One Piece Swordsman's Heart - Chapter 12
When Vir woke up the next morning, he found that his wound had mostly stopped hurting. He picked up the lion skin he had skinned yesterday, which he had cleaned and dried over a fire throughout the night. After trimming it with his sword, he wrapped it around his waist.
His shirt, soaked in blood from yesterday, had been discarded somewhere, and he decided not to wear pants either. Instead, he opted for just his underwear and the lion skin around his waist, going shirtless.
After grabbing some wild fruits for breakfast, Vir set off for another day of survival on the deserted island.
Having explored the island yesterday, he had encountered several strong beasts but hadn’t engaged them. Today, he intended to find a stronger opponent and have a proper fight.
Previously unable to understand the thrill of battle, Vir now finds himself enjoying it immensely. The more intense and life-threatening the fight, the more exhilarated he feels.
After some wandering, he decided to seek out the large gorilla he had spotted the day before, sensing that it was quite powerful.
Near midday, Vir found the same giant gorilla.
This gorilla, with blue skin and standing over six meters tall, was a species he had never seen before.
“Hey, big guy! Come fight me and let me cut you up!” Vir yelled, not caring if the gorilla understood. He activated his ‘Lightning Mode’ and charged.
Vir’s combat style was straightforward: if he could win, he attacked directly; if he couldn’t, he still attacked directly and decided whether to flee or die only after confirming his defeat.
Seeing a small figure rushing towards it, the gorilla casually swiped at Vir, underestimating him. This cost it dearly as two fingers were cleanly severed and flew off.
Blood sprayed over Vir, who felt uncomfortable but no longer nauseated.
Vir darted around the gorilla with both swords in hand and boosted speed, slicing at its flesh. Occasionally, he would expose a bit of bone, sending it spinning away.
Side slashes and horizontal cuts were his main techniques, avoiding thrusts as he found them too delicate and with too small an area of effect. Despite his swords being based on the design of rapiers, they had been modified for cutting through flesh.
Previously, Vir had only practiced swinging his swords in the air. Now, practicing on a living target felt entirely different. Although he was taking advantage of the gorilla’s slow speed, he knew a single hit from it would cause serious harm.
As Vir enjoyed the fight, the gorilla grew enraged, realizing it might die if it didn’t fight back. It stretched its arms out and spun like a windmill.
Alerted to the movement but unable to react in time, Vir was struck, feeling a dizzying pain and flying far before crashing to the ground. His chest and lungs burned, making it hard to breathe, and he tasted blood in his mouth, coughing some up.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Vir felt frustrated. This gorilla had unleashed a powerful move without warning, highlighting his lack of special techniques.
The gorilla, now bleeding profusely from its multiple wounds, looked like a living fountain. Vir stumbled to it and slashed its belly, causing its innards to spill out.
The gorilla, in pain, tried crawling away from the demon that was Vir. This only hastened its death as it left a trail of intestines, dying in agony.
Reflecting on his cruelty in battle, Vir acknowledged that while he was mild-mannered outside of fights, he could be exceptionally ruthless when engaged, willing to slice an enemy into bits without hesitation.
He didn’t cut any meat from the gorilla for lunch; instead, he found a large snake and prepared a snake stew by the sea using a pot left behind by the merchant ship.
While enjoying his meal, Vir assessed his injuries. Thanks to his long-term use of the ‘Lightning Stimulus Method,’ his recovery rate and resilience had improved significantly, with no critical injuries or hidden dangers.
After eating, Vir didn’t resume hunting. Instead, he sat in his stone house, pondering how to develop new techniques.
He thought back to some powerful sword fighters from the anime in his previous life, looking for inspiration for techniques he could adapt. He settled on one technique from a fictional swordsman, known as the ‘Secret Sword: Swallow Return.’
The Swallow Return was a formidable move, difficult for an ordinary person to master. However, with his ‘Lightning Mode’ enhancing his speed and reflexes, Vir believed he could achieve it.
Vir’s version of the Swallow Return involved high-speed slashes, making multiple cuts appear simultaneous, akin to a pseudo-dimensional slash, significantly boosting its destructive power. By adding the cutting properties of lightning, each strike would become even more devastating.
With this in mind, Vir activated ‘Lightning Mode,’ pushing it to the maximum tolerable intensity for a short burst. His body glowed light blue, but the swords emitted a silvery-white with a hint of purple.
Slashing with both swords simultaneously, Vir aimed to replicate the Swallow Return.
He practiced this repeatedly, resting an hour between attempts to recover and repeating until he achieved the desired effect.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. After a year and a half of grueling practice, Vir finally succeeded. One day, during a practice slash, everything around him seemed to slow down. No, it wasn’t the world slowing—it was him moving too fast, almost breaking free from the confines of space, air, and gravity.
At that moment, Vir felt nothing but his swords and the desire to move faster, to cut more swiftly. Two purple-crossed sword marks, tinged with blue, appeared in the air, flying forward as if to slice through everything.
With a metallic sound, the walls of his small stone house split into four pieces, the entire wall collapsing, leaving a gaping hole in the mountainside.
Feeling weak from the effort, Vir realized he had executed the Swallow Return and produced sword energy, extending its range.
“Hehehe, I did it,” Vir laughed, filled with joy and excitement.
Eighteen months of hard work had finally paid off, giving him a powerful trump card, his secret technique:
‘Secret Sword: Swallow Return.’
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