Luffy's crew continued to move deeper into Thriller Bark, but they weren't being as cautious as before. Even the timid trio of Nami, Usopp, and Chopper felt braver now. As long as they weren't dealing with ghosts, they knew they would be safe with Luffy and Sanji nearby.
As the four of them and the reindeer walked, they suddenly saw a bandaged zombie crawl out of a grave right in front of them. "Roar!" the zombie growled, and the weak trio immediately froze in terror.
Luffy just tilted his head and stared at it for a moment before walking over and pushing the zombie back into its grave. The zombie tried to fight back, but it was no match for Luffy's strength and was easily shoved back down. The zombie looked as though it wanted to cry but couldn't.
A little farther on, a few leafless, dead trees started to shake. Then, they rose up on their own and charged toward the crew. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper, however, had figured out what was going on. These guys were just pretending to be ghosts to scare people; they were really just zombies animated by the power of the Shadow-Shadow Fruit.
"So what's there to be afraid of?" Nami said confidently. "Sure-Kill, Fire Bird Star!" Usopp shouted. "Lightning Tempo!" Nami yelled. The three of them attacked at the same time, easily beating back the dead trees, which fled in every direction.
They did notice, though, that these things seemed to be immune to damage, which was exactly what you'd expect from zombies. It just confirmed that they needed something special to defeat them for good.
"Hahahaha! This is so much fun!" Luffy seemed to be having the time of his life and started chasing the dead trees. He ran without a care and ended up stumbling right into a zombie nest. He was overjoyed to see a large group of bandaged, oddly-shaped zombies.
"Gomu Gomu no Mushi!" Luffy swung his leg, sending dozens of zombies flying into the air. He then attacked the remaining zombies, launching them into the air as well. "Gomu Gomu no Gatling!" he shouted, aiming his fists at the falling zombies and punching them repeatedly, sending them flying even higher.
Luffy kept up his attack, not stopping the Gatling for a long time. The zombies weren't being killed, but the fear was real. They were terrified of this kid in the straw hat. "Hey, stop playing around, Luffy, we still have to find the treasure!" Nami called out.
"Oh yeah! We're gonna grab Moria's treasure!" Luffy immediately stopped, and the zombies rained down from the sky, crashing into the ground and creating deep craters. Even though their bodies were completely deformed and some had their limbs torn off, they still weren't dead.
They looked at Luffy in horror and scrambled to run away from him, clearly terrified. "Why do they look like that?" Luffy asked, pointing at the fleeing zombies. "You're the ghost!" Usopp and Chopper yelled at him.
"Hee hee hee! Is that so? Alright then! Moria, come on out! We're here for your treasure!" Luffy quickly changed the subject, shouting for Moria regardless of whether the Warlord could hear him or not. In fact, Luffy's voice was so loud that everyone on the island could hear him, including Moria, who was drinking in his room.
He'd already been told that there were intruders and that Absalom had gone to deal with them, so he wasn't too worried. But when he heard Luffy's voice, it sounded familiar, and a chill went down his spine. When he heard that they were after his treasure, Moria's eyes narrowed. "Hee hee hee hee! I want to see who's so bold!"
Moria sent a few bats to fly toward the source of the sound. They soon arrived just above Luffy and his crew. As soon as the bats saw the kid in the straw hat, they panicked and flew back.
When they returned, Moria knew exactly who it was and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. "Why did the Five Emperors, the Straw Hats, come here?! Are they really a Shichibukai-killing crew? They took down the Sand Crocodile, and now it's my turn?!"
The possibility of this made him even more nervous. Moria had watched the Straw Hat crew's performance at the Summit War. Even though he had been beaten by Jinbe, he hadn't fainted. Instead, he had pretended to be injured and watched the whole battle in secret. He had seen the Straw Hats' full power and was completely shocked by it.
Even though they were just a bunch of rookies, having only recently entered the New World, they had already shown the strength to fight a Marine Admiral. It was unbelievable.
Fleet Admiral Sengoku himself had named the Straw Hats the Five Emperors, and even Akainu had admitted his defeat by Ikki. He had also heard that Straw Hat Luffy had fought Big Mom to a standstill. The Straw Hats' strength was completely legitimate and proven.
With the Five Emperors right outside his door, it was no wonder Moria was scared. "If the Straw Hats really are here to kill the Shichibukai, then I'll suffer the same fate as the Sand Crocodile. The only thing I can do is run away and contact my crew as soon as possible!" Moria ordered his zombie soldiers to contact Hogback, Perona, and Absalom.
At the moment, he only had those three allies he could rely on. The zombie soldiers could be easily recreated as long as he had a corpse and a shadow, so he wasn't worried about them. He figured if the Straw Hats couldn't find him, they would eventually leave and not take the zombie soldiers with them.
Then, the reports started coming in. "Master Moria, Master Absalom has been captured and is now chained to the Straw Hats' ship!" a zombie soldier yelled. "Master Moria, Princess Perona has gone to face Straw Hat Luffy!" another one added. "Lord Moria, Lord Hogback is with Trafalgar Law and seems to be blocked by the other party and unable to leave!" the third one reported.
The reports made Moria's face turn ugly. He paced back and forth, thinking, before finally gritting his teeth and making a difficult decision. He walked to a large corpse with a determined look in his eyes.
"Straw Hat Luffy, I don't care if you're one of the Five Emperors. If you dare to hurt my allies, I will still kill you! You definitely don't have good intentions coming here, so I have no choice but to fight!" he declared.
He then pulled out a struggling figure from his cloak. This was a shadow he had been saving for this particular corpse, only to be used if he couldn't find a strong enough one. Now, he had no other choice.
"Oz! Wake up!" Moria shouted. "Let the Five Emperors see how powerful you are!" He stuffed the shadow into Oars' body, and in the next second, Oars' eyes slowly opened.
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