sensation—one that felt completely different from before.
The hole, which seemed to be the same size as the cage he had built, was perfectly waiting for him, no matter where he started digging.
Realizing what this might mean, Iggy began sweating profusely.
Because his guess was absolutely correct!
This place was already full!
"AAAAHHHH! It's that damn bird again—!!"