Arlong Park (1)

Boom!

"Which one of you is Arlong?" After Luffy smashed through the sturdy walls of Arlong Park with his fist, he strolled inside as if no one else was there and asked.

"I'm Arlong! Who are you?" Arlong did not think much of Luffy's violent intrusion. Although the East Blue was the weakest sea, there was no shortage of people capable of smashing down the walls of Arlong Park. From beginning to end, Arlong had not even given Luffy a proper look, clearly not taking him seriously.

"My name's Luffy. I'm a pirate!" Ignoring the warnings and attempts to stop him from the other fish-men, Luffy headed straight toward Arlong.

"What does a pirate want with me?" Though Arlong wondered who had eaten a bear's heart and leopard's gall, he still did not care about Luffy barging in.

"Don't make my navigator cry!" The only answer Arlong received was Luffy's furious fist. Luffy's enraged punch struck Arlong in the face and sent him flying.

"Who are they? They actually sent Arlong flying?" The villagers of Cocoyasi Village, who had stopped outside Arlong Park, were stunned. Luffy had not only demolished the thick walls with his fist, but had also punched Arlong flying. Such a thing had been unimaginable to ordinary people like them before. Though they were full of questions, they were also thrilled.

"Why are you doing this? You have no reason to!" Genzo asked in confusion.

"A reason? Because my navigator cried!" In William and the others' eyes, if they were risking their lives, was there any better reason than that?

"Bastards! You dare cause trouble here!" Once the fish-men saw Arlong get sent flying, even they knew someone had come to wreck the place.

"Get lost, you lackeys!" After kicking away the fish-men rushing at Luffy, Sanji said irritably, "Honestly, you ran ahead by yourself!"

"I wouldn't lose even on my own!" Luffy said indifferently. He was furious over what Arlong had done and wished he could smash up Arlong Park alone to vent the rage in his heart.

"Idiot, who's worried about you?" Sanji lit a cigarette and explained, "I'm just telling you not to hog all the prey!"

"I see! Fine!" Since they were all companions who had come to cause trouble for Arlong and vent their anger, Luffy did not mind. But Arlong had to be sent flying by his own hand. That was a captain's responsibility.

"What a bunch of headache-inducing bastards," William said helplessly. They had come to wreck someone else's place, yet they were saying all this right in front of its owner.

"I... I don't mind!" Usopp stood at the back on trembling legs, barely squeezing the words out.

"You've got some guts too," Zoro said, greatly impressed that Usopp, who was usually timid as a mouse, had actually dared to follow them here this time.

"Pirates? So that's your relationship! Then you were after Nami from the very beginning! But you're only five lowly creatures. What can you possibly do? Hahaha!" Arlong laughed as though he had heard the greatest joke in the world, laughing so hard his stomach cramped.

"You little brats aren't qualified to fight Boss Arlong!" A six-armed octopus fish-man named Hachi shouted toward the sea, "Come out, sea beast Mohmoo!"

"What kind of monster is that?!" Usopp cried in panic, terrified by the sea beast's enormous body. If he knew that Luffy and Sanji had once used Mohmoo to pull their ship, he would not have looked so horrified.

"So this guy is one of the fish-men's companions!" Luffy and Sanji said disdainfully, even somewhat disappointed. They had thought the helper Hachi called out would be something terrifying, but it was just someone they had already defeated.

"Get ready to become feed, humans!" But before Hachi could finish showing off, he saw Mohmoo make a pitiful expression and turn to leave Arlong Park. He hurriedly shouted, "Mohmoo, where are you going?"

"Mohmoo, what are you doing? If you want to run away, I won't stop you. Right?" Arlong said, glaring sharply at Mohmoo.

After hearing Arlong's words, cold sweat broke out all over Mohmoo's body. It seemed to recall something terrifying, and its entire body began trembling with fear.

"Help!" Usopp was so frightened by the rampaging Mohmoo that his heart nearly stopped.

"Everyone, charge with Mohmoo! Teach these foolish humans what happens when they try to show off!" Seeing Mohmoo charge wildly at the Straw Hat Pirates, the fish-men drew their weapons and prepared to teach them a proper lesson.

"I'll handle it. No need to waste time!" William hurriedly stopped Luffy. The moment he thought of that idiotic move Luffy used against Mohmoo, he knew that while it could take out most of the fish-men, it would also leave their companions struggling in a hard fight afterward.

Now, both he and Zoro were seriously injured and could not make any major movements, or their wounds would tear open. That meant Luffy was the only one who could deal with Arlong at the moment. He was the key to their victory. As the Straw Hat Pirates' strategist, William absolutely would not let Luffy use that idiotic move again.

William leaped forward and grabbed Mohmoo's nose ring with one hand. Using the power of several Moon Walks, he hauled Mohmoo's entire body over. However, the excessive movement sent intense pain shooting through his wounds. Fortunately, they did not split open.

"He actually flipped Mohmoo over?" The villagers of Cocoyasi Village and the fish-men of Arlong's crew were all dumbfounded. Even within Arlong's crew, only Arlong himself could do something like that.

Arlong, lying on the ground, looked extremely grim. He knew William had accomplished that despite being badly injured. What if he were uninjured? William's existence had already become a threat to him, so he decided to add William to the list of people who had to be eliminated.

Mohmoo had already come to its senses the moment it was flipped over. The helpless, pitiful expression on its face was enough to make anyone sympathize with it. But it truly had no choice. On one side was the vicious Arlong, and on the other was the violently terrifying Straw Hat Pirates. No matter which side it chose, it would suffer.

"When you're fighting, don't get distracted, stupid fish!" Zoro mercilessly drew Wado Ichimonji and used One-Sword Style to slash some of the fish-men to the ground.

Although Three-Sword Style was what Zoro excelled at most, he only had one sword on him now, so he had to make do. With severe injuries and a lack of weapons, Zoro's fighting strength had been greatly weakened.

"If you're fish, get back into the sea!" Sanji used the kicking techniques personally taught by "Red-Leg" Zeff to send most of the fish-men around him flying.

"New guy, you're strong!" Usopp discovered that Sanji was also powerful and secretly rejoiced that he had such strong companions. Otherwise, with only Luffy and two wounded men, Usopp really would not have felt confident.

"Of course I am!" Sanji admitted without the slightest humility.

"Very good, everything's going according to my plan!" Seeing the fish-men surrounding them get taken down by Zoro and Sanji, Usopp thought fish-men were not that scary after all.

"You lowly humans, you dare hurt my companions?" Seeing the fish-men fall one after another, Arlong could no longer hold himself back.

Though he looked down on human lives, he deeply cared for his own companions. Like Luffy, he was fiercely protective of his own.

"Get lost! The bastard I'm going to send flying is you, Arlong!" After punching away a fish-man who came near him, Luffy pointed at Arlong and shouted furiously.

"What a coincidence. I want to kill you too, you bastard!" Watching his brethren fall one after another, Arlong was finally enraged. What he could not tolerate most was anyone insulting or hurting his brethren, and now the Straw Hat Pirates had done both.

"Looks like we have to step in," Kuroobi, one of the fish-man officers, said unhappily as he watched his brethren get taken down one after another by the Straw Hat Pirates.

"You treated our brethren like this? Unforgivable!" Hachi, one of the fish-man officers, was heartbroken over the brethren lying on the ground and wished he could immediately use all six fists to beat the enemies senseless.

"We'll make them understand the difference between races!" Chew, the long-snouted fish-man officer, did not take the Straw Hat Pirates seriously at all. He believed they were merely a group of hotheaded brats with a bit of strength.