Chapter 05 - Thriller Bark 02.

[Chapter Size: 1700 Words]

Third Person POV.

Triangle Florian (Thriller Bark), The first half of the Grand Line.

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...

In the midst of Moria's castle entrance, two beings found themselves at that moment,

A zombie of a great swordsman walked up to the hall and stopped, facing a strange living skeleton in front of him.

"So it's you..." Ryuma said calmly, his voice a copy of Brook's.

"Yes, it's me..." Brook replied in the same tone, facing the bearer of his shadow.

"You've changed, that made me change too..." He said more as a reflection.

"Yes, but your body can no longer bear my shadow, it's a weak shell..." Brook announced.

"You better not underestimate me..." Ryuma responded darkly.

"You overestimate yourself, my shadow is too powerful for this lesser cocoon..." Brook said sincerely, not caring about being arrogant.

"Let's see about that, as our swords cross then." Ryume drew his Shusui from its sheath and prepared to confront and attack Brook.

On the other side with Brook, lifting his slender sword that was part of his cane, the shadowy skeleton prepared for the confrontation with the once famous swordsman of Wano.

At the same moment, with both kicking the ground, the place turned into chaos, with both fighting against each other in a sword duel where slashes flew in all directions, turning ice sculptures with zombies that Brook had made before into ice fragments caught by the attacks of the two swordsmen.

Brook was a bit surprised that Ryuma could keep up with his soru, given he was stronger than Zoro from the original work when they fought. But Brook soon thought that this was due to his current strength gained with the original body, Ryuma must have benefited from this as well. Dropping these thoughts, he returned his focus to the chaos of swords unfolding against his opponent.

*Slash*

*Slash*

*Slash*

*BOOM!*

*Slash*

*Slash*

*BOOM!*

The explosions in that hall soon began to shake the castle, and people unaware of the fight realized that something was happening.

"Hm? What is this tremor?!" In the dining room, Moria's crew felt the whole castle suddenly shake and explosions were heard much stronger than before.

"What's happening!" Moria growled.

"An enemy attack?" Perona said with some fear.

"This doesn't seem like zombies, or that zombie Ryuma seems out of control..." The doctor commented.

"Absalom, can you see what's happening?" Moria suggested.

"I'll check!" Said Absalom, standing up and heading towards where Ryume disappeared immediately.

Meanwhile, in the fight.

"You are stronger than I thought, but it's not enough now... as I said, my shadow is too strong for your body to bear..." Brook said as he launched more of his attacks towards Luffy.

Ruyme couldn't match his opponent after a while, even with his own shadow, he didn't seem to be gaining the advantage, not after his body was filled with cuts, he was still a zombie, so he wasn't too bothered by these wounds, however as soon as his muscles were cut, he began to have a deficiency in movements.

*Slash*

"What?!" Ryume expressed great surprise when his arm was cut off the next moment, causing his sword to fall with the arm.

"You never stood a chance, it's a pity I can't see the real Ryuma, but I intend to take over your weapon after I'm done with you, so don't be so sorrowful...I'll make Shusui feared in the world again in my hands." Brook said as his eyes glowed red in that darkness where his eyes should be in his skull.

"Don't think you've won the fight!" Ruyme growled, as he still had pride, however, without a weapon at that moment, he was at a great disadvantage now and retreated many meters.

"You might have been a great swordsman who killed a dragon in the past, but now you're just a walking corpse, goodbye Ruyma..." Brook said and before the old zombie swordsman could react, Brook raised his bone hand and showed the palm to his opponent, his bones turned dark with a shadowy fog and with power equivalent to a black hole, Ruyma was sucked towards Brook without being able to react.

Brook's hand was already grasping him and that dark thing began to wrap around the zombie quickly.

"What?!" The zombie of Ryuma expressed surprise as he lost his shadow to that dark substance, witnessing the loss of what granted him consciousness before turning back into an immobile corpse once more.

"The darkness fruit cancels out most of the effects of the akuma no mi, you're losing the shadow Moria gave to you..." Brook said calmly as he watched Ryuma lose his shadow, which was returning to beneath his own feet.

Feeling his shadow once again, the feeling of emptiness was filled in Brook, and he even felt stronger.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Finally, I have my shadow back, I feel even more powerful with it!" Brook laughed loudly as he tossed Ryuma's corpse to the ground, but suddenly, he looked towards the entrance where Ryuma had exited, and a malicious glint intensified in his eyes.

"I can see that you're invisible, but even without my eyes, I can still feel your soul..." Brook said with a sinister voice.

Whatever was there at that door began to walk backwards, feeling immense danger from that skeleton, trying to escape the place with a feeling of fear and horror.

Absalom came to see what was happening, encountering a monster destroying the currently strongest zombie of Captain Moria, so he did not react, knowing it could be dangerous, just watching him consume his shadow again.

But now he was discovered by this entity, even with his invisibility, he had to run now before being consumed by this skeleton.

'Soul, he said he feels my soul? What kind of monster is this?! It's better I run and warn the captain!' He thought internally, as he started running towards the dining room.

However, the invisible man turned into a statue of ice without realizing, after Brook released the ice of the underworld that ran straight from one of his feet to the man, leaving a large trail of ice.

Looking at the other frozen adversary in a matter of a movement, he seemed a bit disappointed. "Did I become too strong? Because I haven't found any challenge so far?" Brook murmured those words again, he was hoping to encounter some difficulty, but everything was being so easy to deal with since he arrived on the island.

"Anyway, let's take this weapon." He pulled Shusui from the ground with a black hole, now he had in possession the famous sword of Ryuma.

"You will be my weapon for now, I hope we can work together until I get the blade I want." Brook said, he didn't care about the sword, for him, it was just a tool, so he would exchange it for a better one in the future.

"Now I don't need you anymore." He looked at Brook's cane sword and simply threw his old sword aside, as he treated his weapons merely as tools, Brook never got attached to any item.

Picking up the sheath and tying it around his waist with the new sword, he started walking towards the frozen Absalom.

When he arrived at the statue of the invisible man now looking like a frozen humanoid lion, he squeezed it with one hand and broke the ice.

*CRACK!* The human statue shattered the next moment, killing the former user of the akuma no mi of invisibility.

"Let's try this..." Brook murmured as he used his darkness on the ice blocks where Absalom should be. He picked up a fruit and spent 2 minutes trying to figure out how to extract an akuma no mi like Teach did, but without success...

'How did Blackbeard do it? Wasn't it because of the fruit?' Brook reflected a bit on his failure and gave up trying, as he couldn't figure out how to do it now.

'Well, anyway, let's continue...' He thought as he continued walking along the path where Absalom had tried to escape.

In the dining room, the group was feeling a certain abnormality in the atmosphere, becoming increasingly sinister as the sounds of explosions seemed only memories now.

"It seems everything has gone silent..." Perona whispered softly with a certain cautious expression.

"Whoever was making that mess must be dead..." the doctor said.

"Hahahahaha! No matter who it was, they will always be destroyed, I just hope Ryuma hasn't killed them, I need new shadows!" an excited Moria said, hoping that if it was an intruder, they had been dealt with by his zombies.

"But it's strange, it's too quiet..." Perona insisted again, and the others gradually realized this as they looked towards the corridor.

The castle seemed to be in a dangerously silent mood, they could always hear some zombie making noise, but now there was not a single sound besides their breathing...

"This is odd... Zombie cooks, more food!" Moria shouted.

"..."

"..."

"..."

No one responded, everything was in absolute silence.

"What's happening, Moria-Sama...?" Perona expressed much more fear now as even her ghosts seemed to feel the same as they danced around her.

"I also want to know what's happening!?" Moria roared with some oppressive feeling in his heart.

*Footsteps*

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps was coming from the direction where Ryuma and Absalom had exited.

The trio looked cautious, even Moria, seemed to have bad feelings about this. But they could never imagine the following scene, from the corridor, a 2.6 meters tall skeleton emerged and passed through the door wearing only a robe, and on his waist, there was a sword they knew well and to whom it belonged, the famous sword Shusui.

"A SKELETON! HOW SCARY!" Perona was immediately frightened by this, she had not seen Brook before and now was horrified by this monster emerging from the doors and walking calmly towards them.

"Who are you, damn it!" Moria shouted with a bit of fear.

"Me? You don't recognize me after all these years? I'm disappointed in you, Moria." The skeleton said calmly, but his voice was eerily threatening and familiar.

"That voice and the way you speak... It can't be... You are the owner of Ryuma's shadow?! You are that skeleton on that ship, near our waters!" Moria finally reasoned.

"That's right, and I have a score to settle with you, Moria, so I intend to kill you here." Brook said with his sinister voice.