Kairo would finish his hand seals.
"Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!"
Twenty or so water bullets came rushing at Kuzan, who was like, homie, you do know I'm an ice man, I can freeze that shit.
Kuzan reached his hand out to freeze the bullets coming at him with a simple Ice Age — or ice beam.
However, behind Kuzan, the clone he had frozen a few seconds ago —
Poof
A burst of Conqueror's Haki was released. The clone, having been made with Kairo's CoC instead of usual Haki, became explosive. When destroyed, it released the remaining amount of CoC it had stored.
While Kuzan usually wouldn't be affected by this, the clone was literally one foot away from him, and the release of CoC was restrained to a six-foot area...
Meaning way more pressure, and he wasn't expecting it. His Observation Haki didn't detect a thing. In fact, the second the clone exploded, his haki had been caught off guard.
This was just what Kairo needed, as his Water Bullets found their mark, soaking the Admiral.
This was just one part of Kairo's plan, going through hand seals.
Immediately, he finished the next sequence.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang!"
He summoned what seemed to be two dogs made of lightning, and they rushed at the Admiral, biting him and shocking him ferociously. The water on Kuzan worked as a perfect conductor for the lightning.
From the smoke, Kairo heard:
"Ice Block: Avalanche!"
Looking up, Kairo saw that the man had frozen the water moisture in the air, forming a massive amount of ice ready to fall on him.
Coating his hand in Haki, he didn't care.
Rushing toward the sky, he cocked his fist back and said:
"Shadow Strike!" Kairo channeled all his Ryūō, Conqueror's Haki, and wind power into his fist, sealing every ounce of energy within a condensed vacuum of space.
Once close, he released it all in one powerful blast.
As his fist made contact with the ice, it sounded like an explosion. The ice imploded on itself, destroyed from within. Black sparks of lightning surrounded Kairo as he hovered in the sky.
"Conqueror Coating with Ryūō... this is going to be a bother," Kuzan muttered, preparing himself. He would have to try.
Kairo's flames ignited as he zoomed toward Kuzan at a speed so fast that multiple sonic booms were heard. He was moving like lightning, climbing higher and higher.
"Silent Fang!" As Kairo's fist neared Kuzan, the man coated his hand in Armament Haki and punched, making contact with Kairo.
Cracks appeared beneath them as the island itself seemed to be blowing apart under their haki.
Kairo wasn't giving up, pushing his haki to the absolute limit.
Boom!
Both fighters were sent flying away from each other at speeds the human eye couldn't follow.
Kairo flipped in the air, slamming into a mountain, but he didn't care. He used the mountain to boost himself toward Kuzan.
Drawing his sword, he sent several slashes at the Admiral, who created ice constructs to block the attacks.
He flipped again. His Observation Haki felt... weirdly inactive.
Kairo was right in front of him, sword in hand. How the hell had he not sensed that?
Kuzan drew his own sword, clashing with Kairo.
Everything around them seemed to fly apart.
Kairo's fire kept him from freezing, while Kuzan tried to freeze him.
Kuzan pushed Kairo back before punching him hard in the stomach, sending him crashing.
BAM!
From the ground, a pair of ice hands grabbed Kairo.
"Ice Age!"
He jumped away just as the hands burst in a small CoC explosion.
Note to self: stay away from those clones.
As Kuzan looked up, Kairo's flames had turned blue, and Kairo himself was right in front of him.
Holy fucking shit... did he just get faster?
Kairo slashed at Kuzan, who blocked with his sword.
Looking at Kairo's state, the boy appeared unharmed — only his clothes were slightly dirty.
It seemed Kuzan's basic punches and kicks had no effect. Kairo's durability allowed him to tank that shit.
So if he wasn't using Ryūō, Kuzan probably couldn't do any damage — either that or it was Kairo's insanely OP devil fruit.
Several explosions rocked the island as they clashed repeatedly.
The haki being released was so potent that, back on the Strawhat ship, if it wasn't for the sails being down, the gusts would have sent the ship flying. Ussop was barely hanging on for his life.
Yes... it was that bad.
Luffy, meanwhile, just stared at the chaos, his gaze never leaving Kairo.
He would not leave without his nakama — fighting an Admiral be damned.
As Robin regained her composure, she said:
"We need to leave... Kuzan is an Admiral. He will not be contained long."
Luffy continued staring at Kairo.
While Ussop seemed to agree with Robin, Zoro said the quiet part out loud:
"And leave our comrade behind? What kind of crew do you take us for? Maybe if we were all spineless like Swirly Brown, but we have honor."
Yes, he had to throw a dig at Sanji.
"The hell you said, Mosshead?"
"I didn't stutter, shitty cook."
"It's not the time for this," Nami said, separating them with her cloud.
"Whatever you say, Nami-swan." Once more, Sanji returned to his pervy self.
"We will wait for Kairo... we will not leave without him."
Even while she was shaking — well, if you were in her place, you would be too.
Kuzan's power could be felt growing, matching Kairo as they clashed again and again.
The island slowly turned into fire and ice, shaking the whole sea around them.
Luffy observed this advanced use of Haki, storing everything in his memory. He needed to catch up.