One Piece: It All Started When I Found Shanks' Arm

Chapter 44: Bite Me, Why'd You Stop Biting?!

Voom!

Before his palms could even connect, the fierce wind they generated was already enough to make Arlong's cheeks cave in. He was horrified. His rich combat experience made him react without thinking, ducking down in a panic.

It was a pathetic move, but it was effective.

BOOM!

Where his head had just been, the air rippled with a shockwave. Arlong felt a roar explode in his eardrums, and blood began to stream from his nose. He was aghast. If he had hesitated for even half a second longer, he might not have died, but his head would have been flattened.

There was no time to think. Shane's attack missed, but his hands didn't separate. Instead, he brought them crashing down directly onto Arlong's head.

"You damn human!" Arlong, pushed to the brink, flew into a rage. His feral instincts took over, and he opened his bloody maw, lunging to bite Shane's arm.

Oh?

Seeing that he was no longer dodging, Shane's eyes narrowed with interest. He offered his right arm.

You're asking for death!

Arlong's eyes were savage. This foolish human dares to underestimate me! He has no idea that my sharpest weapons aren't the saw-sword in my hands, but this mouthful of fangs!

CRUNCH!

With a familiar salty, fishy taste, a shattering sound suddenly rang out.

Arlong grinned. But before he could even show a hint of triumph, he realized with horror that what had shattered was not Shane's arm, but his own teeth. The gushing blood wasn't from cutting Shane's muscles, but from his own gums.

"Bite me. Go on, keep biting," Shane said, his face expressionless, as he forcefully pushed his arm deeper. "Why'd you stop?"

"Ugh... ugh!" Arlong struggled desperately, trying to spit out the arm that felt like it was cast from iron, but to no avail. He could only watch helplessly as that arm got closer and closer to his throat.

"I heard you can even crush cannonballs fired from a warship. Why are you so weak today?" Shane continued to press inward, muttering to himself. "Didn't you eat?"

"Then let me give you my arm! It's all protein. Once you've had some good nutrition, you'll have more strength, right?"

The calm voice gradually filled with violence.

Arlong's eyes began to roll back. His entire jaw was stuffed and stretched to its limit, and a faint cracking sound of his skull fracturing could be heard. The strong, powerful arm began to twist back and forth in his mouth. His few remaining fangs, along with large chunks of flesh, were scraped and squeezed out like dirty clothes in a washing machine.

"Ugh...!"

Arlong was nearly suffocating, his consciousness fading. Only his survival instinct made him flail his claws wildly, scratching at Shane's chest and arms. But he couldn't even break the skin, leaving only faint white marks.

"Let go of Lord Arlong!"

A roar suddenly came from behind. It was the three remaining fish-man officers, led by Chu, charging with their blades drawn, slashing from behind.

Shane glanced back.

Strangely, although they were charging forward and even roaring, their faces were filled with terror and despair, oddly reminiscent of Commander Erwin.

Shane paid them no mind, not even bothering to look at them again.

Is that scene going to repeat itself?

Chu looked at the terrifying back muscles getting closer and closer, and at Shane's completely dismissive attitude. His eyes showed no joy, only deeper despair. He had seen with his own eyes how Hachi's six swords, no matter how he swung them, couldn't break through his opponent's defense. Hachi was the number one swordsman on their ship, and each of his six swords weighed 300 kilograms. If even Hachi couldn't do it, what chance did they have?

But they couldn't just abandon Lord Arlong!

In that fleeting moment of thought, the three swords had already slashed at Shane's back from different directions, smoothly sinking in.

They went in?!

Chu was overjoyed, but his expression quickly changed.

No! The places these three swords entered were crevices deliberately left by him contracting his back muscles!

ZING!

The next instant, the gnarled muscles suddenly expanded outwards, and the three blades were sent flying back in the opposite direction!

Swish, swish, swish! The three fish-men, unable to dodge in time, were instantly pinned to coconut trees, their necks pierced through, blood gurgling down the tree bark.

No, no!

Arlong saw this scene from the corner of his blurry vision. Overcome with grief and indignation, tears streamed down his face—

Go, just go! My stupid comrades, can't you see? This human... no! This monster is not someone we can match!

"You're... crying?"

Shane looked at him with great interest. "Seeing you like this makes me feel pity, almost enough to let you go. It's just a shame there's a saying: crocodile tears are not worthy of sympathy."

He glanced into the distance again.

The remaining fish-man pirates, seeing that their officers were almost all dead and that even Arlong was completely powerless, were utterly terrified. They turned and fled frantically towards the sea, each wishing their parents had given them an extra pair of legs.

Shane lowered his head and whispered in Arlong's ear:

"Oh, right, you're a shark. Whatever, you're all pretty much the same, aren't you?"

The moment his voice fell, he violently grabbed Arlong's head, held it in a reverse grip, and chased after the fish-men fleeing towards the pier!

He repeatedly used "Shave," the scenery on both sides flying past under the continuous bursts of speed. Arlong's lower body snapped tree after tree along the way, his consciousness rapidly fading.

Smack. Arriving at the shattered pier, Shane finally stopped.

He glanced down indifferently. The purple fish-man in his hand had been dragged for several hundred meters, his body a bloody, mangled mess, leaving a winding trail of blood on the dirt path.

"Dead?"

Shane frowned slightly, unable to hide the disappointment in his expression. "So... this is really all you've got?"

To this point, he still hadn't been forced to use his full strength, to have a satisfying fight.

Shaking his head, as if throwing out trash, he tossed Arlong's corpse onto the beach. He then turned his gaze to the fish-man pirates who were scrambling onto the Shark Superb.

"Oh no! That monster is coming after us!!"

A fish-man noticed him and let out a piercing shriek. "What are you waiting for?! Let's go!"

"The ship still needs to turn! There's no time!"

"Then jump ship! Just swim away! In the sea, there's no way he can catch up to us fish-men!"

Trying to escape by sea?

Shane sneered. He didn't have the bad habit of not pulling out the weeds by the roots.

Moonwalk!

He tensed the arch of his foot and stomped on the ground. In an instant, he flickered and disappeared, landing on the top of the tall mast.

The view was excellent. In his eyes, all the fish-man pirates were laid bare.

Fish-men were already starting to climb over the side railings and jump into the sea. Shane's face was expressionless. He raised his right arm, his index finger aimed at the head of one of the figures.

Finger Pistol!

A shockwave erupted from his fingertip, instantly blowing the fish-man's head apart. Without a second glance, before the brain matter had even splashed out, Shane had already aimed his fingertip at the next target...

The sea breeze blew past, the salty air thick with the heavy smell of blood.

Genzo's legs trembled. He looked around cautiously as he stepped over the scattered limbs and bloodstains, arriving at the edge of the pier.

This place was much like the dirt path from before. By the side of the ship, on the deck, in the sea—fish-man corpses were floating everywhere.

What on earth happened?

Could it be... that figure who rushed past me towards the sea a moment ago has already ended the battle by himself?

"Sh-Shane?" Genzo cupped his hands around his mouth and called out tentatively, looking around. "Where are you?! Are you alright?"

"Up here, Uncle Genzo."

A voice came from above.

Only then did Genzo notice that at the top of the huge pirate ship, a figure was sitting on the mast, motionless, looking down quietly at the scene below.

"Uncle, you seem to be a little late."

Shane looked up, his face slightly weary. It wasn't physical exhaustion, but the release after a long period of extreme mental tension.

Looking at the dumbfounded Genzo, he smiled slightly.

"All the pirates have been killed by me. Not a single one left. It's a bit of a pity, isn't it? I didn't leave a chance for you, the sheriff, to get in on the action."