"I wonder how Enel and Crocodile are doing?"
On the island, Shanks was visibly worried. Enel was powerful, no question, but Katakuri was a veteran fighter with an established reputation—one of the most dangerous men in the New World.
After all, Enel was still just a teenager this year—not much older than Luffy had been when he first set out to sea.
"Relax. That guy is the vice captain I personally vouched for!" Buggy said with a note of pride. He and Enel sparred constantly, but it was precisely because of that rivalry that he had faith in the man.
They had both been trained by Lord Ren. How could they possibly lose to someone like that?
Buggy was utterly confident.
In his mind, he himself was destined to become a force as mighty as Whitebeard. As for Enel, at the very minimum, the guy needed to match an Admiral's strength before he was fit to be Buggy's right hand.
"You really do have a lot of confidence in your vice captain," Shanks said with a grin. Then he turned toward the distant figure of Beckman and shouted, "Hey, Beckman! You'd better step it up! We can't let the Buggy Pirates outshine us!"
In the distance, where Beckman was sparring with Dracule Mihawk, the man had to suppress an eye roll.
He had been training with ruthless discipline lately. He'd sacrificed every bit of free time—even the time he would have used chasing girls—to hone his Haki. What more could Shanks possibly want from him?
Did Shanks literally need him to press a gun to an Admiral's forehead and tell them not to move?
…
At that very moment, the people they had been discussing were fighting their last exchange.
Now Crocodile understood why Cracker was so obsessed with his biscuit soldiers. This fighting style required minimal energy and kept the user completely out of harm's way. Who wouldn't love that?
His sand beasts and Cracker's biscuit soldiers were locked in savage combat. Both sides endlessly replenished their destroyed pawns. What was technically a duel between two men had turned into a war of armies.
This was the reversal Cracker had feared. His once-unstoppable strategy was now just a pointless drain on stamina. If this continued, he'd be finished. There was no choice left—he had to fight personally.
Cracker fashioned a thick suit of rigid biscuit armor around his entire body. He was terrified of pain, but that didn't mean his combat strength was weak.
Quite the opposite. As one of the monsters of the Charlotte Family, Cracker's fighting power was formidable.
"So the turtle finally leaves his shell?" Crocodile's normally immaculate pompadour had become disheveled. Now that Cracker had shown his true face, he felt a flicker of relief.
The earlier battle had been unbearably frustrating. Whether he won or lost, at least things would be settled now. Of course, Crocodile believed he would win.
"Die! Desert Greatsword!"
Crocodile, young, ruthless, and without the slightest regard for fair play, struck without warning.
His arm had vanished at some point. Simultaneously, a stream of quicksand slithered like a serpent behind Cracker, then erupted from the ground with a sharp hiss, attempting to slice him in half at the waist.
But Cracker was no pushover. He parried with his Pretzel blade, then used a burst of speed to appear behind Crocodile in an instant, thrusting his sword forward.
Crocodile's body dissolved into a swirling mini-sandstorm around Cracker. Within the vortex, countless sand blades shot outward toward Cracker like a meat grinder.
"Be buried in the sea of sand! Desert Sunflower!"
Crocodile manipulated the endless quicksand to engulf Cracker. The waves of sand threatened to swallow him whole.
This technique operated on almost the same principle as the burial move Katakuri used after his Awakening—evidence that Logia users were simply unreasonable in their power. What Katakuri had needed Awakening to achieve, a Logia user could accomplish with ease.
In a heartbeat, the quicksand had consumed half of Cracker's body. In his cruelty, there was a trace of mercy in Crocodile's method—enemies buried this way would have the risen dune serve as their tomb.
It just wouldn't come with a headstone.
But how could such a trick work on Cracker?
His body twisted violently, bursting free of the sand in a single motion. He planted his feet on the air itself and launched a Pretzel thrust directly at Crocodile.
"Desert Sword!"
Crocodile showed no fear, meeting the attack head-on with his own Haki-infused sand blade.
The two fighters clashed at point-blank range.
"Desert Diamond Blade!"
"Desert Greatsword!"
"Aaaagh—!"
"You bastard! That hurts so much!"
Cracker suddenly shrieked, rolling across the ground as if he had suffered a catastrophic wound.
That reaction actually left Crocodile at a loss.
He couldn't make sense of what the guy was doing. As far as damage went, Crocodile had taken far worse hits than Cracker without making a single sound. Cracker was screaming his head off over what amounted to a mere scratch.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! You bastard!"
Watching Cracker's theatrics, something clicked in Crocodile's mind, and he burst into mocking laughter.
"Are you afraid of pain? Ha! What a spoiled baby. Why don't you crawl back into your mama's arms?"
"You're dead! Double Pretzel!"
"Desert Sword!"
"Wave Pretzel!"
"Desert Diamond Blade!"
Their silhouettes blurred as they crisscrossed, and wounds mounted on both sides with every exchange. On the other side of the battlefield, the clash between Katakuri and Enel had reached its final moment.
Both fighters had nearly exhausted their stamina. These two were monsters among monsters. Their accumulated injuries would have killed an ordinary person several times over. Yet both men seemed entirely indifferent, clenching their teeth and pressing forward with attack after attack.
"Let's settle this with one move!" Enel suddenly roared.
He knew he and Katakuri had long since burned through their reserves. All they had left was the dregs of their willpower, squeezed into one final blow.
"Explosive Ultimate Impact!"
Katakuri had nothing left either. Seeing Enel commit everything to this strike, he refused to hold back. He wrung out every last shred of power and met the attack at full force.
He had fully acknowledged Enel's strength. This called for his strongest technique.
"Mochi Chanting!"
…
"Burst Pretzel!" Cracker's blade had ignited from the sheer speed of friction. He hadn't yet reached the end of his rope, but the pain had driven him into a frenzy.
Seeing this, Crocodile bet everything—every last drop of his Haki and stamina—on one final strike.
"Desert Diamond Blade!"
[
Dear Readers,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing to you today because things have become genuinely difficult, and I need to be honest about where I stand.
I am currently posting five to seven chapters every day across my active fictions, keeping up with bonus releases and extra chapters on top of that. The schedule is relentless, and I am putting in everything I have to make sure nobody is left waiting.
Going forward, I am also bringing more quality fictions to the table — unfound gems and hidden stories that deserve a wider audience. I want to keep expanding what is available for you to read, but I cannot do it alone.
Right now, my financial situation has dropped to the lowest point it has ever been. Patreon support is not just helpful anymore — it is what keeps this work alive. Without it, I do not know how long I can sustain this daily output or continue hunting down those new stories for you.
If you have been reading and enjoying the work, please consider joining a tier. I have increased what each tier offers so that your support goes further:
Adventurer — $3 per month
20 chapters in advance for all of my works
Warrior — $7 per month
40 chapters in advance for all of my works
Immortal — $10 per month (Highlighted Tier)
60 chapters in advance for all of my works
Access to character images
Important note: Subscribing through the Apple App adds an extra 30 percent fee due to Apple/Patreon policy. Please subscribe through your browser to avoid the extra charge. Apple also processes payments very late — two to three months — which makes it much harder for me to receive funds quickly when I need them most.
I am pleading with you because I need your help right now. Your support would let me keep the daily releases going, keep the early access flowing, and keep bringing you those new, quality fictions I have lined up. It would keep my head above water while I do what I love.
If you cannot subscribe, sharing the work with others who might enjoy it still helps more than you know.
Thank you for reading, and thank you for your time.
Patreon: patreon.com/anish_44
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/anish_44
]