"Since you're so determined to die, we'll give you a quick death!"
Seeing Caelan's contemptuous attitude, Kuroobi and the other fishmen were enraged.
Given the longstanding tension between humans and fishmen, they rarely offered humans any respect. After arriving in the East Blue, the Arlong Pirates had acted lawlessly, never once fearing any human.
Now, despite offering a chance to back down, they were met with only disdain and mockery.
They were wary of Caelan's strength, but they were not afraid to fight him.
"Inferior human, die!"
Kuroobi charged forward, throwing a powerful straight punch.
"That's the strongest punch! It can smash through a thousand tiles with a single blow!"
The nearby fishman soldiers were excited. It had been a long time since they had seen Kuroobi unleash this move.
It was the most powerful strike in fishman karate, abandoning fancy techniques to fully capitalize on the raw strength of the fishman body.
With their physical strength several times greater than that of humans, this move was devastating when executed by a fishman.
The fishman soldiers had witnessed it before. Even pirates with bounties of 8 million berries had died from this punch, their internal organs shattered, blood pouring from every orifice.
As Kuroobi's fist swung forward, Nami, standing beside Caelan, felt the intense force carried by the strike.
Her pupils contracted as she instinctively wanted to dodge, but the overwhelming pressure of the punch rooted her to the spot.
She looked at Caelan nervously, unsure how he would handle it.
Facing this fierce attack, Caelan did not dodge.
He simply curled his lips, held the greatsword in his right hand, and calmly raised his left fist.
"You're too arrogant!"
Seeing Caelan's casual response, Kuroobi's fury spiked. The blood rushing to his head made his punch even stronger.
He wanted Caelan to understand the true power of fishmen and how tough their bodies were.
Kuroobi had already imagined the scene of Caelan's arm shattering under his blow. A cruel smile crept onto his face.
The two fists collided.
In an instant, a cloud of blood mist exploded. A severed forearm turned into shredded flesh, with fragments of bone flying through the air.
A tall figure was sent hurtling backward, crashing into two other fishmen and knocking them to the ground.
Kuroobi, who now lay slumped on top of his companions, had lost all trace of his earlier cruelty.
His face filled with horror as he stared at Caelan, trembling, unable to utter a word.
The arm that had been destroyed was not Caelan's.
It was Kuroobi's own.
The moment their fists met, Kuroobi felt as though he had punched a mountain made of diamond.
It was incomparably hard, with an overwhelming force behind it.
In just one strike, Kuroobi's so-called invincible body was crushed.
His arm exploded, and his entire body was left incapacitated. He could do nothing but lie there, barely able to breathe.
"How… how is this possible?!"
"Kuroobi was taken out instantly?!"
The surrounding fishmen, who had been eagerly waiting to see Kuroobi dominate the fight, were stunned. They could not believe what they had just witnessed.
Kuroobi was the top officer of the Arlong Pirates, second only to Arlong himself. His specialty was fishman karate, and he was feared for it.
Yet now, using his strongest technique at full power, he had been crippled by a single punch from Caelan.
The sight terrified the fishmen.
Caelan, who had taken Kuroobi's strongest punch head-on, had not even taken a single step back. The only blood on him was from Kuroobi.
Nami and the villagers were all frozen in shock.
Their minds were full of disbelief.
The enemy they thought was invincible had been crushed so easily.
It felt unreal.
Even Nojiko, who had believed in Caelan's strength from the beginning, was stunned.
She had thought Caelan would rely on his swordsmanship to deal with the enemy. She never imagined that he could defeat Kuroobi with just a punch.
After the initial shock came relief. With power like this, Caelan could definitely defeat the Arlong Pirates.
"So this is the power of a fishman? How weak. How pathetic."
Caelan clenched his left fist, calmly feeling the force behind Kuroobi's strike.
It was decent. About on par with Krieg.
But to challenge him with that level of strength was laughable.
Caelan's synchronization was with Heracles, the Heracles of Greek mythology.
Even with only 37 percent synchronization, still far from full power, he already possessed strength comparable to a Marine vice admiral.
For someone like Kuroobi, defeating him was effortless.
Caelan looked at the remaining fishmen and stepped forward, his greatsword in hand.
He hadn't come here just to deal with Kuroobi.
At this moment, Caelan looked like a demon risen from hell, the oppressive aura around him making the fishmen tremble with fear.
The same fishmen who had acted so viciously in Cocoyashi Village were now visibly shaking under Caelan's pressure.
Caelan raised his greatsword, but instead of cutting down with the blade, he used the flat of the sword to strike.
He still intended to collect their bounties, so there was no need to make things too messy.
Each swing of the sword landed squarely on a fishman's head.
Caelan controlled his strength carefully. The flat of the blade was enough to crush their skulls without making too much of a mess.
Naturally, the fishmen did not just sit and wait for death.
Some tried to fight back, using their numbers in an attempt to overwhelm him.
But it was useless.
They attacked with fishman karate.
However, compared to Kuroobi's already inadequate skills, their techniques were even weaker.
How could they possibly hurt Caelan?
One by one, Caelan knocked them out with ease, like putting babies to sleep.
Chew, the smooch fishman, fired high-pressure water bullets at Caelan. It was the same attack he had used to blast apart trees earlier.
Caelan simply blocked with his greatsword.
The water bullets had no effect on the massive blade. Not even a tremor.
Calmly, Caelan stepped forward and knocked Chew out with one clean strike.
Hachi, with his six arms and six swords, spun into action, creating an airtight wall of blades.
Caelan responded with the back of his sword once again.
Swinging down powerfully, the greatsword created a strong gust of wind.
Against Caelan's overwhelming force, Hachi's defensive wall was as fragile as glass.
The moment their weapons clashed, Hachi's defense shattered. He was slammed straight into the ground, unable to move.
Caelan knew that Hachi had once saved Silvers Rayleigh's life.
But so what?
Even with such a powerful system backing him, if Caelan still hesitated to act, it would only be laughable.
Every fishman with even a little strength among the Arlong Pirates was crushed beneath Caelan's might.
"He's a demon! Run for your lives!"
The remaining fishmen no longer had the courage to fight.
One by one, they turned and fled, hoping to escape.
Caelan looked around.
They were all just low-level grunts, worth nothing.
He wasn't interested in playing any games of cat and mouse.
"Heh. I was hoping to keep the bodies intact."
Caelan shook his head slightly, sounding almost disappointed.
He raised his greatsword.
A wave-shaped air slash burst out from the blade, cutting through the fleeing fishmen instantly.
Their bodies were split apart before they could even react.
Just like that.
Aside from Arlong himself, the Arlong Pirates were completely wiped out.
Like slicing through vegetables, Caelan had annihilated the pirate crew that had terrorized the East Blue.
The fishmen who had once dominated the Conomi Islands, feared by countless villagers, were nothing but ants before Caelan.
(To be continued.)