Chapter 9

I finally release the trigger and feel the barrels start to slow down. I was sure Crocodile had taken a couple of seastone bullets before he ducked under that railing so I was now more confident in my victory, but I wasn't cocky. I put away pow-pow and took out Zapper.

"Come out Mr Warlord. We're not done yet." I said playfully while cautiously keeping my distance. The sand-sand fruit has an OP ability to absorb moisture which I didn't want anywhere near me.

"Sables: Pesado!!" I heard a shout from above where Crocodile had materialized with his powers. He was already launching another attack which was currently in the form of a small desert tornado in his palm.

He chucked it down at me at faster-than-bullet speed but I was still able to launch a 20% wave beam since I couldn't aim properly at the speeds we were moving at. The beam met the attack mid-air and the collision of the two caused the world to fall silent for a split second before...

*BOOOOM!!!*

I managed to stand my ground and resist the force of the explosion that threatened to send me flying. Crocodile materialized on the ground a few meters away from me and this time I got a good look at his condition. He now had three new holes on his body, one on his stomach, another on his shoulder, and the last on his arm where the seastone-tipped bullets had blasted through.

"Who are you really?" asked Crocodile, this time he was serious as his uninjured arm was clutching his bleeding stomach. 

"Wouldn't you want to know?" I replied sarcastically and aimed my Zapper at him again. 

"Tsk, Sables," he said as a sandstorm immediately appeared around us.

'Nice thinking, he's trying to obstruct my vision since I'm a marksman but he doesn't know I have heightened senses due to Shimmer.' I thought as jumped to the side narrowly avoiding another Desert Spada.

Pumping up the juice to 50%, I waved Zapper in the direction I heard some sound from.

"Damn!" he shouted as he also narrowly dodged my attack and the sandstorm dissipates due to his lack of concentration. If I'm being honest, I was at a major advantage since I already knew his attacks and techniques otherwise this would have been way harder.

"Desert Girasole!" he said as he slammed his hook into the ground and the ground below us instantly turned into a quicksand pit with me at the center. This is one attack I had no way of avoiding or countering, but I was lucky that it wasn't an offensive one, or else I might have been a goner.

I could feel myself sinking quickly, but I did not panic as I set my output to 80% and aimed at Crocodile. As long as I beat him, this attack would obviously disappear.

"Now that you're trapped you can't dodge this." Smiled Crocodile as he pointed his hook at me, "Desert La Sparda"

Large amounts of sand erupted from his hand and they instantly formed four large razor-sharp blades that were speeding toward me.

"Cero," I muttered as I pressed the trigger, and a large wide beam blasted from Zapper, instantly clashing with the incoming sand blades and just as easily overwhelming them and smashing into a shocked Crocodile.

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

Crocodile was blasted into multiple palace walls until I released the trigger which instantly cancelled off the beam. The quicksand sucking me in also stopped and at this point, only my upper body was outside.

I quickly blasted myself out of the quicksand and started walking towards Crocodile. He was lying on the ground seemingly unconscious, his front side was naked and covered in burns but otherwise, he seemed completely fine.

I pulled out seastone cuffs from my belt and started slowly approaching him and like Igaram before him, he tried a last-ditch attack. He reached out for me with his hand, probably to suck out my moisture, but I was ready for him as I cuffed his hand before he could touch me.

Like that, I had caught myself a Warlord of the sea. Honestly, if this guy was cautious and wasn't overconfident and overreliant in his devil fruit it would have been a real hassle to fight him and I might have actually lost. Right now, guys like Mihawk and Garp who are strong and don't use devil fruits are a problem, since I rely on my devil fruit countering weapons.

"Nothing a little haki can't fix," I muttered as I threw a cuffed Crocodile on my shoulder and started walking away. I walked past a shocked crowd of Vivi, Cobra, Chaka, and Robin as I casually walked out of the palace.

"I'd leave this place if I were you," I told them as I walked away.

As if I were a psychic, just as I left the palace followed by Vivi and company, over 20 explosions occurred right behind us completely wrecking the place. The bomb I gave to Koza separated into multiple smaller bombs to cover a wider range, in this case, the palace.

---------Vivi's POV--------

Seeing the palace explode was really heartbreaking, but this is something I was planning on doing anyway. The silence that followed the palace's explosion was what I had wanted to use as an opportunity to stop the fighting and it seems like this moment was fated. So I ran to a high platform that overlooked the battlefield now in front of the wrecked palace.

"Everyone!!! STOP FIGHTING!!!" I shouted with everything I had and the masses slowly turned their heads in my direction. I had finally reached them.