Buzz!
Before his palms even landed, the gale they stirred had already sucked Arlong's cheeks inward. He jolted in alarm, and his rich combat experience made him duck without a second thought.
Clumsy as it was, the move worked.
Boom!
The air rippled where his head had been. Arlong felt his eardrums explode with a roar, and blood began flowing from his nostrils.
He was horrified. If he had hesitated for even half a second, his head might have been smashed flat, even if he somehow survived.
There was no time to think. Xia Nuo's strike missed, but instead of pulling his hands apart, he drove both palms straight downward, smashing toward Arlong's crown.
"Damn human!" Arlong's fear turned to fury. His ferocity erupted as he suddenly opened his cavernous jaws and bit toward Xia Nuo's arm.
Oh?
Seeing that Arlong had stopped dodging, Xia Nuo narrowed his eyes with interest. He deliberately thrust his right arm forward and fed it into Arlong's mouth.
Asking for death!
Arlong's gaze turned savage as he bit down with all his might.
What a foolish human. How dare he look down on him so much? He had no idea that Arlong's sharpest weapon wasn't the great saw-sword in his hand, but the rows of razor-sharp fangs filling his mouth!
Crack!
A familiar shattering sound rang out, and a salty, fishy taste exploded across his mouth.
Arlong bared his teeth. Before he could show any smugness, he suddenly realized in horror that it wasn't Xia Nuo's arm that had shattered, but his own teeth.
The large gush of blood spraying out wasn't from Xia Nuo's muscles being torn open, either. It was coming from Arlong's gums.
"Go on, bite. Keep biting."
Xia Nuo's expression remained blank as he forcefully shoved his arm deeper inside. "Why did you stop?"
"Mm... mm!" Arlong struggled desperately, trying to spit out that arm, which felt cast from steel and forged from iron. But it was useless. He could only watch helplessly as the arm drew closer and closer to his throat.
"I heard you can even bite through cannonballs fired by warships. Why are you so weak today?"
Xia Nuo kept pressing inward. "Didn't you eat?"
"Then I'll feed you! Eat my whole arm! It's all protein. Get some proper nutrition, and you'll have the strength, won't you?"
His calm voice gradually filled with savagery.
Arlong's eyes slowly rolled white. His entire lower jaw had been forced open to its limit, while faint cracking sounds came from his skull.
"Eat! I told you to eat! Why aren't you eating?!"
The powerful arm began rotating back and forth inside his mouth. The few teeth he had left, along with chunks of flesh, were churned and squeezed out like dirty clothes in a washing drum.
"Mm...!"
Arlong was nearly suffocating, his consciousness growing hazy. Only his instinct to survive drove him to thrash his claws wildly, raking at Xia Nuo's chest and arms.
Yet he couldn't even draw a drop of blood. He left behind only faint scratches.
"Let go of Brother Arlong!"
A furious roar suddenly came from behind. Three fish-man officers led by Chuu charged forward with drawn blades, hacking down from the rear.
Xia Nuo glanced back.
Strangely, they had clearly charged in to attack, even roaring as they came, yet their faces were filled with fear and despair. They looked remarkably like Commander Erwin.
Xia Nuo ignored them. He was too lazy even to look at them again. Turning back, he continued stuffing flesh into Arlong's mouth as though nothing had happened.
Was that scene about to happen again?
Chuu stared at the terrifying back muscles drawing nearer and Xia Nuo's indifferent attitude. There was no joy in his eyes—only even greater despair.
He had personally witnessed Hachi's six swords failing to pierce Xia Nuo's defenses, no matter how wildly Hachi swung them.
Hachi was the ship's greatest swordsman. Each of his six swords weighed three hundred kilograms. If even Hachi couldn't do it, what chance did they have?
But they couldn't simply leave Brother Arlong to die!
At that very moment, as his thoughts raced, three blades slashed toward Xia Nuo's back from different directions, smoothly sinking into it.
They got in?!
Chuu was both shocked and delighted, but his expression soon changed drastically.
No! Those three blades had entered the folds left by Xia Nuo deliberately contracting his lat muscles!
Clang!
In the next instant, his knotted muscles suddenly bulged outward, and the three blades shot back out in reverse!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The three fish-men, unable to dodge in time, were pinned to a coconut tree. Their necks were pierced through, and fresh blood streamed down along the grooves in the bark.
No, no!
Arlong saw the scene through his blurred peripheral vision. Overcome with grief, he began weeping uncontrollably.
Run! Hurry and run! My foolish comrades, can't you see? This human... no! This monster isn't someone you can possibly defeat!
"You're... crying?"
Xia Nuo studied him with interest. "You almost made me feel sorry for you. I nearly decided to let you go. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, crocodile tears aren't worth anyone's sympathy."
He glanced into the distance.
The remaining fish-man pirates had seen that nearly all the officers were dead and that even Arlong was utterly helpless. Their courage had completely shattered. They turned and fled frantically toward the shore, each wishing their parents had given them an extra pair of legs.
Xia Nuo lowered his head and whispered beside Arlong's ear:
"Oh, right. You're a shark, aren't you? Never mind. Aren't they all basically the same?"
The instant his voice fell, he suddenly seized Arlong's head, clamped his large hand around it, and chased after the fish-men fleeing madly toward the pier!
He repeatedly activated Shave, and the scenery on both sides flew backward as bursts of speed erupted one after another. Arlong's lower body kept smashing through the giant trees along the way, while his consciousness rapidly faded.
Smack!
Xia Nuo finally stopped before the shattered pier.
He lowered his head and glanced indifferently at the purple fish-man in his hand. Arlong had been dragged hundreds of meters, leaving deep furrows behind him. His flesh was a bloody mess, and a winding trail of blood marked the country road.
"Dead?"
Xia Nuo frowned slightly, unable to hide the disappointment and loneliness in his expression. "So you... really were only this strong?"
Even now, Arlong hadn't forced him to use his full strength or allowed him to enjoy a proper fight.
He shook his head and tossed Arlong's corpse onto the beach as casually as throwing away trash. Then he turned his gaze toward the fish-man pirates scrambling aboard the Shark SB.
"Damn it! That monster is coming after us!"
One of the fish-men spotted him and let out a shrill scream. "What are you waiting for? Get moving!"
"The ship still has to turn around! We won't make it!"
"Then abandon ship! Swim away! Once we're in the sea, there's no way he can catch us fish-men!"
Trying to escape through the sea?
Xia Nuo sneered. He had no bad habit of leaving weeds ungathered by the roots.
Geppo!
He tensed his arch and stamped against the ground. In an instant, he flashed away and landed atop the ship's towering mast.
From there, he had an excellent view. Every fish-man pirate was laid bare before his eyes.
Some fish-men had already climbed over the railing along the side of the ship and were jumping into the sea. Xia Nuo raised his right arm without expression and aimed his index finger at the back of one figure's head.
Finger Pistol!
A shockwave burst from his fingertip and instantly blew the fish-man's head apart. Xia Nuo didn't even look at him again. Before the brains had finished splattering, he had already aimed at the next target...
The sea breeze swept past, carrying a heavy smell of blood amid the salty air.
Genzo's legs trembled as he cautiously looked around. Stepping over scattered limbs and pools of blood, he made his way to the edge of the pier.
The scene here was much like the country road from earlier. Fish-men corpses floated everywhere—along the side of the ship, across the deck, and in the sea.
What on earth had happened?
Could it be...
That figure who had swept over his head and rushed toward the shore ahead of him had ended the battle all by himself?
"Xia... Xia Nuo?" Genzo cupped his hands around his mouth and cautiously shouted in every direction. "Where are you? Are you all right?"
"I'm here, Uncle Genzo."
The voice came from above.
Only then did Genzo notice the figure sitting motionless atop the enormous pirate ship's mast, his eyes lowered as he quietly surveyed everything below.
"Uncle, you seem to have arrived a little late."
Xia Nuo raised his head, revealing a slightly weary face. It wasn't physical exhaustion, but the expression of someone finally relaxing after being mentally strung tight for far too long.
Looking at the dumbfounded Genzo, he smiled faintly.
"I killed all the pirates. Didn't miss a single one. It's a little unfortunate that I didn't get the chance to lend you, the village constable, a hand."