Whoosh.
The words left his mouth and Rocks was already moving.
He stepped off with Sonido and vanished from where he stood.
The speed was beyond what ordinary eyes could track.
Everyone on the field saw nothing but a blur, and then he was gone.
“That speed…”
Arlong alone could barely make out the movement.
His pupils contracted sharply.
A cold alarm rose without reason.
A Fish-Man’s instincts were telling him clearly: death was coming for him.
If he didn’t act, he was going to die.
“Just a human…”
Trusting his instincts, Arlong refused to stand still and take it.
His eyes burned with fury and killing intent.
“DIE!!”
He saw himself as a noble Fish-Man.
Humans existed to break under his strength.
He still didn’t know what that pressure was, but this person had come at him.
Then let him feel what a Fish-Man could do.
“Fish-Man Karate: Shark Straight!!”
No time to bring the blade down.
Arlong’s right arm muscles surged.
He threw a Fish-Man Karate opening strike straight at Rocks.
A punch that could pulverize solid rock.
“You get a serious punch!!”
A wild, unrestrained grin spread across Rocks’s face.
He watched the massive fist coming at him, didn’t dodge, didn’t guard.
He just drove his own fist straight forward.
A deep resonance rang out.
In the instant of the swing, Armament Haki coated his fist.
He applied the Dick-Style’s particular method of force generation.
Ripples formed at the leading edge of his knuckles.
The air itself shook under the blow.
This was Rocks throwing a serious punch.
No probing.
No holding back.
From the moment he committed, he was going for the kill.
This was Rocks’s way of fighting.
A lion hunting a rabbit still hunts with everything it has.
The moment someone became his enemy, he resolved them as fast as possible.
Boom.
Crack.
What was a Fish-Man’s monstrous strength worth?
Rocks’s own physical constitution was extraordinary, and on top of that he had Armament Haki coating his fist and the full force of the Dick-Style’s core technique behind it.
The next moment after fist met fist, a thunderous detonation rang out.
Then the sound of bone shattering.
“AAAGH!!”
A raw, agonized scream tore out of Arlong.
Under Rocks’s punch, Arlong’s right arm burst like an overfilled balloon.
The force passed through and kept going, tearing into what was inside.
More than half of Arlong’s body detonated outward.
The scene was brutal.
What was left of Arlong flew backward and crashed into the building behind him, bringing it down in rubble.
“Have to give it to a Fish-Man.
He actually took that punch.
You really can’t underestimate strong fighters out here.”
Through his Observation Haki, Arlong’s presence was still there.
Half his body blown apart and he still hadn’t died.
Rocks made a quiet note of it.
One full-force punch and he had not finished the job.
A remarkably tough body, a remarkable will to live.
Worthy of the Fish-Man name.
“Cero.”
On the principle of finishing what you start, Rocks curled his index finger.
Jade-green light danced at his fingertip and formed an energy ball the size of a volleyball.
BOOM!
Rocks snapped his finger.
The volleyball-sized Cero shot straight into the rubble.
The explosion shook every eardrum on the field.
Fire erupted into the sky, shockwave blasting outward.
The rubble, and the dying Arlong within it, became fragments.
All that remained was a vast scorched crater, trailing black smoke.
Every conscious person on the field went absolutely still.
The Arlong Pirates in particular looked like their eyes might fall out of their heads.
Their core.
Their strongest.
Arlong.
Gone in an instant.
Not even a body left behind.
“Wh-what a monster…”
Across the field, Buggy’s jaw had dropped completely.
He stared at the scene with an expression he had lost all control over.
What in the world was this person?
That was a close call.
A very close call.
An irrational wave of relief washed over Buggy.
Thank goodness he had folded fast earlier and hadn’t pushed Rocks too far.
If that purple-skinned Fish-Man couldn’t take one punch, there would have been nothing left of him at all.
“Damn it!
He killed Captain Arlong!”
“All together!
Avenge him!”
“Kill him!”
Perhaps the drive to avenge their captain burned through the fear.
The Arlong Pirates’ remaining officers and the few Fish-Men still conscious had no thought of running.
They charged at Rocks with bloodshot eyes, ready to die avenging their captain.
Knowing they couldn’t win and charging anyway.
It was the same as walking into death.
But it was worth respecting.
“Kuina, they’re yours.”
Rocks didn’t even look at the Fish-Men charging at him.
He turned to Kuina.
“They’re not weak.
Good practice.”
Leave the roots and they grow back.
Rocks wasn’t the kind of person who preyed on the weak or raided innocent people.
But he didn’t hold back against enemies.
Even if these Fish-Men hadn’t charged at him, Rocks wouldn’t have let them go.
Besides, whoever wiped out the Arlong Pirates on record wasn’t him.
It was the Buggy Pirates.
The Buggy Pirates would carry that one.
“Got it.”
The Wado Ichimonji cleared its scabbard.
Kuina pushed off and charged straight at the oncoming Fish-Man officers.
“Isshin Style: Round Dance!!”
Kuina was far from weak, and she had trained hard.
Even Arlong himself might have struggled against her.
Her blade came down like a streak of pale light.
In the flicker of that blade, several Fish-Men fell.
Blood flew.
Screams.
Bodies in pools of red.
Three of the stronger Fish-Man officers remained.
The three together gave her something to work against, but Kuina still held the upper hand.
Every slash was precise and light.
The killing intent in each one was unmistakable.
Ten minutes, roughly.
The last three officers fell in succession under her blade.
A flick of the Wado Ichimonji shook the blood from the blade.
It went back into the scabbard with a clean ring of steel.
Kuina looked at the last to fall, the octopus Fish-Man, and offered a quiet verdict.
“Six-Sword Style?
Flashy and empty.”
She had expected the octopus Fish-Man’s Six-Sword Style to give her a real fight.
It had turned out to be all flash.
She couldn’t work up much enthusiasm about it.
Rocks glanced at the fallen octopus Fish-Man without comment.
Those who serve evil and die in its service have no one to blame.
“First time fighting Fish-Men,” Rocks said, looking at Kuina as she stood with her sword sheathed.
“What did you think?”
Kuina considered it.
“Their strength is remarkable.
Their bodies are tough.
It takes real effort to cut through them.”
“Fish-Men’s physical constitution is genuinely above the norm,” Rocks said.
“But once you reach the iron-cutting threshold, that stops being a problem.”
“Obviously!”
Kuina gave him a look, then said after a pause: “I think I’m getting close to the iron-cutting threshold.
Just need the right trigger…”