Invisible Man

Invisible Man

Where exactly was the enemy?

Sephiroth was filled with doubt and confusion. He pushed both his vision and hearing to their limits, trying to locate his opponent.

Tap! Tap!...

With his attention highly focused, his hearing, far sharper than that of an ordinary person, detected a set of footsteps approaching his position.

Sephiroth quickly raised his longsword before his chest, his gaze fixed firmly in the direction the sound had come from.

Getting hit by bullets was nothing more than a minor injury to him as long as they did not strike his head. He only needed to expend some life force to recover quickly.

Even the bullet that had struck his heart earlier was no exception. The wound had temporarily stopped bleeding and partially healed. Once he dug out the bullet, he would be completely restored.

"Hahaha! Are you a Zoan Devil Fruit user?

Your life force really is tenacious! But... it's useless!

With my invisible stealth, all you can do is take a beating.

Since you killed Andrew Bass, how about becoming my companion?

I'll give you his position as combat captain...

Power, wealth, fame—if you follow behind me, all of it will be within easy reach!"

A somewhat deep male voice traveled through the air and entered Sephiroth's ears.

Being a pirate was actually a highly dangerous and brutal profession. Every raid carried the risk of casualties.

That was why pirate crews needed to recruit members. Some were picked from local thugs on islands, while others were recruited during raids on merchant ships at sea...

"Is that so? What an honor!"

Though Sephiroth said that, his body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow.

Using sound to pinpoint his opponent, he had already found the enemy's exact location. Once he closed to a certain distance, the fiery-red Autumn Leaf Blade in his hand slashed out with incredible speed.

Sparks flew everywhere. The blade transmitted the recoil and clang of striking steel, making Sephiroth's pupils suddenly contract.

This man was wearing armor!?

"What a pity. You can't cut through me."

There was a hint of mockery in the man's voice. Clearly, he had deliberately allowed the youth to strike him, intending to make him feel despair even more deeply.

The next moment.

Sephiroth was violently kicked in the abdomen, sending him flying backward into the wall with a dull bang! The wall was immediately dented, with cracks spreading in every direction.

"Cough!"

Sephiroth struggled to his feet and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Under that terrifying force, several of his internal organs had suffered internal bleeding.

This guy must be an invisible man who ate the Invisibility Fruit...!

No wonder that pirate ship had been able to enter Commercial Street without making a sound. He must have used his Devil Fruit power to turn the ship invisible...

Could this guy be Absalom?

Thinking about the timeline, it seemed that Gekko Moria and Kaido had already fought. The former should have suffered a crushing defeat years ago, with all his subordinates dying, leaving only him alive to escape from Wano Country...

A sharp whistling sound tore through the air. Although he could not see it, Sephiroth instinctively tried to dodge to the side.

A long whip covered in barbs lashed viciously across Sephiroth's body. A hideous wound immediately appeared along his waist and ribs, the burning pain constantly assaulting his nerves.

Damn it! This guy not only had a pistol and armor, but also something as troublesome as a whip... He was far too difficult to deal with!

"How about it? Just surrender and submit to me, Watson Logan!

My bounty is thirty-five million. I'm somewhat famous on this Grand Line, so surrendering to me isn't shameful...

But if you keep resisting, I'll have no choice but to kill you."

The man's mocking voice came again, as though victory was already assured.

Sephiroth's gaze shifted constantly. The enemy was clad in armor, and he could not see any opening at all. Rushing in carelessly would only get him beaten.

If I want to kill this guy, I need to come up with a way to deal with him... Sephiroth muttered inwardly.

Suddenly!

His eyes fell on the alley beside him...

"You want me to surrender?

Beat me first, then we'll talk!"

As he spoke, Sephiroth immediately rushed into the alley.

Because it had just rained, his shoes splashed through the rainwater in the alley, sending ripples across the puddles.

"Hmph! Refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit. I think you should just die obediently!"

The man snorted coldly and immediately chased into the alley after him.

After running several meters, Sephiroth suddenly spun around and charged back. His eyes flicked toward the puddles on the ground.

Based on where the man's voice had come from earlier, he quickly estimated that his opponent was roughly seven feet tall.

In such a cramped space, a whip could not possibly display its full power. With the puddles helping him pinpoint the man's location, Sephiroth directly sketched out a rough human outline in his mind.

He knew that even if he judged the man's build and position correctly, it would still be futile if he struck the armor.

But...

With his extraordinary hearing, he could clearly distinguish that when the man spoke, his voice had not been obstructed by anything, nor had it created the vibrations that sound would make against an object.

Therefore, he was probably not wearing any protective gear over his mouth or face!

Thus, Sephiroth forcefully stomped the ground and shot toward the enemy's position like an arrow released from a bow.

In that state of complete focus, he truly "saw" the opponent raise his pistol and prepare to fire. He even saw the man's face filled with shock and disbelief.

In an instant, a flash of red light flickered through his eyes, and his body entered an incredibly wondrous state of heightened perception... Observation Haki awakened!

In Sephiroth's perception, he could clearly "hear" his heart pounding thump! Thump! like war drums.

The surrounding houses, water, flowers, and grass all seemed to come "alive," giving off their own unique auras.

When Watson Logan pulled the pistol's trigger, Sephiroth "saw" the bullet's trajectory in advance. He instinctively tilted his head and avoided the shot.

Before the man could react, the fiery-red Autumn Leaf Blade in the youth's hand naturally pierced into his slightly open mouth, punching straight through from beneath his jaw to the back of his neck and killing him beyond any doubt.

Thud!

The corpse of a burly man, seven feet tall, holding a pistol in his left hand and a barbed whip in his right, wearing a breastplate and a hooded chainmail shirt, crashed heavily onto the ground and splashed water everywhere.

Sephiroth looked at the metal bracers and greaves on the man's limbs, and the corner of his eye could not help twitching.

This guy really was armed to the teeth!

To be fair, if not for the Vampire Fruit and its absurdly powerful recovery, along with Watson Logan's carelessness and reckless confidence in the Invisibility Fruit, this battle would definitely not have ended so easily.

Sephiroth first sheathed his longsword, then used his long fingernails to brutally dig the bullets out of his body, making his cheeks twitch continuously from the pain.

Fortunately, the pain came quickly and went just as quickly.

After digging out the bullets, he used up life force. In just ten seconds, his wounds had completely healed...