One Piece: Mandala Swordsman

Chapter 82 I'm going to hire a lawyer and sue you to death.

The Shadow-Shadow Fruit not only allows one to control their own shadow, but also allows for the advanced technique of cutting off the shadow of an enemy and placing it in a corpse. The corpse will then acquire the personality of the shadow. Although it will initially have its own thoughts, it may gradually lose its own thoughts within a few hours and become a servant who obeys orders without question.

Although the abilities of Devil Fruits are incredibly powerful, the development process is also a difficult one, often taking several years to go from weak to strong, especially the Shadow-Shadow Fruit, which requires very high technical skills.

It seems that Moria's development level is not that high yet.

After easily slicing down several zombies, Roman came to a conclusion.

Moria's zombie strength is closely related to his shadow; logically, the stronger the shadow, the stronger the zombie.

However, there are also limitations.

That is the strength of the physical body. If the owner of the shadow is a master of physical skills, but the shadow is placed inside a weak and feeble corpse, then although the zombie's combat power will be enhanced, it will definitely not be as strong as the shadow's original body.

And this is almost inevitable. The dried-up and rotten corpse has long lost its vitality, and even blood can no longer flow out. Therefore, if you want to increase your strength, you must rely on external objects or technology.

Perhaps it was because of this drawback that Moria sought out the famous surgeon Hoguto to modify the corpses. The result was a great success. Under the modification, even a frail woman (Cindorie) still possessed considerable strength and fighting ability.

"Ahhh, that was too dangerous! That zombie just tried to bite off my hand!"

Hmm, he should be able to easily deal with Bucky. I really don't know how he's managed to stay safe on this island all this time. Is his luck really that incredible? Roman is a little envious.

"You can be torn to pieces, right? Their attacks are basically useless against you unless they cut you into pieces, but their body control is very poor, and they almost all rely on brute force, so they don't pose much of a threat to you," Roman said calmly.

“Hey, kid, don’t make it sound so easy. Those stinky monsters, I wouldn’t even want to touch them, let alone be bitten by them,” Bucky protested loudly.

“I completely agree with that, but now is not the time to relax. You must have noticed that those zombies are still wearing their clothes from when they were alive, so they should just be ordinary residents. But according to my analysis, Moria probably wiped out the entire Marine branch here. I haven’t encountered a single guy wearing a Marine uniform yet…”

Is it really because Bucky is by his side?

"Moria, you mean Gecko Moria?"

Buggy wasn't like Luffy, who never read books or newspapers. He was already very familiar with Moria's reputation. A great pirate with a bounty of several hundred million, although he had faded into obscurity after challenging Kaido, even if he was just a paper tiger, he still had a deterrent effect.

Moreover, Kaido, that monster, was someone I had seen several times when he was still on Captain Roger's ship. Although he seemed weak, that was relative to Roger and Rayleigh. After the captain's death, he rose to become the Emperor of the Sea, which is enough to demonstrate his strength.

"It should be the Moria you mentioned."

"I……"

"Moria seems to have a lot of treasure, after all, he has robbed a lot of pirates."

"Since that's the case, then I'll reluctantly help you, little brat, defeat him."

Sure enough, treasure can make people lose their minds, especially for a money-grubbing guy like Bucky.

Bucky's IQ plummets when it comes to treasure, and he also gets carried away when people praise him.

But I still prefer guys with simple minds.

As for whether Moriah really has treasure, well, Roman can't guarantee that. In any case, he's only mentioned one possibility.

"However, we still need to be careful. Ideally, we should sneak into that guy's base, take the treasure, and then leave the island quickly..."

No, damn it, I forgot that brat's goal was to defeat Moria. Is she really that naive to think she can defeat Moria? A pirate of that caliber is no match for a little girl like her.

Buggy doesn't deny that Roman is strong, but that's relative to her age. Despite his seemingly unreliable appearance, Buggy grew up on a pirate ship with a group of top-notch fighters, so his standards are exceptionally high. In his eyes, Roman is indeed outstanding, but she's not enough to impress him.

If my feet weren't still on the other person's body, preventing me from running far, I would have already sneaked away.

Perhaps I can convince her that geniuses like her are often very afraid of losing their lives.

“What I mean is, we have absolutely no need to attack Moriah. Taking his treasure would already be a huge blow to Moriah, and human life is very precious…”

But Roman quickly interrupted Bucky's rambling: "I don't object to what you're doing."

"Oh, really? Looks like you're quite sensible, kid. That's more like it..."

"No, you've misunderstood me!"

"what?"

"It's not a matter of us retreating whenever we want anymore. He's already discovered us. If we want to leave this island alive, there's probably no other way but to defeat him."

"What are you talking about, kid? We haven't even seen Moria yet, don't try to scare us..."

Suddenly, Bucky seemed to notice something too, and following Roman's gaze, he looked over as well.

The moon was bright tonight, its soft, silvery glow bringing a comforting light to the island, but the combination with the zombie-strewn mud and the stench of corpses in the air was unsettling.

But the truly shocking scene wasn't this. What sent chills down Bucky's spine was a black bat hanging from a large tree, its pupils as red as blood, terrifying to behold, and on top of that, it wore a sinister smile.

It doesn't look like a normal bat at all.

"It must be Moria's scouts. Come to think of it, it's a small island after all. To know as much as possible about the situation on the island, you need some methods. The fact that we've only just encountered them is probably all thanks to your Conqueror's Haki and luck."

"What a joke!!!"

"Amazing lung capacity, no wonder they're Roger's crew, each one has their own unique characteristics," Roman thought, covering his ears.

Now that we've been discovered, war seems to be the only option.

The moon is nice; I hope I can see the sun tomorrow.

"If you were here with me, I think we would be able to see the sun rise tomorrow."

"Kid, if I were still alive, I'd hire the best lawyer to sue you to death." Bucky started to cry, burying his face in his hands.

"On the bright side, if you can afford the best lawyers, it at least means we've got his treasure," Roman said, drawing his long knife as he told a lame joke.

A great battle is about to begin.