Enel somehow snapped out of his withdrawn state and suddenly stepped between Vivi and Gato. Wearing a cocky smile, he spoke to Vivi in an odd tone.
"Looks like you've got a grudge against that guy. Don't worry, leave him to this god. He won't be able to hurt you!"
Gato's mouth twitched slightly. Enel really had it bad for Vivi. Still, that was fine—this should help Vivi fit into the team more quickly.
Vivi could take it however she wanted, but Crocodile could not ignore Enel's provocative words. Through their constant sparring, Enel had long since earned Crocodile's recognition, so naturally, his words carried a different weight in Crocodile's eyes.
And precisely because of that, Crocodile would never allow the Enel he recognized to look down on him.
"Hey, what's with that look like you've already got me beat? You looking for a fight?"
To be honest, Crocodile was not afraid of Enel at all now. His Armament Haki had made tremendous progress recently and was nearing the level of hardening. Combined with sand's insulating properties, even if Enel transformed into the Thunder God, Crocodile could still put up a fight.
Of course, it was not as though Enel had made no progress during this time. On the contrary, his improvements had been tremendous. It was just that when it came to Haki, lower-level Haki was practically useless against higher-level Haki.
Enel had immense potential in both types of Haki, but potential was all it was. His Observation Haki progress could keep up with Crocodile's because he had mastered a similar ability, Mantra, long ago.
As for Armament Haki, he had only just begun. Thus, when facing Crocodile's high-level Armament Haki, it was of no use.
Just as Crocodile and Enel were glaring at each other, Vivi tugged on