"Have you ever heard that the arm strength of Fish-Men is ten times that of humans?"
"W-what?!"
The captain of the Chubby Bottle Pirates tried to pull his blade out of Nanamo's palm.
But no matter how hard he tried, the blade was as if welded in place. It didn't budge an inch.
Nanamo's hand was like an iron clamp, firmly gripping his weapon.
Due to differences between species, Fish-Men are naturally born with arm strength ten times that of humans.
This "ten times" calculation is based on the average strength of each race, just like how the Marines and Cipher Pol measure Power Level, considering a trained Marine with a rifle to have a Power Level of 10.
There is a baseline average when comparing strength, but with training and effort, some individuals can surpass that gap.
Moreover, strength is not produced out of thin air; skeletal and muscular strength, along with power generation from other parts of the body, are precisely natural advantages of a physique.
"Forget it, explaining this sort of thing to someone like you is pointless."
Nanamo's grip on the blade tightened further, and the sharp edge couldn't leave even the slightest mark on her seemingly delicate skin.
Instead, the blade itself, under immense pressure, began to wail in protest.
That wasn't the effect of Haki, but a natural ability.
In fact, every race that lives upon the sea possesses its own unique talents.
Because each race's lifestyle is vastly different, the environments and battlefields they adapt to are likewise diverse.
Therefore, it's both difficult and unfair to crudely judge which race is stronger or weaker.
But within a single race, finding someone with outstanding talent is much simpler.
Among humans, Charlotte Linlin's talent stands at the very top.
From a young age, she possessed monstrous strength, able to slap giant brown bears to death with her bare hands, her skin as hard as steel.
No ordinary cannon or blade could ever leave a mark on her.
This is Charlotte Linlin's gift - "Iron Balloon."
Among Charlotte Linlin's children, Nanamo is the only one to inherit this gift. Her starting point is already the finish line for many.
Clang...
Half of the severed blade fell to the ground. The sound wasn't loud, but in this environment, it was strikingly sharp.
The captain of the Chubby Bottle Pirates stared in disbelief at his broken blade, his face full of fear.
It didn't break from brute force; it looked more like it had been corroded and melted by something.
"Fish-Man Karate • Water Shot • Acid Rain!"
A ball of liquid seemed to gather on Nanamo's right hand—the same hand that had gripped the blade—looking ready to fall down at any moment.
But as she swung her fist, that ball of liquid instantly turned into countless tiny water arrows, shooting like a sudden downpour toward the pirates trying to ambush her from behind.
Water Shot is one of the most basic techniques in the Fish-Man Karate style, also its most basic ranged attack.
The principle is simple: gather liquid in the hand, then shoot it out like a bullet. The piercing power depends on the user's strength.
The Water Shot fired from Nanamo's hand was like a shotgun blast, piercing through the bodies of several pirates. Even after tearing through their bodies, the water arrows didn't lose power; they sank deep into the wall nearby.
But then, a sizzling corrosive sound came from the holes in the wall, wisps of white smoke rising as the holes grew deeper and larger before their eyes.
"Ugh... ah!..."
In that dense barrage just now, the pirates who were struck in vital spots and died instantly were actually the lucky ones.
Since Nanamo unleashed a shotgun-like attack, there was inevitably a degree of unpredictability in the precise areas they struck.
Some lucky ones narrowly avoided getting struck in vital spots, but the acid left in their wounds and bodies began to eat away at them.
A hellish, searing pain erupted violently from deep within, so intense that they couldn't even scream.
In the end, all they could do was curl up on the ground in unbearable agony, their bodies convulsing from the intense pain, throats only able to force out broken, incoherent sounds to express their suffering.
From this perspective, narrowly avoiding a fatal wound was not lucky at all. It was actually a misfortune.
However, this agony didn't last long. As their bodily functions gradually broke down under the corrosion of the acid, they quickly lost even the ability to feel pain, and their lives faded away.
"Mon...monster! Both of these damn brats are monsters! Run, run for your lives!"
After witnessing Katakuri slaughtering his subordinates like chopping vegetables, and then looking at the pirates before him who had collapsed from just a single attack from Nanamo, the captain of the Chubby Bottle Pirates had his final psychological defense completely shattered.
He dropped the broken blade in his hand, stopped caring about the lives of his crew, and fled in a panic toward the rear.
"Seriously, even after reaching the New World, how can you still be so ignorant? You might as well just call me a Devil Fruit user."
Nanamo was quite dissatisfied with being called a "monster." There were plenty of strange and unusual abilities out on the sea, most of them related to Devil Fruits.
"With your level of strength and understanding... No, actually, it's precisely someone with a brain as smooth as yours that could do something like this." [TN: In modern internet slang, "smooth brain" is a derogatory term for someone perceived as unintelligent or lacking critical thinking, originating from memes that mock the condition's smooth appearance compared to a typical wrinkled brain.]
Nanamo's ability wasn't from a Devil Fruit at all, but rather another kind of innate talent, i.e. Fish-Man's Fish-type.
For example, Arlong, as a shark Fish-Man, could rapidly regrow his teeth, and Sebastian, thanks to his False kelpfish ability, could camouflage and turn invisible.
These abilities are greatly enhanced in Fish-Men and Merfolk.
Due to genetics, Fish-Men offspring don't necessarily have the same fish-type abilities as their parents. There is an element of randomness involved.
And there are far more types of fish in this sea than most people recognize. The Fish-Men and Merfolk also include seahorses, octopuses, and many other marine species, so unusual abilities occasionally appear.
Most of the time, even Fish-Men and Merfolk themselves aren't entirely sure what abilities they'll have. They can only make guesses based on books.
Nanamo's fish type was a kind of marine creature that could release corrosive liquid. In her hands, this acid was even more potent, able to easily corrode metal.
The captain of the Chubby Bottle Pirates didn't listen to a word Nanamo said. He just wanted to escape this hellish place.
He had no idea where he was running to, but his most primitive survival instincts urged him to flee as far as possible.
But reality is often cruel. There was no glimmer of hope for survival. Waiting for him was only Katakuri's hurled trident.