Sniper in the Dark; The Wonders of Observation Haki / The Hundred-Paces Flying Sword Is Finally Drawn
Two drunken men were talking dirty as they staggered over!
The general content was him bragging that he felt capable again! How fierce he used to be! Shouting things like spraying three zhang against the wind!
Hearing their conversation, Dongze narrowed his eyes, a hint of murderous intent flashing within them, as he roughly guessed what they were talking about.
His longsword slipped from its scabbard, the sound of the blade sliding against the sheath making the two men not far ahead feel a sudden numbness all over; this was a sound they were extremely familiar with.
"Who's there?!"
The two of them didn't think in that direction, after all, for so long, absolutely no one had ever resisted them, and they had long since cultivated an arrogant disposition.
Unfortunately, they miscalculated this time. What answered them was not a voice, but a crisp flash of sword light.
An arc of bright light flickered before their eyes, followed immediately by pitch darkness, dust returning to dust, earth to earth.
"Under an avalanche, not a single snowflake is innocent! Tonight seems destined to be a sleepless night!"
Seeing these two men, Dongze's gaze suddenly turned somewhat cold. Although he knew this world was somewhat chaotic, seeing it with his own eyes was another matter entirely.
Due to the cover of night, Dongze failed to notice that on the light screen before his eyes, that line of dim, small text for the proficiency of the Sword-Draw Technique had quietly changed from 1/10000 to 21/10000.
As the night grew darker, Dongze's figure quietly melted into the shadows, pulling back the curtain on a silent slaughter.
"Ah~~~"
Dongze decapitated another bandit, yet he sighed softly. The number of stragglers had become increasingly small, and the majority of the remainder were gathered together, making it quite difficult not to alert the others.
However, he had already sent well over half the people in this bandit den on their way, and for him, the pressure from the remaining people was reduced by more than half.
This scream broke the stillness of the night, yet it did not hinder Dongze from striking once more. Before the bandits could recover their wits, Dongze cut down another group of people.
This naturally included the only bandit leader who carried a gun.
He had yet to master Armament Haki, nor had he eaten a Devil Fruit, so for him at present, firearms posed the greatest threat. Therefore, knowing he could no longer keep a low profile, he naturally had to first eliminate the person who posed the greatest threat to him.
Although the bandit leader was the head of this group of bandits, his actual combat strength was not much higher than that of those ordinary bandits, seeing as he was merely a boss who still needed a gun to consolidate his position.
Yet this also saved him a lot of trouble. If he were in the Grand Line at this moment, let alone bandits, even ordinary civilians would possess guns and ammunition.
As for the reason, it was naturally for self-defense.
The Grand Line not only had extremely harsh weather, but it was also a carnival ground for pirates, so such a situation was hardly surprising.
If there were over fifty guns here, he would definitely adopt a completely different fighting style. Having finally awakened his Golden Finger, he would not let himself sink into an irretrievable predicament.
Right now, he could consider himself fortunate that there was only one gun in this bandit den, which also made his revenge much easier.
Chapter 8: The Sniper in the Dark Night and the Marvel of Mantra
"Second boss!"
"Boss is dead!!"
A terrified scream echoed through the entire courtyard, causing the remaining bandits to begin trembling with fear. On ordinary days, the bandit leader wielded immense prestige; now that even the boss had been killed by someone, how could they not be afraid!
The crowd instantly exploded like a boiling pot, descending into a chaotic mess.
Right at that moment, a tall figure walked out. This person looked ferocious, with a scar running across almost his entire face, and his stubbly face exuding a ruthless aura.
The clothes on his chest were also flung wide open, with two huge crisscrossed scars lying horizontally across his abdomen.
He held a spiked club in his hand, a hint of madness flashing in his eyes.
"Shut the fuck up, all of you!"
A violent aura swept across the entire scene, causing the surrounding remnant thugs to quiet down involuntarily.
"Who knows what happened? Explain it to me clearly!"
Unfortunately, these thugs had also just been jolted awake from their sleep, so how could they know what had happened? Before their eyes lay only corpses covering the ground and a pungent odor.
Seeing no movement around him, this person narrowed his eyes, his gaze scanning back and forth.
With such a thing happening, it was actually quite easy to guess. They were bandits after all, tyrannical on ordinary days, committing every imaginable crime of arson and pillaging; if someone came to mete out justice on behalf of heaven today, he wouldn't be surprised either.
However, up until now, he simply hadn't discovered the whereabouts of the perpetrator, which left him somewhat displeased.
Without even catching sight of the person, more than half the stronghold was dead, and the boss had died too. You had to know that the bandit leader carrying that rifle was strong enough to rival him, yet the bandit leader had been killed silently and without warning, wouldn't that mean the opponent also had the strength to finish him off?
After a moment, the surroundings remained deathly quiet. This person fiercely slammed the spiked club in his hand against the ground and roared, "Get the hell out here, you scum."
Let us talk about where Dongze was at this moment!
As it turned out, following a bout of slaughter, Dongze unexpectedly discovered that the proficiency of the swordsmanship he had unlocked, the Sword-Draw Technique, had begun to skyrocket.
Up to now, the proficiency had reached 501/10000, and with this skyrocketing proficiency, he could feel the might of his swordsmanship multiplying at a leap-like speed.
This was also why he had been able to decapitate the bandit leader with a single slash.
After all, there were a full nine people in that great hall!
Right now, he was standing in the corner of a room, comprehending the essence of the Sword-Draw Technique. As for the scene outside, he had naturally seen it, but at this time, he was not in a hurry to go down, instead examining the gun in his hand.
This gun was not an ordinary firearm, but a sniper rifle. Thinking about how the bandit leader was able to keep a hundred-odd people in line with just a rifle, he was probably a sniper; otherwise, relying on a gun alone could not possibly control these desperadoes who lived with their heads on the line.
Then he picked up his gun and aimed at the bandit lackeys in the courtyard!
"Bang!"
A crisp gunshot was exceptionally piercing in the quiet courtyard at this moment, and amid the crowd, one lackey took a bullet to the head.
Panic once again gripped the hearts of this group of bandits, and the crowd grew uncontrollably restless.
The surroundings remained dead silent, and this pitch-black night felt like a giant beast that devoured people to them.
The unknown threat and fatal peril exerted pressure on them that grew greater with the passage of time, and finally, someone could not help but begin to break down.
"Ah~~~!"
"We're going to die!"
"Help!"
"Run!!"
"Shut the hell up, all of you!!"
Another ferocious roar rang out, but unfortunately, it had no effect this time. the nerves of the bandits had long since broken down because of that unseen enemy.
"Who the hell are you? Get your ass out here, you scum!!"
"Bang!!"
His answer was yet another gunshot. Then, another bandit fell to the ground.
This gunshot felt like a fierce slap across the second-in-command's face, driving him to madness as well.
"Ah~~!"
"Kid! I don't care who you are, I'm going to hack you to pieces with my own hands today!!"
Then his voice turned vicious, and he said to the men beside him, "You lot, go drag those stinking bitches over here!"
Looking at the second-in-command with his bloodshot eyes, the few small lackey shivered all over as if they were eating a piece of ice in the dead of winter, instantly snapping them back to their senses from their terror.
The few of them swallowed twice in succession and said tremblingly, "Yes!!"
The second-in-command's voice was extremely loud, and not only did those small lackeys hear it, but Dongze in the distance heard it as well.
His mind raced, and Dongze understood in an instant what the other was trying to do. It seemed the other had run out of options and intended to use those hostages to force him out!
"Not a bad idea, but do you think this will work?"
"Bang, bang, bang...!"
Gunshots rang out in continuous succession, and those few small lackeys who had just tried to move their feet to grab hostages instantly dropped dead.
In front of Dongze, who had mastered Observation Haki, the gunshots were like the horn of the Grim Reaper, and every single shot hit its mark.
After that, Dongze stopped holding back and began rapid-fire shooting.
In just a few short minutes, apart from this second-in-command, not a single person was left standing in the courtyard.
Finally, he tried shooting at this second-in-command, but as he expected, the target did not care at all.
He saw the figure expand abruptly, his clothes torn to shreds, and a black-skinned gorilla stood in place.
Then, with an agility that did not match its body shape, it dodged the attack, sprang into the air, and charged straight for the room where Dongze was located.
"A Devil Fruit user!"
Dongze's face instantly darkened. Although he had anticipated beforehand that this guy would not be easy to deal with, he had not expected to encounter a user here.
Devil Fruits were known as the treasures of the sea, capable of granting different abilities to those who consumed them.
They were divided into Logia, Paramecia, and Zoan. These abilities had varying strengths; the strong were like natural disasters—such as the Ice-Ice Fruit, Magma-Magma Fruit, Glint-Glint Fruit, and Rumble-Rumble Fruit—which made them look like walking natural disasters.
Paramecia, such as the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and other rule-based Devil Fruits, held even more boundless potential.
There were also Mythical Zoans like the Great Buddha and the Azure Dragon, all of which resembled the realm of gods.
Ranking a tier below these were ordinary Zoan Devil Fruits, but those users still possessed advantages hard for ordinary people to reach.
Just like the Gorilla-Gorilla Fruit user Dongze had encountered now, he also possessed a recovery ability that ordinary people could not match.
"Kid! Found you!"
A remark filled with murderous intent and rage came from the gorilla, and immediately after, that Spiked Club smashed fiercely toward the room where Dongze was.
Seeing this, Dongze casually tossed the gun in his hand aside, then lightly tapped the ground with his toes, blasting his whole body backward.
Then, moving two steps in one, he bolted out from the room, drew his long sword, and looked cautiously at the enemy before him.
Noticing that Dongze had retreated from the room, the second-in-command also jumped down from the second floor of the stronghold!
"What! Bastard! You're not going to keep hiding?!"
This sentence was brimming with anger, and even with his back turned, Dongze could sense the other's fury.
However, Dongze did not take it to heart. Fortunately, he had been cautious enough just now. If he had really let hot-bloodedness get to his head, thinking he could take on the world and brazenly start a head-on duel right off the bat, he might have capsized in the gutter. He had not expected to run into a user in such a bandit's lair.
When the second-in-command stood properly, turned around, and looked at the person before him, a trace of surprise inevitably surfaced in his eyes!
"So it's just a brat!"
"Brat! Who are you? State your name!"
The two stood facing each other, their builds vastly different. Compared to the opponent's height of nearly three and a half meters, Dongze was indeed a brat for now.
Dongze's gaze remained steady, and he replied in a somewhat cold tone, "The one who will kill you!"
The underboss laughed heartily upon hearing Dongze's words.
"Just by you?"
"I don't know how many brats like you I've crushed to death! Today is the first time I've ever heard such arrogant words!"
"Such brazen boasting!"
"Kid! Go to hell!!"
The massive Spiked Club seemed weightless in the underboss's hands, swung by him at an exaggerated speed. With a sweeping strike of an army, it whipped up a fierce gale and bore down on Dongze. Facing this situation, Dongze showed no fear; possessing Observation Haki was the confidence that allowed him to stay.
Three Types of Haki, Armament Haki, Observation Haki, and Conqueror's Haki!
Armament Haki was a haki that could enhance one's own defensive and offensive power, and could also capture the flowing bodies of Logia users.
Observation Haki was a haki that made a person's five senses sharper, allowing them to perceive the presence and emotional shifts of surrounding creatures, and could also be used to anticipate and evade danger.
Conqueror's Haki was the rarest, hailed as the "haki" possessed by only one in millions as a chosen one, meaning the "king's disposition" to stand above others.
It could not be acquired through training, nor was it congenitally inherited; it could only be determined by one's own destiny whether they possessed it. Furthermore, even though Conqueror's Haki could be controlled freely, it could not be strengthened through training, and could only be enhanced through the user's own personal growth.
Although Observation Haki seemed the weakest, that was only relative to the Grand Line; for East Blue, it was still a heaven-shaking and formidable power.
Watching the Spiked Club smash down, a light flashed in the depths of Dongze's eyes. He twisted his heel, his body sliding back by one meter and twenty centimeters as the Spiked Club flew past the tip of his nose, narrowly dodging this attack in the nick of time.