Amidst Hody Jones's roars, the other sacs began to tremble violently.
"Wooo! Kill him, kill him! How dare he hurt Big Brother Jones, dos!"
"We have become stronger than ever. We will dominate the seas! The Fish-Men will rise to supremacy because of us!"
"Ahhh! Let me out! I want to tear his flesh apart and devour it, kaka!"
"Hehehe! Before he bites you to death, let me absorb all the water from his body first!"
Gulp… some of the sacs sounded as if they were struggling to speak, their voices slurred together into incomprehensible babble.
A cacophony of chaotic, hoarse cries filled the room, echoing in a frightening symphony.
"What in the world are these things…?!" the little one whimpered, his fur standing on end as the pitch-black sacs shuddered grotesquely. He dove behind Shirogai in fright.
"Could this be… the sea monsters Mama spoke of…" he stuttered.
"Don't be afraid," Shirogai said calmly, reaching out to reassure the trembling boy. He studied the shaking sacs with a relaxed gaze and a small smile. "These are nothing more than monstrosities — Fish-Men who rejected their own nature, abandoned their identity, and became twisted abominations."
Crack!
The sacs burst open from within, rupturing like overripe shells.
Splat! Splat! Splat!
Thick, foul-smelling slime pooled on the floor as several grotesque figures crawled out, their bodies slick with the putrid fluid.
Their contorted forms writhed and stretched painfully, grotesquely reshaping themselves.
"Hehehe… so hungry…" they murmured in distorted voices, their twisted eyes fixing on Shirogai and Akiue Hoshi.
"Delicious food has delivered itself to us!"
The first figure to emerge was unmistakable — a hulking, muscular form vaguely resembling Hody Jones. His head still bore its jagged shape, but his body, thought long destroyed by lightning, had bizarrely regenerated. Black, viscous masses fused with half-formed limbs, twisting and coiling like living shadows.
A low, crunching sound emanated from the darkness itself, as though some abyssal force gnawed within.
"Jahahaha! You! Admiral… you actually dared to leave your Marine ship and come into OUR territory!"
Next to him, a bloodshot hammerhead Fish-Man stood, its left arm transformed into a colossal crab-like pincer, the other tipped with long, jagged spikes. Across its abdomen gaped a new, fang-lined mouth that greedily sucked in the seawater's nutrients.
Nearby, a black-and-white striped fish-man stared at Shirogai and then at Akiue Hoshi behind him. As its eyes fixed on her… an unsettling swallowing sound emanated from the back of its head.
Gulp.
Its skull twisted around unnaturally.
"Delicacy! Eat her! Devour her!"
A second mouth had sprouted on the rear of its skull, salivating with hunger.
Gulp.
Its head snapped back forward as the monstrous voice hissed, "Quiet! I am the master of this body!"
Another emerged — Ikaros Mu Xi, now a towering squid-like Fish-Man with a long, sharp proboscis jutting from his mouth like a spear. Each of his eight arms was lined with jagged, spinning teeth, reminiscent of a merciless grinder. Anyone caught by those arms would be torn apart in moments.
"I… I need more alcohol now that I have two mouths to feed," he slurred drunkenly.
And then there was Hyozo, the Blue-Ringed Octopus Fish-Man, his mottled tentacles swaying wildly as his disfigured second face blinked into view.
"Hehehe… with this strength! I could tear apart five of my former selves with a flick of a tentacle!"
His many limbs writhed as he advanced toward Shirogai.
"Hey! Hyozo!" snarled the mutated Hody Jones, glaring at his fellow monstrosity. "Don't steal my prey!"
But Hyozo only laughed grotesquely and surged forward.
Shirogai watched as the octopus Fish-Man extended dozens of tentacles and began manipulating the seawater within the room, shaping it into countless razor-sharp blades of condensed water.
"Water Blade Style: Ghost Condensing Blade!"
The water blades struck unseen, their force denting the ship's wood and leaving deep, slashing gouges on deck and ceiling.
Such power… Hyozo felt its strength surging through him, a cruel reward for the price he had paid.
His four eyes gleamed with dark intensity as he focused on Shirogai, sure he was moments away from turning him into shredded remains.
"Human… go to hell…"
Shirogai, however, simply smiled.
"After all that fuss, your attacks look flashy on the surface. But in reality… you're still weak."
With that, he extended his hands, both radiating with Armament Haki. He reached outward and seized the invisible water blades mid-air.
Crack! Crack!
One by one, the sea blades shattered under his grip, each fracturing effortlessly beneath the strength of Shirogai's Haki. When the final blade broke apart, his haki-imbued hands remained completely unharmed.
"What?! He's actually catching these furious water blades?!" Hyozo's faces both froze in shock.
"It's just an illusion… right?"
"It's merely a slightly enhanced form of Fish-Man Karate… the so‑called power your divine grant gives you isn't anything remarkable!" Shirogai remarked with a faint note of disappointment as he observed the shattered blades in his palms.
Then, the sea around his hands began to swirl violently as massive currents gathered.
"What a coincidence…" he said with a confident smile, "I know Fish-Man Karate too."
The mutated New Fish-Man Pirates stared in disbelief.
"What?! A human using Fish-Man Karate?!"
"How is this possible?!"
Shirogai formed a solid fist as water churned violently around him.
"Fish-Man Karate: Thousand Tile True Punch!"
A roaring surge of seawater energy blasted forward in an overwhelming torrent that struck Hyozo full force.
Boom!!!
Hyozo was hurled against the cabin walls with bone‑crushing force and blasted out through the ship's structure.
Puff.
When the violence finally subsided, Hyozo drifted in the open sea near Noah's Ark, dazed and battered.
"So strong…" he muttered, staring ahead in disbelief.
Before he could gather himself, splat — his body shattered into a red mist, collapsing back into the deep blue.
The mutated Hyozo was no more.
The difference in power between him and Shirogai had simply been too great.
____
Patreon = _Zeph