Inside the noisy Shipyard.
Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!
Suddenly, a massive swarm of black bats swarmed into the coating workshop from outside. Waves of dense black mist appeared out of nowhere, quickly engulfing the entire factory area.
After falling into a pitch-black darkness where they couldn't even see their own hands, the more than twenty pirates were struck by panic. Some of the more timid ones even began screaming hysterically.
"Don't panic! Whoever has a lighter or a light source, light it immediately!" Gray Wolf Bello roared, his voice hoarse. His body began to swell, sharp fangs and claws growing rapidly. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a ferocious werewolf over three meters tall.
The pirates who could still think, including a few smokers among them, immediately pulled out their lighters. Click, and flames flickered. In just three or four seconds, four dim points of light appeared in the factory. However, hindered by the dense black mist, the light's range was very narrow, not even bright enough to fully illuminate a human face.
Amidst the thick, pitch-black mist, a figure swiftly swept through the crowd! Under the dim light provided by the lighters, the fiery red flash of a Saber was reflected.
"Ah!!!"
"Ah!!!"
"Ah!!!"
"Ah!!!"
In an instant, a cold wind whistled. The four pirates holding lighters immediately let out tragic wails. Blood spurted from their necks, and they fell to the ground one by one. Within that black mist, it seemed as if a ferocious beast was devouring humans, continuously harvesting the pirates' lives, causing them to shriek in terror.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
In the grip of panic, the pirates instinctively fired wildly into the black mist. Friendly fire and accidental killings occurred one after another, making the situation even more chaotic.
Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!
Amidst the deafening screeches of bats, Gray Wolf Bello roared and screamed, "Stop shooting!!! All of you, stop shooting!! Calm down!!!"
Suddenly, the surroundings fell into an eerie silence.
Gray Wolf Bello quickly shifted his weapon to his left hand, while his right hand drew the large sword hanging from his waist. With a wary expression, he looked left and right, observing the black mist, trying to find the unseen enemy.
As the creator of the black mist, Sephiroth's vision was unaffected. In fact, the black mist was an extension of his perception, helping him better sense the opponent's movements. Therefore, in this darkness, he was like a fish in water!
Whoosh!
Sephiroth darted forward. As he approached his enemy, he gripped the hilt of his sword tightly with his right hand and drew his Saber from its sheath at high speed. His extremely high movement speed, combined with his incredibly fast slashing speed, when combined, would unleash a terrifyingly potent slash.
Swish!
Suddenly, Gray Wolf Bello only felt a cold wind blow past his side. Before he could react...
"One Sword Style, Instant Slash!"
As Sephiroth's voice fell, blood immediately gushed from Gray Wolf Bello's neck. He discarded the weapon in his hand and desperately covered his throat with both hands, trying to stop the spurting blood. Unfortunately, it was all in vain!
Thud!
Gray Wolf Bello's body fell heavily to the ground, lifeless.
As his vision blurred, the black mist disappeared, slowly revealing a figure wearing a hooded black cloak. The person's face wore a human mask that was half black and half white, with a white tear and a black tear on each side, making him appear strange and unsettling.
Gray Wolf Bello slowly lost his life, and his body also reverted from his animal transformation. However, his endless hatred and unwillingness made him unable to close his eyes even in death. He still stared at the man in black, his eyes wide and vacant.
Seeing more than twenty pirate corpses lying bloodied on the ground, the five shipbuilders all had expressions of profound shock and uncertainty on their faces. The brown-haired man endured the pain in his thigh and tried to stand up. Staring at the cloaked man with the Smile mask, he said hesitantly, "Who are you?"
"I'm just a bounty hunter driven by interest!" Sephiroth replied, his voice calm. "By the way, thank you very much for saving us."
"You're welcome. I just saved you while I was looking for money."
As they spoke, the five shipbuilders watched the cloaked man. He placed a black cloth bag not far from Gray Wolf Bello's corpse and opened it. Inside were... a pile of various types of fruits?!
Immediately after, Sephiroth took out a stack of wanted posters and began to clear the battlefield, finishing off those who weren't entirely dead by stabbing or slitting their throats without hesitation.
"Gray Wolf Bello 76 million Berries, Double-Gun Post 23 million Berries, Iron Claw Halka 26 million Berries... Their bounties are very high, yet they're so weak..."
This pirate group didn't have much combat experience, they were all amateurs. If they had all stood back-to-back and close together when they fell into darkness, Sephiroth might have had to put in more effort to defeat them. Unexpectedly, they panicked first and attacked their own teammates, making it incredibly easy for Sephiroth to reap their lives.
After tallying the bounty targets, he checked the items the pirates carried for valuables. Besides food and water, he only found two small, locked wooden boxes.
Sephiroth squatted down and fumbled on Gray Wolf Bello's body but couldn't find a key. Helplessly, he had no choice but to take the Mad Python revolver from Gray Wolf Bello's corpse and shoot both boxes. "Bang! Bang!" Two shots, breaking the iron locks on the boxes.
After firing two consecutive shots, Sephiroth felt that this pistol was quite useful, and its power was also very good! So, after activating the safety, he returned to Gray Wolf Bello's corpse and stripped off the belt and spare ammunition the opponent used to carry the revolver.
After attending theory courses at the Marine Academy during this period, his understanding of firearms had drastically changed. As long as one's Busoshoku Haki reached a certain level, they could infuse Haki into the bullets fired from their pistols, significantly increasing their attack and penetration power. Furthermore, if their Haki was strong enough, they could also increase the bullet's muzzle velocity. When combined with strong Kenbunshoku Haki, they could even preemptively block the opponent's evasion routes, leaving them no escape. Even a Haki master, at close range, if hit by a Haki-infused bullet, would be injured or even crippled, if not killed. In large quantities, they could even be fatal.
Of course, whether the theory taught by old man Zephyr in class could cause damage to Four Emperor-level Haki masters was still unknown. However, Sephiroth thought about it, and it seemed old man Zephyr's theory would be useful. In One Piece, pistols were merely tools for harvesting lives. Whitebeard Edward Newgate, Kozuki Oden, Fisher Tiger, people considered strong figures, had all been hit by bullets. Even among the Red-Haired Pirate crew, known as the "Strongest Iron Wall Pirate Crew," many people fought using firearms.
In addition, he found something very interesting: when he was in his vampire form, the ultrasonic waves he emitted could interfere with objects, causing their trajectories to change. This reminded him of a technique used by an artificial Zoan Devil Fruit user in One Piece, jokingly referred to as the "Sixth Emperor." This bat-human used sound waves to alter the direction of arrows. The opponent must have mixed Busoshoku Haki into the ultrasonic waves to achieve this effect.
As a Mythical Zoan Bat Devil Fruit user in his vampire form, Sephiroth was considered a superior fruit compared to the artificial bat fruit. If his opponent could do it, he certainly could too. At that time, when he learned Busoshoku Haki and mastered the technique of making projectiles curve, making bullets fired from a pistol arc... Just imagining it was incredible!