One Piece Swordsman's Heart - Chapter 15
As the sky gradually darkened, Vir checked his swords around ten o’clock at night and straightened his clothes. The three of them then set out. Walking through the city streets at night, even at this hour, the bustling city was still brightly lit, with some tipsy pedestrians helping each other home.
Vir was very excited at this moment. The night, the vibrant city, and the people in front of him gave him a thrill. Others might go out at night for entertainment, drinking, and relaxation. But he was out to kill, to kill many people, including a pure and beautiful young girl. It was a feeling that he couldn’t get enough of.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the target’s manor. His senior brother and sister had already disappeared, leaving only Vir at the gate.
“Good evening, gentlemen. So, please die,” Vir said in a strange tone as he crossed his arms, drew his two swords, and activated his ‘Lightning Mode,’ charging directly at the gate guards.
The two guards didn’t even have time to react before they felt several spots on their bodies go numb, then cold, and finally lost consciousness.
Vir sliced the guards into several pieces with a few swift strokes, spraying blood and innards everywhere. But he didn’t feel any discomfort; killing people felt no different from killing beasts to him. They just said some meaningless words before dying.
After dismembering the two guards, a young guard further away was so terrified that he froze. He had never seen such a gruesome scene before and didn’t even shout for help or sound the alarm; he just turned and ran, screaming for help.
The young guard’s scream did serve as a warning, and numerous guards within the manor rushed out.
Vir held his swords, letting them hang naturally, and smiled silently as he watched the approaching crowd. Then he charged in.
In the midst of the guards, he first slashed a middle-aged man to pieces with a few strokes, then blocked an incoming blade with a single sword. As the two weapons clashed, sparks flew, and Vir’s sword, like a saw, cut through the enemy’s blade, then sliced the enemy diagonally into two.
Constantly charging and slashing, Vir kept cutting down one enemy after another. Gradually, he realized that there were no more enemies around him, only dismembered bodies and a few severed, moaning enemies crawling away on the ground.
Distant guards looked at Vir with a mix of fear and hatred, but none dared to approach. Some of the more timid ones had already wet their pants, emitting an unpleasant smell. However, the dark night and the pervasive smell of blood in the manor provided them with some cover.
Just as Vir was about to finish off the remaining guards, he felt a sense of danger from his side, a feeling honed through numerous life-and-death experiences—a basic form of Observation Haki.
With a swift backward jump, a bullet whizzed past his face.
“Everyone, stand back. I’ll handle this guy. But I’ll need extra pay; he’s too strong,” said a young man in his twenties.
The young man had short gray-white hair, stood about two meters tall, and wore a leather jacket and pants filled with holsters. From his knees up to his waist, there were holsters holding numerous pistols. The most striking feature was the large wooden box strapped to his back, half a meter wide and a meter tall. What was inside remained a mystery.
This young man fired the shot. Vir had seen firearms in the One Piece world before, but the bullets didn’t travel very fast. However, this young man’s bullets were incredibly fast.
Upon closer inspection, Vir noticed that the man’s guns were different from the typical flintlock pistols in the One Piece world. The barrels were longer, and the area where the gunpowder was loaded had increased the amount of firepower.
Sacrificing the gun for more powerful bullets, huh? One shot, and the pistol was practically useless.
Understanding his opponent roughly, Vir realized this guy was strong, so he decided not to underestimate him. He charged forward, trying to close the distance.
Before he could get close, the young man fired again, drawing two pistols from his leg and firing them before discarding them and drawing more.
Vir felt that he could dodge the bullets if he just avoided them, but doing so would give him no chance to close the distance. So he relied on his reflexes and swordsmanship, cutting the bullets in half with his sword to deflect them. He couldn’t allow the opponent to keep his distance.
The young man had used up all the pistols on his legs in less than a minute. However, he didn’t panic and pressed a mechanism on the wooden box, causing more pistols to pop out from its sides.
Seeing the number of guns, Vir knew he couldn’t drag this out any longer. He activated his ‘Lightning Mode’ to the maximum, pointing both swords to the ground.
Sensing Vir’s stance, the young man felt a strange tingling in his scalp. He pressed another part of the wooden box, revealing a long rifle with an iron ball-shaped bullet at the end, indicating the amount of gunpowder loaded in it. He set the special wooden box in front of him for protection and aimed the rifle.
Vir ignored the young man’s actions and quietly said, “Secret Sword, Swallow Return.”
The young man felt everything around him disappear, his attention wholly focused on the two intersecting purple sword energies coming at him.
He fired his rifle without hesitation.
The previously unstoppable bullet was now cut to pieces by the sword energy. Before the young man could react, the sword energy sliced through the bullet, then the wooden box, dividing it into four pieces, and finally his left arm, shattering it completely. Even his left chest bore several deep sword wounds.
Enduring the intense pain, the young man forced himself to stay conscious and quickly ran towards a nearby wall. Reaching the wall, he took out a strange device resembling a cannon but with a seat at the back.
He activated the cannon, which shot him out instead of firing a cannonball, flying away with the young man seated on it.
Vir watched in disbelief. After using his ultimate move, he had a period of weakness, so he tried to avoid using Swallow Return unless necessary. He hadn’t expected the guy to have such a device and escape.
“A mad inventor, huh? But with those injuries, his hand and ribs probably shattered. He likely won’t survive. Even if he does, it’s fine if he comes for revenge,” Vir mused, unconcerned about the escape. He knew that gunmen in the One Piece world weren’t usually strong, with few exceptions.
Intrigued by the wood that had blocked his sword energy, Vir picked up a chunk the size of two fists. Examining it, he found nothing special and tried cutting it again, but it was so hard that even with his ‘Lightning Mode,’ he couldn’t cut through it. It might be Adam Wood, he thought.
Pocketing the piece of wood, Vir turned his attention to the manor’s three-story building. From a second-floor window, he saw a middle-aged man looking calmly at him.
With a few rapid strides, he leaped up to the man’s room. Taking a quick look, he confirmed from the photos that this was indeed Steve Louis.
“I always knew this day would come. I wanted to stop long ago, but Doris wouldn’t agree. She’s become addicted to the thrill of trading slaves and disposing of people. Fulfill one request for me, and I’ll give you all my wealth,” Steve Louis said, his face pale with despair.
Vir sliced him in half without a word and walked towards the door. Wealth? Ridiculous. Most of it would be in non-liquid assets, which he had no use for. Even if he sold it, the World Government wouldn’t just watch idly, no matter how incompetent they were. As for cash, he could find it himself. Besides, he didn’t like Steve Louis, so he cut him down.
Just two steps out, Vir felt a tug on his pant leg. Looking down, he saw the bisected Steve Louis gripping his pant leg tightly, struggling to speak.
“Spare my daughter. She knows nothing. She can even be your wife. She’s beautiful. Let her live,” Steve Louis pleaded, blood pouring from his mouth, held together by sheer will.
“Sorry, my mission is to kill your entire family, so rest in peace. Take care of your daughter in the afterlife,” Vir said, kicking him away and heading upstairs.
“You devil! You’ll die a horrible death! Even in hell, I won’t forgive you. I curse you; one day, you’ll meet the same fate as me,” Steve Louis’s ghostly voice echoed behind him.
“Hehehe, hate me all you want, you pig. Even if I meet the same fate, I’ll live my life grandly,” Vir replied, walking away, leaving Steve Louis’s lifeless eyes staring blankly.
Before dying, Steve Louis looked at a ring on his hand, his expression softening with love and regret. It was a platinum ring with a green diamond, worn on his thumb. His daughter had bought it for his fiftieth birthday from a gem-producing island, risking a month-long voyage and nearly being captured by pirates.
Now, his daughter might die too.
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