Pirates: Your emperor has returned!

"That's how I use the Sand-Sand Fruit."

how to use?

They condensed sand into soldiers, and then, with a massive amount of Armament Haki, created the indestructible Sand Guard!

Being covered in Armament Haki from head to toe is indeed rare, but not scary; many experts can do it.

What truly made Crocodile's pupils constrict and his heart tremble was that Rowan, while covering his entire body with Armament Haki, still had the spare power to cover the other four Sand Soldiers!

What an enormous amount of Armament Haki this is!

Faced with this strange phenomenon, Crocodile remained calm and laughed out loud.

"Hehehe, truly worthy of being called an old monster from eight hundred years ago..."

He crouched down, sandstorm gathering above his right hand, ready for battle.

He is Crocodile.

In his youth, he became famous throughout the world with unstoppable momentum.

He had fought several battles with that "Devil's Heir" Douglas Barrett to a draw;

He also challenged the world's strongest man, Edward Newgate, the Whitebeard.

Now, it's just adding another emperor who existed eight hundred years ago.

To be cowardly before even engaging in battle is definitely not his style!

call……

A hot wind blew by.

Swish!

In an instant, Crocodile took a step forward, his entire body becoming elemental, and he glided along the ground like a ghost.

In the desert, the Sand-Sand Fruit user's mobility reaches an astonishing level!

In the blink of an eye, the sharp golden hook had already approached Rowan.

The latter swung his scepter horizontally, meeting the golden hook head-on!

Click!

The metal clashed with Armament Haki, sparking a few bursts of light.

"Well……"

Crocodile groaned as the tingling, numb, and stinging sensation surged up his arm again.

really.

This ancient monster from eight hundred years ago possessed physical skills that were absolutely no less than those of today's top martial arts masters on the high seas.

Therefore, there is no shortcut; we can only do everything in our power to defeat him!

At the same time, a violent sandstorm was gathering in Crocodile's right palm.

That was his most powerful sandstorm attack—

Heavyweight sandstorm!

boom!

When released at almost zero distance, the sandstorm is no longer a howling sandstorm, but more like a cannonball made of sand and gravel.

A deafening explosion!

The violent impact engulfed Rowan and Crocodile.

Crocodile, who was prepared, immediately transformed his body into an elemental form and turned his arm into a sharp sand blade, which he then swung fiercely toward Rowan's location.

This is his real killer move.

Desert Greatsword!

Swish!

The sand and gravel sank into the ground, and a huge, sharp blade rose up from the ground, stabbing diagonally upwards.

boom!

Another deafening explosion rang out, sending yellow sand billowing into the sky and obscuring Crocodile's vision.

He was panting heavily; the repeated elemental transformations had been extremely exhausting, but the power of his moves was indeed immense.

"Old monster, how was it? This is how I use my Devil Fruit power!"

Crocodile unleashed his Observation Haki, attempting to track Rowan's movements.

But then, something he never expected happened.

He sensed a "wall".

As the gravel slowly fell, Crocodile's true form was revealed.

Four Sand Guards, armed with shields, blocked the explosion of the heavy sandstorm.

It was a wall of Imperial Guards made of jet-black shields!

Rowan stood behind them, his scepter planted firmly on the ground.

Swish!

As if receiving a command, the four Sand Guards transformed their shields into spears, switching from a defensive stance to an offensive one.

Then, charge forward!

Swish!

The four guards marched in unison, heading straight for Crocodile.

The speed was so fast that the latter had no time to defend.

Faced with those sharp spears coated in Armament Haki, Crocodile was forced to transform his body into an elemental form to dodge the deadly spear tips.

But when he looked up again, his expression suddenly froze.

He saw one gravel soldier after another rise up from behind Rowan.

There were at least a thousand people.

These gravel soldiers were not imbued with Armament Haki, yet each held a long spear, ready to throw it.

Target?

Of course, it's Crocodile himself.

Rowan waved his scepter forward and issued the order.

In an instant, thousands of gravel soldiers threw their spears!

shhhhhhhhh...

A barrage of spears rained down from the sky, heading straight for Crocodile!

At this moment, Crocodile was in mid-air, in his elemental form, and had no time to dodge.

He could only watch helplessly as the spears fell!

An angry and resentful voice roared from his throat.

"Ryan Rowan!"

boom!

More than a thousand spears fell, exploding into countless grains of sand, engulfing and burying Crocodile's figure!

……

The deserted desert has returned to peace.

All that could be heard was the rustling of footsteps.

Rowan walked on the gravel, step by step, gradually removing the armor-hide covering his entire body.

He walked to a newly formed sand dune.

Crocodile was lying on it.

The falling sand spear was not coated with Armament Haki, so he was not injured, only slightly disheveled.

His eyes were fixed on the sky, his face grim.

Since his challenge against Whitebeard, Crocodile has once again felt that absolute sense of powerlessness.

Lost.

This time, because both of them were users of the Sand-Sand Fruit, his resentment was even greater than before!

Snapped!

Crocodile slammed his fist into the sand and stood up.

"call……"

He took a deep breath, straightened his clothes, and turned to Rowan, saying:

"You win. I will leave this country, but sooner or later..."

Before he could finish speaking, Rowan suddenly interrupted Crocodile with a look of surprise.

Why are you leaving?

Upon hearing this, Crocodile was taken aback and immediately became confused. "Are you sure you want to let someone who has designs on your country stay?"

Crocodile himself, at least, would never allow someone who harbors disloyalty to live.

But Rowan didn't think so.

"Alabasta is a country, not a ship."

Why can't we have ambition?

Rowan smiled slightly, "No matter how great your ambitions are, I will always be the Emperor of Alabasta."

"Hehehe, I keep my previous assessment. What an arrogant guy!"