Looking at the utterly bedraggled Crocodile, Charles finally got a bit more serious.
He didn't have Luffy's protagonist plot armor, and yet in the middle of the fight Crocodile "powered up."
Calling it a power-up wasn't quite right—Crocodile had merely recovered his former strength.
His two brightest feats were fighting the Devil's Heir, Douglas Bullet, to a draw, and challenging the world's strongest man, Whitebeard, and living to tell the tale.
Setting the latter aside, Bullet wasn't someone who knew the meaning of holding back.
Even if Bullet hadn't yet reached the peak he showed at the Pirates' Expo when he brutalized the Supernovas, being able to fight him evenly meant Crocodile couldn't possibly have lacked Haki.
But after being defeated by Whitebeard, he fixated on using the power of an Ancient Weapon for revenge—his mindset had clearly shattered.
On top of that, like Kizaru, Crocodile was the type Zephyr described as focusing only on his Devil Fruit.
The result was that his Haki atrophied completely, while Kizaru—even if "lopsided"—had no real weak points and had developed his fruit to the limit. Crocodile, by contrast, declined to the point of losing to a rookie.
After Charles's merciless thrashing, however, the shock jolted a measure of his former power awake.
What stung most for Crocodile was how he had practically no way to hit back during the fight—that hadn't happened even when he faced Whitebeard.
He didn't think Charles was stronger than that monster Whitebeard, so there was only one answer: he himself had grown weak.
Like waking from a dream, Crocodile finally faced what he had become.
Charles's beatdown worked no worse than losing to Luffy in the original plot and then gaining an epiphany in Impel Down.
Seeing a Crocodile who at least looked like something again, Charles wasn't completely disappointed. Defeating a will-shattered wreck would have been a waste of his time.
Crocodile spat bloody foam. Instead of using his fruit, he took a close-quarters stance.
Ace held Luffy in the distance. Luffy, who had struggled to jump back into the fray, suddenly went quiet, and when Ace looked down, he saw the seriousness on Luffy's face.
"Luffy, what's wrong?"
Luffy shook his head. "Nothing. It's just… that guy feels different. I could've beaten him before, but now I'd definitely lose."
Ace couldn't help but sigh—his little brother might be thick-skinned, but his intuition was as sharp as ever.
Crocodile might be covered in wounds, but he was far more dangerous than before. You could tell just from his eyes.
Charles, too, shed his earlier nonchalance and set his feet in a relatively earnest stance.
In the next instant, they charged and collided. The point of impact wasn't midway between them, though—it was closer to where Crocodile had stood.
That spoke to Charles's greater burst and greater strength.
Charles's fist skimmed Crocodile's head as he twisted away, the wind from the blow blasting the sand behind him into the air.
"Oh, your Observation Haki is back too?"
Crocodile had dodged by relying on Observation Haki.
Every world's powers have their merits. Observation Haki excels at sensing an opponent's attack patterns—better than Charles's own qi-reading on that front.
On the other hand, Charles's feel for malice, emotion, and the measure of strength through qi surpassed Observation Haki.
Ignoring the cuts the fist wind had carved into his face, Crocodile punched, a black sheen coating his knuckles.
His fist landed on the palm Charles had brought up before his abdomen, forcing Charles back a step.
Compared to Charles, Crocodile skidded back farther after landing a hit. Pulling away was only to set up a stronger strike.
He was not adept at close-quarters fighting; pressing in wouldn't win him anything.
"Desert Diamond Jewel Blades!"
Crocodile swept out his arm, and four massive sand blades, each wreathed in Armament Haki, came slashing in.
Even before they arrived, four neat gouges were already crawling across the ground.
Charles sank into his stance, raised both arms, and caught the two blades that would have cut him.
These blades didn't crumble the instant they touched like before. Instead, they clashed furiously with his palms.
Armament Haki made all the difference. Flames burst from Charles's hands, and only then did he tear the sand blades apart.
What surprised Charles most, though, was Crocodile's toughness.
When he fought Kaido, perhaps because he'd known from the outset that Kaido was a monster with an absurdly thick health bar, it hadn't struck him as much.
Crocodile wasn't a stamina specialist, but after taking a beating from Charles, he still had the energy to unleash Haki at this level—that was a surprise.
Then again, in this world, "tanky by default" was the norm. Crocodile being like this was only normal!
As Charles mused, he launched his counterattack, stamping hard enough to fling sand and closing on Crocodile.
The sand at Crocodile's feet surged in waves, walling up like a rampart to block Charles.
"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!"
Behind the sand wall, Crocodile could sense Charles's every move through Observation Haki.
He "saw" Charles spread his arms, cross them before his chest, and then two searing lines swept in.
He jumped on instinct, and watched as two flame whips sliced the sand wall like tofu, leaving two long, scorched trails in the air.
The wall collapsed outright, and Crocodile saw Charles bearing down on him.
Midair, Crocodile's body dissolved into sand. He elementalized early to scatter himself—and Charles's fist came crashing through.
Yellow sand regathered and wrapped around Charles's arm, and the coalescing sand extended to form Crocodile's body.
The sand sheathing Charles's forearm was also shaping into a hand.
Crocodile's strongest power lay in his palm: if he grabbed you, he'd forcibly drain the moisture from your body.
That was clearly how he meant to end Charles.
"I really don't like being grabbed by a man like this."
The sand on Charles's wrist heated to a cherry red—the edge of melting.
The glowing sand grains flew off, taking Crocodile with them, and re-formed into a human shape farther away.
He glanced at his badly burned palm and his expression grew grimmer. He had no time to think; Charles's next strike was already in his face.
A flame-clad fist smashed in. Even though Crocodile threw up vast swathes of sand to block, they were blasted apart.
Before he could catch his breath, Charles swept a leg through, booting him into the air.
In a rush, Crocodile unleashed a dozen Desert Jewel Blades to try to break the assault.
Flames licked from the corners of Charles's mouth, and he opened wide at the slashing sands.
A pillar of fire poured out and swallowed every blade, forcing Crocodile into a desperate, clumsy roll to get clear.
No way through… Despair crept into Crocodile's mind. He couldn't find a single opening on Charles—that dragged him back to facing Whitebeard.
Sensing that Crocodile had reached his limit, Charles said, "That was enough to limber up. Time to finish the job."
Crocodile's pupils shrank. The surge of magic power from Charles was like staring into an abyss. In the pitch-black, all he could see were a pair of vertical pupils opening.
When he snapped back, Charles was already set to punch.
"Don't you dare underestimate me!"
Crocodile roared. His body turned to yellow sand, drank in masses more, and swelled in place, becoming a sand giant over ten meters tall. The massive hook in his hand took on a final coat of Armament Haki and came crashing down.
Everyone in the distance saw the huge sand giant. As they were marveling at a Warlord's strength, a flaming meteor arced up.
It shattered the giant hook, shattered the arm, and finally smashed the sand giant's body to pieces.
"Crocodile… lost!" The same thought rose unbidden in every mind.
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