To them who were above the Skull dome, nothing that was happening below mattered…
Kaido stared at Ian who was floating and sitting cross-legged nearby…
'This brat is not taking this seriously…' Kaido remarked to himself. Behind him, Shiki was also glaring at Ian with equal intensity.
While both men were a bit winded, it was nothing they couldn't shrug off.
So with a shared look and a nod, both resumed their attack.
"I'll have to get serious myself…" Kaido thought.
It might not show on his face, but even he was having an exciting fight. How long has it been since he fought with his all against someone?
And now to have Ian here stand before him worthy enough for him to go all out, of course, he'll be excited.
But Kaido knew that the playing time was now over, it was time to start the fight for real…
"The real fight will start from now on!" Kaido glared at Ian as he spoke.
His form then started to expand and smoke started to surround his form.
His muscles also started to expand and as they did so scales appeared over his arms, legs, and on his chest, while two more horns started to appear over Kaido's head. Thus Kaido's already huge form became even bigger. A tail also sprung into existence shortly after.
Ian grinned at seeing this.
Kaido's aura just now shot through the roof…
"So this is your Human-Hybrid Zoan form?" Ian muttered to himself while keeping the smile.
The next thing Ian saw was Kaido vanish and reappear near him instantly with his black lightning clad Kanabo swung to deliver a strike to him.
But Ian just smirked at this.
Using his hand he stopped the weapon from touching him.
In fact, the weapon was stopped a bit away from where Ian's hand was. They were not even touching.
He then moved his other hand in order to deliver a punch but Kaido jumped back quickly and readied for another strike.
"Observation…"
Ian raised a brow. This was clear use of observation Haki… and Kaido earlier on their fight used neither observation nor Armament.
It appears his words of fighting seriously from now on were true.
Still, though Ian had to dodge swiftly however when several weapons ranging from swords, battle axes, spears, came flying at him from everywhere. They were spinning and Ian knew that anyone touched by them would be cut into two…
But even as he turned to lightning and dodged them, they started to follow him.
Ian turned to look at Shiki, who was responsible for this…
"Don't think I am out of this fight just yet you brat!" Shiki smirked at him.
He for now focused on regaining his Haki that he used in that last attack and Shield. So he settled for using smaller objects and manipulating them to give Kaido an opening…
Though even in his current state, manipulating thousands of such weapons was easy for him. In fact, it barely equated to transforming earth to one lion-headed shape.
Through their whole battle, he had been touching every fallen weapon around… and there was a lot of them. This was a habit of his and it had helped him plenty of times. His devil fruit works only on objects he touches after all…
Ian then used his powers and made a barrier that stopped all swords from continuing, as they spun and tried to break the barrier, meanwhile Kaido who didn't want to waste this chance when Ian was distracted used the opportunity to attack.
He made a cloud appear near him that he used as a foothold to jump to the sky before he started to spin and then descend at a fast speed looming over Ian's form.
"HAH," He yelled as he this time used both Conqueror Haki and Armament on his Kanabo that he was holding with both hands to deal a devastating strike to Ian.
"KOSANZE!!"
The club smashed into the shield that was barely holding on against the various weapons and destroyed it before Kaido continued on smashing towards Ian who raised his Haki coated hands and crossed them above his head to tank the attack.
Even as the Kanabo made contact Ian held his guard and didn't appear to be suffering, until the ground he was standing on, or rather the skull, caved in and he was seen falling by Kaido who gathered a huge momentum from spinning.
"RAGNARAKU!!" Kaido yelled after Ian was sent falling down.
"How do you like that brat hahah" Shiki started to laugh from afar as he sent the spinning weapons following after Ian.
But Ian came flying back up soon after as he rotated his shoulders a bit…
"That was a nice attack." He gave Kaido a thumbs up. Which managed to anger him even more.
"Well, let me try something of my own then…" just as he finished saying this he vanished from their vision.
And the next thing Shiki's eyes registered was Kaido's form keeled over by Ian who had his right elbow hitting Kaido in his solar plexus while at the same time Lightning exploded from Kaido's back as if it went right through his body.
"Cough!" Kaido coughed blood.
Ian then moved on in the same manner and appeared right next to Shiki who had his mouth wide open and delivered a similar attack to the dumbstruck person.
Except in Shiki's state, it was a kick that threw him right next to Kaido, who even as he was keeled over and having an arm laid on his chest managed to react and caught Shiki with his other arm…
Ian then grinned at them.
"I'm sure you are still up for some more right?" He said before he brought both hands together and started to release electricity into to form a spherical shape.
And then when he felt he had compressed enough, he pushed both palms towards them, and a beam of pure lightning was shot at them reaching their form instantly.
"Damn it!" Shiki cursed as he saw this…
Kaido wiped the blood on his mouth with his hands and got into a stance to take the attack.
But Ian even before the attack made it furrowed his brows as if he didn't like what was about to happen.
"So you finally made it…" He muttered to himself.
And that was exactly what happened. Another person appeared shortly afterward and he, without even taking his hands out of his pants, stopped the attack.
Or rather absorbed it is more appropriate. There was a barrier right in front of the attack and it absorbed it immediately and then it spat it back much more larger than before.
Ian estimated that it was now three times more dangerous than before. Both in power and in speed.
But even as it reached him in a second he didn't panic at all.
Coating his hand with Haki Ian waited until the last second before bitch slapping the attack and redirecting towards a few large auras he had felt earlier on the battlefield.
All of this happened in an instant, so whoever was targeted by the attack now was as good as dead.
Ian made eye contact with the newest addition on top of the skull dome.
"So you are that famous bounty hunter… If I am not wrong, you are known as the 'Mirror Demon' Faust… That ability you used is indeed fit to be called as such…" Ian looked at him as he spoke.
The barrier that absorbed Ian's attack can be called a mirror since it reflected his attack, and for the demon part, it must be related to how the attack came back much stronger than before.
In fact, Ian had already felt his aura earlier along with the others that were fighting Elene and Kuzan… he also felt him when he was climbing up the castle to come join them so he was not shocked at all…
Rather, Ian was more concerned with the fact that, even if the demon's name was not related to his ability, it was in fact, true… since he was a diávoloi!
****
[A/N: The name, nickname, and abilities, along with the background of this bounty hunter and another guy that will be shown later, were suggested by 'Edalon'. So once again, thank you, bro.]