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Grand Line – Paradise
Alabasta – On the outskirts of the city of Nanohana
"Woof woof woof, woof woof woof woof!" "Since I'm already like this, everyone get on at once!", Chouchou barks, wanting to be practical. His voice, despite not having an aggressive growling tone or anything like that, makes the air and the ground shake violently.
"Chouchou said for everyone to get on", Chopper says, conveying to everyone what Chouchou said.
Getting excited upon hearing that he wouldn't have to walk, Usopp starts moving Vivi, Robin, Igaram, Koza, Chopper, and the two soldiers onto Chouchou's back, practically teleporting from one point to another several times, "Free ride? Say no more."
Being awakened from their stupor upon suddenly finding themselves in a completely different place from where they were just a second ago, Igaram, Koza, and the two soldiers look around confusedly, trying to get their bearings.
Before they can say anything, everyone finishes positioning themselves on Chouchou's back, and then, the giant wolf disappears using Soru, opening a huge crater in the spot where it was just a second ago.
=Scene Break=
Going back a little in time, shortly after the group separates from Zoro, on the outskirts of Katorea, in the desert.
Looking at the half of his hook that had been cut, now lying on the ground, Crocodile murmurs, "Haki!"
Even though it is just a murmur, Zoro hears it and comments mockingly, "That's right, so how about you save me some time and surrender? Unless, of course, you also know how to use Haki! Otherwise, I don't want to waste my time fighting someone weak."
"You'll regret saying that", Crocodile says angrily before transforming into a sandstorm and charging at Zoro.
Returning to his human form as soon as he reaches Zoro's range, Crocodile creates a hook made purely of sand in the place where his original metal hook should be, swinging it toward Zoro in a vertical arc from top to bottom, attempting to cut him in half.
Easily dodging to the side, Zoro swings Wado, coated with Haki, effortlessly as Crocodile passes by him, opening a large cut under his arm, starting at his chest, passing through his armpit, and ending on his back.
Crocodile's luck was that Zoro didn't even put any effort into this strike, because if he had wanted to, the Shichibukai would be at this moment practically split in half.
Gripping his wound tightly, Crocodile grunts in pain as his blood flows heavily, soaking his clothes and staining the sand red.
"I told you, you'd better surrender", Zoro comments, looking at Crocodile with an indifferent gaze; the truth was that he was bored.
"Urgh!!!", Crocodile grunts before charging at Zoro with everything he has, transforming into a furious sandstorm once again. He simply refuses to lose to a brat who isn't even the strongest in this pirate crew of rookies.
At first, Zoro intended to just toy with him a bit before ending this fight; however, it didn't take long for him to realize that Crocodile was getting stronger very quickly.
So, out of pure curiosity, Zoro continued to toy with the Shichibukai, dodging his attacks while injuring him with non-lethal cuts and thrusts.
And indeed, the more Crocodile was pressured, the faster his strength increased; it was somewhat unnatural, almost as if he were scraping the rust off a high-quality blade while at the same time restoring its edge.
After a few minutes in this back-and-forth, Crocodile launches a large blade of sand at Zoro while growling, "Desert Spada!!!"
Tearing through the ground like a hot knife cutting through a block of butter, the blade of sand reaches Zoro and continues on its path without hitting anything, as the swordsman effortlessly dodges the attack.
As soon as the blade of sand passes by him without hitting anything, Zoro returns the favor in kind, launching a simple flying blade, coated with Haki, toward Crocodile.
And it is at this moment that things start to get interesting. Acting at the last second, as he manages to notice the approach of the flying blade, Crocodile disappears from where he was, using his own version of Soru, which he had been unable to use for a long time due to complacency and everything else.
Smiling slightly at seeing the Shichibukai disappear from where he was and appear in the distance, stumbling and almost losing his balance, Zoro becomes proactive, increasing the pressure on Crocodile more and more, forcing him to regain his former strength in fits and starts.
Time passes, and with his body completely covered in his own blood and wounds, Crocodile finds himself panting, but despite the exhaustion, his will burns fiercely, refusing to yield in the face of such humiliation.
At a certain point in the fight between the two, Crocodile finds himself instinctively dodging a thrust from Wado, not because he saw the attack coming with his eyes or anything like that, no, he simply felt it and barely dodged; his Observation had returned.
Now, for those who don't know, Crocodile has already sailed through the New World, and the main thing about all this is that he fought Whitebeard.
And let's face it, there's no way he fought Whitebeard without being at least capable of using Haki.
Then, after seeing Crocodile dodge two more of his attacks, Zoro's smile becomes completely wild upon confirming that the Shichibukai was using Observation.
Upon confirming this, he then charges at Crocodile like an untamable force of nature, attacking him nonstop and no longer giving him even a second to breathe.
But he wasn't attacking to kill, no, he was simply forcing Crocodile to grow stronger so that he could have a good fight.
Completely bathed in blood, Crocodile no longer makes a sound, focusing purely on surviving the overwhelming pressure that Zoro is imposing on him.
Zoro's uninterrupted and relentless attacks were scraping the rust off his body and Observation at an enormous speed, sharpening them back to what they once were.
After a few more minutes going through pure hell, Crocodile, managing to dodge Zoro's attacks much more frequently, finds himself unable to dodge one of the swordsman's attacks in time.
But, at that moment, instinctively, he coats what remains of his hook with Armament Haki, intercepting Wado mid-swing.
As soon as the impact happens, Crocodile has his arm violently thrown upward while his own body is hurled away like a runaway missile.
Exploding a dune with his body before finally stopping, Crocodile, half-buried in the sand, slowly gets up, finally having some room to breathe.
Then, as Zoro watches the Shichibukai get up, Sanji suddenly appears nearby.
"You're still fighting that guy?", Sanji asks with a furrowed brow; that idiot should have already defeated that weakling.
Glancing briefly at Sanji before turning his attention back to Crocodile, Zoro mutters without raising his voice, "Yes, and he's mine, so don't get in the way!"
Raising his hands in surrender, Sanji says mockingly, "He's all yours, broccoli head! If you want to waste your time fighting a weakling, that's your problem."
"Go fuck yourself, you shitty little waiter! I'm training this piece of shit so I can have a good fight. Just a bit more, and he'll be strong enough for me to take this seriously", Zoro growls irritably before explaining what he was doing there.
Impressed by the bullshit he just heard, Sanji asks to make sure he understood it right, "Wait, you're risking making the whole situation harder by letting the enemy get stronger just to have a good fight?"
"That's right, now stay there quietly and watch how a man really fights! Maybe you'll learn something", Zoro says, using Wado to defend himself from a black sand hook aimed to pierce him before launching Crocodile away with a Spartan kick coated with Armament.
Rubbing his face with the palm of his hand, Sanji says while letting out an incredulous sigh at the sheer stupidity he just heard, "Fuck, you really are a useless deadweight! Fine, do whatever you want. When the scolding comes later, it'll be you hearing it, not me."
Resuming the fight, now that Crocodile has regained his ability to use Armament and Observation Haki, Zoro increases the pressure on him even more; that is, when the Shichibukai thought he had gained some space to breathe, the previous hell swallowed him again.
And so it continues for what seems like an eternity; at this point, Crocodile is no longer conscious, his injuries and exhaustion having caught up to him. In his place, there is only a sand beast driven purely by instinct and will.
This beast, spurred on by Zoro's blade, was just a few steps away from reaching the strength Crocodile had once achieved at his peak.
The sand that made up his body now seemed like metal, tougher and stronger; his muscles were now able to match most of Zoro's attacks. His Observation, under constant pressure, began to provide him with glimpses of the future, and his Armament, hammered in the fires of hell, began to flow outward at every slightest opportunity for a counterattack.
Then, it only took pushing the Shichibukai a little further for Zoro to end up facing a Crocodile relatively close to his former peak.
The moment this becomes evident is when, upon meeting one of Zoro's attacks with his black sand hook, Crocodile manages to match the swordsman's overwhelming strength, even if only for a moment.
The collision of both attacks causes a deafening boom, with a shockwave blasting the sand around both of them in a gigantic area.
Trying to force Wado back, Crocodile growls, his voice sounding guttural, "I told you you would regret it!"
With a few scratches on his face and arms, Zoro asks with a bestial smile before using all his strength to push Crocodile's hook back until the Shichibukai's force falters, "Do I look regretful to you?"
The moment Crocodile's strength falters slightly, he finds himself being launched backward like a supersonic missile, breaking the sound barrier like the burst of a machine gun, boom after boom as his body tears through dune after dune.
After traveling kilometers in seconds, Crocodile finally manages to recover and get to his feet, sliding backward for a few more dozen meters before finally stopping, the sand kicked up around him drying the air and blurring his vision.
Not even a second later, Crocodile hears a burst of sonic booms, and suddenly Zoro is already on top of him, attacking him with Wado and Sandai Kitetsu in an X-shaped slash.
And even with his Advanced Observation, the only thing Crocodile can do is raise his hook arm, coated in Armament, to try to defend himself.
Cutting both swords downward diagonally, Zoro blasts Crocodile away with overwhelming force, producing a thunderous boom and a shockwave so large that the space where the Shichibukai had been just a second earlier distorts completely before he vanishes from sight like a bullet.
Distorting like a mass of incandescent plasma moving through space, Crocodile exerts a herculean force while in motion, struggling against the overwhelming g-force that is doing its utmost to crush him.
With great effort, Crocodile manages to move, increasing his drag and consequently reducing his speed until he stabilizes midair, just in time to see Zoro attacking him again through his Advanced Observation.
Then, with the wind violently fluttering his clothes, Crocodile launches himself toward the ground using his own version of Geppo, which he had regained the ability to use.
Kicking up sand as he lands, Crocodile attacks the air with his black hook at a diagonal angle from bottom to top, using every gram of his strength.
Not even a microsecond later, a shapeless mass of plasma appears on the horizon and travels the distance to him at the speed of light, so fast it seems instantaneous. And so, Zoro appears in front of Crocodile, meeting his hook with his own attack, his swords held in parallel, cutting horizontally from right to left.
The collision of the two attacks ends up producing a deafening boom, with an overwhelming shockwave sweeping the surrounding dunes in a radius of several kilometers in the very next instant.
Meanwhile, at the epicenter of the impact, Crocodile somehow matches the swordsman's monstrous strength, which makes Zoro smile predatorily before asking, "Finally, the real fight starts now! Think you can keep up with me, Captain Hook?"
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35 Advanced Chapters on Patreon!
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