Late into the night, the snow ceased falling.
Above the night sky, a crescent moon hung high, casting boundless silvery-white light.
"198!... 199!"
Sephiroth braced himself 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 deflated like a punctured ball, sprawling on the cold deck, panting heavily.
The strength of this body was initially not great, and coupled with a long-term lack of exercise, it could even be called weak. Even with the enhancement of the Batto Batto no Mi, without transforming into a vampire, his strength was only slightly higher than an ordinary adult.
Speaking of which, Zoan-type Devil Fruits allow their users to gain the unique wild strength of animals, improve physical fitness, and acquire corresponding animal characteristics. 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 Batto Batto no Mi was the non-bestial form, which was Sephiroth's current state. The Human-Beast Form was when he transformed into a vampire, gaining enhanced speed and strength, and also growing wings on his back that allowed him to fly. As for the Beast Form, when he split his body into a swarm of bats in the prison, that was the Beast Form transformation. At that time, he would fully 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 entire body. Overall, this was a very powerful life-saving skill!
Besides being able to maintain youth and life by absorbing the life force of others, Sephiroth could also consume a large amount of stored life force for rapid healing. It could be said that before his life force was completely exhausted, apart from Seastone and the sea, as long as he himself didn't seek death, it would be quite difficult to kill him completely...
As he expended a little of the life force stored within his body, the feelings of fatigue, muscle damage, and other issues he experienced from doing push-ups... All vanished in the blink of an eye, and he was once again a young man full of energy and vigor.
After Sephiroth stood up from the deck, he reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead, carefully sensing his own condition, and couldn't help but murmur:
"This ability is good... but it's a bit life-consuming! Since this lifespan is absorbed by him and isn't originally his, the efficiency of its use isn't very high... Just recovering stamina and injuries consumes three days of lifespan! However, mental fatigue still remains, so it seems rapid healing isn't omnipotent either..."
After finishing his push-ups, Sephiroth picked up the sheathed sword resting on the ship's railing and drew it with a 'clang.'
Chopping, sweeping, lifting, hacking, collapsing, fetching, blocking, thrusting... Thirteen movements, each a basic action, ordinary and without any style. According to Marigold, who taught him the sword techniques, even the most powerful moves evolved from the fundamentals. Only by mastering the basics well could one learn anything quickly.
Given that the three women were qualified female warriors from Amazon Lily Island, who developed Busoshoku Haki at a young age and became official members of the Kuja Pirates, as a combat novice, Sephiroth could only choose to trust the advice of the three women.
Therefore, Sephiroth set a daily task for himself: to swing his sword rapidly thirteen thousand times, a thousand times for each movement, striving to make these movements his own instincts as quickly as possible.
When he first swung his sword rapidly, he felt quite good. But over time, he felt the sword in his hand growing heavier, his arms becoming sorer and weaker, and he even felt pain. This forced him to choose to use his lifespan to recover stamina and eliminate physical fatigue, thus maintaining high-speed sword swinging actions... Even so, he still spent more than eight hours completing the thirteen thousand sword swings training.
In fact, if an ordinary person underwent such high-intensity sword training as he did, unless their hands were made of titanium alloy... Otherwise, within a month, their hands would surely be ruined! At the very least, to complete the sword-swinging training, Sephiroth spent a full half-month of his lifespan...
Sephiroth's decision to practice swordsmanship was mainly due to his consideration of the existence of the special substance Seastone in this world, which could weaken ability users. If he chose close-quarters combat as his fighting style, once his body came into direct contact with Seastone, he would become weak and powerless, thus incurring heavy backlash. 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 seized by Seastone during battle and exposing a fatal weakness...
After completing his training objectives, Sephiroth re-sheathed the sword in his hand, reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and pulled out the silver pocket watch from his clothing pocket to check the time.
Early morning, four thirty-six. The time he had agreed to switch shifts with Hancock was four o'clock in the morning, and thirty-six minutes had already passed, but she still hadn't come.
Sephiroth sighed helplessly, descended from the deck, and entered the cabin, preparing to wake the long-haired girl. After the high-intensity training session, although his physical condition was still good, he was mentally exhausted. At this moment, all he wanted was to take a bath and 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, raising his hand and knocking gently on the door, but there was no response from inside. He tried to reach out and push the slightly ajar wooden door, only to find Hancock still lying on the bed covered by a quilt, her eyes tightly closed, seemingly still sound asleep.
"Hancock, wake up! It's your turn to be on watch now."
The young man reached out and pushed the long-haired girl into the quilt. The girl immediately responded weakly and indistinctly: "Okay..."
"Hmm?"
After realizing that the girl's voice sounded somewhat strange, 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 put his right hand into the quilt, grabbed Hancock's hand, and checked her pulse.
"She really has a fever... What happened that she never got sick?" Sephiroth looked at the girl lying on the bed with a speechless expression. He thought she not only got soaked by the rain today but also wore wet clothes for half a day in such extremely cold weather... If she hadn't caught a cold like that, it would have been ridiculous!
Hancock propped up her upper body with her right hand and said weakly: "Sorry, I overslept. I'll go to the deck to stand watch now..."
"If you're sick, get some good rest. As for standing watch, I'll discuss it with Sandersonia and Marigold again..." As he spoke, Sephiroth gently pressed Hancock back into bed and helped her tuck in the quilt.
There was a first-aid kit on the table in the bedroom. So, Sephiroth opened the box, and by the light of the kerosene lamp, he saw its contents: gauze, alcohol, anti-inflammatory drugs, needles and thread, anesthesia. All were medical supplies for treating external wounds, but there was no medicine for colds or fevers...
Seeing this, Sephiroth couldn't help but curse inwardly: "What foolish humans!" Sailing at sea without preparing adequate common medicines, weren't these people worried about getting sick...?
He took out the anti-inflammatory medicine in the box and glanced at it, his brows slightly furrowed. Anti-inflammatory drugs were effective for fever symptoms caused by inflammation, but Boa Hancock's fever was caused by exposure to cold air. However, her forehead was also injured, so bacterial infection couldn't be ruled out... He thought for a moment, then poured out an anti-inflammatory tablet, preparing to give it to the long-haired girl.
Without targeted medicine, there was no way he could prepare saline solution without equipment and give her an IV, right?
Water!?
Right, how could I forget this!
Thinking this, Sephiroth walked to the kitchen, lit the gas stove, and boiled a kettle of hot water. Without suitable medicines, sometimes a kettle of hot water was also a good option.
When the hot water boiled, Sephiroth carried the kettle back to 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 warm water! That way, your condition will improve faster."
"Okay!"
Boa Hancock lethargically got out of 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...
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