Silence.
A deathly stillness fell over the vast port of Fishman District.
Countless pairs of stunned eyes stared at the massive crater beneath Jack's feet, where Ikaros Much's body was folded backward, his head reduced to a mangled pulp.
The fishmen's minds, as if starved of oxygen, remained sluggish for an unnervingly long time.
Were they dreaming?
Ikaros Much—the mighty giant squid fishman—had just died… just like that?
"Damn it! Ikaros!"
Beside Hody Jones, the other officers of the New Fishman Pirates paled in shock before turning furious gazes toward Jack.
Hody Jones gritted his teeth, his bloodshot eyes locked onto Jack's indifferent expression—as if the man had merely crushed an ant.
But when Hody noticed the jagged, saw-like fangs in Jack's mouth—identical to his own—he froze.
Then, thick veins bulged across his forehead. His fists clenched with a series of cracks, and he took several steps forward, stopping about a dozen meters away from Jack. In a voice trembling with barely suppressed fury, he roared:
"You… are a fishman too?"
Jack remained utterly unmoved by Hody's question.
In his eyes, Hody Jones and his rabble were no different from common insects—weak, insignificant, and foolish.
Though Jack himself was an anglerfish-striped fishman, he had not been born on Fishman Island. His origins lay in the other seas of the New World.
When Jack refused to answer, Hody's rage burned even hotter. His right hand opened, and water droplets gathered in his palm.
"A fellow fishman… slaughtering his own kin! You… deserve to die!"
Before his words even finished, Hody flung the gathered water at Jack's towering frame.
"Water Shot: Arrow Shark!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Instantly, the droplets transformed into a barrage of arrows, shrieking through the air as they rained down on Jack's exposed torso.
Faced with such a fierce attack, Jack couldn't even be bothered to use Armament Haki to defend himself.
Splat! Splat! Splat!
Tiny splashes of water burst against his fortress-like muscles, failing to leave even a scratch.
Jack lowered his head, glancing at the droplets on his chest.
"Water Shot? I'd almost forgotten such a weak technique."
As he spoke, a sphere of water formed in his own massive palm.
With a flick of his wrist, Jack hurled the compressed water like a cannonball—straight into the stomach of a stunned Hody Jones.
BOOM!
Hody's mouth flew open. Streaks of crimson blood sprayed from his lips.
His eyeballs bulged from their sockets.
His 3.3-meter-tall, muscular frame bent backward, his abdomen caving in as if struck by a wrecking ball. His spine protruded grotesquely from his back.
The clothes on his upper body exploded into shreds.
His entire body was sent flying as if hit by a rampaging Sea King.
BAM! BAM! BAM—!
In an instant, the dense crowd behind him was torn apart as Hody's body carved a straight path through them.
Every fishman struck by his flying form let out agonized screams, their bones shattering like brittle wood.
In seconds, the ground was littered with broken bodies—dozens dead or maimed.
The fishmen stared in disbelief, their blood running cold as if they'd been plunged into an icy abyss.
"Captain Hody!"
The short, dwarf lanternshark fishman, Daruma, snarled in fury, his eyes blazing with murderous intent. He plunged headfirst into the solid ground.
CRACK! CRACK!
His razor-sharp teeth tore through stone as he tunneled underground, emerging behind Jack in a flash—lunging straight for his neck.
"Gahaha! I'll bite your head off!"
But the moment Daruma's taunt left his lips, darkness swallowed his vision. A hand—hard as forged steel—closed around his tiny body.
Jack casually reached back and plucked Daruma from the air.
His expression remained cold as his fingers slowly tightened.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
"AAAAARGH! I'LL BITE YOUR FINGERS OFF! GAHA—!"
Daruma screamed as his bones and muscles were crushed under the pressure, blood spurting from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
He gnashed his rock-shattering fangs against Jack's fingers—
Only for a deep blackness to silently coat them.
SNAP.
With a crisp sound, Daruma's prized teeth shattered one by one.
Blood gushed from his mouth as his already small frame shrank further in Jack's grip.
"Let him go, you kin-slaughtering monster!"
The blue-ringed octopus fishman, Dosun, his lower body a mass of writhing tentacles, brandished eight poisoned blades dripping with purple venom. Like a whirlwind, he slashed at Jack's legs.
At the same time, the surrounding fishmen finally snapped out of their daze, howling as they charged.
"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!"
"AVENGE OUR BROTHERS! AVENGE CAPTAIN HODY! AVENGE IKAROS!"
SQUELCH.
Jack's right hand clenched shut.
Blood gushed from between his fingers.
Looking down at the tidal wave of fishmen rushing toward him, Jack's lips curled into a savage grin.
"Good. I haven't stretched in days."
Slowly, he drew a curved, ivory-shaped sword from the ornament on his shoulder—raising it high before bringing it down in a simple slash.
SWISH!
With terrifying force, the blade unleashed a crescent-shaped slash dozens of meters long.
Under the horrified gazes of Dosun and the others, the attack split the earth—and with it, Dosun and dozens of fishmen—clean in half.
SPLATTER!
A rain of severed limbs and gushing blood painted the ground crimson.
"A DEMON! HE'S A DEMON!"
"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! WE CAN'T FIGHT THIS MONSTER!"
A single slash was all it took to break the spirits of Fishman District's thousand-strong mob.
Fishmen wailed as they scrambled back, turning to flee in terror.
Even the surviving officers of the New Fishman Pirates—the hammerhead shark fishman Dosun and the zebra-patterned fishman—stood frozen in fear, unable to muster the courage to attack.
"Lord Jack!"
From the deck of the Mammoth, Gifters like Ginrummy watched the bloodshed with growing unease.
Such wanton slaughter on Fishman Island—under Whitebeard's protection—would not go unanswered. This was a blatant provocation.
Ginrummy wanted to intervene, but she didn't dare speak.
Once Jack was in the throes of battle, only those he respected could stop him.
And in this world, the only ones he respected were the Calamities—Queen the Plague, King the Wildfire—and the Emperor of the Beasts Pirates, Kaido himself!
"Hahahaha! Kin?"
"You worthless trash dare call yourselves my kin?"
Jack's towering frame, now drenched in blood, loomed like a demon king as he swung his ivory blade in a wide, horizontal slash.
SHING!
A crescent wave of destruction swept forward, cutting down the fleeing fishmen like wheat.
Hundreds died instantly.
The last two officers of the New Fishman Pirates didn't even have time to beg for mercy before they were bisected.
The port of Fishman District had become a hellscape.
"C-CAPTAIN HODY!"
In the distance, a panicked fishman suddenly cried out in relief.
A massive, blood-soaked figure emerged from the wreckage of a collapsed building.
It was Hody Jones—sent flying over a hundred meters by Jack's Water Shot.
"HE'S ALIVE! CAPTAIN HODY'S ALIVE!"
"CAPTAIN! RUN! DOSUN, DARUMA, ZEO—THEY'RE ALL DEAD! WE CAN'T WIN AGAINST THAT DEMON!"
Amid the chaos, Hody slowly raised his head, his face twisted with malice.
In his left hand, he clutched a small pouch. He tore it open, grabbed a handful of red pills, and shoved them into his mouth like candy.
"ES—Rage Drug! Give me power! UNLIMITED POWER!"
Eyes bloodshot, Hody crammed fistful after fistful of the red capsules into his mouth, chewing and swallowing like a rabid beast.
As the pills took effect, his body swelled like an inflating balloon, muscles bulging unnaturally.
Veins throbbed across his skin, his tendons straining until they tore through his flesh, exposing raw, sinewy fibers.
His teeth grew thicker, longer.
His eyes turned white with crimson pupils—a true monster.
THUD.
The empty pouch fell to the ground, spilling the remaining red pills.
"ROOOOAR!"
A feral aura erupted from Hody as his black hair turned snow-white.
His blood-red gaze locked onto Jack, who was still casually butchering the fleeing fishmen.
With a single step, Hody shot forward like a torpedo, the ground shattering beneath him as he closed the distance in an instant.
Any fishman unfortunate enough to be in his path was sent flying like a ragdoll, their bones shattered midair.
"Hm? What did you take?"
Jack turned, his eyes briefly flicking to the scattered red pills behind Hody.
"I'LL KILL YOU! HUMANS ARE INFERIOR! ALL HUMANS MUST DIE! I'LL EXTERMINATE EVERY LAST ONE!"
Hody's maddened chanting filled the air as he lunged, arms outstretched to crush Jack's skull.
"Pathetic. A frog in a well."
Jack sneered, raising his own massive arms—each thicker than a tree trunk.
Jet-black Armament Haki coated his palms as he brought them together in a thunderous clap—right around Hody's head.
CRUNCH.
Hody's charge came to an abrupt halt, his skull trapped between Jack's hands.
His blood-red eyes burst like overripe fruit, twin geysers of blood erupting from the sockets.
Then, with a cruel grin, Jack gripped Hody's head and lifted him like a puppet.
"STOP!"
A booming voice rang out.
Jack glanced up to see a blue, rotund figure charging toward him at high speed.
"STOP THIS AT ONCE, JACK THE DROUGHT!"
The voice was deafening, shaking the very air.
But—
CRACK… SPLAT.
Jack's Haki-coated fingers squeezed like a hydraulic press.
Hody Jones' head exploded like a watermelon.
His headless body stood for a brief moment before collapsing, blood fountaining from the stump of his neck.
"YOU BASTARD!!"
"Fishman Karate Secret Technique:
Vagabond Drill!"
The air itself detonated as a pitch-black fist, shrouded in Haki, shot toward Jack's face like a cannonball.
(End of Chapter)
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