Drake was looking at Crocodile, who had been covered in signs of being in a sorry state, and he had become slightly more serious.

Drake hadn’t had Luffy’s protagonist halo after all, and Crocodile had actually exploded in power during the battle.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say that he had exploded in power, and Crocodile had just recovered his former strength.

Crocodile’s two most dazzling achievements had been fighting the Devil Heir Barrett to a draw, and challenging the strongest man in the world Whitebeard, and surviving.

Putting aside the latter, the former opponent, Barrett, had been someone who hadn’t known what holding back had been.

Even if Barrett hadn’t reached the peak level that he had had at the later Pirate Fest, beating down the Supernovas, he couldn’t have not mastered haki if he had been able to fight him to a draw.

It was just that on one hand, he had only been thinking about relying on the power of the ancient weapon to take revenge after having been defeated by Whitebeard, and it was clear that his mentality had completely collapsed.

On the other hand, Crocodile had been the kind of person that Zephyr had said had only been focusing on devil fruit abilities, just like Kizaru.

The result had been that his haki had degenerated completely, but even if Kizaru had been specializing in one thing, he hadn’t had any shortcomings, and he had developed his fruit to the extreme. Crocodile could only degenerate to the point of losing to a newbie.

But after Drake had defeated him without holding back, the strong stimulation had made him recover some of his former strength.

What had stimulated Crocodile the most had been that he had almost had no power to fight back during the battle, and that was something that hadn’t happened even when he had been battling Whitebeard back then.

Crocodile didn’t think that Drake was stronger than that monster Whitebeard, so there had only been one answer, and that had been that he himself had become weaker.

As if having been startled awake from a dream, Crocodile had finally faced his current self squarely.

Having been beaten up by Drake had an effect that hadn’t been any worse than having lost to Luffy in the original plot, and having had a enlightenment in Impel Down.

Drake wouldn’t be completely disappointed after looking at Crocodile, who had looked a bit like he had been before. After all, it would have just been a waste of time for Drake to beat a trash who had had his will worn down.

Crocodile had spat out a mouthful of blood, and he hadn’t used his devil fruit ability like before, and he had instead taken a close-quarters combat stance.

Ace had been carrying Luffy, standing in the distance, and Luffy, who had been struggling to join the battle, had suddenly quieted down, and Ace had looked down, seeing Luffy’s serious expression.

"Luffy, what’s wrong?"

Luffy had shaken his head, saying, "It’s nothing, I just feel that that guy has become different. I could have won if it had been before, but I’ll definitely lose right now!"

Ace couldn’t help but feel emotional that his brother, who had always been thick-skinned, still had a strong intuition as always.

The current Crocodile, although he had been scarred all over, had been much more dangerous than before, and you could tell just by looking at his eyes.

Drake hadn’t been as casual as before either, taking a relatively serious stance.

In the next instant, the two had charged towards each other at the same time, and had collided together. It was just that the location of the collision hadn’t been in the very center between the two, but had instead been closer to where Crocodile had been standing.

This had represented Drake’s stronger explosive force, and his stronger strength.

Drake’s fist had brushed past Crocodile’s head, which had been tilted to the side, and the fist wind that the fist had stirred up had blasted the sand behind him, making it fly up.

"Oh, Observation has recovered as well, huh?"

Crocodile had naturally relied on the power of Observation Haki to dodge Drake’s punch.

Every world’s power had its merits, and Observation Haki could excellently sense the opponent’s methods of attack, and this was something that Drake’s ability to read ki couldn’t compare to.

But conversely, Drake’s ability to sense the enemy’s malice, emotions, and strength through ki had also exceeded Observation Haki.

Crocodile hadn’t cared about the wounds that the fist wind had scraped out on his face, swinging his fist, blasting it towards Drake, and a layer of black luster had been covering his fist.

Crocodile’s fist had blasted on the hand that Drake had been blocking before his abdomen, making Drake take a step back.

Compared to Drake, Crocodile had retreated out even farther after blasting one punch. But drawing back the distance had just been to make it convenient for Crocodile to launch an even stronger attack.

Crocodile hadn’t been good at physical skills in the end, and he couldn’t gain any advantages in close-quarters combat.

"Desert la Spada!"

Crocodile had swung his arm, and a full four giant sand blades that had been wrapped with Armament Haki had slashed over.

Before the sand blades had even attacked, four neat marks on the ground had already spread over.

Drake had squatted into a horse stance, raising his arms, grabbing the two sand blades that would have slashed into him, one in each hand.

The sand blades hadn’t broken down as easily as before this time, and had instead been colliding violently with Drake’s palms.

It had been different after wrapping Armament Haki, and Drake had had flames surge out from both of his hands, and had only then torn the sand blades to pieces.

But to be honest, what had surprised Drake the most had been Crocodile’s sturdiness.

Perhaps it had been because he had known long ago that Kaido had been a monster whose HP bar had been abnormally thick when they had been battling Kaido, so he hadn’t felt anything.

But Crocodile wasn’t the kind of person who had been good at endurance, and he had actually had the stamina to use haki to this extent after having been beaten up by Drake, and it had indeed exceeded Drake’s expectations.

But everyone in this world was a HP bar monster on average, so Crocodile being like this was normal, right!

While Drake had been feeling emotional, he had also begun his counterattack, and Drake had approached Crocodile after blasting the yellow sand everywhere with one step.

The sand below Crocodile’s feet had been surging like waves, and the sand waves had been blocking before Drake like city walls.

"Fire Dragon’s Wing Attack!"

Crocodile could sense every one of Drake’s movements through Observation Haki behind the sand waves.

He had "seen" Drake’s arms go from opening to crossing before his body, and then two scorching lines had swept over.

Crocodile had jumped up subconsciously, and had then seen two flame whips directly divide the sand wall into four pieces like cutting tofu, leaving behind two long scorch marks in the air.

The sand wall had collapsed directly, and Crocodile had seen that Drake had been approaching.

Crocodile’s body had broken down into sand particles in mid-air, launching elementalization ahead of time, scattering his body, and Drake’s fist had followed closely behind, blasting over.

The yellow sand had converged again, enveloping Drake’s arm, and the converging yellow sand had been extending out, forming Crocodile’s body.

And the sand that had been enveloping Drake’s arm had also been slowly forming the appearance of a palm.

Crocodile’s strongest ability had been on his palm, and he would forcefully suck the water out of their body as long as he had grabbed them.

He had clearly been planning to resolve Drake like this as well.

"I really don’t like being grabbed by a man like this!"

The sand on Drake’s wrist had been heated to scarlet in an instant, and it had been about to melt.

The red-hot sand particles had flown out together with Crocodile himself, forming a human form in the distance.

Crocodile had looked at his severely burned palm, and his expression had become even more stern. But he hadn’t been allowed to think too much, because Drake’s attack had already been before his eyes.

A fist that had been wrapped in flames had blasted over, and even if Crocodile had controlled a large amount of sand, blocking before him, it had all been blasted to pieces.

Before Crocodile had even had the time to catch his breath, Drake had swept a leg over, blasting him away directly.

In a hurry, Crocodile had blasted out Desert Treasure Sword more than ten times in a row, intending to interrupt Drake’s attack.

Flames had been spewing out from the corners of Drake’s mouth, and he had then opened his mouth, aiming it at the sand blades that had been slashing over.

A pillar of fire had spewed out, swallowing all of the sand blades, forcing Crocodile to dodge out in a sorry state with a lazy donkey roll.

He was out of ideas... this despairing thought had appeared in Crocodile’s heart. He couldn’t find any openings from Drake at all, and it had made him couldn’t help but recall when he had been facing Whitebeard.

Drake had also sensed that Crocodile had reached his limit, opening his mouth, saying, "I’ve moved my muscles and bones a bit at least, but it’s time to complete the work!"

Crocodile’s pupils had constricted, and the magic power that Drake had exploded with had made him feel as if he had been looking straight into an abyss, and he could only see a pair of vertical pupils that had been open in the pitch black.

By the time that he had snapped back to his senses, Drake had already taken a stance to blast a punch out.

"Don’t underestimate me!"

Crocodile had roared, and his body had transformed into yellow sand, and after absorbing a large amount of yellow sand, his entire person had swelled up in place, finally transforming into a yellow sand giant that had been over ten meters tall. The giant hook in his hand had been covered with the last of his Armament Haki, slamming towards Drake heavily.

Everyone in the distance had seen this giant yellow sand giant, and just as they had been marveling at this Shichibukai Crocodile’s strength, they had seen a streak of fire meteor fly up.

That meteor had crashed through the giant hook, crashed through the arm, and had finally crashed through the yellow sand giant’s body, breaking it to pieces.

"Crocodile... has lost!" The same thought couldn’t help but appear in everyone’s hearts.

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