Elma, outside the city.
"Whew, the color is really good."
Aha was leading his Karoo Duck, Dodol, and digging up a fresh sand shoot in the desert.
This unique plant grew in the deserts of Alabasta, nourished by groundwater and rainfall.
It tasted delicious, was difficult to harvest, and was highly sought after by gourmets.
Aha's profession was that of a "sand shoot merchant."
"The rain summoned by the Rain Summoner last time really came at the perfect moment."
At that moment, Aha tossed the sand shoot into the basket on the Karoo Duck's back and sighed.
Recently, he had no idea how many times he had sighed like that.
People never forgot miracles.
He would never forget the scene he had witnessed with his own eyes—the Rain Summoner emerging from the desert. In a sense, that rain had saved the lives of him, his wife, and his children.
"I just don't know why His Majesty refuses to admit that he knows the Rain Summoner. I clearly heard that the other party had already entered the royal palace."
"Rustle..."
He lit his dry tobacco and muttered under his breath.
"Rustle..."
But after taking only two puffs, he felt that something seemed wrong.
"Rustle..."
He soon reached a conclusion.
"The sound of the sand... isn't right."
Aha furrowed his brows.
As someone who had traveled through the desert for years, he naturally knew it extremely well.
The desert near Elma shifted to some extent every day because of the wind or groundwater, but since a moment ago, it seemed far too active.
The rustling sound of the moving sand was even somewhat grating.
"No, that's not right. The sky and wind direction to the west aren't right either."
Aha soon discovered even more abnormalities.
At the limit of his vision, the sky west of Elma seemed strangely gloomy.
He could even see the sand to the west visibly shifting, yet Aha could not feel much wind coming from that direction.
"Something's wrong."
So Aha decided to go take a look.
His house was nearby. Even for the sake of his wife and children, he had to confirm what was happening.
Thus—
"Dodol!"
"Quack!"
He mounted his Karoo Duck and sped westward.
"I remember that area being the outskirts. I think someone even opened a café there. Hm?"
He was still thinking about it on the way.
Then—
"Quack!"
After cresting a sand dune, the Karoo Duck beneath him suddenly let out a cry of alarm.
It then slammed on the brakes, and the tremendous inertia nearly threw Aha straight off.
"Dodol?! What are you doing—"
Aha's complaint had barely begun when it abruptly stopped.
Because after cresting the sand dune, the scene before him was almost unbelievable.
He saw torrential rain pouring from the sky.
Yet the rain falling from above could not reach the ground. Before it could land, the enormous Sand Curtain rising from the earth and blotting out the sky had already blocked every drop.
That also explained why the sky in this area had looked strange to Aha.
Even the sunlight nearby was completely blocked by the massive Sand Curtain.
"Clack!" "Clack!"
Crisp sounds rang out continuously from all around.
They came from chunks of the Sand Curtain, having absorbed their fill of water, falling from the sky and smashing into the ground.
As those chunks fell, fresh sand continued rising into the sky, maintaining the curtain's existence.
But this magnificent spectacle was not the most astonishing part.
"Boom!"
At that moment, aside from the Sand Curtain blocking the torrential rain, the entire desert within several hundred meters was rolling and churning.
Countless grains of Golden Sand formed Giant Waves that surged without end.
It no longer seemed like a desert, but an "ocean" swept by towering waves.
And atop that Sea of Sand, every other object had vanished.
The stone pillars, shrubs, and even the café that should have stood nearby according to Aha's memories had all disappeared without a trace.
That was why his Karoo Duck had slammed on the brakes.
If he took one more step forward, he would become part of this "desert" as well.
As a citizen of Alabasta, Aha was actually very familiar with such a sight.
Quicksand—the most common and most terrifying "Natural Disaster" in Alabasta.
But the problem was—
"What... is that?"
Aha's murmur was almost dreamlike.
Because he saw them—in the rolling, surging Sea of Sand, there were actually two figures!
"Boom!"
One of them had his lower body completely fused into the Yellow Sand filling the sky.
A golden hook replaced his left hand. Every swing sent sand waves blotting out the sky and condensed enormous Sand Blades.
Wherever those blades passed, the entire desert was cleaved open, leaving behind huge ravines.
If one looked closely, one would even discover that the center of the entire desert's quicksand was precisely this man!
The figure fighting him on the opposite side, however, was very familiar to Aha.
That imposing Dragon Head Mask belonged to the Rain Summoner.
At that moment, this mysterious guest was displaying equally unbelievable power.
He walked through the violent quicksand.
A thin layer of ice spread continuously beneath his feet with every step.
No matter how violently the quicksand surged, the instant it approached him, it froze solid and became a firm foothold.
And whenever Crocodile unleashed the Desert Treasure Sword, enormous Ice Shields appeared beside him and blocked it.
Faced with this unbelievable scene, Aha began to doubt his own judgment.
Because everything before him indisputably told him one fact.
What he was seeing was not a "Natural Disaster," but the work of these two people.
Their battle had directly altered the surrounding terrain.
"Are they... really human?"
Aha could not help asking himself that question.
But then, worry began to rise in his heart.
Even though he was completely incapable of fighting, he could still tell what was happening.
On the battlefield, the man controlling the quicksand clearly held the advantage.
The Rain Summoner, meanwhile, seemed to be suppressed.
But as far as Aha was concerned—he did not know why the two were fighting, but he knew at least one thing.
"The Rain Summoner is the hope of this country now."
He murmured anxiously.
And at that moment—
On the battlefield.
"Kid, I told you. You won't get another chance to use water against me."
Crocodile's voice drifted through the flying Yellow Sand, carrying unmistakable arrogance.
"Whoosh!"
As he spoke, the sharp Desert Treasure Sword roared out once more.
On the other side—
"Clang!"
Dragon raised his hand again, and a suddenly appearing Ice Shield blocked the Desert Treasure Sword.
Before the sharp Sand Blade could cleave through the Ice Shield, Dragon leaped backward and dodged the attack.
"So when you say I won't have another chance, you mean you won't let me touch you?"
Dragon shook his head. "I thought a Shichibukai would have a more impressive strategy than this."
He directly pointed out what Crocodile was doing.
Ever since Crocodile had confirmed that Dragon knew his weakness, and that his ability seemed to be "controlling water," Crocodile had chosen to open the distance and create this quicksand.
Relying on this enormous Sea of Sand, he had continuously attacked Dragon from afar with the power of the Sand-Sand Fruit, never engaging him in close combat.
"A strategy only needs to be effective enough to secure victory."
Crocodile spoke calmly.
"As for face or honor—those things only appear on tombstones."
As he spoke, he swept his right hand again. Another enormous Giant Hand made of Yellow Sand rose from the Sea of Sand and lunged toward Dragon.
"Voom!"
Dragon leaped into the air and dodged the attack.
Crocodile did not care in the slightest that his attack had missed.
He was a Logia Ability User of the Sand-Sand Fruit.
And Logia Ability Users represented "nature."
Thus, their power was equivalent to a "Natural Disaster."
When Paramecia and Zoan Ability Users used their abilities to cause large-scale attacks from a distance, they often had to expend a great deal of stamina.
Logia Ability Users were different.
They could create their elements out of thin air. For them, large-scale attacks were extremely easy to achieve.
Especially in their own "natural environment," controlling the elements within that environment consumed almost no stamina.
That was precisely why the Logia type was known as the strongest Devil Fruit type!
Take Crocodile at that moment, for example.
Continuously controlling the Yellow Sand from a great distance to attack Dragon was practically instinctive for him. The sand was an extension of his body, and barely any stamina was consumed.
"Your ability can indeed threaten me, but there's a difference in rank between our abilities."
After saying that, he waved his hand again.
Several Sand Blades shot forward, but Dragon dodged them once more.
"Victory? Aren't you saying that a little too soon?"
Dragon chuckled softly.
Beneath the mask, Luo Yi's expression even carried a hint of amusement.
In fact, Crocodile's choice was exactly what he had hoped for.
Crocodile did not want to engage him in close combat, and Luo Yi wanted it even less. Because his Slice Clone, Dragon, did not have enough Fruit Slots, he had not added any Devil Fruit that enhanced physical abilities.
As a result, he could only use Rokushiki with great difficulty.
If Crocodile fought him at close range, Luo Yi would actually be more wary.
But since Crocodile had chosen to compete with him through their abilities, naturally, he could not have been more pleased.
And at that moment—
"Time's up."
He murmured inwardly.
Before his eyes, on the Light Screen—
[Logia · Sand-Sand Fruit, analysis completion: 100%]
The Light Screen's contents indicated that he no longer needed to conserve his stamina.
So—
"Other things can be overlooked, but I absolutely can't pretend I didn't hear you say that there's a gap between our Devil Fruit Abilities!"
As his words fell, Dragon landed.
He slowly raised his hand and snapped his fingers!
Then Crocodile saw a colossal object suddenly rise from beneath Dragon's feet!
"Boom!"
The earth trembled, and the earth veins roared.
Accompanying that deep, heavy sound was a chill as cold as winter itself.
The cold was so intense that even Aha, watching from far away, shuddered all over.
And then he saw the Rain Summoner slowly rise into the air—or, more precisely, get lifted up by something beneath his feet.
It was a gigantic, crystal-clear object.
Carrying a bone-chilling cold, it broke through the Sea of Sand and rose from the ground, appearing in this kingdom that had originally belonged solely to the sand.
It was a... mountain of ice!
[Frozen Frost Mountain]
"How is that possible?"
The sight of something that should never have appeared in the desert caused Crocodile's expression to stiffen abruptly.
Without a doubt, what was happening now had exceeded even the Shichibukai's understanding.
"This is a desert—a desert with almost no moisture."
"Even 'Aokiji' couldn't create such a gigantic iceberg here in such a short time—even an Ability User of the Logia type, capable of generating elements and changing the surrounding environment, would need time..."
But just as he reached that thought, his body suddenly stiffened.
Then he spun around almost instantly and looked around him.
Amid the billowing Yellow Sand, there were things he had not paid attention to before.
They were the things that had been falling from the sky almost constantly throughout the battle—the chunks of sand that had originally served as his 'Sand Curtain' to shield him from the rain, but had fallen from the sky after absorbing their fill of water.
At last, Crocodile realized the danger.
"From the very beginning, he..."
His mind, famed for its scheming, instantly grasped the terrifying truth.
This had been the opponent's true objective from the very beginning.
No wonder that even after he had used the Sand Curtain to block the rain, the torrential rain in the sky had continued to fall.
The opponent's purpose in creating this rain was not to drench him at all, but to alter the moisture concentration of this battlefield.
"Crocodile..."
At that moment, the Dragon of the Hour's voice came from atop the enormous iceberg.
His voice was somewhat labored—clearly, using his ability at such intensity was exhausting even for him.
But...
"My organization is called the 'Twelve Zodiacs.'"
"And my codename in the organization is none other than 'Dragon of the Hour'!"
As his words fell, Crocodile saw the enormous, towering ice peak beneath the opponent's feet begin to change once again!
White smoke appeared across the iceberg's surface, almost completely obscuring the entire mountain.
But even with the scene within concealed, Crocodile could still hear the sound.
Then—
"Trickle!"
Crocodile heard the sound of surging water.
[Molten Fire Giant Wave]
No.
"Trickle!"
"Boom!"
"Rumble—!!!"
The sound of the surging transformation made it clear that what was coming was no gentle stream—but rather...
A giant wave!
"It's only a desert. If I can't summon wind, rain, and waves here, how could I possibly be qualified to use this codename?"
Writing this battle got me completely stuck. It took me nearly four hours to finish.
This chapter is 4,000 characters long. The battle will be over in the next chapter.
Before you continue