170 A whole new realm of speed!

In order to save the two old fogies and not end up implicated by this hidden leader 'Im,' Kizaru had no choice but to use his trump card.

Three seconds. That was all Kizaru would be able to stay in that state.

Although the fruit was said to be the light fruit, its owner could never reach such speed.

In fact, usually, Kizaru moved at sub-relativistic speeds, which is not even 10% of the light speed. And even that too took its toll on him.

For example, he would always feel somewhat tired. He could also move only in straight lines. His brain couldn't keep up with the speed, so he spoke somewhat slowly. And while his body was that fast, his reaction speed couldn't keep up at all.

This is where his trump card would shine.

For a brief moment, three seconds to be exact, Kizaru would truly live up to his epithet of the fastest man alive.

When in that state he would be able to move 'And' react in sub-relativistic speeds.

No more should be said.

Quite possibly this was the limit a person could reach in this world in terms of speed. Or, at the very least very few would be able to do that.

Looking at Ian, Kizaru knew that this was a tough opponent and he would have to go all out.

The space surrounding the two started to distort or rather the light around them was making it sound as if it was.

Kizaru's body started to change.

Light energy started to surround him and by the end of it, Kizaru had changed to somewhat look quite fearsome.

His cloak was already discarded to the side.

Now his whole body was glowing in the previous yellow light now almost white.

His hair had turned into light particles as it swayed upwards.

Kizaru pointed his right arm sideways and then instead of a sword appearing, his whole arm turned into light and was shaped like a sword.

Then under Ian's watching eyes, Kizaru vanished.

From that moment on, Ian was not able to track Kizaru at all.

Kizaru had entered into a whole new realm of speed. A realm where only he was capable of moving.

This was proven when Kizaru suddenly appeared near Ian. Meanwhile, Ian had still not moved his eyes from where Kizaru had been.

Bringing in his sword down towards Ian, in an attempt to behead him, Kizaru encountered a sort of barrier that actually managed to withstand the whole force behind his move even at its massive speed, but he was not discouraged at all. Rather he continued on attacking with multiple successive strikes with the final one managing to crack the barrier a bit.

However due to the force behind the strike Ian's whole body was thrown backward and into the ground where he was buried leaving a trench behind him.

Still, Kizaru could swear that before Ian was thrown down, his eyes had moved a bit to look at him, albeit sluggishly. And he had seen such deep anger in them that he felt absolute fear for a bit there. But then he resolved to continue as Ian was going to die anyway.

Ian's whole body was in a sort of defensive stance where he was crossing his arms and his spear was already stored away. And though the dust wouldn't settle down due to how fast Kizaru was moving he was still able to pick up Ian's form buried somewhat within the ground. And his barrier that was cracked by Kizaru's multiple strikes didn't suffer at all from the impact of being thrown to the ground.

A testament to how strong Kizaru's strikes had become. And to how strong Ian's shield is.

Kizaru's thoughts moved at the same speed his body was capable of now. And he immediately concluded that he needed to destroy Ian's shield or his strikes would deal no damage.

He moved near him and again kicked him to the sky, and this time he clearly saw Ian's eyeballs trying to follow his movement.

'Such a monster!' He couldn't help but exclaim.

He then readied his next attack. There was no time to waste. He knew that once the state he was in wore off he was going to be in for a world of pain. As he was currently light so he wouldn't be able to feel any pain.

The light that had spread around the two of them suddenly changed form to become laser energy and they all fired at Ian from all directions.

From the back, front, down up, from everywhere strikes landed on Ian's body.

And Kizaru didn't let on, he was short on time, and though three seconds at this state appeared to him to be longer he was sure that it was almost done.

The strikes landed once again. And just like that, he had fired off plenty of strikes and he was sure he only had one second left now.

But the good news was that he had destroyed the barrier finally.

A strange armor was seen on Ian like some sort of scales. But he was sure that since Ian had added the barrier then it was not that great.

He tested it by moving near him and delivering a strike with his light sword straight to his neck.

His strikes since a moment ago were all attempting to kill Ian.

But to his surprise, his strike didn't do anything.

He followed by various strikes in an attempt to overwhelm Ian's shield. All in vain.

At this moment Kizaru knew that he had fucked up. And that Ian's shield now was stronger than the barrier.

He tried to follow up by attacking again, but his body suddenly couldn't move.

'Shit!' He cursed in his head.

His body started changing back to his normal form and the pain was starting to spread through his body.

And then just like him, Ian was starting to feel the effects of all the strikes that landed on his body, with the last one that had hit him on the neck before he was thrown backward again.

Explosions finally kept up with time as they started sounding soon after and dust was raised again.

When Ian got up this time, blood was leaking from his mouth. And he felt sore all over his body. His hand moved to massage his neck, where he felt the most amount of strikes had landed.

"Bastard!" Ian growled furiously. His eyes shining with an uncontainable rage. The As*Hole was only targeting places for an instant kill... All his strikes were aiming to kill and to think Ian wanted to have him on his side... Even after Ian told him the truth of the world government, the bastard still tried to kill him... this managed to piss Ian off.

He was quite injured even with his defense.

But it was not something that would inhibit him from expressing how furious he was.

His regeneration kicking in to heal all his injuries at a very fast pace.

In but a few minutes he should be able to use his full power without injuring himself further.

Similarly, Kizaru coughed blood as he fell to the ground when the transformation was finished.

His whole body was paralyzed. And he felt his consciousness slipping away. The last time he had used this he had slept for two months straight. Or rather he was in a coma. And this time he felt it would be even worse.

This was the price for using his trump card.

Ian moved slowly. But he didn't head out towards Kizaru, no. he knew that guy couldn't move now.

He rather went to finish off the two elders.

He did this for two reasons. One he couldn't let them take advantage now and run. And two he wanted to give his body a few more minutes to heal just in case Kizaru had another trump card.

Kizaru who saw Ian do that was both anxious and somewhat relieved he had a few more seconds to live.

He knew that Ian was not going to spare him now that he had tried to kill him.

'I should have just run with the two fogies earlier…' He lamented to himself.