Chapter 171

"Barján," Crocodile exclaimed, his right hand coated in Haki as it met my sword swing, trying to push right past me with brute strength.

I frowned while pushing my sword against Crocodile's hand as I watched the debris and falling casino decorations turning into nothing but sand as they touched the sandy crescent radiating from his arm.

'If that hits me, then I'll be in serious trouble...' I couldn't help smiling as I saw an opportunity in this predicament.

Crocodile was currently too focused on hitting me with his right hand to activate his devil fruit and suck away the moisture in my body. And no matter how much e's mastered his devil fruit, I can't imagine him turning to sand in time if I managed to land a hit right now.

I relaxed my grip on my swords as I took a step to the side, allowing Crocodile to overpower me for a second, pushing Triton to the ground, which left him disoriented for a second.

I quickly brought my hand back and punched forward, catching Crocodile right in the jaw with a Haki-infused fist strong enough to rip the head of an average man off his shoulders.

And just as expected, Crocodile didn't turn into sand in time as my fist met his chin, sending his head jerking backward. However, he stood his ground through gritted teeth and swung his hook at my right shoulder, leaving a gaping gash on it before I sent him flying back with an Impact Fist infused kick.

I cradled my injured shoulder, feeling the stinging pain, and smiled as I looked at Crocodile, who began forming again after disbursing into sand to avoid my kick.

"I must admit, I didn't expect you to push me so far," Crocodile calmly stated, forgoing to add an insulting remark at the end of his sentence for the first time.

"But it's over now..." Crocodile added, slightly smirking as he wiped his hook, which now looked different. It lost its golden cover, looking like it's made of steel right now, with many holes all over it.

I was confused for a second, but as I spotted a golden hollow hook on the ground and felt the flesh around the wound on my shoulder wiggle under my left hand, covering it, I immediately understood.

"My secondary hook contains powerful scorpion poison..." Crocodile explained, raising his hook as a purple liquid dripped from its tip, falling to the ground and burning a hole through it with a loud sizzling sound.

"Without the antidote, you will die a slow, painful death," Crocodile said, gesturing to the side, an icy expression on his face. "However, it will be a waste for you to die like that," he added, losing the frosty look as he assumed a laid-back one.

"You're strong enough for me to acknowledge you as such," Crocodile remarked deliberately slowly, probably trying to mess with me with the assumption I was in a hurry to receive the antidote.

"But you lack the experience to make it in the new world..." Crocodile said as he looked me straight in the eye. "Experience that I have," he added, spreading his arms to the side.

"So, how about it? Come for me. I'll make you my right-hand man, and we can take over this world together..." he added, pausing his speech as he looked at me with a confident grin.

"Rehahaha." Looking at this scene, I couldn't help but laugh much to Crocodile's bemusement.

"What is so funny? Do you want to die?" Crocodile asked with a frown, his tone a mixture of annoyance and confusion.

"I just didn't expect the offer, and it took me by surprise..." I said with a chuckle, shaking my head. "But as tempting as the offer is, I'll have to refuse," I added in a resolute tone.

"I expected as much," Crocodile calmly remarked. "then you can slowly die here from the poison for all I care..." he added, turning around to leave, only to pause as I began laughing again.

"Sorry to disappoint you..." I said with a smirk raising my hand off my shoulder right as Crocodile turned to face me again, the scabs from the wound falling off my shoulder in front of his astonished eyes.

"But poison doesn't work on me," I added with a shrug, chuckling even more at Crocodile's expression, which was a mixture of anger and befuddlement as he finally realized what a fool he made himself to be by threatening me with poison.

"No matter," Crocodile said, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "If poison doesn't work, then I merely have to chop your body into little pieces," he added, detaching his poisonous hook from his hand and revealing the small blade hidden beneath it.

I just shrugged my shoulders as I picked up Triton and charged towards Crocodile, both of us forgoing to use our devil fruit abilities as we devolved into an all-out brawl, swinging our blades at each other.

I might have sounded uncaring about Crocodile's offer, but in truth, it brought me immense pride. Despite his defeat at Luffy's hand in the anime, Crocodile was undoubtedly strong even by the New World standards.

He knew that and took pride in it. Perhaps too much pride, some people might add, enough for him to casually talk down to people like Doflamingo and Mihawk while fighting them like equals, even if he's necessarily their equal indeed.

And I just impressed this guy enough for him to acknowledge my strength.

An asshole though he might be, Crocodile was the kind of villain you couldn't help liking the more you knew about him, and I was a big fan of his.

In any case, Crocodile and I continued to fight for an upward of thirty minutes, our blades constantly clashing against each other, generating shock waves and loud screeching noises as they did.

We were both tired at this point. Both physically and mentally. And as we stood more there, pausing our fight for a second to catch a breather, we continued to glare at each other.

And just as we were about to charge each other again, a loud exclamation came from outside the casino, causing us to stop as we listened.

"Johnny Silver Hand! In the name of justice, you are under arrest!" exclaimed a familiar voice, speaking through a megaphone of sorts.

"We have surrounded this area, so don't think about escape and surrender quietly!" The voice added as several marine vice admirals suddenly, along with numerous other marine officers and foot soldiers, jumped from the remains of the casino into the crater I've created inside it.