Just as Luffy and his crew were about to make their move, they discovered that the horde of zombies had stopped a few dozen meters away from them.
"What do these zombies want?" Sanji asked curiously.
"Who cares? If they don't come over, we'll just go over and beat them up!" Luffy loosened his bones.
"Hey, Luffy! Don't rush, let's see what tricks they have up their sleeves! Judging by their orderly formation, they must have received orders from the boss!" Zoro said calmly.
"Boss, zombies have bosses?" Luffy, looking puzzled.
"Judging from the identity of the island's owner, it's highly likely that these zombies are able to move thanks to Moria's Devil Fruit ability, so the identity of their owner is quite obvious!"
"Hehehehe~"
Just then, a strange laugh came from the direction of the zombie horde, and everyone turned their attention to it.
A figure about seven meters tall slowly walked out from behind the horde of zombies, who then made way for it.
Behind him were a girl with pigtails and a fat guy who looked sleazy.
These three were naturally Moria and his two remaining subordinates, Perona and Hogback.
Moria stepped forward, looked at Zoro, and said, " Moss Head kid, I didn't expect you to be so accurate!"
"That's right, the master of these zombies is none other than Lord Moria!"
Zoro:(•́へ•́╬)!
"Hahaha~ Moss Head! Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks you look like Moss Head, everyone else thinks so too!" Sanji, standing to the side, was practically laughing hysterically, clutching his stomach and convulsing.
"If you laugh again, I'll cut you down!" Zoro said to Sanji a gloomy expression. If the enemy weren't right in front of them, he would have taught this Curly Brows a lesson.
Zoro then turned his gaze to Moria.
"Hey, big guy! I'm going to... chop you up!"
"What do you mean? Zoro, I'm the one who's going to take down Moria!" Luffy, shouting that he would do it.
Moria's face instantly darkened, but he didn't attack immediately. Instead, he asked, "Where is Demon King Xia Chen with a bounty of 2 billion on your ship? Why haven't I seen him?"
"Oh, Xia Chen! I don't know where he went!" Luffy replied.
"Bang!!"
"Are you an idiot? How dare you say that?" Nami said angrily, clenching her fist, looking at Luffy with utter fury.
Are you deliberately informing the enemy that your strongest force is absent?
"Wait, 2 billion? When did Xia Chen's bounty reach 2 billion?"
"You guys don't know yet?" Moria looked at Nami and the others' confused expressions and became a little confused himself.
That doesn't make sense! A while has passed since the Golden Lion was defeated! But he still explained:
" Demon King Xia Chen defeated the legendary Golden Lion of the old era, and his bounty has been increased from 800 million to 2 billion!"
"His bounty alone is several times higher than the combined bounties of all the others!"
"You don't need to say the one after that!" Luffy and the other two said in unison, their eyes full of hostility as they looked at Moria. A thought simultaneously popped into their minds.
"That fatso has no manners!"
Moria continued, "Forget it, I don't care whether he's here or not. I didn't come here to fight you, but to ask where my subordinate Absalom is?"
" Absalom? Who's that?" Luffy asked curiously.
"The lion man who appeared on our ship before, didn't Brook mention him?" Sanji replied casually from the side.
Oh, you mean him?
"He was killed by Xia Chen!"
He's on our ship!
Two completely different answers came from Luffy and Nami respectively.
For a moment, the two stared at each other, and then the veins on Nami's forehead bulged rapidly at a visible speed.
Seeing this, Luffy felt a sense of unease and was about to beg for mercy when Nami's fist landed on his head.
If you can't speak properly, then don't speak at all! (•́へ•́╬)
Then Nami looked at Moria and said sheepishly, "He was just kidding. That Absalom you mentioned is being treated like royalty on our ship right now!"
Hearing this, Moria's expression grew increasingly gloomy. He wasn't stupid. Of course, he could see that the Straw Hat Boy was just a blunt idiot.
And what such a person says subconsciously is definitely true, because an idiot doesn't have that many hidden thoughts in their mind.
Thinking of this, Moria became even angrier. He looked at the people in front of him with murderous intent and then cried out in grief.
" Absalom!!"
Although Moria is quite cold-blooded, he treats his subordinates very well. In the original work, when he learned that Absalom was with Blackbeard, he single-handedly stormed into Hachinosu.
"I want you all... to be buried with Absalom!"
"Zombie generals, charge!"
As soon as Moria finished speaking, the zombie army behind him charged towards Luffy and the others.
Luffy and his two companions narrowed their eyes and charged towards the zombies as well.
The moment they clashed, the three of them immediately felt the pressure. These zombie generals, while not particularly strong, were not weak either.
Even though they had mastered dual-color Haki, they were still struggling to cope with being surrounded by several or even a dozen zombies at the same time.
Nami and the others were also in a precarious situation. Although Luffy and his Luffy had managed to hold off most of the zombies, five stragglers managed to get to them.
Robin held off two of them by herself, while Nami and the other two shared the remaining three heads equally.
Nami stared at the zombie before her with a grave expression. She recognized it as the same zombie that had just cleaved her in two with lightning.
The zombie was wearing a kimono with the word "dragon" written on both arms, and a black sword gleamed in the moonlight.
"Wow, what a beautiful lady! I can't help but stare!"
"Although I'm just a mummy and don't have eyes, yo ho ho ho ho~"
"Excuse me, miss, may I see your panties?"
"Get out of here, you perverted mummy!" Nami shouted, but then suddenly realized that the laughter and the conversation felt strangely familiar.
" Brook?" Nami asked, looking at it with a puzzled expression.
"No, no, no, I am the swordsman Ryuma! The person you're referring to must be the original owner of the shadow within this body!"
"Oh~ Sodo seri!"
"Yohohohoho~ That's how it is, Miss!" Swordsman Ryuma's laughter came from behind Nami.
Nami's face immediately showed a look of horror.
"When?"
Nami quickly turned to look at Ryuma, only to see that his sword had been drawn at some point and was now slowly sheathing itself. He said calmly at the same time:
" Hanauta Sancho - Yahazu Giri!"