"I can handle the pressure, but being submerged feels terrible. I should get inside the Noah," Aeridar muttered. Looking at the sea held back by his impact field, he flew toward the ship.

Pop~

Aeridar breached the Noah’s protective coating and entered the interior of the vessel.

Whoosh!

The moment he entered, a double-headed axe came whistling toward his head.

"Ba-ho-ho-ho! Die!" Vander Decken IX laughed from the deck, his arm still extended from the throw.

"Decent aim," Aeridar smirked. He tilted his body slightly and, with lightning speed, reached out and snatched the spinning axe by its handle.

"Nani?!"

Decken’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

He hadn’t marked Aeridar, so his ability wasn’t active, but the speed and power of his throw were still formidable. He had seen people dodge his weapons or swat them away, but he had never seen someone catch one so effortlessly.

"Heh. Here, have it back!"

Aeridar tossed the axe in his hand briefly before hurling it back at Decken.

Vroom—

The five-foot double-bladed axe became a black blur, spinning twice as fast as it had before.

"Crap!" Decken’s eyelids jumped, and he instinctively dove to the right.

BOOM!

The spinning axe grazed Decken’s body and slammed into the deck, smashing a large hole through the thick wood. Seawater immediately began gushing in from the puncture.

"That... that was close..." Decken looked at his shredded sleeve and his missing yellow cape, cold sweat pouring down his face. From that one move, he knew they were in completely different leagues.

Thud.

Aeridar landed on the deck, looking at him with disdain. "Is Poseidon something a piece of trash like you thinks they can covet?"

"H-How do you know about that?" Decken stammered, backing away in horror as his long-held secret was laid bare.

"The first time I came to Fish-Man Island, I wanted to kill you. Unfortunately, my powers weren’t developed enough to find you in the deep sea back then, so I let you live all these years," Aeridar said, his voice rising with killing intent. "But since you’ve delivered yourself to me, I can’t let anyone else know this secret!"

"Lion’s Majesty: Cage!"

Aeridar reached out and clenched his fist.

CRACK!

The thick wooden planks beneath Decken’s feet splintered, rising up and wrapping around his body. Piece after piece of timber slammed together, forming a solid, light-less wooden sarcophagus around him.

"Let me out—!" Decken’s muffled voice echoed from within the cage.

He struggled, but it was futile. The planks were packed so tightly against his body that he had no room to generate leverage. Even with the strength of a Fish-Man ten times that of a human, he was powerless.

"That’s one. Now for the other..." Aeridar turned slowly toward the edge of the ship. "Hody Jones, are you going to show yourself? Honestly, Jinbe and the Straw Hat kid are useless, they couldn’t even catch a drug-addled bottom-feeder."

"Jahahaha! To think Shirahoshi is the legendary Poseidon... what a massive secret! Jahahaha!"

Hody Jones climbed over the railing, staring at Aeridar with a predatory grin.

"Hmph. What if you know?" Aeridar sneered. "You’re just another piece of trash for me to kill."

"Jahahaha!" Hody bared his serrated teeth. "You’re an arrogant human, aren’t you?"

"Rankyaku!"

Aeridar didn’t waste words. He swung his leg in a wide arc.

SHINK—

A massive crescent-shaped vacuum blade sliced through the air. Hody’s heart skipped a beat; he didn’t dare block it and dove out of the way.

BOOM!

The vacuum blade sliced through the ship’s bulwark, passed through the coating, and carved into the deep sea. In Hody’s shocked eyes, the seawater was split apart, creating a hundred-meter vacuum trail in the ocean.

"A vacuum slash kicked out by pure leg strength... it actually split the sea..." Hody muttered in disbelief.

"Lion’s Majesty: Cage!" Aeridar thrust his hand toward Hody, clenching it into a fist.

CRACK!

The deck ruptured again. Planks flew into the air, surrounding Hody as more seawater flooded the deck.

"Tch! The same trick? I’m not an idiot like Vander Decken!"

Hody moved. He swung his crimson trident, smashing through the encroaching wood. With a series of rapid cracks, he shattered the planks into splinters.

Refusing to be a sitting duck, Hody jammed his trident into the deck and crouched down, placing his hands into the flooding seawater.

"My turn, human! Witness the true power of a Fish-Man! Fish-Man Jujutsu: Merman Heart—Water Shark Pack!"

Hody gripped the water as if it were solid matter and flung it forward.

Whish! Whish! Whish!

The water orbs transformed into six-foot-long sharks made of liquid, lunging at Aeridar like a ravenous pack.

"If this were Jinbe’s attack, I might be wary. But from you..." Aeridar didn’t finish the sentence, his face contorting into a look of pure contempt.

"Airquake!"

Aeridar threw a simple punch at the air in front of him.

CRACK—!

The atmosphere shattered. Cracks spread through the air like a spiderweb.

RUMBLE!

Terrifying vibrations surged through the air. The thick deck disintegrated, and the water sharks froze in mid-air before exploding into harmless mist.

"What is this—?!"

Hody didn’t even have time to react before the shockwave hit him. He coughed up blood and was sent spiraling backward.

BOOM!

Hody slammed into the deck dozens of meters away, half his body embedded in the wood as cracks spread across the ship.