Shirogai pointed upward with a relaxed grin.
"The Muscle Fish‑Man above my head is already in position. He used an attack from below as a feint, but in truth, he slipped in from above, waiting for the right moment to strike."
Suddenly, Dharma's voice echoed angrily from inside the cabin above, his senses strained as he barely determined Shirogai's location. He bared his teeth, preparing to bite down.
"That mutated two‑headed shark will attempt to clamp my neck with his giant pincers, but instead he'll accidentally send the invisible Fish‑Man in his path flying. The squid Fish‑Man who was manipulating tentacles from afar to entangle me will also be thrown off."
Shirogai's grin widened.
"I'll crush you for sure, Dos!!!"
At that instant, Dos roared, bloodshot eyes blazing, disregarding Shirogai's words as he wildly thrust his massive pincers forward.
"Don't come over!!!!!!" he screeched.
But his shout exposed two terrified expressions on an invisible figure.
"Oh no!"
Just as Shirogai had predicted, Jeo — startled by Shirogai speaking his intentions aloud — hastily changed direction. In a cruel coincidence, he moved directly into Dos's swinging path.
"No!!!"
Bang!
Jeo was struck and sent flying, crashing into Mu Xi, who was just about to manipulate his tentacles to attack Shirogai.
Bang! Swish!
Mu Xi's tentacles instinctively wrapped around Jeo's transparent form, tearing and biting without hesitation.
Crunch, crunch!
Behind Jeo, the blood‑red maw, driven by primal hunger, lashed out and bit into Mu Xi's tentacles.
"Awoo! Delicious!!!"
In moments, the two former allies began devouring one another uncontrollably.
…
Shirogai continued, voice composed:
"The moment it charges, the Muscle Fish‑Man above will attack me from below but instead ram his bite straight into the giant pincer he swung."
He gently pulled little Akiue Hoshi aside by her collar.
Crack!
The deck above him shattered, and a ferocious serrated maw lunged downward, roaring:
"I'm going to bite you to death!"
Just as Shirogai said, it clamped down on Dos's giant crab pincer with a crunch.
Hanging in the air, Dharma blinked in confusion.
"Humans taste like crab?"
Dos's agonized screams echoed as he grasped his shattered, blood‑soaked crab pincer.
"It hurts so much! It hurts so much! Dos!!!"
From nearby, Hody Jones watched in utter shock, bewilderment flashing in his blood‑red eyes.
"What happened! What in the world just happened?!"
Everything that unfolded was beyond the comprehension of this mutant Fish‑Man who had never ventured beyond Fish‑Man Island, but dreamt grandly of ruling the world by Fish‑Men alone.
He could not fathom how this Admiral, without raising a finger, predicted every action of his subordinates seconds in advance while conversing casually.
"What kind of sorcery is this?!"
Hody Jones finally lost the last of his fragile arrogance.
The unknown is terrifying.
Especially when the person capable of effortlessly destroying your body and eerily controlling the future is your foe.
"Oh, that's Observation Haki. It's an ability strong individuals on land can learn. Want to learn? Even if you did, I wouldn't teach you."
Shirogai smiled at the shocked Jones, then turned to Akiue Hoshi behind him, chuckling.
"Little one, want to learn?"
"Me? Can I…?"
She asked weakly, stunned.
Doesn't she know how powerful this ability is?!
Hody Jones stared at Akiue Hoshi in disbelief.
If she could master this, wouldn't she be invincible?
That hated Jinbe never taught Fish‑Men this skill!
Even Fish‑Men of power had never offered it to save their fallen nation.
At that thought, Jones's rage twisted further.
"Of course," Shirogai said, patting her head before rising to face Hody, whose body writhed with black viscous tentacles.
"What did that statue do to you? You've fused with multiple bodies."
Hody sneered, suddenly producing a large sack of E.S. Drug from his body, his grin malicious.
"Let's see what strength this divine medicine grants when combined with my current enhanced form!"
Crack!
Over two hundred E.S. Drug pills were swallowed at once.
Thump… thump…
Hody Jones's eyes twisted with agony and fiery intensity as he glared at his trembling allies.
"Don't hold back! Swallow all your E.S. Drug right now!"
He leaned against the wall, trembling with rage as he bellowed hoarsely:
"Get up! Kill him! With his corpse, we'll have leverage against Neptune! Let those humans unleash all their wrath over their Admiral's death on that worthless royal family!
Don't you want to see Fish‑Men strutting upon land, freely insulting those detestable humans?!
Isn't that our dream?!
Have you all lost your fighting spirit just by facing one human Admiral?!"
Crack!
The entire wall exploded under his force.
"Our dream isn't over! We must still enslave humans!"
At Hody's furious roars, some mutated Fish‑Men's wills flared again.
"My hand hurts so much! It hurts so much! Dos!" Dos wailed as he forced dozens of E.S. Drug pills down in one gulp.
Thump… thump…
His heartbeat twisted his muscles violently, pain tearing through him like death itself.
"Damn you humans!! I hurt so much! This suffering is your fault!!!"
The deck groaned and cracked under the immense energy.
Jeo, standing in a pool of his own blood, shakily rose.
"Phew. It was fate I was hit by Dos at that moment. Now I'll defeat that human Admiral who humiliated me!"
He pulled out a bag with over a hundred E.S. Drug pills, handed them to the gaping maw behind his head, then swallowed them without hesitation.
Thump… thump…
His red pupils constricted wildly, a wave of disorienting numbness surging through him.
The fleshy mouth with its forked tongue twisted in a feral grin, roaring so fiercely that seawater violently exploded outward, shattering distant walls.
"My body… it hurts so much!"
Almost all of Mu Xi's tentacles had been bitten off by the ravenous maw behind Jeo's skull. Only two broken arms remained as he clawed out a half‑bag of pills, consuming them in desperation.
His body convulsed, then expanded rapidly, mind drowning in chaos as he fixed his gaze on Shirogai with beastly ferocity.
Crack!
Meanwhile, Dharma — the only one not yet grievously wounded — had swollen dramatically after consuming nearly a hundred pills. His small but dense muscles bulged grotesquely, his body threatening to tear itself apart.
"It hurts so much! It hurts so much!!!" he screamed, rolling across the ground with sharp shrieks.
"Fish‑Men are the strongest in this world! I'll bite through the skulls of all humans! Cackle!"
The deck groaned and sank where he passed, as though crushed by a colossal beast.
"Human Master, you, you defeat them quickly! They look even stronger now."
Akiue Hoshi peered fearfully from behind Shirogai, confused that he allowed his enemies to grow stronger before acting.
"Do you know why I'm not attacking yet?" Shirogai asked gently, lowering his head with a smile toward Akiue Hoshi.
Opportunity!
In that instant, several Fish‑Men leaped forward, ferociously assaulting Shirogai, who kept his head lowered.
"Die, human!!!"
"Hmph! This time you're dead!"
Hody Jones swung with fierce intent, aiming at Shirogai's head.
"Look out!"
Akiue Hoshi cried.
"Don't worry, hehe, I'm just borrowing this…"
Shirogai smiled as he tapped the long sword Hyozo had dropped earlier.
"Sashimi is best when it's finely sliced!"
In a blink, Shirogai seemed to transform entirely.
"Sword Skill: Atomic Slash!"
His eyes sharpened as he swung the long sword, performing millions of imperceptibly fast slashes in a span of seconds.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
When the flashes ceased, the entire cabin was empty.
"Whoa… whoa…" Akiue covered her face, breath trembling in discomfort.
The seawater that once filled the cabin had evaporated under the torrent of Shirogai's lightning‑fast slashes.
"Why didn't you act sooner?" she asked weakly.
Shirogai looked toward Hody Jones, who was dissolving in mid‑air into transparent slices of Fish‑Man flesh, and chuckled.
"Because even if I gave them a lifetime, they still wouldn't have been my match."
Thin slices of raw Fish‑Man, scarcely half a millimeter thick, rained onto the deck, blanketing its surface.
The New Fish‑Man Pirates. Annihilated.
===
Sorry for the late update.
____
Also, if you want to read more, look up '_Zeph' on patreon