Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Clash of Logia Users
From the details shown, it was clear that in their first clash, Crocodile had gained the upper hand!
"Hmph, with your strength, it's honestly a waste for you to just be a branch officer!"
Crocodile had now withdrawn his earlier contempt. From their exchange, he could tell that Smoker wasn't someone he could defeat easily.
"White Fist!"
Realizing that he was at a disadvantage when it came to Armament Haki, Smoker shouted out loudly.
In the next moment, both his hands and legs transformed into smoke!
Once his limbs had fully turned to smoke, he extended them and launched a fierce barrage of punches and kicks toward Crocodile.
In an instant, four smoke-like attacks shot directly at Crocodile!
"Sand Wall!"
Crocodile remained completely calm upon seeing this. He instantly spread his right hand and slammed it down onto the ground.
A second later, just as the smoke strikes were about to hit, a wall of sand rose in front of Crocodile, forming a small barrier.
The four attacks slammed into the sand wall in quick succession.
The sand wall crumbled instantly, but the smoke-based attacks dissipated as well and returned to Smoker's body.
This time, it was another stalemate.
At that moment, Rikuya Kazama, who had been watching nearby, couldn't bear it anymore and shouted into the battlefield toward Crocodile.
"Hey! His Logia ability is based on smoke—you can blow it away with your sandstorm!"
Even though Smoker was a Logia user, his Devil Fruit had some major weaknesses—specifically, he was vulnerable to wind and fire.
Rikuya could've just possessed a random ninja and taken Smoker down easily.
But now that he had underlings of his own, he didn't want to get his hands dirty. After all, beating Smoker wouldn't even give him much reputation value.
Upon hearing Rikuya's shout, both fighters froze for a moment.
Smoker, in particular, showed a flicker of unease on his face.
It was clear Rikuya had seen through his weakness.
On the other hand, Crocodile didn't waste a second. As soon as he heard Rikuya's words, he raised his right hand.
In the next instant, a small Desert Storm began to swirl in his palm.
"I heard you're afraid of wind... then go die! Desert Storm!"
With a cold snort, Crocodile hurled the spinning sandstorm straight at Smoker.
As it surged toward Smoker, the wind speed intensified rapidly, and the storm's range expanded wildly.
Seeing this, Smoker realized he couldn't rely on elementalization to dodge it.
If he did try turning into smoke, the storm would shred him to pieces!
So, he dodged to the side with a quick sidestep.
But in doing so, the navy soldiers behind him were completely exposed to the sandstorm.
None of them had expected their commanding officer to simply dodge, so no one was prepared to run.
Only after seeing Smoker evade did panic set in!
"AAHH!!"
In the next instant, the desert storm crashed into the fleeing marines.
Dozens of them were blasted in all directions by the storm.
And as the storm swept forward into the crowd of navy soldiers, Crocodile emerged from behind it.
He had been hiding behind the sandstorm ever since he threw it, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
When he saw that Smoker's attention was focused entirely on the marines behind him, Crocodile seized the chance. With his poison hook raised, he dashed forward in a blur.
Smoker quickly wrapped Armament Haki around his cross-shaped weapon and clashed head-on with Crocodile again.
But as their Haki-clad weapons collided once more, a smirk curled at the edge of Crocodile's lips.
In the next instant, his arm transformed—becoming an enormous crescent-shaped sand blade, which he slashed toward Smoker.
This sand blade wasn't a normal attack—it was reinforced with heavy Armament Haki.
Since his arm itself was coated in Haki, and the sand blade was a transformation of that arm, the Haki was naturally embedded in the attack!
Smoker tried to retreat, but his weapon was tightly locked by Crocodile's poison hook.
That meant he lost the perfect moment to dodge.
Realizing he couldn't escape, Smoker raised his left arm to try and block Crocodile's slash head-on!
The sand blade struck him instantly—but it didn't cause any visible damage.
Seeing this, Smoker frowned slightly.
He knew full well that the sand blade had landed a clean hit—so why hadn't it done anything?
But then, a moment later, he began to feel something wrong.
After a few seconds, Smoker noticed his energy rapidly draining.
At the same time, his throat became parched—his mouth felt dry as a desert!
Sensing the abnormality, Smoker's eyes went wide with alarm. Without hesitation, he swung a powerful kick at Crocodile's stomach.
But Crocodile let go of the weapon just in time and stepped back lightly, dodging the attack with ease.
"Feeling dry in the mouth and weak all of a sudden?" Crocodile sneered as he steadied himself.
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