Why Is There a Sea King in the Sky?

According to the intelligence, Brando should only have been able to create one clone.

"Damned World Government, all the intelligence was fake!"

Crocodile gritted his teeth.

He felt like the World Government had set him up. Did they want him dead that badly? Not a single piece of intelligence they had given him was useful.

This guy had even learned the Six Powers!

"Now I can only do everything I can to avoid the water he releases!"

Crocodile also knew that Brando, this country bumpkin, did not know Armament Haki. Otherwise, he would have had no chance of winning this fight.

Who knew what was going on in the East Blue? It always produced people this devious.

His gaze remained fixed on Brando in the sky as he tried to determine the direction of his attack so he could evade it.

"What is he doing?"

However, he saw that blond-haired guy in the sky did not attack immediately. Instead, his hands formed several strange gestures.

Then something happened that he could not comprehend.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

As Brando completed the hand signs for the Summoning Jutsu in midair—

Banlei was instantly summoned from the sea dozens of kilometers away into the sky.

"Summoning aerial suppression, brat!"

Standing atop Banlei's head in midair, Brando shouted arrogantly.

Crocodile wondered if he was seeing things.

Why was there a Sea King in the sky?! And in the sky above the desert, no less?

And it was such a massive Sea King—an eel covered in black-and-white markings?

Was this reasonable?

Banlei had already grown accustomed to being summoned. Back on Little Garden, Brando had dragged Banlei into training, summoning it in different places. Summoning it in midair was common too; quite a few trees on Little Garden had been smashed apart when Banlei fell from the sky.

"Pfft!"

The instant Banlei realized it was in the air, it opened its mouth without hesitation and spat water downward.

Seawater, at that.

This was a move Brando had helped Banlei learn through special training, though Banlei felt it was completely useless. It was a Sea King that lived in the ocean forever—what use was spitting seawater?

But it was useful to Brando, allowing him to transport a massive amount of seawater over a long distance.

That one mouthful from Banlei contained at least as much water as the Great Waterfall Technique, turning into a torrential downpour that fell from the sky.

"Damn it!!"

Crocodile could only curse.

Then he condensed a tiny Sables in his palm, intending to use the wind to blow away the massive amount of water. After all, as long as even a trace of moisture touched his body, he would be unable to fully transform into his element.

But just as he was about to throw out the Sables, a kunai shot accurately from below, piercing that palm and directly destroying the Sables within it.

"Despicable!"

Crocodile felt like he was fighting several people at once. This was not a one-on-one fight at all.

He should have brought everyone with him. If the elites of Baroque Works had been here, he would never have been put in such a passive position.

Even if he transformed into his element now, he would not be able to evade it with his movement speed. Sand moved far too slowly.

Crocodile planned to use the opportunity to land in the desert, use his power to quickly absorb the moisture from his body, and prioritize restoring his elemental transformation. During that time, he would have no choice but to accept some injuries as the price.

"Seawater??"

But when the falling water from the sky touched his body and an immediate wave of weakness swept through him, Crocodile realized it too.

The water brought by a Sea King was naturally seawater.

He was given no time to think. A great quantity of seawater fell directly onto him, and despair appeared on Crocodile's face.

All he could do was curse that blond-haired bastard in his heart for being too underhanded.

Then he watched helplessly as Banlei crashed heavily down on top of him, smashing him into the desert.

Like a summoned slug landing, the entire desert shook.

Banlei's physique was strong enough that falling roughly a hundred meters did not put much strain on it. After leaving a deep, long crater in the ground, the summoning was released, and Banlei vanished from the spot.

Crocodile felt as if his internal organs had shifted out of place. Fortunately, this was not hard ground but sand, which greatly reduced the force he had endured.

"Morata!"

Just as he tried to force himself up and use his power to absorb the water from his body before fleeing—

A voice that sent a chill down his back suddenly sounded beside him.

Then a stream of water instantly wrapped around his body, and the feeling of weakness struck him again.

"Water Prison Technique!"

Taking advantage of the seawater Banlei had spat out before it completely dried, Brando used the Water Prison Technique to control it and directly trap Crocodile.

The other Brando strolled over without any hurry. Seeing Crocodile's eyes bulging with rage inside the Water Prison Technique, he wore a perverted expression of utter delight.

"Hahaha."

"Isn't this Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai? You were so arrogant just now. Why are you lying here like a dead dog now?"

Brando mocked him to his heart's content.

This damned crocodile had actually dared to target him first. Brando had no interest in doing what Whitebeard did—letting him go and allowing him to wait for a chance to retaliate. Naturally, he had to eliminate the roots.

"Urgh, glug glug glug!"

Crocodile was cursing.

But the moment he opened his mouth, seawater poured in. He could not speak at all and could only watch that blond-haired bastard flaunt his power before him.

"Still unwilling to accept it?"

Brando raised a hand to signal the Shadow Clone. The clone immediately acted, electricity crackling over its body before flowing through its palm and into the Water Prison Technique, electrocuting Crocodile until his entire body convulsed.

However, Crocodile was a formidable figure after all. He endured the electrocution without making a sound, merely staring fixedly at Brando until his death.

Only after Brando carefully observed him with the Sharingan and confirmed that his heart had not beaten for fifteen minutes did he have the Shadow Clone release the Water Prison Technique. Crocodile's corpse fell directly into the desert.

Crocodile, one of the Shichibukai, perished in a remote corner of Alabasta.

"Oh, he was numb from the electricity and underwater, so he couldn't speak."

Brando also realized why Crocodile had not made a sound.

He had thought the guy was genuinely stubborn.

"Dying here so anonymously would be a little too pathetic. Take a picture and send it to the newspaper. We can earn a tipster's fee."

Brando had the Shadow Clone go to a nearby town to rent a camera.

After all, he had done this before and was already very familiar with the process.

"Once again, I won by using my brain. When will I finally get to have a proper fight relying purely on stats?"

Brando felt like he had not had enough fun.

Crocodile was quite underhanded too, forcing him to use these dirty tricks. If Crocodile had not used his elemental transformation, Brando would have fought him head-on.

"This isn't my fault."

Looking at Crocodile's unclosed eyes, Brando shook his head. You were the one who started using elemental transformation first.

"Recognition from the Will of the Overlord... You have obtained"