One Piece - I Am A Different Luffy! BOOK1!

Chapter 182. Luffy vs Kuzan 02.

[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]
Third Person POV

Somewhere, First Half of Grandline.

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Kuzan watched Luffy, whose body was now enveloped in dancing purple flames in front of him, as the ice beneath him began to melt. "You are certainly more dangerous than the reports suggested, Monkey D. Luffy," said Kuzan, closely observing the flames. "Your proficiency in Haki is dangerous, despite being far from the strongest, yet your mythical Zoan fruit grants you great explosive power... both impressive and troublesome at the same time..." Kuzan continued to speak, no longer as lazily as he might have.

With a confident smile, Luffy replied, "I'm just getting started, Admiral. I was never the pirate you guys have in those reports, after all, I never had to use all my strength to deal with the navy, maybe you'll be the first?" Luffy suggested.

Kuzan gave a slight nod, acknowledging the truth in Luffy's words. "That's evident. But don't underestimate the Navy or an Admiral, grandson of Garp."

The flames around Luffy increased in intensity, reflecting his will to fight. "I don't underestimate anyone, Kuzan. But I don't intend to be underestimated either. Let's see how far an Admiral's strength goes, I could just ignore you while passing through the region, but I want to see where my current level is."

"Then come, show me the power of the greatest rookie of this generation," he said as his body began to wrap in ice.

Without further words, Luffy quickly advanced towards Kuzan, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Putting his Moa Moa no Mi ability into speed and strength, he was thirty times more powerful in these two aspects.

Both crossed their fists against each other, Kuzan who always passively freezes his opponents, had to be more aggressive in this fight and he opted to use Haki too. The admiral's fist and the pirate's created an impact above the ice, breaking everything and creating a powerful blast with dark rays tinged with red, from the armament Haki.

*BOOOOOOOOM!*

The fists seemed to clash in the attack with neither of them backing down. Kuzan had more mastery of the armament Haki than Luffy, but he couldn't take advantage of the pirate, his fist continued in the impact wrapped in Haki with ice covering various parts of his arm, on the other side Luffy had his fist against Kuzan while flames exploded against the enemy, but he couldn't take advantage either. He might be below Kuzan in armament Haki, but had his Moa Moa no Mi to compensate for deficiencies against this type of opponent.

An explosion occurred when the fists reached their limit, everything within more than 100 meters exploded between the two elements, and Luffy and Kuzan were thrown to opposite sides of each other.

While Kuzan appeared like an ice sculpture, Luffy spread his wings and flew upwards, facing Kuzan and now they would show a battle of elements as he formed fireballs, throwing them at the admiral.

In the next few minutes, that side went into a frenzy with explosions and sounds of ice forming and breaking, the battle was a dance of fire and ice. Luffy, with his punches wrapped in flames and Haki, tried to break Kuzan's ice defenses, while the latter used his ability to create massive ice sculptures and launch icy attacks. With every punch from Luffy, the ice vaporized under the intense heat, only to be quickly reformed by Kuzan's power, giving Luffy a real advantage against the admiral.

At various times, Luffy managed to land direct hits on Kuzan, who used his Haki to minimize the damage. Kuzan, with his superior experience and Haki skill, was able to predict and dodge many of Luffy's attacks, but Luffy's enhanced speed and strength from the Moa Moa no Mi were a constant challenge.