The oasis city Rainbase, Drake and Stella had reached Crocodile's lair in just half a day while riding Phoenix.
Without probing or any strategy, Drake had chosen the most direct method to tell Crocodile that he had come to cause trouble, and he had directly blown off the roof of the casino Rain Dinners.
"Crocodile, the one who's collecting debts has come!"
Drake had been standing in mid-air, and his flame wings had been spread out behind him, casting a shadow that had been like a demon.
The customers of the casino had screamed, running out, and the magnificent casino had become empty in the blink of an eye.
No, there had been one person left. A woman who had been wearing a white fur-trimmed long coat, had black hair, and coffee-colored skin had been shaking her wine glass unhurriedly, as if she hadn't cared about the battle that was about to happen at all.
Drake had looked at the woman, so it had been Nico Robin! But Drake didn't have the time to pay attention to her right now, because an aura had already been approaching.
Before Drake, a tornado that had been formed from a large amount of sand had risen from the ground, and had finally gathered into a human form.
Wearing a suit, with a fur-collared cloak draped outside, and one of his hands having been replaced by a pirate gold hook, with a long scar running across his face, it had been Crocodile himself.
Crocodile had looked at the Rain Dinners, which had had its roof blown off, and his eyebrows had twitched, saying, "Who are you? You actually dare to come find trouble with me, don't you know that this is this daddy's... the Shichibukai Sand Crocodile's territory?"
Drake had sneered, saying, "It seems that I still underestimated the extent of your depravity, you actually think that being the World Government's dog can scare people like those small fries?
If Whitebeard knew that you would become like this, I wonder if he would regret letting you off."
Drake's words had hit Crocodile's sore spot, and Crocodile's face had stiffened, and he had then said with a voice that had been filled with embarrassment turning into anger, "Damn brat, I'll make you regret angering me right away!"
Along with this desert king Crocodile's rage, a sandstorm had appeared out of thin air on this oasis of Rainbase.
A large number of sand particles had been controlled by Crocodile, swirling towards Drake.
Although Drake didn't think much of the current Crocodile, he was a sea pirate whose strength had been acknowledged by the World Government after all, and Crocodile couldn't be compared to Smoker in the development of his fruit.
The potential of this thing, the devil fruit, was in the fact that it had a kind of unexplainable "I think" power.
Ability users could develop the thing-like characteristics of their abilities to the extreme, for example, Luffy could develop the characteristic of rubber being insulated into absolute restraint against lightning, even ignoring the heat that the electricity had generated together.
And Crocodile had developed the dryness characteristic that the sand had represented, and you would have the water in your body sucked away as long as you had been entangled by this sand, and it could be said to have been a quite terrifying ability.
Especially in this environment where there was desert everywhere, the scale of Crocodile's moves had been even more enormous.
Facing the swirling sandstorm, violent flames had surged out from Drake's body, blasting all of the sand to pieces.
Before Crocodile could even react, he had seen that Drake had pierced through the sandstorm, arriving before him.
Seeing the flames that had been surging on Drake's body, Crocodile had instinctively felt that this was a newbie who had been lucky enough to eat some kind of devil fruit that had been related to flames.
He had thought that he could come and provoke him, this sea pirate who had already made a name for himself long ago, just by eating a devil fruit, and he hadn't even known how to use Armament Haki, but he still wanted to battle him, this Logia ability user?
Crocodile had simply not dodged at all, wanting to make Drake understand that the Grand Line wasn't as simple as he had thought.
But in the next moment, Drake's fist had blasted on Crocodile's face. The surprised expression on Crocodile's face hadn't even disappeared, and his entire person had flown out.
Boom! Crashing heavily into the street, Crocodile had been swallowed by the dust that had been stirred up.
Drake had moved his fingers, and he hadn't expected that Crocodile would be so arrogant that he would take his punch like this either.
It seemed that Crocodile's Observation Haki had also degenerated apart from his Armament Haki. Ace would have become nervous even when he hadn't been releasing his aura, but Crocodile had actually dared to underestimate him during the battle, and he had really been courting death!
You had to know that with the blessing of world magic, Drake's attacks that had been attached with magic power hadn't been any different from Conqueror's Haki wrapping.
The smoke and dust had scattered, and Drake had seen Crocodile, who had been squatting on the ground, and the sandy ground below his feet had been spreading out, swallowing the ground of the street.
Drake had deactivated Fire Dragon Wings, charging straight towards Crocodile below in a freefall.
"Desert Greatsword!"
Crocodile had looked up at Drake, and his arm had instead pierced into the sand. The sand pile around him had bulged up, and a large amount of sand had formed a giant sword blade, stabbing towards Drake.
That punch had also been considered to have woken Crocodile up, and how would he have dared to underestimate Drake again?
The attack speed of the Desert Greatsword had been quite fast, and it had looked like it was about to crash into Drake, who had been falling straight down.
Drake's pupils had a flash of firelight, and the greatsword that had been made up of sand had looked quite intimidating, but it had been far worse than a fist that had been like steel.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
Drake had blasted a punch up, directly blasting the Desert Greatsword back into a pool of quicksand, and it had also revealed Crocodile's face, which had been stern.
"It seems that you've really been living in the days of bullying trash pirates in Paradise for too long, and you've even forgotten how to battle, huh? Did you think that those kinds of moves would have any effect?"
Drake's words had made Crocodile's expression even more unsightly, saying angrily, "You sure dare to talk! Then I'll let you see my true strength!"
While saying this, Crocodile had swung his arm, and his entire arm had transformed into scattered sand, stirring up an arc-shaped sand blade, sweeping towards Drake.
"Arc-Shaped Sand Dune!"
The sand blade had looked like it was about to touch Drake, and Crocodile could have sucked Drake into a mummy with just one second of contact.
But Crocodile had watched Drake's figure flicker, and his arm, which had transformed into a sand blade, hadn't had the feeling of hitting the target at all.
In the next instant, Crocodile had seen Drake suddenly appear before him, and then he had felt a pain in his chin, and his entire person had flown up high.
Drake had blasted a high kick, blasting Crocodile away quite far directly.
In mid-air, the words that Drake had said just now couldn't help but surface in Crocodile's mind.
Crocodile had asked himself, he had been a hero on the sea before this, but his reactions had actually been so slow that he couldn't even keep up with the opponent's movements right now.
Perhaps it had really been as Drake had said, and he had even forgotten what a true battle was like.
But firm convictions were a quality that the strong had in common, and it was no coincidence that Crocodile also had this quality, so he had firmly believed that his choice hadn't been wrong.
'There's no way that a monster like Whitebeard can be defeated with normal methods! Only by mastering an ancient weapon can I surpass that kind of monster, fulfilling my ambition.'
If Drake had known what Crocodile had been thinking, he estimated that he would have also understood how he had degenerated to this extent.
His morale had already been broken by Whitebeard, and without the aura of a strong person, it was no wonder that he couldn't even use haki.
Crocodile had endured the severe pain of his jawbone cracking, doing a flip, landing on the ground.
Including this guy before him as well, they would definitely be no match for him after he had gotten Pluton!
Thinking this, Crocodile had taken corresponding action.
Drake's expression had changed, and he had charged up directly, blasting Crocodile to pieces with one punch.
Looking at Crocodile's body transform into fine sand, Drake had curled his lip, saying, "So you chose to run away, huh? That's really made me even more disappointed!"
That's right, what Drake had broken to pieces had just been a dummy that Crocodile had made with sand, and his main body had already submerged into the sand, escaping.
Drake had really not expected that Crocodile would be able to run away without hesitation after only two moves had passed. He didn't know if he should say that he had degenerated completely, or if he had been wise.
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