"Awoooo!"
In the desolate, frozen forest of the Freezing Hell, the air was thick with tension.
Dozens of wolves had encircled Kai. They were crouched low to the ground, their front legs tensed like coiled springs. Saliva dripped from their bared teeth as their hungry eyes remained locked on the figure in the center of their circle.
That figure was Kai. He stood perfectly still, his ice blade resting lightly on the ground beside him. His eyes were closed, his posture relaxed. He paid no attention to the beasts gathering around him, standing as motionless as a statue carved from ice.
The tense silence lasted only a moment.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
In the next instant, dozens of wolves lunged at him simultaneously.
The wolf packs of Impel Down were intelligent predators that understood coordinated tactics. They attacked in a wave, each with a designated role, aiming for his neck, his arms, and his legs all at once.
But as the lead wolf leaped, its massive jaws snapping open to tear out his throat, Kai remained unconcerned. He could smell the foul stench of its breath, yet he didn't rush. With a barely perceptible shift of his body to the side, he evaded the deadly attack.
The rest of the pack descended upon him like a furry avalanche.
Kai, however, moved like he was taking a leisurely stroll. With his eyes still closed, he weaved through the storm of claws and teeth. A slight turn here, a small sidestep there with the most minimal of movements, he dodged the attacks of dozens of wolves at once.
This was the application of his mastered Kami-e(Paper Art), but there was something else mixed in now… a faint, shimmering sense of what he knew was Observation Haki.
He hadn't truly grasped it yet. It was a fleeting feeling, a hazy awareness that he could only sometimes tap into. This was the real reason he had left the cell. He needed a larger arena to practice, to push himself. He was using the wolves' relentless attacks to accelerate his learning, to force that hazy feeling into a sharp, clear focus.
SHING!
In a single, fluid motion, Kai had completed a full circle around the confused pack, returning to the exact spot where he had started. He bent down, picked up the ice blade he had left on the ground, and with a casual swing, unleashed a wave of pure sword pressure. The slash cut through the air and bisected a dozen of the attacking wolves in an instant.
The pristine white snow was instantly stained a deep, shocking crimson. The thick, coppery smell of blood filled the air.
This scent was a dinner bell. It attracted more and more wolves from the deeper parts of the forest. Within minutes, the pack surrounding Kai had swelled to over a hundred strong.
Kai remained completely unfazed. He saw them not as threats, but as tools. They were the perfect instruments for him to sharpen his senses and master Haki.
As he continued to move and dodge, he felt a change happening. Using Paper Art for so long had made the act of evasion pure instinct. And as his body moved on its own, his mind was free to focus on that elusive, phantom sense. Slowly but surely, the hazy feeling of Observation Haki began to grow clearer.
For an entire day, he was hunted across the snowfields by hundreds of wolves. And at last, after countless dodges and near misses, Kai finally grasped it.
It had taken him just over a day.
With his existing mastery of Paper Art and his 100-times training speed, that single day was the equivalent of over one hundred days of intense practice. He had finally seized the feeling, truly awakening his Observation Haki. Of course, he would still need time to practice and master it completely.
Grasping that new sense of awareness, Kai's hand closed around the hilt of his ice blade.
The hunt was over. It was time for the slaughter.
"SLASH!"
"SLASH!!"
"SLASH!!"
He charged directly into the heart of the wolf pack. His movements were small and precise. He simply ran, weaving through the chaos, swinging his blade.
Every wolf that lunged at him seemed to magically impale itself on the tip of his sword, its life snuffed out in an instant. Dozens of them attacked at once, yet they couldn't even touch a shadow of his figure. He dodged every attack with ease, and with each flick of his wrist, several more wolves would fall.
At times, he would simply run forward with his blade held out to the side. The wolves in his path seemed to stand still as he passed, the ice blade reaping their lives as he went.
The massive pack of several hundred wolves began to dwindle. Soon, the ground was littered with countless corpses, and only a hundred or so remained. The white snow had become a field of crimson. It was a true slaughterhouse.
The remaining wolves looked at the figure of Kai, who now seemed like a god of death. The hunger in their eyes was replaced by pure, primal fear. They turned and fled back into the depths of the forest.
Throughout the entire battle, Kai had not once opened his eyes. His bare skin was covered in a thin layer of frost from the cold, but not a single drop of blood had touched him.
He didn't pursue the fleeing animals. He simply stood in the center of the carnage, opened his eyes, and gave his ice blade a gentle shake.
The blade, a simple tool made of translucent blue-white ice, had been bathed in the blood of hundreds of beasts. With a single flick, all the blood flew off, leaving the blade as clean and unstained as when he had first formed it.
In his hands, it was no mere piece of ice. It was a weapon with terrifying killing power. Combined with his mastery of 'steel-cutting', Kai was a true powerhouse among Master Swordsmen. At this point, he could probably cut steel with a single sheet of paper.
…
Amidst the crimson snow and the hundreds of wolf corpses, Kai stood calmly, his blade clean.
"Shu! Shu! Shu!"
Suddenly, several figures in striped prisoner uniforms burst from the trees, rushing him from all sides. Their attacks were incredibly fast and brutally efficient. Each punch and kick was aimed at a vital point, and they moved with the understandig of a team that had fought together for years.
BANG! WHOOSH! BOOM!
Their fists and feet tore through the air, creating gusts of wind and small sonic booms. But the only sounds were of their attacks hitting empty air. Their assault was useless. Kai's newly awakened Haki allowed him to perceive and dodge every single blow.
Just as quickly as they attacked, one of them stopped, while the other three leaped back.
"SWISH SWISH SWISH!!!!"
In the next instant, tens of thousands of tiny, near-invisible needles erupted from the man's body, flying out in every direction. They were denser than a downpour, instantly enveloping the space where Kai stood.
He was a Devil Fruit user.
Ordinarily, this would be impossible. All Devil Fruit users in Impel Down were meant to be shackled with Seastone cuffs. Kai himself still wore the cuffs on his wrists, though he had long since broken the chain connecting them. He could have taken them off, but he chose not to. They didn't weaken him in the slightest, and they could be a useful tool against other Devil Fruit users, especially since he hadn't yet mastered Armament Haki.
But against an attack like this, the cuffs were useless. They would allow him to touch the body of a Logia user, but they offered no protection against the powers themselves. He would have to rely on his own strength.
"Haaaah!!"
Kai swung his ice blade in a wide, horizontal arc. A massive wave of sword aura, over ten meters long, erupted from the blade. It crashed into the storm of needles, instantly disintegrating them. The powerful slash continued on, undiminished, sweeping toward the Devil Fruit user who had launched the attack.
SHING!
The sword aura carved a deep, ten-meter-long trench in the bloody snow.
The four attackers had now repositioned themselves, surrounding him once more. The grim look of determination on their faces had been replaced by something else.
"He's already mastered Observation Haki…" one of them said, his voice heavy with disbelief.
The other three said nothing. The grim look on their faces wasn't just concern. It was fear.
Kai's rate of progress wasn't just fast.
It was truly, utterly terrifying.