On Barren Island, deafening booms continually shook the eardrums.
The shattered ground was no longer hard. Under the effects of Katakuri's awakening, it had taken on the properties of mochi.
The assimilated ground transformed into all kinds of attacks, constantly harassing Dawn. In response, Dawn also created ranged attacks to strike back.
"A clever choice. Since you can't gain an advantage in close combat, you've switched to ranged attacks."
Dawn casually cut apart the spikes flying toward him. "And keeping your distance gives your Observation Haki enough time to predict my moves. But how long can you keep this up?"
"Hmph..." Katakuri snorted, yet he had no choice but to admit Dawn was right.
In this exchange of ranged attacks, Dawn and Ouroboros on his shoulder easily gained the upper hand.
Not only that, but Dawn was constantly looking for chances to close in on Katakuri, hoping to suppress him in close combat.
The Flame Serpent freely devoured the surrounding mochi. The roasted mochi fell onto the ground, looking like mochi carelessly grilled by an untrained chef.
Dawn burst out of the sea of flames, completely ignoring the mochi obstacles around him. Like the sharpest chef wielding a blade, he crossed the distance in an instant and arrived before Katakuri, his right fist shooting toward Katakuri's face like a launched cannonball.
"Roar!"
Katakuri roared in fury. His continuously activated Observation Haki had already foreseen Dawn's move, and several enormous fists crashed down.
"Boom!"
At the critical moment, Dawn struck the fists with both hands, while his right leg shot out in a sweeping kick like an arrow loosed from a bow.
With his foresight almost perfectly synchronized with the kick, Katakuri barely crossed his arms to block it, but Dawn still sent him flying dozens of meters away.
"Ha... ha...