When Will woke up the next morning, he found that the wound on his lower back was already almost painless.
He picked up the lion hide he had stripped from the lion the previous day.
He had washed it thoroughly and left it over a fire to dry throughout the night.
It was probably usable by now.
After trimming it with his sword, he wrapped it around his waist.
His shirt had been covered in blood the previous day, and he had no idea where he’d thrown it.
So, rather than bother looking for it, he decided not to wear trousers either.
Wearing nothing but his underwear and the lion hide around his waist, Will went outside bare-chested.
After finding some wild fruit for breakfast, Will began another day of wilderness survival on the uninhabited island.
He had already spent the entire previous day exploring the island.
Although he had encountered several powerful beasts, he hadn’t taken the initiative to fight any of them.
So today, he decided to find something stronger and have a proper fight.
After wandering around for a while, he ultimately decided to seek out the giant gorilla he had spotted the previous day.
Will had a feeling that the gorilla was very strong.
Sure enough, just before noon, Will found the same gorilla again.
It was a species Will had never seen before.
Its skin was blue, and it stood at least six meters tall.
“Hey, big guy!
Come fight me.
Let’s have a good slaughter!”
Regardless of whether the gorilla could understand him, Will activated Lightning Mode immediately after saying those words and charged forward.
Will generally didn’t pay much attention to strategy when fighting.
If he could win, he’d charge straight in.
If he couldn’t win, he’d still charge straight in.
Once he confirmed that he truly couldn’t win, he’d either run away or die.
Seeing a tiny human charging toward it, the gorilla didn’t pay much attention.
It casually swatted at him.
That careless slap, however, would cost it dearly.
With both swords in hand and relying on his superior speed, Will constantly shifted positions around the gorilla.
Side slashes.
Horizontal cuts.
Almost all of his attacks consisted of slashing and chopping.
He didn’t use thrusts or similar techniques because Will simply didn’t like stabbing attacks.
They were too delicate, and their area of damage was too small.
Although his swords had originally been modeled after rapiers, Will had extensively modified them.
These two vicious weapons had been created purely for cutting through flesh and bone.
In the past, Will had only been able to practice his slashes against empty air.
Now, he was practicing against an actual gorilla.
The feeling was completely different.
Although Will seemed to have the upper hand, the gorilla was clearly a power-type beast.
Its speed wasn’t particularly fast, but if Will were struck even once, he would suffer a serious injury.
Just as Will was enjoying himself thoroughly, the gorilla became enraged.
It realized that if it didn’t fight for its life, it would die here today.
One should never underestimate the animals of the One Piece world.
Their intelligence was surprisingly high.
The gorilla suddenly stretched both arms straight out and clenched its fists.
Then it began spinning its arms wildly, like the blades of a windmill.
Will became alert the moment the gorilla extended its arms.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
Will felt the world spin around him as his body was sent flying a considerable distance before crashing heavily onto the ground.
His chest and lungs burned with pain, and he struggled to breathe.
Then he tasted something metallic in his throat and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Will shook his head, forcing himself to clear his mind.
He couldn’t help feeling speechless.
They really do just unleash their ultimate moves the moment things don’t go their way.
At the same time, another thought occurred to him.
He had far too few techniques.
Even a gorilla had an ultimate move.
Yet he didn’t have one.
After struggling back to his feet, Will made his way toward the gorilla and slashed open its abdomen with one sword.
The gorilla, driven by the sudden burst of pain, desperately crawled away from Will.
It wanted to get as far away from this demon as possible.
Unfortunately, this did nothing to save its life.
If anything, it only hastened its death.
While enjoying his lunch, Will also examined his injuries.
His body had probably become exceptionally resilient after years of practicing the Lightning Thorn Method.
His recovery speed and resistance to physical attacks were both excellent.
There were no fatal injuries or hidden complications.
After eating, Will didn’t go back out to hunt.
Instead, he remained inside the stone shelter and began pondering how he could develop a new technique.
Will started thinking.
Don’t misunderstand him.
He wasn’t considering basic movements or complicated combinations of techniques.
Instead, he began recalling the sword-wielding monsters from the anime he had watched in his previous life.
Were there any techniques he could imitate?
With his current level of swordsmanship, even if he developed a technique entirely on his own, its power would probably be mediocre.
It was better to borrow inspiration from the masters.
Will really did think of one.
And it had tremendous potential for further development.
It was a technique from Fate/stay night—a secret sword technique used by a swordsman who had even managed to stand against a Heroic Spirit.
Secret Sword: Swallow Return(Swallow Return).
There was no doubt that Swallow Return was an extremely powerful technique.
For an ordinary person, mastering it would be incredibly difficult.
But Will immediately thought of Lightning Mode.
After activating Lightning Mode, both his reaction speed and physical speed increased dramatically.
The greater the intensity of the lightning, the faster he could move.
However, he could never exceed the limits his body could withstand.
Will’s idea was simple.
For a very short period of time, he would activate Lightning Mode at extremely high intensity, dramatically increasing his speed and thereby reproducing the fundamental principle behind Secret Sword: Swallow Return.
The Swallow Return Will envisioned was somewhat different from the original.
His idea was to use extremely high-speed sword strikes to make multiple slashes erupt almost simultaneously.
The effect would be similar to a pseudo-dimensional slash, dramatically increasing destructive power.
Then, by adding the cutting properties of lightning to the slashes, he could create a sword technique whose destructive power increased with the number of strikes.
If he had an idea, he had to put it into practice.
Will first activated Lightning Mode.
Then he pushed it to the absolute maximum his body could withstand.
Activating it at that level for a few seconds was still possible. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
But maintaining it continuously would be nothing more than an elaborate form of suicide.
His body would collapse.
For those few seconds, his entire body still glowed faint blue.
But the swords in his hands were no longer their usual silver-blue.
Instead, they had become silver-white with a faint hint of violet.
Will then swung both swords with all his strength, one in each hand.
He had never expected that, with his current level of swordsmanship, he could achieve something like Sasaki Kojiro’s feat of striking three times simultaneously with a single blade.
After all, Kojiro had spent his entire life honing his technique.
So Will’s goal was different.
He would swing both swords simultaneously and strive to reach the speed of Swallow Return.
The key was to combine that extreme speed with his lightning attribute and create a sword technique of his own.
If it didn’t work once, he would rest for an hour and try again after his body recovered.
If it still didn’t work, he’d try again.
Failure after failure.
Attempt after attempt.
Each time, he analyzed what had gone wrong and made adjustments.
When he was hungry, he went outside and casually hunted a beast to cook.
When he was thirsty, there was a nearby stream where he could drink and bathe.
One day.
Two days.
One month.
Two months.
Finally—
After a year and a half, Will succeeded in mastering his version of Swallow Return.
That day, he swung his swords as he had countless times before.
Yet this time, something felt different.
Suddenly, Will felt as though the space around him had slowed down.
No.
It was he who had become too fast.
For an instant, he felt as though he had faintly broken free from the restraints of space, air, and gravity.
At that moment, Will’s mind contained nothing but the sword and a single pursuit.
Faster.
I have to slash faster.
Two violet sword trails appeared in the air almost simultaneously, crossing each other.
Faint blue lightning flickered across them as they shot forward, seemingly capable of slicing through everything in their path.
Clang!
A faint metallic vibration seemed to echo through the air.
One wall of Will’s small stone shelter was instantly cut into four pieces.
The entire section of wall was sent flying.
Even the mountain behind it had been carved open, leaving a hole in the rock.
Will immediately felt a wave of weakness wash over his body.
He hadn’t expected that using Swallow Return would actually produce sword energy, transforming the technique into a short-to-mid-range attack.
“Heh…
hehehe…
hahahaha!”
Will couldn’t contain his excitement.
“I did it!
I actually did it!”
After a year and a half of arduous training, Will had finally mastered his ultimate move.
His trump card.