"Have you ever heard that the physical strength of a Fish-Man is ten times that of a human?"
"Wha... What?!"
The captain of the Fat Bottle Pirates tried desperately to pull his saber out from Nanamo's palm. However, no matter how much force he exerted, the blade felt as if it were welded in place, remaining motionless without the slightest sign of budging.
Nanamo's hand was like an iron vise, firmly gripping his weapon. Due to racial differences, Fish-Men are born with ten times the arm strength of humans. This "ten times" calculation is based on racial averages—much like how the Navy and CP agencies calculate Doriki, viewing a trained, rifle-wielding marine as having a value of 10. Through training and exercise, some individuals can shatter this gap. Furthermore, power does not come from nowhere; bone and muscle density, along with the way power is generated from the rest of the body, are natural physical advantages.
"Forget it. Explaining this to a guy like you is meaningless."
Nanamo applied further pressure with the hand gripping the blade. The sharp edge failed to leave even a single scratch on her seemingly delicate skin. Instead, the blade—under immense pressure—began to let out a pained shriek. That wasn't the effect of Haki; it was an innate ability.
In fact, every race living upon the sea possesses unique talents. Because the living habits of different races vary wildly, their adapted survival environments and combat fields are also very different. Therefore, trying to judge which race is "stronger" or "weaker" in a crude fashion is difficult and unfair.
However, within a single race, finding someone with exceptional talent is much easier. Among humans, Charlotte Linlin's talent can be said to be top-tier. Even as a child, she possessed monstrous strength capable of swatting a giant brown bear to death, and her skin was as hard as steel. Whether it was conventional cannon fire or sharp blades, nothing could leave a mark on her. This was Charlotte Linlin's gift—the "Iron Balloon."
As the only one of Linlin's children to inherit this specific trait, Nanamo's starting point was the finish line that many others could only dream of reaching.
Clang...
Half of the broken blade fell to the ground. The sound wasn't loud, but in this environment, it felt exceptionally piercing. The captain of the Fat Bottle Pirates looked on in terror, staring in disbelief at the jagged break in his sword. It hadn't snapped from brute force; it looked more like it had been corroded and melted by something.
"Fish-Man Karate: Water Shot — Acid Rain!"
A mass of liquid seemed to condense in Nanamo's right hand, looking as if it might drip at any moment. But as she swung her fist, the liquid instantly transformed into countless tiny water needles, shooting like a torrential storm toward the pirates attempting to sneak up on her from behind.
The Water Shot (Uchimizu) is one of the most basic techniques of the Fish-Man Karate style and its primary long-range method. The principle is simple: use the liquid condensed on the hand like a bullet, with the range and piercing power determined by the user's strength.
Nanamo's Water Shot acted like a shotgun blast, piercing through the bodies of several pirates. The water arrows didn't lose momentum after passing through the enemies, embedding themselves directly into the nearby wall. Immediately after, the small holes in the wall emitted a sizzling sound. Accompanied by wisps of white smoke, the holes expanded and deepened at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Agh... AHHH!"
In that dense volley of attacks, the pirates who were killed instantly by hits to vital spots were the lucky ones. Because Nanamo's attack was like buckshot, there were inevitably uncontrollable factors regarding exactly where it hit. Some "lucky" ones managed to avoid vital organs, but the acidic liquid remaining in their wounds and inside their bodies began to corrode them from within.
An intense burning sensation, as if coming from the depths of hell, erupted violently from inside their bodies. The agony made it impossible for them to even speak. In the end, they could only curl up on the ground in excruciating pain, their bodies twitching as they squeezed out broken, tuneless sounds from their throats. From this perspective, avoiding a fatal wound just now wasn't luck—it was a misfortune.
However, the pain didn't last long. As their bodily functions collapsed under the acid's corrosion, they quickly lost the ability to feel pain altogether, and their lives faded away.
"Mon... Monster! These two damn brats are monsters! Run! Run away!"
Having witnessed Katakuri slaughtering his subordinates like cutting grass on one side, and seeing his men collapse from just one of Nanamo's attacks on the other, the captain's final psychological defense crumbled. He threw away his broken hilt and, ignoring the lives of his remaining crew, fled backward in a pathetic scramble.
"Honestly, you're already in the New World, how are you still so ignorant? You could at least call us 'Ability Users'."
Nanamo was dissatisfied with the "monster" label. There are plenty of strange abilities on the sea, most related to Devil Fruits.
"With your level of strength and awareness... no, I should say it's exactly because your brain is so smooth that you'd do something like this."
Nanamo's ability wasn't actually from a Devil Fruit, but a natural talent derived from her Fish-Man lineage. For example, Arlong (as a Shark Fish-Man) can rapidly regrow teeth, and Sebastian (as a Wobbegong Fish-Man) can use camouflage. These traits are greatly enhanced in Fish-Men and Merfolk. Due to genetics, the offspring of Fish-Men don't necessarily have the same species traits as their parents; there is a level of randomness.
Because the variety of fish in this sea far exceeds common knowledge—including seahorses, octopuses, and other marine life—special abilities occasionally appear. Often, Fish-Men themselves can't explain their own situation and have to rely on books to figure it out.
Nanamo's fish species was a type of marine organism capable of releasing corrosive liquids. In her hands, this acid was further enhanced, capable of easily corroding even metal.
The captain didn't hear a word she said. He only wanted to escape this hellish place. Though he didn't know where to run, his primal survival instinct pushed him forward.
But reality is often cruel. There was no glimmer of hope for his survival. All that awaited him was the trident thrown by Katakuri.
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