Half a minute later, the vast forest looked as if it had been ravaged by a gigantic beast, with hundreds of trees falling in the same direction.
Violent gravity pervaded the entire area. Hundreds of Zombie Soldierss were crushed, their bones snapped, and their forms shattered. Although they were immortal zombies, they completely lost their combat effectiveness under these circumstances.
In the center of the battlefield, Zombie Ryuma sighed softly, "Yohohoho... The body of the legendary samurai is so frail before you. Who exactly are you?"
"I am merely an incompetent fellow."
Issho withdrew his hand, Yakuza Kasen pulling out of Zombie Ryuma's chest before he flicked it behind him.
Gravity crushed forward, and Absalom, who had been stealthily approaching, was immediately sent flying, screaming as he crashed through several large trees before being pinned firmly to the ground.
"Is that so?"
Zombie Ryuma seemed like he wanted to say more, but his damaged body could no longer sustain the fight. He opened his mouth and spat out a black shadow, which suddenly flew into the sky and then disappeared.
A Devil Fruit Ability, huh...
Issho withdrew his gaze, looking at the fallen corpse with complicated eyes.
He probably knew the root cause of why the corpse looked familiar.
Shusui and the remains of Shimotsuki Ryuma had appeared here, before his eyes, as a 'weapon'.
The root cause was likely the Devil Fruit Ability.
Although he had left Wano Country in his early years and found a new place outside, he still felt a certain closeness to the legendary Sword God. After all, judging by the lineage, Ryuma from eight hundred years ago was the ancestor of his old friend, Shimotsuki Koushirou.
Furthermore, that sword, Shusui, was a national treasure of Wano Country.
Issho picked up Shusui, sheathed it, and hung it on his waist, then walked toward the location of the last enemy.
In the direction he was heading, Absalom, who was pinned firmly to the ground by invisible gravity, barely managed to lift his head, and then there was nothing more.
His eyes were filled with incredible shock.
The opponent's strength surpassed imagination. The fact that he could find him while he was transparent was unbelievable.
Captain Moria must come to deal with this man!
"Although it's a Devil Fruit Ability, the development level is too poor, you can't even hide your own presence."
Issho seemed to understand the meaning in the other party's eyes and said calmly, "You can't stop me, nor can those moving corpses. Have your master behind you come out."
"Damn it! Don't think I'll... Aaaah!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Absalom felt the pressure on his body suddenly increase, causing him to scream. Unlike those zombies, he was just a modified human, so pain was inevitable.
The pressure eased, but Absalom still kept his mouth shut. He was fiercely loyal to his Captain.
"Loyalty, huh."
Issho frowned upon seeing this, and with a swift flick of Yakuza Kasen, the terrifying gravity instantly tore Absalom into pieces.
Having made a preliminary judgment about the situation of this place, he naturally showed no mercy when dealing with evil.
Next, he activated his Observation Haki and began searching for other presences.
Five minutes later, he finally learned that this island-sized ship was the base of one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea—Gecko Moria.
He also learned of Moria's villainous acts, who was waiting on this ship to catch people, constantly cutting off the shadows of the living and sewing them into corpses.
Seven minutes later, a massive, kilometer-sized meteor descended from the sky, its surging firelight illuminating almost half of the ship.
With a deafening boom, it smashed into a mansion. Flames shot into the sky, the ship shook violently, and then black shadows soared out everywhere, scattering in all directions.
Eight minutes later, Issho, who never showed his face, left Thriller Bark. He neither killed Moria nor revealed his identity.
In his opinion, the Warlord system could offer some effect in maintaining world order.
—
At this moment, the night was quiet, and the sea breeze was refreshing.
Hiroto, who had used [Incoming Chaos] multiple times in a row, finally confirmed that the Kuroobi incident was over. He breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the Captain's cabin.
After the sudden danger just now, Zoro and the others couldn't sleep and were preparing to stand watch.
After being comforted by Hiroto, Nami calmed down and proceeded with the night voyage steadily. They were less than two days away from reaching Cocoyasi Village.
'While I have the time, let's see if I can fuse another entry.'
Hiroto closed the door and opened the panel.
The powerful effect of [Shunpo] was fully displayed in the recent sea battle. The core points were its mobility and aerial combat capability.
The mobility was very straightforward. If it weren't for the powerful boost of [Shunpo], Hiroto wouldn't have been able to complete a series of actions and protect both the people and the ship in such a constrained situation and short period of time.
Kuroobi's plan essentially maximized the Fishmen's advantage, but he failed disastrously only because he encountered Hiroto, who possessed [Shunpo].
The aerial advantage was even more significant: high-altitude vision, evasion of wave resistance, and [Incoming Chaos] to charge straight ahead freely.
It can be said that a purple entry was quite valuable. In fact, due to his reaction speed, he hadn't even been able to utilize the full effect of [Shunpo]. Precisely because of this, Hiroto wanted to see if he could use the gains from slaying Kuroobi and the others to perform another entry fusion.
Three options appeared.
This time, the panel was flashing with a strong green halo, clearly just one step away from reaching the blue grade.
'Tsk, useless. Why is there only this much energy?' Hiroto shook his head, slightly disappointed, but it was actually within expectation.
The energy for the panel originated from his influence on the One Piece World, or rather, his influence on the plot. Someone of Kuroobi's level was only considered a minor antagonist in the original story. The fact that he generated this much energy was because he had a fight with Sanji.
If he had killed Arlong, he should have gotten enough Distortion energy for a purple entry.
Of course, at that time, Hiroto would have also liberated Nami and formally had her join the crew. At that point, the goal would be an orange entry.
(End of Chapter)
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