One Piece: Starting with Breathing Techniques

The sharp golden hook moved with incredible speed, instantly covering a distance of tens of meters, and pierced straight towards Kiro's face.

Swish!

The sharp hook pierced the air, but only penetrated the afterimage left by Kilo in place.

Crocodile was not surprised. He turned around and, as if he had foreseen the future, attacked another open space more than ten meters away.

boom!

The golden hook clashed violently with the left hand, which was shrouded in a thick, ink-like armor color, producing a thunderous clang of metal striking metal.

Kiro was somewhat surprised by this sudden attack.

"You can keep up with my speed? I didn't know you even know Observation Haki!"

Crocodile snorted coldly, his face grim. "I just don't want to use it, not that I forgot!"

"The Desert Sword!"

Crocodile suddenly swung his right arm, transforming it into a giant sand blade, and slashed straight down at Kiro.

The sand blade was exceptionally sharp; even the aftershocks could split hard sand and gravel in two.

Facing the terrifying sand blade, Kiro neither dodged nor avoided it, meeting it head-on with his right fist without flinching.

boom!

The massive sand blade, powerful enough to slice through an entire desert, shattered the moment it touched Kilo's right fist, blasting into scattered sand that filled the sky.

In contrast, Kiro's right fist, which was enveloped in a strong Armament Haki, was completely unharmed after facing this attack, without a single scratch.

"Tsk, what kind of monster physique is this?" Crocodile frowned, staring at Kiro with displeasure, feeling extremely troubled.

From the start of the battle until now, his opponent has been taking all of his attacks with his body without suffering any harm.

He had only seen such a monstrous physique in the New World, and those who possessed it were all renowned figures.

How could this unknown young man have achieved such a level of skill?

A strong person with such strength shouldn't be unknown in the paradise of the first half of the Grand Line, right?

He carefully examined Kiro's face and suddenly felt a sense of familiarity well up inside him.

"Wait, who are you...?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Crocodile caught sight of the dragon-slaying sword hanging at Kiro's waist, and suddenly his breath caught in his throat as he realized what was happening.

"You're the swordsman Kiro? The Kiro who defeated Kizaru six years ago?"

Kiro's lips curled into a smile, a hint of感慨 in his voice. "You only recognized me now?"

"It seems that my appearance has changed a lot in six years."

Upon receiving Kiro's affirmative reply, Crocodile felt a chill in his heart, and his expression grew even more solemn.

At the time, the things Kilo had done were known to everyone; across the entire ocean, no one was unaware of Kilo's illustrious record.

He became a swordsman at a young age and even defeated the current Marine Admiral, Kizaru!

This record is more than enough to qualify him to join the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and even in the New World, he would be qualified to step onto the stage where heroes compete!

Moreover, the current Kiro has grown for a full six years, and its strength is now vastly different from what it used to be.

Who knows what level of strength he can reach now?

After a brief moment of thought and deliberation, Crocodile hesitated for a second before speaking up:

"Kilo, we have no reason to fight to the death."

"Whether you want money, power, or intelligence, I can provide it to you!"

"Let's stop the war; continuing this fighting will do us no good."

Upon hearing this, Kiro shook his head without hesitation and chuckled softly.

"Crocodile, didn't you want to become the Pirate King?"

Where has your ambition gone?

"You dared to challenge Whitebeard back then, how come you won't even dare to fight me now?"

Although his tone was extremely calm, every word he uttered made Crocodile's face grow increasingly grim, so dark it seemed as if water could drip from it.

This was because every word Kilo said precisely struck at the part of his heart that he least wanted to face.

Although he didn't want to admit it, the facts showed that he was indeed more cowardly than before.

"Even if you obtain Pluto now, you will never become the Pirate King!"

The moment Crocodile heard the word "Pluto," his pupils contracted, and he could no longer bear it.

"That's enough!"

A strong killing intent rose from his body, and his cold gaze was fixed on Kiro's figure like that of a hawk, as if he wanted to devour him alive.

"I don't know why you know so much, but Kiro..."

Crocodile's voice was hoarse, and his tone was cold and menacing.

"You've got one thing wrong: I've never been afraid of you."

"If you had backed down, I could have let bygones be bygones..."

"Unfortunately... you know too much! Now, I have no choice but to send you to hell myself!"

Crocodile's figure vanished in an instant, turning into scattered sand and merging into the vast desert.

Boom!

The desert beneath their feet trembled violently, and the ground within a radius of dozens of miles suddenly cracked open. Countless grains of sand gathered in mid-air, forming countless extremely sharp sand blades that occupied most of their field of vision.

Crocodile's figure hovered in the air, his elemental form towering above the sand blades that blotted out the sky.

"Nether Sand Purgatory!"

With a sudden swing of his left hand, all the sand blades hurtled towards Kilo at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

Since he is currently in the desert, he can summon sand far beyond his own capabilities, so the number of sand blades is almost endless, with new sand blades being generated and attacking Kilo every moment.

What's more, unexpectedly, these sand blades are completely different from the sand blades shown before. Their blades, which gleam with a cold light, are covered with a layer of pitch-black Armament Haki, making them extremely powerful!

boom!

In the blink of an eye, at least a hundred Armament Haki sand blades suddenly landed where Kilo was, sending up sand spray tens of meters high.

Its power was so great that the shockwave it generated even flattened the surrounding sand by half a meter, demonstrating its astonishing force.

However, in the next instant, a powerful aura spread out.

In the blink of an eye, these sand blades collapsed and scattered the moment they came into contact with the powerful aura.

As the smoke cleared, Kiro's figure reappeared, still completely unharmed.

However, to Crocodile's surprise, faint reddish-brown markings had appeared on Kiro's face at some point.

"Is this... his full-power form?" Recalling the appearance on the wanted poster, Kiro seemed to have had this strange marking on his face back then.

However, the patterns on the Kiro in front of me seem to be a bit fainter?

Kiro didn't speak, and after a brief moment of blurring, he instantly appeared behind Crocodile.

He thrust his right fist back, gathering momentum. His thick, dragon-like back cracked, his body bent like a bow, and his steel-like muscles bulged out menacingly.

An extremely powerful pressure gradually condensed on that fist.

"So fast!"

Crocodile was horrified, his expression changing drastically.

Kilo is now showing a speed that is twice as fast as before!

Realizing he couldn't dodge in time, he gritted his teeth and used his right hand to climb onto the ground.

"The Cycle of Erosion!"

This is his last trump card ability, with astonishing power, but it consumes a huge amount of energy. Now is the perfect time to unleash it!

A wave of energy spread rapidly outwards from his right hand.

Everything that came into contact with this fluctuation was instantly drained of all moisture; even dry rocks were pulverized and dissolved.

He turned around instantly, and in coordination with the Erosion of Reincarnation, thrust out the golden hook of his left hand at a tricky angle, carrying an astonishing momentum, and went straight for Kiro.

His scorpion stinger is highly poisonous; once you are hit, you will die instantly!

Suddenly, a solid sensation came from Crocodile's hand.

Hit!?

Has the outcome already been decided?