Bege studied the afro-headed rock-and-roll youth. From the nose-picking gesture, he guessed this was Mr. 5, the user of the Paramecia-type Bomb-Bomb Fruit. He could make any part of his body explode, even his own boogers, and the air he exhaled could also be used as an explosive.
The Bomb-Bomb Fruit was an incredibly powerful ability, but unfortunately, it had a useless owner who was wasting its potential. Bege was almost certain that if he gave the Bomb-Bomb Fruit to a protégé with decent aptitude, he could cultivate an elite officer.
Robin didn't answer, instead looking to Bege.
Bege's gaze hardened. An invisible hand instantly seized Mr. 5. The man's face contorted in shock, but the force holding him was so strong he couldn't move a muscle.
BOOM!
With a massive explosion, Mr. 5's entire body detonated, the force of the blast tearing apart the invisible hand. He then collapsed to the ground with a thud. His body was a mess of torn flesh, but his skin was already twitching, slowly regenerating. The ability to repair his own exploded body was another peculiar feature of the Bomb-Bomb Fruit.
However, the pain from the explosion was not negated. It assaulted his nerves with undiminished intensity, and he immediately passed out from the sheer agony.
Bege looked down at the unconscious Mr. 5, a faint smile on his lips.
"He managed to break my spatial restraint. The Bomb-Bomb Fruit really is something."
Mr. 5's body rapidly shrank and was pulled into a Sea-Prism Stone cell inside Bege's internal castle.
Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps came from inside the casino. The back door burst open, and four or five people rushed out.
The man in the lead had slicked-back hair, a long scar running horizontally across his face, an earring in his right ear, and a cigar clamped in his mouth. His left hand was a large, golden hook.
He was Sir Crocodile.
Behind him stood a tall, muscular, bald young man dressed like a warrior monk, with the kanji for "one" tattooed on his chest. This was Crocodile's right-hand man, Mr. 1, Daz Bonez, user of the Paramecia-type Dice-Dice Fruit, which allowed him to turn any part of his body into a blade and made his skin as hard as steel.
Bege didn't recognize the other three.
When Crocodile saw Bege, his pupils constricted. He clearly recognized him. His cold gaze flickered past Robin and settled on Bege.
"Demon Dragon, what did you do to Mr. 5?" Crocodile asked, taking a drag from his cigar, his voice low and dangerous.
"Demon Dragon! Captain of the Fire Tank Pirates! An Emperor of the New World!" one of the others exclaimed, his eyes wide with fear. The rest of them looked equally terrified.
"I subdued him, of course," Bege said with an easy smile, not taking Crocodile seriously in the slightest. "And none of you will be getting away, either."
Crocodile's eyes flashed with murderous intent. He opened his palm, and a small sandstorm formed in it. He launched it at Bege, and it rapidly grew in size as it flew through the air.
Bege casually raised a hand. The sandstorm froze in mid-air, then instantly exploded. A shower of sand shot back toward Crocodile and his men. Under Bege's mental control, the grains of sand flew like bullets, blasting the five of them apart. Aside from Crocodile and Mr. 1, the other three were riddled with sand and instantly incapacitated.
As a Logia user, Crocodile was immune to physical attacks, especially from his own element. All the sand that hit him was simply absorbed into his body. Mr. 1, being a blade man with skin like steel, was also unharmed; the sand merely clanged against his body, leaving behind tiny white marks.
"Crocodile, I heard you challenged Whitebeard not long ago. It was a miserable defeat, wasn't it?" Bege said with a grin.
Crocodile's face became extremely dark, his eyes dangerously cold. His defeat at the hands of Whitebeard had left him with deep psychological scars. Having it brought up now ignited a furious rage within him.
He lunged forward, his right hand transforming into sand and taking the shape of a scimitar.
"Desert Spada!"
He swung his right hand, and the sand blade extended, growing massive as it slashed toward Bege. However, ten centimeters from its target, it slammed into an invisible barrier and exploded on impact.
"Is that the extent of your power? I'm disappointed, Crocodile," Bege said, looking at him with contempt.
The disdainful look stung Crocodile deeply. His body began to turn to sand. The ground beneath his feet cracked and crumbled into grit, and sand filled the air.
"Desert Sword!" Crocodile plunged his sandy right hand into the earth. A blade-shaped shockwave of sand erupted from the ground, tearing it apart as it shot toward Bege at incredible speed.
Bege sidestepped, and the shockwave continued on, striking a building and cleaving it in two. It hit a person, slicing them in half, and their bisected corpse instantly withered as all the moisture was sucked from it. The attack traveled for several hundred meters, cutting through more than a dozen buildings.
"A little more interesting," Bege said with a smirk. He had just turned his head when he saw Crocodile's sinister smile.
Crocodile plunged both hands into the ground. The entire area rapidly disintegrated, turning into soft sand. Even the buildings on either side dissolved into a flowing desert.
"Sables!"
This wasn't his Devil Fruit's awakening. The buildings here were made of stone, and Crocodile could use his Sand-Sand Fruit's power to erode the stone and turn it into sand. As the buildings dissolved, the people inside rapidly desiccated, their mummified corpses falling from the swirling sand.
"Die!"
"Desert Girasole!"
Crocodile roared, and the endless sand coalesced into four massive sand blades that slashed at Bege from all four directions.
Bege flickered behind Nico Robin and raised a hand, and the invisible barrier solidified just as the four sand blades struck it. Cracks appeared in the barrier, and sand began to drift through.
"An opening!" Crocodile's face lit up. He plunged his sandy right hand into the ground, and another, even faster blade-shaped shockwave shot toward Bege.
"Desert Grande Espada!"
The shockwave slammed into the invisible barrier, shattering it, and continued on toward Nico Robin. Her face paled, and she was about to dodge when Bege kicked the blade-shaped attack, shattering it with a single blow. He then projected his external space outward, and the four large sand blades instantly disintegrated back into a cloud of yellow sand.
"Do you have any stronger moves?" Bege asked, casually puffing on his cigar as he looked at Crocodile.
Crocodile's face was extremely ugly. He let out another roar and his entire body dissolved into sand. The ground beneath Bege's feet collapsed, and he instantly fell several dozen meters. The sand beneath him was spinning wildly, the entire pit turning into a swirling vortex of quicksand.
"Desert Sunflower!"