On the surface of the Albaurne, Luffy slowly woke up from a short nap and looked around.

“Damn it! That Gator Bastard hasn’t gone down. I slept too easily.” Luffy’s instinct told him that the battle wasn’t over. That’s why no matter what he must leave right now.

He just randomly started running but while he was running, he couldn’t help but mutter.

“Using water to hit that bastard is too much of a problem for me. I want to hit that bastard without using water. But, Liam said only Armament Haki can do that.”

“But, I haven’t learned Armament Haki so how can I attack him?”

This left Luffy in a confused state. He didn’t understand how he would be able to use Armament Haki but at this moment, he couldn’t but remember Liam’s words.

“Remember, Haki is simply the manifestation of Spirit. But, in the case of Armament Haki, it is the physical manifestation of the spirit. This is physical because it consumes your strength and if you consume too much, you can’t use it for a while.”

“Normally, you need to go through several battles to thoroughly burst out the Armament Haki. But, there might be a way to release Armament Haki if you have enough Willpower.”

“Listen! Spirit is basically your Willpower. If you have enough of it, you can directly merge it with your physical energy and manifest it into your body.”

“Of course, I could be wrong. This is basically my own understanding of how Armament Haki came to be. If you are in a desperate situation, focus all of your Will and forcefully release your Spirit into your body, not outside but into your body.”

“And, if you think about how can you release your spirit then just think of it as releasing your momentum. But, don’t release it outside.”

Luffy murmured for a while and suddenly, he stopped. He gritted his teeth and said.

“I have no other choice. I need to try it now.”

Luffy closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying to burst out a powerful momentum. He was fully focused on releasing the momentum and while doing so, he suddenly found a strange sensation in his body.

He found his spirit slowly coming out of his soul but instead of releasing out, he tried to keep it inside. Originally, he thought he wouldn’t be able to keep it inside on his first try but his body suddenly reacted to it.

The Spirit coming out of him directly merged with his body on a cellular level. This was something that Luffy couldn’t comprehend but he didn’t stop it.

While this was happening, he sensed another strange energy coming out of his body. This energy was coming out of every part of his body. And, suddenly, his heart started reacting weirdly.

Dum! Dum-Dum! Dum!

“Heehehe! What’s going on? My heartbeat sounds weird.” Luffy couldn’t help but feel amazed. He giggled as he realized that this strange energy was merging with his heart.

“Did I succeed?” Luffy’s eyes widened as he clenched his fist and tried to release the Armament Haki. But unfortunately, the Armament Haki didn’t harden.

Suddenly, he realized that the heartbeat had returned to normal. Luffy scratched his head and muttered.

“It seems like I can’t use Armament Haki. But, I need to find a way to punch that gator. Maybe if I use Gear Two and punch before he could turn into sand.”

Thinking about it, he speed his blood and the steam started coming out of him. At the same time, his body turned red. He raised his fist and thrust his fist forward.

Suddenly, fiery red flames burst out of his fist. It only remained on his fist and when he retracted his fist, it disappeared.

“Wow! Liam wasn’t lying when he said I could produce Flame in Second Gear with Armament Haki. Though he didn’t expect that I could do it so soon. Hehe! Am I great or what?”

Luffy giggled as he proudly stared at his fist. Then, he raised his fists and said.

“Alright! Let’s kick that gator’s ass.”

Saying so, he ran around following the sand. After running for a few minutes, he eventually reached in front of a strange stair that was leading to the bottom of the ground.

Although there was no longer any sand around, Luffy was sure that Crocodile had gone inside.

But, it wasn’t just his guts or smell of gator. Because the mark of sand ended nearly twenty meters away and from then on, there was no other path except a straight road.

Of course, Luffy didn’t care about it.

“Sure enough! It seems like that gator bastard.” Luffy snorted and rushed inside. Because he wasn’t injured, Luffy woke up much earlier and reached this place much more quicker.

Just when he walked in, he saw a lady on the ground and Liam standing next to her. At the same time, there was a middle-aged man on the ground, leaning against the wall while Crocodile standing in front of Liam.

Before he could call Liam, he saw a desert sword. He expected Liam to make a move but suddenly, he realized something. And, without any hesitation, he entered Gear Second.

He stretched his hand and released Armament Haki. Although his hand didn’t turn black, it was enough to give him the power of Armament Haki.

“Gomu-Gomu No”

A voice rang as his fist thrust forward while passing next to Liam. The fiery blazing fire burst out of his fist and collided against the desert sword.

“Red Hawk!”

Bang!

The flames scattered the sand while his fist easily pierce through it and struck Crocodile on his chest.

“Gah”

Crocodile felt like his chest bone was cracking. His knees gave up and he fell to the ground while coughing blood. But, he was also someone who once fought Whitebeard.

His endurance was quite tenacious. He gritted his teeth and stood up. He tried to use his poison hook to attack Luffy’s arm but it retracted at a great speed.

“Fire?” Liam was stunned for a moment. He turned around and looked at Luffy who was using Gear Second. Although it was possible for him to create a flame, it shouldn’t be this early.

He thought Luffy would rely on his blood to defeat the crocodile. But, now looking at his fist, there was obviously no trace of blood or water.

His eyes widened even more.

‘Armament Haki….. He managed to use Armament Haki. But, wait, why isn’t it Hardened? Wait, wait, does this prove my theory? So, Haki isn’t just the Spirit Manifested out of the body.’

‘It is an energy that is produced after Spirit merges with the body. Of course, this also means the more Haki he can generate, the more he could use it on.’

‘Right now, his physical strength has barely reached the level where he could draw out some level of Armament Haki but it shouldn’t be enough to use Hardening.’

‘No wonder it required me to surpass my physical and spiritual limits in order to use Armament Haki. But this is good. Hardening is more important against people with Armament Haki since it increases offensive and defensive ability.’

‘But, against Crocodile.’

Just as he thought, Luffy instantly appeared above Crocodile and gave him a Jet Pistol, slamming his head on the ground.

“Gator, let’s end this.”

Luffy shouted as he pulled both of his fists. Hearing his words, Crocodile used all of his Willpower to stand up. But, his body was still injured a lot. He slammed his palms on the ground and roared.

“Desert Grande Espade”

A massive blade of desert burst out of the ground and moved toward Luffy. Seeing this, Luffy not only didn’t dodge but instead closed his eyes.

‘Luffy, if one day you can use Flame, how about merging flame with your Gatling Gun? That way, you can create another powerful move. And, alone, just call it Morning Peacock.’

The next moment, he opened his eyes and thrusts his punches forward with extreme speed.

“Gomu-Gomu No”

“Morning Peacock”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

His fist moved so fast and created the fireballs through sheer friction. It was not just fast but also powerful. His attack literally burst out Desert blade and struck Crocodile.

Before Crocodile fell, the last scene he saw was Luffy surrounded by the fireballs which led him to think.

‘It’s obviously a Rubber Body. Why can you generate fire?’

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

But he couldn’t get the answer. The flames and Fist merged with Armament Haki struck him constantly, thrashing him on the ground and burning his body.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Liam flashed forward and jumped as he caught Luffy in his hands and landed several meters away from the burned Crocodile.

“Hehe!” Luffy giggled with tired eyes. He was no longer in his Gear Second form. He looked at Liam and said.

“I did. I beat that gator bastard.”

Liam smiled and nodded his head.

“Yes, you did it, Captain.”