Beastly Intuition

Arlong rushed over like a madman, scrambling over Chuu's corpse, tears of blood streaming down his face.

"Chuu! Chuu!!"

He looked up in fury, "You poisoned him?!"

Among pirates, there's no talk of dishonor.

But poisoning is undoubtedly shameful.

"No, I didn't actually poison him."

Lowett wore a relaxed smile, shrugging his shoulders.

He raised his "left hand," where dark sand swirled, making his arm look like it was crawling with countless tiny bugs.

"Curse Magic · Withered Black Sand, it's inherently highly poisonous... and he ended up spraying this poisonous sand everywhere."

To defend against Chuu's water ball bullets, Lowett used the black sand for defense.

A chaotic spray resulted in the black sand scattering everywhere, most of it falling into the swimming pool and turning it into a poison pool.

And then he went and drank the water...

Can Lowett be blamed for this?

He brought it upon himself.

"Besides... rather than questioning me, you should worry about your other compatriots."

Suddenly, Lowett sneered and reminded him.

Hearing this, Arlong immediately turned his head.

"Ah!!!"

"Help... Help me!!"

"I can't see!"

The Fishmen who had been so confident moments ago were now writhing and screaming in the water. The Withered Black Sand's toxicity wasn't strong after being diluted by seawater; a small amount would cause pain for at most half an hour.

But to be submerged in it...

Their fate was only slightly better than Chuu's, who had swallowed the poisoned water.

But the outcome would be no different.

Squelch!!

A rusty knife pierced through the chest of a wailing Fishman. The Undead extended their rotten, pale hands and dragged the Fishman, who was vomiting blood, to the bottom of the water.

In a short while, a rich crimson dyed a large area of the water.

The Undead they had pushed into the water earlier had now become the last straw that broke the camel's back.

"Stay away from the swimming pool... no, stay away from all black sand!"

Hachi watched this scene in agony.

No one expected something like this to happen. This single moment of error had caused over a dozen Fishman brothers to die tragically.

They had a chance to get out, but the Undead they had ordered to be pushed in had completely cut off their hope.

"Bastard!!"

Hachi, enraged, whipped his tentacles. As an Octopus Fishman, he had six arms, giving him a far higher attack frequency than a human swordsman.

"Avenge my brothers!"

With that, he charged forward.

But at this moment, a figure blocked his path.

Hachi's blade stopped at the opponent's shoulder, and he was stunned, "Big Brother?"

The one stopping him was Arlong.

Taking a deep breath, Arlong gritted his teeth, "This guy... he's mine!"

"But!"

Hachi cried out, unwilling.

"Enough nonsense, I told you to scram..."

Before he could finish, Arlong's expression tightened. He shoved Hachi hard, and both of them fell apart.

Poof... Flap flap!

A raven-black crow emerged from the flesh at the end of the octopus-like tentacles, flapping its wings as it flew into the sky.

"Ughhh!!!"

A soul-wrenching scream erupted from Hachi's mouth. The pain was far beyond what a normal injury could cause.

"Oh, you actually dodged?"

Lowett marveled inwardly.

The same spell, but Brute Force's activation time would definitely be extended. Yet, this time, he only chose one target, and it was dodged?

"Beast-like combat intuition!"

Lowett recalled a certain description.

"Hachi!"

Noticing the front of Hachi's arm withering and decaying at a visible speed, Arlong made a decisive move, opening his mouth and biting at the connection of his upper limb.

Squelch!

Amidst a rain of blood, a severed arm was flung out.

This should have been excruciating pain, but a hint of relief appeared on Hachi's face.

Compared to the pain of that creature growing inside him, having his arm brutally bitten off was far less painful.

He glanced at Arlong, wanting to say something, but found Arlong staring intently at Lowett, not looking back.

"Run! Don't stay here!"

"This guy isn't even using his real strength!!"

Arlong stared fixedly at Lowett, a drop of cold sweat trickling from the tip of his nose.

Only now did he finally understand what was wrong.

They had made a mistake!

Who said the opponent's confidence came from his undead troops?

Why couldn't he himself be the source of all that confidence?!

Magic?

Recalling the sense of dread that had frozen his very bones just moments ago, Arlong couldn't help but tremble all over.

Yes, such bizarre, absurd, and untraceable attacks could only be achieved by magic.

How could they defend against something they couldn't even see?

Staying here was just asking for death!

"I..."

Hachi froze for a second, then without looking back, shouted as he ran.

"Retreat! Everyone withdraw from the battlefield!"

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Hearing the call, the surrounding Fishmen were stunned, then immediately abandoned their opponents and retreated outside the walls.

"Interesting, mercy and brutality coexisting?"

Lowett's lips curled, and he planted his staff on the ground. "You remind me of Gilgamesh, a Hero King from ancient times."

"But unfortunately, I am willing to take risks for your corpses. Escape is not permitted."

Arlong was also a formidable figure. Judging Lowett's dangerousness, he decisively ordered a retreat, intending to cover their escape and uphold the supreme racial honor of the Fishmen.

If he let Arlong succeed, what would all his own risks have amounted to?

"Do you really think the undead troops aren't my source of confidence, Arlong!"

His lips trembled slightly as obscure incantations drifted through the air.

Under Arlong's shocked and stunned gaze, streaks of blood surged from the ground littered with corpses, converging in the sky to form an expanding blood orb.

Then it exploded, scattering into a rain of blood that drenched the earth.

Flesh Magic · Crimson Fury!

"Roar!!"

The zombies' eyes instantly turned red, entering a berserk state.

If their previous casualty ratio against the Fishmen was 20:1, it was now at most 3:1.

But their numbers were still several times that of the remaining Fishmen!

"Bastard!!"

Arlong's eyes turned bloodshot. He knew exactly why Lowett needed the Fishmen's corpses.

Watching the rampaging zombies drag his comrades away one by one, overwhelming them with a zombie tide, Arlong stomped his foot and charged out.

"Here it comes!"

Lowett's expression tensed. Even Kuroobi possessed immense strength, so as their captain, Arlong could only be stronger.

He was right.

Bang!!!

The stone slab beneath his feet exploded with a roar, sending debris flying. Arlong, with terrifying muscle power dozens of times greater than a normal person's, turned into a black streak and shot forward.

In his straight-line burst, his speed was even 10% faster than Kuro's!

Bone Magic: Bone Armor!

Lowett knew his own body's limits. Without time to chant, his mental power erupted. A layer of grayish-white bone appeared on his shoulders, then spread rapidly along his skeleton as if the bones were growing out of his body.

Crack!!

The next second, a terrifying impact occurred, bone fragments scattering everywhere.

Arlong's reaction speed was astonishing. Seeing that Lowett wasn't using the Withered Black Sand on his left arm, he decisively opened his mouth and bit down.

Different Fishmen had different characteristics. As a Sawshark Fishman, his most powerful weapon was this mouth, capable of crushing steel.

"I bit it!"

Arlong breathed a sigh of relief, but his eyes quickly turned cold.

"But it was dodged."

Rustle!

The torn shoulder guard sacrificed itself valiantly, turning into fragments that rustled in mid-air. The bone armor on Lowett's left shoulder shattered, and even the rib armor near his chest cracked.

"Is this what a Fishman is?!"

His eyes flickered with surprise. His physical body could unleash over ten tons of brute force. No wonder the thousands of oppressed civilians had no will to resist.

However, the stronger Arlong became, the more excited he felt.

Blood Plague Raven!

He swung his staff, and an invisible wave of mana shot towards Arlong.

Whether a spell could be seen with the naked eye depended on many factors, the most significant being its attribute. For example, fire and frost spells. Soul Magic, however, originated from the soul and was something that could never be observed.

Although Blood Plague Raven was a Combination Magic, its primary spell circuit was still Soul Magic: Soul Devourer Bug, thus it couldn't be observed.

But...

"This feeling again!"

Arlong's pupils contracted to points, and a terrifying chill surged through him.

There were no visible fluctuations in the air, silent and unseen, yet he was certain something was approaching him.

Without time to think, Arlong tensed his muscles, dropped to the ground, and lunged to the left. He smashed through the wall, desperately dodging.

Pfft...!

The mana collided with a concrete pillar, dispersing like a gust of air and kicking up dust.

Arlong's eyes held lingering fear. If he had hesitated for even a moment, that gust of air would have dispersed around his head.

Thinking of Hachi's previous suffering, Arlong felt a chill run down his spine.

"How can a Devil Fruit ability be so unreasonable?!"

Controlling corpses was one thing, but then creating deadly black sand, and now even the attack method was unobservable—it was simply unfair.

"I told you, this is magic!"

Suddenly, Lowett's voice came through the wall. Arlong's pupils constricted, and without thinking, he leaped high into the air.

Bone Magic: Bone Prison Needle Mountain!

Thud thud thud!

Sharp bone spears, two meters long, shot out from the ground like pressure plates rising from the earth, shattering the stone slabs. Simple bone couldn't achieve this level of sturdiness, but magic granted the bones unimaginable power.

"As expected, a beast!"

"This kind of intuition..."

Sensing Arlong escaping again through his mental power, Lowett calmly raised his staff and tapped it lightly on a nearby stone pillar.

Necro-realm Summon: Soul Chasing Beast!

Let's correct a misconception: the Necro-realm is not a three-dimensional reality like the physical world, but rather a mysterious definition that cannot be proven to exist.

It is not bound by time or distance, and it cannot even be proven whether time and space exist. No matter which planet or era a Mage is in, it responds to their call with zero latency, as if we live on isolated islands enveloped by the Necro-realm.

Emperor Haisan is respected by Necromancers because he carved out a three-dimensional space within that void that Mages could perceive: the Underworld.

Of course, that's another legendary tale.

Hiss... hiss...!

A semi-transparent black tadpole, the size of two basketballs, oozed out from the end of the staff onto the concrete pillar like toothpaste.

It had no eyes, only a disgusting mouth like that of a lamprey on its head, and behind it trailed a short, thick tail like a tadpole's. Its two claws were razor-sharp, gripping the stone pillar.

"Go, catch him."

Lowett commanded softly, and the Soul Chasing Beast immediately turned into a puddle of ink, sticking to the surface of the pillar and moving rapidly.

"Arlong... and Luffy from the original story, they could defeat so many early enemies relying solely on intuition. And in this world, there's even advanced Haki like Observation Haki later on. It was indeed the right decision to avoid Momonga."

While fighting, Lowett summarized.

He recalled the monsters at Marine Headquarters in the original story, and a smile crept onto his lips.

"Pressure is what drives motivation!"

Isn't it?