67 One Brother goes down!

Sabo POV

The man in front of me is one of the 7 Warlords. Despite this being our first time meeting, everyone in our crew knows him.

'Sir. Crocodile.'

When Jackson-nii told us about the whole 'knowing future' thing, this man played a big role in Robin's alternative future before Luffy somehow beats him.

Fortunately, Robin asked a lot of detailed questions, otherwise we would have been screwed know, not knowing about his weakness.

"Boy... Do I look like a joke to you?"

He asks me in a deep, warning tone.

'Absolutely not!'

In fact there is a clear difference between us. Although he can't use haki as of yet, him being a logia type isn't the only problematic factor. His physical strength being far above mine doesn't help my case.

But I believe that it isn't impossible to beat him. Not after what Jackson-nii taught me. All I need is an opportunity.

"What does it matter? Whether you are a joke or not, you will still lose."

"..."

He doesn't seem to have liked my answer. His lower body turned to sand, propelling him towards me at an insane speed.

Since I was using observation haki, from the start, keeping track of his position isn't impossible and with soru, dodging is no problem either but he keeps coming, effectively preventing me from taking a breather.

"What's wrong? Didn't you want to win? Desert Spada!"

Now he is even throwing long distance attacks!

"rankyaku!"

Successfully countering it with my own long distance slash attack, didn't stop his charge and soon he appeared next to my right side, his hook already raised, in order to kill me.

Repeating to use soru to retreat backwards like before seemed to be pointless so instead I flew up using my devil fruit powers.

Crocodile followed instantly once more, but he really underestimated me this time. When he came close to me, he actually flew above the exact place I just stood on, so using that chance an earth pillar shot up slamming into his stomach.

While sending my rankyaku earlier, I squeezed as much blood out of my left hand as I could and let it drop there, causing this scene where that exact place now rammed into his stomach!

'Chance!'

As that croco-bastard keeled over in pain due to the sudden hit, I rushed at him with my fastest speed, aiming to ram my bloody finger through his neck, by using shigan.

"You little shit!!"

But before my finger could end his life, he caught my hand in his as if the pain never existed.

!

"Fuck!!"

"So you know about this too?!"

My left hand grew numb so I tried whatever I could before he absorbed all the water inside me but both my kicks and hits were blocked by him using his golden hook.

'Do I really die like this?'

*swish*BOOM!!!*

A sudden light beam shot past my head and through Crocodile's chest.

"Augur!"

I know that light beam that shot through Crocodile before causing a big explosion in the distance but...

'...but why didn't he shoot him in the head?'

From what Jackson-nii told us when Crocodile gets wet his body automatically absorbs the water, preventing him to elementize himself until it's finished.

"Since he was absorbing water from me Augur could have shot him in the head, couldn't he?"

What entered my sight after turning into the direction from which the shot came, were gigantic Ice spikes on the branches of one of the Groove trees in the far distance.

"He doesn't have it easy either."

"Cou-COUGH! COUGH!"

Now Crocodile was at least seriously injured, judging by the blood he is constantly coughing up. Not wanting to let go of this chance again, I prepared to continue attacking.

The fact that I needed help stings but considering that death was the alternative this is easier to deal with.

'After all it's not the stronger one who wins but the winner who is strong.'

Remembering my brother's words from back then, helped me calming myself.

"ARGHHH!!!"

!

Before reaching that bastard, he seems to have went completely insane. The ground around him is being sucked dry at a frightening speed, causing the earth to crack. But the really concerning thing is the huge amount of sand that rushed out of these cracks.

'FUCK!'

Before, the ground advantage was mine but that is gone now. While he worked on first aid measures to prevent himself from choking to death on his own blood, he also sent tsunami loads of sand towards me at the same time.

"He hasn't even been serious this whole time?!"

The realization struck me like one of Jackson-nii's punches. Even with haki, and the ability to fly, dodging was almost impossible. My left hand still felt numb.

Tons worth of sand constantly rushed me, ready to cut, crush or bury me for good. The huge hill of sand became two and soon started to block my escape routes.

"ARGHH!!!"

The fast attacks continued to corner me from all sides until one cut my right shoulder bone deep. Blood gushed as my right arm almost got chopped off.

The longer it went on the worse my situation became. After the first cut, another almost behead me but dodging in the last second minimized the damage to a mere deep cut above my left eye.

The pain is bearable but the blood rushing down my face is a problem. More then ever I am dependent on observation haki.

Searching for a way out of this death trap proved futile, since nothing doable came to my mind. The damage I received started to accumulate slowly but surely.

A cut to my side. Hole in my right leg. Another one in my abdomen. Even my pipe was cut in half.

'At this rate I'll die!'

I have to do something. No matter what! Anything...!

"It's either do or die!"

It feels like I only now realized the meaning of these words as I persistently try to outrun death. Either I outrun it or it gets me.

'No...'

My head begins to feel light, causing my sight to get worse. If it wasn't for haki I'd really be death long ago.

'I don't want to die... I still want to continue our Journey...'

"NOO!!!"

Gigantic amounts of earth all around the Archipelago started to raise up. My devil fruit power needs to be attached to something that I am in contact with and usually I attach it to places or paths that I go to, even if I don't use that power I attach it just for the off chance.

The problem is that I can't sense where I attach my devil fruit power after some time so I thought it would dissipate or something. But now I see that doesn't seem to be the case.

Earth parts, the size of multi story buildings, and even big houses themselves, numbering close to one hundred raised up and came flying towards me.

Smashing in the sand tsunami that entrapped me, the huge chunks of the ground succeeded in dissipating the sand.

They then started circling around me so fast that it almost caused a storm.

Without thinking, almost on instinct, I rush at that sand bastard while launching the close to hundred pieces of earth, each weighting tons, at him smashing apart the sand.

He is still kneeling on the ground and bleeding but hurling some of my newly acquired ammunition at him, didn't have any effect.

'DAMN!'

So only water outside his own works. I'll have to end it up close and personal. He is still working on his wounds, constantly coughing blood.

'It has to work this time.'

Just as I got close enough, and had enough blood on my body, a sand spear shot out from his shoulder and piercing my abdomen. I was skewered just when my hand was 10 centimetres away from him.

"CouGH! Fucki-COUGH! BRAT! COUGH!"

"It's either do or die."

'I know.'

These 10 centimetres... don't matter. I just have to do it. Using one of the two techniques he taught me, which I have yet to master my upper body swelled and grew as my muscles bulged to an enormous size.

"Muscle form!"

"! WHa-COUGH!"

My skin instantly burst and what ever rest blood I had sprung out like a fountain.

'Just do it!'

Regardless, there is only one thing on my mind. Before he could react to this transformation, my two fists now reached his head allowing me to use the second technique that I haven't even remotely mastered. This one I couldn't even attempt without the muscle form from Jackson-nii.

"RokuogaAARGGHHH!!!"

Whatever physical strength I managed to condense ran rampart in my arms breaking my bones where ever it was possible but the remnant that reached the end of my fists, shot right through crocodiles head.

Forget coughing blood, his blood spurted out of all 7 orifices, even worse then it spurted out of my upper body. His figure finally collapsed as did the sand spear that was skewering me.

My sight blurred before totally becoming dark.

'I just had to do it...'

***

3rd Person POV

On the other side, the battlefield where Jackson was holding off the top level navy fighters to the best of his abilities.

He stood strong despite bone deep cuts, holes and bruises over his body and a frozen left shoulder, but then he suddenly flinched.

His eyes became bloodshot, while both his hands and teethes were clenched until they started bleeding.

[ACE] begun vibrating more intensely after the influx of haki that it got but Jackson soon calmed down. Vice-admiral Tsuru's expression suddenly darkened as concern spread on her face.

(AN: HEY! Who of you believes, that Sabo is the one who dies? Putting his survival to the side, was this writing style for the fight ok or would 3rd Person POV be better? I felt bet going on break now, without writing a single fight so here you go! Hope you enjoy it!)