Beneath the surging, monstrous waves, a grey-blue figure shot through the water at high speed.
"Despicable humans, all of you, go to hell!"
Former Sun Pirates member, Fish-Man Arlong.
This Fish-Man racist, an incredibly arrogant saw-shark Fish-Man, after being caught in Onigumo's attack, had actually launched a frenzied assault on the Marine warships.
"Fish-Man Karate: Ocean Current Shoulder Throw!"
The moment Arlong's figure drew near, Onigumo's Observation Haki detected the abnormality. "Such intense malice." It was coming from beneath the sea. Could it be a Sea King?
Onigumo's brow had just furrowed when a violent shockwave slammed into the underside of a warship. As a giant wave crashed over it, one Marine vessel unfortunately sank. In the midst of a storm, the threat Fish-Men posed to ships was magnified to its extreme. A mere Fish-Man like Arlong, through a stroke of luck, had actually managed to capsize a Marine elite warship commanded by a Vice Admiral.
"Shahahaha!"
"Humans truly are all weak creatures! Upon the sea, Fish-Men are invincible!" Arlong, his mind thoroughly poisoned by racism, actually leaped out of the sea after sinking the warship instead of immediately diving back in. He even loudly mocked the weak humans.
Onigumo was so enraged his eyebrows practically stood on end. "Fish-Man, are you looking to die!"
Arlong's appearance also left Bellamy completely astonished. "That guy… how did he end up here?" Bellamy had a very important objective for going to the East Blue: precisely to obtain Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu. Bellamy didn't believe for a second that Arlong could survive under Onigumo's hand. Onigumo wasn't a Devil Fruit user; a mere small fry like Arlong, even if he could move quickly in the sea, how could he possibly escape the pursuit of a master swordsman?
Arlong sinking a warship was already surprising enough for him. But this guy actually dared to pop his head out of the sea? "Is he suicidal?" Onigumo's slashes really, really hurt.
"I can't just let him die like this." This Fish-Man, he still had use for him. Although, even if Arlong died, there was still a group of Fish-Men in the East Blue. But as far as Fish-Man Karate was concerned, to Bellamy's knowledge, besides Jinbe, there was Arlong. The Sun Pirates back then had gathered a large wave of Fish-Man and Merman elites. Arlong had been, at best, a minor figure among them. Unless Bellamy went to the underwater Fish-Man Kingdom to study, if he wanted to learn Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu, he really could only find Arlong. Jinbe was an agreeable fellow, but he was far away in the Grand Line, and his whereabouts were uncertain; even if Bellamy wanted to find him, he wouldn't know where to look.
"You Fish-Man trash, couldn't you just stay alive properly and wait for me to come find you?" Bellamy's hair quietly transformed into tentacles, reaching into the ammunition hold below deck and dragging out a crate of cannonballs. "How can you die without my permission!"
Gripping a cannonball tightly in his hand, Bellamy's right fist transformed into the shape of a spring. "Go, Spring Cannon!"
The instant the cannonball shot out, the enraged Onigumo brought his sword down with a devastating slash. How could a mere Arlong withstand a swordsman's flying slash? A sword aura hundreds of meters long, as if tearing the sky and rending the earth, ripped through everything before it, about to cleave Arlong completely in two.
Only at this moment did the foolish, arrogant saw-shark Fish-Man understand what a stupid thing he had done. "How is this possible! How can a mere human kill me!" Even on the brink of death, this fellow couldn't believe he was about to die at the hands of a frail human.
Just then, a cannonball tore through the air, slamming hard into Arlong's body and sending him flying. The sword aura grazed Arlong's saw-like jaw, plunging swiftly into the sea and carving a massive gash on the ocean surface. But Arlong, by an extreme stroke of luck, had survived.
"BE! LA! MY!" Onigumo roared Bellamy's name through gritted teeth. Even from several nautical miles away, Bellamy could feel his fury with perfect clarity.
"Onigumo, as long as I'm here, don't even think about doing whatever you please." Cough, cough, cough. The still-unhealed wound on his chest made Bellamy cough violently. But this didn't dampen his spirits in the slightest. "Come on, this battle isn't over yet!"
"Vice Admiral, the storm is getting fiercer! Do we really have to continue the pursuit?" They had been fighting and moving, gradually entering the eye of the storm. If they didn't escape outwards soon, they really would all be wiped out here.
"Damn it, how can we give up here!" Cough, cough, cough. Even Onigumo couldn't help but cough violently, and as he did, a trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. It seemed his physical condition wasn't as intact as it appeared.
"Vice Admiral…"
"Silence! Continue the pursuit! I will deal with that Fish-Man personally."
"Where in the Four Blues did this Fish-Man even come from?" Arlong's appearance had truly taken Onigumo by surprise. He already had a bad premonition; this pursuit was very likely to end in failure. Were the sacrifices of so many of his men ultimately going to become credentials for that pirate? How could Onigumo resign himself to that?
Several bolts of lightning suddenly streaked across the sky, the abruptly lit white light illuminating his pale face.
Deep beneath the sea, Arlong, having narrowly escaped death, stared in horror at his own large nose. The nose of a saw-shark Fish-Man was long, sharp, and serrated – a natural weapon, harder than steel. But now, this nose was broken in two. The broken surface reflected a clear light, a testament to the sharpness of that sword aura. If it had truly struck his body, Arlong would undoubtedly be dead.
"Why did Bellamy save me?" Arlong didn't believe for a second that Bellamy had any good intentions. After all, he had come all the way from the East Blue precisely for this pirate's enormous bounty. Arlong's simple brain clearly couldn't comprehend why Bellamy would save his life. But this didn't stop him from repaying kindness with enmity.
"Shahahaha! Since I can't kill these Marines, I'll just kill this pirate directly and then escape from under the sea!" Even now, Arlong still believed that humans were merely a lowly race. Fish-Men were naturally ten times stronger than humans; how could a mere pirate be his, a Fish-Man's, opponent in the sea? This racism-addled fellow had clearly learned nothing from that last sword strike.
After a bout of self-indulgence, Arlong fiercely pushed off the seabed, speeding towards Bellamy's direction. "Kill you, and all the bounty will be mine alone!"
"Shahahaha!"