Late at night, the snow stopped.
Above the night sky, the crescent moon hung high, casting boundless silvery - white radiance.
"198! ... 199!"
Sephiroth propped his hands on the deck of the fast sailboat and did push - ups, one after another.
"200!"
When he finished the last one, he was like a deflated balloon. He slumped onto the cold deck, gasping for qi.
The silver - haired boy didn't have much strength originally. Due to a long - term lack of exercise, he could even be considered frail.
Even with the enhancement of the Vampire Fruit, without transforming into a vampire, he only had a bit more strength than an ordinary adult.
Speaking of which, Zoan - type Devil Fruits allow the user to obtain the wild power unique to animals, improve the physical qualities, and acquire the characteristics of the corresponding animals.
At the same time, the ability user will have three forms of transformation: human form, hybrid form, and beast form.
The human form of the Vampire Fruit means no animal transformation, which is Sephiroth's current state.
The hybrid form is when he transforms into a vampire. His speed and strength are both enhanced, and he will grow wings on his back that allow him to fly.
As for the beast form, in fact, when he split his body into a flock of bats in the prison, that was the beast - form transformation...
In that state, if most of the bats are killed, he can restore his complete body, but he has to be willing to consume his life force as a price.
All in all, this is an extremely powerful life - saving skill!
Apart from being able to absorb other people's life force to maintain eternal youth and life, Sephiroth can also heal himself quickly.
It can be said that before his life force is completely exhausted, except for Sea Prism Stones and the sea, as long as he doesn't do anything stupid, it's quite difficult to kill him completely...
As he consumed a little of the life force stored in his body, the weakness and muscle damage caused by doing push - ups all disappeared in the blink of an eye. He once again became a teenager full of energy and drive.
After Sephiroth stood up from the deck, he reached out to wipe the sweat off his forehead. He carefully felt his own condition and couldn't help muttering to himself:
"This ability is great... but it really drains my life!
Just to recover my physical strength and injuries, I've consumed three days of my lifespan.
However, I'm still mentally fatigued. It seems that rapid healing isn't all - powerful after all..."
After finishing the push - ups, Sephiroth picked up the katana in its scabbard that was leaning against the side of the ship and drew it out of the scabbard with a "clang".
[b]Chop[/b], [b]Sweep[/b], [b]Lift[/b], [b]Cut[/b], [b]Parry[/b], [b]Thrust[/b], [b]Block[/b], [b]Stab[/b]...
There were thirteen moves in total. Each move was a basic one, plain and unadorned, without any fancy tricks.
According to Mary Gruder, who taught him swordsmanship, no matter how powerful a move is, it evolves from the basics. Only by mastering the basics thoroughly can one learn things quickly.
Given that the three girls were all qualified female warriors on Amazon Lily Island, where they developed Armament Haki at a young age and became full - fledged members of the Kuja Pirates.
Being a novice in combat, Sephiroth had no choice but to trust the three girls' proposal.
Therefore, Sephiroth set himself a daily task of swinging the sword 13,000 times quickly. He aimed to swing the sword 1,000 times for each [b]move[/b], striving to turn these [b]moves[/b] into his second nature as soon as possible.
At the beginning of the rapid sword - swinging, the silver - haired teenager felt that his state was not bad.
But gradually, he felt the long sword in his hand becoming increasingly heavy. His arms felt weak and sore, and there was even a sharp pain.
This forced him to use his lifespan. He used it to restore his physical strength and relieve his fatigue, thus maintaining the high - speed sword - swinging.
Even so, it still took him more than eight hours to complete the 13,000 - sword - swing training.
In fact, if an ordinary person were to undergo such an extremely intense sword - fighting training, unless their hands were made of titanium alloy...
Otherwise, within a month, their hands would definitely be ruined!
At least, Sephiroth spent half a month's worth of his lifespan just to complete the sword - swinging training.
The silver - haired teenager sheathed his long sword, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and took out a silver pocket watch from his clothes pocket to check the time.
It was 4:36 a.m.
The time he had agreed on with Hancock to change shifts was 4 a.m. Thirty - six minutes had passed, but she still hadn't shown up.
Sephiroth sighed helplessly. He had no choice but to go down from the deck and into the cabin to wake up the long - haired black - haired girl.
After the intense training, although his physical condition was still okay, he was extremely exhausted mentally.
All he wanted now was to take a good bath and flop into bed.
In the cabin corridor, Sephiroth was holding a kerosene lamp in his left hand. He stood in front of the [b]captain[/b]'s bedroom door, raised his hand, and gently knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside.
The silver - haired teenager reached out and pushed open the half - open wooden door. He found that Hancock was still lying in bed under the quilt, with her eyes closed, seemingly still asleep.
"Hancock, wake up! It's your turn to keep watch."
The teenager reached out and pushed the long - haired black - haired girl through the quilt. The latter immediately replied in a weak and slurred voice:
"Okay... "
"Huh?"
After noticing that the girl's voice sounded strange, Sephiroth subconsciously reached out and touched the girl's forehead.
But the next second, he remembered that his body temperature was still high after the exercise, so it was meaningless as a reference.
So, he stretched out his right hand, slipped it into the quilt, and took Hancock's pulse.
"She has a fever... Didn't she say she'd never been sick?"
The silver - haired teenager looked at the girl lying in bed with a speechless expression.
He thought that the girl had not only been drenched in the rain today but also worn wet clothes for half a day.
If she doesn't catch a cold like this, it would be incredibly absurd!
Hancock propped herself up with her right hand and weakly said:
"Sorry, I overslept.
"I'll go to the deck to stand guard now..."
"If you're sick, just have a good rest. I'll discuss the guard duty with Sandasonia and Marigold again..."
As he spoke, the silver-haired boy gently pressed Hancock back onto the bed and tucked her in with the quilt.
On the bedroom desk, there was a first-aid kit. Sephiroth opened it and, by the light of the kerosene lamp, took a look inside. There were gauze, alcohol, anti-inflammatory drugs, needles and thread, and anesthetics, all medical supplies for treating external injuries, but there were no medications for colds or fevers...
Seeing this, Sephiroth couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath:
"What stupid humans!"
Don't those guys worry about getting sick when sailing on the sea without preparing enough common medications...?
The silver-haired boy picked up an anti-inflammatory drug from the box, glanced at it, and frowned slightly.
Anti-inflammatory drugs are effective for fevers caused by inflammation, but Boa Hancock's illness was caused by the invasion of cold qi (a traditional Chinese concept related to the body's energy). However, she also had a head injury, so there was a possibility of bacterial infection...
After thinking for a while, he poured out a tablet of anti-inflammatory drug and prepared to give it to the long, black-haired girl.
Without the right medication, it's impossible for him to prepare saline solution and give her an IV without the proper equipment, right?
Water!?
Right! How could I forget about that!
Thinking of this, Sephiroth went to the kitchen, lit the gas stove, and boiled a kettle of hot water.
When there's no suitable medication, sometimes a kettle of hot water is also a good option.
After the water boiled, Sephiroth carried the kettle and walked back into the captain's cabin. He came to Hancock's side, poured a glass of hot water on her bedside table, and put the anti-inflammatory drug beside it.
"You have a fever and need to sweat. Drink more hot water!
This way you'll get better sooner."
"Yeah!"
Boa Hancock groggily got up from the bed and slowly swallowed the anti-inflammatory drug down with the hot water.
Finally, Sephiroth fetched a quilt from another cabin and covered the girl with it...