"Sand Manipulation Technique!" After Hand Seals, Shamon slammed his hands on the ground, using his chakra to create several sand discs beneath everyone's feet. With these sand discs supporting them, everyone immediately abandoned walking and switched to the much faster method of flight.
However, because he had to lead multiple people in flight at the same time, the consumption of chakra was extremely high. This meant that flight could not be continuous, and he had to stop and run on foot after flying for a period of time. After all, Shamon's sand manipulation technique relied on himself, and he did not have Shukaku to provide chakra within his body.
However, even with only this short-term flight, the travel time was greatly reduced, and they finally arrived in the capital shortly after the uprising began.
Satellite observations revealed several battles that were distinctly different from ordinary rebel forces. After all, the Straw Hat Pirates and Baroque Works are not ordinary people; their battles were more powerful and had a wider impact.
Thus, everyone witnessed Usopp persevering despite having all his bones broken, Nami discovering the true purpose of the Clima-Tact, and Zoro truly integrating the art of swordsmanship into his own swordsmanship, unleashing the One Sword Style: Lion's Song.
Shamon and the others didn't seem to mind Zoro's strike, but Mifune, who was also watching via satellite broadcast, smiled and intensified his training of Tashigi. After all, his chosen disciple couldn't be weaker than others.
As for Crocodile, he brought Robin to the palace and revealed his true plan to Vivi. He said that he actually wanted to find King of the Underworld, one of the three ancient weapons, and wanted to use it to rule the world. In the legend, the Poneglyph of Alabasta contain information about King of the Underworld.
Furthermore, Crocodile planted a massive time bomb in the city and secretly arranged for his men to shoot Koza, thus exacerbating the animosity between the two sides and causing the war to escalate further without a clear end.
At this moment, Luffy descended from the sky on a giant bird and began a desperate battle against Crocodile. Yes, literally, he was fighting with his back to the Crocodile. Luffy was carrying a large bucket of water on his back, which he had discovered earlier when Luffy had infiltrated Crocodile's body with his own blood.
When Luffy was being unilaterally beaten by Crocodile, he discovered that Crocodile could only prevent himself from turning into sand by being soaked in his own blood. He took note of this at the time, but in a real battle, he couldn't actually soak his opponent with his own blood, so he had to find a suitable water source.
After Luffy found Koza's father and obtained the last of his water, which gave Luffy the confidence to defeat Crocodile.
In this battle, Luffy developed many ways to use the Gum-Gum Fruit, which improved his own strength. He also unexpectedly sprayed Crocodile with the water he had prepared, temporarily preventing him from turning into sand, which was the first time he truly injured Crocodile.
However, this is all Luffy can do right now. After Crocodile further used his Devil Fruit power, the entire land was drained of water by Crocodile, turning it into a barren wasteland. With the help of the terrain and Crocodile becoming more serious, he absorbed the water from Luffy's body with just one move and casually threw it aside like trash.
"His ability is quite similar to my Quicksand Waterfall Flow." Shamon, who had already arrived at the scene, watched Crocodile's battle in the distance with obvious delight.
As Crocodile was about to head towards the palace, Shamon looked at Barney Joe beside him, awaiting his decision. After all, their purpose was to assist the Revolutionary Army, and his own desire to hunt should not affect the operation. He was very clear about separating public and private matters.
Barney Joe wouldn't actually stop things from happening now. After all, both Princess Vivi and the King of Alabasta already knew about their greatest enemy and the reasons behind this situation. So, dealing with Crocodile here wouldn't conflict with their goals.
Furthermore, Shamon gave the decision-making power to Barney Joe out of respect for their Revolutionary Army. However, if he doesn't know what's good for him, then he'll really be asking for trouble. After all, the people present, not to mention Shamon and Hozuki Gengetsu, as well as the others, are all quite strong. It can be said that their strength is the reason they've made their way from the East Blue to the Grand Line.
Moreover, if their trip goes smoothly, they might have to work together for quite some time in the future, so it's best not to offend anyone easily. Besides, Barney Joe has a very good personality and naturally wouldn't deliberately cause trouble.
Seeing that Barney Joe had agreed to his idea, Shamon didn't stand on ceremony and directly Hand Seals: " Sand Binding Coffin!"
Under the control of chakra, the sand that Crocodile originally created was forced to betray him, suddenly bursting out from underground and tightly wrapping around Crocodile's body.
" Sand Waterfall Funeral!" Seeing that his ninjutsu had succeeded, Shamon immediately changed his move, greatly increasing the pressure of the sand in a short period of time to crush the enemy into dust instantly.
As the Sand Waterfall Funeral, the entire mass of sand enveloping Crocodile was Transfiguration and crushed, collapsing to the ground. However, there was only sand; there was no blood or human body parts.
Immediately afterwards, the sand on the ground began to move, piling up from underground and gradually forming the shape of a person. Clearly, Crocodile had transformed himself into sand in a moment of crisis, thus escaping the immense pressure of the Sand Waterfall Funeral.
Seeing that Crocodile was about to revert from his sand form to human form, Shamon naturally wouldn't let him have his way. " Sand Tornado!"
A large amount of sand swirled wildly around Crocodile, scattering his newly formed sandmen once again. Entangled by the sand, Crocodile was unable to escape and could only passively endure this torment.
Of course, the so-called destruction is actually from the perspective of the human body. In reality, from the perspective of the sand, it is just a very ordinary journey. After all, whether the sand flies in the sky or falls to the ground, it is still sand and no substantial change has occurred.
Perhaps sensing this, Shamon gradually changed his ninjutsu, adding many wind blades to the Sand Tornado, attempting to use these wind blades to grind the sand in the tornado into finer powder, or better yet, directly into dust.
The truth is, Shamon isn't proficient in Fire Release techniques. Otherwise, he would have an additional option: to melt the sand with intense flames, turning it into glass, which would surely have been able to harm Crocodile.
This insight comes from Hozuki Gengetsu Hozuki Gengetsu, whose family possesses a secret technique for water manipulation, which, in some ways, is not much different from the Logia Devil Fruit that allows for elemental transformation.
The best way to deal with Hozuki Gengetsu, who has already been hydrated, is through ice and fire. Either freeze the water to turn it into ice, or use high temperatures to turn it into gas. Both of these methods can cause massive damage to the hydrated user.
Based on his own experience, Hozuki Gengetsu felt that dealing with these elemental enemies would be a good solution. After all, they didn't possess the Haki of this world, and even Senjutsu wasn't something everyone could easily master. In other words, without special offensive methods, trying freezing and burning might be the most versatile option.
However, whether it's freezing, burning, or even Senjutsu, the Shamon is not proficient in any of them. It's not that he can't use them at all, but rather that they are incompatible and have too low power. Even if he manages to use them, he might not only fail to harm the opponent, but also give the opponent an opportunity to escape.
In this situation, although Shamon doesn't have many effective means of killing, he has already managed to trap Crocodile in place using the Sand Tornado ninjutsu.
To be honest, if it weren't for testing his ninjutsu, Shamon could have poured a bucket of water into Crocodile's sand form to disrupt its sand transformation. After all, Crocodile's Sand Tornado aren't afraid of water, and Crocodile, now back in human form, would have been seriously injured in the Sand Tornado.
Actually, Shamon was overthinking it. Crocodile isn't afraid of water right now, at least not a small amount. After all, he's currently in a sand-like state, which means he's using Devil Fruit. In this state, Crocodile can directly absorb the surrounding water. If a bucket of water were poured in, it would be absorbed immediately and wouldn't pull him out of the sand-like state.
To truly affect Crocodile's sandification, it must be done before he uses his Devil Fruit powers. It's like this: on a sandy field, if you water the surface beforehand, the water will prevent the sand underneath from being blown away. But once the sandstorm has started, if you pour the same amount of water on it again, the effect will be much less.
Of course, all of the above refers to ordinary fresh water. If you were to directly splash seawater on it, that would be a completely different story. After all, the trace amounts of Seastone molecules in seawater can neutralize the Devil Fruit's power through their restraining effect, which is a separate issue.
The question now is how long Crocodile can maintain his elemental form, and how long Shamon's Sand Tornado can last.
After all, neither Crocodile nor Shamon can use their abilities without limit. On one hand, using elemental transformation is essentially the same as using a Devil Fruit ability to attack, which consumes stamina. On the other hand, it's even more direct: the Sand Tornado can only rotate by manipulating chakra so that Crocodile doesn't take away control of the sand. If the chakra is insufficient, not only will the Sand Tornado stop, but all the sand will also be regained Crocodile's control.
So now the problem has changed, becoming a contest of stamina and chakra between the two sides, turning into a war of attrition. Of course, this is under the premise that the two are fighting alone, but don't forget that Shamon is not alone.
Although Shamon had intended to hone his skills against Crocodile, he hadn't expected Crocodile to be so weak. While Crocodile was strong at surviving, his ability to break free from control effects and other abilities was rather weak, and he was easily subdued. Shamon felt like he'd punched sand, finding it rather boring.
"Hozuki, why don't you take over? It'll take too long for me to wear him down by myself, and there's a chance he'll escape." Shamon also spoke up at the right moment, deciding to let Hozuki Gengetsu deal with the opponent.
Hozuki Gengetsu thought for a moment and decided to use a different kind of ninjutsu, "Alright, then leave it to me. But you keep the Sand Tornado going so he can't escape. Isn't he afraid of water? Then I'll give this place a big downpour."
" Water Release: Oil Transformation, Steaming Danger Tyranny!" Hozuki Gengetsu first transformed himself into oil, then used nearly four-fifths of his chakra to create a large oil-water clone.
This clone has an outer layer of oil and an inner layer of water. By manipulating the amount of water vapor inside its body, the clone can fly freely in the air.
And so, under everyone's watchful eyes, they saw this enormous, much fatter version of Hozuki Suigetsu fly into the sky and suddenly explode at a very high position. This was because the oil on its outer layer generated a large amount of heat through intense friction, vaporizing all the water inside.
Then, a large amount of vaporized chakra water vapor began to combine with the free water vapor in the high atmosphere. Then, through the manipulation of chakra, the water vapor was made to gather towards the center, eventually forming a large, thick cloud layer.
The earlier explosion had already drawn everyone's attention in the capital. When they saw dark clouds suddenly appearing in the sky and rain beginning to fall, everyone momentarily forgot about the battle.
After all, the fundamental reason why those rebel armies came to attack the capital was because the lack of water made it impossible for people to continue living. In addition, the Baroque Works's instigation made the people believe that the rain in the capital was due to the use of Dance Powder. However, what everyone is seeing now is clearly different from the rumors.