Will didn't care what was going through his opponent's mind.
Seeing that the other party still hadn't made a move, he furrowed his brow and shouted, "Enough with the pointless chatter, Crocodile!"
"Come on, give it everything you've got! Show me your limits!"
"Damn bastard…"
Crocodile's thoughts were abruptly cut off by those words. He quickly raised his hand, gathering grains of sand as he roared in anger, "You asked for this, you lunatic Will!"
Before his voice even faded, he swung his arm forcefully, hurling the swirling mass of sand forward.
"Desert Spada!"
The spinning grains of sand, once released from his palm, instantly transformed into a raging sandstorm. As it hit the ground, it began to whip up the surrounding sand, growing larger and more ferocious by the second.
In the blink of an eye, it had become a massive desert storm, surging toward Will with unstoppable momentum.
Yet Will showed no intention of dodging.
As the storm whipped his clothes into a frenzy and threatened to engulf him, his legs didn't budge an inch.
When the desert storm finally swept over his position and continued to dissipate into the distance, Will's figure emerged once more from the swirling sand.
"Armament Haki… and he's covering his entire body?!"
Crocodile's eyes narrowed as he watched the black sheen slowly fade from Will's body, revealing not a single scratch. For someone like Crocodile, who relied heavily on his Devil Fruit powers, an opponent skilled in Armament Haki was a serious problem.
He'd faced someone like this before—a battle that dragged on, forcing him to whittle down his opponent's stamina from a distance until it ended in a draw.
Will, however, wasn't interested in Crocodile's reaction. With a slightly dissatisfied expression, he said, "That level of attack? Just a bit of sand."
"Don't you have anything stronger? Come on, hit me with it!"
Those provocative words made Crocodile's forehead vein throb. Casting aside his jumbled thoughts, his right arm instantly transformed into a mass of sand and swung forward with force.
"Desert La Spada!"
As the sand churned, a blade of wind and dust sliced across the ground, rushing toward Will with deadly precision. Wherever it passed, the sand was carved apart, leaving a razor-sharp trail in its wake.
This time, Will didn't stand still. He raised his right leg, coating it in a thick layer of Armament Haki, and slammed it down with a thunderous crash.
Armament Release: Earth Splitter!
Boom!
With a deafening explosion, the sand in front of Will erupted, sending a massive cloud of dust skyrocketing into the air. Grains of sand scattered and fell like rain.
The sand blade that had been slicing toward him was shattered and gone.
"This guy… with just brute strength…"
Before Crocodile could finish his shocked thought, a figure burst out from the cloud of dust.
The moment he saw Will, Crocodile instinctively activated his elementalization, his body dissolving into sand and drifting backward. At the same time, he gathered more sand in his hand and swung it forward.
"Desert Spada!"
"No use!" Will's eyes glinted as he lifted his leg and unleashed a powerful kick.
Tempest Kick: Instant Slash!
Bang!
The sandstorm, released at close range, didn't even have time to grow before it was sliced apart by a pale blue crescent of energy.
But Will wasn't done.
Without pausing, he charged through the gap in the sandstorm, barreling straight toward Crocodile.
"Damn it…!" Crocodile cursed under his breath, but his hands moved swiftly. Both arms transformed into massive quantities of sand, morphing into four enormous sand blades.
With a ferocious snarl, he swung them forward.
"Desert Diamond Blades!"
Seeing his opponent finally unleash a proper move, a spark of excitement flashed in Will's eyes. His speed didn't falter as he coated his right arm in a dense layer of Armament Haki, pulling it back before launching a devastating punch.
Armament Release: Shatter Fist!
Bang!
As Will's fist connected, a massive fist-shaped shockwave of air blasted forward, colliding head-on with Crocodile's four giant sand blades.
Boom!
With a shattering explosion, the four blades crumbled instantly. The shockwave continued its path, slamming into Crocodile under his grim gaze.
Bang!
Fortunately, Crocodile had already elementalized his body, dispersing into a pile of sand before swiftly reforming to the side.
Whoosh!
As he landed and took human form again, his hands were already gathering a dense mass of sand—far more than before. Realizing that a standard Desert Spada was no match for Will, Crocodile decided to expend more energy for a stronger attack.
With a menacing grin, he hurled the condensed sand forward.
"Heavy Desert Spada!"
Whoosh!
With a piercing whistle, the mass of sand shot toward Will at blinding speed, far faster than the previous attacks. In an instant, it reached him.
Unlike the earlier Desert Spada, this one didn't stir up the surrounding sand. Instead, it exploded on impact, unleashing a torrent of sand that cut through everything like countless razor-sharp blades.
Even Will couldn't help but show a flicker of surprise before being swallowed by the blender-like sandstorm.
Yet, no sounds of flesh being torn apart came from within. Instead, the storm echoed with the relentless clang clang clang of metal striking metal.
Armament Hardening: Thousand Rending Blades!
Clang!
With a piercing screech, countless flashes of white blade-like energy burst from the sandstorm, shattering it entirely. As the storm dissipated, Will's figure reappeared, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. He looked at the stunned Crocodile and grinned.
"Now that's more like it."
"Come on, hit me with something even stronger!"
"That bastard…" Crocodile's eye twitched as he muttered.
At this moment, he was starting to believe his earlier wild guess. The battle-hungry demeanor Will displayed suggested he might have come here specifically to fight him. If that was true, it was likely because of Crocodile's reputation as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
The thought made Crocodile's expression grow complicated, a mix of frustration and gloom crossing his face.
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