August vs Crocodile(2)

"So you knew my hook was dangerous?" Crocodile asked rhetorically, eyeing his handless arm. He merely shrugged at the sight, turning into sand and condensing a large amount of it around his stump. The sand reformed and shaped to his will, forming a compact hand that had the same functions of a normal one.

Doing the same thing he did before, Crocodile slammed his hands onto the ground, but instead of the sharp blade that August had been expecting, the ground began transmuting into spikes!

August narrowed his eyes, not recognizing the attack. One of the reasons he was confident in fighting Crocodile was because he knew his moves and his weaknesses, this added an element of unpredictability.

Sets of spikes quickly formed on the ground, advancing towards August. Before being impaled, August kicked the ground, jumping into the air and dodging the cone shaped spikes.

As the spikes impaled the battlefield, August repositioned himself in the air so he could land on undamaged terrain. The desert was Crocodile's natural environment, so the longer this fight lasted, the worse it would get, he needed to end this fast.

He rushed towards Crocodile with a look of determination. Right now Crocodile's guard was down due to his perception he was invincible, so August would capitalize on that mistake.

*SHING*

In a quick burst of speed, he appeared in front of Crocodile. Crocodile followed August with his eyes, looking at him with a sadistic grin.

"It's usele–" Crocodile tried to speak, but a large glob of saliva and blood landed onto Crocodile's face, blinding him. With the blood and liquid preventing elementalisation, August could finally hurt Crocodile.

*BOOM*

August began his relentless assault, coating each of his attacks with Shatter energy. Each of his punches were aimed to kill, landing in various vital areas of Crocodile's face.

His bloodied fist swung at Crocodile's temple, aiming to use his powers to turn Crocodile's brain to mush, However Crocodile was a warlord for nothing.

He survived against stronger opponents in the new world, and was used to getting hurt from haki. He wouldn't go down like this!

"RAHHH!" Crocodile's entire body exploded into a hail of sand bullets. Seeing this, August coated his entire body with a layer of Shatter energy in hopes to destroy the attack before it made contact, but the sand bullets were fast and sharp and pierced his defences like butter.

A moment later, Crocodile's body reformed behind August. August turned around, looking at his opponent who was slightly hunched over and breathing raggedly. Wet blood covered his entire face, and his nose was deformed while the visible patches of his skin were purple.

"You bastard!" Crocodile let out an enraged roar.

August showed no reaction to Crocodile's outburst, using his attack from earlier and sending a wave of glass towards the blood on Crocodile's face.

Crocodile who was still in his rage, sent a massive blast of sand towards the glass, turning it into nothing.

'As I thought, glass is useless against someone who can produce almost infinite sand.' August chided himself for trying, but some part of him hoped it would work.

Opposite August, Crocodile also cursed himself for underestimating his opponent. It had been a long time since he was in the New World, and in Paradise he believed he was invincible, but it was clear August figured out his weakness.

He tuned out the throbbing on the side of his head and his eyes grew serious and bloodshot. It was time to stop playing games and get serious…No more playing around.

He tensed his arm and a blade of sand started to protrude from his shoulder. He narrowed his eyes, which held a glimmer once lost in them, and rushed towards his opponent.

August dodged the swing as a small strand of hair crumbled to dust. He was still recovering from the shock that was Crocodile's change in demeanor, it was like he was a different person!

He played it safe, retreating slightly as he gained some distance between him and his opponent. The hyper aggressive Crocodile rushed him again, and August began to leap away, but was stopped as his legs were suddenly restricted.

Looking down, he saw a heavy binding of sand that slowly began crawling up his legs.

'Shit!' August added Shatter Energy to his legs, destroying the prison of sand, but that one second of distraction was all Crocodile needed.

"Barchan!" Crocodile swung the execution blade down as it descended onto August who could only watch in horror as his death got closer. At the last second, August managed to make his body go limp and twist it to the side, which managed to save his life...but not his arm.

The thick blade of sand passed through his arm almost as if it wasn't there, and a split moment later he watched with equal amounts of horror and dread as the arm was robbed of all it's moisture and turned grey.

Prioritizing the safety of his arm, August retreated immediately. He knew if he didnt reverse the effects of Crocodile's sand, then his arm would soon just crumble to dust with a slight gust of wind. It was a scary thought.

Like he had practiced the manufacture a million times before, he grabbed the water flask from the inside of his clothing and screwed the cap off with his mouth.

Crocodile didn't like this, as he sent another swipe of his sand blade towards August's chest. Trying to dodge the flurry of swings, August fumbled with the water bottle and spilled a large portion of it onto the floor.

'Fuck!' August charged Shatter energy into his leg, sending an overarching swing towards Crocodile's head. Crocodile responded by covering his face with his arms which were coated in a thick layer of sand.

*BOOM*

The impact sent vibrations through Crocodile's entire body as sand scattered everywhere. August gritted his teeth, putting more and more energy into his kick as he managed to send Crocodile flying back.

Taking advantage of the short breather, August quickly used the remains of his water and drenched his arm in it, restoring his arm back to it's usual look.

"Phew…" He let out a sigh of relief, gazing at Crocodile who had just reformed from the surrounding sand a moment ago.

"You won't be so lucky next time." Crocodile mocked with a hint of anger in his voice. Although he had the advantage, Crocodile didn't let his guard down, he knew if he did he would get another pummeling.

Crocodile was used to taking hits, and so most of the damage from before didn't do any lasting damage to worry him, but the punch to his temple certainly did. His head was still ringing from the punch, and his vision occasionally blurred and he had bouts of dizziness.

He turned the lower half of his body into sand and began flying through the air to his opponent. The temporary hand he made previously suddenly expanded, turning into an enlarged fist of sand.

On its own, sand was weaker and carried no weight. However, when it was condensed together it was strong, much stronger than lot's of things.

Crocodile flew towards August, who instead of retreating instead looked to be charging up an attack of his own.

August's fist overflowed with power, and with a scream of determination he met Crocodile's fist head on.

*BOOM*

The clash of strength caused a shockwave to erupt from the impact. A huge explosion of air blew from behind them, even reaching the spectating Nico Robin who watched from afar.

It was soon clear to both of them that the attack reached a stalemate. August gritted his teeth through the pain in his fist and pushed more and more power and energy into his attack as the golem fist began to break.

Crocodile propelled himself forward even more, producing large amounts of sand and putting it into his fist.

Despite both fighters trying, they couldn't get each other to budge. August and Crocodile separated from their clash, both jumping away from each other.

They had both reached a deadlock in strength and speed, so it was now down to experience and who had more creativity with their devil fruits.

August had a bad feeling.