Chapter 33: As You Wish — You Asked for It!
"Kill—!"
In an instant, pirates by the dozens leapt from the three ships, charging the fishmen. The sheer momentum rattled the fishmen's nerves.
"Kill!"
Arlong's face went dark as ink. He gave the same order.
The fishmen pirates roared and rushed to meet them.
Arlong, wielding his serrated greatsword, led the charge and clashed first with the Cat Brothers. Under Jango's hypnosis they were wildly pumped; Arlong couldn't blast them away at once and got entangled.
Zoro, the battle corps commander, came off the ship a bit late and ended up facing Hachi.
Johnson and Rocky with several bruisers surrounded Kuroobi.
Jango led a group of hypnotized underlings to swarm the kissing-fishman Chuu.
The remaining fishmen were drowned under the Money Pirates' tide of bodies. A fishman's strength might be ten times a human's, but when a dozen or twenty humans gang up on one, even a fishman can't fend off blows from every side.
Soon enough, one fishman was hacked down.
"Aaah—" The salmon fishman Shioyaki let out his last scream.
Arlong snapped his head that way and saw Shioyaki's butchered corpse. Cruel to humans though he was, he treated his own kind well. Rage surged through him.
"Shioyaki!"
He roared and hewed at the Cat Brothers with his serrated blade, smashing them both away. He didn't press for the kill, but sprinted toward where Shioyaki had fallen.
Just then, a figure flashed in from afar, blade scything down. The speed made even Arlong's heart clench. He had no time to think—he threw his sword up to block.
"Tsubame Gaeshi!"
Lister feinted one stroke, spun, and slashed again into empty air at Arlong's flank. The second cut was faster and sharper, one breath from start to finish.
Arlong couldn't react. With a wet rip, his arm flew.
"Graaah—!"
Blood sprayed; the ragged stump sent waves of pain crashing through him. Eyes gone scarlet, he bellowed and whipped the serrated blade at Lister.
Lister's outline flickered back several meters. Arlong's strike cleaved air and kicked up a ring of wind.
"You damned lowly human! I'll chop you into pieces!"
Dragging the greatsword, Arlong hurled himself at Lister, forgetting everything else.
Lister didn't move. He recalled a scene from a film in his previous world—Ding Ying's white flash severing Shen Lian's blade.
He let his breathing settle. As Arlong's saw-tooth cleaved down, Lister drew.
An upward flick, then a downward chop—two strokes in perfect measure, angle, and power, all in one fluid line.
Clang.
Arlong's serrated sword snapped in two. The broken half bit into the ground.
Arlong froze. His blade… broken? Impossible. His weapon was a serrated greatsword; Lister's was only a katana. A katana severing a greatsword? It shouldn't be possible.
Yet Lister had done it.
Blood hissed out again.
While Arlong stared, Lister didn't. He slashed once more, carving a long wound across Arlong's torso. Blood poured as if it cost nothing. Arlong reeled, then dropped to one knee, propping himself on the stump of his sword, panting, bleeding, eyes fixed on Lister.
"A true expert shouldn't be a nobody. Why haven't I heard your name?"
"Probably because I only just set out," Lister said lightly.
"Just set out… ha… hahaha…" Arlong's laugh was soaked with bitterness and defeat. The gap between people is bigger than the gap between a man and a pig. He'd roamed the seas for a decade or two and still ended up squatting over a backwater patch in the East Blue. This newcomer had taken him down with ease. It was too much to stomach.
"Boss Arlong!"
The other fishmen finally noticed his condition and shouted in panic.
"Fighting me and you still have time to worry about others? How little you think of me," Zoro sneered—and a single Oni Giri sent Hachi sprawling.
Johnson and Rocky, with help, chopped Kuroobi down.
The rest of the fishmen collapsed the moment Arlong fell, and the Money Pirates finished them off.
"Can you still fight? If not, the Fishman Pirates are finished," Lister said, gaze sweeping the field before settling on Arlong.
"Don't underestimate fishmen, lowly human. If I have to bite, I'll bite you to death!"
Grinding his teeth, Arlong hurled himself forward, heedless of his wounds.
Silent Step.
Lister slipped past the lunge and appeared behind him. His blade flashed again. Tendons at Arlong's knee were severed. Arlong pitched forward.
Lister stepped up and planted a boot between his shoulders.
"When you tormented Nami, did you ever think you'd end up like this?" he asked coldly.
"If you're stronger, kill me or carve me—do whatever you want. Don't talk so much," Arlong spat, face iron-blue.
Lister answered by grinding his heel down. More blood seeped from the gash on Arlong's chest, staining the ground.
"Relax. I won't kill you. Your life belongs to Nami."
"Nami!"
She came down from the ship and walked over. Looking at Arlong sprawled in the dirt, she felt not a flicker of pity—only the grind of her teeth.
"Nami, he's yours," Lister said.
On her way, Nami grabbed a pirate's axe. She stood over Arlong, looking down.
"Heh… heh… heh…"
Arlong tilted his head up to her, glanced at the axe, and laughed, his voice full of spite.
"No matter. One day I'll turn the tables. A tiger fallen to the flats for dogs to bully… If I'd known this, I should have killed you outright back then!"
"Regret? Too late. There's no medicine for that in this world," Nami said, voice cold. "Any last words? Say them now."
"Fine then, Nami—don't hold back. Be decisive. Just like when I killed your foster mother," Arlong sneered, begging for death by reopening the oldest wound.
"As you wish."
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