Crocodile Gets Brutalized
Alabasta Rainbase Plaza
The midday sun shone on the damp stone pavement, and the Rainbase Square was as bustling as ever, with crowds flowing in and out.
Sudden--
"Boom--!"
A figure plummeted from the sky, engulfed in flames!
"Ahhh!! A person on fire fell down!!"
"Get out of the way!!"
Terrified screams instantly echoed throughout the street. Passersby scattered and fled, and vendors ran for their lives without even having time to pack up their stalls.
The fiery figure crashed heavily into the center of the square, shattering the paving stones with a deafening roar. A series of fiery Shockwaves spread outwards, filling the air with smoke and dust!
Amidst the sandstorm, Crocodile emerged from his sand-like state and staggered backward, his cloak charred and his left shoulder blackened, sweat pouring down his forehead.
"Damn it... that brat in the navy next to him is actually this strong?!"
He growled as he extinguished the remaining flames on his body, only to feel the sunlight suddenly dim for a moment.
"?!!"
He suddenly looked up, his pupils shrinking sharply!
In mid-air, Ace's legs had completely turned into flames, and he stood suspended in mid-air, holding aloft the huge metal crocodile head statue from the casino roof!
"Hey, Crocodile-- "
"Still dare to slack off?"
Ace grinned and swung his sword fiercely!
"Bang--!"
The crocodile head statue, carrying intense heat and the Impact force of a meteorite, crashed down on Crocodile's head!
Crocodile's pupils dilated violently, and in the final instant, he suddenly turned into sand!
"Boom--!"
The crocodile's head slammed into the ground, instantly igniting the flames that Ace was imbued with, and the entire plaza was engulfed in flames in an instant!
The ground cracked and stone chips flew everywhere. Flames roared like a giant beast, and thick smoke shot straight into the sky. Several surrounding buildings collapsed in the Shockwave!
Immediately afterwards--
"Fire Ring· Fire Pillar!!"
Ace crossed his arms, and flames condensed into a massive, scorching Fire Pillar, which suddenly crashed down vertically from mid-air!
"Boom!!"
On the ground, Crocodile had just reformed his human form, roared in response!
"Sables!!"
A towering Sandstorm shot into the sky, colliding head-on with the Fire Pillar!
Flames and dust clashed and intertwined, the air was scorched and distorted, and terrifying shockwaves crashed outwards like giant waves, causing the entire square to shake violently as if in an earthquake!
At the top of the Rain Dinners, Roy stood on the high platform, his gaze calm and composed.
With a wave of his hand, he instantly teleported the civilians of an entire block to a safe distance within a few breaths.
"It's okay to vandalize the land, but you can't harm civilians."
He had just stopped when he heard the soft sound of high heels clicking on the ground behind him.
Nicole Robin walked to his side, her trench coat billowing in the wind, her expression complex. "The Works team has completed the clearing operation as ordered."
She paused, gazing at the center of the plaza engulfed in flames and dust, her tone unusually tinged with worry. "That young marine... is he alright?"
Roy smiled slightly, a relaxed expression playing on his lips. "You mean Ace?"
Don't worry~
That's my brother.
"Taking down a 'little crocodile' is a piece of cake," he glanced at the Battlefield, his tone nonchalant.
Robin: "..."
Her lips twitched slightly. After a few seconds of silence, she murmured to herself, "That's... Shichibukai..."
"What exactly do you two think of the 'Shichibukai'?"
In the center of the Battlefield, flames soared into the sky, Sandstorms roared, and the battle between Fire Fist and Crocodile continued to escalate.
The sky was scorched yellow, and the ground was torn into ruins intertwined with charred sand and gravel.
Amidst the billowing dust and smoke, two figures clashed fiercely in the flames of battle, the roar deafening!
Crocodile knelt on one knee, his face grim, his Golden Hook Claws deeply embedded in the ground, surrounded by swirling dust, like a giant python ready to tear at anything at any moment.
He gritted his teeth and growled, his voice low and furious. "... Damn it, this brat with the Fire Fist is much stronger than the intelligence said!"
His cloak had been burned to ashes, his right arm was scalded, and his elemental body showed faint signs of crystallization.
Suddenly, he abruptly raised his head, his pupils flashing with a fierce light!
"Desert Spada!!"
"Whoosh--!"
With a shriek, the raging sand gathered into a giant crescent-shaped sand blade on his arm, tearing through the Sky Splitter with a storm-like slash, and sweeping towards Ace's waist!
The sand blades surged like a tsunami, enough to sweep across the entire block!
Ace simply smiled, his eyes revealing a hint of laziness and disdain.
He abruptly retracted his right fist, and jet-black Armament Haki clung to it like iron ink. Flames were violently compressed at the edge of his fist, flashing with extremely unstable white-hot light.
"Great Flame Explosion - Penetrate!"
"Boom--!"
Flames erupted!
It was a ball of white-hot flame compressed to its limit, like a precise cannon shot, instantly piercing through the air and crashing into the sand blade!
"Sizzle--!"
The intense heat melted the sand blade into a glassy crystal upon impact, which then shattered into countless pieces with a loud crack during the massive Impact!
Crocodile's pupils dilated in shock. "How is this possible...? This flame can actually penetrate the density of my sand blades?!"
Before he could react, his vision suddenly went dark—
Ace had transformed into a blazing streak of light and hurtled towards them!
"Flame Explosion - Starburst!!"
"Bang bang--!"
Enveloped in blazing white flames, his fists slammed down like a meteor shower, their rhythm as fierce as war drums!
Each strike was accompanied by extreme temperatures and Impacts, causing the ground to crack and sparks to fly!
Crocodile gritted his teeth, dodging and turning into sand, while simultaneously launching counterattacks. However, each time the sandy parts were just turned into sand, they were forcibly "burned" solid by the high temperature, even resulting in crystallization burns!
"Hiss--!"
He groaned, his shoulder slammed back several meters by a punch, half of his body nearly exploding.
"We can't delay any longer... we must suppress his flames!"
He gritted his teeth and roared, slamming his hands on the ground. "Erosion Cycle!!"
"Boom!!"
Centered on him, the ground rapidly turned to sand, and the moisture and oxygen in the air were quickly sucked away, turning the entire square into a dry, suffocating Purgatory in an instant!
The flickering of the flames paused abruptly, and the light emanating from Ace's body dimmed noticeably.
Crocodile grinned and spread his arms wide, wantonly absorbing the moisture and oxygen from the surrounding air. The ground beneath his feet quickly turned to sand, and the scorching Battlefield seemed to have been drained of its last drop of blood.
"Without oxygen, let's see how long you can keep burning up?"
He threw his head back and laughed, causing the sand and dust to churn, as if he alone controlled the world.
"The true terror of the Sand-Sand Fruit..."
His voice was low and cold, like sand crushing the heart. "Not destruction, but—deprivation!!"
But the next second, that twisted smile froze on his face.
He saw the young man in the flames slowly take a deep breath.
In that instant, it was as if all the air had been drawn back into his body.
The flames surrounding Ace suddenly subsided, compressing and converging, making his silhouette extremely clear, as if the blazing sun had been forged into a body of steel. On his fists, blazing white light flickered, like the silence before Supernovas explosion.
Then, he moved.
"--Great Flame Commandment - Piercing the Sun!!"
"Thump!!"
A deafening roar, like the sound barrier exploding, suddenly resounded throughout the Battlefield!
Ace's figure transformed into a beam of light that Heaven Breaker, breaking the sound barrier in an instant, and becoming an extremely thin, white-hot stream that swept through the plaza!
Like a fragment of the sun, it streaked across the sky at an incredible speed!
Wherever it passed, the air twisted and collapsed, forming a vacuum trajectory. A fierce wind rose into the air, and the streets collapsed instantly. The sand and stone bricks on the ground melted directly into flowing red glass, and even time seemed to be torn apart!
"Whoosh--!"
Crocodile's eyelids twitched violently, and he instinctively turned into sand, trying to escape!
But it was too late!
"Pfft--!"
The Piercing the Sun pierced through his right shoulder in an instant! The high temperature directly penetrated the sandy structure, forcibly burning out a "solid wound"!
The burned area became transparent and crystallized, with radial cracks all over the edges, and a faint sizzling sound could be heard in the air!
"Ughhh--!"
Crocodile let out an unprecedented scream as he was sent flying backward!
He crashed heavily into the ruins of a building, flames spreading along his wound, his clothes charred, and his entire right arm on the verge of disintegration!
A scorch mark, a blend of black and red, was left on the ground, as if slashed by a god in fury, an eternal inscription!
He lay on the ground, his shoulder steaming, his face contorted in pain, curled up in a ball.
As he trembled and looked down at his sand-covered body, pierced through—
In that area, the sand grains could no longer aggregate, and the elemental structure failed, as if the high temperature had completely stripped away the foundation that supported their ability!
His lips were pale, and he almost murmured, "This guy... he can actually compress flames into a thin line—"
"It can even penetrate elemental forms?!"
He gazed silently at the straight, sunburnt mark that pierced the Piercing the Sun, his brows unmoved, his eyes deep and unfathomable.
Robin stood beside him, her fingertips trembling slightly, gazing at Crocodile who had been knocked away in the distance, her heart unable to find peace for a long time.
She spoke in a low voice, "Your brother... that move just now, was it compressing flames to the extreme and releasing them in a laser-like line?"
Roy nodded casually, his voice relaxed with a hint of teasing. "Yeah, call it 'Guan Ri' (meaning 'Piercing the Sun')."
"I originally wanted to try it on Uncle Kizaru."
Robin: "..."
She was silent for three seconds, and finally only uttered one sentence:
"Were you two brothers born to disrupt the balance?"