"You bastard!"
"How dare you attack Arlong-sama!" A group of Fish-Men rushed toward Luffy in anger. Clover, Zoro, and Sanji also sprang into action, hammering, slashing, or kicking the Fish-Men away with ease.
"These people... are so strong," Ajian and the other villagers murmured in awe as they watched from a distance.
"Hey, Luffy! Leave Arlong to me!" Clover shouted after hurling a Fish-Man aside.
"No!" Luffy responded decisively, without missing a beat.
"Let me take him on!" Clover insisted.
"No!" Luffy shouted even louder.
"What's the deal? I gave you Krieg last time!"
"I don't care! This guy made Nami cry! Nami is my navigator!" Luffy's voice rang out.
"Nami is my nakama too!" Clover yelled back.
"You two!" Arlong roared, standing up from the ground. "Who do you think I am?!" Without any hesitation, Arlong charged toward Clover and Luffy.
Seeing this, Hachi and the other three officers quickly moved aside to make room for Arlong's attack. The three of them then rushed at Zoro and the others.
Zoro immediately clashed with Hachi, Sanji squared off against Kuroobi, the Fish-Man karate master, and Usopp was chased out by Chew.
Arlong ripped out his sharp teeth from his mouth, gripping them in his hand, and swung them toward Clover with a ferocious snarl.
"His target is me! Stand back!" Clover smiled, dashing forward to meet Arlong head-on.
"Ah?! Why? I was the one fighting him!" Luffy yelled, clutching his head in frustration.
"Help! Luffy!" Usopp's panicked voice echoed from the distance.
"Oh! I'm coming!" Luffy shouted, running toward Usopp's location.
"Die!" Arlong bellowed as he got closer to Clover, swinging the teeth in his hand with deadly intent.
"You're the one who's finished!" Clover's right arm shimmered as it was coated in Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), and with a swift punch, he shattered Arlong's teeth into fragments. Arlong's arm exploded into a spray of blood.
"Wh-what?!" Arlong's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at his ruined arm, too shocked to even register the pain.
"You're done!" Clover delivered another blow, this time straight to Arlong's head, which erupted into blood mist. Arlong's body collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
"Arlong-sama!" Hachi cried out in shock, his eyes wide with horror as he witnessed Arlong's defeat in just two punches.
Luckily for Hachi, Zoro wasn't the type to strike an opponent in that moment of vulnerability, so he didn't exploit the opportunity.
Kuroobi, too, was frozen in place, utterly stunned by what he saw.
"Arlong's...dead?" Nami whispered, her hands covering her mouth, eyes wide in disbelief as tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks. It seemed too surreal, like a dream.
"As expected of Clover Benson-san, to take down a Fish-Man with a 20 million bounty with just a single punch..." Johnny said, glancing at Yosaku.
"Now I'm even more convinced that he's the guy on this wanted poster..." Johnny pulled out a poster of Clover with a 5 billion berry bounty.
"Shh!" Yosaku quickly hushed him, stuffing the poster back into Johnny's pocket.
"Arlong-sama is dead! Run!" The remaining Fish-Men panicked and dove into the swimming pool, escaping into the sea. Only Hachi and Kuroobi were left standing in the devastated Arlong Park.
"What...what do we do?" Hachi asked, looking at Kuroobi.
"We... run!" Kuroobi said after a moment of silence, dragging Hachi into the sea with him.
"Gomu Gomu no... Pistol!" Luffy's shout rang out in the distance. Everyone looked up to see his outstretched arm rocketing toward the building of Arlong Park, slamming into it with force.
The punch leveled the building, causing it to crumble. Luffy, his arm still extended, launched himself toward the ruins and then spun in mid-air. "Gomu Gomu no... Tomahawk!"
With a final cry, Luffy's leg came crashing down from above, reducing the remaining structure to rubble. The once formidable Arlong Park was now utterly destroyed.
"Did...did we win?"
"We won!"
"We really won!"
The villagers' disbelieving murmurs slowly turned into excited cheers as the destruction of Arlong Park signaled their victory.
"To think we'd be saved by pirates... Life sure is unpredictable," Ajian muttered, wiping his teary eyes as he gazed at Clover and the others.
"We're finally free!" The villagers streamed back into the remains of Arlong Park, lifting the Arlong Pirates' banner and setting it ablaze, their cheers growing louder.
"Throw a party! Let's celebrate our freedom!"
"A party until tomorrow...no, the day after tomorrow!"
"Thank you, Clover!" Nami cried as she ran toward Clover, throwing herself into his arms.
"Ah! Nami-swan!" Sanji's eyes bulged at the sight, his heart visibly shattering into pieces as he collapsed, blending into the ruins.
"I helped too! Even though I didn't take down Arlong myself," Luffy chimed in, walking out of the rubble with the unconscious Fish-Man officer slung over his shoulder.
"Thank you... thank you all..." Nami sobbed, burying her face into Clover's chest.
Clover couldn't help but smile, proud of having defeated Arlong with his own hands. He noticed Nami's affection for him had skyrocketed to 90%! That was a massive leap.
But there was another reason why Clover had to fight Arlong—his old computer had activated again, offering him a mission: defeat Arlong and gain x1 modification point. It was perfect.
"Hurry and report this! The captain and the first mate have been identified!" In a corner of Arlong Park, two Marines crouched with cameras in hand.
"Yeah, let's move," the other Marine replied, and they quickly slinked away.
These two were subordinates of Captain Nezumi, whose head Clover had destroyed earlier.
Once they left, they immediately sent the photos of Clover and Luffy to headquarters, reporting the events and requesting that the two be placed on the wanted list.
Soon, Clover's second bounty poster would be released...