Chapter 170

I phased through everything Crocodile threw at me until I closed the distance, swinging a Haki-infused Trition as his head. Crocodile quickly reacted as he moved to block my sword with his golden hook. However, my sword phased right through, regaining its solid mass afterward.

But Crocodile's mastery over the sand fruit wasn't for show as he immediately turned himself to sand before my attack could connect, passing through him without causing any harm despite the Haki coating.

"Impact fist!" I punched forward, channeling energy through my free hand and releasing it as a shock wave that still did not do any damage as Crocodile elemetalised again.

However, the attack fulfilled its purpose as the shock wave pushed the wreathing mass of sand, which Crocodile turned himself to, towards his casino through the hole in the roof I created earlier.

I smirked at the loathing expression on Crcocdile face as it was the first thing to reform as he went flying towards his casino, diving towards the ground right behind him.

"Meteor Strike!" Imitating Wilson's move, I produced flames from my prosthetic hand as I put it ahead of my face while diving face first behind Crocodile as I covered myself in an air barrier while doing so.

Crocodile looked at this scene, frowning as I slowly began to turn into a flaming sphere, flying right towards him, and immediately sensed the danger.

While sand's main weakness was water, as it would make it stick together and render Crocodile unable to turn himself into sand, another option was fire.

Sand does not burn because it's a product of combustion as it has already oxidized to the highest level. However, even if sand is not flammable, this doesn't mean one couldn't burn it at extremely high temperatures.

That doesn't happen under normal circumstances, but I reckon the heat generated by a meteor-like impact should do the trick, and that's what I'm going for here.

The chemistry lesson aside, perhaps out of instinct, experience, or a mixture of both, Crocodile seemed to have sensed the danger, and he quickly reacted, hurling a sandy tornado in my direction, along with several sand blades, trying to extinguish my flames.

I didn't dodge Crocodile's attack and decided to overpower them with brute force instead as I activated my Berserk mod and began producing as much flames as possible while pushing myself downward with Geppo.

I managed to shred through Crocodile's attacks. However, I did lose some momentum when I finally reached him, burying my left fist into his gut while channeling Haki and my Impact fist through it on top of everything else, compensating for the lost momentum.

There was finally an expression of shock on Crocodile's face, making him lose his iconic, belittling, smug expression, which he's had on his face since the beginning of the fight.

However, despite his shock, he still struggled as he tried to hit me through the flames, his hook banging against my air barrier until we reached the ground.

The casino's foundation shoock as we hit the ground, breaking through the floor as the surrounding walls began collapsing until we broke through the foundation itself, hitting the sand below as it began melting and turning into glass that shattered just as quickly as it formed.

I got off Crocidile on wobbly legs after burying him into the heap of shattered glass that sand turned into, marveling at the destruction my attack caused as the casino began collapsing around me, pieces of stones, chips, gambling machines, and tables flying over my head.

'Someone should make a painting out of this scene...' I couldn't help thinking such useless thoughts as a few sun rays sneaked their way through the destroyed roof and into this crater, reflecting off the surrounding shattered glass and creating a beautiful scene.

Staring at this scene felt like I was having an epiphany, and I fell in a daze despite myself, time suddenly stopping as my already improved hearing suddenly became considerably more powerful.

I could hear the concerned murmurs of the rain Base's citizens standing as far away as several kilometers away from the Rain Dinners, and their voices only deepened my daze as I felt an incoming headache.

"Is this Observation Haki...?" I muttered under my breath, looking around while still in a daze. However, a sudden whisper that was more of a hunch than anything else snapped me out of it, urging me to duck.

I did exactly that, watching in astonishment as a silent sand blade that I wouldn't have heard or dodged without the premonition I got flew right above my head as a bloodied Crcocdile reformed back from the sand, his clothes already tattered.

"I can't remember the last time someone pushed me this far..." Crocodile calmly remarked, all signs of anger disappearing from his face as he retrieved a crumbled cigar from his pocket.

"Perhaps all those years as a warlord away from the new world have made soft..." he added, lighting his cigar as he took a deep breath while carelessly looking around at his destroyed casino.

"In any case, you're in my domain now, brat," Crocodile stated, releasing a cloud of smoke from his mouth as he turned to look at me. "And I won't underestimate you this time around," he added as sand began wreathing all around us, taking various shapes.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," I replied, swinging Triton to the side as I lowered my posture, preparing to defend myself.

"Desert Spada!" Crocodile exclaimed, transforming his right hand into a loose blade of fast-moving sand. He stabbed it into the ground, extending it along the sand like a torpedo that looked like it could split anything in its path as it flew towards me.

My newly gained premonition screamed at me to dodge, and I did just that, jumping to the side as the wall-like sand blade went right past me, hitting and damaging the casino's foundation even more.

"Desert Girasole," Corcocdile exclaimed, stabbing his hand into the ground again as I landed after dodging, which caused the ground beneath me to collapse, a giant pit of quicksand forming and clutching my feet.

I channeled my impact fist through my feet to free myself and immediately jumped into the air with Geppo, my eyes going wide as my premonition screamed at me to block.

Crocodile suddenly appeared in front of me, floating towards me at incredible speed, his right hand stretched to the side with a crescent-shaped trail of sand behind it.

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