VS Marine Admiral Kuzan

The two Shadow Clones flanked him from both sides, swiftly crossing the ice and appearing beside Kuzan. At the same time, they threw the longswords condensed from Iron Sand at him.

"Iron Sand: Drizzle!"

The longswords scattered midair, condensing into countless senbon that shot toward Kuzan like a torrential downpour.

With a casual wave of his hand, Kuzan condensed ice spikes that blocked the attacks.

"What a wide variety of abilities."

"Transformation, clones, flames, energy constructs, and metal manipulation?"

"What kind of Devil Fruit ability is this?"

Kuzan could not make sense of what kind of Devil Fruit user Brando was.

These clones felt real to him. They were not illusions, and they could use other abilities as well.

"Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"

Two Great Fireballs followed close behind.

Kuzan did not even blink. He used Soru to evade them directly. His Observation Haki had been locked onto Brando's real body all along; he had pinpointed him the moment Brando used Shadow Clones.

He shot through the ice toward Brando's real body.

But dense waves of attacks came at him along the way, including flames, Water Cannon Bullets, and shuriken and kunai formed from Iron Sand.

Brando was like a magical machine gun, continuously unleashing all manner of attacks to stop Kuzan.

If only I'd drawn some powerful Lightning Release techniques.

Brando was fully focused, not daring to let down his guard in the slightest.

He was using this overwhelming barrage to force Kuzan to stay at a distance. With Shukaku's Chakra, he could now fight a war of attrition, unlike when he had faced Crocodile.

Crocodile was not especially strong in close combat, so Brando had needed to get close. Now, Brando's close combat ability was inferior to Kuzan's, so he had to suppress Kuzan and keep him from approaching.

Most vice admirals still had physical abilities that could be considered human. But at the level of admirals and emperors, every one of them was a monster. Brando felt that their physical prowess alone, combined with Two-Color Haki, could produce destructive power at the Super Shadow Level.

"You seem awfully afraid of letting me get close."

Kuzan noticed it as well and immediately understood that Brando was weak in close combat.

At the same time, he realized that Brando was relying on those blood-red eyes to lock onto his position.

"Ice Age!"

Kuzan used Ice Age again, but this time, he created massive ice pillars to obstruct Brando's vision.

Kuzan himself could use elementalization to move rapidly among the ice pillars.

"Supreme Kingdom!"

The two Shadow Clones used Supreme Kingdom at the cost of exhausting themselves, instantly destroying a third of the ice pillars on the battlefield.

But Kuzan immediately replaced them.

He could create as many of those ice pillars as he wanted. For a Logia user like Kuzan, it was nothing. When it came to attrition, Kuzan feared no one.

"Damn it, the refined Iron Sand can't keep up."

Brando's real body was extracting metal from beneath the ground in every direction.

At the same time, whenever a Shadow Clone was used up, he had to replace it immediately. With fewer than three Shadow Clones, he simply could not contain Kuzan's offensive.

If he did not have the Vortex Physique, he would have collapsed long ago.

"Amaterasu!"

Brando stopped holding back as well, directly using Amaterasu to release massive amounts of Black Flames that covered the ice pillars. Bloody tears streamed from the corners of his eyes.

At the same time, he had the Shadow Clones touch the Black Flames with the Iron Sand first, imbuing it with the flames. The scattered Iron Sand could then spread the Black Flames, while Fire Release attacks further dispersed them.

Kuzan noticed this as well. Knowing that the Black Flames could not be shaken off once they touched someone, he controlled the ice sheet to rise and push outward on both sides, continuously moving the flames away.

"Hm?"

"One of them escaped?"

Kuzan's Observation Haki sensed one of Brando's presences rapidly leaving, but he could confirm that it was not the real body. After fighting for so long, his Observation Haki could sense the difference between those bodies and the original.

Since Brando's real body had not actively attacked, he kept at least half of his Chakra within himself, distributing the other half evenly among the Shadow Clones.

Thus, the real body's presence was stronger, making it easy for someone with powerful Observation Haki to distinguish it.

In the end, Kuzan chose not to pursue. He had discovered that these clones were merely energy constructs; once destroyed, they turned into smoke, with no physical body remaining behind.

However, Kuzan also discovered that even when he used ice pillars to block Brando's sight, Brando could still find him. That left him puzzled.

"The Chakra on the metal left on Kuzan is almost used up. I need to replenish it."

Brando pressed both hands against the desert beneath the shattered ice layer at his feet, continuously refining Iron Sand.

He could constantly determine Kuzan's location because the first Shadow Clone had used Magnet Release to leave Chakra on the metal attached to Kuzan.

That allowed the Uzumaki's sensory abilities to take effect, letting him sense Kuzan's approximate position. When Kuzan elementalized, the objects on his body would elementalize with him, but that also consumed the Chakra.

"If this is all you have, then it is time for this battle to end!"

After weathering wave after wave of Brando's attacks, Kuzan found that only that spiraling ball of energy that produced a piercing sound posed any real threat to him.

He could withstand all the other attacks head-on.

Still, he was not sure whether Brando had any more trump cards. The presence that had fled just now also bothered him.

"You really are arrogant for a loyal dog."

Brando replied.

A large amount of Iron Sand tainted with Black Flames floated around his body.

Kuzan said nothing. He merely tensed his body, then shot straight at Brando like a cannonball, forcibly breaking through the Great Dragon Flames released by the Shadow Clones and ignoring the Iron Sand bearing Black Flames.

"So you formed a layer of ice armor over your body!"

Brando's Mangekyo clearly saw the condition of Kuzan's body. Falling chunks of ice continuously flung the Black Flames off him.

Phantom Flash Step was useful for crushing weaker opponents, but it became extremely ineffective against enemies with powerful vision or sensory abilities. Observation Haki was especially effective at countering it.

Brando did not want to fight Kuzan at close range, so he could only activate Lightning Release: Cell Activation to enhance his reactions before using Soru to retreat rapidly.

At the same time, the Shadow Clones desperately attacked Kuzan.

Seeing this, Kuzan prioritized dealing with the Shadow Clones. After covering himself in ice armor to counter the Black Flames, he no longer feared their other attacks. As long as he got close to a Shadow Clone, he could take it down with one punch. He even endured a Big Ball Rasengan released in a Shadow Clone's self-destructive attack, suffering only a faint trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.

"He's stronger than me, tougher than me, and has more stamina than me!"

Brando continued creating Shadow Clones.

But Kuzan quickly took them out. Even absorbing Tailed Beast Chakra was becoming too slow to replenish his reserves. Amaterasu could not lock onto Kuzan at all; Kuzan's Observation Haki would react in time and let him evade directly.

"Kid, you're not going to die here, are you?"

Shukaku did not interfere with Brando, but through their Chakra, he understood the situation outside and immediately began to mock him.

"Heh, I'm going to become the second Sage of Six Paths. How could I possibly fall here?!"

Brando could already feel the backlash from overusing Shadow Clones. The mental strain was immense, and his body was also bearing the burden of the clones being continuously destroyed.

If not for the Vortex Physique, he would have been unable to endure it long ago.

Yet he still stubbornly answered Haki Crane.