Meanwhile, elsewhere on Sakapachi Island.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Every collision between the two figures unleashed an explosive blast of air.
Kuzan's ice fists and Gern's quake fists clashed dozens of times in a hundredth of a second, sending Armament Haki sparks pouring down like a torrential rain.
Frozen waves shattered into ice chips the moment they rose.
And before the rocks Gern had crushed underfoot could fall, they froze into meteor-like ice projectiles that Kuzan whipped toward his face with a sweeping kick.
Bang! Gern tilted his head aside. The ice projectile grazed his ear and exploded behind him, its flying fragments cutting bloody lines along his neck.
He seized the opening as Kuzan recovered from his kick, sweeping his vibration-wreathed right palm across like a blade.
Kuzan's pupils contracted sharply. He had no time to turn into his element.
"Ice Mirror: Substitution!"
Whoosh! The instant Gern's fingertips pierced the ice sculpture, Kuzan's real body appeared in an ice mirror ten meters away.
The ice sculpture in his original position shook apart into dust, while blood seeped from the corner of the real Kuzan's mouth.
At the same time, Gern abruptly spread his fingers.
Pale energy pulsed with high-frequency vibrations around his fingertips, tearing the air between them.
"Heavenquake: Rend!" Five parallel spatial fissures abruptly appeared, sweeping across the battlefield like invisible blades.
Everything in their path was neatly sliced in two, the severed surfaces smooth as mirrors.
At the sight, Kuzan instantly transformed into his element, becoming a stream of icy mist as he retreated at breakneck speed.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The five fissures arrived in an instant, silently slicing the ground where Kuzan had stood into six pieces.
Fine residual vibrations lingered along the cuts, keeping even the air trembling.
Yet Gern's assault did not stop. He broke