How is Zoro protecting Luffy an excuse? Unless you can't read, that's what he was doing the entire fight.
He took the Hakai because Luffy was too slow to dodge it and he obviously doesn't want Luffy to die.
Luffy got his ass handed him when he went in to fight Kaido fresh, he just got to sleep it off while the rest of the rooftop 5 did their thing.
Zoro went in with 30 broken bones and did more damage than Luffy did even with AdCoC
He took the Hakai because Luffy was too slow to dodge it and he obviously doesn't want Luffy to die.
Luffy got his ass handed him when he went in to fight Kaido fresh, he just got to sleep it off while the rest of the rooftop 5 did their thing.
Zoro went in with 30 broken bones and did more damage than Luffy did even with AdCoC
Luffy was the one who told them Hakai was coming.
Also Luffy was the one fighting Kaido 1v1 for a long period of time then it was Zoro's turn to go to sleep.
As for Zoro's damage we all saw what it accomplished. Didn't even slow Kaido down and you expect me to believe he did more damage?