"Yes!"
Elsewhere.
Sadi, Smoker, Tashigi, and the other Marines had long been unable to hold themselves back. If Wilton had not ordered them to stay put, Tashigi and the others would have intervened in the war already.
People were dying every second.
The battle between the Straw Hat Pirates and Patrick Studio's officers had remained under their surveillance. After waiting so long, Major General Wilton had finally given the order.
"Move."
"According to Major General Wilton's plan, Colonel Smoker and Chief Petty Officer Tashigi will lead the Marines to stop this farcical war."
"Minotaur Zebra, the other three, and I will capture the Straw Hat Pirates and Patrick Studio's officers."
Sadi put away the Den Den Mushi and licked her red lips with her tongue, surprisingly efficient in her actions.
"Understood."
They immediately split up, while Wilton made his move as well. Gripping a dumbbell in his right hand, he leaped high into the air and smashed down toward the ground.
The hard ground swiftly collapsed, opening up a hole. Wilton fell from the sky and crashed into the underground burial chamber. A cloud of dust billowed up, startling both the badly wounded Crocodile and the panting Luffy.
Cobra, lying on the ground, widened his eyes as well.
"Shichibukai Crocodile, Straw Hat Kid Monkey D. Luffy, you are suspected of attempting to overthrow a nation's government. In my capacity as a Marine Rear Admiral, I am placing you under arrest."
"You may resist, or you may surrender."
Wilton emerged from the dust, leaving no room for doubt.
To his left stood a tall man with slicked-back hair, a long horizontal scar across his face, a golden hook for a left hand, and a black fur coat draped over his shoulders.
To his right was the Straw Hat Kid, who looked as though he could breathe his last at any moment.
"Big Marine."
Luffy swayed, nearly unable to remain standing. He looked as if he had been fished out of a pool of blood. On top of the poison from Crocodile's hook, he was practically at the end of his rope. He only needed one final push to defeat Crocodile.
Yet Wilton had appeared at this crucial moment.
Enemies meeting face-to-face were especially prone to fury.
Luffy's eyes were filled with icy, biting killing intent.
"Guhahaha~"
"Marine Rear Admiral, I am a Shichibukai. According to our agreement, you should be helping me right now."
Crocodile's face darkened viciously. Strictly speaking, he and the Marines were partners, yet this man had just said he intended to arrest both him and Straw Hat Kid?
Under normal circumstances, he would not have given a mere rear admiral a second glance. But now, he was seriously injured and desperately needed treatment and rest.
Wilton remained expressionless, merely looking indifferently at this unfortunate man known as the Desert King. Like Enel later on, he was a complete sucker.
Though he had been pathetic early on, he became insanely formidable later.
But now that he had run into Wilton, this was as far as he would go.
Explosive Double Axes.
The ground within a twenty-meter radius exploded. Wilton leaped, appearing above Crocodile in an instant, and swung down with both hands gripping the dumbbell.
The Sand-Sand Fruit was right in front of him. He had no time to waste talking to the man.
Wilton had previously considered Luffy's Mythical Zoan Nika Fruit, but after thinking it over, that Devil Fruit simply did not suit him.
He preferred simple, brutal Devil Fruits, not ridiculous Devil Fruits that made him look like a clown.
More importantly, he did not yet have the strength to withstand the consequences of killing Luffy.
"You're courting death."
Desert Sword.
Facing Wilton's sudden attack, Crocodile panted as rage surged through him. His right hand transformed into a massive sand blade and slashed out fiercely.
This strike was sharp enough to cleave even a desert apart.
Bang—
With an explosive crash, the ferocious, blood-stained sand blade shattered. It could not withstand Wilton's strength at all. The five-hundred-meter dumbbell phantom slash swept forward unstoppably and came crashing down beneath Crocodile's horrified, disbelieving gaze.
A piercing crack of breaking bone rang out.
The dumbbell did not slow, crushing down Crocodile's arm before smashing directly into his head. This blow was coated in Armament Haki, unlike Luffy, who still needed blood to strike Crocodile.
"At the end of the road, you have no chance of winning."
The entire underground burial chamber began rapidly collapsing. The ground beneath Crocodile cracked and caved in. In the end, his eyes rolled back, blood streamed from his seven orifices, and he collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness at once.
To show the Shichibukai the utmost respect, Wilton had gone all out with that strike.
Losing to Wilton was better than losing to Luffy. At least it would not be so humiliating when word got out. Wilton could use Armament Haki, and he was a tough man who had survived a battle with the World's Most Evil Man, Fire Fist Ace, Division Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division.
In terms of prestige and strength, he utterly crushed the Straw Hat Kid.
Still, judging by Crocodile's exhausted state, even if Wilton had not intervened, he would only have been one final Gum-Gum Storm away from losing to Luffy.
Wilton glanced sideways.
Cobra was carrying Nico Robin and dragging Luffy away through a passage. Wilton did not deal with them immediately. Instead, he seized Crocodile and shot into the sky, arriving on the surface.
With a pack full of fruit on his back, Wilton quickly entered a ruined residential building and poured out the fruit, arranging it in a circle.
Wilton dragged Crocodile into the ring of fruit by the neck, drew the dagger he had prepared at his waist, coated his hand in Armament Haki, and drove the blade straight into Crocodile's heart.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
Crocodile, who had been unconscious, suddenly woke with a jolt. A sharp pain tore through his heart as he struggled desperately, but Wilton sat firmly on top of him, his left hand coated in Armament Haki as it clamped around Crocodile's throat.
The two heavy dumbbells pinned him down as well.
"Go in peace. I will inherit your Sand-Sand Fruit and rule the world."
Wilton's gaze was dark and cold. Crocodile's hot, pungent heart's blood splashed across his face as he pulled out the dagger and repeatedly stabbed into his heart.
Again and again.
Numb and cold.
A great deal of hot blood poured from Crocodile's mouth and nose. His eyes bulged as his entire body convulsed, filled with disbelief and terror.
He wanted to say something.
But Wilton gripped his throat tightly. Slowly, Crocodile's consciousness began sinking into darkness, and the light in his eyes steadily faded.
Things were not supposed to develop like this.
Why did this Marine want to kill him? Did he not even deserve the chance to go to prison?
Unwillingness, rage, and despair slowly froze upon Crocodile's lifeless face.
A great hero, the Desert King who later rose to prominence and became even stronger, had been snuffed out in the early stages just like that.
He died cleanly. He died peacefully.
Without leaving the slightest possibility of a comeback.
This was a true plot kill.
After confirming that Crocodile had breathed his last, Wilton stood, stepped out of the circle of fruit, and stared fixedly at the fruit.
One minute.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
Wilton's expression grew increasingly ugly. Looking at the fruit, which had not changed at all, he knew he had failed to obtain the Sand-Sand Fruit.
This had been a gamble from the start.
After a Devil Fruit user died, the Devil Fruit would respawn somewhere in the world. However, if ordinary fruit was placed around the user beforehand, there was a certain chance that the Devil Fruit would take root in the nearest fruit.
If he was lucky, the Sand-Sand Fruit might already have respawned in one of the fruits.
Wilton's luck was clearly not very good. A full ten minutes had passed, yet the surrounding fruit remained ordinary fruit.
Unwilling to accept it, he continued waiting for another five minutes.
Wilton sighed, picked up Crocodile's corpse, then punched straight through the heart to cover the wound left by the dagger. He gathered the fruit and swiftly vanished from the residential building.
Crocodile might have been dead, but his corpse was still useful. It could earn Wilton some prestige.
Before you continue