Orange Town

Chiu Chiu piloted the ship to the gray-white stone shore of Orange Town and dropped anchor. The two people and one bird entered Orange Town.

"Hm? I've never seen this ship before. And who are these people? What's going on..."

The moment Mark and the others set foot in Orange Town, three fish-men by the shore fixed their eyes on them.

"Go capture those people and find out what's going on," the blue fish-man leading them ordered the other two.

"Come on, let's take a look!"

The two fish-men exchanged glances, their sharp fangs exposed in cruel smiles. Cracking their wrists, they strode toward Mark and the others.

"Fish-Men Tribe?" Mark raised an eyebrow.

He had not expected to encounter fish-men the moment he arrived in Orange Town. It seemed Arlong had Orange Town completely under his control.

"Mark, these fish-men are so ugly!" Daisy said with a look of disgust as she watched them approach.

Chiu Chiu cackled. "Boss Daisy, don't let their ugly looks fool you. They have ten times the arm strength of humans. Fish-men are very strong."

Mark was also very interested in the Fish-Man Tribe, a race naturally stronger than humans.

I wonder whether the life energy of these fish-men is stronger than that of humans too...

His physical evolution required a massive amount of life energy.

But this life energy had to come from humans. Killing Sea Kings could not provide him with such energy; otherwise, the life energy of a single Sea King would be worth dozens of ordinary humans.

He did not know whether fish-men could provide him with life energy. If they could, his rate of growth would increase considerably.

"Who are you people? What are you doing here?" The two fish-men walked up to Mark and the others, looking down at them. Though they were not much taller than Mark...

"I'm here to find Arlong," Mark said bluntly.

"Brother Arlong?" The two fish-men looked surprised, their expressions turning more solemn. "What do you want with Brother Arlong?"

The corners of Mark's lips curled up slightly.

"Of course... to kill him!"

The two fish-men did not react to Mark's words at first, standing there dumbfounded for a long while.

"What did he just say? Who does he want to kill?"

"I-I think he said he wants to kill Brother Arlong!"

"..."

"You lowly inferior human! Who gave you the nerve to say something like that?!"

The two fish-men flew into a rage. Who was Arlong? He was their captain, the man who had brought them out of the heavily discriminated Mermaid Street on Fish-Man Island. Arlong's position in their hearts was unshakable.

Now, a lowly human had suddenly declared that he wanted to kill Brother Arlong. Rage surged within the two fish-men as they raised their huge fists and smashed them toward Mark.

The wind howled as one blue-green and one gray fist shot toward Mark at high speed.

Mark could even feel the wind pressure from their fists.

As expected of fish-men. Even the most ordinary among them could not be underestimated.

Clang!

Gripping the axe handle with one hand, Mark yanked it free and swung with all his strength at the fists hurtling toward him.

But he was no ordinary man.

Slash!

A flash of crimson swept across the axe blade as Mark instantly severed both fish-men's arms. Before they could react, he swung back with two more chops. With the one-ton giant axe and Mark's evolved physique, he instantly cut both fish-men in half at the waist.

"Chiu Chiu!" After killing the two fish-men, Mark looked up at the fish-man watching from afar and gave a swift command.

"Yes, Boss!"

Chiu Chiu instantly understood Mark's intentions. With a blur, he shot forward. The fish-man leader watching from a distance saw that things had gone bad and turned to flee, but Chiu Chiu caught up to him with lightning-like speed. Empowered by lightning, his wings became like two blades, and in a few swift strikes, he carved the fish-man into a limbless stump.

One fish-man officer and two ordinary fish-men were instantly slain by Mark and Chiu Chiu.

Daisy was stunned by their seamless coordination, and even more shocked by Chiu Chiu's strength.

"Chiu Chiu, you're actually this strong?"

Of course Daisy knew about fish-men, but she still found it hard to believe that creatures born so powerful had been killed so easily by Chiu Chiu.

Golden lightning flickered over Chiu Chiu's body, and the fish-men's blood vanished after being evaporated by the intense heat.

He said smugly, "Boss Daisy, I'm very strong. I wouldn't even be afraid if another eight or ten fish-men like these came at me!"

Mark was also very satisfied with Chiu Chiu's strength. With Chiu Chiu's current abilities, he could easily earn a bounty of forty or fifty million Beli.

It was just that...

The pirate world seemed to have some inexplicable prejudice against pet-type pirate crew members. Chopper's bounty was fifty Beli, while that bear on Law's crew had a bounty ten times Chopper's. Though he later heard that Chopper's bounty had increased.

Still, the cute mascots of those two pirate crews were genuinely quite strong.

At least, that was how Mark saw it.

"Let's go!" Their main task now was to deal with Arlong, then head to the next location.

If things went smoothly there, it should be able to eliminate one of Mark's minor flaws.

But just as they were about to leave, a blue-haired girl with a tattoo on her right arm appeared before them.

She stared nervously at the three fish-man corpses on the ground.

"H-how did this happen..."

"We... we can't attack fish-men!"

"It's over... everything is over!"

Nojiko's body went weak, and her mind went blank.

She looked around and, upon noticing that no one else had seen them, urgently urged Mark and the others, "You aren't from Cocoyasi Village, are you? Leave now! Get out of here before Arlong finds this place!"

"Arlong? I came here to find him." Mark looked at the panicked Nojiko and said in a deep voice, "Cocoyasi Village was once my home too... I came here to wipe out Arlong."

Nojiko shook her head, pain filling her expression. "No, Arlong can't be defeated. Fish-men are..."

At that point, she suddenly stopped.

"What, were you going to say fish-men can't be defeated? Then how do you explain the three corpses on the ground?" Mark said.

"You've lived under Arlong's shadow for too long. You fear him too much, which is why you think he's invincible. But when they're killed, they die too!"

Nojiko looked up at Mark blankly. When they were killed... they died too!

"But... Arlong is too powerful!"

The Marines had once sent reinforcements here, but without exception, Arlong had wiped them out. Arlong had ruled this place for more than ten years. That shadow could not be erased with just a few words from Mark.

Mark did not force the issue. A trace of dark power suddenly appeared in his hand, and he slammed it forcefully against the ground. The dark power instantly swallowed the three fish-man corpses into the dark space.

Nojiko's eyes widened at the astonishing sight.

"Tell me where Arlong is. I'll go... deal with him!!!"