"You little punk... congratulations. You've officially pissed me off!"
Defeat at Kaido's hands was the greatest shame and nightmare of Gecko Moria's life, a trauma so deep it had become taboo in his heart. And now, that unhealed wound had been callously mocked by a rookie brat standing right in front of him. The fury that surged within Moria threatened to burn away what remained of his sanity.
But just as quickly, his twisted face darkened with a sneer. He bared his jagged teeth and let out a chilling laugh.
"Kishishishishi... You little worm. I'll cut your shadow loose and trap you in eternal darkness. Die, Brick Bat!!!"
With a violent sweep of his hand, Moria's Shadow Mage dissolved into a swarm of deep purple bats and lunged toward Aeridar in a chaotic cloud.
"Tch. Yelling out your attacks beforehand? What kind of weird flex is that? And this... This attack—you think I'm weak or something?"
Seeing the wave of bats darting toward him, Aeridar's expression soured. He clenched his fist, the muscle in his arms swelling and tightening, brimming with latent force. And then, he punched forward.
In an instant, the air in front of him exploded with turbulent pressure. A shockwave rippled outward, distorting the space with a violent pulse. The cobblestone beneath his feet erupted into fragments. The entire street buckled under the pressure. The incoming bats, those shadow-forged creatures, were instantly shredded and scattered like smoke in a storm, their forms dissolving into flickering fragments of shadow. Half the block was obliterated.
Moria's eyes bulged. He was stunned, he hadn't expected that kind of raw, overwhelming power from Aeridar right off the bat.
Before he could react, the shockwave enveloped him. The force sent him flying through the air like a broken doll, blood spraying from his mouth in thick gouts.
"He, he's a monster!!"
"H-He punched a Warlord of the Sea across the street in one hit?!"
"There are... people in the world?!"
Absalom, who had turned invisible and hidden himself, and the civilians crouched in nearby buildings, were paralyzed with shock. Their eyes went wide as saucers. Some of the more timid ones collapsed on the spot, trembling in fear as if their souls had fled their bodies.
Hundreds of meters away, atop a crumbling three-story building, two mysterious men cloaked in black coats and wide-brimmed hats stood silently.
"Chris T. Aeridar... is fighting Gecko Moria?"
The larger of the two, a muscular man with bull-horn-like tufts of hair, muttered in disbelief as he watched the chaos unfold far below.
"If Moria wins, that's one thing. But if he loses..." The older man beside him, with long curled mustaches, stroked his whiskers grimly.
A member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, recognized by the World Government, being beaten down by another pirate in public? That would damage the government's authority. It could unravel the balance of power across the Grand Line.
What's more, the World Government would never allow someone who lost so humiliatingly, especially to a rookie, to remain one of the Seven Warlords. If Moria fell here, his title would be stripped for sure.
And without him, that already fragile balance would be shattered once more.
"Get ready to send a report to the higher-ups," the mustached man said under his breath. "And if a fight breaks out here... the Longhair Pirates will likely move the people hidden in their basement. That could be our chance."
"Understood." The horned man nodded and slipped off the rooftop.
Back on the ruined street...
"Damn you! I'll kill you, Spiky Shadow Lizard!!!" (Tsuno-Tokage)
From a pile of rubble dozens of meters away, Moria's furious roar rang out.
A jagged, purple-black spear of shadow shot from the debris, extending with frightening speed toward Aeridar.
Aeridar shifted slightly, just two or three meters to the side, and the lance missed him by a hair. It kept extending, piercing through several buildings in a single, devastating thrust.
That move, Spiky Shadow Lizard, was the same one Moria had used at Marineford, where he had skewered Little Oars Jr., who was even bigger than a giant. The power behind it was not to be underestimated.
But Aeridar had no intention of testing it with his Armament Haki. There was no point. Why block something you could just dodge?
That kind of recklessness? That was for amateurs.
Moria crawled from the ruins, his clothes torn and his mouth dripping blood. He looked a mess.
He hadn't dodged in time earlier because both he and his Doppelman had been hit by the same blast. That misstep had cost him dearly.
Emerging from the rubble, Moria summoned his Doppelman once more. But this time, he'd learned his lesson, he sent the clone charging ahead while he hung back.
The towering shadow figure lunged forward. For its size, it was surprisingly fast, easily closing the distance to Aeridar. With one massive hand, it swung down to crush him.
The earth split apart. Debris and smoke billowed into the air. But Aeridar had already vanished.
Then, suddenly, behind the Doppelman, Aeridar reappeared.
His right fist, coated in hardened Armament Haki, drove straight into the clone's back.
The Doppelman's massive frame twisted midair from the impact, half its body shattered, then it was launched backward like a broken puppet.
He left afterimages in his wake as he blitzed straight toward Moria.
Seeing his Doppelman fly past him and his opponent already at point-blank range, Moria cursed and swung a fist of his own.
Their fists collided three times in rapid succession. Each impact cracked the ground beneath them, the sheer force gouging a crater into the earth within seconds.
The Doppelman, having recovered, came at Aeridar again from behind. But Aeridar turned and intercepted the attack with a backhanded punch, stopping the giant palm cold. The shockwave from their clash blasted dust and rubble away in every direction.
But Moria wasn't just flailing, he was once one of the few pirates who could stand against Kaido. His combat instincts were still sharp.
He struck simultaneously with the Doppelman.
Aeridar was sent flying.
He smashed through two buildings before coming to a halt, buried in a cloud of dust and splinters.
"Damn that Armament Haki..." Moria scowled. That last strike had felt like hitting solid steel, his attack hadn't done a thing.
One of the ruined walls collapsed as Aeridar pushed it aside and stepped back into view. His body was coated in dust and chunks of debris rolled from his shoulders.
"Damn, that hurt..." he muttered, cracking his neck. "No wonder the Warlords are such a big deal."
But even as he said that, a wild grin spread across his face. His eyes gleamed, not with anger or pain, but the thrill of the hunt.
He looked at Moria the way a predator stares down its prey.
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