Ian's Strength, Conqueror's Haki Coating

In an instant, dark clouds blanketed the sky and fierce winds howled. Extreme frost froze the moisture in the air into icy particles that hovered around Ian.

A pair of ice wings spread from his back, while his clothes transformed into a black-and-white haori. He grew taller as well, nearly reaching two meters.

His black hair turned a crystalline silver-white, and the three tear marks at the corners of his eyes glimmered with an eerie icy-blue light, making him look exceptionally mysterious!

"This is... my strongest form!!!" Ian pointed his sword at Donquixote Doflamingo. Frost surged from his body, as though it would freeze everything around him!

Snowflakes drifted down from the sky, and the temperature suddenly plummeted, as if summer had transformed into winter!

Everyone present shuddered from the cold!

"This is..." Donquixote Doflamingo narrowed his eyes into slits, a deep wariness appearing in them. From Ian as he was now, he sensed an intense threat!

The frost permeating the surroundings even made him shiver!

Some kind of Mythical Zoan? Donquixote Doflamingo thought. His Observation Haki screamed warnings. If he had not seen the frost Ian released, he would have thought Navy Admiral Aokiji had arrived...

The two of them possessed the same type of ice ability!

"A Mythical Zoan like the Fleet Admiral's? And this temperature... it's so similar to Admiral Aokiji's..." Onigumo had no idea how many times he had been shocked today. This young-looking fellow had brought him an enormous surprise!

"Vice Admiral, could this be a Mythical Zoan even rarer than a Logia?" The Rear Admiral beside him spoke in shock. "Should we report this to the Fleet Admiral?"

"It should be some Mythical Zoan that has never appeared before..." Onigumo narrowed his eyes and said calmly, "Report it after their battle is over! For now, let's watch!"

The appearance of Fire Fist Ace, a user of the Logia Flame-Flame Fruit, had already greatly shocked the Navy. Who would have thought they would encounter a Mythical Zoan user, even rarer than a Logia, here?

After all, their current Fleet Admiral was also a Mythical Zoan user!

"Boss, do you know what kind of Devil Fruit ability that is?" Deuce could not help clicking his tongue. Was that really a Devil Fruit ability?

"I don't know either. I've never seen it before..." Ace stared unblinkingly at the battlefield. He likewise had no idea what type of ability Ian was using.

On the battlefield, the two stared at one another.

Behind Donquixote Doflamingo, a sea of threads surged, countless tentacles dancing as they turned everything into white threads!

Ice wings spread from Ian's back, while twelve icy flowers floated around him. Extreme cold permeated his surroundings!

Their Conqueror's Haki clashed, but faced with Ian's higher-level Conqueror's Haki, Donquixote Doflamingo's had been suppressed from the very beginning.

"Then, let's begin another round!" Ian chuckled and swung his sword.

A series of cracking sounds rang out as extreme cold gathered. One ice spike after another burst from the ground like bamboo shoots after rain, spreading toward Donquixote Doflamingo!

At the same time, Ian moved, turning into an afterimage as he charged at Donquixote Doflamingo.

"Then let me see your current strength!" Donquixote Doflamingo's expression turned cold. With a tap of his foot, the ground became white threads that tangled with the endlessly thrusting ice spikes.

"Five Color Strings!" His fingers curled into claws, drawing five-colored steel threads between them. They became razor-thin lines that sliced the incoming ice spikes into fragments.

The ice shattered, the temperature plunged, and frost raged. A few streaks of white frost appeared on Donquixote Doflamingo's body...

Taking advantage of the gap after Donquixote Doflamingo's attack, Ian silently appeared behind him and suddenly thrust his sword toward Donquixote Doflamingo's chest.

However, Donquixote Doflamingo's Observation Haki caught Ian's movement. He activated his ability, and the ground beneath his feet suddenly softened, transforming into countless white threads that wrapped toward Ian.

"Heh..." Ian chuckled. He stomped the ground as well, and extreme frost spread outward, freezing the white threads.

Seeing this, Donquixote Doflamingo intensified his assimilation, turning the frozen ice back into white threads!

Ignoring the struggle beneath their feet, Ian had already closed in. He spread his five fingers toward Donquixote Doflamingo, gathering lightning into a pillar before firing a Thunder Roar Cannon!

It struck Donquixote Doflamingo directly. Yet before Ian's eyes, the hit Donquixote Doflamingo dissolved into a mass of white threads...

Shadow Rider String!

A substitute?

Ian frowned. His Observation Haki sensed something strange to his left, and he turned to look.

Just in time to see a sharp, spiraling pillar of thread stabbing toward him like a javelin!

"Holy Bullets!" Donquixote Doflamingo's voice reached him only then.

Ian's Observation Haki caught the attack. Gripping his sword with both hands, he slashed down!

Boom!

Their attacks collided, and the tremendous force shattered the ground!

Caught off guard, Ian was forced back several steps by the power carried by the thread pillar. He stomped the ground, spread the ice wings behind him, steadied himself, and looked up.

"Holy Bullets: Tenfold!" Donquixote Doflamingo pressed his advantage. Countless threads twisted together into ten thick pillars, their spiraling tips coated in jet-black Armament Haki!

"Thunder Roar Cannon!" Ian spread his fingers toward the incoming Holy Bullets. Light flared from his palm once more as a pillar of lightning blasted forth!

Boom!

The attacks collided, and a deafening boom echoed across the island!

The lightning pillar shattered, and the threads snapped apart as well!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The two charged at one another simultaneously. Sword edge and threads clashed wildly, erupting in a dense barrage of explosions!

"Overheat!" Donquixote Doflamingo extended a slender thread pillar coated in Armament Haki from his palm and lashed it at Ian!

The thread pillar cracked through the air, producing a sharp explosive snap!

Ian did not choose to take it head-on. Instead, he used Flash Step to evade.

With a sharp hiss, the thread pillar fell, cleanly splitting both the ground and the building behind Ian in two!

"Millennium Ice Prison!" Ian flashed to another location and swung his sword down. Dozens of ice pillars erupted from the ground, surrounding Donquixote Doflamingo in the center.

The ice pillars rotated as they crashed toward Donquixote Doflamingo, intending to freeze him solid!

"Wild Wave White Line!" Countless thread tentacles behind Donquixote Doflamingo danced, blasting in every direction!

Explosions rang out as each thick thread pillar blocked an ice pillar, preventing them from closing in!

"It won't be that easy to defeat me!" Seizing the chance, Donquixote Doflamingo leaped into the air and looked coldly down at Ian.

He controlled the threads on the ground, turning them into feathers that blanketed Ian from all directions. "Thousand Arrows: Flap Thread!"

"Prism Ice Barrier Formation!" Frost surged around Ian, forming an ice wall that blocked the attack.

Using Flash Step, Ian instantly arrived before Donquixote Doflamingo. He slashed down, a faint smile appearing on his lips. "Do you know... that Conqueror's Haki has an advanced application?"

Ian had coated the edge of this sword strike with Conqueror's Haki. It appeared to be an ordinary slash, yet Donquixote Doflamingo's pupils suddenly constricted!

"Shield White Line!" Donquixote Doflamingo reacted quickly. He crossed his hands and swung them out, forming crossed thread pillars coated in thick Armament Haki, like a shield before him!

Yet against Ian's sword strike coated in Conqueror's Haki, his thread pillars were shattered in a single blow!

Ian's sword had not even truly struck the thread shield. The power wrapped around it had already broken the shield apart!

The advanced application of Conqueror's Haki was to coat attacks with something as intangible as Conqueror's Haki!

It could unleash even greater power!

Moreover, attacks coated in Conqueror's Haki also possessed that soul-shaking effect of Conqueror's Haki!

In the New World, as far as he knew, only a few of the Four Emperors could use Conqueror's Haki Coating!

He had also wanted to try coating his attacks with Conqueror's Haki, but he did not know what he lacked. He had never succeeded!

Otherwise, given his personality, why would he be so wary of Kaido and Big Mom, despite having cooperative relationships with them?

It was because he could not defeat opponents capable of coating their attacks with Conqueror's Haki...