Kazu sensed the wind blades with his Observation Haki and immediately used Space Swap to appear at Dragon's left, mercilessly driving a whipping kick into his waist.
Whoosh~
Thud!
Dragon crashed straight through the room's wall, sending clouds of dust billowing up.
"That move again. What a troublesome ability."
Dragon stood up without rushing outside. His Observation Haki locked onto Kazu, who made no move either.
He was still considering what Kazu's ability was. If he could not see through it, winning would probably be difficult.
His opponent was strong and could advance or retreat at will, leaving him completely on the back foot.
"Looks like I'll have to seal off every direction."
The hurricane winds around Dragon gathered into a green coat of wind surrounding his body.
"Wind Control!"
A figure moving at extreme speed suddenly rushed in front of Kazu. With a lift of his right hand, three spears formed from hurricane winds shot out.
"Hahaha, you don't think this will be enough to deal with me, do you?"
Kazu darted left and right, dodging the three hurricane spears. Dragon seized the opening as Kazu evaded them, sending his Armament Haki-coated Dragon Claw straight at Kazu's chest once more.
"Petty tricks."
"Space Compression."
Kazu rapidly compressed a layer of space, wrapping his fist in a white sphere of light, and punched straight into the attack.
"Hmph, you fell for it."
As fist and claw clashed, a slight smile appeared at the corner of Dragon's mouth.
"Hurricane Domain."
Dragon had been waiting for Kazu to clash with him. That would ensure Kazu could not slip away immediately.
Hurricane winds covered an area several thousand meters around them, blowing Kazu's hair into a wild dance.
Countless wind blades were mixed into the hurricane winds, slashing at Kazu from time to time.
Dragon's thinking was simple. The few times Kazu had instantly vanished and reappeared earlier, he had only traveled short distances.
Dragon judged that Kazu's move might have a distance limit. His Hurricane Domain, spanning several thousand meters, would let him attack the instant Kazu appeared.
It would keep him from being ambushed while also making Kazu suffer a little.
Kazu's movements were unpredictable, but his wind blades were equally untraceable and could attack at any moment.
Sure enough, Kazu withdrew his fist and shifted position once, only to be attacked by the omnipresent wind blades every time he moved.
Moreover, wherever Kazu went, Dragon followed. After all, the domain was centered on Dragon.
While Kazu dealt with the wind blades, Dragon rushed over again, forming a wind blade in his left hand and slashing down.
Using the Space-Space Fruit's ability, Kazu anticipated the wind blades' attacks and turned elemental to evade the blades in the air. Then he reached out and grabbed, and a Space Collapse appeared in front of Dragon.
"This is..."
"A Logia?"
"Who exactly are you? To think a man like you would appear in the East Blue."
Abandoning his attack, Dragon stepped back to avoid the Space Collapse and stared at Kazu, his eyes full of wariness.
"Me?"
"Just an ordinary little pirate."
"If you have something to say, wait until I've had my fill of fighting."
"Absolute Space!"
A transparent layer of space spread out from Kazu, covering everything around him.
Kazu had developed this by imitating the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's ability.
Enel could use the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's electromagnetic waves to cover all of Sky Island, strengthening his Observation Haki.
He had followed the same approach, using spatial perception to strengthen his Observation Haki.
Every movement and sound produced fluctuations. By keenly sensing these faint spatial fluctuations, Kazu could ensure that not even the slightest disturbance escaped his perception.
Even speech produced distinctive fluctuations. By following their patterns, Kazu could discern the contents of conversations within a certain range.
"From now on, your wind blades won't work on me."
Kazu simply stood where he was. The wind blades attacked from everywhere at incredible speed, their attacks extremely hard to detect.
Unless one's Observation Haki had reached a very advanced level, dealing with them would be exhausting, and evading every wind blade might even be impossible.
Kazu had suffered from this at first, but now he did not move at all as more than a dozen wind blades passed straight through his body.
This was not simple passive elementalization. Through spatial perception, he anticipated the wind blades' trajectories, turning the parts they would strike elemental in advance.
It was somewhat like Katakuri's ability, using his Devil Fruit powers to reshape his body and evade all kinds of attacks.
Only, Katakuri relied on his Observation Haki's Future Sight.
Kazu, meanwhile, relied on predictions made through Observation Haki combined with his Devil Fruit ability.
"He's become even more troublesome."
Dragon's expression grew grave, and sweat appeared on his forehead, though whether it was from the heat or something else was unclear.
Seeing Dragon's cautious demeanor, Kazu's lips curled up slightly. He laughed loudly and said, "Hahaha, fighting someone strong is fun. Just enjoy it."
Kazu vanished again. When he reappeared behind Dragon, three wind blades passed straight through his chest and left leg.
As Kazu turned elemental to evade the three wind blades, he coated his right hand in Haki and punched at the back of Dragon's head.
Dragon remained constantly on guard, and with the speed boost from the Hurricane-Hurricane Fruit, he only just managed to dodge the punch.
This guy's Devil Fruit ability is far too underhanded.
Dragon was fairly composed, but even he was starting to lose his composure against Kazu's spatial ability.
Kazu loved kicking a man when he was down. Since Dragon currently had no way to restrain him, he might as well land a few more blows.
If Dragon found a counter later, giving him such a satisfying beating would not be so easy.
One did his best to evade and counterattacked when an opportunity arose, with little to show for it.
The other appeared from every angle, punching and kicking to his heart's content.
Half an hour passed. Ivankov had been watching over his companions who had been knocked unconscious by Conqueror's Haki.
A battle of this level was not something he could interfere in. He was better off protecting his companions from being hurt by the shock waves of their fight.
Carlmand and Makino watched from nearby. Seeing that Kazu had the upper hand, neither had any intention of going over to intervene.
They could both tell that Kazu had no intention of killing his opponent.
Although Dragon looked somewhat battered, he had no major injuries. At most, his face was a little bruised and swollen.
Kazu assessed things inwardly. Dragon's strength was about on par with Shanks's, but his Observation Haki was not as powerful.
Shanks could use his powerful Observation Haki to deal with Kazu's Space-Space Fruit ability, while Dragon could only rely on his Devil Fruit ability to dodge a little faster.
Kazu had practically turned the Space-Space Fruit into a deluxe, enhanced version of the Teleport-Teleport Fruit.
Or perhaps the Teleport-Teleport Fruit was simply an inferior version of the Space-Space Fruit to begin with.
There was no warning at all when he used Space Swap. Perhaps only Observation Haki's Future Sight could accurately determine Kazu's location.
"Can you tell me why you've come now?"
"Who are you, and what is your purpose?"
After fighting for more than half an hour, Dragon saw that Kazu had finally settled down. He had fulfilled the man's request for a fight.
A few flesh wounds were nothing to Dragon. Garp had beaten him throughout his childhood, and even after growing up, he had not escaped that fate.