The Curse of the Sea

Seeing Brother Long's swift blade, this thing didn't seem all that powerful. Hachi, Chuu, and Kuroobi also found their courage.

"Six Sword Style: Octopus Gate of Opening!"

"Wrist Blade Slash!"

"Water Cannon!"

The three attacked individually...

Even though Chuu and Kuroobi practiced Fish-Man Karate, their techniques were completely different. Cartilaginous Fish-Man Kuroobi used the bone fins on his arms like blades to slash, while Kissing Fish-Man Chuu utilized his ability to absorb and expel water, specializing in spitting saliva imbued with Water Power from his mouth!

Hachi practiced Swordsmanship, mainly leveraging the advantage of his six flexible arms.

Kuroobi's Wrist Blade Slash caused the inorganic abominations to crack open with massive wounds. Though there was no blood, various "parts" flew out.

Chuu's saliva bullets could also pierce the monsters, but these monsters didn't seem to fear holes in their bodies. Even when nearly half-destroyed, they could still move!

In comparison, Hachi's Six Sword Style felt more like Scraping Therapy.

It couldn't be helped; their combat power was actually similar, but Hachi was better suited to deal with opponents who had high attack and low defense...

His Six Sword Style was airtight and excellent for blocking, but his relatively poor arm strength among Fish-Men meant his slashes lacked power.

"Cover me!" Chuu called out to Hachi, then crouched on the ship's side, absorbing a large amount of seawater. His chest seemed to swell as if preparing for "Water Style: Waterfall Jutsu."

Hachi immediately put on a display of the Entangling Combat Technique, fighting two opponents at once, back and forth...

Just as two of his swords were entangled by the inorganic abominations' chains, and things looked grim, Chuu had absorbed enough water!

"Giant Water Cannon!"

Chuu spat out a "water ball" half the size of a person, which directly blasted open nearly half of one monster's body upon impact.

After that, Chuu and Hachi found their rhythm: one entangled to buy time, the other used a move that required a long preparation but could deliver a fatal blow.

Arlong, meanwhile, was slaughtering them, and soon had cut down four monsters. But when he looked up, the number of monsters hadn't decreased?

As he pondered this, his ankle tightened. Arlong found a monster's severed hand gripping him!

At the same time, Arlong realized these monsters were constantly regenerating...

"What are you standing around for?" Kuroobi yelled impatiently at Sig.

Ever since the start, Sig had been holding his forehead with one hand while supporting the broken mast, completely uninvolved in the battle...

"Tch, the bloodline of humans is just cowardly!" Arlong grumbled unhappily, then swung his blade at his ankle, sawing off the "hand" that gripped him.

Then Arlong called out, "Get off the ship! We'll sink it from the sea!"

Though Arlong was reckless, he hadn't lost his mind yet.

Since they couldn't kill them, he decided to sink the entire ship – a true Fish-Man solution.

However, at that moment, Sig suddenly started running, dodging the attacks of passing monsters and heading straight into the ship's cabin!

"Hey! Little Fei!" Hachi couldn't stop him in time.

"Idiot!" Arlong cursed angrily. "Half-bloods are unreliable!"

Then Arlong said to Kuroobi, Chuu, and Hachi, "What are you waiting for? Go down and sink the ship."

With that, Arlong himself swung his serrated knife, fending off a few monsters, and chased after them into the ship's cabin.

They were Fish-Men, after all; it didn't matter if they sank with the ship.

Sig stumbled into the ship's cabin, the first level below the deck, which should normally be where the crew lived and rested.

However, what Sig saw now were rows of prison cells lining both sides...

The gates and other parts of the cells were like the "iron bars" they had encountered before, looking out of place, as if they weren't originally part of the ship.

"Hey! Bastard, what are you running around for?" Arlong caught up from behind, grabbing Sig, who was walking with a slight stagger.

"Huh?" Arlong's expression immediately turned puzzled.

Even through his clothes, he could feel that Sig's skin seemed very... slippery?

Most Fish-Men's skin was like that, but Sig, due to being a "half-blood," had skin texture closer to a human's, only with fish scales.

Moreover, Arlong's palm keenly sensed a chilling aura emanating from Sig.

"Down..." Sig said with difficulty.

"What?" Arlong looked at Sig, confused.

"Go down, there's a sound." Sig turned his head, his neck rotating at an unusually wide angle, giving him a sharp, watchful gaze.

His expression was one of pain and stubbornness!

"Down below?" Arlong looked closely at Sig, sensing the strangeness of his behavior... and the seriousness of his attitude.

Arlong didn't stop Sig. Instead, he swung his serrated knife, slashing at the ship's deck beneath his feet, preparing to go down directly!

"Huh?" Arlong let out another sound of confusion.

The deck was cut open, but this feeling... it was somewhat similar to the monsters he had just encountered?

Arlong was puzzled, but his hands didn't hesitate. Instead, he became more vigorous, slashing a few more times. Suddenly, he and Sig fell downwards together, landing in the cargo hold on the second level.

The tidiness that could starve a mouse, with barely any supplies left...

"It's still below! The sound is still below!" Sig said, his condition a bit off.

"Sound? The sound of water in your brain?" Arlong scoffed.

Sig, already swaying, jumped straight down the ladder well. The lowest level was the ballast hold—on the Sun Pirates' Sea Bass, this was the crew's favorite spot. Not only did it have seawater, but it also had branches from the Eve Tree specifically to conduct sunlight down.

However, this "ghost ship's" ballast hold was weighted with sand and gravel in sacks. It was just that being at the bottom of the ship, it was very damp.

At the same time, something that shouldn't have grown on a ship was hanging here...

A thick, tree-trunk-like object, as thick as an arm, had broken through the ballast hold's floorboards. It was half a person tall and positioned right on the centerline, perhaps growing from the ship's keel?

The "trunk" had no branches or leaves, but like a hanging lantern, it bore a strange fruit!

"Huh? What's this?" Arlong circled the object, weighing his saber, seemingly intending to cut it down.

Arlong hadn't expected Sig to know, but Sig replied at that moment, "A treasure cursed by the sea."

"Ha? You're still thinking about that story?" Arlong's tone was mocking.

"No, it's this... or called a 'Devil Fruit'!" Sig said with great certainty, as if he had unconsciously understood a lot.

"Devil Fruit? This thing?" Arlong had heard of Devil Fruits before, but because the Fish-Man Race generally disliked them, he had never seen one.