It was like a scene from a famous painting.
With those two standing there, even Doflamingo seemed reduced to a mere backdrop.
The two of them simply stood facing each other as the atmosphere gradually froze.
In the end, it was Ozz who smiled first.
"I heard you left the Marines. Is that true, Little Pheasant?"
"Little Pheasant?"
The Marine soldiers, whose bodies were gradually regaining freedom, froze when they heard that nickname. Then they looked at Kuzan and thought of his title, Aokiji, the Blue Pheasant.
Their faces stiffened.
"Could it be?! Black Gun is calling..."
Before that Marine could finish, the soldier beside him immediately covered his mouth and hurriedly made a shushing gesture.
This idiot had no sense at all.
Had he not noticed that ever since Black Gun said that nickname, the frost on Admiral Kuzan's face had thickened by several layers?
Ozz shook the frost from his hand and smiled as if he did not care at all.
Kuzan slowly breathed out a mouthful of cold air.
"That's right. I'm no longer a Marine. So even if I attack you now, I won't feel burdened at all."
"Really?"
Ozz's smile remained unchanged.
In the next instant, without the slightest warning, countless ice crystals spread rapidly from around Kuzan and grew toward Ozz.
The Marine soldiers were shocked. Even from far away, they hurriedly dragged the badly wounded Smoker away.
Even Doflamingo had no choice but to temporarily avoid the attack, and the smile on his face faded slightly.
He had not expected Kuzan to truly dare attack Ozz.
Although rumors said that the two of them were enemies, could Kuzan really not see the gap in strength?
For someone like Doflamingo, who knew when to retreat, this kind of challenge against an absolute powerhouse was truly incomprehensible.
But Kuzan had his own conviction.
"Ice Age!"
Crack, crack, crack, crack!
The icy half of Punk Hazard, already covered in frost, was suddenly engulfed in wind and snow. A piercing chill froze the entire coast and a vast stretch of sea.
The place where Ozz had been standing was filled with countless enormous ice spikes, like a frozen hell.
"Lord Ozz!"
Buffalo, who was being carried by Doflamingo, cried out in alarm when he saw the scene.
"Could he have been frozen?!"
"Shut up, Buffalo."
Doflamingo shot him an unhappy glance. Then he stood in the sky and looked down at the shore now buried under a massive glacier. A grin spread across his face.
"Fuffuffuffuffu. Looks like Mr. Ozz is having quite a bit of fun."
Standing atop the huge glacier, Kuzan's entire body emitted cold air as he looked toward the spot where Ozz had originally stood.
Then a voice sounded from behind him.
"Where are you looking?"
Ozz reached out and blocked Kuzan's Armament Haki coated fist, which carried extreme cold.
Ice flowers began forming on Ozz's arm, spreading toward his body.
"What a cold feeling..."
Ozz seemed momentarily stunned as he looked at the ice flowers climbing up his arm, as if no matter how he shook them, they would not fall off.
Then he clenched his fist.
The ice flowers were instantly shattered into powder.
"Just kidding."
"In terms of Haki, you really didn't inherit that old man Garp's true teachings, Kuzan."
Ozz walked through the snowstorm and pulled his black robe tighter around himself.
If anything could resist him now, or even injure him, it could only be Haki that had reached a certain level.
Among those still alive, the only Haki that could threaten him should be Imu's. Aside from that, Garp was probably the closest to touching that level.
After all, he was the man who had once chased six Emperors and one King.
"Enough nonsense. Let's settle this grudge today, Ozz!"
Cold air swirled in Kuzan's hands. The extreme temperature spread around him, accelerating the Haki consumption of everyone within the frozen battlefield except himself.
Ozz could even faintly feel the blood inside his body beginning to solidify. Only after coating his entire body in Haki did the situation ease.
But whether from the outside or the inside, the rate of Haki consumption was terrifying.
Ozz looked at the frost on his hand, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Looks like you're serious, Kuzan."
He had originally thought he would just meet an old acquaintance and catch up. After all, Kuzan could not be his opponent.
He had not expected Kuzan to be this serious.
"Hey, Kuzan. Don't tell me you left the Marines just so you could come after me without holding back?"
"Who knows?"
Kuzan's body erupted with cold air. Clearly, he had no intention of stopping.
Ozz sighed helplessly.
"Fine..."
The robe on Ozz's body slowly froze into fragments and fell to the ground.
Bare-chested, Ozz revealed a perfect physique. A cross-shaped scar marked his chest, and within that body lay a power capable of destroying the world.
After all, they had known each other for decades. They had met not long after Ozz first went to sea.
For once, a trace of seriousness appeared on Ozz's face. His figure instantly arrived in an open space surrounded by glaciers.
"This place is a bit small."
Black spatial distortion covered his fist. Black-red lightning faintly sparked around it.
Without looking back, Ozz threw a punch behind him.
In an instant, several hundred meters of glacier were crushed into powder.
The aftershock of the spatial quake spread tens of thousands of meters beneath the sea. Even the Thousand Sunny, already far away from Punk Hazard, began to rock violently.
The Straw Hats could not help sighing.
"As expected of the New World!"
"A tsunami suddenly appears out of nowhere. Is the weather in the New World really this unpredictable?!"
At the center of the battlefield, the two men silently stared at each other.
"You might really die, Kuzan."
Black-red lightning continuously crackled around Ozz's body, and his eyes sank slightly.
"Death? That doesn't matter anymore."
"It's enough to live in the present."
That was what Garp had taught him.
Never be bound by rules.
Never retreat because of them.
"Is that so?"
Ozz caught an ice ball with one hand, and his body instantly turned into an ice sculpture.
Kuzan instinctively wanted to press the advantage, but an ominous feeling struck him.
Fortunately, an iceberg larger than a giant instantly rose beneath his feet, placing him high above the ground to guard against danger.
The next second, Ozz's fist, tyrannical to the extreme, slammed straight into the iceberg.
The entire mountain was lifted by sheer monstrous strength.
A solemn look appeared in Kuzan's eyes as he struggled to steady himself.
While the two clashed head-on amid the glaciers, with Ozz chasing Kuzan down, Doflamingo stood in midair and let out a malicious fuffuffu laugh.
He was preparing to make a little move.
But at that moment, an extremely swift slash shot toward the sky, forcing him to give up and defend with Five Color Strings.
"Who is it?!"
From within the sea of clouds, a figure appeared holding a black blade, carrying the pressure of a superior life-form.
"No one is allowed to interfere with Teacher Ozz's battle!"
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