Beating the Sand Crocodile

Gato did not take Crocodile's surprise attack head-on. Instead, he sidestepped with a horizontal leap. The sand tornado crashed directly into a gambling table behind him.

In the blink of an eye, the table began to crack and turn to sand before collapsing into a pile of yellow grains.

"Ah, don't be so hotheaded, Sand Crocodile. Let's take this outside. This place is all your property."

Gato put on an expression as though he were thinking of Crocodile's interests, but he was really thinking that if he subdued Crocodile, this place would become his property too. It would be a shame to destroy it, so he suggested changing battlefields.

Naturally, Crocodile had no objection. The Rain Dinners casino was the fruit of years of his labor.

"Boss, it looks like you're in trouble. Need my help?"

A graceful figure appeared inside the Rain Dinners casino. Following the voice, Gato immediately spotted a beauty filled with exotic charm.

"Miss All Sunday, are you questioning me? This has nothing to do with you. This brat is looking to die, so I'll grant his wish."

Gato gave the newcomer a deep look. Miss All Sunday was, of course, Nico Robin—a seductive enchantress whose entire body radiated charm. In theory, one had to rely on her help to become the Pirate King.

But now was not the time to strike up a conversation with Nico Robin. Gato took the lead in leaving the Rain Dinners casino.

"Gahahaha! If you want to kill me, then follow me!"

One yellow and one blue shadow chased each other beyond Rainbase. Crocodile had not held back from trying to trip Gato up along the way, but Gato did not care much. Once he reached a relatively desolate area, he stopped.

Crocodile gave a gloomy smile.

"Heh, it seems you really are looking to die. A place like this is my home ground.

Desert Spada!"

Crocodile gathered a small yellow sandstorm in his palm. As the surrounding sand converged, it eventually became a sandstorm tornado that swept toward Gato.

The sandstorm carried vast amounts of fine, deadly sand. Its high-speed rotation turned the hurricane into something like a grinding wheel; even steel caught within it would gradually be eroded away.

"Hehe, you actually dare play with wind in front of me? Do you think you're Dragon?"

Gato remained utterly calm in the face of this imposing attack.

No matter how powerful it was, what use was it if it could not hurt him?

"Wind Release—Divine Wind Control!"

The sandstorm hurricane was dismantled at its source. Using Divine Wind Control, Gato directly created a hurricane spinning in the opposite direction before him, causing Desert Spada to vanish without a trace.

Gato was not the sort of person who liked standing around and taking hits. After disrupting Crocodile's attack, he activated Lightning Enhancement and turned into a flash of lightning, vanishing from his spot.

Crocodile's pupils contracted. He had never seen anyone evade his Desert Spada like this before. From his perspective, Gato had done nothing, yet Desert Spada had suddenly disappeared midway through its attack.

"So fast!"

That was Crocodile's cry of alarm, because he could barely make out Gato's advancing figure. It was unbelievable.

But he did not care. Elementalization allowed him to ignore the vast majority of opponents in the first half of the Grand Line. If Gato wanted to attack, then he would let him.

He planned to wait until Gato's attack sank into his body before solidifying and grabbing him, then cruelly draining all the moisture from his body.

However, things did not go as he wished. Sand Crocodile paid the price for his carelessness.

Only when Gato's fist was already pressed against his face did Crocodile realize in shock that this guy's fist could actually hit him.

But it was already too late to think that. He was smashed hard into the sand, creating a human-shaped crater.

It took him quite a while to recover from his dizziness. He turned into a cloud of yellow sand again and flew out of the pit.

Once back on the ground, Sand Crocodile spat out a mouthful of blood. Still finding it unbelievable, he clutched his face and roared at Gato, "Why can you hit me?!"

"Huh? You didn't know? Haki is a pretty useful thing."

Gato waved his fist, which flickered with blue light, and grinned.

As an old pirate, Crocodile naturally knew what Haki was. What he truly wanted to ask was why someone like Gato, who had mastered Haki, would appear in such a weak kingdom.

"Damn it! Desert Spada!"

Crocodile retreated a great distance. Though his ability to control sandstorms was ineffective against Gato, and Haki had also broken elementalization's invincibility in close combat, it did not matter. He still had a forty-meter-long greatsword.

At forty meters long, it would not be a single meter shorter. There was no way it could fail to reach its target, and this sand blade was far more condensed than a sandstorm. He did not need to worry about it being blown apart like one.

Gato nodded. Crocodile's ability truly had its merits. He could sense the terrifying power contained within this great blade; it was incomparably sharp. It could also assimilate other things, drying and cracking them into sand.

Gato did not use Bright Light to block it. Even with the extended coating provided by Lightning Enhancement, an attack of this level could still damage it. After all, his swordsmanship was still painfully lacking.

Yet Gato could not dodge either. He needed to overwhelm Crocodile with absolute strength and make him submit wholeheartedly. With Sand Crocodile's ambitious nature, if Gato feared his attacks, then even if he won, Crocodile would never willingly submit.

That left only one choice.

"Wind Release—Divine Void Strike!"

No matter how solid Desert Spada was, it was still just a pile of sand. Wind Release was best at destroying its internal structure.

A blue-green fist image blasted directly toward the incoming sand blade. The fist and blade soon collided.

Bang!

Like a fist striking the surface of water, the sand blade was scattered like liquid, continuously bursting into ordinary yellow sand. The fist image pressed forward layer by layer, and Crocodile's Desert Spada was utterly powerless to stop it.

"How can this be?!"

Crocodile's already gloomy face became even uglier. Every grain of sand was an extension of him. Even though the flying sand obscured the result ahead, he could still sense his sand blade being constantly destroyed.

He felt his sand blade offering no resistance at all, while his opponent's attack was about to break through the blade's assault and strike him.

If he took a hit like that, he knew he would not get off lightly, so he wisely dodged aside.

Without his control, the sand blade was like a source of power cut off, collapsing even faster.

"Hehe, trying to run?"

Gato sensed Crocodile's intention and vanished into the billowing yellow sand as well.

Thud. Another punch landed solidly on flesh as Gato viciously struck Crocodile in the stomach.

"Cough!"

The internal organs in his abdomen were far more vulnerable than his skull. Crocodile spat out a large mouthful of blood, stopped dodging, and dropped helplessly to one knee in the sand.

Gato pressed his advantage, following up with another uppercut to his face. Crocodile finally could no longer hold on and was knocked to the ground by Gato.