Arlong Park (4)

"Four-stage straight punch? Then that stinking old man's kicks I used to take must have been at least four-stage." Sanji, lying outside the park, got to his feet, lit another cigarette, and grumbled.

"I never expected anyone in the East Blue to survive one of my straight punches!" Kuroobi, who had been about to attack William, was kicked flying by Sanji.

"Probably quite a few, especially at a certain restaurant!" Sanji said contemptuously at Kuroobi's narrow-mindedness.

"You dare look down on me?" Having been kicked away and then scorned by a human, Kuroobi's simmering rage finally erupted. "I'll kill you with the essence of Fish-Man Karate. The move that sent you flying was the Hundred Tile True Punch, but my strongest technique is the Thousand Tile True Punch."

"Meat! Shoulder meat! Back meat! Chest meat! Leg meat!" Sanji gave Kuroobi no chance to unleash his ultimate move—not even a chance to fight back. Their captain was still in the sea, dead or alive unknown. He did not want to lose his captain just as he had finally set out to pursue his dream.

Of the three of them, only he could go into the sea to save Luffy. Zoro was already at his limit; even if he could still move, Sanji could not let him enter the water. William was a Devil Fruit user. For now, Sanji could only take down Kuroobi, the loach Fish-Man, then dive into the sea to save Luffy.

But Arlong on shore was a huge problem. Until Luffy got back on land, they could only leave William to keep him occupied.

"Bastard, take my ultimate technique, Thousand Tile—" Before Kuroobi could release his ultimate move, Sanji vanished from his sight. In his final moment of consciousness, he saw only a black shadow.

"Lamb Leg Cannon!" After kicking Kuroobi away, Sanji sighed in relief. "Looks like there's no need for dessert."

"Kuroobi?" "You bastards, you actually did this to my important comrades... Aren't you getting a little too full of yourselves?"

On the village road through the fields outside Arlong Park, Usopp lay in a pool of blood. In truth, he had used ketchup to play dead. If he had not fooled Chew, the long-snouted Fish-Man, he would probably have been killed already.

"Wait, you damned Fish-Man!" Usopp was terrified, but unwilling to accept it. Wasn't he a member of the Straw Hat Pirates? When they had declared war on Arlong's crew, Luffy, William, Zoro, and even Sanji, the newcomer, had all fought with everything they had.

"You're still alive? If you'd just played dead obediently, nothing would've happened!" Chew had thought Usopp, lying in that "pool of blood," was already dead. He had not expected him to be faking it.

Feeling as though his intelligence had been insulted, Chew punched Usopp to the ground, then vented his fury by repeatedly stomping on him.

"Usopp Iron Hammer! Usopp Rubber Band!" Enduring the pain of Chew's kicks, Usopp pulled an ordinary hammer from his bag and smashed Chew's leg. Chew foolishly shut his eyes and raised his hands to shield himself from the Usopp Rubber Band, while Usopp took the chance to flee into the forest.

"Damn it, I fell for such a simple trick!" Chew's intelligence was clearly not enough when facing Usopp—if anything, it had been severely dragged down. He felt ashamed that he had chosen Usopp as his opponent, and felt that Usopp's actions were an insult to his intelligence.

"Liquor?" A bottle came flying from the forest, and Chew casually caught it. But he was baffled. Was Longnose inviting him for a drink as an apology?

"Special Attack: Lead Star!" Usopp hit the bottle with a lead star. As it shattered in Chew's hand, the strong liquor inside splashed all over him.

If I lose, then at worst I die. I'm already a pirate.

Though Usopp thought that, his body had already collapsed onto the ground, unable to move. He was simply too afraid. If not for his companions, he might have fled long ago.

"Nothing but underhanded tricks. I'll blow you away with the water from this paddy field! Water Cannon!" Chew sucked all the water from the rice paddy into his body, compressed it, then fired a high-pressure water blast from his long mouth with power no weaker than a Gatling gun.

"That destructive power is terrifying!" Usopp watched as a patch of forest beside him was blown away by the high-pressure water cannon in just over ten seconds. His heart nearly stopped from fright.

In Usopp's eyes, Fish-Men were a terrifying race. Not only did they look different from humans, they also possessed these strange racial gifts. They're monsters. Humans can't possibly win with human strength alone.

"The target has exposed himself! Die, Longnose!" Chew discovered that Usopp had revealed his own hiding place and charged over without hesitation.

"It's already over!" Usopp, who had been kicked to the ground, actually smiled. Usopp, who had always been timid as a mouse, smiled in the face of a powerful enemy.

"What do you mean, it's already over?" Chew suddenly had a bad feeling. He knew Usopp was weak and should not have been a threat, but like the other Fish-Men, he had underestimated every member of the Straw Hat Pirates.

"The outcome has already been decided. Special Attack: Fire Star!"

"Uwaah! Water! Water!" The alcohol on Chew's body was rapidly ignited by the Firebird Star, engulfing his whole body. The damage it inflicted far exceeded that of an ordinary Firebird Star attack.

Chew had only considered Usopp's fighting ability, never his "schemes." That was why, despite possessing the strength to suppress Usopp, he had still suffered one setback after another at Usopp's hands.

"Not good!" Seeing Chew trying to use the remaining water in the paddy field to extinguish the flames on his body, Usopp immediately pulled out his hammer, charged forward, and shouted, "Usopp Iron Hammer!"

Strike while the iron was hot and finish him while he was down! This was the first time Usopp had actively charged at Chew. He knew this was his only chance to defeat his enemy, and he absolutely could not miss it.

After being smashed by Usopp's hammer an unknown number of times, Chew finally collapsed. Yet Usopp did not notice that Chew had already lost consciousness. He kept swinging the hammer in his hand and bringing it down until his entire body went weak, only then stopping in fear.

"Hey, newbie, hurry and save Luffy!" William called out to Sanji. He had no idea how long Luffy could hold his breath underwater. They could not pull him out only for him to have stopped breathing.

"Just splashing water has the power of a shotgun?" Sanji had just taken down Kuroobi and had not yet jumped into the sea when he was struck by the water Arlong splashed at him. He stared at Arlong in disbelief.

"I'll break your nose!" Zoro clenched Wado Ichimonji in his teeth, picked up the swords Hachi had dropped, and charged at Arlong.

"That's exactly why it's a treasure—it can't be broken!" Arlong actually used his sawtoothed nose to block Zoro's Three-Sword Style, then stabbed Zoro in the shoulder with a forceful thrust, worsening his injuries.

"You damned shark, I'm supposed to be your opponent!" If William had not kicked Arlong in time, Zoro's shoulder might have been ruined.

But William was not in much better shape than Zoro. Though his injuries were not as serious, and his Zoan Fruit power made his wounds recover quickly, he could not survive an exchange with Arlong without going all out.

"Guys, I took down that long-mouthed Fish-Man! The rest is up to you!" Usopp returned to Arlong Park and saw William, Zoro, and Sanji fighting Arlong, but Luffy was nowhere to be seen.

"Chew? He was actually taken down by a fool like this?" Learning that his last remaining companion had been defeated by a human who did not even look like a warrior, Arlong's rage reached its limit. He flung William aside and strode toward Usopp.

"Special Attack: Fire Star! How can it have no effect?" Usopp discovered that the Firebird Star attack, which had been so effective against Chew, had absolutely no effect on Arlong. It would have been one thing if Arlong had dodged, but Arlong took the Firebird Star head-on without avoiding it at all.

"Special Attack: Fire Star!" Usopp, who had been confident moments earlier, quickly fell into a panic. Though several Firebird Stars in a row struck Arlong, Usopp only became more unsettled.

"Longnose, go die!" Arlong raised his wet right hand, preparing to use the same technique he had used against Sanji on Usopp.

"Hey, you damned shark!" William used Shave to move in front of Usopp and blocked Arlong's attack with his body. He shouted furiously, "Don't pick the wrong opponent. Great Eruption!"

A massive blaze surged toward Arlong. Although the flames William expelled in human form were not as powerful as those in his beast-man form, they were still enough to burn Arlong. If he had not been worried about accidentally burning the injured Zoro to death, this Great Eruption could have covered nearly half of Arlong Park.