Chapter 19. House of glass

Crocodile dodged the palm of fire, but he got slightly surprised by the heat of the palm. He knew that Mera Mera no mi was supposed to be one of the most destructive and dangerous logia fruits out there.

But the heat of Ace's flames still surprised him and he realised that if he got hit by those flames, he might actually get seriously harmed.

Crocodile was unaware that Ace had reached an unprecedented level with the fruit.

Ace saw Crocodile dodge his attack and then raise his arm. Then suddenly a dome of sand surrounded Ace and completely shut him in.

"Doesn't fire need air to survive?" What will you do now?" Crocodile said, all the while pressing the dome harder on Ace.

The sand dome suddenly exploded and Ace walked out of it while being on flames. The grin on his face couldn't be mistaken.

"Is this all you have?" Ace chuckled. But his relaxed state didn't last long, as all the buildings in the town turned into sand as well, and then flew up toward sthe sky like gigantic snake dragons.

Looking up towards the sand constructs that looked ready to pounce him, Ace smiled even more.

"Awakening? That's more like it!" As he said that, a gigantic sand snake attack him, completely destroyed the area they were in, and then another sand attack followed.

The Demon Ace Pirates had to take their fight further away as they almost got swallowed by sand.

Demon Ace Pirates and Crocodile's subordinates hurried away and looked towards where Ace and Crocodile were fighting in awe. Gigantic sand snakes were attacking Ace in turns.

"ORA ORA!!!! LETS CONTINUE MR 1!!!" Uroge shouted pumped.

They didn't stay idle for long before they continued fighting.

Crocodile was frowning, seeing how much of his sand simply turned into glass as they passed through Ace, he realised that his sand abilities wouldn't help him here. He didn't think he would need to use his haki on a rookie that had just recently passed the grandline.

"Oh, it's seems like you're planning on changing your attack style, but before that, shouldn't I also show you what I've got?" Ace shouted at Crocodile, still looking like he was quite relaxed.

Suddenly Crocodile looked alarmed as he felt his control over the sand weaken, and what he saw next made him drop his jaws.

His gigantic sand constructs turned into flames... They didn't simply burst into flames, no, they turned into flames.. which means that Ace has also awakened his abilities.

Not only that, if two awakened logia ability users try to turn the same object into their element, the one who is more advanced in their awakening and has more control will be the one to overpower the other.

But even then, it's almost impossible to turn something that's already turned by the other. For example, the buildings were already turned to sand, so it's almost impossible to turn them into flames since they are already under the control of Crocodile.

But to forcefully turn it, that simply means that Ace's control over his abilities is way above that of Crocodile's.

And Crocodile realised that.

'I can't take it easy anymore!' crocodile thought as he eyes fell on his left arm and as sweat started falling from his face because of the temperature rise.

His left hand had been replaced by a golden hook, and as he concentrated for a second, his hook turned dark black.

But before he could act, the gigantic snakes made of flames started attacking and bombarding where he stood.

As for the Demon Ace Pirates, they had already defeated their opponents, and we're staring in awe at the gigantic flame snakes in the distance.

"Captain is quite cool, isn't he..." Apoo muttered.

The other just silently agreed.

The earth quakes got even more powerful as the flame snakes kept on attacking.

Ace finally allowed the flames to disappear after attacking for a few minutes.

Half of the town had disappeared in those attacks, most buildings were burnt because of the heat. And what was left of Crocodile was a gigantic glass crystal dome that had many cracks.

"Hmm you survived, no wonder you're one of the seven warlords." Ace said loudly.

The glasa dome shattered and Crocodile walked out. His upperwear had been burnt off but luckily his pants was still on.

His hook on his left hand had been melted off as well.

He had a big burn scar on the right side of his chest and arm.

Crocodile didn't speak but instead flashed towards Ace and tried to punch him with his Haki infused fist.

Ace's cought Crocodiles punch with his haki infused palm and countered with a punch to his gut.

Crocodile saw it coming and protected his stomach with haki.

But as Ace's fist made contact with Crocodile gut, a big shockwave came about and Crocodile shot straight backwards into the ruins of buildings.

The quality of Ace's haki was way above that of Crocodile's.

'He is stronger than anyone on my crew and way stronger that he cartoon version, but... I still don't get how Luffy could defeat him without haki, no, even if Crocodile didn't have haki he would still be a few levels above canon Luffy!' Ace thought with a frown.

Crocodile was really strong based on his devil fruit capabilities. But Ace had a stronger fruit and was more advanced in it.

As Ace reached where Crocodile was laying half knocked out, Crocodile awoke and tried to stand up. But his shaking legs almost failed failed him.

As Ace cam close enough, crocodile found his footing and attacked once again with a haki infused punch. Ace met his fist with his own and both were blasted apart.

Even Ace flew dozens of meters back. Then they went at eachother once again.

In the in end, it resulted in a brawl, every time Crocodile would punch Ace, he would coat himself in haki and be protected from Crocodiles weaker haki.

In the end, Ace infused his fist with even .ore.haki.amd punched Crocodile even harder, blasting the warlord away.

This time, when Crocodile tried to stand up, he fell down, weakened.

"How... No, this should be impossible, you came from the weakest sea, how, how are you this strong and so young...." Crocodile whispered. But it seemed more like he was questioning his own past rather than Ace's, as he wasn't even looking at Ace.

Ace didn't even seem like he had been in a fight, well, his hair was slightly ruffled.

Ace hadn't gone all out, he wanted to feel how strong someone like Crocodile is, and he was impressed. Crocodiles haki was a let down but his physical abilities and his devil fruit abilities were really strong. No wonder he could become a warlord.

'Whats the differenc between us,, why couldn't I reach your heights!' Crocodile thought as he stared at his hand.

"You stopped chasing your ambition, so you stopped growing. I'm guessing that you lost a fight in the past... Have you trained since then?" Ace was exasperated as he saw Crocodile's expression, trying to give him some hints.

"I see..." Crocodile whispered as he understood.

"CAPTAIN!" Bonney shouted as the rest of his nakam arrived.

Ace walked back and allowed Bonney to ask what she wanted to ask.

As Bonney walked towards the fallen warlord, Ace noticed a life force hidden away, spying, a flew blocks down the destroyed road.

"I'll be rightback, wait here!" Ace said as he flashed away.

Nico Robin had seen all she needed and was about to escape. She wasn't willing to take any risks no matter how sweet the deal with Ace seemed, but before she could escape, Ace had appeared in front of her with a shit eating grin.

"Getting peeked at by a hot girl makes even me blush!" Ace spoke out happily