Blood trickled down from the wound on his cheek.
Moria's expression instantly turned terrifying.
"Heh heh heh..."
That signature laugh spread in all directions, startling the many creatures lurking in the shadows.
"Bagard Maud, your shadow... I'll have it!"
Moria spread his arms and opened his enormous mouth, lined with sharp teeth.
His face—and even his eyes—were filled with a savage cruelty mixed with a sinister chill.
He knew.
This newcomer before him was no ordinary person.
Ever since entering the Grand Line, not only had his bounty skyrocketed, but he had also treated that route feared by countless people as if it were nothing.
Not long ago, he had clearly been on one stretch of the route, only to suddenly appear on another. Now, he had even come to Moria's territory—the Thriller Bark.
How had he done it?
Moria had no interest in getting to the bottom of it.
He admitted that Maud was the strongest rookie he had encountered during the nine years he had spent lying low after returning from the New World.
But so what?
In all these years lurking in the Thriller Bark, he had punished countless rookie pirate crews.
What he loved seeing most was the miserable look on those rookies' faces when their dreams and goals were shattered just one step away from the island marking the end of the first half of the Grand Line!
"Heh heh heh..."
Moria stared fixedly at Maud, blood vessels surfacing in his eyes.
The swarm of bats transformed from shadows first scattered, then charged at Maud simultaneously from every direction.
"Information is one thing, but some things can only be verified in actual combat..."
Maud's Observation Haki had remained active the entire time.
All the bats approaching from around him were within his field of vision.