Crocodile could only sigh in disbelief.
At last, his patience ran out—and just as he finished smoking the cigar clamped between his teeth.
With a casual flick of his wrist, a massive wave of sand surged forth from all around.
There was no shortage of sand on the ocean floor; even if there had been none, as a Logia‑type Devil Fruit user, Crocodile could summon, shape, and create sand out of thin air with effortless ease.
Countless grains swirled and coiled, wrapping the blue‑skinned, dim‑witted Fish‑Man in a tight, suffocating embrace.
But Crocodile's power was far more than just moving sand—it represented the very essence of absorption and drought.
Any moisture within the range of his ability would be drained away completely.
"Ugh…"
The giant, muscular figure of Dosun shrank rapidly, becoming gaunt and withered until he collapsed to the ground, too weak to lift his head even under the weight of his own enormous hammer.
Every drop of moisture in his body had been sucked dry by the man who could turn into sand.
He had no one to blame but himself.
After all, he had faced Crocodile of the Sand—the embodiment of desiccation and the greatest power of absorption.
Among Hody Jones's officers, there was another fighter who specialized in draining strength and moisture from his enemies: Muchi, the giant squid Fish‑Man, towering in stature and wielding eight long arms.
Each of his arms held a unique spear tipped with strange, wriggling tendrils.
These were his signature weapons—anyone pierced by them would have their bodily fluids siphoned away.
Many opponents had been reduced to nothing more than dried‑out husks by these spears.
Now, his opponent was a man who appeared to be blind, his eyes clouded and sightless.
At first glance, he seemed like an easy target… but Muchi did not dare to underestimate him.
Only moments earlier, this blind swordsman had casually raised his hand and taken down Daruma—the tiny but vicious piranha Fish‑Man with razor‑sharp teeth, incredible speed, and the ability to burrow through solid ground.
If such a formidable foe had been dealt with so effortlessly, this swordsman was clearly no ordinary man. He must possess some kind of strange and powerful Devil Fruit ability.
In fact, very few Fish‑Men in the New Fish‑Man Pirates carried Devil Fruits.
Living beneath the sea, they were at a huge disadvantage if they ate one—for while it granted them power, it also stripped them of their ability to swim, turning them into nothing more than heavy, sinking lumps of flesh the moment they touched water.
The Fish‑Man race already moved swiftly through the oceans, and their cousins, the Merfolk, were the undisputed fastest swimmers in the world.
With such natural talent, why would anyone willingly give up the freedom of the sea just for a power that came with such a heavy price?
Muchi, with his great height, eight long arms, and reach that kept enemies at a distance, was easily one of the strongest officers in the crew. But he had one obvious weakness: fire.
If they were fighting on the surface, Issho's gravity power could call down meteors from the sky—or rather, from the upper atmosphere—crashing to earth in blazing fireballs, burning with searing heat as they fell.
But deep beneath the sea, even the Gravity Fruit could not defy the laws of nature; meteors could not be summoned to burn and blaze underwater.
Still, even without using his opponent's greatest fear, Issho held an overwhelming advantage in sheer power.
"Watch me drain you into a dried‑out corpse!" Muchi roared, swinging all eight of his strange, red‑tasseled spears as he charged forward.
Strangely, no matter how fast he ran, the distance between him and the blind swordsman never seemed to close…
Issho was among the greatest masters of the Gravity Fruit in history.
Though a Devil Fruit's power could only belong to one person at a time, its abilities had reappeared many times over the centuries—and few had ever honed the Gravity Fruit to such a level of control.
In this very battle, Issho used his power with incredible flexibility, toying with his opponent as if it were nothing more than a game.
Though his eyes could not see, his Observation Haki was among the sharpest in the entire world.
Every movement of the red‑skinned giant squid Fish‑Man, every shift of his weight, every tiny twitch of each of his eight arms, was laid bare and clear in Issho's perception.
He saw exactly what Muchi intended and countered it effortlessly, using gravity to throw his enemy completely off balance.
Issho lifted Muchi right off the ground, leaving him suspended in mid‑air. With no solid footing, how could he possibly advance?
No matter how hard he tried, he could not move forward—instead, he felt as if he was being pulled further and further away from his target.
The confusion was already disorienting, and combined with the surge of strength from the forbidden drug, Muchi's confidence had swelled to arrogance.
He believed that once he closed the distance, his eight spears would pierce the blind swordsman through and end the fight instantly.
But he had overestimated his own strength and the boost from the drug.
As he flailed wildly, he found that his eight arms—which usually moved in perfect harmony—now seemed to have minds of their own.
Pulled and twisted by dozens of conflicting gravitational forces, they swung erratically, stabbing and lashing in every direction. Worse, some of the spears struck his own body.
The draining effect of those weapons was automatic, working independently of Muchi's will. Whatever they pierced, they would suck dry—including him.
With just a small point of contact, the effect was already set in motion.
Muchi let out a gurgling groan and collapsed, his body convulsing as he too was drained of every drop of moisture, shrinking into a curled, desiccated shape.
Issho, sensing the outcome through his Observation Haki, paused for a moment before lowering his walking stick‑sword.
__________________
For more advance chapters visit patreon.com/bars45.
For 10$- All advance chapters.
"Schedule"
Monday - Friday - Update 3 Chapters a Day
Saturday - Sunday - Off