Crocodile narrowed his eyes, a smirk curling at the corners of his lips for the first time.
"Your Armament Haki has been completely exhausted? No wonder you could unleash such a devastating slash—you poured all your Haki into that single strike."
"Sig, you truly are at your limit now, aren't you? Neither Observation nor Armament Haki is usable anymore, is it?"
Crocodile's smirk turned icy as he let out a low, chilling laugh.
He was certain of his victory.
Logia-type Devil Fruit users could evade nearly all physical attacks through elemental intangibility. As long as they didn't let their guard down, they held an overwhelming advantage against ordinary pirates.
Crocodile sneered, bending slightly as he pressed his remaining hand against the ground.
An invisible force spread from his palm, rapidly expanding across the ruined city.
The surrounding collapsed buildings crumbled further before disintegrating into sand, swirling around Crocodile in a tempest of golden grains.
The air was once again filled with a raging sandstorm, the grains grinding against each other with a harsh, grating noise.
Though the core of the tornado had been split apart by Sig's slash, the remnants of the sandstorm still lingered.
This was still the Desert King's domain!
While Crocodile couldn't summon another cataclysmic sandstorm on the same scale as before, he could still control localized sandstorms with ease.
Seeing this, King Cobra, who had been trying to approach Crocodile, paled in horror.
Even he, slow as he was, now understood the situation.
Within the reborn sandstorm, Crocodile was in his element.
"Retreat! Gather the civilians and fall back!"
"Do not let yourselves get caught in Crocodile's attack!"
Cobra's eyes burned with fury as he barked orders at Igaram and the others.
"Crocodile was never Alabasta's hero."
"This disaster… it must be his doing!"
Even as he issued commands, Cobra's mind reeled.
The kingdom's supposed hero, Crocodile, was the villain trying to destroy the city.
And Sig, the man he had intended to arrest, had instead become the city's savior.
Elsewhere, a reporter clutching a camera Den Den Mushi was also fleeing in panic.
His expression, however, was far from pleased.
It was because of Sig that he had lost his job at his previous newspaper.
Not only that, but several other papers had outright refused to hire him after learning of his "history."
He held no goodwill toward Sig whatsoever.
The image of Sig being struck by Crocodile and crashing into the ground replayed in his mind.
Though he hadn't managed to capture a photo of Sig's fall, he had seen it—the way Sig's body had flattened like a pancake before snapping back to normal.
"Without a doubt, that's Sig's Devil Fruit ability!"
At this point, he no longer cared about capturing Sig's "back turned to the world" pose. His reporter's instincts and creative urges were surging once more.
Recalling how Sig had walked on air, twisting his body like a contortionist to dodge the storm of debris, the gossip reporter's mind raced with a bold hypothesis!
"A body that can stretch and reshape itself, even recovering after being flattened? There's no mistake—Sig is a Rubber Human, a user of the Gomu Gomu no Mi!"
Though the Gomu Gomu no Mi hadn't made the "Top 10 Strongest Devil Fruits" list, thanks to Sig's fabricated news, it had gained widespread recognition—almost reaching "celebrity fruit" status.
Many knew that, theoretically, this fruit could be combined with the Ito Ito no Mi (String-String Fruit) to become the Rubber Band Fruit.
And if paired with the Mera Mera no Mi (Flame-Flame Fruit), it could fuse the powers of three Devil Fruits, creating the unprecedented Roasted Rubber Band Fruit—the strongest Devil Fruit in history!
...Well, that was all fake news, of course. Nobody actually believed it.
But even after deducing Sig's ability, the reporter still felt something was… off.
Exposing Sig as a Rubber Human would be big news, but it still felt…
"Not shocking enough! Not explosive enough!"
"It doesn't match the grandeur of Sig's storm-splitting slash!"
Though this gossip reporter held no affection for Sig—blaming him for his unemployment—he had to admit:
That single sword strike had been earth-shattering.
Once word spread, it would be a world-shaking headline.
Revealing Sig as a Rubber Human would be noteworthy, but not mind-blowing!
"If Sig's elasticity is this extreme, he can't just be an ordinary Rubber Human!"
"He must possess an even more advanced form—the Rubber Band Human!"
The reporter's nose twitched—he smelled a sensation.
"SHOCKING! The First Dual-Devil Fruit User in History!"
"SHOCKING! The Storm-Splitting Swordsman Sig's True Power is—!"
"There's no mistake! Sig must be a Rubber Band Human!"
"I'll expose the Tieba Tabloid's lies once and for all!"
Facing the triumphant Crocodile, Sig's lips curled into a faint smile—his gaze locked onto the golden hook where Crocodile's left hand should have been.
Crocodile couldn't clap his hands together.
A wave of relief washed over Sig.
In both of their previous encounters, Crocodile had forced Sig to use the Iruma Card prematurely, leaving no chance to test 100% Disarmed.
With Crocodile unable to bring his hands together, the [First Swordsman of the Shang Dynasty] ability had no restrictions.
It could be unleashed in full.
"A mere Sand Crocodile… is nothing to fear."
Sig's confidence surged, his mind steady as a rock.
Faced with the reborn sandstorm, Sig's response was simple.
He raised his sword—and slashed again.
A flash of white light cut through the air, effortlessly splitting the sandstorm apart once more and leaving another gash across Crocodile's body.
Sig's blade remained locked onto the one-armed Warlord.
The sandstorm's destruction was merely a side effect of the sword's unleashed energy.
And yet, Crocodile remained unharmed.
Seeing this, Sig didn't panic—he felt even more assured.
After so long… he had finally found an opponent against whom he could wield his swordsmanship freely.
At this moment, Crocodile posed no threat to him whatsoever!
This battle was already won!
Sig glanced down briefly at the bottle of liquor tied to his waist.
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