Chapter 43: Don't You Find It Quite Ridiculous?

Thank you?

Hearing those two words, every single member of the Arlong Pirates froze in place.

Immediately afterward, they looked at each other and burst into loud laughter.

"Hey! This punk actually thinks we were praising him!"

"No wonder he's so naive. He cuts down a mere few trees and actually thinks he can block the road!"

A salmon fish-man named Kurobi stepped forward, impatiently reaching out to grab Xia Nuo's arm. "Alright, brat, clear the way for us. We don't have time to play house with you here—"

Huh?

Kurobi lowered his head in a daze, looking at his own hand. What was going on? Why couldn't he pull him?

He was the banquet minister of the Arlong Pirates, an officer nonetheless! Just a mere human, how could this be possible with his arm strength?

"Get up, dammit—!"

Refusing to believe it, Kurobi let out a low growl from the back of his throat, increasing his strength step by step.

Finally, using both hands, he even turned his back and pushed with his shoulders for a hard lift. He strained until his eyes were bloodshot and the veins on his forehead bulged violently, yet the opponent remained completely motionless, as if rooted to the ground.

"What are you doing, Kurobi?"

"With that pathetic strength, you still have the nerve to call yourself an officer?"

"Are you putting on a one-man show?"

The surrounding fish-men mocked him one after another. Truth be told, Kurobi's position as banquet minister didn't carry much weight, and his status on the ship was only slightly higher than that of an ordinary fish-man.

"Shut up, all of you!"

Kurobi suddenly barked, and the surroundings instantly fell silent. "A bunch of idiots, can't you tell? It's not Kurobi's fault—this human brat is no ordinary guy!"

Within the Arlong Pirates, his authority was second only to Arlong, and his status was equivalent to that of the vice-captain.

Prompted by his words, the rest of the fish-men began to look Xia Nuo up and down, their expressions turning uncertain and suspicious.

"Step back, Kurobi. You really can't do anything against this kid."

Kurobi twisted his neck, clashing his fists together, and said indifferently, "It seems my luck isn't too bad after all. In a tiny village like this, I actually get to run into someone worthy of being my opponent. Come on, let's see just how much you're really worth, kid!"

"Is that so? Unfortunately, from where I'm standing, you don't even qualify."

Xia Nuo looked at him and suddenly smiled. "How about you just let that purple-skinned little shark behind you go instead?"

A purple-skinned little shark?

The fish-men were stunned and instinctively turned their heads to look back.

Noticing the expression on Arlong's face, which had suddenly turned gloomy, they snapped back to their senses, realizing just how audacious this fellow was—he was actually referring to their own captain.

"Sha-ha-ha-ha—" Arlong smiled without any warmth in his eyes. "Hey, Kurobi, you heard what this brat said, right?"

"Show some respect to Lord Arlong!"

Kurobi flew into a rage, lunging forward a few steps. "And you! Stinking brat, I gave you face, yet you still dare to look down on me? Stop being so arrogant! I am a powerhouse with forty Dan in Fish-Man Karate!"

"Karate?"

Xia Nuo tilted his head in confusion, as if hearing the word for the very first time. "What kind of hand?"

***

Kurobi's expression turned ferocious, and just as he was about to erupt, his peripheral vision caught sight of two bloody, severed hands appearing on the ground out of nowhere.

A piercing, agonizing pain suddenly struck him.

It was only then that he realized something was wrong. Tremblingly, he raised his arms, only to discover in horror that they were truncated just above the elbows...

Wh-when did this happen?

Absolute silence fell over the surrounding fish-men.

Many of them widened their eyes. They had been watching closely the entire time, yet none of them had seen when this black-haired human had made his move.

At the very back, Arlong's pupils contracted sharply, his face growing even frostier.

He had seen it clearly. In merely a split second, that kid had wrenched off Kurobi's arms.

And he hadn't used any weapons—he had simply torn them off with his bare hands!

This was supposed to be just the East Blue; how could such a troublesome monster exist here?

At that very moment.

Under Kurobi's panicked gaze, Xia Nuo finally stood up slowly, stretched his neck slightly, and began walking calmly toward the fish-men step by step.

With every step forward Xia Nuo took, Kurobi trembled and took a step back.

When Xia Nuo took a slightly larger stride, Kurobi retreated even faster, even stumbling and nearly falling over.

This hard-boiled fish-man officer, who always vaunted himself as a martial artist, had been scared out of his wits by what had just happened, losing even the courage to face Xia Nuo head-on.

"What are you running for?"

Xia Nuo asked softly, "I'm asking you, what are you running for?"

"You, you, you-you-you..."

Kurobi shrieked, scrambling backward in a panic, leaving a smear of blood across the ground. "Don't come closer! Stop, stop! Don't come any closer!!"

"Forty Dan in Fish-Man Karate?"

Xia Nuo actually stopped in his tracks, shaking his head slightly. "Too many. When I eat fish, dividing it into two sections is always more than enough!"

Swish!

The moment his voice fell, Xia Nuo's figure vanished from where he stood. The next instant, he appeared right in front of Kurobi, effortlessly hoisting him high above his head.

Then, raising his head to look at the muscular fish-man struggling desperately above, Xia Nuo grinned hideously. Grabbing the opponent's waist and neck with his hands respectively, he violently pulled them apart in opposite directions with all his might!

"Kurobi!"

Arlong's expression changed drastically. Moving his feet, he attempted to go to the rescue.

However, it was ultimately a step too late.

Rip—!

"No!!!"

Arlong's roar exploded simultaneously with the sound of tearing flesh and splashing blood.

Kurobi's body split into two halves in mid-air, dark blue entrails mixing with massive sprays of blood, splashing across the rural dirt road.

Some of the internal organs flew wildly through the air, landing squarely on the faces of several fish-men. They froze in place, staring at the chunks of flesh plastered to their noses while inhaling the familiar yet strange scent of blood—

***

"Ugh—" For a moment, they all bent over at the waist and began to retch violently.

Xia Nuo looked completely unconcerned, tossing the head and tail of the corpse aside casually as if throwing away trash.

He raised his head again, gazing calmly at Arlong in the distance.

"...Despicable human, disgusting human. You are clearly the lowest, most trash-like species of all."

Arlong stared straight at him, his eyes bloodshot, gritting his teeth as he squeezed the words out from his throat syllable by syllable. "How dare you... how dare you murder my kin right in front of me!"

Clang! Arlong drew his giant saw-blade from his waist, slashed it fiercely through the air, and roared in fury, "All of you, attack! Slaughter him with me!"

"Yes, Captain Arlong!"

The kissing fish-man Chew nodded, leading the surrounding fish-men in a charge. With a grim expression, Arlong gripped his sword hilt tightly and followed closely behind.

"Hatchan is going to avenge Kurobi!"

The six-sword-style octopus swordsman tossed away his gourd of wine, charging at the very front with tears streaming down his face in grief and anger. "Kurobi was a good person! He was so good to Hatchan, and so good to all the fish-man brothers! You beast, why did you have to kill him?!"

Swish! Swish!

Six heavy blades slashed down from different directions. Xia Nuo did not dodge or evade, simply catching two of them with his bare hands.

He let the remaining four blades hack down onto his neck, producing crisp sounds like striking metal. Yet they failed to pierce his skin, leaving behind only faint white marks.

You haven't even stepped into the realm of a swordsman, yet you expect to cut me?

Xia Nuo sneered disdainfully. Pouring strength into his palms, he gripped Hatchan's two hands tightly while simultaneously delivering a fierce knee strike straight into Hatchan's abdomen.

Boom!

Hatchan's body was sent flying high into the air, accompanied by a miserable cry of agony.

Without missing the chance to pursue, Xia Nuo flicked his body, stepping on the Moon Walk to leap into the sky and appearing precisely above Hatchan.

"You actually have the nerve to ask me why I killed him?"

"Before you marched aggressively onto the soil of my hometown, why didn't you consider the possibility that you might die as well? And now, you dare ask me that?!"

Xia Nuo gripped Hatchan tightly by the neck, watching the octopus fish-man struggle frantically for air. He grinned, "Don't you think that's hilarious?"

The ferocity in his eyes escalated. Ignoring the six tentacles flailing wildly against him, he poured his strength bit by bit into his right hand, which was clamped around the throat.

"Cough, cough..." The octopus fish-man's complexion shifted from flushed to purple, the blood vessels around his temples throbbing like earthworms as his eyeballs began to roll upward.

Right as he landed back on the ground, Xia Nuo ripped Hatchan's head off along with his spine. The erupting blood happened to splash all over the face of the charging Arlong.

The headless corpse didn't go to waste either. Grabbing it like a giant pendulum, Xia Nuo swung it in a wide arc with all his might, directly slamming away the three or four fish-men closest to him, plowing several trenches over ten meters long into the ground.

"...Ha—Hatchan?!"

Arlong stopped in his tracks, staring blankly at the scene in utter disbelief. Then, his entire body began to tremble violently from a surge of ultimate rage.

"You despi—"

Arlong snapped his head up, his eyes bloodshot, only to see the terrifying, muscle-bound figure hurtling toward him at blinding speed.

Locking eyes with him, Xia Nuo flashed a sinister smile, spreading his arms wide open to their maximum span and slamming them down from both sides onto Arlong's cheeks like a giant swatting a summer mosquito!