Chapter 18: East Blue Arc: Explosion! Fishman Arlong's Fierce Assault From the Sea!

"Don't make me laugh." Arlong mocked, picking up a slab of stone. "Can you inferior humans do something like crash a pillar with your teeth?"

"So what?" Luffy retorted. "Stop bragging about stuff like that." he broke off a demolished pillar with his fist. "It's not like biting is the only way to break stone."

"That's beside the point!" Arlong twitched. "A stupid and weak species, that's what humans are. What can you do when you can't even pull yourself out of the water?"

"Nothing!" Luffy dodged Arlong's charged-in bite. "That's why I need help!"

"Enough of this nonsense." Arlong snorted, biting off the sword Luffy had picked up.

"Clench your teeth!" Luffy twisted his body and slammed a punch across Arlong's cheek, the force shattering the sharkman's teeth. "I'm confident that I can't live without help!"

"Fully admitting how pathetic you are." Arlong chuckled. "You sure are honest. Someone like you without any pride has the caliber to be a captain? What on earth can you do?"

"I can defeat you!" Luffy declared.

"I'm a shark." Arlong remarked, regrowing his teeth. "New teeth grow one after another. And they're stronger than the previous ones. As many times as needed." he pulled out his set of teeth. "As many times." he pulled out the second regrew set of teeth. "This is a distinctive quality heaven gave us. Tooth Attack!" he attached both sets of teeth on his hands and thrust the equipped hands at Luffy. Having trapped the rubber teen underneath him, Arlong laughed as his rained his attacks on Luffy. "You damn rubber man..." he fumed, after finding out that Luffy had used one of his subordinates to block off the attack. "How dare you use my brother as a shield? Don't move, you damn rubber man! Tooth Attack!" he renewed his assault.

Luffy dodged the attacks and landed a kick across Arlong's face and knocking the sharkman's teeth off.

"You..." Arlong got up. "There's no point in crushing my teeth repeatedly. You still don't get it?"

"Look, I've got fangs too!" Luffy boasted, having inserted the set of teeth into his mouth.

"I thought as much..." Zoro muttered.

"No kidding." Sasha rolled her eyes.

"How long are you going to fool around?" Arlong roared, charging in and hitting Luffy with his attack. "Tooth Attack!" he renewed his attack with Luffy either dodging or blocking the attack with rubble. Arlong finally cornered Luffy with a jaw to the side of his chest and Luffy retaliated by biting Arlong on the shoulder. "Even if it's my teeth that you used, it's your weak jaw after all." he pulled out the teeth set. "Listen up. Shark teeth become useful when they come with a strong jaw that can bite off meat." he moved in and closed his teeth on Luffy's elbow.

"That's..." Sasha's eyes widened when she saw the area Arlong bit turned black.

"Armament Haki?" Zoro recognized the power Sasha had been teaching him. "If Luffy knows Armament Haki, why hasn't he used it before?"

"I think aniki's using it subconsciously." Sasha frowned, Luffy then elbow-slammed Arlong into the ground.

"Where'd he go?" Luffy wondered, getting up and looking around to see Arlong was missing.

"Aniki, the sea!" Sasha warned.

"Did he dive in?" Luffy wondered, seeing Arlong's shark fin vanish into the water. "Did he run away?" he peered closely.

"Shark Darts!" Arlong shot out of the water, the impact sending Luffy flying. "I'm surprised you dodged that." he remarked, having crashed into the wall of the second storey of Arlong Park. "But the more you dodge it, the longer your hell continues. Shark Darts!" he shot out of the destroyed wall and towards Luffy. "Shark Darts!" he shot through from the settling dust cloud after Luffy rolled out of the way. His fourth attack send Luffy flying to the ground and the sharkman dived back into the water again.

"Gum-Gum Shield!" Luffy stretched out his fingers with one hand.

"Shark Darts!" Arlong shot out of the water, his attack was stopped by Luffy's crossed fingers. The impact then rocketed them to the second floor of the building where Luffy managed to attach himself to the wall.

"You lose." Luffy grinned. "That attack won't work anymore."

"Shark Darts!" Arlong came out from underneath him.

"You bastard!" Luffy glared, falling. "That was by instinct, wasn't it?"

"This is the final blow!" Arlong leapt off from the final attack.

"You won't hit me!" Luffy declared, crossing his fingers behind his head. "Gum-Gum Finger Net!" he tossed his extended fingers in front of the diving Arlong and stopping him in mid-air. "And Spear!" he slammed Arlong into the ground with his feet.

"You inferior human!" Arlong snapped, grabbing Luffy by his head and twirling the rubber teen above his head. "What did you do to me, a fishman?" with enough momentum gained, he tossed Luffy into one of the undamaged wall. Thrusting his arm into the wall and forcing Luffy to dodge, he pulled out his Shark Saw.

Under Arlong's relentless saw blade attacks, Luffy was forced to dodge by moving up the building.

Arlong's next blade slash cut through a room on the top floor and allowing Luffy to dive into it. "You can no longer escape." he declared. "This is the top floor of Arlong Park. Looks like your final moment is finally here."

"What's this room?" Luffy looked around, seeing the stacks of papers in the room. "Full of papers.

"There're not just ordinary papers." Arlong replied. "This is a room where I make that woman continue to draw sea charts. These're all sea charts that Nami drew. Aren't they great?" he bragged. "They're my treasure, one that I made her draw for eight years. To us, getting data about the oceans is very simple, but it's a different story when we have to create sea charts based on it. We need a talented surveyor. That's why I had my eye on that woman. She's good. She draws quite accurate sea charts. She's too good for you inferior humans. In the past as well as in the future, her talent should be used for us fishmen. Nami is our comrade. So don't interfere anymore, you damn rubber man. What's that look in your eyes?" he demanded, seeing Luffy's stern expression.

"She is..." Luffy started. "Nami is... our navigator."