Arlong Park (5)

PS: Here's today's update. Also, please vote for Qidian's 515 Fan Festival. Everyone has eight votes, and voting even earns Qidian coins. I'm begging for your support and tips!

"Thousand Tile True Punch!" Arlong, his skin burned, unleashed a Thousand Tile-level Fish-Man Karate straight punch in his fury, sending William flying. Thousand Tile True Punch was Kuroobi's strongest move, yet Arlong could use it so casually. It was clear that Arlong was far stronger than Kuroobi.

Arlong's attack tore open William's not-yet-healed wounds again. Intense pain ravaged his body, and he had no idea how Zoro, whose injuries were even worse than his, had managed to endure this long.

All William could do now was stall for time. As long as Sanji got Luffy out, it would be enough. They absolutely could not let Arlong enter the water, or they would all be finished. William did not know when he had started fighting with his life on the line. In the past, couldn't he have simply taken Nami and fled far away?

"Go, Captain!" Sanji dove underwater and saw Nojiko dragging Luffy toward the surface. He immediately swam closer, then kicked Luffy out of the water with all his strength. In Sanji's eyes, this was the fastest way to get Luffy out of the water.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the target had to be a rubber man like Luffy, someone who could take a beating. Otherwise, even if they did not drown, Sanji's kick would kill them.

"Rubber Whip! Rubber Bullet! Rubber Gun Gatling!" Luffy instantly regained his vigor after bursting from the water. The moment he spotted the burned Arlong, he launched a chain of attacks. After giving Arlong a brutal beating, he did not forget to add, "Hehe, warm-up's over!"

"Can you understand my anger?" Faced with Luffy's sudden assault, Arlong neither dodged nor fought back. The fury in his heart had already surpassed the pain in his body. With a dark expression, he said, "The anger of watching comrades I love get defeated by vermin like you. You should atone with your death."

"If that guy loses, all of you will die!" William said as he rested against the wall. Although Arlong was terrifyingly strong, he was not powerful enough to keep William behind. At the very least, Arlong had no way to stop the entire Straw Hat Pirates from leaving. But the villagers of Cocoyasi Village were different. Facing an enraged Arlong, they would not even have a chance to run.

"Yeah, and East Blue will be finished too!" Nojiko, sitting beside him, also knew what would happen if Luffy lost. But they had no ability to change it.

"If that guy loses, I'll chop him up!" Zoro, supported by Sanji as he came over, barely squeezed out the words. He truly was a restless severely wounded patient. Seeing Zoro's life force surpass that of an ordinary human, William sometimes wondered whether Zoro was even human.

"Zoro, are your injuries all right?" Usopp hurriedly asked.

After leaving Baratie, the all-purpose Usopp had taken on the role of temporary ship's doctor, changing the bandages on the two of them. He knew Zoro's wounds better than anyone. They were injuries that frightened people just by looking at them. Perhaps only Zoro could survive them. If it had been anyone else, they would have died long ago.

"I won't die yet!" Though he said that, he knew his current condition very well: his fatal wounds had reopened, and he had a severe fever.

To put it bluntly, the Grim Reaper was already standing before him.

"Do you know where the fundamental gap between us lies?" Arlong rose to his feet and said arrogantly, "We Fish-Men are the evolved form of humans. Why should we be ruled by inferior humans like you?"

"Your nose? Your chin?" Faced with Arlong's question, Luffy unexpectedly began to think. Then, as always, he gave the answer he believed was correct. "Webbed feet!"

"It's race!" Arlong bit at Luffy. He could not believe that Arlong Park, which he had spent so many years building with his own hands, had been ruined by a pirate who looked like such an idiot.

"What terrifying bite force! If he bites someone, forget tooth marks—there won't even be any bones left." Sanji was shocked when he saw Arlong bite straight through a stone pillar.

Not to mention the others—even William, who knew Arlong possessed this ability, felt a chill run down his back upon seeing it with his own eyes. If Arlong had used that move on any one of them earlier, the result was too horrifying to imagine.

"This is the innate power of Fish-Men. From the moment we are born, we are destined to belong to a different class!" Arlong clenched his fist and asked, "What can an inferior human like you do?"

"I can beat you!" Luffy said matter-of-factly after smashing Arlong's teeth with a punch.

It was a very plain sentence. Simple and direct, yet incredibly domineering. How many people would dare say something like that?

"Wishful thinking! Sharks can keep growing new teeth, and they're even stronger than before." Arlong shed his shattered teeth and grew new ones.

"That looks amazing!" Luffy said with some envy.

In Luffy's eyes, there had never been any difference between other races and humans, even though Fish-Men were currently the only nonhuman race he had encountered. When it came to protecting their companions, Arlong was actually much like Luffy. Arlong could destroy an entire village for one companion, while Luffy had come to settle the score with Arlong's crew because they had made his companion cry.

"Do you see now? Do you understand what an outstanding race Fish-Men are?" Arlong had been driven nearly mad by Luffy's idiotic behavior. He bit at Luffy again. "Iron Teeth Technique!"

Facing Arlong's Iron Teeth Technique, Luffy had no choice but to dodge. He was a rubber man and was not afraid of blunt attacks, but Arlong's Iron Teeth Technique could tear his body apart. One bite, and he would be finished.

"Brat, you dare use my companion as a shield?" Arlong saw that Luffy had actually used an unconscious Fish-Man as a human shield, and he wanted nothing more than to slice Luffy into a thousand pieces to vent the hatred in his heart.

"Aren't you the one who bit him?" Although Arlong was nearly insane, Luffy did not think it was his responsibility. In his mind, he had merely propped up the Fish-Man lying on the ground. The one who had truly hurt him was Arlong himself, so Luffy could not be blamed.

"Luffy, do your best! You have to defeat Arlong!" Nami, who had rushed to the scene, shouted at Luffy as he fought Arlong.

"Nami, what do you mean by this?" Arlong asked angrily.

"I came to die together with everyone!" Yet when Nami said those words, she felt incomparably relieved.

When she decided to come, she had already decided to live and die alongside the villagers and the Straw Hat Crew. But when she arrived at Arlong Park, she found that aside from Arlong, every Fish-Man, including the three top officers, had been taken down by the Straw Hat Crew. Even Arlong himself bore obvious injuries. That monster, who had seemed incomparably powerful in her eyes, had actually been wounded. It was something she had never dared believe before.

"What did you say?" Arlong could not believe his ears. Hadn't Nami always been protecting her village? Who exactly was this straw-hatted brat before him? Not only had he made a Marine colonel and a pirate hunter join his pirate crew, he had even made Nami give up the village she had protected for so many years?

"We won't die. Because I'm going to defeat him!"

"Nami, believe in him! He's our captain!" William actually had one more thing he did not say: even if Luffy lost, he and Sanji could still join forces against Arlong.

"Luffy, take him down! Leave the support to me!" Usopp shouted at Luffy. But after Arlong cast him a cold glance, he shrank back. The only reason he had dared say that was because William and the others were beside him.

"I'm going to sleep for a while!" Zoro said, hugging Wado Ichimonji. He knew that in his current state, he could not continue fighting, and he had never had the habit of being a deserter. If Luffy was defeated, he would be killed as well. Yet he entrusted his life to his companions, believing Luffy would definitely win.

"Princess Nami, even if that guy loses, it'll be fine. You still have me!" The heroic image Sanji had worked so hard to establish was instantly labeled "lovesick fool" by the villagers. Still, his lovestruck behavior eased the tense atmosphere considerably.

"Go, Straw Hat!" The villagers who had been watching hurriedly shouted. They had placed all their hopes on Luffy. Though only around ten minutes had passed since the Straw Hat Pirates stormed into Arlong Park, to them, it had been an agonizingly long wait.

"Where did he go?" Luffy suddenly realized that Arlong had vanished without a trace.

"Luffy, watch out! He's in the water!" William and the others shouted a warning.

[515 is almost here. I hope we can keep pushing for the 515 Red Packet Rankings. From now until May 15, the red packet rain can reward readers while promoting the work. Even one yuan is love—I'll definitely keep updating well!]