"Hey, Straw Hat! Get over here! That guy's releasing some kind of spores!" Chopper's instincts kicked in the moment he detected the hallucinogenic particles in the air, and he immediately shouted a warning.
But Musshuru's lips curled into a twisted smile.
"Too late! I've been releasing spores since the moment I arrived!" His laugh echoed across the snowy platform, carrying the same arrogant tone as Wapol. "By now, you should be seeing a wonderfully colorful world, shouldn't you? Oh, my apologies, under the influence of my hallucinogenic spores, even your hearing will be stripped away piece by piece."
Unlike Wapol, who had basically stood there like a target waiting to be hit, Musshuru wasn't about to make the same mistake. He immediately went on the offensive.
White mushrooms began sprouting from the snow-covered ground all around them, their caps glistening with moisture as they grew at an unnatural rate. They moved like living creatures, heading straight for Luffy.
Luffy's eyes had already transformed into spiraling patterns. His pupils were completely unfocused.
"Whoa! Marcus, look! Little people everywhere!" He pointed excitedly at patches of completely empty ground.
The next moment he broke into delighted laughter. "Hey! Do you guys want to play with me? Shishishishi!"
One by one, the mushrooms quietly attached themselves to Luffy's body like parasitic creatures.
Watching Luffy get controlled just like when he'd eaten those poisonous mushrooms back on their ship, Marcus was at a loss for words.
But he couldn't offer any support right now, this fusion warrior was completely different from Wapol. There was no way to simply mine them away with a pickaxe like he'd done before.
And their reflexes were sharp. Having two pairs of eyes meant their attention span was effectively doubled, making it much harder to catch them off guard.
Trying to rely on pure speed to end the fight quickly was going to be problematic.
As for overwhelming them with brute force, the wooden armor covering their bodies was incredibly tough, with hardness comparable to steel. He couldn't finish them in a single blow, and because they now had Minecraft block properties, each attack's impact was partially absorbed and negated.
"Damn, this is tough!" He couldn't help but mutter as another of his strikes barely scratched their surface.
The fusion warrior was equally exasperated.
"That's supposed to be our line!" they said together.
The wooden mallets in their four hands hammered down without pause, but Marcus acted like nothing was happening, having already dealt with their king, still looking completely at ease. If their only role here was to stall him while Musshuru worked his magic, they might as well give up.
After all, attacking at full power consumed massive amounts of stamina. Even though they were two people fused into one, they couldn't sustain continuous high-intensity combat indefinitely.
Marcus retreated backward, preparing to test something he'd been considering for a while now.
The fusion warrior immediately gave chase, but their movement speed was noticeably slower than expected. The coordination between the two personalities clearly wasn't as seamless as it appeared.
Marcus planted his feet and took a deep breath, centering himself.
Life Return: Focus.
The technique allowed him to gather all his body's energy into a single point for maximum explosive power.
The muscles in his arms visibly swelled as he concentrated every ounce of strength he possessed. His satiety and hunger bars dropped at a rapid pace, until only the very last drumstick remained.
When Marcus reappeared, he was already directly in front of the fusion warrior, his sword positioned for an upward strike.
A rising cut from below, this was the basic upward sword technique Zoro had drilled into him during their training sessions.
No complicated moves. Just pure, concentrated explosive strength channeled through his blade.
The falling snowflakes seemed to freeze in midair. The snow that had just begun accumulating on the platform scattered.
A crack appeared first in the stone beneath their feet.
It spread like growing vines, slowly extending its tendrils across the ground before climbing up onto the fusion warrior's body. As if sensing nourishment, the fissure began to accelerate.
The crack finally split apart from the fusion warrior's forehead with a sound like breaking glass.
But the fissure didn't stop there, a perfectly straight flying slash shot up toward the gray sky above, cutting through the falling snow and disappearing into the clouds.
"Phew... that really takes it out of you," Marcus exhaled heavily, then pulled out a cooked steak and started chewing on it to restore his energy.
The slash he had just unleashed shocked Musshuru, who had been preparing his next wave of attacks.
"What the hell? You're actually a swordsman?!"
The fact that he could produce a flying slash was proof, Marcus was indeed a swordsman. Facing an opponent of that caliber, he figured his only fate would be defeat. After all, against flying slashes, he couldn't even get close enough to use his spore-based abilities effectively.
And yet... watching him gnaw on a steak like he was having a picnic, Musshuru just couldn't connect that image with a swordsman.
"I'm a swordsman? Nah..." Marcus sighed, clearly disappointed with his own performance. His strength still felt far too weak for what this world demanded.
Hearing this response, Musshuru's expression twisted.
What was that supposed to mean? Was his actual strength even higher than what he'd just displayed? Could he possibly be... a Great Swordsman? No way! Absolutely impossible! Someone of that caliber couldn't possibly appear in a place like this.
But whether he was a swordsman or a great swordsman didn't matter. Either way, he couldn't handle that guy in direct combat.
He fell silent, trying to think of a way out of this situation. He glanced at Wapol who had been punched away, then at the fusion warrior who had been split open by that slash.
If all four of them had fused together from the beginning, maybe, he would've had a fighting chance.
Coming back to his senses, he realized the swordsman hadn't rushed forward to finish him off. What was going on?
"Your opponent isn't me," Marcus said, pointing directly at Luffy.
Musshuru turned his head in confusion. That Straw Hat kid, hadn't he already been subdued by the hallucinogenic mushrooms and the controlling white fungi?
But when he looked over, he froze.
Steam was billowing from Luffy's entire body as he glared back. His eyes still showed the spirals, clearly indicating he was under the influence of the spores.
But how? How could he break free from the white parasitic mushrooms that were specifically designed to control their host's movements?
"You're the one who ate my friends!"
"What are you talking about?!" Musshuru was baffled.
Before he could finish his sentence, Luffy appeared directly in front of him in a burst of steam, a fist already pressed against his chest.
"Gum-Gum Rocket!"
Musshuru didn't even have time to process the pain, the massive impact knocked him unconscious instantly. The force blasted him clear off the mountain peak, sending him rocketing through the air like a human cannonball.
Finally, he became a tiny star twinkling in the distance before disappearing into the horizon.
Marcus watched the spectacle, then glanced back at the fusion warrior. They were still breathing, though barely conscious.
"These One Piece world people really are built different," he muttered. "Their bodies are ridiculous. Even after being cut like that, they're still alive. As for the guy who got blasted away... judging by his trajectory, he should've been launched clear off the island. But from that height... who knows if he'll survive the landing."
Opening his map interface, he saw that Drum Kingdom was now fully illuminated. The icon representing Musshuru was streaking rapidly across it in a specific direction.
And in that same direction, Zoro and Usopp were somewhere down there.
He wondered what those two were up to.
"Give me back my friends!" Luffy was still raging, his fists clenched and ready for another fight.
Marcus quickly pulled out a bucket of milk and quickly appeared beside Luffy, shoving the container into his hands.
If this guy kept losing his mind to hallucinations, there was no telling what he might end up seeing, and Marcus wasn't about to risk being on the receiving end of a rocket punch meant for imaginary enemies.
After chugging down the entire bucket of milk, Luffy's spiraled eyes returned to normal.
Seeing Marcus standing there, he yelled angrily, "Marcus! Didn't you see what happened? That guy ate the friends I just made, all those little people! And he stomped some of them to death too! He was absolutely horrible!"
"That was an illusion created by the spores."
"An illusion?"
"Look around. Do you still see any little people anywhere?"
Luffy stared blankly at the snowy expanse surrounding them. The dazzling world of tiny colorful people he'd seen earlier had completely vanished, leaving only white snow and gray stone.
"Huh?! They're all gone!"
---
While Marcus and Luffy wrapped up their fight and dealt with the aftermath, Wapol, who had been lying low and pretending to be dead, quietly began moving on his mechanical treads.
He had been biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike back.
Inside the castle's armory, he let out a sinister laugh that echoed through the stone corridors.
"You're all worthless peasants! Have you already forgotten how your king originally secured his throne?!"
He opened his massive mouth wide and began swallowing every weapon stored inside the armory. Swords, cannons, rifles, ammunition... everything disappeared into his gullet.
"Mahahaha! Good thing I've eaten enough weapons over the years! With this power, I'll show you what a real king can do!"