Chapter 73: Crocodile and Bullet
All of the people Crocodile recruited were desperadoes, and they all showed the most ferocious expressions, but they still gave the new boss full respect, but no one dared to act without authorization.
"Boss, what are your orders?"
"Looks like another bounty hunter is after my head. Take care of him." Crocodile gave the order calmly, narrowing his eyes.
"Hahaha, understood!"
"Finally some fun!"
The group was excited to hear the order, encouraging each other, urging the camel to move downwards.
One of them, apparently impatient with the camel's slowness, jumped directly from its back into the air and, spinning rapidly, transformed into a half-beast man, with a stocky body and horns on its head.
The half-gazelle man bent his legs, his goat hooves sank into the sand, and in the next instant, with a powerful push of his strong muscles, he leapt upwards with a roar.
The half-gazelle man cruelly watched his hooves dart towards the forehead of the man in white, his pupils reflecting a crimson killing intent.
But at the moment the hooves were going to impact the man in white, he raised his index finger. Then a deafening roar instantly rang out.
[Clang!]
The overwhelming force exploded from the point of contact, generating air waves around, and the sand below sank several centimeters.
"How... How is it possible...ah! Ahhh!"
An extremely pitiful wailing appeared, and the other people who rushed behind subconsciously grabbed the camel in shock. They watched with dumbfounded eyes as bone spurs covered in blood erupted from the half-gazelle man's body.
For a moment, everyone was shocked by such a horrific and bloody scene, but Crocodile's expression remained natural.
"A Paramecia-type ability user...huh?"
[Puff, puff, puff! ]
However, before he finished speaking, another abrupt change occurred. Below where the group of people approaching the man in white was, long pale white swords emerged from the sand, instantly piercing both the camel's belly and its rider.
More than a dozen people, along with the camels, fell lifeless without even having time to scream, warm blood gushing from the wounds, staining the sand crimson.
A gust of wind blew across the sand sea, passing quickly between the man in white and Crocodile.
When Crocodile clearly felt the overwhelming and suffocating aura of the man in white, he could no longer remain calm.
Crocodile turned into a pile of sand and separated from the camel, appearing about fifty meters away from the man in white. He kept his muscles tense, prepared to attack at any moment.
"Who are you?"
However, the man in white did not respond. Instead, thirteen white swords shot towards him at an astonishing speed.
Fortunately, Crocodile's Kenbunshoku Haki combined with his Devil Fruit's elementalization ability, allowed him to easily avoid the sword attacks.
"Um?!"
The next second, a blurry white shadow flashed in his sight. Crocodile's expression suddenly changed with shock. Then a white sword, quick as a flash, slashed across Crocodile's chest.
Although he tried to quickly turn into sand to evade the attack, he was still too slow. When he returned to human form more than a hundred meters away, a long red wound had appeared on his chest.
"What a quick sword cut..."
Crocodile covered the wound on his chest and stared at the man in white with an ugly face. Cold sweat was already breaking out on his head.
But in response to his words, the man in white stopped as if he was sizing him up, and suddenly spoke, "You are so weak. How come your Haki is so weak?"
This person is the CP0 sent by The Five Elders, and he is not an ordinary member of the CP0, but a CP0 with the title of 'Sacred Shield', and the 'Sacred Shield' represents a force comparable to that of a Navy Admiral.
Because both the navy and the CP are busy with the matter related to the newly discovered 'One Piece', they lack available personnel. Furthermore, considering that two years ago, Crocodile had drawn with Bullet several times and challenged Whitebeard (although he lost), his strength could not be underestimated. He could be compared to Bullet. So the Five Elders had to send CP0 'Sacred Shield'.
But something is wrong... How could Crocodile be so weak?
The eyes of the man in white were full of doubts under the mask. He looked at the guy in front of him and wondered if he had encountered a fake 'Crocodile'.
Crocodile got very angry when he heard that this guy belittled him so much, but he calmed down quickly, and in fact realized that his Haki had somehow weakened, which scared and angered him even more.
"Why...what happened to my Haki?"
This was the question that Crocodile, sitting in the boiling water, had been deeply considering, as well as the one that had plagued him throughout the trip after being defeated by CP0.
Today, it was not much different from two years ago. At that time, he simply put out to sea. He hasn't really exercised much in the last two years. It was not surprising that his strength had not improved, but how could it have decreased so much?
"It's time, Crocodile, come out and get dressed."
At this time, the prison guard outside the pot shouted to him nervously. He didn't know why he was nervous. It was obvious that the other party had seastone handcuffs on his hands and feet, his shadow had been cut away, and he still had a pet collar around his neck. He couldn't resist no matter how he looked at it...
…
"Let me out!"
"Let me see the strongest power in the world!"
"Did you hear that? Let me out quickly!!"
On the sixth level underground, in the dark corridor known as Eternal Hell, roars full of anxiety, anger, and unwillingness were heard, accompanied by purple-black air waves, sweeping across the entire place unbridled.
As soon as Crocodile stepped out of the large elevator, he heard the familiar voice, but for a moment he couldn't remember whose voice it was. The waves of air hit his face, making him frown in displeasure.
"It's Bullet again, that bastard. I don't know why he's been crazy lately. He suddenly started screaming and releasing his Haoshoku Haki."
Vice Warden Magellan, who was standing behind him, complained dissatisfiedly, because this guy made it impossible for the prison guards to get down here, otherwise they would pass out as soon as they stepped in.
"Bullet?"
When Crocodile heard this name, he immediately remembered the past and sneered: "It's really Douglas Bullet. I didn't expect that we would meet again in a place like this!"
"Let's go. Your cell happens to be right next to him. This is what I specially arranged. You can help us persuade this bastard to shut up and calm down!"
At Magellan's urging, the two walked down the stone hallway between the huge free-standing cells. All the bars of these cells were made of extremely hard seastone.
[Boom!]
Suddenly, as Bullet continued to scream and release his dark purple Haoshoku Haki, another energy, a dark gold color, erupted from another cell, even more imposing than the previous one.
The purple-black color was suddenly submerged by the dark gold color. The pressure was so strong that not only the two people in the corridor broke out in cold sweat, even the 'monsters' in each cell were shocked.
"Shut up, you fucking brat from Roger's group!"
"Who is this person..." Crocodile, who subconsciously stopped, swallowed and asked in a low voice. Magellan answered in a low voice.
"Golden Lion, Shiki!"
Upon hearing this name, Crocodile recognized it instantly.
"Come on." Magellan urged. He didn't want to stay in this place and continued guiding Crocodile towards where Bullet was.
"Hahahaha, who did you think it was? It turned out to be the captain's defeated general!" At this time, Bullet's extremely arrogant cry sounded.
"Old guy, at your age, if you stay here for a few years, you'll be useless!"
Shiki yelled back angrily: "Kid, I was defeated by the storm back then, not Roger! If it hadn't been for that sudden storm, your group would have been killed by me!"
"Humph, if you lose, you lose. There's no point in making excuses."
Bullet lay on the cold floor and curled his lips in disdain, but his mood at this time was still extremely bad, which was why he was so irritable.
Ever since he talked to that person, he felt like he was losing his potential and qualifications every minute and every second here. He was desperate to go out and continue getting stronger to surpass Garp, defeat him, and prove that he was stronger than Roger.
He also wants to meet the so-called true strongest person in the world, and then surpass and defeat him! With his own strength, surpass everything and gain everything!
Bullet thought about the mysterious man's words. That man said that he would let him go out in a year or two to meet the real strongest man.
To be honest, based on this alone, I actually had hopes and expectations, but I didn't want to tell anyone for fear of something unexpected happening.
But this short period of time felt very difficult, and he couldn't imagine how he would survive the next two years. That's why he yelled so manically, hoping to attract the attention of the mysterious man and take him away in advance!
With Bullet silent, Shiki stopped paying attention to him. This actually allowed the 'Eternal Hell' to return to a state of silence.
This also made the sounds outside the corridor more obvious.
"Go in."
Magellan's voice is familiar to most people here. As soon as they heard this, they knew another 'new friend' must have arrived, but they just didn't know who it was. This place is not accessible to ordinary people.
In fact, with Crocodile's current strength and identity, strictly speaking, he is not qualified to come here. Instead, he should be imprisoned in the 'Freezing Hell' upstairs, where criminals with a bounty of over 100 million are concentrated.
But since he was personally captured by CP0's 'Sacred Shield' and was specially requested to be locked in the Eternal Hell', Chief Warden Columbus had to agree to those instructions.
Of course, what he listened to was not the order of the 'Sacred Shield', but the order from the World Government behind the other party. After all, the two sides did not belong to the same system, and no one could order the other.
Crocodile obediently entered his designated cell. He paid no attention to Magellan closing the door behind him and instead scanned his surroundings. There wasn't much to see, just a stone platform where he could sit or lie down, next to a stone toilet. There was nothing else.
But he didn't care. He sat casually on the stone platform. He could already imagine how boring the days here would be, although at least he had an old acquaintance by his side.
"Kuahahahaha..."
Crocodile's laughter was particularly interesting.
As soon as Bullet in the next cell heard this voice, an unpleasant face suddenly appeared in his mind, a bastard playing with sand who he couldn't win two years ago, but he couldn't lose either.
This was his unsolved mystery at the time. It was clear that when he fought against Vice-Captain Rayleigh, it was a draw, but when he met the guy playing in the sand, it was also a draw.
This is not right!
He, Bullet, is the strongest genius in the world. It is natural for him to be able to do this, but why could a newcomer just out to sea be as strong as Rayleigh, the 'Dark King'?
Then is my strength on par with Rayleigh or with that bastard?
"Stupid Crocodile, I didn't expect you to be caught too, but why is the aura on your body so weak..."
"Ugh..."
Crocodile's laughter was immediately suppressed by Bullet's words, his face turned red, and he gritted his teeth and said: "You and I are equal, so even if I am weak, that means you have become weaker too!"
"Ha?"
Bullet was confused, what kind of logic was this, but it sounded like there was nothing wrong with it, and he said angrily: "Although I don't know what happened to you, but with your current aura, I will beat you to death in less than a day! "
"Hmph, then come out. Anyway, the record between you and me so far is indistinguishable. You have no right to say that I am weak!" Crocodile disdainfully tried to save himself.
"..."
Bullet gritted his teeth angrily.
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