Chiu Chiu steered the ship to the gray-white stone shore of Orange Town and dropped anchor. Then the two humans and one bird entered Orange Town.
"Hm? I haven't seen this ship before. And who are these people...?"
The moment Mark and the others set foot in Orange Town, three fish-men on the shore spotted them.
"Go bring those people over and find out what's going on." The blue fish-man in the lead ordered the two beside him.
"Come on, let's take a look!"
The two fish-men exchanged glances, their sharp fangs exposed in cruel grins. They cracked their wrists and walked 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 firmly under his control.
"Mark, those fish-men are so ugly!" Daisy showed a look of disgust as she watched them approach.
Chiu Chiu cackled. "Boss Daisy, don't be fooled by how ugly they are. Their arm strength is ten times greater than a human's. Fish-men are very strong."
Mark was quite interested in the Fish-Man Tribe, who were naturally stronger than humans.
I wonder whether the life energy of fish-men is stronger than that of humans too...
His physical evolution required a vast amount of life energy.
But that life energy had to come from humans. Killing Sea Kings could not provide him with that energy; otherwise, the life energy of a single Sea King would be comparable to that of dozens of ordinary people.
He just did not know whether fish-men could provide him with life energy. If they could, his rate of growth would speed up considerably.
"Who are you people? What are you doing here?" The two fish-men stopped before Mark and the others, looking down on 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 serious. "Why are you looking for Brother Arlong?"
The corners of Mark's lips curled up slightly.
"Of course... to kill him!"
For a moment, the two fish-men failed to process what Mark had said. They stood there in a daze.
"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 place in their hearts was unshakable.
Now, some lowly human had suddenly declared that he wanted to kill Brother Arlong. Fury surged within the two fish-men as they raised their massive fists and smashed them toward Mark.
The wind howled as one blue-gray fist and one gray fist hurtled toward Mark at high speed.
Mark could even feel the pressure of the wind around their fists.
As expected of fish-men. Even the most ordinary among them could not be underestimated.
Clang!
Mark gripped the axe handle with one hand and yanked it free, swinging with all his strength at the fists coming toward him.
But he was no ordinary human.
Slash!
Blood flashed across the axe blade as Mark instantly severed both fish-men's arms. Before they could react, he swung two more times. The one-ton giant axe, combined with Mark's evolved physique, immediately cleaved the two fish-men in half at the waist.
"Chiu Chiu!" After cutting down the two fish-men, Mark looked up at the fish-man who had been watching from a distance and swiftly gave the order.
"Yes, Boss!"
Chiu Chiu instantly understood Mark's intent. Its figure flashed, and the fish-man leader watching from afar saw that things had gone wrong and prepared to flee. But Chiu Chiu's lightning-fast body caught up to him, and with its wings empowered by lightning like two sharp blades, it sliced him into a limbless stump in just a few strokes.
One fish-man officer and two ordinary fish-men were instantly slain by Mark and Chiu Chiu.
Daisy was startled by their seamless coordination, and even more stunned 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 across Chiu Chiu's body, and the fish-men's blood vanished after being evaporated by the intense heat.
It said smugly, "Boss Daisy, I'm very strong! I wouldn't be scared even if another eight or ten fish-men like these came!"
Mark was also very satisfied with Chiu Chiu's strength. With Chiu Chiu's current power, a bounty of forty or fifty million Beli would be more than justified.
It was just that...
The pirate world seemed to have some inexplicable prejudice against pet-like pirate crew members. Chopper's bounty was fifty Beli, while Law's bear had a bounty ten times Chopper's. Though he had heard that Chopper's bounty had increased later.
Still, the cute mascots of those two pirate crews were truly not weak.
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 shortcomings.
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-men corpses on the ground.
"H-how could this happen...?"
"We... can't lay a hand on fish-men!"
"It's over... everything is over!"
Nojiko's body went weak, and her mind turned blank.
She looked around. Upon finding that no one had seen them, she urgently urged Mark and the others, "You aren't from Cocoyasi Village, are you? Leave quickly! Get out of here before that bastard Arlong finds this place!"
"Arlong? He's exactly who I came to find." Mark looked at the flustered 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 those three corpses on the ground?" Mark asked.
"You've lived under Arlong's shadow for too long. You fear him too much, so you think he's invincible. But once they're killed, they die too!"
Nojiko looked up blankly at Mark. Once 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 a decade. That shadow could not be erased with just a few words from Mark.
Mark did not force the matter. A streak of Darkness Power suddenly appeared in his hand, and he slammed it hard against the ground. The Darkness Power instantly swallowed the three fish-men corpses into the Dark Space.
Nojiko's eyes widened at the astonishing sight.
"Tell me where Arlong is. I'll go... deal with him!!!"