"Oh! That attack was quite powerful."
When every single clone was destroyed, Kizaru was still casually talking, even though his body was also split in half.
But the next moment, his body turned into photons and merged to reform his body.
He appeared a few meters away from Liam with the same smile on his face.
'Sure enough! Even if my attack is strong enough to hurt him, I can't get hold of him. Unless I use Blazing Fire Mode, which can increase my speed, I am not sure of causing any damage to him.'
'But if I use that mode, I would get exhausted pretty quickly. I can't do that. I have to find another way to match his speed. Hmm! Let's try that move.'
Liam took out a bunch of Kunai and shurikens from an external pocket attached to his pants and threw them around Kizaru.
When he found that he would face off against Kizaru, he had been making a plan to match Kizaru's speed.
Normally, that shouldn't be possible, but many people could fight Kizaru regularly.
Maybe they weren't faster than him, but they could still compete rather easily, which made him believe that there was another way to match Kizaru's speed.
Then, he remembered Luffy's fight with Kizaru.
In his Gear Five, he was able to casually interrupt light-speed attacks. That would make sense since he could easily catch lightning bolts.
But Kaido, despite his bulky size, was still able to keep up with Luffy, which was a bit confusing until he realized something.
While Liam had thrown those kunai and shurikens, Kizaru was watching him closely. After all, he didn't want to get hit by Liam at the start of this battle.
Just when he thought of that, his Observation Haki gave him a strong warning.
Before he realized it, Liam appeared on his left side and swung his sword, coated with Advanced Armament Haki.
[Light Shield]
At the last moment, Kizaru managed to form a triangular shield with his light by crossing his fingers.
Bang! Crack! Bang!
Liam's sword released a powerful sword slash that struck the light shield and broke it into pieces. Then, it struck Kizaru.
Thud! Thud!
Kizaru was sent gliding and sliding several hundred meters above the ground. Because he didn't even get the time to turn into light, his body was tumbling on the ground as he slid away.
Bang!
He struck a large house before coming to a stop. The next second, his body turned into light, and he instantly reformed outside the house.
Only this time, he had blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, a sharp wound on his left arm, and several bruises on his face.
Seeing this, Liam couldn't help but feel heartbroken.
Not because he was sad to see Kizaru hurt, but because he couldn't use Conqueror Coating in that attack.
"Amazing, Vice Captain! I never thought Observation Haki and Soru could be used in such a way. I am kinda regretting now that I didn't take teacher Zephyr's classes seriously."
Liam shrugged his shoulders and nonchalantly replied.
"What can I say? When I realized that I had to fight you, I needed a method that could help me achieve your level of strength without a monstrous physique like you guys."
"Otherwise, if I use my trump card too early, I might not be able to hold on for much longer."
This was similar to Flying Thunder God except there was no Chakra, and Seals were replaced by Observation Haki.
When he realized that people like Kaido, Garp, Shanks, and other powerful people could achieve light speed just by their sheer strength, he quickly realized that it had something to do with Soru.
Soru was a Rokushiki technique that allowed a person to move around a short distance with a speed similar to teleportation.
It was done by kicking the ground more than ten times in less than a second.
By doing so, the user could generate enough force to propel himself in any direction desired, as long as the user had enough control.
If he didn't, then the result would be similar to Black Cat Pirate Captain Kuro from East Blue.
Liam had exceptional control. While he might not have been training for years like other people, his physical strength had improved quite a lot.
Especially after he started taking the vitality of others.
So, by using Observation Haki to sense those Kunai and Shurikens, he could let his body instinctively travel towards those using Soru.
This allowed him to achieve a speed similar to teleportation of the Flying Thunder God, but there was a big restriction.
Unlike real teleportation, he was just using high-speed movement. That meant if someone could see his speed, they could also interrupt it.
So, this move was highly risky, especially against a speed user like Kizaru.
But he had no choice. Unless he could explode similar level of speed every single time, he could only rely on this fighting style to catch Kizaru off guard.
That's why he felt heartbroken about his previous attack.
He couldn't release his Conqueror Haki before the attack because that would only give more signals to Kizaru.
But when he wanted to use Conqueror coating, he couldn't do it because he was moving too fast to concentrate on his Conqueror Haki.
Even his Armament Haki was prepared beforehand; otherwise, he had to attack with simple punches or slashes.
People like Kaido and even Luffy had so much physical strength that they could easily adapt to this level of speed, but Liam lacked in this category.
Even Luffy was lacking because his base form wasn't so strong.
Only in his Gear Fourth or Fifth, he had that level of power and speed.
Liam took a deep breath and muttered.
"I didn't get a chance to train beforehand. I was sent on this adventure out of nowhere, but I managed to adapt. I can do this. I can adapt once again."
Saying so, he disappeared once more.
This time, Kizaru was already prepared, so he quickly sensed Liam's presence several dozen meters away, which puzzled him, but his expression quickly changed.
Because that presence disappeared on that exact point and reappeared just next to him.
This made him unable to react as Liam's Conqueror Haki exploded.
Though it was released, he couldn't coat his blade with Conqueror Haki on time and had to slash with his Advance Armament Haki.
Even though Kizaru reacted a bit slower than before, he still managed to shoot Yata Mirror light from between the palms of his hands and used that light to travel out of Liam's attack range.
Though Liam had already launched the attack, and it was simply going to strike the light that was trying to move away.
The Armament Haki captured the body of Kizaru as the slash began to tear him in half, which Kizaru allowed him to do so.
Liam was confused, but he quickly remembered something and tried to raise his sword and swing it again, only to find Kizaru being slammed away into a building on two different points.
Those two light beams quickly flew back to the middle and reformed into Kizaru, whose clothes were even messier than before.
His ribs had a sharp wound, but it barely grazed his skin. This time, Kizaru didn't talk nonsense but quickly formed a light sword in his hand.
[Ama No Murakumo Sword]
Holding the sword in his hand, Kizaru rushed towards Liam while thinking.
'I can't give this guy a chance to plan. Even with my Haki and speed, I can still be caught off guard by his high-speed movement attack. Fortunately, he couldn't coat his blade with Conqueror; otherwise, it would've hurt even more.'
'Being attacked by Conqueror Coating is no joke. Even I would feel pain if I were attacked by such, so I mustn't let him use Conqueror Coating unless I am sure of countering him with my attack.'
Kizaru instantly reached Liam and slashed his sword down.
Liam also understood Kizaru's intention and slashed his sword up.
Their swords collided in the middle, creating powerful sparks of yellow and purple energies around.
As they clashed, their swords began to release so much shockwave that they were destroying the ground and the buildings nearby.
While clashing with Liam, Kizaru couldn't help but ask.
"Liam, I am curious about one thing. Is Kuma with you?"
Hearing that, Liam was startled at first, but he didn't show any shocking expressions. Instead, he gave him a calm smile and asked back.
"Why? You're scared because Paw Paw Fruit is one of the only fruits that has mobility comparable to yours?"
Kizaru shook his head and replied.
"Not exactly! I am just worried about a friend of mine. Because that friend of mine is the friend of Kuma. So, does that make me a friend of Kuma? But I can't be friends with pirates."
"Even someone like Garp wouldn't befriend a pirate."