Chapter 109: The Giant's Teaching! Luffy's Awakened "Black Bullet"
The scorching sun burned the earth in the vast desert.
A massive Moving Crab was galloping at high speed toward Alubarna, its six long legs kicking up clouds of yellow sand.
The Straw Hat were lying on the crab's back, their expressions filled with anxiety.
"Swoosh—!!"
Just then, a golden flash of cold light suddenly broke through the rolling dust from the side.
It was a massive golden iron hook, carrying terrifying killing intent, which directly hooked onto one of the Moving Crab's hind legs.
The immense pulling force caused the galloping crab to stumble violently, nearly flipping over.
Immediately after, the golden hook swung, heading straight for Princess Vivi on the crab's back.
"Guhahahaha! I told you, you can't escape!"
Accompanied by a raspy laugh, a whirlwind rose in the desert:
"Leave the princess, and the rest of you can get lost."
At the critical moment.
"In your dreams!!"
A red figure leapt down from the crab's back.
Luffy spun in mid-air, his right foot kicking away the deadly golden hook with force.
"Bang!"
Luffy landed steadily on the burning sand, standing right between Crocodile and the Moving Crab.
He pressed down on the Straw Hat atop his head, and without looking back, he shouted loudly:
"Everyone, go first!! I'll blow this guy away!!"
"Luffy!!" Vivi and Nami shouted in panic, unable to imagine leaving Luffy alone to face the terrifying Crocodile.
"Stop! We have to help him!" Vivi tried to make the Moving Crab stop.
"Keep running!!"
A powerful hand firmly pressed down on Vivi's shoulder.
Tatsuya stood on the crab's back, his black eyes staring coldly at the rear as he issued an undeniable command to the Moving Crab:
"Full speed ahead!! Don't look back!!"
The Moving Crab felt that fearsome aura and dared not disobey, continuing its mad dash with tears in its eyes.
"But Luffy..." Vivi was so anxious that tears were streaming down her face.
"He is the Captain."
Though Tatsuya's voice was calm, it carried an unquestionable sense of trust:
"Since he said to leave it to him, then we believe in him. If even he loses... then our going there would just be throwing our lives away."
"Trust him. That idiot... is very strong."
...
In the middle of the desert, the wind and sand howled.
Luffy stood alone, facing the man known as the "Sand Crocodile," Crocodile.
"Reckless brat."
Crocodile reattached his golden hook, his body gradually turning into sand, his gaze contemptuous.
"Gomu Gomu no—Gatling!!!"
Luffy didn't waste any words, his fists turning into countless afterimages, raining down on Crocodile like a rainstorm.
However.
"Poof! Poof! Poof!"
All the fists passed through Crocodile's body without hindrance, only scattering puffs of yellow sand.
The sand danced in the air before quickly reforming into Crocodile's human shape.
"It's useless."
Crocodile sneered, not even bothering to dodge:
"In the first half of the Grand Line, Logia is synonymous with invincibility.
"No matter how fast or heavy your fists are, they are meaningless if they can't hit a solid body."
"You... don't even have the qualification to touch me."
Facing this enemy who was as untouchable as a ghost and toyed with him at will, Luffy stopped his attack, panting heavily.
If it were before, he might have felt despair.
But at this moment, under the pressure of life and death.
The starry night at Small Garden suddenly flashed through his mind.
The heroic voices of the giants seemed to echo in his ears.
'Feel the presence...' Dorry said.
'Turn your will into armor... to attack that "intangible" entity...' Brogy raised his giant axe.
'Hey! Straw Hat boy! Don't use brute force, use your will to capture it!'
"Whew..."
Luffy took a deep breath and, in the middle of this noisy battlefield, actually slowly closed his eyes.
That mysterious feeling flowed through his body; it was the potential sleeping deep within the human body.
He was no longer simply throwing punches with muscular brute force.
Instead, he condensed all his deep anger toward Crocodile, his determination to protect his friends, and his unyielding will into his right fist.
Buzz—
In that instant, Luffy snapped his eyes open, his gaze as sharp as lightning!
"I don't care if you're a god or sand!!"
Luffy's right arm stretched back violently, his muscles tensed to the absolute limit:
"The one I'm going to blow away—is you, the person!!!!"
"Gomu Gomu no—"
Luffy threw another punch.
This time, there was no water on his fist.
But in the instant it frictionally heated the air at high speed, a faint, almost imperceptible black current of air actually coiled around it—it was the embryonic form of Armament Haki!
"Pistol!!!!"
Standing his ground, Crocodile originally intended to ignore this strike by turning into sand like before.
But just as the fist was about to land, his instincts as a powerful fighter suddenly screamed in alarm!
A strong sense of crisis made his hair stand on end!
"What?!"
But he had underestimated his opponent too much; it was too late to dodge.
"Bang!!!!"
A dull thud of impact sounded.
It was a solid collision of flesh against flesh!
This punch slammed hard into Crocodile's arrogant face!
"Ugh!!"
Crocodile was knocked off his feet, flying backward like a ragdoll and rolling several times on the sand before stopping.
He clutched his face, looking in shock at the bright smear of crimson on his glove.
"Blood?!..."
Crocodile's pupils shook violently as he looked at the boy in the Straw Hat in disbelief:
"Could it be... Haki?!"
"How is this possible?! A green boy at this Paradise stage... how could he master this power of the New World?!"
"It hit!!"
Seeing this, Luffy's confidence surged.
He followed up his advantage, and although that "Haki" was intermittent.
Relying on his beast-like keen intuition, he landed several consecutive punches that precisely captured Crocodile's solid form.
"Bang! Bang!"
Crocodile was actually suppressed for a moment, retreating several steps.
However, the humiliation of being wounded by a rookie completely enraged the famous Sand Crocodile.
"Very well... Straw Hat boy."
Crocodile steadied himself and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes becoming extremely terrifying, filled with true killing intent:
"Since you're looking for death... then I shall grant you withered despair!!"
"Desert Spada!!"
Boom!!
With a violent wave of his hand, a massive blade of sand sliced across the ground, instantly cutting off Luffy's offensive.
Its momentum did not diminish, and it sliced a deep, bottomless crack directly into the earth.
Immediately after.
"Whoosh!"
Crocodile used his sand transformation to flicker, appearing like a ghost in front of Luffy.
His right hand shot out, grabbing the fist Luffy had swung.
"Ground Death!!"
The terrifying Sand-Sand Fruit ability activated.
"Aaaaaah!!"
Luffy let out a shrill scream of agony.
His originally full rubber right arm had all its moisture frantically drained away the moment it was grabbed.
In just one second, that arm became a withered, shriveled mummy-like limb, as if it were wood that had been dried for a thousand years.
The intense pain and instant dehydration caused Luffy's vision to go black, and he lost consciousness.
"Humph, in the end, you're just a monkey who only knows how to swing his fists wildly."
Crocodile showed no mercy.
"Click."
The outer shell of his left hand's golden hook popped open, revealing a sharp Scorpion Venom Hook shimmering with purple light inside.
"Die! You ignorant brat!"
"Puchi!!!!"
Without any hesitation.
The poisoned golden hook ruthlessly impaled Luffy's chest, hoisting him high into the air as blood dripped from the hook onto the burning yellow sand.
"Cough..." Luffy spat out blood, his head drooping completely.
"This is the consequence of challenging me."
Crocodile tossed him aside like a piece of trash.
"Thud."
The dying Luffy was thrown into a massive quicksand vortex nearby, his body slowly sinking with the shifting sand.
"The difference in strength... is an insurmountable chasm."
Crocodile didn't even spare a glance at the sinking figure, his body turning into a violent sandstorm as he whistled away toward Alubarna.
The desert returned to silence.
Only that quicksand vortex continued to ruthlessly swallow the young pirate.
Just as Luffy's head was about to be completely buried by the yellow sand.
Right then.
"Do you want to live? Member of the Clan of D."
At the edge of the desert, the figure of a woman in a cowboy outfit appeared.
Robin looked at the dying Luffy.
She remembered Tatsuya's words at Whiskey Peak: "Survivor of Ohara."
"Thirty Fleur: Grab."
Countless fair arms suddenly bloomed from the quicksand like flowers, connecting to one another to form a long rope.
A second before the quicksand completely swallowed Luffy, those hands firmly grabbed his withered arm, pulling him back from the brink of death.
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