29 Chapter 28 (1/2)
We decided to take Xander with us for now and prepared to leave for Alabasta. Unfortunately, we have to reach it the traditional route, since both Eternal Poses pointing towards it were damaged in the fights. Thankfully our Log Pose had already recorded the magnetic field of the island, and we were ready to leave.
Xander seemed like a nice guy from what he has shown so far, but the only thing that we learned is that he was from the first part of the Grand Line, Paradise. He didn't want to comment on why he is after Crocodile though.
Igaram will be coming along as well since he has no other way of going back to Alabasta, and there is no point in him pretending to be Vivi.
Before departing, Xander wanted to have a spar with me to see how strong I was, and I was happy to comply.
We got into position, and Nami gave us the signal to start the fight. Before he could react, I appeared behind him using Soru and landed a kick on him. Xander went flying and spurted out blood.
”I didn't even see you move. I guess your bounty wasn't just for show.” Xander turned into his iron form and started shooting me with various weapons he created.
I tried doing the same thing again and appeared behind him, but this time my kick went through his body. Initially, I thought he only had a solid form, but he seems to have a liquid form as well. After his transformation, no matter how I hit him, I wasn't able to deal any damage to him, due to him being a Logia user.
Xander wasn't strong physically himself, but when he was using his solid form, he packed quite the punch, although he was slow and couldn't hit me. His creativity though is on a whole different level.
Seeing he wasn't able to hit me with his projectiles, he increased the difficulty by creating human-like iron constructs and controlled them to attack me. Xander didn't stop shooting his iron weapons at me, but even the iron humans he made started firing projectiles. He was trying to swarm me and was having some success in doing so.
I was about to create a couple of clones to make it easier for me but decided against it. Recently I've been trying to feel when someone is attacking me, rather than sensing the attack, and Xander was the perfect opponent to practice just that.
Focusing on dodging his attacks, I was slowly starting to see them happen rather than sensing them. It almost seemed like I was watching myself from a third person perspective. I was beginning to get the hang of it until I felt danger from above.
Looking up, I saw a large iron ball floating the air, and it started shooting projectiles at me as well. After he increased the difficulty yet again, it felt like everything started moving in slow motion for me. I was able to see all the projectiles coming my way, and perceive exactly where they are going to hit.
I basked in the feeling for a minute or so while dodging all of his attacks. Deciding it's time to end this fight, I transformed into my hybrid form and created two clones to distract Xander for a moment. While they were taking his attention, I created a big stone box out of another of my hairs and used Soru to get behind Xander. Slamming the box on top of him, I was able to capture him underneath it.
”Can you hear me in there? I think that that's enough fighting for now.” I knocked on top of the box and told Xander.
”I agree with you.” I heard him from inside and dispelled the stone box.
”That was a great fight! This is my first time going against a Logia user, and it was a great experience for the future,” I clasped his hand after our confrontation.
”It was! Now I'm sure we would be able to deal with Crocodile. I have to admit you are the first person to hit my body before I managed to turn into one of my Logia forms.” Xander told me with a smile and looked happy after our fight.
I have to say Logia Devil Fruit users are annoying, but not as invulnerable as I believed. Xander also had two different forms, a liquid, and a solid one. His solid form wasn't unbreakable, but he was still able to regenerate from my hits. His liquid one didn't have many attacking capabilities but was a more versatile one.
Xander physical capabilities weren't something special as and he wasn't much of a close-range fighter, but looked more like a control type, with his ability to create so many things with his Devil Fruit.
Nonetheless, he was a great sparring partner, and I believe I finally managed to unlock my Observation Haki in our fight.
After having our spar with Xander, we prepared to leave Cacti Island.
There was a fog surrounding the island, but it was the perfect opportunity for Nami to test out her Devil Fruit on a larger scale. The Gust-Gust fruit gave her the ability to control and generate winds. Nami could now sense air currents to an even higher degree than before and showed control over the air as well. From everyone on the crew, she was the best fit for the Devil Fruit.
Spinning her staff, while slowly moving in a circle, winds started to generate around us. It took her a moment, but she was able to create a gust strong enough to clear the fog around us. Nami has had a lot of fun with the Devil Fruit, and she is very skillful at using, despite having it for such a short time.
She can generate small winds from under her and push herself in the air. Her control in the air isn't perfect, and she isn't that fast right now, but with practice that could be improved.
Nami can also create objects out of the air around her, shaping them in various forms, or remove the oxygen from a target area close to her. The further away from her, the harder it is for her to control winds or air, with her maximum limit being thirty meters currently.
With practice, I believe she would be able to create devasting hurricanes in the future, but right now, she doesn't seem to have the control to pull it off.
I was hoping to get to meet Robin here, but no one has boarded our ship, or at least I haven't heard someone do so. I wanted to meet her here and possibly make her join my crew right now. I'm just as interested in the Void Century as her, and I wanted to know what happened back then.