When Sherwin saw that Rain Dinners had exploded, he naturally led the Felynes there immediately.
But before they could get close, a massive sand tornado erupted from inside Rain Dinners. Countless grains of yellow sand, mixed with the blasted rubble, surged into the sky through the gap torn open at the top of the tower, then gathered together to form Crocodile upper body.
"Wow! It Gaara Meow!" Klee Meow cheered, "Just… a bit older, and without the gourd on his back, meow."
The little plush voice clashed with the screams of the panicked citizens fleeing around them, instantly drawing Crocodile gaze.
Besides, a man carrying a salted fish longsword on his back, followed by a group of cats, was eye-catching enough already.
"Hunter! Sherwin!"
Crocodile furious eyes locked onto Sherwin as he spat out his name word by word.
Then, something happened that enraged him even more…
A large brown cat, crackling with electricity, burst out from within Rain Dinners and quickly rushed to Sherwin side. In a flash of light, the figure transformed back into Nico Robin.
Immediately, another Felyne pounced on her, shouting, "Robin big sister, are you alright, meow? The bombs Klee made were really useful, right?"
At this point, if Crocodile still didn't realize that Nico Robin had long since joined forces with Sherwin, then he wouldn't have had the ability to manipulate the entire Alabasta Kingdom as he had.
Looking back from this result, Sherwin and his companions strange behavior patterns finally made sense…
So he had been toyed with by these two all along!
Crocodile let out a furious laugh, pulling out the Den Den Mushi that belonged to Mr.0, and issued an order to the entire Baroque Works:
"All members of Baroque Works! I am Mr.0, one of the Seven Warlords, Crocodile. I now command you—hunt down the Hunter crew with everything you've got! Kill or capture, I don't care!"
Even now, Crocodile was still thinking about the Ancient Weapon and did not mention Nico Robin betrayal.
In his view, with the terrain advantage on his side, there was no reason he would lose to Sherwin.
As for those Felyne Mink Tribe companions, Crocodile didn't even bother to take them seriously—he believed the Baroque Works members were more than enough to handle them.
"You go deal with the others, that Hunter is mine!"
Crocodile barked orders to his men as he raised his arm and swung it down, releasing a massive sand blade that slashed toward Sherwin.
"Desert Spada!"
Sherwin was not to be outdone. While directing Robin and the Felynes to hold off the other Baroque Works members, he unsheathed the Longsword on his back
Monster Hunter Style · Skybreaker!The massive sword aura clashed head-on with the sand blade, dispersing it, though Sherwin attack was also nullified in the collision.
"Hm?"
Sherwin was slightly surprised. After all, his attack just now had been imbued with Armament Haki.
Of course, he knew that against sufficiently powerful attacks, Haki wasn't absolute. In the manga, Luffy had defeated the Boa sisters, who used Haki, without even knowing it himself.
Even Klee Meow at full firepower could overwhelm Sherwin Armament Haki in no time…
Naturally, that was only if Sherwin just stood there taking hits without fighting back.
The real reason for his surprise was that Crocodile mastery of the Sand-Sand Fruit was far beyond what he had imagined.
"Hmph! Did you think that just because you've grasped Haki, you can defeat a Logia user?"
Crocodile sneered as he caught sight of Sherwin surprise. "I'll make sure you and Nico Robin—that traitorous woman—understand just how foolish it is to oppose me, Crocodile… Desert Girasole Spada!"
This time, the sand crocodile unleashed four sand blades at once, crossing in an X-shape to slice at Sherwin from four directions.
"Heh…"
Sherwin let out a quiet chuckle. With a slash of his longsword, he too carved out an X-shaped attack, sending two waves of sword aura colliding once more with Crocodile sand blades.
Just like before, both sides attacks canceled each other out.Planting Longsword against the ground beside him, Sherwin put on a look of mock confusion as he gazed at the sand crocodile.
"All you did was block my normal strike. Where exactly is that confidence of yours coming from?"
"I'll return those exact words to you!" Crocodile summoned a small sand tornado in his palm, then hurled it toward Sherwin. "Sables Pesado!"
Swept into the tornado, Sherwin remained calm. Holding White Nagi horizontally, he spun in the opposite direction of the whirlwind.
Monster Hunter Style · Waltz of Frenzy!The howling sand tornado was quickly shredded to pieces by the successive waves of sword aura unleashed from Sherwin blade.
After neutralizing the Sables Pesado, Sherwin stopped defending passively. Gripping White Nagi tightly, he charged straight at Crocodile.
The longsword element was a natural counter to the Sand-Sand Fruit. Standing still to clash with Crocodile was the most foolish way to fight.
But clearly, Crocodile understood that as well. While stirring up sand and wind, he fled toward the desert outside Rainbase, flinging Desert Spada and Desert Grandes Espada at Sherwin as he retreated.
So he wants to seize the terrain advantage, huh?Chasing closely behind, Sherwin immediately grasped Crocodile plan.
Longsword power restrained the Sand-Sand Fruit, but if Crocodile used the entire desert as his battlefield, bringing him down wouldn't be so easy.
Sherwin certainly didn't believe Crocodile strength was only worth an 81 million berry bounty. In the original story, after the World Government abolished the Shichibukai, Crocodile bounty had risen close to 2 billion.
Though part of that was due to "power scaling" in later arcs, it still proved Crocodile strength was by no means weak.
Especially with the added advantage of the desert terrain, even if Crocodile hadn't yet regained his spirit or his Haki, his threat level would not be any less than Charlotte Cracker at full strength—perhaps even more troublesome.
Not that Sherwin was afraid. No matter how strong Crocodile was, he could never withstand Sherwin evolved Scarlet Apocalypse.
But if Crocodile, standing on his home turf, decided to flee once things turned against him, Sherwin couldn't be completely confident in stopping him.
So…
"Klee! Hurry over! Time for our combo technique!" Sherwin shouted loudly.
"Brother Sherwin, Klee coming right meow! Art is an explosion! Meow!"
(=`=)
In the city, the little doll was busy blasting the swarming Elder Millions and Elder Hundreds into chaos with bombs.
She immediately tossed away the rest of her explosives, then turned into a blazing flame, darted toward Sherwin, and landed directly on his shoulder.
"Fire Release · Kagutsuchi Meow!"
The flames that Klee Meow transformed into quickly spread across Sherwin arm. Sherwin hurriedly switched the longsword for the sword he usually used, the well-crafted blade Chōgetsu…
He had no choice—since White Nagi was water-element, it would only hold back the power of a fusion technique with Klee Meow.
As the flames engulfed Chōgetsu, Sherwin could no longer suppress his urge to show off and indulge in dramatic flair. Raising the blazing longsword high, he shouted in a deep voice:
"Reduce…"
On his shoulder, Klee Meow—reduced to just a flaming head—extended the flames along the blade while shouting: "All Creation to Ash…"
Sherwin swung the forty-meter flaming longsword in his hand, slashing fiercely toward the fleeing Crocodile, and together with Klee Meow, roared in unison—
"Ryūjin Jakka (Meow)!"