Thanks?
Hearing those two words, every member of the Arlong Pirates froze for a moment.
Then they exchanged glances and burst out laughing.
"Hey! This kid really thinks we were praising him!"
"No wonder he's so naïve. He chopped down a few measly trees and thinks he can block the road!"
Salt-Baked, the salmon fish-man, stepped forward and impatiently reached for Xia Nuo's arm. "Enough, brat. Get out of our way. We don't have time to play house with you here..."
Hmm?
Salt-Baked stared blankly down at his hand. What was going on? He couldn't pull it away?
He was the banquet master of the Arlong Pirates, a crew officer at the very least! He was only dealing with a human. With his arm strength, how could this be possible?
"Get up—!"
Salt-Baked refused to believe it. He forced a low growl from his throat and steadily increased his strength.
In the end, he used both hands and even turned his back, bracing his shoulder against Xia Nuo and heaving upward. His eyes became bloodshot and the veins on his forehead bulged, yet Xia Nuo remained utterly unmoved, as though his feet had taken root in the ground.
"What are you doing, Salt-Baked?"
"With that little strength, you still have the nerve to call yourself an officer?"
"Are you putting on a one-man show?"
The surrounding fish-men mocked him one after another. Salt-Baked, the banquet master, really was a rather insignificant figure, with a position on the ship only slightly higher than that of an ordinary fish-man.
"Shut up!"
Kuroobi suddenly barked, and the surroundings fell silent at once. "You bunch of idiots, can't you tell? This isn't Salt-Baked's problem. This human brat isn't ordinary!"
Within the Arlong Pirates, his prestige was second only to Arlong's, and his status was equal to that of the First Mate.
At his words, the other fish-men began looking Xia Nuo up and down, their expressions filling with uncertainty.
"Stand down, Salt-Baked. You really can't do anything to this brat."
Kuroobi rolled his neck and knocked his fists together. Indifferently, he said, "Looks like my luck isn't too bad after all. I can still run into someone in this little village qualified to be my opponent. Come on, let me see just how much you're worth!"
"Is that so? Unfortunately, as far as I'm concerned, you're not qualified yet."
Xia Nuo looked at him and suddenly smiled. "Why not have that little purple-skinned shark behind you come out instead?"
A little purple-skinned shark?
The fish-men froze for a moment, then instinctively turned to look behind them.
Only after noticing Arlong's suddenly darkened expression did they realize what Xia Nuo meant. This guy was outrageously bold—he had actually been referring to their own leader.
"Shahahaha—" Arlong's smile did not reach his eyes. "Hey, Kuroobi, you heard what this brat said, right?"
"Do not disrespect Lord Arlong!"
Kuroobi flew into a rage and suddenly strode forward several steps. "And another thing, brat! I gave you face, and you actually dare look down on me? Stop acting so arrogant! I'm a master of Fish-Man Karate, forty-second dan!"
"Karate?"
Xia Nuo tilted his head in confusion, as if he were hearing the word for the first time. "What kind of hand?"
Kuroobi's gaze turned ferocious. He was just about to lash out when the corner of his eye caught sight of two bloody severed hands that had appeared on the ground at some point.
A piercing pain suddenly shot through him.
Only then did he realize what had happened. Trembling, he raised his arms and discovered in horror that only the portions above his elbows remained...
W-When?
The surrounding fish-men fell utterly silent.
Many of them widened their eyes. They had been watching the whole time, yet none of them had seen when this black-haired human had made his move.
Arlong, standing at the very back, suddenly narrowed his pupils, and his expression grew even darker.
He had seen it clearly. In the blink of an eye, that brat had twisted Kuroobi's hands off.
And he had not used any weapon. He had simply torn them off with his bare hands!
This was only the East Blue. How could such a troublesome opponent exist here?
At that very moment—
Under Kuroobi's panicked gaze, Xia Nuo finally rose to his feet. He casually stretched his neck, then calmly walked toward the fish-men one step at a time.
With every step Xia Nuo took forward, Kuroobi trembled and retreated one step.
Whenever Xia Nuo took a slightly larger step, Kuroobi retreated even faster. At one point, he staggered and nearly fell.
This hardline fish-man officer, who had always prided himself on being a martial artist, had been scared witless by what had just happened. He no longer even had the courage to face Xia Nuo directly.
"What are you running from?"
Xia Nuo asked softly, "I'm asking you, what are you running from?"
"You—you—you..."
Kuroobi screamed as he crawled backward in panic, leaving blood smeared across the ground. "Don't come any closer! Stop, stop! Don't come over here!!!"
"Fish-Man Karate, fortieth dan?"
Xia Nuo actually stopped. He shook his head slightly. "That's too many. When I eat fish, I've never needed to divide one into more than two pieces!"
Swish!
The instant his voice fell, Xia Nuo vanished from where he stood. In the next moment, he appeared in front of Kuroobi and easily lifted him overhead.
Then he raised his head and looked at the muscular fish-man struggling desperately above him. With a vicious grin, he gripped Kuroobi's waist and neck with opposite hands and violently pulled in different directions!
"Kuroobi!"
Arlong's expression changed drastically. He stepped forward, about to rush over and save him.
But he was ultimately a step too late.
Rip—!
"No!!!"
Arlong's roar exploded at the same time as the sound of flesh tearing and blood splattering.
Kuroobi's body split into two in midair, his dark-blue entrails mixed with a large amount of blood and splashed across the muddy country road.
Some of his internal organs flew through the air and happened to land on several fish-men's faces. They stood frozen, staring at the chunks of flesh hanging from their noses and smelling that familiar yet unfamiliar scent of blood—
"Urgh—" In an instant, they bent over and began violently vomiting.
Xia Nuo looked completely unconcerned. As casually as throwing away trash, he tossed the head and lower half of the corpse to either side.
Then he raised his head and calmly looked toward Arlong in the distance.
"...Vile humans. Disgusting humans. The lowest and most worthless species of all."
Arlong glared at him, his eyes bloodshot. Gnashing his teeth, he forced the words out from his throat one by one. "How dare you... How dare you kill one of my comrades right in front of me!"
Clang! Arlong drew his great sawblade from his waist and swung it violently. He roared furiously, "Everyone, attack! Kill him with me!"
"Yes, Boss Arlong!"
Chuu, the kissing fish-man, nodded and led the surrounding fish-men in a charge. Arlong also followed closely behind, his face dark as he gripped the hilt of his blade tightly.
"Hachi will avenge Kuroobi!"
The six-sword-style octopus swordsman threw away his liquor gourd and charged at the very front, tears streaming down his face in grief and anger. "Kuroobi was a good man! He treated Hachi well, and he treated all our fish-man brothers well too! You beast, why did you kill him!!!"
Swish, swish!
Six extremely heavy blades chopped down from different directions. Xia Nuo neither dodged nor evaded, simply reaching out and catching one with each hand.
He let the other four strike his neck. They rang out with the crisp sound of metal striking metal, yet failed to cut into his flesh, leaving behind only faint white marks.
You haven't even reached the realm of a swordsman, and you think you can injure me?
Xia Nuo sneered disdainfully. He suddenly exerted force with both palms, gripping both of Hachi's hands as he slammed a knee into Hachi's abdomen.
Boom!
Hachi's body was sent flying high into the air, accompanied by a miserable cry of pain.
Xia Nuo did not let the opportunity to pursue him pass. With a flash, he used Geppo to step into the sky, appearing precisely above Hachi.
"You're actually asking why I killed him?"
"Before you charged onto my homeland with such murderous intent, why didn't you consider that you might die too? And now you're asking me this?!"
Xia Nuo clamped a hand around Hachi's neck. Looking at the octopus fish-man struggling desperately from lack of air, he bared his teeth. "Don't you think that's hilarious?"
The killing intent in his eyes rose. He allowed the six tentacles to wildly batter him, ignoring them completely as he steadily poured more and more strength into his right hand around Hachi's neck.
"Cough, cough..." The octopus fish-man's face shifted from flushed red to purple. The blood vessels around his temples throbbed like earthworms, and his eyes began to roll white.
Just as he landed, Xia Nuo tore Hachi's head directly from his body along with his spine. The blood that sprayed out happened to drench Arlong's face as he charged over.
He did not waste the headless corpse, either. Xia Nuo seized it and swung it around like a great flail, sending the three or four fish-men nearest to him flying. Their bodies plowed several trenches more than ten meters long into the ground.
"...H-Hachi?!"
Arlong stopped in his tracks and stared blankly at the scene, his eyes filled with disbelief. Then his entire body began to tremble violently as his fury rose to its peak.
"You vile—"
Arlong suddenly raised his head, his eyes blood-red. Yet reflected in his pupils was that terrifying, heavily muscled figure rapidly approaching.
After meeting his gaze, Xia Nuo grinned viciously. He spread his arms as wide as possible and swung them toward Arlong's cheeks from both sides, like someone swatting a mosquito on a summer day!