Thump! Thump! Thump!...
On the upper deck of the ship's cabin, footsteps suddenly rang out, growing closer and closer, as if someone was coming down the stairs.
The sudden change startled the four people standing in the corridor.
Among them, Hancock was the first to react; she quickly waved, signaling the three others to lean against the wall by the stairwell.
Clearly, she was preparing to ambush the incoming person.
Soon, a bald man, two meters and forty centimeters tall, appeared in their sight. He held a mop in one hand and a wooden bucket in the other, seemingly preparing to come down and clean.
The moment the bald man stepped down, Hancock raised her right foot and kicked towards his groin.
Bats have hearing six times better than ordinary humans. Sephiroth, who had eaten the Animal-Type, Bat-Bat Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Vampire Form, also possessed this animal characteristic...
The next moment.
Splatter!
Sephiroth heard the sound of something breaking very clearly, causing him to instinctively feel a chill in his groin and quickly bring his legs together.
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
The fatal strike from the black-haired girl was very effective. The bald man instantly fell to the corridor with a "thump," clutching his groin and letting out a high-pitched scream.
However...
Hancock didn't stop there. She delivered another fierce kick towards the bald man's temple, knocking him unconscious.
"Something's happened below, go see what's going on!"
"Quick! Move faster! Bring weapons."
...
Noisy footsteps came from the upper deck of the cabin. Sephiroth could even hear the sound of guns being cocked and swords being drawn.
In his previous life, he was just an ordinary person living in a peaceful country, and the original owner of this body had never even been in a fight before.
Facing the impending battle, the young man was extremely nervous; he could even clearly feel his heartbeat accelerating rapidly.
In contrast, the three women displayed the combat qualities expected of qualified Nine Snake Island female warriors.
Hancock was the first to rush up the stairs and engage with the first wave of enemies. Sandersonia picked up the mop as a staff, and Marigold casually grabbed the wooden bucket.
The three women showed a fearless attitude towards the coming battle!
Hearing gunshots from the upper deck, Sephiroth gritted his teeth and prepared to charge up as well.
Hiding behind women, seeking protection, and letting the three women fight and kill was something his male pride simply would not allow!
As the young man was about to step over the bald man's body and go up the stairs, his steps suddenly paused.
Ever since Sephiroth woke up, his body had developed a craving for blood, causing him to feel an urge to suck blood.
He knew that he needed to consume blood to fully awaken the power of the Vampire Fruit!
Thinking of this, Sephiroth, who urgently needed to increase his combat power, did not hesitate. The moment he opened his mouth, two sharp fangs popped out from his upper teeth.
Immediately after, he grabbed the bald man's right arm and bit down hard.
Sip~!
The vampire fangs pierced through the skin and muscle. The moment he inhaled the blood, a mass of bloody light burst violently around him.
Immediately, his physique and appearance changed!
The young man's height increased by nearly thirty centimeters, from his original height of around one meter sixty to two meters tall. His eyes turned blood-red, his ears became long and narrow, sharp claws grew on the fingers of his hands, and a pair of fleshy wings even grew from his back, covered in small joints. If he gently flapped his wings, they would generate buoyancy that would lift him into the air.
The fleshy wings were useless in the narrow cabin; he didn't need them...
With a thought, the fleshy wings instantly retracted, leaving no trace of their former existence.
After sucking blood, the weakness and powerlessness Sephiroth felt due to hunger instantly disappeared. Power continuously surged from every part of his body, making him feel the urge to vent it freely.
On the other side, after the bald man had his blood and life force sucked away by the young man, his entire body shriveled up. His skin was full of wrinkles, and his face instantly aged by over thirty years, turning him completely into a dying old man.
This is the terrifying aspect of the Vampire Fruit: its user can maintain their body in the healthiest and peak physical state by plundering the life force of others.
Swoosh!
In his vampire form, his strength and speed increased again. In the blink of an eye, he rushed to the upper deck.
Sephiroth glanced around and found a large room filled with water, food, and miscellaneous items. Two corpses were already lying in pools of blood.
The three women had picked up Sabers and guns from the two men and were hiding behind cargo boxes.
The moment Sephiroth rushed out of the stairs, on the other side of the cabin, at the doorway, four dark muzzles were aimed at him and pulled the triggers.
Bang! Bang! Bang!...
In his haste, he turned sideways and bent down, hiding behind a pile of cargo boxes.
During the dodge, a bullet grazed his left arm, causing a burning, stinging sensation in his nerves at first, but after six or seven seconds, the feeling completely disappeared.
Sephiroth raised his right hand and wiped his left arm. His palm was covered in blood, but the wound on his left arm had already healed as good as new.
The Vampire Fruit, by consuming the life force he had absorbed, allowed his body to undergo super-regeneration.
As long as he had enough life force, he could continuously repair physical injuries!
This terrifying recovery ability was simply incomparable, even to the Life Return technique extended from the Marine Six Styles, cultivated to a peak level.
Hearing the gunshots gradually cease, Hancock, who was on the other side of the room opposite Sephiroth, threw him a handgun.
After Sephiroth hastily caught the handgun, he carefully examined its model. From its appearance, the firearm in his hand looked very much like a flintlock pistol, but it was actually a cartridge pistol, capable of being loaded with bullets at the grip, with a full capacity of six rounds.
He opened the magazine to check and found there were still five bullets inside.
Two were dead here, one was knocked out below, there were four people outside the door opposite, and two others were missing...
Sephiroth listened carefully to the movement outside the door but still couldn't detect the presence of the other two.
Vaguely, he seemed to hear the sound of magazines being ejected... They were reloading!!!
Thinking of this, the young man quickly reached out and peeked his head out. He saw that two guys were still peeking and aiming into the room.
Without the slightest hesitation, he pulled the trigger twice in quick succession.
Bang! Bang!
Bang!
Three gunshots occurred almost simultaneously.
Immediately after, there was a "thump!" sound outside the door, the sound of a body falling.
"Kevin!... Kevin!... That damn guy, I'm going to kill him!"
"Calm down!"
"Don't be impulsive!"
"The Captain will be here soon, calm down!"
On the other side, Sephiroth was completely hidden behind the cargo boxes, his eye twitching slightly as he looked at the wound on his wrist.
Just now, when he fired, the enemy opposite had also shot him once.
Seeing this situation, Boa Hancock furrowed her brows and asked with concern:
"How are your injuries?"
"It's not a big problem... it just hurts a lot!... Hiss~!"
Sephiroth gritted his teeth, extended his left hand, used his index finger and thumb to pierce his long nails into his wrist, and forcibly dug out the bullet inside.
As the blood-stained bullet dropped onto the ship's deck, he leaned weakly against the cargo box.
With the rapid consumption of life force, after only a dozen seconds, the wound on the young man's left wrist had completely healed, and his pale face, caused by the pain, quickly regained its color.
Although he could super-regenerate, it really hurt!... Sephiroth muttered to himself while wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.