"Brother Kaidou! We've spotted the enemy!"
The pirates of the Hundred Beasts were excited, as the internal promotion mechanism of the Hundred Beasts Pirates made them place more emphasis on strength.
They were very aware of their own level and knew that to achieve a qualitative leap, they either needed to find a powerful Fruit or receive Arceus's blessing.
This made battle achievements increasingly important within the Hundred Beasts Pirates, as it was their main means of promotion.
The lottery system was very popular within the Hundred Beasts Pirates. Previously, Kaidou had drawn away half of the elites in Wano Kuni, and apart from those officers, there wasn't a big difference in their strength.
Ordinary members were divided into several small teams, and their leaders conducted the lottery. Although guarding Wano Kuni was much more comfortable than going out to seize territory, the input and output were proportional.
Instead of aging within Wano Kuni, they preferred going out to earn battle achievements.
Occasionally, other islands would have rash newcomers appear, but due to Wano Kuni's terrain, such things were almost impossible, so they were somewhat disappointed about being stationed there.
However, now that honors had arrived at their doorstep, this made the Hundred Beasts Pirates much more excited than Kaidou.
More and more pirates appeared on the hillside, all waiting for Kaidou's orders.
"Is it you who broke in here? You do have some skills."
Looking at Moriah with about a dozen fallen members of the Hundred Beasts Pirates at his feet, Kaidou gave Moriah a few more glances. Being able to come to Wano and easily dispatch his subordinates indicated that Moriah was far from being a weakling.
"Hey! Show some respect to Captain Moriah! He's a great pirate with a bounty of 320 million and is a man aiming to become the Pirate King!"
"Pirate King? You really dare to say anything, Diamond Javelin!"
Kaidou waved his Wolf Fang Club with one hand towards that person, and although he's no Sword Master, he swung out a columnar slash similar to a Flying Slash.
The range affected by the columnar slash was wider; the snow on the ground was stirred by Kaidou's Diamond Javelin attack, forming a snow dragon that charged towards the people by Moriah.
"Watch out!" Moriah waved his hand, diverting his companions to one side, and then slashed up with both hands holding his sword.
The snowflakes split in two before Moriah; he blocked all of Kaidou's attacks, although he retreated a few steps, he still managed to defend against it.
"Bastard! What are you trying to do to my comrades?"
"Wahaha, of course, kill him. But I've changed my mind now. Is it Moriah? I'll give you a chance, join my pirate crew with your people."
Although the previous strike wasn't his full strength, Moriah blocking his attack clearly showed his significant skill.
"Are you kidding? I'm a man who aims to become the Pirate King, how could I possibly join you!"
"Normally, I wouldn't mind playing with you more, but today I'm not in a good mood. Here's your last chance, do you really not want to join?"
Originally, he had been playing well with Yamato, at least Kaidou thought it was playing. He thought Yamato should be happy too, although he yelled and ran away, it was more fun than usual.
Arceus was right, he should teach while having fun. But just when he was about to continue teaching, the matter with Moriah reached his ears.
His freshly ignited interest was thus interrupted, putting him in a bad mood, so he didn't want to waste much time with Moriah.
"Of course not, haha, I have the best partners on this sea, I will defeat you here, steal your treasures, and then head to Laugh Tale!
How could I join you and stop here then?"
"If that's the case, your only choice is to die here, boys! Kill them all, leave no one alive!"
With that, he charged down the hillside first, and the pirates behind him rushed forward one by one, with Moriah not to be outdone, leading his crew to meet him head-on.
In the charge, the pirates on both sides silently spread to the sides, leaving the center of the battlefield to their captains.
Moriah was tall, and even before he turned into an onion, his body was very robust. Moriah's long sword dragged on the ground, lifting snow as he swung.
In battles in Paradise, such unnoticed small tricks could still play some role, and even in the New World, he retained this habit. Though there was Observation Haki, many people still relied on their eyes, except for someone like Fujitora who blinded himself.
Though the swings came from down to up and after a few touches Moriah was at a disadvantage, the fight was still back and forth.
"Not bad, unlike those small fries in Paradise, now we're getting serious, Thundering Hakken!"
Rich Armament Haki enwrapped around the Hassaikai, and electricity entwined on it. Kaidou slightly adjusted his grip on the club, jumped into the air with force from his legs, and slammed down his weapon towards Moriah's head."
"Shadow Mage!" The shadow under Moriah's feet suddenly came to life, no longer mimicking the original body's actions, a pitch-black Moriah appeared before him, with arms crossed to block Kaidou's attack.
Although he could control shadows, it was only the shadows of humans, as in the hands of a Shadow-Shadow Fruit Ability User, shadows were also a part of life, while the shadows of dead objects such as swords and guns were beyond his control.
The shadow clone felt no pain, unafraid of injury, completely obeyed Moriah's commands, and could be said to be his best assistant, but the clone's power was ultimately still a bit weaker than the original body.
While it slowed down Kaidou's offensive, after a few seconds, Kaidou's attack exceeded the shadow mage's limit, splitting the shadow into countless dark spheres, then morphing into bat-shaped shadows biting Kaidou's arms, trying to slow his movements.
But under Kaidou's Haki defense, these attacks were meaningless; the shadow bats couldn't penetrate his Haki defense.
Their weapons clashed again, compared to the present Thundering Hakken, the previous attack was mere child's play.
The bat shadows condensed into an entity not far away, and then as Moriah vied with Kaidou, he instantly became his own shadow.
"Shadow Warrior.."
Moriah could freely switch places with his shadow using his Fruit Ability. When he sensed something was off, he made such a choice, then he opened his coat and took out bottles containing shadows.
"Bastard, now let me show you the power of the great me!"
Then he opened the caps of two bottles with both hands, and about twenty shadows entered his body...