Crocodile twisted his fingers and frowned. "It's going to rain."
Because of his own special power, as someone with the Sand-Sand Fruit ability, he really didn't like rainy days.
Once his body touched liquid, he would briefly lose his ability to turn into sand, and he would lose most of the advantage of having a natural type Devil Fruit!
It's going to rain...
For Ryan Rowan, who also has the Sand-Sand Fruit ability, this is definitely a huge, unexpected disadvantage!
Crocodile became even more curious about how Rowan would deal with it.
He walked to a corner where a broken stone wall provided some shelter from the rain, and smiled at Granny Tsuru:
"Won't you come over here and get out of the rain?"
Granny Tsuru looked at the thick clouds overhead and then glanced at Crocodile, smiling slightly, "Don't worry, little Crocodile, it won't rain."
"Huh?"
Crocodile was surprised and raised an eyebrow. "So the Navy's Chief of Staff also understands the weather?"
"I just know a little about the weather, but whether it rains now has nothing to do with the weather."
Granny Tsuru shook her head, looked at the two people on the sand dune, and slowly added:
"It has to do with them."
...
On the sand dune.
Rowan and Garp stood facing each other, the thick clouds gradually blocking the moonlight.
The two tall men were silent, not saying a word, but they slowly lowered their bodies in their own ways.
Rowan tightened his grip on the staff with his right hand, twisted his body to the left, and bent his waist, abdomen, and knees downwards.
Garp clenched his right fist, pulled his whole body back to the right, tightened his back, and squatted down into a horse stance.
The wind picked up.
The strong wind howled, blowing over the two people on the sand dune.
The ribbons and corners of their clothes swayed violently in the wind, but their figures seemed to be fixed there, motionless, like two statues full of power.
After a few breaths, two unusual and intense presences rose from the sand dune.
Armament Haki, gathering!
The tip of Rowan's staff-gun and Garp's fist were the first to be dyed with that metallic black color.
Then, the color spread out, attaching to the staff and forearm respectively.
A black spear and a black arm, representing their different owners -
Rowan and Garp.
Finally, the spread of Armament Haki stopped, and the black color completely settled down.
Rowan's entire staff plus his right hand, and Garp's entire right arm, were completely covered by Armament Haki!
They both had the ability to cover their entire bodies with Armament Haki, but as the two had discussed before, they would only use a third of their power.
But even just a third of their power made Crocodile, who was watching from not far away, tremble inside!
"A third of their power, huh! Two monsters..."
...
The wind was still blowing.
But what was surprising was that the wind, which originally came from east to west, changed direction when it passed the sand dune where Rowan and Garp were.
It seemed to be drawn by the Armament Haki, or possibly due to the collision of their auras.
The wind blowing over that sand dune was forced to "stay" and turned into gusts of whirlwind, rising up.
A constant stream of whirlwinds rose into the air, stirring the thick clouds in the sky into a spiral shape.
The center of the spiral was directly above Rowan and Garp!
Whoosh!
A light pierced the dim night sky, followed by a huge rumble.
Boom!
Lightning and thunder came one after another, which was a sign that heavy rain was coming.
A raindrop fell on the ground not far away, and more raindrops followed closely behind.
One of them condensed into shape high in the sky, and its falling point was exactly in the center of Rowan and Garp!
At the moment when that drop of water fell to the same height as the two people's line of sight, the two statues full of endless power finally moved.
Rowan roared, and the surrounding sand surged, turning into countless visible textures, and he swung his staff horizontally forward.
Black Gun - Horizontal Sweep!
Garp grinned, took half a step forward, and threw his right fist forward.
Iron Body - Heavy Punch!
One swung a gun, and the other threw a punch, both of their movements were extremely simple, but they both contained destructive and terrifying power!
The black spear tip and fist collided violently at the falling raindrop!
Boom!
A deafening roar came out, which was definitely not the metallic hum of ordinary Armament Haki colliding, but a huge sound almost like a cannonball exploding!
Visible ripples spread out from where the spear tip and fist collided, and the surrounding sand was stirred up by this chaotic torrent of air.
However, the impact of this torrent did not stop there.
It rolled upwards with the strong wind, all the way to the sky, splitting the thick clouds in two!
Rowan and Garp, each on one side.
Whoosh!
In an instant, the clouds in the sky cracked open into a huge gap like an eye, and clear moonlight passed through it, shining on the desert.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...
It's raining.
More precisely, it was raining in other places covered by clouds.
Because of that gap, the area including the sand dune and the ruins was still having good weather.
Crocodile walked out of the shelter from the rain, looked up at the strange sight in the sky, and couldn't help but swallow.
He had heard that when top swordsmen fought, their power was enough to cut through the sky, but he never thought that the collision between fists and spears could do this!
On the other side, Granny Tsuru's eyes were fixed on the sand dune.
The strong wind stirred up countless grains of sand, making visibility extremely low.
But Granny Tsuru was able to quickly lock onto the two people in the midst of the battle with her experienced eyes.
The battle is not over yet!
...
Sand was flying everywhere, constantly rising to mid-air, and then falling again.
In such a harsh environment, ordinary people would not be able to open their eyes at all, but Rowan and Garp widened their eyes and stared fixedly at each other.
Their bodies exerted force at the same time, the spear tip and fist began to tremble violently, and sparks flew from the collision point.
The two grinned and laughed a few times at the same time.
"Is that a third of your power?"
"Yes!"
"Me too!"
"Then let's continue!"
Both were people who scorned lying, so what they said was the honest truth.
Each of them would use thirty percent of their strength to determine who was better!
Bang!
The first collision ended, and with a roar, the two took a few steps back at the same time, and then stepped forward again!
One swung his spear horizontally!
One clenched his fist and thrust forward!
Bang!
The spear tip and fist collided again, but this time the stalemate was clearly shorter and more urgent.
Due to the reaction force, Rowan and Garp leaned back, but at the same time they took advantage of the force to attack each other again.
This time, neither of them took a step back!
The spear tip and fist collided continuously, and the aftermath created a chaotic artificial sandstorm in the desert.
Crocodile couldn't resist his curiosity and used Observation Haki combined with his Devil Fruit ability to observe the situation inside the sandstorm, and his pupils shrank suddenly.
That level of combat was far beyond the power of an average country!
Were they serious?
Of course not, even outsiders could see that they had a lot of power and trump cards left!
But, so what?
Even if two "monsters" were just taking a walk, it would bring a catastrophe to a human city.
Rowan and Garp were such two monsters!
That was a terrifying level of combat power that should never appear in the first half of the Grand Line!
Let's not talk about the legendary Marine Garp for the moment.
The power possessed by Ryan Rowan made Crocodile couldn't help but think of that man.
That man who had made him, in his high spirits, taste a bitter defeat - [Whitebeard] Edward Newgate!
Crocodile took a puff of his cigar and exhaled a faint cloud of smoke.
"Heh heh, a third of their power, not bad..."
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