Thump! Thump! Thump!
The sound of steel boots stepping on the deck echoed, one step at a time...
"Captain Peter is here!"
"Great! Those guys are doomed."
"Captain Peter, you must avenge my brother Kevin!"
Under the surprised gazes of the three slave traders, a man over two meters tall, wearing full medieval knight armor, holding a shield in his left hand and a long sword in his right, walked down the ship's cabin corridor.
Behind him, a man holding a Saber and a pistol tucked into his waist followed.
Wearing full armor is very time-consuming and difficult for one person to put on, so the two of them took a while to arrive.
The heavy armor on Captain Peter covered him from the top of his head all the way to his feet.
Full armor weighing over thirty kilograms usually hinders movement for ordinary people, but Captain Peter was different. His strength and endurance far surpassed ordinary people, and wearing the armor didn't cause him much hindrance.
Moreover, fully armored, he could directly ignore bullets from ordinary firearms, as well as sword slashes!
Captain Peter scanned through the eye slits on his metal mask and clearly saw the young man lying on the ground.
"Damn it! Kevin was also taken down? Those guys... I'm going to slaughter them!"
He angrily slammed his shield heavily against the wall to vent his emotions before stepping into the cabin where the four were.
Sephiroth heard the unusual footsteps and quickly poked his head out for a glance:
"Damn it! A guy in full armor is coming towards our cabin!"
Hearing this, Hancock's beautiful willow-like eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she said in a deep voice:
"First, find a way to knock him down!
That way, while he can't get up, we can deliver a fatal blow through the gaps in his armor."
Sandersonia and Marigold nodded slightly and listened carefully to the footsteps.
Soon, a tall figure in full armor appeared before the four of them.
The Boa Sisters each used both hands to lift a wooden barrel full of water and threw it towards Captain Peter's head.
But...
The armored man was prepared; he quickly sidestepped, dodging two barrels while swinging the long sword in his right hand.
Swish!
A cold light flashed, and the wooden barrels were astonishingly cut in half by the long sword, falling onto the deck.
On the other side, Sephiroth also seized the opportunity and lunged towards Captain Peter, trying to tackle him to the ground.
However...
The next moment.
The armored arm slammed heavily into Sephiroth's chest, sending him flying backward to crash against the cabin wall with a dull 'bang'.
The intense pain from his chest almost made Sephiroth faint. He could clearly feel that several ribs in his chest seemed to be broken...
The terrifying force of Peter's fist hitting his chest made him almost think he had just been stepped on by an elephant!
Instantly, he was unable to get up, having lost the ability to continue fighting.
Seeing this situation, Captain Peter immediately raised the long sword in his hand, ready to slash at the young man's throat.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out. Hancock hastily swung her Saber, barely managing to parry the sword and save Sephiroth.
Marigold seized the opportunity to swing her Saber and charged towards Captain Peter, trying to stab into the joints of his armor.
But...
Relying on his full armor, the opponent quickly adjusted his posture and used the shield in his left hand to forcefully shove the orange-haired girl, knocking her to the ground.
In the distance, Sandersonia raised her pistol and repeatedly pulled the trigger towards Captain Peter.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bullets hit the armor consecutively, sparking several times, but Captain Peter, wearing full armor, was completely unfazed. He directly ignored the green-haired girl's gunfire.
As he swung his sword to suppress the Saber in Hancock's hand, he backhanded the shield upwards, smashing it into the right side of the girl's head.
At this moment, it was too late for Hancock to dodge. She could only desperately mobilize the little Armament Haki she had within her, gathering it on her forehead to minimize the damage.
Thud!
Struck by this blow, Hancock was immediately knocked onto the deck, and a trickle of crimson blood flowed from her forehead.
Captain Peter's attack technique was not refined, even somewhat clumsy, but relying on the defense provided by his armor and his physical strength far exceeding that of ordinary adults, he suppressed the four of them, leaving them utterly powerless to resist.
"Die!"
Captain Peter gripped the long sword in his right hand in a reverse grip, aimed at the black-haired girl's chest, and was about to thrust it straight down.
On the other side, Sephiroth, clutching his chest with his right hand and leaning against the wall, suddenly widened his eyes, watching the sharp blade swing down through the air...
Actually, when dealing with Captain Peter's attack, he could have actively used his bat form to dodge. Even if his bat form was still relatively slow now and couldn't negate all attack damage, he wouldn't have suffered such a heavy blow!
But...
In his subconscious, he hadn't adapted to the fact that he had become a Devil Fruit user at all.
That's why such a mistake occurred...
If not for being burdened by him, Hancock would not have had to fight hastily at that time and wouldn't have been instantly suppressed by the enemy, falling into danger.
The girl's death was all because of him!
Thinking of this, Sephiroth was filled with remorse. His eyes were splitting with anger as he roared:
"Stop!!!"
Boom!
A vast and majestic aura erupted from Sephiroth's body. Faint, dark red lightning flashed and disappeared within the cabin.
Thud! Thud! Thud!...
Apart from Sephiroth and Hancock, everyone on the ship, including Marigold and Sandersonia, lost consciousness and fainted onto the deck.
"Haoshoku... Conqueror's Haki...? One in a million, the qualification of a king..."
Hancock slowly stood up, reached out and wiped the blood flowing from her forehead. Her gaze towards Sephiroth was filled with surprise.
On Nine Snake Island, many people possess Observation Haki and Armament Haki. They even summarized a set of relatively simple and easy-to-understand training tips for Armament Haki.
But...
Conqueror's Haki, this power that only exists in legends, was the first time she had seen it!
On the other side, under the power of the Vampire Fruit's ability, Sephiroth's cracked ribs in his chest quickly recovered. The pain subsided, and he finally regained the strength to stand up.
"This is Conqueror's Haki...?"
He blankly clenched his hands, his eyes still somewhat lost.
Just now, under the emotion of remorse, he felt as if something had been released in his mind, completely beyond his control...
Immediately after, a sense of fatigue came over his brain.
When he tried to regain that feeling from before, he found nothing at all.
If the people in the cabin hadn't all fainted, he wouldn't have dared to believe that he had truly released Conqueror's Haki just now!
After Sephiroth's attempts yielded no results, he decided to wait until later to continue his research.
He and Hancock first tied up all the slave ship's crew with ropes before going to call Marigold and Sandersonia.
The slave ship was a fast sailing ship, about twenty meters long, divided into three decks. It was considered a small vessel, and its bow was shaped like a wolf's head.
On the ship's deck, six unconscious slave traders were thrown together.
"How should we deal with these six guys?"
Sephiroth turned his head to look at Hancock beside him.
Because the right side of the girl's head had been hit by the shield and bled a little, she had wrapped a few turns of white bandage around her forehead. It seemed the wound was still throbbing faintly, as she would occasionally furrow her beautiful willow-like eyebrows and touch her forehead with her hand.
Hearing this, the black-haired girl first let out a cold snort before speaking:
"These hateful guys... just throw them into the sea to feed the fish."
"That's right! If we hadn't luckily won, maybe we would have been killed by now."
Marigold also nodded repeatedly in agreement, strongly supporting Hancock's suggestion.
"But if we throw them all into the sea, there will be no one to help us sail the ship."
Can the four of us sail the ship to the next island?" the young man frowned.
Hearing this, the green-haired girl Sandersonia patted her already developing chest and said with a confident smile:
"Don't worry!
Regarding navigation, I am confident...
After all, the Kuja Pirates have been training me as a navigator since I was young. The four of us are enough to sail this ship."
Sephiroth looked at these six human traffickers. He thought that if he hadn't luckily eaten the Vampire Fruit, the three girls and he would likely have been sold as slaves, losing all dignity, enduring various inhuman tortures every day, and becoming playthings for others...
This made him think of those who survived after being enslaved by the Celestial Dragons in the original story. Practically all of them had severe psychological trauma, and some, like Tesoro, Boa Hancock, and others, even had their personalities twisted...
Thinking of this, a fierce light flared in Sephiroth's eyes. The last trace of hesitation in his heart vanished instantly.
This is the One Piece World, where human lives are like grass. It is no longer the peaceful country he lived in in his previous life!
To deal with these scumbags, if one still had to consider their human rights, it would be truly ridiculous!
Having made up his mind, Sephiroth had no hesitation or doubt whatsoever when he took action.
At his request, the three girls handed over the task of dealing with the six slave traders to him, while they went below deck to move bodies, clean up battle traces...
He dragged the six slave traders one by one to the side of the ship.
His rough actions caused several people to wake up from their unconsciousness.
"Wait! What are you doing?"
...
"I'm sorry, I was wrong, please let me go!"
Faced with the pleas of the scumbags, Sephiroth remained completely unmoved.
He extended his long, pale right hand and pressed it onto each of the six people.
Under the effect of the Vampire Fruit's ability, the life force of the six people was completely drained by him, turning them into a group of white-haired old men, and the life force he could store also reached its limit.
If this life force were converted into lifespan, it would probably be over three hundred years...
Splash! Splash! Splash!...
Every time Sephiroth threw a person overboard, a large splash would rise on the sea surface.
These six scumbags, their life force exhausted and their hands tied, were definitely doomed unless a miracle happened!
The afternoon sun shone on Sephiroth, making his body feel warm, but his heart was cold...
(PS: I have already filled the plot holes regarding the Vampire Fruit and Haoshoku in chapters 320 and 321.
However, seeing so many readers complaining about this issue, I can only explain it here...
(*UωU*)
)