Pell's face was full of pride as he spoke of their million-strong garrison.
Some small kingdoms had barely a million people in total.
Yet Alabasta had a million soldiers in its garrison alone!
Surely, no matter how powerful Golden Lion was, he couldn't stand against an army of a million.
Cobra found no comfort in that at all.
He knew that something called Conqueror's Haki existed.
One blast of Conqueror's Haki, and it would only be a matter of time before the entire million-strong army dropped to its knees.
In truth, Cobra had never really understood the power of the world's strongest fighters.
A million men would take Golden Lion only a few blasts of Lion: Thousand-Cut Valley.
Or a single, enormous Lion's Might: Earth Roll could easily wipe out the entire army.
"We can only leave it to fate. May heaven protect Alabasta."
Cobra pressed hard against the space between his brows.
Then he summoned Igaram, captain of the royal guard, and Chaka, the other deputy captain, and briskly issued several orders, including evacuating nearby civilians and preparing emergency rescue and disaster relief measures.
What they didn't know was that, anxious as they were, someone else was even more anxious.
More than a dozen kilometers away from Golden Lion and Randall, a strange cloud of windblown sand began to gather. Then the figure of Mr. Crocodile, the first of the Shichibukai, emerged.
Even the king in the distant capital had heard the commotion. Naturally, there was no way the sharp-eyed, keen-eared Crocodile could have missed it.
Crocodile watched the dust constantly rising on the horizon and smoked his cigar in silence.
Of course he recognized the renowned Golden Lion.
But he had never heard of the man fighting Golden Lion.
For some reason, though, the sight of that man