They raised their halberds high and thrust them toward Crocodile in unison.
Pfft!
In an instant, Crocodile was riddled with holes, his entire upper body dissolving into a cloud of shifting sand.
But the next moment, the sand began to swirl and reform, coalescing back into his human shape.
"Hahaha... Using soldiers made of sand to attack a body made of sand? Are you joking?"
Crocodile sneered in mockery. However, the words had barely left his mouth when his expression changed drastically.
"Foolish man," Vladimir shook his head. "Since you are a fluid body, tell me... where do you think the tips of those halberds that pierced you just now have gone?"
Hearing this, Crocodile looked down in alarm. He stared in horror to see that the heads of the halberds held by those dozen soldiers were all missing a piece.
He didn't need further explanation to realize the truth.
Those missing parts had turned into sand and were now mixed inside his own body!
"Damn it! My head hurts like hell!"
Crocodile's face twisted in agony. He clutched his head, feeling as if his skull was about to split open and his brain would explode.
Then—BOOM!
His upper body detonated, shattering into scattered sand once again. But no sooner had it started to reform into a human shape than it exploded once more.
This cycle repeated endlessly: coalesce, detonate, coalesce, detonate.
"TSARRR!!"
After reforming yet again, Crocodile roared furiously, his eyes bloodshot and bulging as he glared at Vladimir.
There were foreign elements inside him—magic power belonging to the Tsar. They acted like implanted bombs.
Every time he tried to solidify his body, that power was triggered, causing him to explode.
"Go and play by yourself for a while."
With that dismissive line, Vladimir turned his attention away.
Dealing with Logia users didn't always require Armament Haki, nor did it require a counter-ability.
Sometimes, all it took was a little bit of magic mixed into their fluid form to cause their entire body structure to collapse.
Pirates like Crocodile relied far too heavily on their Devil Fruits, which was why they performed so poorly.
True power came only when ability, physical combat, and Haki were developed equally!
"You damned bastard!!"
Crocodile screamed in rage.
He felt the ultimate humiliation. The Tsar didn't even consider him worth fighting; he was simply ignored and left trapped in the quicksand vortex to suffer.
However, the moment he shouted, Bang! his body exploded again. This time, he decided not to reform immediately, focusing instead on trying to expel the foreign substance from his fluid form.
But Vladimir paid him no mind. His magic power was not something that could be expelled so easily.
Instead, he walked slowly toward Gecko Moria. With every step he took, new Sand Soldiers materialized behind him.
High above, the Sun Disc continued to fire golden orbs intermittently. These were composed of pure magic, and as long as the target remained within the field, the lock-on was absolute.
Gecko Moria dodged frantically, but he couldn't evade the relentless barrage forever.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
He was hit by six or seven orbs in quick succession, the explosions engulfing his entire body.
"Ugh..."
He coughed up another mouthful of blood, his face growing paler than ever.
Yet beneath that pallor, a fierce and dangerous glint appeared in his eyes.
"You forced my hand!"
In a fit of rage, he opened his mouth wide and inhaled deeply.
Instantly, countless streams of black shadows rose up from the island below and were sucked into his stomach in one massive gulp.
Immediately, Moria's body began to swell. His chest ballooned outward, expanding several times its original size, followed by his arms, as explosive power surged through every muscle and vein.
"Four hundred! Five hundred!"
From his original height of seven meters, Moria grew to a towering fifty meters tall, comparable to a giant. His voice became shrill and demonic, piercing the air.
"Hee hee hee... Tsar! I'm going to crush you! Shadow Asgard!"
Moria laughed maniacally, raising his gigantic fist high and slamming it down toward Vladimir.
The sheer size of that descending fist was like a meteor falling from the heavens, possessing overwhelming, earth-shaking momentum.
Five hundred shadows meant the combined strength of five hundred warriors. In terms of raw destructive power, this single blow rivaled the strike of a Whitebeard.
CRACK-BOOM!!
The entire Sky Island shook violently. The ground cracked and splintered; it felt as if the whole island might be shattered by that single punch.
The tremors rippled across the entire floating island. No matter who they were or where they were, everyone felt the intense shockwave.
Some distance away, the sand shifted, and Vladimir's figure slowly emerged from the earth.
He looked on coldly, as if the terrifying scene unfolding before him was not enough to move him in the slightest.
"You sure know how to dodge! Let's see how many times you can do that!"
Moria shifted his gaze, locked on again, and swiped his massive palm down once more.
"An ability you can't even control yourself, yet you dare use it against an enemy?"
Vladimir smiled. He raised his scepter high, and dense, brilliant golden light condensed upon its tip.
"Sun Disc!"
In an instant, the massive disc in the sky blazed with divine radiance, responding to his call.
The next moment, a torrential rain of golden light bullets rained down upon the giant Moria.
Thump-thump-thump-thump!
____________________
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