(T/N: Please consider reviewing this Fanfic, Thanks and appreciate all who support me)
(T/N: Enjoy!!)
<><><><><><>
"Ittō-Ryū: Thunder Slash!"
Kanos' Atlas completely ignored Crocodile's arrogance. He drew the Sandai Kitetsu from his waist, and in an instant, a brilliant flash of crimson light burst forth.
The air around them filled with sharp, overwhelming killing intent, as if even the howling desert winds had been halted by an invisible pause button.
A massive, blood-red slash surged straight at Crocodile! Still wearing his mocking smirk, Crocodile did not attempt to dodge.
The strike cleanly split his body in half from head to toe. But instead of blood spilling everywhere, the bisected halves began to disintegrate into countless grains of sand—and to Atlas's mild surprise, his body regenerated right before his eyes.
Of course, Atlas hadn't expected a casual sword swing to do any real damage.
"Swordsman?" Crocodile's expression darkened slightly as his body reformed.
The punk he thought would be easy prey had just revealed himself to be a full-fledged swordmaster capable of cutting steel.
"But it's useless. I'm a Logia-type user—Sand-Sand Fruit. You can't touch me."
Despite his surprise, Crocodile's disdain didn't fade. After all, elemental intangibility had made him near untouchable in countless battles.
"Oh, that smug face of yours pisses me off," Atlas muttered as he sheathed his blade, feeling the itch in his knuckles.
Shinsoku—Razor Step!
His figure blurred, vanishing like a ghost and reappearing mid-air in a series of rapid steps that even Crocodile had trouble tracking.
The unexpected burst of speed put Crocodile on high alert.
Iron Body Fist Style—Breaker!
A flurry of fists descended like a storm, each one packed with explosive force. But Crocodile didn't flinch. He didn't even attempt to dodge.
"I told you—your attacks are useless against me…" he gloated, maintaining his sand form effortlessly. "Unless—urk!?"
Mid-sentence, his voice choked. Atlas had secretly coated his fists in Armament Haki—and before Crocodile could fully shift to sand, one punch landed squarely on his jaw.
"Armament Haki!?"
Crocodile's body instantly burst into sand and reformed twenty meters away. Rage and wariness flickered in his eyes.
"Surprised?" Atlas grinned. "Didn't see that coming, huh?"
His Observation Haki easily locked onto Crocodile's new position, but he made no move to follow up. A single punch wouldn't turn the tide yet.
"Why is someone like you just a Marine captain?!" Crocodile spat, the words slow and bitter. For the first time, his arrogance faltered.
That punch had changed everything. He realized if he kept underestimating Atlas, he might not leave this desert alive.
"Beats me," Atlas shrugged, clearly uninterested in dragging out the conversation.
Desert Sunflower!
Crocodile resorted to an old trick, manipulating the underground currents to create a whirlpool of quicksand.
Moonwalk!
"That move doesn't work on me, Mr. Crocodile!" Atlas mimicked his earlier tone with a smirk, hovering above the shifting sands.
Desert Spada!
Crocodile's hands transformed into four massive sand blades, their edges shimmering with lethal sharpness.
Observation Haki—Activated!
Soru—Razor Step!
Atlas's eyes glinted red, his body weaving through the air, dodging the attacks with inhuman agility. He closed the distance rapidly.
Iron Fist Style—Wargod Arm: Armament—Warhammer!
His arm bulged, hardened by black Haki, and he drove a colossal fist straight into Crocodile's face.
"Take this, you overgrown lizard!"
Boom!
The strike landed like a cannon blast, shattering Crocodile into a spray of sand once again. He reformed nearby, visibly shaken.
That punch—if he'd been even a second too slow with his Logia powers, he might not have survived.
He had only planned to elementalize his head, but Atlas's raw power forced him to shift his entire body.
"Next time, you won't be so lucky!" Atlas taunted, keeping up the pressure.
Suddenly, a sand blade erupted from the ground beneath where Atlas had just been. Had he delayed even a moment, it would've sliced right through him.
"Crafty bastard," Atlas muttered, licking his dry lips, unbothered. That level of trickery didn't threaten him in the slightest.
"Heh heh… You're still just a naive brat, Marine!" Crocodile sneered.
"Oh yeah?" Atlas chuckled coldly.
Black and crimson Armament Haki surged across his body, coating him like an armored juggernaut. Then—Charge!
Full-Body Armament!
"You fool!" Crocodile snapped. Rather than retreating, he welcomed the charge, transforming his arms into four massive sand blades again.
Desert Spada!
But Atlas didn't stop. He slammed straight into the blades.
Clang! Boom!
For one second, they clashed. Then Atlas's momentum shattered the blades into dust. In a blink, he was upon Crocodile.
Before he could react, Atlas's Haki-coated hand clamped around his throat.
"Gotcha, little crocodile."
Crocodile's face twisted in horror as Atlas lifted him effortlessly. To him, Atlas looked like a monster.
Atlas didn't care what he looked like. With one hand gripping his opponent's throat, he dug his feet into the sand, dropped his center of gravity, and with explosive power—
Boom!
"One for acting tough!"
Boom!
"One for denying the truth!"
Boom!
"And one for running your mouth!"
Boom! Boom! Boom boom boom!!
Atlas slammed Crocodile into the ground again and again, treating him like a rag doll.
Each time, Crocodile tried to elementalize, but Atlas's Haki-wrapped grip on his throat prevented escape.
Damn it! Crocodile cursed internally, unable to break free. Though he avoided serious injury by using his Logia abilities, the humiliation was unbearable.
He couldn't believe how powerless he felt. The Marine brat had withstood his Desert Spada with just Haki alone!
Suddenly, Crocodile's neck darkened—Armament Haki! Atlas blinked, surprised by the hardened texture in his hand.
A breeze swept past. In that moment of distraction, Crocodile slipped free, dissolving into sand and vanishing from Atlas's grasp.
"Hey! Marine brat!" Crocodile reformed nearby, his voice now filled with anger. "Are you declaring war on the Seven Warlords of the Sea!?"
His eyelids lifted slightly, revealing the edge in his eyes. He was clearly rattled.
There was no evidence linking him to the pirates who had harassed Alabasta, and Atlas technically had no grounds to arrest him.
Crocodile had originally planned to bury this entire Marine unit in the desert. After all, who would care if a mere Marine captain went missing?
But he hadn't expected to run into a monster like this. Now, all he could do was invoke the World Government's authority and try to bluff.
"I'm so disappointed in you, Crocodile," Atlas said, shaking his head. "Looks like Whitebeard already shattered your pride. Even your Haki is pathetic."
Though the Crocodile in front of him was far stronger than the one Luffy would defeat years later, Atlas could see it clearly: the Desert King had lost faith in his own strength.
He was clinging to the myth of the ancient weapon, Pluton, and his Haki was weak, his combat instincts dulled.
(We'll pretend Oda meant to show his Haki had atrophied entirely.)
"You brat! Stop looking down on me!" Crocodile snarled, his face contorting for the first time.
Still, he didn't let his rage consume him. Instead, he quietly began to plan his escape, activating his Devil Fruit ability.
"How pitiful."
Atlas remained calm, unbothered by Crocodile's anger. He could see through the shallow act. His Observation Haki had already sensed every little move.
But he did not attempt to stop him.
He was going to crush this guy—completely—with overwhelming power!
Heavy Sandstorm!
A small sand cyclone rapidly formed in Crocodile's hand before he hurled it hard toward Kanos Atlas.
As the vortex spun faster, the surrounding desert sand rushed toward it like moths to a flame.
In moments, the sandstorm expanded, almost completely obscuring Atlas's vision. The violent rotation tore massive gouges into the ground wherever it touched.
Meanwhile, Crocodile took the opportunity to slip away. Truth be told, Alabasta's desert was the perfect battlefield for a Sand-Sand Fruit user.
The environment alone gave Crocodile an invisible boost in power.
"I'm done playing with you, Crocodile!"
There was no way Atlas was going to let this guy escape right in front of him.
He suddenly lowered his stance, compressing his towering 2.8-meter frame down to a lean 2 meters.
The black-and-red Armament Haki around him grew darker and denser, his aura so potent it looked like a second skin of armor.
His perfectly sculpted upper body formed a sharp inverted triangle, every muscle flowing with power yet devoid of excess.
Strange markings traced his skin, and two dark lines stretched from the corners of his eyes down to his neck.
Life Return: Paper Drawing—Martial Body—Armament Mode!
Crocodile stared in disbelief. Even from a distance, the sheer pressure radiating from Atlas was suffocating. The raw intensity of his power overloaded Crocodile's senses.
"Hey! Shave!"
Atlas's leg muscles suddenly swelled, and with a burst of force, the soft desert floor beneath him caved in, forming a massive crater.
Even a simple Shave move, when performed in this form, carried terrifying speed.
With his immense strength and defense, Atlas charged straight through the expanding sandstorm, unstoppable like a juggernaut.
Before Crocodile could react, a barrage of fists pounded him like rain.
His half-baked Observation Haki wasn't fast enough to track Atlas's movements, let alone allow him to activate his intangibility in time.
All he could do was take the hits head-on. His feeble Armament Haki was shattered almost instantly by Atlas's brutal assault.
Huff—
After a while, Atlas let out a long breath as he stared down at Crocodile's limp, barely recognizable body sprawled in the sand.
He shook the soreness out of his arms, then crouched down and casually wiped the blood from his knuckles on Crocodile's unconscious form.
"What a hassle."
Grumbling, Atlas grabbed Crocodile by the leg and began dragging him toward the Marine warship. He didn't even bother to lift him properly—after all, the fight had just ended.
"Captain, sir… this is…"
Ruslan hesitated as he looked at the unconscious Warlord.
The battle had been visible from a distance, and its sheer destructive power had left the entire crew shaken—it was like watching a natural disaster unfold.
Crocodile, despite being a Logia user with large-scale AOE potential, hadn't unleashed any of his signature environmental attacks. He must have realized they would have little effect on someone like Atlas.
"Oh, our dear Warlord…"
Atlas, of course, knew what Ruslan was trying to say—he understood the doubts well. Strictly speaking, they didn't have solid evidence against Crocodile, and the Seven Warlords weren't technically under Marine command. If they arrested Crocodile without due cause, it would put Sengoku in a tight spot. The World Government definitely wouldn't take it lightly.
But that was Sengoku's problem to deal with. Atlas's only job was to carry out the mission.
He trusted the Marines to shield him from whatever political fallout the World Government might throw his way.
"Achoo!"
At Marine Headquarters, Fleet Admiral Sengoku sneezed suddenly. He frowned in confusion—someone of his physical resilience shouldn't catch a cold. Was Garp gossiping about him again?
"Forget it." Sengoku shook his head and returned to reading through his stack of reports.
"Ruslan, do we have any Seastone cuffs on board? Better lock up our little desert crocodile—he's still a dangerous Logia-type user, after all," Atlas said with a sly grin.
"Ah? Y-yes! We do! Vice Admiral Jonathan had them specially prepared for us before departure!" Ruslan replied before hurrying to the storage room to find them.
"Specially prepared, huh? Heh…"
Atlas suddenly recalled the subtle, meaningful look Jonathan had given him before the mission.
He couldn't help but chuckle to himself.
(T/N: Please give me some power stone, I hope it can at least reach top 100)
If you want to support me, join my patr**on. Have 20 advanced Chapters for you guys.
patr**n.com/saitamablast > OP:SJ NOVEL TIER