Between Two Worlds: Nen and Haki

"Die!!!"

Zane stepped in to stop Manlong, who had already reached his limit. Crocodile, now behind him, clearly had no intention of standing idly by.

The suppression and frustration from his grueling battle with Manlong erupted into a dense killing intent the moment Zane stepped onto the field.

With a roar of fury, several massive sand blades flew toward Zane's seemingly defenseless back.

BOOM!

Violent lightning swept across the area.

The moment the massive sand blades drew near, they were intercepted and shredded by the lightning erupting from Zane's body.

Zane, having stored Manlong inside himself, turned around.

[LET'S DUEL!]

Staring calmly at Crocodile, Zane didn't waste words and immediately activated his Nen ability.

Flash!

Both figures appeared simultaneously within the brightly lit Equality Space.

Ignoring Crocodile's reaction, Zane transformed into a bolt of lightning and reappeared behind him.

"Lightning Kick!"

His right foot crackled with electricity, slamming into Crocodile's head in an instant.

Boom!!!

Wild sand swirled in the air.

Perhaps the battle with Manlong had exhausted too much of his mental energy.

Or perhaps his strength had regressed too severely.

Crocodile's reactions were clearly failing to keep pace with Zane's assault.

Having only partially elementalized, he was forced back into a physical form under the suppression of Zane's Armament Haki. He coughed up blood from the terrifying impact and was sent hurtling into the distance.

'Damn it!!'

After such a heavy blow to the head, an ordinary person would have been knocked unconscious, if not killed outright.

But Crocodile, after all, was someone who had once competed at the near-peak level.

Even though he had grown stagnant, his durability remained formidable.

Although the lightning-fast roundhouse kick left his head bloodied, he managed to maintain consciousness.

Yet, it was this very lucidity that fueled his rage.

"Desert Pesado!"

"Desert La Spada!"

His body, still flying backward, suddenly dissolved into a sandstorm, within which massive sand blades rapidly materialized.

Spinning frantically, the blade-filled storm expanded until it became a terrifying meat grinder.

Boom!!!

The storm of sand blades whipped back around, surging toward Zane.

"God's Judgment!"

Raising his hand, a dazzling bolt of lightning bloomed.

A thick pillar of thunder erupted from Zane's palm.

Amidst a deafening roar...

The pillar of lightning slammed violently into the sandstorm that stretched from the sky to the earth.

In the violent collision, the churning sand blades were shattered by the rampaging lightning, which then tore straight through, causing the entire sandstorm to explode into dust.

Transforming into lightning...

Zane appeared in the air above a mass of swirling sand.

The violent electricity dancing across his body instantly gathered in his right fist.

"Rumble: Aggressive as Fire!"

Blazing flames ignited upon the fist already saturated with lightning.

With a cold gaze, Zane smashed his fist downward.

"Aaah!!!"

Armament Haki suppressed the flying sand back into Crocodile's physical form.

The terrifying impact of thunder and fire sent Crocodile plummeting like a meteor amidst his screams.

Boom!!!

The earth shook.

A massive crater, looking like a meteorite strike, caved in.

The aftershock caused spider-web cracks to spread nearly a hundred meters from the crater.

The boost the Rumble-Rumble Fruit provided Zane was undoubtedly immense.

It allowed him to unleash unparalleled destructive power with every move.

Combined with the Way of the Soldier: Killing Fist, it was truly like adding wings to a tiger.

Crack!

He descended into the crater as a bolt of lightning.

Zane looked down at Crocodile, who was embedded in the bottom of the pit.

The man's current state could no longer be described as merely pathetic.

He was covered in burns from the lightning and fire, looking like a human-shaped piece of charcoal.

'His Haki is mediocre, and his physique is ordinary.'

This was the impression Zane got from Crocodile after facing him personally.

For a man who could once compete at the near-peak level to fall this far in just a few years.

Zane felt a trace of pity for him.

However...

Snap!

Stepping forward without mercy, Zane crushed the man's neck, severing his final breath.

Pity was pity.

As an enemy, he wouldn't be soft-hearted.

More importantly, a man like Crocodile—even in his decadence—possessed an untameable ambition.

Therefore, he didn't even entertain the thought of recruiting him.

Vitality faded.

The remaining corpse quickly transformed into four attribute light orbs.

Without hesitation, Zane reached for the Spirit attribute.

He currently had no spare Imprint Entries, so he naturally couldn't choose the Sand-Sand Fruit.

As for the remaining Physique and Technique...

Whether it was due to regression from a lack of training or if it was always this way, Crocodile's current physique was truly average.

The same went for his technique.

While a decadent will might cause the strength of Armament Haki to decline, it shouldn't affect technique.

Yet, whether during the fight with Manlong or the duel with him...

Zane had seen no Haki techniques from the man.

Or perhaps even in his prime, Crocodile was never a master of Haki.

He relied more on his mastery of the Sand-Sand Fruit.

He absorbed the Spirit attribute.

As Zane's mental energy grew, the remaining attribute orbs were absorbed by the Equality Space.

'As expected, Devil Fruits can accelerate the gestation of Imprint Entries.'

After digesting the Spirit attribute, Zane immediately checked the progress of the Imprint Entries.

Soon, his eyes lit up.

Just as he had theorized, after absorbing Crocodile's remaining attribute orbs, the Equality Space indeed manifested a new Imprint Entry immediately.

No, it was more than that.

This gestation was even more significant than Doflamingo's.

After birthing the new Imprint Entry, the process didn't stop; it quickly progressed through a third of a second entry.

'What "there are no useless fruits, only useless users"? Anyone who believes that probably doesn't have a brain,' Zane muttered to himself.

Using the gestation effect of the Imprint Entries as proof...

It was clear that the Sand-Sand Fruit was superior to Doflamingo's String-String Fruit.

After all, the two were similar in other respects; the only distinct difference was the Devil Fruit itself.

.......

Before the battle between Manlong and Crocodile concluded, the elites of the Hunting Team had already settled their match with the officers of Crocodile's organization.

The result was just as Zane had expected when he refrained from intervening.

The contest ended in a complete victory for the Hunting Team elites.

When Zane exited the Equality Space...

He immediately led the members of the Hunting Team back to the harbor.

The battle there had also long since ended.

Even though the elites had left first, with Baby 5 overseeing the area, the peripheral members of Baroque Works at the harbor were no match for the Hunting Team.

"Chopper, I'm leaving Manlong to you."

Releasing Manlong, who had been kept safe within the Munch-Munch Space, Zane solemnly handed him over to Chopper.

"Yes! I will definitely heal Big Brother Manlong!"

The baptism of blood and tears had been effective.

Having gone through his first battle since setting out to sea, though Chopper bore some injuries, his mental state had undergone a significant transformation.

A determined expression appeared on his small face.

Chopper immediately led the medical team to begin treating Manlong.