One Piece: Transmigrated as Crocodile

"Save him!" Eric roared at Kuma. Judging by Eric's expression, if Reiser were to fall, Kuma's days would surely be miserable—after all, Kuma's teleportation ability is well known.

Kuma frowned and, in an instant, appeared behind Rosen. Spreading his arms wide, he aimed an air cannonball in the bear-paw form of his Kuma Impact at Rosen's back.

Though Kuma was extremely reluctant, he spoke up, "Let him go. You still have enough time to evade my attack. If you forcefully kill him, my attack will hit you too."

Buzz! The transparent air bullet in bear-paw form was slowly leaving his hand.

"Can't you add a little water?" Rosen remarked with a smile, as fresh blood streamed down his forehead.

Although Reiser's body was still enveloped in Haki, it wasn't invulnerable to a one-hit kill—it simply required a moment to activate, since that ability was only just beginning to be understood and wasn't yet mature.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Your time is running out," Kuma said coolly after a brief moment of astonishment.

"That won't do. I said today I'd kill him, so I must kill him!"

"You can't kill me. If you kill me, there'll be no chance to ease your relations with the World Government!" Reiser, the base commander, insisted with a desperate will to survive.

"Goodbye… Instant Oblivion!" Rosen uttered a few words as his arm began to heat up, with vapor rising and faint red sand—scorched by high temperatures—glimmering within his muscles.

"Stop!" both Kuma and Eric cried out.

"No!" Reiser shouted as he felt an ominous energy—one his Haki defense couldn't withstand—invading his body. In that instant, he clearly felt every drop of moisture, even his blood, evaporate.

Then his voice fell silent. In less than a second, despite his entire body being shielded by Armament Haki, under Rosen's instantaneous withering ability he turned into a desiccated corpse.

"Even if I unleash the sand in my arm at full power, causing high-frequency collisions, and even use the friction between metal and copper sand to generate an instantaneous extreme temperature while activating my withering absorption ability, I still can't completely weather it—I can only bring it to a withered state. It's still far from enough." No sooner had Rosen finished speaking than his arm suddenly burst, his skin and flesh splitting apart as his body couldn't withstand the intensity of the instantaneous withering—also due to his lack of proficiency.

"Crocodile!" Eric went berserk upon seeing Reiser's death. He had already gathered a powerful strike moments earlier, but if Rosen dodged, neither his nor Kuma's attack would hit.

Yet, he didn't understand what grudge he held against Reiser that made him willing to die just to kill him?!

Kuma was taken aback for a moment. His attack had already been unleashed—beyond his control, as he had truly been threatening Rosen. He had hoped Rosen would dodge the move so he could save Reiser and prevent his death, but he hadn't expected Rosen to be so headstrong, as if he didn't care about his own life.

Boom!

Kuma's Impact struck Rosen squarely, and the terrifying shockwave exploded outward, sweeping in all directions like a magnitude-10 quake that annihilated everything.

Eric's pre-prepared strike also hit Rosen from another direction: "Rokushiki: Cannon King Formation!" By fusing all six techniques together, he produced a high-lethality bombardment; his fist surged forward, and the surrounding air instantly solidified into a high-pressure air bullet barreling directly toward Rosen.

Had Rosen abandoned his attempt to kill Reiser, this combined strike from him and Kuma would not have hit him head-on—Rosen's strength was on par with theirs and he could have dodged. But resolute in his vow to kill Reiser, he sealed his own fate. Under such combined attacks, with the power he'd just displayed, there was absolutely no chance for him to survive.

When the two strikes landed, the surrounding land was overturned, and a blinding explosion glow filled the area. Even people on other islands outside Rantis Island could see the enormous shockwave rising.

"Is this going to tear the island apart?!" Rosen cried in shock, hastily activating his domain and teleporting away from the area ravaged by the shockwave, energy, and storm.

"Who is fighting?! Is it Alice?!" Queen Hathaway, about to reach the battlefield as an encirclement had already formed, frowned at the sight of the shockwave.

"How can it be? He's so strong!" Alice watched in disbelief as Rosen, caught at the center of the bombardment, was overwhelmed by destructive energy—leaving him dazed—and in that lapse, Vice admiral O'Neil's longsword managed to scar her.

When the smoke cleared, the ground revealed nothing but a bottomless pit over a kilometer in diameter, with no trace of Rosen.

Alice watched for a while before going into a frenzy; her attacks grew even more ferocious, directly cutting her target nearly to death and forcing him to withdraw from this battle of super-powered combatants. Even Vice Admiral O'Neil struggled to fend off the reckless, life-risking Alice.

"Are we going to die together?" Eric's expression turned grim; being dragged along to share in the casualties under a three-man encirclement was a searing humiliation.

To be safe, Eric used his Observation Haki to probe the depths of the pit, but it was so deep he couldn't detect its bottom.

However, neither he nor Kuma believed Crocodile could survive their combined attacks—even a direct hit would have been fatal.

"Report: Emergency! News from the sacred land—Lantis Island has suddenly launched a full-scale war, and our forces have suffered heavy casualties. Requesting orders from the commanding officer!" A regimental officer sprinted in from afar, reporting to Eric.

Hearing this, Eric ceased focusing on the two dead and instead surveyed the surroundings. With that vigilance, his Observation Haki immediately detected a tremendous anomaly.

"It seems we've been surrounded, yet a mere bunch of natives actually dare to covet the elite of our Marines. This is madness!" Eric observed as he saw a dense, crescent-shaped encirclement of Lantis natives forming not far away.

Although the Lantis natives acted decisively—far beyond Eric's expectations—they also showed a disdain for Reiser. Such a promising plan had only succeeded in capturing the first batch of natives before stalling, and now he was forced to deal with the ensuing mess.

"Alert all Marine officers! Immediately contract formation—assign majors as squad leaders and captains as battalion leaders, and form a close-combat assault unit. Kill all the Lantis natives!" At this point, aside from eradicating the enemy completely, Eric had no better option.

Kuma watched silently, wanting to speak several times but not knowing how to begin; he could already tell the Lantis natives would never trust him again—especially after witnessing the plight of their compatriots, and with him still having no opportunity to reveal himself.

So, this scoundrel was as good as doomed. And with Reiser's death, he wouldn't be holding back any longer. Judging by Eric's attitude, the resentment against him was already evident.

For Kuma, that wasn't a good sign—and he couldn't let Eric die here. Otherwise, he might as well defect and assassinate Eric and the other high-ranking officers, but that would be hard to explain, and the World Government would never trust him again.

(End of Chapter)

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