Moke vs. Crocodile

The moment he finished speaking, he killed the man without the slightest hesitation.

Crocodile's entrance had to be said to be incredibly domineering and flashy.

Daz Bones exchanged a look with Gem, Mikita, and the others, then leaped onto the Straw Hat Crew's pirate ship.

They confronted the Straw Hat Crew.

Clearly, they had no intention of leaving any survivors. The Straw Hat Crew naturally understood that these people had come with ill intent. In an instant, the two sides were at each other's throats.

Meanwhile, Moke stared fixedly at Crocodile. "I never thought you'd come too!"

Crocodile said, "A Logia user with abilities similar to the Glint-Glint Fruit is worth a personal trip."

Moke was honestly flattered.

If he remembered correctly, Daz Bones was the only person in all of Baroque Works whom Crocodile had personally recruited.

But this situation was going to be a huge problem!

Still, he would never back down. He pointed at Vulture. "So, if I refuse to join Baroque Works, will I end up like that guy today?"

The corners of Crocodile's mouth lifted slightly. "That's why I like talking to smart people. No need for too much nonsense... So, what's your choice?"

Upon hearing that, Moke immediately turned into a beam of light and left the scene.

He was not running away. He was hiding Kashu and the bundle containing the two Devil Fruits and all the jewels. After all, he was about to face Crocodile.

He could not fight at full strength while carrying those things.

He then transformed into light again and returned to his original spot, facing Crocodile head-on.

"!!!???"

Watching Moke leave and return, Crocodile thoughtfully glanced in the direction Moke had gone.

Crocodile said meaningfully, "It seems there's something in that bundle you value greatly... Is it the Devil Fruit you stole from Wild Dog, the East Blue colonel?"

Crocodile truly was a meticulous man. He had guessed it immediately.

"Desert Crescent..."

But the moment he spoke, he attacked. Crocodile enlarged his arm, turning it into a crescent-shaped sand blade that slashed at Moke.

Moke's pupils contracted slightly. Crocodile's Desert Crescent was an extremely terrifying move. Once struck by the sand blade, all the water in one's body would be drained away, leaving them powerless and turning them into a dehydrated Mummy.

Only Luffy, protected by protagonist luck, had survived after being dried out. Anyone else would definitely be dead after losing all their moisture.

There was no way they could come back to life.

Water was the source of life; that was not just a saying. No one could live without water.

However, this move was useless against him. Naturally, so long as it was not Seastone or Armament Haki, no attack could harm him.

Sure enough, the sand blade sliced Moke cleanly in two. But so what? He immediately recovered as if nothing had happened.

Crocodile passed by Moke, and at that moment, the corners of Crocodile's mouth rose slightly. This time, however, his smile carried a hint of savagery.

He drove the Golden Hook on his right hand backward toward Moke's rear shoulder.

Clang...

At that moment, Moke, who had been standing still and letting the attacks hit him, instantly drew Sandai Kitetsu and swung it behind him.

He blocked the attack.

The two then each retreated several steps. However, their expressions were entirely different.

Moke stared fixedly at Crocodile's Golden Hook, because it was now coated in Armament Haki.

"Holy shit..."

Moke was deeply shocked, yet it also made perfect sense. Who was Crocodile?

He was the man who had dared to challenge Whitebeard, and who had later founded Cross Guild with Hawkeye. How could he possibly not know Armament Haki?

If he truly did not, it would make no sense at all.

Crocodile looked at Moke with even greater appreciation. He had used the sand blade earlier to lull Moke into thinking that, like Daz Bones, he could not effectively harm a Logia user.

Yet...

This kid had counterattacked during his second strike.

That meant everything had been within this kid's expectations. Instead, Crocodile himself had ended up looking somewhat foolish.

"It seems you know of Armament Haki as well. Then you should understand that, at this moment, only I can hurt you, while you can do nothing to me. So... are you still determined to go your own way?"

After saying that, his aura abruptly changed. With a trace of killing intent, he said, "Let me warn you first: my patience is not very good. I won't keep giving you chances... Perhaps the next time I attack, it will be your death."

"Hahaha..."

Moke could not help laughing loudly. "If it were another Logia user, that would indeed be true. But for you, Crocodile, that may not be the case."

Because he had not awakened Armament Haki, he truly would have been powerless against any other Logia.

"What do you mean?" Crocodile raised a brow, but his heart tightened.

As the user of the Logia-type Sand-Sand Fruit, he naturally understood that his Devil Fruit ability differed from other Logias. It had a major weakness.

Moke asked meaningfully, "Crocodile, do you usually bathe? Have you ever experienced what surfing feels like?"

Crocodile's face immediately darkened, because the meaning behind Moke's words could not have been more obvious.

At that moment, the way Crocodile looked at Moke changed as well.

If he had previously intended to recruit him, then now he truly wanted to kill him. He would not allow anyone else to know his weakness.

"If you want to die, then I'll grant your wish."

Crocodile's lower body transformed directly into sand, and he flew toward Moke at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, he had reached Moke, his Golden Hook wrapped in Armament Haki as he stabbed at him without hesitation.

Moke had been prepared. He crouched, successfully dodging the blow. At the same time, his hand touched the ground. His body also changed in an instant.

The next moment, the ground surged, eventually forming a massive fist. It punched straight at Crocodile!

This sudden attack truly caught Crocodile off guard. However, he still reacted quickly.

He swung his Golden Hook to meet it.

Clearly, he intended to clash head-on. Yet he never expected that when his Golden Hook collided fiercely with the fist rising from the ground—

The Golden Hook seemed to strike a swamp and immediately sank into it. Then even his arm sank into the Mud Fist...

"Not good..."

Crocodile's expression changed drastically. He forcibly stopped his attack and decisively used Elementalization.

But Moke could not suppress the smile on his lips, because this was only the beginning. The real show was yet to come!

Sure enough, Crocodile's expression changed again.

There was even a trace of horror in his eyes, because he discovered that the arm trapped inside the Mud Fist could not undergo Elementalization.

He could not help crying out, "How is that possible?"