"It seems you don't know... just what sort of being you're facing."
Before his words had faded, Crocodile suddenly moved!
The ground beneath his feet instantly turned to sand, and, as though merging with the desert, he appeared silently before Ye Chuan!
His enormous golden hook gleamed coldly as it tore through the air with a piercing shriek, lunging viciously for Ye Chuan's heart!
"Desert Spada!"
Faced with this sudden, lethal strike, Ye Chuan's eyes remained as calm as still water.
He did not even look at the incoming golden hook. Only at the instant it was about to reach him did he simply raise the ordinary tachi in his hand.
Humm-!
A visible layer of jet-black [Armament Haki] instantly coated the entire blade like solid armor!
Clang-!!!!!!
Crocodile's golden hook, which could easily tear through steel, was forcibly blocked the moment it collided with Ye Chuan's Armament Haki-coated tachi!
Not only that, an even more terrifying recoil surged from the blade, sending a wave of numbness through Crocodile's arm!
"Hm?!"
Crocodile's pupils abruptly contracted, and surprise appeared on his face for the first time.
His golden hook was made of a special alloy that could cut through anything, yet it had been blocked by a seemingly unremarkable tachi?
And that jet-black power on his opponent's blade...
Before he could think it through, Ye Chuan's attack followed!
There were no fancy movements, only a simple downward slash!
Yet this seemingly ordinary sword strike, coated in Armament Haki, carried a terrifying edge that could cut through anything!
Crocodile snorted coldly, his body instantly transforming into a cloud of yellow sand as he tried to render the attack harmless.
This was the power of his Sand-Sand Fruit, enough to make him immune to the vast majority of physical damage!
However-
Shhk!!!
There