Chapter 289 The Despairing Gap

"It's useless. No matter how hard you struggle, the gap between you and me has already determined your end."

Crocodile's tone remained calm despite the violent attacks of the three men.

He laughed at the naivety of the three. For a natural Devil Fruit user like him, their attacks were just a joke.

Perhaps for other pirates, the abilities of these three newcomers are indeed good, so much so that they can defeat the cadres of Baroque Studio, but there is an essential gap between them and themselves.

"This is how the boring game ends."

Crocodile was too lazy to waste any more time. The defeat of the cadres had a slight impact on his plan. At the last moment of the usurpation plan, he needed to fill those loopholes himself.

He raised his hand.

"Let you see what real power is."

Crocodile was very confident that the three of them would not survive his attack.

"Desert treasure—huh?"

He suddenly felt that his control over the sand was slightly weakened.

"etc--"

There was a chill on his face. He raised his head and saw countless raindrops falling from the sky in the dim light of the morning light.

"It's raining? How is that possible?"

This thought only existed in my mind for a moment before it was diverted by the severe pain in my cheek.

Luffy's fist hit him hard in the face, and his body that was supposed to be elemental now seemed like a rusty machine, slowing down by half a beat.

Crocodile flew out directly and his body was smashed into the sand dunes.

"Hit?" Luffy was also stunned for a moment. He did not expect that the attack that had not worked until now suddenly had an effect.

"Is it because of the rain?" Zoro raised his head.

"Can water restrain his Devil Fruit ability?" Luffy suddenly laughed: "What a good luck."

"I'm afraid it's not luck." Sanji's curly eyebrows moved: "Rain is not common in a place like Alabasta, let alone when it happens to rain at the place where we are fighting at such a critical time."

"Did that guy take action?" Sauron grinned: "It seems that the ability to rain is also a method he prepared to deal with Crocodile? No wonder that guy is so confident."

"Is that so?" Luffy thought for a moment, then gave up thinking: "Never mind! Beat Crocodile away first!"

"Who do you want to beat up?"

A sudden, dull roar came from the sand dunes, and the nearby desert began to shake. The next moment, the boulders beneath Luffy and others suddenly began to crack under the influence of some kind of force, until they completely turned into yellow sand.

The raindrops from the sky fell on the desert, disappearing without even leaving a trace on the gravel.

"Desert Sunflower!"

Accompanied by Crocodile's voice, the position where Luffy and others were standing suddenly sank, turning into a circular pit with a radius of 100 meters. The yellow sand in the pit continued to flow, like a sucker sucking the place where they stood. All the people on top were swallowed up and buried under the yellow sand.

The rain intensified the suction of the yellow sand, and Luffy and others suddenly felt bad. As their legs sank, the unstoppable restraint made them unable to move forward at all.

"Did you want to use this method to deal with me?" Crocodile's wet figure appeared on the edge of the giant pit. He looked down at the three people in the pit with disdain on his face: "You secretly used dancing powder, so Did it make it rain in this area?”

"Although I don't know where you got the news that water can restrain me to some extent, but-"

"I said, the gap between you and me is too big. Even if we can't elementalize, attacks as weak as yours will not threaten me at all."

With his rubber-like body, Luffy hurriedly pulled out his feet from the quicksand, grabbed Zoro and Sanji with both hands, and threw them towards the top of the giant pit.

Crocodile sat and watched all this without stopping.

"It's useless. If you just give up the struggle, you might be able to avoid a lot of pain."

He raised his hand again and pointed it in Luffy's direction.

"Desert sword!"

As his palm fell, an extremely sharp invisible attack separated the ground. Luffy felt terrified. He stretched out his arms to grab the gravel on the edge of the crater, and finally dodged the attack at the last moment.

Only then did he turn around and saw that the huge sunflower-like pit was divided into two by a bottomless crack.

"Did you escape?"

Crocodile smiled disdainfully and watched as the Straw Hat boy finally broke free from the quicksand and hit him with his fist.

"Too slow." As if he had anticipated Luffy's attack in advance, he turned slightly to avoid the opponent's fist, then raised his hand to hold his arm.

"The more you struggle, the more desperate you will become."

When his ability was activated, Luffy's arm became dry in an instant, and the moisture in the arm was instantly drained. Moreover, this dryness was still moving along Luffy's arm towards Luffy's body.

Luffy was startled. His fighting instinct made him advance forward instead of retreating. He rushed directly towards Crocodile and smashed his right leg towards Crocodile like a battle axe.

Crocodile had to let go of Luffy's arm and turned sideways to avoid the blow.

Although he can resist the opponent's blow and completely suck the opponent into a mummy, for Crocodile, this is almost a multiple-choice question that does not need to be considered. He has countless ways to defeat the newcomer in front of him, and there is no need to fight again. one time.

Although he doesn't want to admit it, because he pays too much attention to the development of fruit abilities, his physical fitness is far inferior to that of this newcomer, and it is easy to suffer losses in pure hand-to-hand combat.

Luffy was out of control and looked at his right hand which was as dry as firewood and had no feeling at all. An idea came to his mind and he suddenly opened his mouth. Under the power of the rubber fruit, his mouth opened to an exaggerated degree. A large amount of rainwater was swallowed up by him, and with the injection of water, his arm finally returned to normal.

"What a risk!" He moved his fingers to make sure he had regained control of his arm. "Fortunately, it's raining, otherwise we would be in trouble."

"Sand Crocodile, let's do it again!"

Crocodile's expression darkened.

Although he said he didn't care, the rain did cause him some trouble, but it was just a small trouble.

After possessing the Devil Fruit for so long, he naturally has ways to target his weaknesses.

He easily dodged Luffy's attack again, kicked Zoro and Sanji away as they rushed over, then spread his fingers, and a small tornado and sand storm formed in the palm of his hand.

"Rain clouds and the like are just as fragile as you, they just need to be blown away."

"Shalan!"

With a flick of his hand, the sandstorm fell to the ground and grew wildly. It soon turned into a giant storm connecting the sky and the earth. The rain in the space was immediately swept up by the storm, and the thin rain clouds in the sky were quickly swept out of shape by the storm.

This force, which was like a natural disaster, stopped the movements of the three people.

Usopp and the others who were hiding further away were even more chilled.

Is this the power of the Shichibukai?

They realized that they were too optimistic and had far underestimated Crocodile's power. Even with the help of rain, the three major forces of the Straw Hats were retreating steadily, but now Crocodile is obviously serious.

Who can defeat such an enemy?