"Two-Sword Style: Cross Slash!"
This time, Bardock took the initiative. Using Soru, he instantly repositioned himself so that he, Moria, and the shadow replica were perfectly aligned in a straight line. Slashing horizontally with White Iron and vertically with Shusui, he launched two massive flying slashes that fused into a giant, devastating cross of compressed air.
This was the exact same tactic Bardock had used to suppress Moria during their first battle. He wanted to see how the Warlord would handle it now. Whether Moria chose to block it head-on or dodge, Bardock was fully prepared to chain into his next devastating combo, giving the giant absolutely no time to breathe.
"Kishishishishi! That won't work anymore!" Moria cackled.
Instead of defending, Moria's Doppelman instantly disintegrated into a massive swarm of shadow bats. The bats effortlessly bypassed the Cross Slash, swarming Bardock from all directions to completely obscure his vision and disrupt his follow-up attack. Meanwhile, Moria simply stepped to the side, allowing the cross slash to whistle harmlessly past him into the snowy horizon.
As the first shadow bat swooped down to bite his face, Bardock didn't even raise his swords. He simply cocked his head back and delivered a brutal headbutt into thin air.
BOOM!
A concussive shockwave ripped outward from his forehead. The invisible force slammed into the entire swarm of bats simultaneously, violently knocking them backward before completely shattering their physical forms, turning them into a splatter of inky black liquid on the ice.
This was the incredible utility of the Hasshoken, and exactly why Bardock had wanted to learn it so badly. Its outward-flowing shockwaves provided flawless 360-degree offense and defense, accompanied by a massive knockback effect.
However, the inky liquid on the ice quickly converged, instantly reforming back into Moria's towering Doppelman.
Bardock frowned, his mind racing. 'This is annoying. I can't kill the shadow. The only way to win is to knock out Moria's real body. But how do I land a decisive blow when he can just use 'Kagemusha' to instantly swap places with the shadow the moment before my attack lands?'
"Kishishishishi! What's wrong, Bardock?! Out of ideas? You've already lost!" Moria taunted.
Moria and his shadow converged, launching a perfectly synchronized, dual-sided assault on Bardock. In an instant, the battlefield was completely enveloped in a blinding storm of flashing blades and lethal thrusts.
Trapped in the center of the vortex, Bardock looked like a lone butterfly caught in a hurricane. One tiny mistake, and he would be violently swatted out of the sky.
Watching from afar, the crew's hearts leaped into their throats. Throughout their entire journey, they had never seen Bardock at such a blatant disadvantage.
Robin clasped her hands tightly together. Thanks to her newly awakened Observation Haki, she could perfectly perceive the terrifying intensity of the clash. Calling Bardock's situation 'dancing on the edge of a blade' wasn't an exaggeration.
Daz Bonez and Sai, however, remained completely stoic. Partly because they had absolute faith in their captain, but mostly because, as seasoned close-quarters fighters, they understood the reality of the clash far better than Robin. It looked incredibly dangerous, yes. But despite the overwhelming visual spectacle, Moria hadn't managed to inflict a single scratch on Bardock yet. It was far too early to call the match.
Clang!
Once again, Moria effortlessly evaded a lethal counterattack by instantly swapping places with his shadow.
Bardock sighed in annoyance. Launching a massive flying slash to temporarily force both Moria and the shadow back, he sheathed his swords.
"Moria. You've definitely become incredibly troublesome to fight," Bardock admitted. "But do you really think having a numbers advantage makes you invincible?"
Bardock opened his mouth and spat out a massive cloud of Flying Nimbus. The golden cloud rapidly swirled around him, compressing and hardening until it formed a sleek, white set of armor—strikingly similar to Vegeta's Saiyan armor. From the back of the armor, four thick, flexible Nimbus tentacles erupted, instantly hardening and turning pitch-black as Bardock coated them entirely in Armament Haki.
This was a specialized combat form Bardock had developed in his free time, heavily inspired by Kaneki Ken from Tokyo Ghoul and Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man. It was designed explicitly to counter being outnumbered, allowing the tentacles to stretch, whip, and strike independently.
He rarely used this form. Partly because he hadn't faced many situations that required it, but mostly because micromanaging four independent limbs took a massive toll on his mental stamina. However, since his conventional Two-Sword Style was struggling against Moria's teleportation spam, he had to bring out the big guns.
"Let's see who's laughing when I have more hands than you have bodies," Bardock smirked, instantly dashing forward to re-engage in close-quarters combat.
As expected, the addition of four Haki-coated tentacles completely turned the tide of battle. Bardock was suddenly a one-man army, simultaneously attacking, parrying, and completely overwhelming Moria.
Moria's ultimate lifeline—Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior)—was instantly rendered completely useless. Because Bardock was now constantly launching simultaneous, synchronized attacks at both the real Moria and the shadow replica, swapping places achieved absolutely nothing. Whichever body Moria teleported to was getting hit anyway!
The brutal reality of their strength gap was quickly exposed. While Moria's combat power had indeed skyrocketed, his foundational skills were still noticeably inferior to Bardock's. His swordsmanship was a tier lower, his mastery over the Hasshoken was shallower, and his Armament Haki wasn't as dense. Moria's Shadow-Shadow Fruit was truly a god-tier ability, easily ranking among the best Devil Fruits in the world, but it couldn't fully bridge the gap in raw, fundamental combat stats.
From afar, Robin and the others let out massive sighs of relief. They had been genuinely terrified that Bardock was in serious danger. If Bardock actually lost, would Moria still be as reasonable and cooperative as he had been recently? Or would the Warlord revert to his old ways and violently steal Bardock's shadow? Thankfully, their captain had a hidden trump card that instantly reversed the situation.
"Dammit! Don't get cocky!" Moria roared, battered and covered in shallow cuts, looking incredibly disheveled. "Shadows Asgard! Ten Shadows!"
Ten pitch-black shadows instantly shot across the ice and entered Moria's body.
And... that was it. Just ten shadows.
Bardock paused, genuinely confused. What was going on? Sure, Moria had lost his massive stockpile of shadows from Thriller Bark, but between the Happo Navy grunts they had captured and whatever random pirates Absalom had hunted down, Moria definitely had way more than ten shadows at his disposal.
"Kishishishishi! You look confused, Bardock!" Moria gloated, his confidence fully restored as his muscles bulged with the added power. "I finally figured it out! Having absolute, overwhelming power is enough! Anything beyond that is a completely unnecessary detriment! Absorbing too many shadows severely strains my mental focus and drastically reduces the amount of time I can maintain the form!"
Moria grinned viciously. "This time, I only absorbed ten shadows. But they are all absolute elites! Obviously, the best one is Don Chinjao's. The other nine are a few tiers lower, but they are all seasoned New World veterans!"
Bardock sighed. "You also realized that a massive, bloated body is just a giant target. By keeping your size normal, I can't just beat the shadows out of your stomach like I did last time. You've really started to master the true potential of your Devil Fruit, Moria."
This was going to be a tough fight. Bardock instantly deactivated his tentacle armor and shifted into his Beast-Human Monkey King form, relying on the 'Size Manipulation' ability to match Moria's exact height and build.
With Don Chinjao's shadow actively empowering him, the Hasshoken had become Moria's strongest weapon. The Warlord discarded his Cane Sword, opting to fight Bardock purely with martial arts.
Bardock was eager to test this "Moria + Chinjao" hybrid. He sheathed White Iron and Shusui and rushed forward to meet the Warlord in a brutal brawl.
If their previous sword clash had been dangerous and elegant, this fight was brutal, primal, and straightforward. Punches were thrown, blocks were raised, and counterattacks were launched. Because they were both masters of the Hasshoken, their defensive techniques were practically flawless. Despite the deafening shockwaves constantly shattering the ice around them, neither side was landing any decisive blows.
However, as the fight dragged on, Bardock slowly began to lose ground. Moria was fighting with increasing fluidity and rhythm.
"Hasshoken Secret Technique: Butou!" Moria roared, rearing his head back to deliver a devastating headbutt.
Bardock almost laughed out loud.
Moria didn't possess Chinjao's specialized, hardened drill-head. Attempting to use the Butou technique with a normal, flat skull was completely counterproductive! It seemed that in the heat of battle, Chinjao's combat instincts were overriding Moria's logical judgment.
Bardock didn't hesitate. Funneling maximum-density Armament Haki into his right fist, he unleashed a devastating uppercut squarely onto Moria's descending forehead.
BOOM!
Moria was violently blasted backward, skidding across the ice. Even though he had coated his forehead in Armament Haki at the last second, the sheer concussive force left him seeing stars and violently dizzy.
"ARGH! DAMMIT!" Moria roared in utter frustration. The momentum of the fight had finally been shifting in his favor, but a single split-second lapse in judgment had completely ruined his advantage!
"Is my mental stamina finally hitting its limit?!" Moria cursed under his breath. He realized the harsh truth: the relentless high-speed swordplay, the constant application of complex Haki, and now maintaining ten elite shadows simultaneously had completely drained his mental reserves.
This was the price of neglecting his physical training for so many years. His raw strength and Devil Fruit abilities were top-tier, but his foundational stamina and endurance were pathetically weak. If only he had discovered this Shadow Training method years ago!
"Fine! If I'm running out of time, I'll just have to end this in one strike!" Moria bellowed.
Suddenly, Moria's Doppelman materialized out of the ice next to him. (While using Shadows Asgard, Moria's physical body was no longer perfectly identical to his shadow, meaning he couldn't use the Kagemusha teleportation ability, but he could still summon the shadow to fight independently.)
"Listen carefully, Bardock!" Moria warned, a manic grin spreading across his face. "This next attack is absolutely terrifying! Make sure you don't actually die!"