Shipyard.
Creak! Creak! Creak! ...
Suddenly!
A large flock of black bats rushed into the coating workshop from outside. Waves of black mist appeared out of thin air and quickly filled the entire factory.
After more than twenty pirates were plunged into the pitch - black darkness, they couldn't help but panic. Some of the timid ones even let out a scream.
"Calm the hell down!
Anyone with a lighter or something to light up, quick, give us some light!"
Bello the Grey Wolf roared angrily. His figure began to swell, and sharp fangs and claws quickly grew out.
In the blink of an eye, he turned into a werewolf over three meters tall.
Reminded by him, the pirate smokers immediately took out their lighters and flicked them. A flame ignited.
In just three or four seconds, four faint flames lit up in the factory. However, blocked by the black thick fog, the lighting range was very narrow. It couldn't even illuminate a human face.
In the pitch - black thick fog, a figure quickly flashed through the crowd!
Under the faint light provided by those lighters, a glint of fiery red sword light was reflected.
"Ah!!!"
"Ah!!!"
"Ah!!!"
"Ah!!!"
In an instant, a gust of cold wind blew by. The four pirates holding the lighters let out a miserable howl. Their necks spurted blood, and they fell to the ground one after another.
In the black fog, it was as if there was a ferocious beast eager to devour people, constantly reaping the lives of the pirates, making them let out shrill screams.
Bang! Bang! Bang! ...
In the panic, those pirates subconsciously fired into the black fog. There were continuous cases of accidental injury and manslaughter, making the scene even more chaotic.
Creak! Creak! Creak! ...
Amidst the calls of the bats, Bello the Grey Wolf roared angrily:
"Stop shooting!!!"
"Y'all, stop shooting!!"
"Calm down!!!"
...
Suddenly, the surroundings fell into an eerie silence.
Bello the Grey Wolf quickly switched to holding the gun with his left hand and drew out the big machete hanging on his waist with his right hand. With a vigilant look on his face, he looked around, staring at the black thick fog, trying to find the enemy's figure.
As the creator of the black fog, Sephiroth's vision was not affected. In a sense, the black fog was an extension of his perception, which could help him better sense the opponent's movements.
Therefore, he was like a fish in water in the darkness!
Shave!
Sephiroth dashed forward. When he was approaching the enemy, he tightly held the handle of the sword with his right hand and drew out the long sword from its scabbard at an extremely fast speed.
The extremely high moving speed was combined with the ultra - fast sword - drawing speed. Together, they exploded with an extremely terrifying slashing force.
Swoosh!
Suddenly, Bello the Grey Wolf only felt a gust of cold wind blowing past his side. Before he could react...
Single - Sword Style: Instantaneous Slash
As the silver - haired young man's voice fell, blood gushed wildly from Gray Wolf Bello's neck. He threw away the weapon in his hand and desperately covered his throat with both hands, trying to stop the bleeding.
It's a pity...
All this was in vain!
Thud!
Gray Wolf Bello's body fell heavily to the ground...
As his vision blurred, the black mist dissipated, gradually revealing a figure in a black hooded cloak. The person wore a half - black and half - white smiling human - face mask, with a white and a black teardrop painted on each side, which made him look creepily strange.
Gray Wolf Bello gradually lost his vitality, and his body also reverted from its beast - transformed state.
However, his endless resentment and unwillingness kept his eyes wide open as he glared at the black - cloaked man until his death.
Seeing more than twenty pirate corpses lying on the ground, the five shipwrights all looked shocked and uncertain.
The brown - haired man endured the pain in his thigh and struggled to stand up. Looking at the man in the black robe with the eerie smiling mask, he tentatively asked,
"Who... are you?"
"I'm just a bounty hunter doing this for the money!"
"Anyhow, thanks a lot for saving us."
"You're welcome. I'm just making money and saving you along the way."
As they spoke, the five people saw the man in the black cloak put a black cloth bag beside Gray Wolf Bello's body not far away and opened the bag. Inside, there was actually... a pile of different kinds of fruits!?
Then, Sephiroth took out a stack of wanted posters and began to clean up the battlefield. He delivered the final blows to those who weren't completely dead, slitting their throats.
"Gray Wolf Bello, 7,600 berries; Double - Gun Post, 2,300 berries; Iron - Claw Halka, 2,600 berries..."
"With such high bounties, they're so useless..."
These pirates had little combat experience; most of them were novices. When they were in the darkness, if they had stood back - to - back closely, Sephiroth might have found it difficult to defeat them.
Unexpectedly, they panicked and attacked their own teammates first, making it extremely easy for the silver - haired young man to claim their lives.
After counting the wanted pirates, he rummaged through their belongings for valuable items.
Apart from food and water, he only found two small locked wooden boxes.
Sephiroth squatted down and felt around on Gray Wolf Bello's body but couldn't find the key.
Helplessly, he picked up the Anaconda Revolver from Gray Wolf Bello's body and fired two shots, "Bang! Bang!" at the two boxes, smashing the iron locks on them.
After firing two shots, Sephiroth found this revolver surprisingly easy to handle and with good firepower!
So, after putting on the safety catch, he went back to Gray Wolf Bello's body and stripped off the belt for the revolver and the spare bullets.
After the military academy's theoretical courses during this period, his understanding of firearms had changed greatly.
As long as a person's Armament Haki reaches a certain level, they can coat the bullets fired from a single - shot pistol with Armament Haki, significantly enhancing the bullet's attack power and penetrative ability.
Moreover, if one's Haki is powerful enough, they can even increase the muzzle velocity of the bullet.
If one combines it with powerful Observation Haki, one can even block the opponent's evasive routes in advance, leaving the opponent with nowhere to escape.
Even a Haki master will be injured or maimed when hit by a bullet coated with Haki at close range. If hit by multiple such bullets, they may even be killed.
Of course, it's still unknown whether the theories that old Zephyr taught in class can actually harm Haki masters at the level of the Four Emperors...
However, after some thought, Sephiroth thought that old Zephyr's theories should be somewhat useful.
In the world of the Pirate King, pistols are simply deadly weapons. Whitebeard, Kozuki Oden, and Fisher Tiger, all powerful figures in their own right, have been hit by bullets.
Even among the crew of the Red - Haired Pirates, known as the "Strongest Iron - Wall Pirate Group", many of them fight with guns...
In addition, he discovered something quite interesting. When he transformed into a vampire, the ultrasonic waves he emitted could interfere with objects, altering their trajectories.
This reminded him of the technique used by the artificial devil fruit user, the Bat Man, who was jokingly called the "Sixth Emperor" in the world of the Pirate King. The Bat Man used sound waves to change the direction of arrows. He must have mixed Armament Haki with the ultrasonic waves to achieve such an effect.
As a vampire - form user of the Mythical Zoan Bat Fruit, Sephiroth's fruit was a superior version of the artificial bat fruit. If the Bat Man could do it, he should be able to as well...
By then, once he learned Armament Haki and mastered the technique of making projectiles turn, allowing the bullets fired from a pistol to curve... Just thinking about it is so freaking awesome!