Chapter 36

Grandline, Paradise, Alabasta

It had been a few days since Crocodile had received the call from Sengoku about the arriving nobles and every. single. day. Crocodile had been standing at the river, keeping watch for them, and god did it get on his nerves! It was the early morning hours of the third day after the call from the fleetadmiral and Crocodile was about to go nuts from impatience when he spotted a small ship sailing down the Sandora river, which was framed by the only vegetation left for a few hundred miles around the Sandora river. Crocodile grew excited judging by the large toothy grin that formed on his face, expecting his task to finally come to an end, until his brain rebooted and a frown exchanged places with the grin. Now this couldn't be right. A noble plus entourage simply couldn't fit on such a small boat, let alone the luxury they carried around with them at all times.

'Bloody hell. Don't tell me it's someone entirely different... I swear if this is life f.u.c.k.i.n.g with my head once more I'll grind this damn boat into dust!' Crocodile thought, biting his cigar so hard in annoyance that he bit right through it, one half falling from his mouth onto the ground.

Soon the small ship had reached the shore not far away from Crocodiles position and a young man in wide beige trousers and b.a.r.e upper body jumped down from the vessel, landing on the shore, and tied the ship to some palm trees that stood by the side.

Crocodile stomped over to the young man, still frustrated by the whole situation before, through grit teeth, speaking in a menacing tone: "Who the f.u.c.k are you? You better have a damn good reason for landing here..." after all, thanks to the troops Crocodile had stationed at the entrance to the Sandora river it should have been impossible for any other ship besides the nobles to sail up the river, but apparently that still hadn't been enough. Well, the young man could have simply boarded the boat slightly behind the stationed troops but Crocodile didn't really think very clearly at the moment so that possibility slipped right through his normally so keen mind.

The young man walked over to Crocodile and with a massive grin on his face spoke to the warlord of the seas, completely ignoring his questions.

"It seems we both could use some good old venting. You, waiting for a ship of nobles that doesn't even exist, and me for having to sail the grandline in utter boredom thanks to the f.u.c.k.e.d up weather this ocean has. So lets get right to it little Croco!" the young man spoke with fire in his eyes and promptly rushed over to the still slightly buffled warlord. The ship of nobles didn't exist? What the f.u.c.k? And how did the young man even know about that whole damn thing? There was something fishy going on here, Crocodile could smell it! But no matter. 'The arrogant little shit wants to fight?

Gladly! I need to let off some steam anyways.' Crocodile thought while ducking under a left jab of the young man, and followed it up by jumping slightly back to gain some distance from his opponent to assess him a little better before taking the initiative.

The young man was tall and muscled, which told Crocodile that he was adept at fighting at the very least, if not more so and to top it all of the young man carried a certain pressure around with him, one he hadn't thought to find in Paradise. Haki, and a strong one at that!

'This just got a whole lot more dangerous. If he was able to get his haki to be battleready than that means he has broken through a threshhold when it comes to strength which even I will be hardmatched to counter. Luckily I have my logia fruit, and am in a desert no less! Though it annoyes me that such a whelp managed to unchain his haki before me, a warlord and future king! No matter, his dried up carcass won't be remembered anyway. But I will be!' Finishing his inner monolog, Crocodile rushed forward while pulling of the protective shell from the golden hook, where his right hand should have been, revealing a purple steaming hook, riddled with small holes from which a deadly poison dropped to the ground, sizzling on touch. Soon he reached his envisioned fighting distance and thrust his hook forwards with a wooshing sound, trying to nick his opponent to give him a deadly advantage. The young man though seemed to have read his intentions and put his balance on his backfoot by moving the center of his being further backwards, and by doing so avoided the hook by milimeters, still having a bright grin on his face. Next the young man rushed forwards himself, right into the opening Crocodile had left after thrusting with his hook, smashing his fist, with haki enhanced no less, into Crocodiles ribbs, causing said man to buckle over, gasping for air and lifting him of the ground and sending him flying a few meters.

'What strength! I f.u.c.k.i.n.g hate to fight haki users... They take any advantage away from us logia!' Crocodile thought midair while twisting himself to not land on his back but instead land on his feet, never leaving his opponent out of his sight, which proved to be the right decision as the young man had disappeared from his spot and was throwing a kick at Crocodiles legs to take his balance away.

Crocodile in response jumped over the leg and tried to grab said leg with his left hand, which only landed on the ground instead though, cracking it by drawing in any moisture that was left at the riverbanks, desiccating it completely. Having witnessed what Crocodiles left hand was capable of the young mans eyes sharpened, jumping in the air to dodge the mans attack. Crocodile though interrupted his literal inhaling of moisture and rushed forwards towards the man, thinking him unable to dodge, now that he was in the air. To his surprise though the young mans feet ignited and fur started to sprout all over his body, while he gained in height and density.

"First form: Unchaining the beast!" The young man spoke while opening his eyes, which began to shine with a nebulous yellow light, followed by the further bulging of the now large creatures muscles.

'Well, f.u.c.k! This just got a whole lot more difficult. A Zoan-user, possibly a mystical one at that... At least I've never seen a wolf/dog covered in flames before. Better keep my distance from now on. I'm no match in melee against a Zoan-user who is proficient in haki to boot. F.u.c.k!' Crocodile thought to himself with a grimace on his face. Thrusting his left hand to the ground, Crocodile manipulated the sand underground while yelling in his mind 'Quicksand!' and jumping further away to gain more distance between them. Though the quicksand proofed to be useless as the creature simply ran over it on, from flames billowing, feet, on all four, right towards its prey Crocodile.

'Great. Groundbased attacks seem useless as well. That means I can only use the sand inside my body or conjured sandstorms. F.u.c.k.i.n.g hell! My luck strikes again...' Crocodile pondered with an increasingly dark visage. Gathering the sand in his hand Crocodile conjured a small tornado made of sand towards the man which increased in size rapidly, leaving the man no choice but to interrupt his charge and run around it, which let Crocodile gather his powers and giving him a slight opening to formulate a plan. Having reached a conclusion, Crocodile waited a little longer for the creature to reach him, which brought a large amount of cold sweat to his forehead at his own insanity but persisted no less. In the last moment before the man reached the distance to actively attack Crocodile, he manipulated the sand in the ground to form two large thorns made of sand, that shot up into the air, trying to scewer the creature, which in response leapt further into the air, carrying a large shroud of red flames in his wake before charging once more, kicking of from the air left and right to acc.u.mulate more speed. Crocodile in response, hoping it would at least injure the young man enough for crocodile to retreat into the distance by turning himself into sand, turned his left hand completely into sand and formed them into three crescent blades, thrusting them at the creature, which only seemed to grin in a mocking expression, seemingly fully understanding as well as Crocodile had just moments ago, that Crocodile had no way of winning this duel. His only chance was to escape and try another time with more aces up his sleeve.

Seeing and hearing the attack from Crocodile, so accurately named desert spada, the rumbling voice of the young man now turned beast ground out, answering the attack with his own creation.

"First stance: incinerating charge!"

Following his words, the beasts legs hardened from the coiling muscles and the flames from the beasts feet climbed up its legs, now covering the whole lower body, until with a sonic bang from displaced air, the beast disappeared only to leave an image sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right side of the nearing desert spada, only for the beast to appear behind Crocodile with a reared back flaming claw, ripping straight through the mans upper torso, causing blood and steam to spill all over the deserts sand, accompanied by Crocodiles pained outcry and the sizzling of his cauterised wounds, not giving his logia the chance to heal his wounds.