A domineering spirit comes from the power of the heart. Unwavering belief is power, and unquestioning faith is strength. In the Grand Line, everything is determined by belief.
Having been utterly defeated by Whitebeard in the New World and thus choosing to seek external help by hiding in "Paradise," Crocodile had lost his true will to fight. He was no longer worthy of using Observation or Armament Haki. Years of a pampered, manipulative life had caused his physical skills to deteriorate.
However, he was once a man who could go toe-to-toe with monsters like Douglas Bullet. Crocodile's battle instincts and perception were still very sharp.
As Crocodile faced the rapidly approaching rookie, whose fist was crackling with deadly, blinding lightning, a massive sense of crisis arose in his heart. He instinctively raised his heavy, poisoned scorpion stinger to block Darian's incoming fist.
BANG!
Darian's fist collided with the heavy golden hook. The metal couldn't withstand the sheer, tenfold kinetic force of Darian's "Gear Second" punch and visibly twisted, its base sinking slightly into its golden casing.
The lightning struck the metal and arced through the groove, surging directly into Crocodile's arm. Even though Crocodile transformed his shoulder into his sandy elemental form in time to avoid the kinetic blow, the electrical current grounded through the sand, and he felt a sharp, burning, tingling sensation in his flesh.
Darian was quite surprised as he pulled his fist back. Crocodile had looked so arrogant and distracted just a moment ago; Darian had honestly thought he would catch the Warlord clean in the face.
'You reacted pretty quickly for a washed-up has-been!' Darian thought.
As he landed, Darian immediately flapped his Iron Sand Wings, generating a massive gust of wind, and charged at him again.
Crocodile knew perfectly well that Darian's initial attack was just a physical strike mixed with lightning, but he was still genuinely injured by the heat. He dared not be careless again against this rookie.
The reason why Darian was able to hurt Crocodile without Haki is the same reason he had dealt with Smoker's smoke. Lightning can reach temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees Celsius—hot enough to evaporate even sand into silicon dioxide vapor and glass crystals due to its terrifying heat.
Seeing Darian attack him again, Crocodile stepped back rapidly and flicked his remaining hand at him.
"Sables!" (Sand Bullets)
Highly compressed pellets of sand shot towards Darian like a barrage of machine-gun fire. However, Darian emitted a faint, translucent white halo across his skin.
"Hungry Ghost Path."
He absorbed the kinetic impact of the sand bullets entirely, though it gave Crocodile the brief window he needed to create distance.
The biggest advantage of Logia-type users is that they can easily unleash wide-range, natural disaster attacks to kill enemies from afar. The close-quarters attack from Darian gave Crocodile a profound sense of crisis, so he chose to fight like a mage.
"Sables!" (Sandstorm)
It was the same trick: Crocodile threw out a small sandstorm tornado.
Darian easily shattered this attack with a single vibration punch. But every Logia-type Devil Fruit user is a master who manipulates natural elements to their absolute limit.
"Sables: Pesado!" (Severe Sandstorm)
"Desert Spada!" (Desert Diamond Sword)
Under Crocodile's masterful control, the desert sand transformed into various massive, lethal attacks, launching a relentless, overwhelming bombardment at Darian.
Faced with the various attacks formed from moving sand, Darian could only use his lightning and his vibration punches to shatter the incoming projectiles.
SNAP! BOOM! CRACK!
Faced with the overwhelming sandstorm, the violent howling of the wind, the shock waves of shattered air, and the explosions of lightning piercing the atmosphere resounded throughout the desert outside Rainbase.
As the battle raged on, the terrain changed dramatically thanks to the destructive power of the two combatants.
Putting aside Crocodile's absolute mastery of his Devil Fruit, the desert was his home ground, giving him a massive, near-infinite advantage. Moreover, the stamina of Logia-type users is notoriously deep when surrounded by their element.
Darian's lightning and shock attacks were incredibly powerful, but they consumed a massive amount of physical stamina. Fortunately, he possessed the ability to absorb the kinetic energy of Crocodile's attacks to a certain extent, thus continuously replenishing his own stamina reserves during the fight.
After several exchanges, Darian finally determined that with the protection of his absorption and his frictionless "Lubrication" capabilities, his body would not be eroded by the sand, and his moisture could not be drained by Crocodile's right hand. He was safe for close combat.
"Sables!"
When Crocodile threw yet another massive sandstorm at him, Darian didn't try to punch it away. He tucked his wings and crashed directly into the center of the vortex.
"What?!" Crocodile gasped.
They had been exchanging ranged blows, but now the rookie was charging straight through the razor-sharp sand. Crocodile was caught entirely off guard. Daring to physically collide with his Sables was practically suicide for a normal human!
"Gear Second: Tenfold Enhancement—Thirty Million Volts: Lightning Gun!"
Lightning travels incredibly fast, moving at a fraction of the speed of light. If a fighter doesn't use Observation Haki to predict the trajectory in advance, they simply cannot avoid it.
Darian's previous defensive actions had all been in preparation for this exact, blinding opportunity.
A dazzling, concentrated bolt of blue-white lightning shot out from Darian's extended fingers, piercing through the swirling sand and instantly striking Crocodile directly in the chest.
The lightning pierced through his body. The Logia-type elementalization caused Crocodile's sandy torso to explode the instant he was struck, instinctively trying to scatter to avoid the damage.
But the intense, dazzling lightning flashed through the sand and gravel. A massive portion of Crocodile's elemental sand was directly vaporized or flash-burned into useless glass crystals by the thirty-million-volt heat.
When the shattered sand coalesced again a few yards away, a disheveled, smoking Crocodile appeared before Darian.
"Damn it...!"
As he cursed, Crocodile spat out a mouthful of hot blood onto the dunes. He had never expected this to happen. This was the most serious, painful injury he had suffered since settling in 'Paradise' and becoming a Warlord, and it was all because of a no-name rookie.
Crocodile's slicked-back hair stood on end from the massive static charge. The heavy fur coat on his chest was burned away, revealing a fist-sized hole of charred flesh on his chest where the lightning had grounded itself.
A thirty-million-volt lightning strike had hit him directly in the chest, yet he only suffered serious burns and internal bleeding, not instant death. Looking at Crocodile, Darian couldn't help but marvel at the absurd, abnormal physical durability of the top-tier fighters in this world.
Of course, Darian also understood that elementalization and scattering the sand had made Crocodile immune to the majority of the lethal voltage.
While Darian marveled at Crocodile's physical strength, Crocodile's golden eyes were filled with absolute, murderous rage as he glared back.
Unforgivable! Crocodile couldn't accept this humiliating reality. He, a Shichibukai and a world-renowned pirate mastermind, was seriously injured and bleeding because of a rookie from the East Blue. Just a moment ago, he had looked down on Darian as an arrogant brat, but in the blink of an eye, the brat had nearly fried his heart.
An enraged Crocodile's gaze swept over Darian, then fell upon Nami, Vivi, and the others watching from a safe distance near the riverbank. A sinister, cruel smile spread across his charred face.
"You wanted to help that naive little princess, didn't you, 'White Emperor'?" Crocodile wheezed, wiping blood from his chin. "Let's see how you manage to save her from the desert."
"What?" Darian growled. He turned to look at Nami and the others.
Taking full advantage of Darian's momentary distraction, Crocodile instantly conjured a massive sandstorm in his palm and hurled it not at Darian, but at the women.
"Heavy Sables!"
It rose rapidly, catching the desert wind. In an instant, the sandstorm turned into a giant, roaring tornado.
As the massive sandstorm swept toward Nami and the others, Crocodile smiled. His face, blackened by the lightning, contorted into a hideous grin.
"Let's see how you save them from that!" Crocodile laughed.
Crocodile was going all out this time. The sandstorms he had used before were merely small, tactical ones. If the previous sandstorms were a Category 1, the current sandstorm was a Category 5 hurricane. It had a massive range and terrifying power; if left unchecked, it could easily level the nearby city of Rainbase.
BOOM!
The sky changed color. Tons of swirling sand blocked out the sun, plunging the desert into twilight, and the wind howled like a demon. The sand whipped through the air; the silica particles had sharp edges that could easily flay the skin from a normal human's bones.
The massive sandstorm continued to sweep toward the riverbank, gradually increasing in size and speed.
"Darian!" Nami screamed, shielding her eyes against the gale.
As the sand and gravel swirled around them like the end of the world, Nami, Vivi, and the others couldn't help but scream in terror, bracing themselves.
Seeing this cowardly attack, Darian completely ignored Crocodile. He tucked his wings and rushed straight into the path of the massive sandstorm, intending to intercept it before it reached his crew.
"Acting recklessly," Crocodile scoffed. Seeing Darian's suicidal behavior, Crocodile calmly took out a fresh cigar, put it in his mouth, lit it with a golden lighter, and prepared to watch the rookie be flayed alive.
However, as Darian jumped directly into the eye of the sandstorm, a strange phenomenon occurred. The originally extremely violent, roaring sandstorm gradually slowed down. The chaotic winds began to swirl inward, condensing rather than expanding.
Crocodile, who hadn't even taken his second puff of his cigar, widened his eyes. The sandstorm simply collapsed in on itself and vanished into nothingness.
"How is that possible?!" Crocodile roared in utter disbelief, dropping his lighter.
His ultimate attack, which was powerful enough to be a natural calamity, had been completely neutralized—absorbed entirely by Darian's Hungry Ghost Path.
The only thing that responded to Crocodile's shock was Darian, rocketing out of the settling dust with a furious, unstoppable iron fist.
Darian unleashed his full, tenfold power, delivering a devastating punch directly toward Crocodile's face.
Crocodile sneered, confident his Logia body would simply turn to sand and let the blunt attack pass through.
But this time, Crocodile's face failed to become elemental.
Water droplets were falling from Darian's fist.
Darian had carried a small water canteen on his belt. At first, Darian had only wanted to defeat the Warlord using his Devil Fruit abilities to test his limits. But he did not expect Crocodile to be so cowardly as to attack Nami and the others. That had pissed Darian off. He had crushed the canteen in his hand, soaking his fist in water—the Sand-Sand Fruit's ultimate weakness.
CRACK!
Darian's wet, vibration-infused fist connected squarely with Crocodile's jaw.
Glowing white cracks of pure kinetic force spread out directly across Crocodile's solid face. The shockwave entered his skull, and Crocodile's arrogant features became horribly distorted under the crushing impact.
BOOM!
As the cracks spread through the air behind him, the shockwave erupted.
With his skull propelling the rest of his body, Crocodile was sent flying backward into the distance amidst a terrifying, deafening blast of kinetic force. He skipped across the desert dunes like a skipped stone, crashing through several rock formations.
Even though Darian had used his full power in Gear Second to deliver a "Sea Tremor Fist," Crocodile's head didn't simply explode like Arlong the Fishman's had. A great pirate is a great pirate; even if his Haki had withered and he had fallen from grace, a Warlord's basic physical durability was still astronomically superior to anyone Darian had faced in the East Blue.
In the original timeline, Darian thought, watching the Warlord crash into the distance, Crocodile was smashed through solid bedrock, city streets, and houses from dozens of meters underground by Luffy, and only passed out when he hit the surface. Let's see if he gets up from that.
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