Chapter 7 Arlong You’re Fin-ished

The Cocoyashi villagers watched on with bated breath as they saw Arlong rise up from the rubble. In his webbed hands was a giant serrated sword. If it could even be called a sword. It was essentially a giant pole with teeth like blades.

Arlong hatefully stared down the man that destroyed his base and injured his fishmen brothers. "Who are you? Someone with your strength shouldn't be on the beginning seas."

I playfully laughed in response. "Maybe I shouldn't, but where I go is up to me. As for who I am? I'm just someone who saw people in need of help. Now enough talking, conversing with scum leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

Veins of anger started showing on his face, "Damn you human! I'll rip you limb by limb, devil fruit powers or not!"

By the time he dashed towards me I already had the still sheathed Yamato in my hand. He reached me and swung with a horizontal slash. In response I side vaulted over it with a spin, kicking him in the jaw before landing as his swing only met air.

"Augh!" His head swung with the kick diminishing some of the force. But he swung again with twice the ferocity. Waiting for the right moment I struck the flat of his blade with the butt of the sheath. His arms uncontrollably swung upwards. Ignoring the numbness in my arm from parrying his blow, I did a quick draw slash towards his arms. Jumping backwards Arlong used the parried momentum to narrowly dodge.

I went on the offensive by shooting a mirage blade towards him. Not knowing it was intangible he tries to slash it away, only for it to phase through his attack. I then teleported in front of him and cut his arm with my sword coated in phantom energy.

Arlong watched as the sword phased through his right arm, not actually cutting him. But instead a wave of pain hit him and he lost all feeling in his arm below where he was cut and dropped his sword. "Aaaaa!"

Yelling out in pain from the phantom feeling of having his arm cut off. I didn't let him rest as I was now aiming for his leg. Not wanting to lose his leg too, he rolled away from me. Quickly getting up while panting. "Huff… huff… What did you do to me!?"

"You know Arlong, fishman or human, we all feel pain just the same. I call that technique phantom slash, once cut a phantom wave will be sent to your brain saying that you were cut and thus feeling the pain."

"Damn you and those devil fruit powers. Without them you'd be nothing before me!"

"A grown man throwing a tantrum, really? But I'll humor you. Even in hand to hand combat you'll still lose." Putting Yamato back on my side I raise my fist and do some light hops to warm up.

Meanwhile, Arlong cruelly smiles thinking that he's gotten some kind of upper hand in the battle. "Shahahaha, now I'll show you just how inferior you humans really are."

I simply phantom stepped directly in front of him. leaving behind only a small blue wisp in my previous location. I deliver a heavy uppercut to his stomach lifting him off the ground. Jumping up I give a spinning axe kick to his head bringing him crashing to the ground.

Out of nowhere he swung his crippled arm at me like a club towards my ribs. Although I saw it coming at the last second it was too late to block or dodge. So instead I jumped up slightly letting the force carry me until I landed further away. My ribs, while not broken, had been bruised.

"Shahaha see that human, that's the strength of a fishmen. You insects should just quietly die under our feet." That momentary victory seemed to give him all the confidence he needed.

I didn't respond to his provocation, instead I augment my fists with my energy. I once again stepped to him, but he was ready with a fist headed toward where I would appear. I used phantom movement to phase slide towards his now open side. I conjured a thruster on my elbow, with a burst of speed I implanted my fist into his ribs with my boosted hit. My fist sank into his body as his ribs cracked under the pressure. The next moment he was sent flying through the air.

When he hit the ground he was violently rebounded up and coughed up blood. I continued to phantom steps until I was underneath him. With two more thrusters on my elbow they all exploded with fire as I sent an uppercut toward Arlong's spine. With a sickening snap he was sent into the air limply following the force of the blow. I started walking away as he started wildly falling out of control. By the time I stepped away from the battlefield he had already fallen into the dirt lifelessly.

[Ding! You've taken down a notorious pirate worth 20mil berri. Successfully defeated his crew single-handedly and liberated a whole island from servitude. You've earned 260 Infamy Gems.]

Once I made it in front of the gawking villagers I raised my fist in triumph. In response they started cheering and dancing around. Meanwhile I was tackled by a small yellow blur, bringing me to the ground. *Oof* "Papa! You were so cool! You like schling whoosh pow, and then like pow pow boom! The bad guys didn't even stand a chance!"

Meanwhile she was trying to recreate my fight with only sounds, the fatigue of going all out hit me. The truth is if he got any significant blows in the fight it would've been a lot harder, because I was fighting at 100% the whole time. Not to mention that surprise attack really crushed through my defenses.

"Huff, huff… haha calm down Silk, you're pressing on my bruise."

Instantly she became terrified, "Oh no, Papa is hurt! Help! My Papa needs a doctor!" She started frantically trying to get attention.

I couldn't help but laugh warmly at her overreaction. "Hahaha Silk don't worry it's just a small injury."

She turned to me with small tears in her eyes. "Really?"

With a reassuring smile, "Really really.

She seemed satisfied with my response, but a group of 4 slowly made their way towards me. It was Nami, Nojiko, Genzo and a fourth person. Nojiko was the first to speak, "I can't believe it. You really did it all on your own. Thank you so much for freeing our village from Arlong. Here's a reward from me."

Nojiko gave a chaste kiss on my cheek, until she was pushed away by a pouting Silk. "Mou! Stinky Nojiko, you can't steal my papa away from me!"

"Oh? Do you not want to have a mamma too Silk?" After Nojiko's teasing, they were discussing something on the side.

Meanwhile Genzo approached me and bowed his head to me. "On behalf of everyone on the Conomi Islands I want to thank you for defeating Arlong. I heard little Silk say you were hurt so I brought over the local doctor to give you a check up."

"Thanks, but I only did what I could with the power that I had. I hope things turn for the better for you guys after this."

Nami who had been nervously fidgeting on the side finally decided to interrupt. "Thanks for protecting the village. I was wondering if you mind if we take the treasure in Arlong Park."

"Haha the first thing you ask about is treasure, you'll have a hard time finding love with that money grubbing personality."

Her face instantly turned red from embarrassment and a mock angry expression appeared on her face. "You! My love life is none of your concern! I'm suing you for harassment!"

She stuck out her tongue at me before she ran off. Genzo simply laughed at the interaction, "haha, sorry about that Mr. Luciano. She's a good girl at heart."

"No worries, she doesn't seem all bad."

Soon Genzo left me and the doctor, who stayed to see if I needed treatment. Unzipping the top half of my jumpsuit I tied it to my waist, leaving my upper body exposed. On my left side there was a big purple bruise from where I got hit. It wasn't a bad wound but the doctor wrapped it up anyway.

-Later that day-

After everyone calmed down from celebrating their victory things got busy. It started by pulling out the fishmen from the rubble and tying them up with ropes. Normally that wouldn't be enough but their injuries were bad enough that they couldn't break free. Strangely enough some of the fishmen were missing from the captured individuals. Like a certain octopus fishman, but they probably ran away already.

As for calling the marines to apprehend them, I recommended calling the base in Loguetown. After all, the nearest marine branch had been in cahoots with Arlong for a while and wasn't to be trusted. The marines would be here tomorrow to apprehend the pirates, and normally people would be worried that Arlong would gain consciousness. However, because of my last blow crippled Arlong waist down. So he was just chained up with the rest.

Now we're currently having a celebration with the whole village. Say what you want about how it's dumb to do good, but it's nice to see people happy with your efforts…