Sand Crocodile

"Then take this." Kuina drew and slashed, her blade flashing toward Crocodile like lightning.

With a wave of his hand, Crocodile sent a skyful of yellow sand sweeping toward Kuina.

Kuina neither dodged nor retreated. She simply covered her entire body in Armament Haki and took it head-on.

"Hmph, Armament Haki? Someone like you can appear in a place like this? Your Armament Haki is quite refined. Not bad.

But don't think having Armament Haki makes you invincible." Crocodile turned serious. Since his opponent could use Armament Haki, he had to be cautious. At the very least, he could no longer use his elemental form as freely as he pleased.

"Desert Sunflower." With Kuina's blade nearly upon him, he formed a layer of absolute defense from sand and blocked her attack.

"Ground Death." This was the terrifying aspect of Logia Devil Fruits: they could alter the surrounding environment. And those alterations were permanent.

In other words, all moisture within several hundred meters had been permanently drained away, turning the area into a desert.

Kuina pulled back in a rapid retreat. She could not let this man touch her body, or all the water in her would be drained away, leaving her a dried corpse.

Although Armament Haki could resist that erosion, it would greatly increase the consumption of her Haki. A battle of attrition would be unfavorable for her.

"Desert Spada." With the terrain now on his side, Crocodile switched from defense to offense.

"Kuina's in a bit of trouble," Lin Feng said from outside the battlefield.

"Indeed. Kuina is slightly inferior in terms of raw strength. And the Sand-Sand Fruit is extremely effective against close-range fighters." Richard gave his assessment after watching for a while.

"Didn't they say he couldn't use Haki? Why is he still so strong?" Xia Mi asked in confusion. Wasn't Haki supposed to be the standard equipment of the strong in this world?

Weren't those without Haki all just fodder?

"But there are exceptions. Logia Devil Fruit users are exceptions.

Sand Crocodile Crocodile and Enel, the God of Thunder. One has the Sand-Sand Fruit, the other the Lightning Fruit. Old Sand can't use Haki at all, while Enel only knows Observation Haki, yet both of them are extremely strong.

If not for plot armor, the Straw Hat Crew would never have been able to defeat them.

Those two are solidly at the level of the Three Disasters or Four Sweet Commanders.

The saying that anyone without Haki is fodder only applies in comparison to the Four Emperors and Three Admirals.

At that level, you can't have any obvious weaknesses. Taijutsu or swordsmanship, Haki, and Devil Fruit abilities all have to be at the highest level," Richard said. Though he was only an armchair pirate fan, he still knew these things.

"Some people also say Crocodile used to know Haki, but after being defeated by Whitebeard when he challenged him, he lost his fighting spirit. His Haki faded, and he became weaker.

Otherwise, there'd be no explaining why this guy dared to challenge Whitebeard.

Of course, the real reason was probably that he appeared too early. It was all Oda's fault. Haki hadn't been established back then; it was added later," Lin Feng said.

"Oda? Who's that?" Xia Mi asked.

"Uh, the original author," Lin Feng said awkwardly.

"Oh, so it means the same thing as Old Thief Jiang Nan. Got it." Xia Mi nodded.

Kuina responded calmly, sending out a flying slash that canceled out Old Sand's Desert Spada.

But the surrounding sandstorm grew fiercer, and the air became drier. The environment was becoming increasingly unfavorable for her.

If this continued, she would lose sooner or later. Since she would lose no matter what, she might as well risk everything.

She hesitated no longer. Armament Haki spread across her body once more, and she charged at Old Sand again through the erosion of the sand.

However, Crocodile was extremely cautious. With his years of battle experience, he knew how to deal with swordsmen like her.

As long as he did not let her get close, he could wear her down with sand until her stamina failed and her Haki ran out. Then victory would naturally be his.

"Crescent Moon Dune." He used a massive amount of sand to restrict her movements from three directions. Then came the killing blow.

"Desert La Spada." Old Sand transformed both arms into four enormous blades made of sand.

Kuina resisted stubbornly as the battle entered its most intense phase.

Another hour passed. Kuina's Haki was gradually running dry, and her physical strength had been greatly depleted. She panted heavily as sweat slid down her forehead.

This guy is really hard to deal with. She knew Crocodile's weakness was water. But that was of little use unless there was a large amount of it. Otherwise, water served much the same purpose as Haki: it merely gave her a chance to touch Crocodile's real body.

She was not the only one who knew that weakness. Crocodile himself knew it even better, which was why he had remained so careful. He gave Kuina no chance at all to attack his true body.

In the end, Kuina was defeated.

It was hard to imagine how the Straw Hat Crew had defeated Crocodile through such a dramatic coincidence. They could not even use Haki at the time.

All one could say was that protagonists simply did not follow reason.

"That's enough." Richard condensed a wall of water and blocked Old Sand's attack.

Kuina's face was full of reluctance. She had still lost in the end. She was not strong enough. From now on, she would have to train even harder.

Crocodile's expression was solemn. This group was not simple. He had assumed that swordswoman was the strongest among them, but now it seemed that was not the case.

Especially this man who had stopped him. This guy could actually control water? Wasn't that a natural counter to him?

No, he had to kill this guy.

Although Richard did not know what Crocodile was thinking, he could sense his hostility.

With a wave of his hand, a surging torrent came roaring in. Didn't he absorb moisture? Then absorb this and let him see.

In an instant, the sand was flooded by the torrent, and Old Sand lost control over it.

He could not even turn into his elemental form.

Old Sand was indeed completely countered by water-based ability users.

The moment his entire body was submerged in water, he immediately lost his strength and became completely incapable of resisting.

Old Sand died. Along with his ambitions and unwillingness, he drowned. It was a rather hasty death.

Perhaps before coming here, he had never imagined that he would die in Rainbase while merely carrying out his routine task of dealing with a few troublesome fodder.

An earth-yellow fruit appeared in Richard's hand. It had tried to transfer away just now, but Richard had isolated the local space-time and casually tossed several fruits onto the ground, so he obtained the Sand-Sand Fruit.

This was the second Devil Fruit they had acquired. If the previous one really was the Mera Mera no Mi, then they now possessed two Logia Devil Fruits.

Soon, as the gamblers from Rain Dinners left, news of Sand Crocodile's death spread with them.

After exchanging their chips, Richard and his group left Rainbase.

Yes, even though Sand Crocodile was dead, they still had to cash in their chips.

Another day later, in Alubarna, the royal capital of Alabasta.

"Welcome, honored guests from afar." Before the royal capital, King Nefertari Cobra was receiving them.

Though this king had seemed weak in the anime, one should not underestimate a family that had ruled Alabasta for eight hundred years.

Less than an hour after Crocodile was killed, the king had received the news.

Then, Richard and his group were watched all the way to the royal capital.

The king knew their movements like the back of his hand.