Late at night, the snow stopped.
Above the night sky, a crescent moon hung high, casting down boundless silvery-white light.
"198! ...199!"
Sephiroth propped himself up on the deck of the fast sailing ship with his hands, doing push-ups, one after another.
"200!"
When he finished the last one, he was like a deflated ball, collapsing completely onto the cold deck, panting heavily.
The strength of this body was not great to begin with, and coupled with the long-term lack of exercise, it could even be described as weak.
Even with the enhancement of the Vampire Fruit, without transforming into a vampire, his strength was only slightly higher than that of an ordinary adult.
Speaking of which, Zoan type Devil Fruit can allow the user to gain the unique wild strength of animals, improve physical fitness, and acquire the corresponding characteristics of the animal.
At the same time, the ability user will have three transformation stages: Human Form, Human-Beast Form, and Beast Form.
The Human Form of the Vampire Fruit is the state without animalization, which is Sephiroth's current state.
The Human-Beast Form is when he transforms into a vampire, gaining increased speed and strength, and also growing wings on his back that allow him to fly.
As for the Beast Form, when he split his body into a group of bats in the prison, that was the Beast Form transformation. At that time, he would completely possess all the characteristics of a bat, such as emitting and detecting ultrasonic waves and so on...
Furthermore, in that state, even if most of the bats were killed, as long as he was willing to pay the price of consuming life force, he could restore his complete body.
Overall, this is an extremely strong life-saving skill!
Besides being able to maintain eternal youth and life by absorbing others' life force, Sephiroth can also consume a large amount of stored life force for rapid healing.
It can be said that before his life force is completely depleted, aside from Sea Stone and the sea, as long as he doesn't court death himself, it would be quite difficult to kill him completely...
As he consumed a little of the life force stored in his body, the feeling of exhaustion, muscle damage, and other issues he had from doing push-ups...
All vanished in the blink of an eye, and he once again became a young man full of energy and drive.
After Sephiroth stood up from the deck, he reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead, carefully felt his own condition, and couldn't help but mutter:
"This ability is good... but it's a bit life-consuming!
Since this lifespan was absorbed by him and didn't originally belong to him, the efficiency of using it isn't particularly high...
Just recovering stamina and injuries consumed three days of lifespan!
However, the mental fatigue is still there, so it seems rapid healing isn't omnipotent either..."
After finishing the push-ups, Sephiroth picked up the sheathed Saber leaning against the ship's rail and drew it out with a 'clang'.
Chop, sweep, lift, hack, collapse, pick, block, stab...
Thirteen moves, each one a basic action, ordinary and without any flourish.
According to Marigold, who taught him the sword technique, even the most powerful moves are evolved from the basics. Only by mastering the basics firmly can one learn anything quickly.
Given that the three women are qualified female warriors from Amazon Lily Island, who developed Armament Haki at a young age and became official members of the Kuja Pirates.
As a novice in combat, Sephiroth could only choose to trust the three women's suggestion.
Therefore, Sephiroth set himself a daily task of quickly swinging his Saber thirteen thousand times, one thousand times for each move, striving to make these moves his own instinct as quickly as possible.
When he first started swinging the Saber quickly, he felt that his condition was quite good.
But gradually, he felt the Saber in his hand becoming heavier and heavier, his arms became sore and weak, and even felt pain.
This forced him to choose to use lifespan to recover stamina and relieve physical fatigue, thereby maintaining the action of high-speed Saber swings...
Even so, he still spent over eight hours to complete the thirteen thousand Saber swings training.
In fact, if an ordinary person were to undergo such high-intensity sword training like him, unless their hands were made of titanium alloy...
Otherwise, within a month, their hands would definitely be ruined!
At the very least, to complete the Saber swinging training, Sephiroth consumed a full half month of lifespan...
The reason Sephiroth decided to practice swordsmanship was mainly because he considered the existence of the special substance Sea Stone in this world, which can weaken ability users.
If he chose hand-to-hand combat as his fighting style, once his body was directly touched by Sea Stone, he would become weak and powerless, thus being severely countered.
Therefore, he felt that using a sword as a weapon was a good way to avoid direct physical contact with enemies, preventing him from being grabbed by Sea Stone during combat and exposing fatal weaknesses...
After completing his training goal, Sephiroth sheathed the Saber in his hand again, reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and took out a silver pocket watch from his clothes pocket to check the time.
Early morning, four thirty-six.
The time he agreed to switch shifts with Hancock was four in the morning, and thirty-six minutes had passed, but she still hadn't come.
Sephiroth sighed helplessly, got down from the deck, and went into the cabin, preparing to wake the long-haired girl.
After a high-intensity training session, although his physical condition was still good, he was mentally very tired.
Right now, all he wanted was a good shower and to fall asleep in bed...
In the cabin corridor, Sephiroth, holding a kerosene lamp in his left hand, stood at the door of the Captain's bedroom, raised his hand and knocked softly on the door, but there was no response from inside.
He tried reaching out and pushing open the slightly ajar wooden door, only to find that Hancock was still lying in bed covered by the blanket, her eyes tightly closed, seemingly still asleep.
"Hancock, wake up! It's your turn to keep watch."
The young man reached out and pushed the long-haired girl through the blanket. The latter immediately responded weakly and vaguely:
"Okay..."
"Hmm?"
After realizing that the girl's voice sounded a bit off, Sephiroth instinctively reached out and touched her forehead.
However, the next second, he remembered that he had just finished exercising and his body temperature was high, so it had no reference value at all.
So, he reached his right hand into the blanket, took Hancock's hand, and checked her pulse.
"She actually has a fever... What happened to never getting sick?"
Sephiroth looked at the girl lying in bed with a speechless expression.
He thought that she had not only been soaked by the rain today but also wore wet clothes for half the day in the freezing cold...
If she didn't catch a cold like that, it would be utterly ridiculous!
Hancock propped up her upper body with her right hand and said weakly:
"I'm sorry, I overslept.
I'll go to the deck to keep watch now..."
"If you're sick, rest well. As for keeping watch,
I will discuss it with Sandersonia and Marigold again..."
As he spoke, Sephiroth gently pressed Hancock back onto the bed and helped her tuck in the blanket.
There was a first-aid kit on the desk in the bedroom.
So, Sephiroth opened the box, and by the light of the kerosene lamp, he looked at the contents: gauze, alcohol, anti-inflammatory medicine, needles and thread, anesthetic. They were all medical supplies for treating external injuries, but there was no medicine for colds or fever...
Seeing this, Sephiroth couldn't help but curse under his breath:
"Truly foolish humans!"
Sailing on the sea without preparing sufficient common medicines, don't those guys worry about getting sick...?
He picked up the anti-inflammatory medicine in the box and glanced at it, his brow furrowing slightly.
Anti-inflammatory medicine is effective for fever symptoms caused by inflammation, but Boa Hancock's fever was caused by the invasion of cold air. However, her forehead was also injured, so bacterial infection cannot be ruled out...
He thought for a moment, then poured out a tablet of anti-inflammatory medicine, preparing to give it to the long-haired girl.
Without targeted medicine, it's not like he could prepare saline solution without equipment and give her an IV, right?
Water!?
Right, how could I forget about this!
Thinking of this, Sephiroth walked into the kitchen, lit the gas stove, and boiled a kettle of hot water.
Without suitable medicine, sometimes a kettle of hot water is also a good option.
When the hot water boiled, Sephiroth carried the kettle back into the Captain's room, went to Hancock's side, poured a cup of hot water on her bedside table, and placed the anti-inflammatory medicine next to it.
"You have a fever, you need to sweat, drink plenty of hot water!
That way you'll get better faster."
"Okay!"
Boa Hancock groggily got up from the bed and slowly took the anti-inflammatory medicine with the hot water.
Finally, Sephiroth also brought another blanket for the girl from another cabin and covered her with it...