Accepting Crocodile's proposal, they headed outside the city limits. Krieg couldn't help but wonder, Was Crocodile always this bellicose?
"Boss, you're really going through with this sparring match? Is it okay to show him your hand...?" Gin's concerned whisper brought Krieg to a realization.
I see. He's trying to scout my combat strength. Krieg took pride in the fact that, over the last six years leading the "Red Seagulls," he had captured more pirates than anyone else in the Marines.
Crocodile was likely calculating whether this Rear Admiral would be an obstacle to his long-term plans.
Since the World Government and even parts of the Navy trusted the Warlord enough to keep a light presence in Alabasta, the only real wild card was a mobile, independent unit like Krieg's.
To Crocodile, information was the ultimate weapon, and this spar was a live data-collection mission.
They moved past the city gates into a vast, barren land of nothing but sand—an environment hostile to any ordinary human life.
"Fighting a Sand-Logia in the middle of a desert feels a bit suicidal," Krieg remarked, beginning to strap on his gear.
"Kuhahahaha! My apologies. But there aren't many places where one can let loose against a Headquarters Rear Admiral."
Krieg equipped his alloy greaves and gauntlets. For a weapon, he decided his heavy war-club, the Shiroo-kon, would suffice.
"Fair enough. Any rules?" Krieg asked, giving the club a few practice swings with his armored, articulated gauntlets.
"It's just a spar. No lethal blows. How does that sound?" Crocodile replied. It was a sensible limit; neither wanted to die over a "greeting."
"And keep the large-scale attacks from leveling the town," Krieg added.
"Then I'll start us off... Desert Spada!!"
Crocodile swung his right arm wide, and it transformed into a blade of sand, sending a razor-sharp shockwave tearing through the dunes toward Krieg.
"As expected of a Logia! Your reach is a lie!!"
Krieg swung his club upward, batting away the sand-blade that could cleave through stone.
"Kuhah! You say that while parrying it so easily! Desert Spada!!"
Seeing the move was effective, Crocodile struck again. Krieg used the high-speed movement of Soru to vanish, the sand behind him splitting open in a massive trench where he had just stood.
"My turn!! Rankyaku: Tsujikaze (Whirlwind)!!"
Krieg unleashed a cross-shaped air-cut from his legs, aiming directly at Crocodile.
"Pointless! I am sand itself... such attacks won't work, will they?"
The air-blades passed harmlessly through Crocodile's shifting body. This was the terror of the Logia class: "Invulnerability." Unless one used the Seastone tip of his club or channeled Haki, physical strikes were meaningless.
However, since this was just a spar, Krieg decided it was the perfect opportunity to see how far he could push a Logia without relying on his "trump cards."
"Then try this... Fist Cannon: Chidire (Thousand Shreds)!!"
Krieg unleashed a blur of punches—ten, twenty, forty strikes in a second.
"I told you, it's useless! Barján (Crescent Dunes)!!"
Unable to land a solid hit, Krieg found his left arm snared by Crocodile's shifting limb. The Warlord began to instantly drain the moisture from Krieg's body.
"Tch! Dehydration is unavoidable, huh? But it seems you can't drain metal."
While the skin of Krieg's upper arm shriveled slightly, the sections covered by his alloy gauntlets remained unaffected.
"Hmph. Saved by your armguards? Then try this! Desert Girasole (Sunflower)!!"
Crocodile slammed his hand into the ground, and the desert began to swirl in a massive, circular quicksand pit, threatening to swallow Krieg whole.
"Tch! Persistent!" Krieg spat, clicking his tongue.
Quicksand was an ant-lion's trap; the more you struggled to run, the deeper you sank. But Krieg simply kicked off the shifting surface, using Geppo to leap high into the air. If the ground was a trap, he'd simply abandon it.
"There! You can't dodge in mid-air! Sables (Sandstorm)!!"
As Krieg hovered, Crocodile unleashed a swirling tornado of sand from his palm. Krieg took a massive, deep breath, expanding his chest to its absolute limit.
"■■■■■ーーッ!!!"
He released the breath in a silent, sonic roar. The sheer atmospheric pressure of the shockwave he exhaled literally "erased" the oncoming sandstorm.
"What kind of lung capacity do you have, you freak?!" Crocodile shouted, frustrated. "Fine, then! Desert—"
Purupurupurupuru...
A silly, high-pitched Den Den Mushi ringtone echoed across the dunes.
"Time out!!" Krieg yelled, dropping back to the ground. He lunged forward and pressed the Seastone-tipped end of the Shiroo-kon against Crocodile's chest, instantly neutralizing the Warlord's powers and freezing him in place.
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed. Claim early access on Patreon: [email protected]/Master_Studios677
🔓 You hold the keys to bonus chapters:💬 10 reviews ignite 1 bonus chapter🔷 100 Power Stones summon another
🔥 Your power determines how fast the tale unfolds.