Capítulo 77: Chapter 73
At some distance away from the Grimheart pirates and marines, the Baroque Works agents, now reduced to around five hundred or less, were standing on the sandy terrain.
"What... just what is going on?" One Millions agent whispered in disbelief, watching how Grimheart pirates began their battle against Crocodile and the marines. "This is just on a whole different scale—what is boss thinking?!"
"Shut up, will you?" A Billions agent barked angrily, "Do not doubt boss; we just got to look for a right chance!"
"Right chance? Yeah right. We don't even know who the boss is." Another Billions agent muttered nearby.
The hoard of agents was getting rowdy, arguing with one another and screaming in fear.
"Damn it..." One of the frontier agents, Miss Father's Day, was seen to be attempting to aim her sniper gun at the scene, but to no avail. She didn't know who to target, and she couldn't aim properly with the pressure waves from the fights ahead.
All of them were in a mix of confusion and horror. Not only did they just experience the most terrifying moments of their lives, but had no idea what they should do now. The same applied to the officer agents.
"What do we do now?" Miss Merry Christmas, a short middle-aged woman with red hair, said in a cold sweat.
Mr. 3 was seen holding his chest, calming himself down from the intense battle that was happening ahead of them. Wiping his sweat, he shakily straightened his posture and pointed at Rowan and Crocodile, who were clashing against one another on a catastrophic scale.
"Grimheart, an infamous Supernova who appeared out of nowhere. Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords. Although the former has a much higher bounty, the latter had his bounty frozen for a very long period of time." Mr. 3 said with a hint of fear in his voice.
"What's your point?" Mr. 5 said with an annoyed tone, gritting his teeth as he helplessly stared at the destroyed Yuba.
Mr. 3 gulped while clenching his fists tight, "I'm saying that… if Mr. 0 is here, it has to be Crocodile."
Mr. 2 squinted his eyes in confusion, How so?"
"I deem that Mr. 0 must be someone of confidence and strength; one won't attempt to began an organization as big as this. Baroque Works has been continuing for five years. 3 years ago, Grimheart wrecked havoc in the East Blue prior to entering the Grand Line; he can't be Mr.0. On the other hand, Crocodile, who has been hailed as the hero of Alabasta for years… he fits perfectly." Adjusting his glasses, Mr. 3 explained.
"So what then? Go up to Crocodile and suck up to him?" Miss Doublefinger spoke, with her eyes locked onto the marine soldiers on the other side. "He literally watched us getting destroyed by the marines."
Mr. 2 nodded in an agreement with a serious expression on his face full of make-up.
"Can't we just run?" Miss Goldenweek tilted her head. Mr. 3 shook his head at her words.
"The marines aren't idiots. They probably stationed additional forces to ensure that none of us escape successfully. " Mr. 3 explained nervously, as his gaze shifted from Crocodile to the marine troop, where the captains, Hina and Sho, were seen to be leading the soldiers in their direction. "Believe it or not, it is the best for us that Grimheart wins, since he opposes the marines. Crocodile is Warlord, and he won't oppose against the marines or admit that he's the boss of the organization, even if he was."
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*BOOM* *BOOM*
Without regard for the others, Rowan and Crocodile, who was within the sand giant, were seen to be standing off against each other, within the ruins of what used to be Yuba.
Rowan was seen to be flickering from one spot to the other, as the sand giant rapidly bombarded its fists towards him.
'A giant made out of sands. Pretty compact-'
*BOOM* The fist of sand giant struck on where Rowan was standing. However, Rowan, who could dodge the attack even without the use of Observation Haki, was long gone from the position.
'-but it's sand in the end. The sands are falling off and breaking down from the giant, however, Crocodile is quickly gushing in the new patches of sands to fill the gap.' Rowan thought as he dodged another impact from the giant.
"Everything was going according to plan." Within the sand giant, Crocodile muttered with a shaky voice, barely containing his anger, "The goal was near. I would have made it... then you popped out of nowhere,
Grimheart!!!"
*BOOM* Another fist struck, followed by a stomp, causing the whole desert to shake. Rowan effortlessly dodged by moving slightly away from the attack.
'The answer is simple: just attack its core.'
Subsequently, Rowan jumped on top of the arm of the sand giant and blasted off towards Crocodile, who was in the middle. Crocodile growled at Rowan's bold approach. At his will, the sand giant began to morph inwardly, slowly trapping Rowan within the sands. However, Rowan didn't mind as he continued to blast towards Crocodile, confronting the latter without any fear.
"Desert Presas!!" Under Crocodile's control, the sands that hurled towards Rowan instantly sharpened and shot lethally.
Now surrounded by the sharp sand-like spikes all around, with Crocodile in front of him, gritting his teeth, Rowan crossed his arms in front of his face.
"Impact Blast!"
*BOOOOOOM* Suddenly, a huge bounce force blasted all around Rowan's body, causing Crocodile's sand constructs to crumble and blast away from Rowan. Crocodile coughed out blood as he too was blasted backward from Rowan's technique.
Turning himself into the sand, Crocodile quickly regained composure, leaving the sand giant to crumble. However, they didn't fall to the ground but began to fly upwards.
Rowan watched the view with a serious expression, not letting his guard down for a single second. Lowering his eyes to Crocodile, who now stood up on top of sands and held his hand up to the sky, where an insanely large volume of sand was floating.
Immediately after, the floating abundance of sand began to swirl at a rapid rate, forming a large, disheveled sand storm that began to rotate on top of Crocodile's palm.
Rowan's eyes narrowed as he sighted Crocodile, who was about to prepare for his next attack, and quickly shifted his position in midair before propelling himself to Crocodile by bouncing off the air.
However, the sand storm of alarming size instantly shrunk in a mere second, lying on top of Crocodile's hand. Now, the insanely dense and minuscule-sized sand storm spun like a drill, screeching loudly.
Rowan recognized the danger within the attack and immediately used bounce in opposite direction to halt himself from approaching Crocodile any further. Landing on the sand, Rowan crouched down slightly, readying himself to face off against Crocodile's attack.
"Sables: Grande Pesado!!"
*BOOOOOOOM* The minuscule sand storm left Crocodile's hand and blasted towards Rowan like a cannonball. Grinding all sands on its way, the dense sand storm picked up the size and rotational velocity, spinning wildly towards Rowan.
*SWOOOOOSHH* At the next moment, as the sand storm was now right in front of Rowan, its core decompressed and suddenly amplified its size even further; the scenery looked absolutely chaotic.
"Try blocking this one, Grimheart!!." Crocodile growled with slight exhaustion on his face and his hand holding onto his stomach, where he previously sustained an injury from Rowan's 'Entropic Blast.'
*BOOM* Without any words, Rowan blasted off of the sand his feet were standing on, towards the disaster in front of him that continued to drill its way towards him.
Taking a deep breath, he pulled both of his arms back, before his arms shot forward with the manifestations of Armament Haki.
"Ten Hit, Blast Rush!!" At the next moment, Rowan began to throw the blindingly fast successions of punches towards the gigantic sand storm.
*BOOBOOBOOBOOM* Each of Rowan's strikes contained ten insanely condensed bounce forces like Toriko's nail punch, causing drill-like sounds to resonate with each punch and consecutively explode the air in front of him with extraordinarily high pressure.
*BOOOOOOOOOM* The pressures generated by Rowan's barrage of punches and Crocodile's gigantic sand storm collided in the middle, struggling to overwhelm one another. The situation initially seemed to be in a stalemate, but Crocodile's gigantic sand storm was quickly blasted away by Rowan's continuous blasts, causing the vast amount of sands to disperse and fall back down.
Rowan was seen to be slightly winded and huffing, as he lifted up his right hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead. However, his expression was still calm.
Subsequently, Crocodile seemed to have calmed down, as his breathing slowed and the injury in his stomach was temporarily treated by filling the gap with sands.
"It seems... that I've lost my sense for a moment," Crocodile stated coldly, "Don't expect things to go your way from now on, Grimheart."
Rowan glared at Crocodile with sharp eyes, "We'll have to see about that." Rowan raised his left hand and pointed his index finger towards Crocodile, who floated the sand grains around him for an instant reaction.
"Twenty-Five Hit, Drill Blast-"
Grimacing, Crocodile immediately condensed the sand into a form of a shield on his outstretched palm, which turned black, signaling that Crocodile managed to imbue Armament Haki into the sands, "Desert Grande Escudo."
*BOOBOOBOOBOOM* Crocodile held his shield up firmly as his body shook from the vibrations caused by the collisions of the consecutive bounce forces onto his black sand shield.
"-Barrage." Rowan's index shot out the air blasts repeatedly, one after another, with each blast containing twenty-five consecutive bounces that kept on crashing over Crocodile's shield.
Grunting, Crocodile dispersed himself into sands and swirled around to dodge Rowan's technique. Watching Crocodile intently, Rowan ceased his attack and crouched down.
"Sonic Step." Rowan vanished from his spot, and before Crocodile realized, Rowan was standing behind him.
*BOOM* The booming noise from Rowan's propulsion only managed to catch up as Crocodile's eyes widened, before quickly raising his golden hook and simultaneously imbuing it with Armament Haki.
"Nine Layers Convergence: Focus Blast."
*BOOOOOOOM* Crocodile's expression tightened as he was sent blasting backward from Rowan's potent blow.
'To think I would be pushed this far... I've stayed in Paradise for too long.' Crocodile thought to himself as he was flying parallel to the ground. 'No time, no guarantee, and potent enemy. I will have to finish this as quick as I can.'
Crocodile momentarily transformed into the sand to disperse the momentum and changed immediately back to his original body. At the same time, the sands below him swirled and attached to his body, covering him all the way from head to toe. As Crocodile landed back with his feet, the sand armour around him turned black, due to him applying Armament Haki on top of it.
"Desert Ultimo: Armour of Horus." Crocodile now stood with full-body armour, with only his eyes exposed. 'Ten minutes. I have to finish before I reach my time limit.'
"Full-body Armament Haki. Resorting to such an inefficient usage of Haki, huh." Rowan said callously as he narrowed his eyes, "It seems that you are running out of time. Telling false truths against the marines and scheming against the whole kingdom... I can already tell where this is going."
Judging by the technique and its extensive usage of Haki, Rowan could tell that Crocodile wasn't going to be able to maintain the armour for a long time. Full-body Armament Haki is a very shortcoming method of using Haki, which is never to be used unless one disregards time and goes for a quick burst of strength. Additionally, Crocodile had to keep the sand intact on his body; he was pushing himself beyond his limit.
Crocodile simply raised his hook, now imbued with Armament Haki also, before the sand swirled around and formed a greatsword, also turning into black.
"Desert Ultimo: Deus Espada." Crocodile blasted off from his spot, flying towards Rowan while holding his greatsword back, ready to slash.
Watching as Crocodile flew towards him at a rapid speed, Rowan's stance changed, as he placed one hand in front of the other and slouched slightly back, having his left leg to support most of his body weight. It resembled a stance of martial art.
"Ayan Taekwondo: Bounce Variation."
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