Chapter 955: The Arrival of ‘Thousand Arms’ Cracker, One of the Three Sweet Commanders

Chapter 955: Chapter 955: The Arrival of ‘Thousand Arms’ Cracker, One of the Three Sweet Commanders

"Crocodile!!!"

The sudden appearance of this man sent shockwaves through Opera and his companions, their faces contorting in absolute disbelief.

They had never expected to encounter the "Desert King" himself, the notorious former Seven Warlords of the Sea. No wonder Bavarois had been defeated so brutally; they were dealing with a true, cold-blooded apex predator!

Ever since the Summit War, Crocodile had plunged into the New World. Countless up-and-coming pirates had sought his head to claim instant fame, yet not a single one had succeeded. In fact, few had even escaped with their lives.

There were even rumors that the Blackbeard Pirates had targeted Crocodile to hunt and steal his Devil Fruit ability. But looking at him now, either the rumors were entirely fabricated, or the hunt had ended in a catastrophic failure.

"Crocodile! Are you planning to make an enemy of Mama?!" Raisin demanded, his voice dropping to a freezing register.

"An enemy? Don’t make me laugh," Crocodile drawled, his cold eyes casually sweeping over Raisin. "My presence here speaks for itself, doesn’t it?"

He took a slow drag from his cigar and spat out a plume of gray smoke. "Where is Cracker? Call him out. You small-time small fry aren’t even worthy of dying by my hand."

In truth, Crocodile genuinely did not care for the collection of trash standing before him. Within the entirety of the Big Mom Pirates, aside from the Yonko Big Mom herself, only the Sweet Commanders were worthy of his attention.

In fact, ever since Charlotte Snack was utterly crushed by the "Mad Monk" Urouge, reducing the Four Sweet Commanders down to the Three Sweet Commanders, only Charlotte Katakuri and Big Mom were truly worth taking seriously in his eyes.

Instantly, the surrounding officers of the Big Mom Pirates were pushed into a furious frenzy by Crocodile’s casual disdain. They pointed their weapons at him, throwing curses across the clearing.

"Too arrogant!"

"You bastard! Are you begging to die?!"

"I can’t stand that irritating tone of his!"

"..."

Bakoji’s veins bulged across his forehead as he glared with unmitigated fury. "What a joke! Crocodile, you’re nothing but a pathetic loser who got lucky and escaped from Impel Down! You think you’re worthy of drawing Cracker-sama out? I’ll butcher you myself!"

With a deafening roar, Bakoji gripped his battle-axe with both hands and swung it downward, aimining to cleave Crocodile in two.

"What do you think you’re doing to my boss?"

A shadow blurred into motion. Daz Bonez stepped squarely in front of Crocodile. The fingers on both his hands transformed into razor-sharp steel blades, thrusting out like flashes of lightning.

Clang—!

A tremendous, metallic shockwave erupted as Daz Bonez cleanly caught the descending battle-axe. Sparks flew wildly through the air. His hardened, blade-like fingers clamped down on the axe’s edge with a vice-like grip. No matter how much force Bakoji poured into his arms, the massive battle-axe could not budge a single millimeter downward.

"This is as far as you go."

Daz Bonez’s eyes turned stone-cold. Freeing his left hand, a succession of segmented steel blades manifested along his forearm, beginning to spin at a terrifying, high-frequency speed that produced a violent buzz-buzz-buzz in the air.

"Spiral Hollow!!!"

With a chilling shout, Daz Bonez drove his violently spinning forearm straight forward like a high-speed drill.

"What?!"

Bakoji gasped in terror. He desperately tried to pull back to defend himself, but his primary weapon remained immovably locked in Daz Bonez’s iron grip.

Boom—!

In that split second, Bakoji could only watch in sheer horror as the high-speed spinning blades on Daz Bonez’s left arm slammed ruthlessly into his chest.

The razor-sharp, rotating edges shredded through Bakoji’s skin and muscle in an instant, sending a fountain of fresh blood spraying into the air. The colossal kinetic force behind the strike launched him backward like a cannonball, causing him to violently vomit a massive torrent of blood mid-air.

Rumble—!

A moment later, Bakoji crashed heavily into the earth dozens of meters away. The impact shattered the ground into a massive web of fractures, leaving him embedded deep within a crater.

"Bakoji!"

"How is that possible?!"

"Are you kidding me?!"

Opera and the others gasped, their eyes darting back to the bald giant in absolute shock.

He had just instantly defeated a notorious pirate captain with a bounty of 194 million Berries. Who on earth was this guy?!

At that moment, Crocodile spared a brief, dissatisfied glance at Daz Bonez, his voice laced with irritation. "Bonez, I don’t recall ordering you to step in."

Daz Bonez lowered his arm, the steel blades seamlessly retracting beneath his skin. "Puny characters like this are best left to me, Boss. After all, you still have to face one of the Sweet Commanders of the Big Mom Pirates. No matter how you look at it, the opponent is a legendary pirate with a staggering bounty of 860 million Berries."

"Are you underestimating me?" Crocodile sneered, clearly displeased.

With a cold hum, Crocodile took a step forward. He bent his knees, crouching low as he extended his right arm and pressed his open palm flat against the earth.

"Ground Secco!!!"

Crocodile growled. An invisible, catastrophic force erupted from his palm, instantly and ruthlessly violently siphoning all moisture from the terrain. The desiccated earth, centered around his right hand, fractured and withered at a terrifying speed, spreading outward like a plague.

Within seconds, everything within a hundred-meter radius was transformed. The once-fertile ground turned into a barren, cracked wasteland; the surrounding trees withered into brittle husks as their moisture was torn away, and the massive stone boulders dissolved into fine, loose sand.

"The ground... it’s completely dried up..."

"Are you kidding me?!"

"This can’t be real!"

Countless pirates stood frozen in pure horror. Staring at the drastically altered landscape, the words caught in their throats.

"Die! Desert Spada!!!"

Accompanied by Crocodile’s booming command, a monumental torrent of desert sand erupted, billowing into the sky before crashing down toward Opera and the others like a cataclysmic tidal wave, threatening to bury everything beneath a mountain of sand.

"Cream Monster!!!"

Opera acted instantly out of sheer desperation, exhausting his stamina to conjure another massive cream monstrosity to form a line of defense for the Big Mom Pirates.

However, the endless torrents of sand layered themselves over the Cream Monster’s body, rapidly encasing it in a colossal sand cocoon. Ultimately, the Cream Monster was crushed under the immense, suffocating weight of the desert sand, collapsing into nothingness.

Shoom—!

Suddenly, a high-speed, violently rotating spiral sword-beam shot out from the distance. With a cataclysmic boom, it tore a massive, gaping hole directly through the center of the cascading sandstorm, sending dust and sand flying wildly in all directions.

"What?!"

Crocodile’s expression shifted slightly. Even after piercing through his massive sand wall, the spiral sword-beam suffered no deceleration whatsoever, hurtling directly toward his chest with lethal precision.

Puff!

Crocodile’s body instantly dissolved into a massive cloud of sand, scattering backward to evade the trajectory.

Boom—!

In the next fraction of a second, the high-speed rotating sword-beam detonated against the spot Crocodile had occupied a moment prior. It drilled a bottomless hole several meters wide straight into the earth, unleashing a violent shockwave that swept the remaining dust into a blinding screen.

A short distance away, the drifting sand rapidly condensed back into Crocodile’s human form.

"What an exceptionally powerful sword-beam..."

Crocodile’s gaze turned incredibly grim as he stared at the deep crater. The edges of the borehole were perfectly smooth, without a single stray fracture. To control such immense destructive power with that level of surgical precision was nothing short of terrifying.

At that exact moment, a suffocating, monstrous aura swept across the entire battlefield. It was accompanied by a violent atmospheric pressure that instantly blew away the lingering clouds of dust.

"Crocodile... are you begging for death?!"

A towering silhouette strode into the clearing. It was a rugged, heavily built man wielding a colossal greatsword. The terrifying, oppressive pressure radiating from his form was so absolute that it struck primitive fear into the hearts of everyone present. Countless low-tier combatants felt their limbs go entirely numb, and a significant number were outright knocked unconscious by the sheer weight of his presence.

Sensing the intense psychological pressure, Crocodile’s eye twitched slightly. His relaxed demeanor vanished, replaced by a profound solemnity as a grim smirk played on his lips.

"Tch... this pressure... ’Thousand Arms’ Cracker, I presume?"

Crocodile cracked his neck, a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes. "Excellent. The real entertainment has finally arrived."