Yang Yi stepped onto the burning trail and ran towards the capsule machine.
The ground beneath him was slick with blazing tar. It clung to his boots and set them alight, but he felt no pain. The armour he wore clearly offered solid insulation.
He reached the capsule machine without trouble. In his hand was a bone spur he had picked up on the way, and with it ca information about the creature it belonged to.
【Na: Bone Fiend】
【Description: A dangerous undead entity ford from the bones of various creatures. Its shape is unstable and may resemble either an animal or a person. Its body bristles with sharp, regenerative bone spikes that serve as both armour and weapon. These spikes can be fired with the force of a thrown spear. Can be used in the Monster Vending Machine.】
Yang Yi glanced at the ti. A little over fifty seconds remained before eleven.
He fed the bone into the machine and spun for a capsule.
The sweltering air around him didn’t sting his lungs or skin. The blessing of the Charred One shielded him from the heat, letting him breathe even smoke without discomfort. Seventy or eighty degrees ant nothing to him now.
A capsule dropped into his hand.
【Na: Bone Spear】
【Type: Relic】【Quality: Rare】【Description: A short spear forged from the hardest bone of a Bone Fiend. Balanced for throwing, quick and clean. If this weapon kills a human or animal, there is a chance the victim will be reborn as a Bone Fiend and attack anything nearby.】
A pale weapon now rested in Yang Yi’s grip.
The spearhead was a polished bone spike, curved slightly and gleaming like cold tal. The shaft was a spine of six vertebrae fitted tightly together, solid, and straight.
It asured roughly forty centitres and had a well-set balance for throwing.
Yang Yi tested it with a quick motion, then stored it in the Charred Worm Ring.
Right on the dot, the clock struck eleven. The supplies he ordered finally arrived. Basic materials like lumber and cloth went straight into the ship’s storage, but Yang Yi headed for the things he needed most: holy water and black bread.
With this stockpile he could hold out for at least two months.
By then prices might drop, leaving room to trade the coarse bread for sothing better, maybe canned loaves or even fruit preserves.
He turned back toward the lookout, supplies in hand.
But he had barely taken a few steps when Suna’s voice ca through.
"Yang Yi, sothing just ca onto the deck!"
An arrow flew past him and through the shape that had appeared.
Yang Yi saw it too.
A humanoid shape stood there, nearly two tres tall, with long, uneven limbs and a warped silhouette.
From the hollows where its eyes should have been, black mist poured out in thick waves. It was dense enough to smother the glow of the ghostly deck flas, darkening everything around it.
Only the space around Yang Yi remained clear, lit by the fire beneath his feet.
Whatever it was, it had co with ill intent. Yang Yi could feel the hostility rolling off it like heat.
He raised his gun and fired. The bullet tore through most of its torso, but its body ca apart like smoke.
"A phantom fiend?"
His right eye narrowed. The creature had slipped in without a sound. Arrows and bullets passed through it as though through vapour. It shared the sa substance as the mist below.
He weighed his options, holy water already in his palm, but the figure made no move. It stood exactly as it had at the mont he noticed it.
A thought struck him. Yang Yi lowered his gaze.
Fire split the deck into light and darkness, and across that sharp boundary the black mist churned but did not cross.
He stood in fla. The shadow stood in shadow.
It wasn’t still because it wished to be. It simply couldn’t co closer. It could only move within the mist.
Yang Yi threw the holy water. The bottle shattered at the figure’s feet and light blood where the droplets touched the darkness, peeling it away.
The shadow dissolved with it. Holy water worked. It chased the dark back.
He still wasn’t sure whether the thing had truly died, so he switched to Three-Eyed Vision and scanned his surroundings until he was satisfied. Only then did he climb back up the mast.
He checked the deck again.
The blaze he left behind was fading, and the vines on the boards had beco less flammable after the corruption spread. His earlier worry now felt unnecessary.
"Put so holy water on your arrows. It might actually hurt them."
He handed Suna ten bottles.
"And if you need to, pour it on yourself."
He kept watching the shadows below. Minutes passed as the last fla sputtered out.
Shapes began rising from the darkness again.
One after another, human outlines made of mist, gatheredat the base of the mast. They ford a ring around the charred wood, stopping one tre short of the firelight and staring up with those smoke-filled sockets.
"Twelve… thirteen… how many of them are there?"
Yang Yi frowned.
Their number was growing. From one to a dozen, and then more. It felt like they were calling to each other.
The haze from their eyes thickened until the deck vanished beneath it. Even the ghostfire barely pushed through.
It was so dark that they blended into the mist entirely, their bodies impossible to pick out, unless he looked with Three-Eyed Vision.
Thirty-two. No more ca after that.
The mist on the deck, especially beyond the fire circle, had grown several tres deep and hung like liquid shadow.
"They aren’t leaving. Thirty-two total. We could test if they can actually be killed."
He wasn’t sure if the holy water had destroyed the first one. These things had no weight or form, nothing that gave feedback when struck.
But if their number dropped, they were vulnerable.
He saved the holy water and lit two firebombs instead, pitching them down to test his theory.
With the deck no longer likely to ignite uncontrollably, he didn’t hold back. One bottle, then another, then seven or eight more, fire burst across the centre of the ship and rolled outwards until most of the mid-deck was ablaze.
The shadows vanished into the dark.
But just beyond the firelight…
"Why are there more than before?"
Three-Eyed Vision counted again. Over fifty now.
"They might be drawn to the sound and heat of the flas."
Suna kept her eyes fixed below, offering her guess.
Yang Yi froze.
That would explain it. Every ti fire flared, more ca crawling out of the dark.
"...Right. That makes too much sense."
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