With swift, practiced movements, Jerry tore away the heavy iron chains binding Wallace, freeing his battered crewmate from his restraints. As he helped Wallace to a safer position, Jerry's eyes swept across the massive crowd surging toward them like an unstoppable tide.
Thirty thousand enraged Fishmen converged on their position with murderous intent, their collective roar echoing through the Sea Forest like the sound of an approaching tsunami. Any reasonable person would have been terrified by such overwhelming odds.
Jerry merely snorted with contempt.
The sound was soft, almost casual, but it carried with it an unmistakable aura of absolute dominance. Jerry's presence seemed to expand, filling the clearing with an invisible pressure that spoke of power beyond mortal comprehension.
His Conqueror's Haki erupted outward like an invisible shockwave, washing over the charging mob with the force of a natural disaster. The technique was a manifestation of pure willpower—the kind of overwhelming spiritual pressure that only the rarest individuals could wield.
The effect was instantaneous and devastating.
The deafening roar of thirty thousand voices was cut off as if someone had pressed a mute button on the entire world. The massive crowd that had been charging forward with bloodthirsty enthusiasm suddenly found themselves frozen in place, their minds unable to process the overwhelming force bearing down on them.
Then, like dominoes falling in perfect sequence, the Fishmen began to collapse. Starting with those closest to Jerry and radiating outward in concentric circles, row after row of supremacist fighters simply dropped unconscious to the ground.
Within seconds, what had been a terrifying mob of racist extremists had been reduced to a field of unconscious bodies stretching as far as the eye could see.
"W-what... what just happened?" Dosun stammered, his massive frame trembling as he struggled to remain standing. "What did he do to them?"
Hody and his core group of lieutenants had managed to avoid the same fate as their followers, but only barely. The overwhelming pressure of Jerry's Conqueror's Haki pressed down on them like a physical weight, making every breath a struggle and every movement feel like they were fighting against gravity itself.
Of the original thirty thousand Fishmen who had answered Hody's call to violence, only a few hundred remained conscious—those who had been positioned far enough from Jerry to avoid the full brunt of his spiritual assault. Even these survivors were visibly shaken, their bodies trembling with terror as they tried to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
"So you really are just small-time thugs after all," Jerry observed with obvious disdain, his voice carrying easily across the now-silent clearing. "All that big talk about enslaving humans and ruling the world, and you don't even know what Conqueror's Haki is."
The truth was that Hody Jones and his gang had been operating in a bubble of ignorance for years. Their reign of terror in Fishman Street had been possible largely because the Sun Pirates—the only group with sufficient power to challenge them—had been absent from the island for extended periods.
When Jinbe's crew did occasionally return to Fishman Island, they generally avoided interfering with local politics, leaving Hody's group free to terrorize their own community without consequence.
Moreover, Hody's organization hadn't even officially formed into the New Fishman Pirates yet—they were still essentially just the biggest gang in Fishman Street, drunk on their own inflated sense of importance.
The combination of Fishman Island's isolation from the surface world and the natural advantages Fishmen enjoyed in underwater combat had created a dangerous cocktail of arrogance and ignorance. Most pirates who lacked special abilities or exceptional strength found themselves at a severe disadvantage when fighting Fishmen in their natural aquatic environment.
This had led to a series of easy victories that had convinced Hody's gang they were invincible, when in reality they had simply never faced truly powerful opponents.
The isolation had another consequence as well—advanced techniques like Haki were extremely rare on Fishman Island. Most of the local fighters had never even heard of such abilities, let alone learned to use them.
"Hahaha! So you think you've already won?" Hody's laughter rang out across the clearing, tinged with the desperate edge of someone whose worldview had just been shattered.
Without hesitation, Hody and his lieutenants reached into their pockets and withdrew small blue pills marked with distinctive red and green stripes. These were Energy Steroids—illegal performance enhancers that could dramatically increase a user's physical capabilities at the cost of shortening their lifespan.
Each member of Hody's core group swallowed multiple pills without a moment's hesitation, their movements synchronized as if they had practiced this exact scenario countless times.
"You know," Jerry commented with amusement, "only weaklings rely on drugs to boost their strength. You don't seriously think a few pills are going to let you 'break through the sky,' do you?"
Energy Steroids were indeed powerful—each pill doubled the user's physical capabilities, with the effects stacking exponentially. Given that the average Fishman was already ten times stronger than the average human, the potential for enhancement was significant.
But Jerry had faced opponents who relied on artificial enhancement before, and he knew that raw power without skill or strategy was rarely enough to overcome a truly superior fighter.
As Hody prepared to launch another coordinated assault with his drug-enhanced followers, a series of familiar voices called out from the edge of the clearing.
"Well, well! Whose brave general is this, standing alone against such overwhelming odds?"
Skull's distinctive laugh echoed through the Sea Forest as more than a dozen figures emerged from the coral formations—the rest of the Spade Pirates, having finally tracked down their missing crewmate.
"About time you all showed up," Jerry called back with obvious relief. "Deuce, get over here! Wallace needs medical attention immediately!"
The sight of Wallace's tortured condition sent a wave of anger through the newly arrived pirates. These weren't just crewmates—they were family, and seeing one of their own treated with such cruelty awakened a collective fury that would not be easily satisfied.
"Are these fishmen our enemies?" Ace asked, his voice deadly calm as flames began flickering around his clenched fists.
"That's right!" Jerry confirmed. "I'll handle the great white shark. The rest of you can deal with his lackeys!"
Without waiting for further discussion, Jerry charged directly toward Hody Jones, ready to settle their confrontation once and for all.
"Brothers, attack!" Hody roared, his voice enhanced by the drugs coursing through his system.
The remaining conscious members of his organization surged forward to meet the Spade Pirates' challenge, and the Sea Forest erupted into chaos as multiple individual battles began simultaneously.
Ace squared off against Hyouzou, the blue-ringed octopus Fishman whose poisonous blade techniques made him one of the most dangerous swordsmen on the island.
Mihar and Banshee positioned themselves near Deuce to provide covering fire and protect him while he worked to stabilize Wallace's injuries.
The other members of the crew quickly engaged Hody's remaining lieutenants in a series of one-on-one duels that showcased the combat skills they had developed during their journey through Paradise.
Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Spade Pirates held a crucial advantage—they had been fighting together as a coordinated unit for months, developing the kind of tactical cooperation that could only come from shared battles and mutual trust.
The remaining Fishman Street thugs, by contrast, were little more than an undisciplined mob. They had numbers on their side, but they lacked the training, coordination, and battle-tested teamwork that characterized a true pirate crew.
As the larger battle raged around them, Jerry and Hody Jones faced each other in single combat. The great white shark Fishman, his body enhanced by multiple doses of Energy Steroids, moved with predatory grace despite his bulky appearance.
Hody struck first, raising his left hand and launching a devastating barrage of compressed water projectiles that streaked through the air like bullets.
"Fishman Karate: Water Shot Barrage!"
Jerry's response was effortless and precise. With a casual wave of his hand, he sent his own volley of water bullets to intercept Hody's attack, the two techniques colliding in mid-air and neutralizing each other completely.
"Fishman Karate: Autumn Rain."
Before the spray from their clashing attacks had even settled, Jerry had already closed the distance between them, his enhanced speed allowing him to appear directly in front of Hody and drive a powerful punch toward the shark's chest.
Hody proved that his reputation wasn't entirely undeserved. Despite his bulk, he moved with surprising agility, catching Jerry's fist with one hand while simultaneously drawing a wicked-looking trident with the other.
The crimson weapon swept toward Jerry's midsection with lethal intent, but Jerry was ready for the counterattack. He raised his knee to deflect the trident's shaft, then spun around to deliver a devastating back-strike enhanced with Armament Haki.
"Iron Body: Mountain Crushing Strike!"
The technique combined the defensive capabilities of the Marine's Six Styles with the offensive power of Jerry's martial arts mastery, creating an attack that hit with the force of a landslide.
Hody's enhanced strength meant nothing in the face of Jerry's superior technique and training. The impact sent shockwaves through the shark Fishman's entire body, his internal organs feeling as though they had been rearranged by the blow.
His grip on the trident loosened involuntarily as he was launched backward through the air, his body completely out of control as it hurtled toward the coral formations at the edge of the clearing.
The impact when Hody struck the mountain wall was tremendous, the force of his collision causing the entire rock face to crater inward and send spiderweb cracks racing across the stone surface.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Support me at p@treon.com/goldengaruda and check out more chapter of this or more early access chapter of my other fanfic translation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~