Trap

Lance and Eddie walked to the shore and looked over the sea. "There are planks floating on the surface, along with strips of wood and wooden stakes scattered about. Let's fish them out and take a look."

"Okay."

Eddie nodded, and the two found a spot and jumped into the water together.

Fish-Men were creatures with both lungs and gills. On land, they breathed with their lungs, while underwater, they breathed with their gills.

Their gills were located in different places. Fisher, Jinbe, Hody, Kuroobi, and the others had gills on their shoulders. Arlong's gills were on his neck, while Namul, the captain of Whitebeard's Eighth Division, had his gills on his head near his temples.

Both of their gills were located near the neck on their shoulders. Once underwater, water entered through their mouths and flowed out through their gill openings. The dissolved oxygen within was absorbed and carried throughout their bodies by the capillaries in their gill filaments.

However, there was no need to dive underwater just to retrieve things from the surface, so there was no need to use their gills.

The two men surfaced and swam toward the nearby debris.

"This one."

Lance picked up a plank and examined it, but couldn't make anything out.

He lifted the plank and tossed it onto the shore before swimming in another direction.

Eddie did the same. The two retrieved many planks and placed them on the shore, gathering all the fragments of the floating boardwalk nearby.

"Looks like it was smashed by something."

Lance picked up a wooden stake in the distance. It had snapped cleanly in two and didn't look like it had been damaged by tools.

Lance took the stake and several fragments, then swam toward the shore.

Meanwhile, Eddie found a frame tied together with oil rope farther away. He picked it up, examined it carefully, and said, "Hmm, there are no signs of it being dismantled. It looks like it definitely wasn't done by humans."

Lance smiled. "Could a pirate ship really have smashed it?"

Eddie agreed. "Very possible."

But at that moment, Eddie frowned and looked beneath Lance as he swam toward shore. He shouted, "Lance, watch out!"

"Hm?"

Lance froze slightly, then felt a wave of pressure closing in. He swam toward the rock wall, trying to escape as quickly as possible.

But the next instant, a massive mouth burst from the water and bit down on him, its teeth snapping shut.

Crack.

Lance was swallowed into its mouth and crushed in a single bite. Blood slowly spread through the water before Xia Qiu swallowed it into his belly.

Xia Qiu's enormous head emerged above the surface.

"What a huge fish."

The moment Eddie saw the sea fish, he understood how the boardwalk had been destroyed and why Ruijin and Peters had disappeared.

Damn it.

Eddie wanted to flee, but the sea fish was directly between him and the shore. Lance had been closer to the shore when he swam back with the wooden stake. After the sea fish devoured him, it ended up blocking Eddie's way.

There was no way to escape.

Eddie laughed bitterly to himself and turned to swim into the distance, intending to widen the gap first.

Trying to run?

Naturally, Xia Qiu wouldn't let him escape. When they had gone to collect the distant debris, Xia Qiu had chosen to attack the Fish-Man closer to shore. It had been a deliberate choice.

Xia Qiu chased after the Fish-Man, keeping himself between the other man and the shore as he rapidly closed the distance.

Whoosh.

Eddie dove straight into the sea, breathing through his gills as he continued swimming forward. His speed suddenly increased.

But Xia Qiu was even faster and caught up in an instant.

Yet at the very moment Xia Qiu reached him, Eddie suddenly twisted around. He kicked off through the water, abruptly stopping before swimming backward.

He had not accelerated to escape. He had done so to make the sea fish pick up speed and attack him.

Then he would swim in the opposite direction and open up the distance.

The creature was enormous, so its inertia had to be great. It would be difficult for it to stop, and turning around wouldn't be easy either.

If he rushed toward the rear half of its body, then swam toward shore as it turned, there was a good chance he could escape alive.

With that thought, Eddie swam backward, only to realize that the other creature had charged too fiercely. It showed no intention of stopping or turning around to pursue him.

Instead, it continued forward, bringing Eddie directly to the sea fish's tail.

Hm?

A sense of foreboding surged through Eddie. The next moment, the enormous tail lashed into his body.

Bang.

Eddie was sent flying through the water. The bones in his body shattered, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

It hurts.

Eddie kept coughing up blood. He hadn't died immediately, but his body was too weak to move as he slowly sank through the water.

He could only watch helplessly as the massive sea fish swam toward him and opened its huge mouth. Its grim teeth looked like the gates of hell.

No... don't...

Eddie wanted to beg for mercy, but seawater only poured into his mouth.

The next instant, Xia Qiu bit down on Eddie and swallowed him into his belly.

Good.

Two more Fish-Men had entered his stomach.

These two were quite impressive. They were sturdier, clearly combat soldiers. They would definitely provide more energy.

Could there be more people coming into the water?

Four Fish-Men in a row—would anyone else come down?

Even if an officer came down, he might still have a chance to fight if he launched a surprise attack at the right moment.

Thinking this, Xia Qiu submerged himself again and prepared an ambush.

"Just as I thought."

At the very top of Arlong Park's tower, Nami lowered her telescope, her face full of excitement. "That sea fish is hostile toward Fish-Men, and it's lying in wait right there."

Nami's window faced the harbor. When Arlong left with the pirate crew, she put down her pen and paper and picked up her telescope to watch them depart.

Only after the pirate ship had sailed away did Nami look elsewhere. Just as she was about to lower the telescope, she saw the distant boardwalk shatter and a sea fish devour Ruijin and Peters.

The massive ram, the enormous black and thick-bodied fish, allowed Nami to recognize its identity.

It was the sea fish that had hunted the dolphins, Blue whale, and pirates.

So Nami tricked the other two Fish-Men into going into the sea, where they were immediately eaten by it.

Nami had learned two things.

The sea fish was in that stretch of water, and it was hostile toward Fish-Men.

If that was the case...

A crafty smile appeared on Nami's lips as she ran downstairs.

Tap tap tap tap.

Nami hurried downstairs and reached the first floor. The smile disappeared from her face, replaced by panic.

"Hachi, this is bad! This is really bad!"

Nami shouted loudly.

"What is it?"

Hachi was wiping down his long swords. Seeing Nami's panicked appearance, he asked curiously, "Nami, what happened?"

Nami panted heavily and pointed into the distance. "I went upstairs and used the telescope to look toward the harbor. I saw Lance and Eddie being attacked."

"What?"

Hachi rose to his feet, his expression alert.

Nami nodded. "After they went into the sea, they were attacked by sharks and disappeared underwater."

"Sharks?"

Hachi frowned. "Could sharks kill them?"

"It was a Shark Group, and the largest ones were over ten meters long."

Nami looked at him and said, "Hachi, you know that no one lived here before you arrived because of the Shark Group."

"If it was a Shark Group, then they really could threaten them."

During the construction of Arlong Park, Hachi had heard the villagers' assessment of this place. He believed Nami's words.

"I'll go take a look."

Hachi immediately put down his swords and headed toward the harbor.

By the time he reached the harbor, the blood had not yet dispersed, and a streak of crimson still lingered on the sea's surface.

"They really were attacked by sharks?"

Hachi's expression darkened. He then walked to the shore, looked into the seawater, and prepared to go down and investigate.

But just as Hachi was about to jump in, a voice came from behind him. "Hachi, don't go down there. There's a Shark Group below."

"Nami."

Hachi turned around and saw Nami running toward him. When she reached him, she bent over with her hands braced on her knees. Her youthful face was full of exhaustion.

"Nami?"

Seeing that Nami had run all the way here just to warn him and had exhausted herself like this, Hachi felt warmth in his heart. He smiled. "Don't worry. They're just sharks. Even if they're sea beasts, I can kill them."

With those words, Hachi leaped into the sea.

Seeing this, Nami's expression turned complicated. Hachi was the kindest of all the Fish-Men and had treated her well. Since she didn't like raw food, he had cooked meals for her.

But he was a member of the Arlong Pirates, one of Arlong's top officers. He had personally injured Cocoyasi Village's villagers and followed Arlong in conquering many villages.

The crimes he had committed were enough to warrant execution.

Nami let out a breath, her gaze turning resolute. She pressed her hands together and prayed, "Sea fish, sea fish, please make sure you kill him."

Underwater, Xia Qiu's eyes lit up. Another one had come?