One Piece: King of the World-Chapter 460: “Despicable” Is My Motto, Crocodile

Crocodile thought to himself, You're acting all high and mighty, what kind of dignity do you expect me to show? Maybe if you were Hancock, sure.

Rolling his shoulders slightly, Crocodile said, "Well, since I have time to kill… why don't I just get rid of you now? Consider it a warm-up."

Catarina Devon sneered. "Pretty confident, aren't you, Crocodile?"

"Am I? Maybe." Crocodile's voice remained as cold as ever.

As soon as he finished speaking, his body turned into swirling yellow sand, surging straight toward Catarina.

A flicker of surprise crossed Catarina's eyes before her nine tails shimmered and her figure vanished into thin air.

"A Mythical Zoan?" Crocodile's attack struck nothing but air, yet he remained unfazed, calm as ever, as if he carried an aura of absolute composure.

Catarina Devon was undoubtedly formidable, and her Devil Fruit ability was particularly troublesome—she possessed the Canine-Canine Fruit, Model: Nine-Tailed Fox, a Mythical Zoan.

To this day, no one had fully deciphered the true extent of her abilities.

First, she could use her power to perform some kind of sorcery.

Second, like all Zoan users, her physical abilities were greatly enhanced.

And third, she possessed an array of bizarre techniques, none of which seemed to follow a clear pattern.

"Foxfire!"

Catarina suddenly reappeared beside Crocodile, conjuring several blue flames in her hands before hurling them toward him.

Crocodile didn't even flinch. He casually removed his cigar from his mouth, exhaling a slow puff of smoke.

"Are you intangible? Or is it real intangibility? Or perhaps… just an illusion?"

He muttered to himself, unbothered, while the sand beneath his feet surged up of its own accord, forming a solid barrier that effortlessly blocked the foxfire.

"Tail Strike!" Catarina whispered.

Her nine tails shot forward like whips, lashing out with incredible force.

They slammed into Crocodile's sand barrier, tearing through it instantly.

Yet, Crocodile didn't react. Instead, he allowed his body to fully transform into sand, letting the tails pass harmlessly through him.

"Zoan users do have powerful physical strength," Crocodile muttered, as if making an idle observation.

Then, in a sudden move, he reached out and grabbed one of the tails.

As soon as he did, the corrosive power of the Sand-Sand Fruit activated.

However, his brows furrowed slightly.

"Mhuhu… Crocodile, you think I don't know your ability?" Catarina taunted. "My tails aren't made of flesh and blood—they're just fur. If you like them so much, you can have them!"

Before Crocodile could react, the tail he was gripping exploded into a cloud of fine, blinding fur.

Crocodile narrowed his eyes. Immediately, he stomped his foot and leapt backward, sensing an imminent attack.

Sure enough, in the next instant, Catarina appeared where he had just been.

Her five fingers had transformed into razor-sharp claws, aimed directly at Crocodile's heart.

"Fast reaction," she sneered.

Then, her form flickered—and she vanished again.

This time, Crocodile let out a faint sigh, his patience wearing thin.

"Tch… Enough of this flashy nonsense."

He crouched down, pressed one hand to the ground, and muttered in a low voice:

"Ground Death."

From the center of his palm, the earth rapidly dried and crumbled into sand—not just superficially, but completely, turning everything into a deepening desert.

Crocodile closed his eyes momentarily, sensing the terrain.

Then, all at once, his eyes snapped open—his body dispersed into sand and disappeared into the wind.

Catarina had been using illusions to conceal herself.

The moment Crocodile vanished, an alarm rang in her mind. Trusting her instincts, she lunged forward, trying to escape whatever was coming.

She managed to dodge most of the attack, but a sharp pain flared across her lower back, as if slashed by a blade.

The wound wasn't deep, but it was enough to make her turn and look.

Crocodile had reformed from the sand, a small, ornate dagger in his hand.

"As I thought… It's an illusion—not true intangibility," Crocodile murmured.

Spreading his awareness through the desert battlefield, he could sense Catarina's movements like a set of coordinates.

This confirmed it—her ability wasn't true phasing, but rather a high-level illusion technique.

It worked similarly to invisibility, but not exactly.

"Pretty tricky, Crocodile," Catarina said, unfazed. "But this is just one of my abilities. Even if you see through it, so what?"

Crocodile made no move to attack. Instead, he started chatting.

"Nothing much… just curious," he said, taking a drag from his cigar. "Since you're a Nine-Tailed Fox, does that mean you have nine lives, like in the legends?"

Catarina frowned slightly. "What are you getting at?"

Crocodile exhaled a slow stream of smoke.

"I don't think that's quite it. If you actually had nine lives, you'd be invincible. But maybe… you can survive fatal injuries? Something like a 'pseudo-nine lives' state?"

"What are you trying to say? You scared?" Catarina asked in a low voice.

"No," Crocodile said, his lips curling into a sinister grin. "I just want to test something."

Before Catarina could respond, a wave of weakness suddenly washed over her.

Her body… felt sluggish?

…Poison?

"You're noticing it now? Tch. Took you long enough," Crocodile sneered.

"T-There's no way… Normal poison wouldn't work against me!" Catarina gasped.

"You're right. Regular poison wouldn't affect a Zoan user—especially not an Awakened Mythical Zoan like you," Crocodile admitted, twirling the dagger in his hand.

"But I didn't use just any poison."

Catarina's eyes widened in horror.

"You see," Crocodile continued, "I'm a Warlord of the Sea, the right-hand man of Claudius, a high-ranking figure in the World Government, and the King of the Desert… I hold many titles."

"And with those titles… I have access to Impel Down's finest poisons, courtesy of Magellan."

"Poisons specifically designed to neutralize Awakened Zoan users like you."

"You… bastard…!" Catarina cursed.

"Maybe," Crocodile said indifferently.

"But at the end of the day, I'm a pirate. And as a pirate…"

His voice turned ice-cold.

"Being despicable is normal, don't you think?"

Before long, Catarina Devon's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed not dead, but completely paralyzed by the poison.

Magellan's poisons weren't instantly lethal, they were meant for capturing rather than killing.

Crocodile rotated his shoulders, tucked away the Magellan-coated dagger, and smirked.

"You Zoan types… Always relying on brute strength."

"But to someone like me…"

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small metal box.

Slipping on a pair of gloves, he opened it and took out a Seastone cuff.

Walking over to Catarina, he secured it tightly around her wrist.

And just like that—the battle ended.

Catarina Devon, a notorious criminal from Impel Down, had been effortlessly outwitted by Crocodile's underhanded tactics.

A legendary Seven Warlord of the Sea, using… seven layers of poison?

A tactic straight out of a back-alley thug's playbook.

Shouldn't a pirate of his caliber feel ashamed?

But to Crocodile… the only thing that mattered was the result.

Why waste energy when you can win effortlessly?

(To be continued.)

***

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