Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 251 - Shadow - part 2

As Yang Yi’s firebombs guttered out one after another, the shadows multiplied again.

There were sixty-two now.

They ringed the dying campfire like a congregation, tall and thin, every empty socket leaking smoke that pooled together over the deck. The darkness had weight to it, like a low cloud pressed close to the wood.

Up close, the differences between them became clearer. Their frames varied wildly. Most stood between 1.90m and 2.5m, but a few were smaller, barely past 1m. They were stretched and disproportionate, limbs too long, torsos too narrow.

They had no eyes, yet Yang Yi and Suna could feel their gaze crawling over their skin like cold wind.

“Sixty-two. That seems fixed.” Yang Yi confirmed the number with the Three-Eyed Vision and spoke quietly.

Suna nocked an arrow dipped in holy water and fired. It passed cleanly through a shadow, the liquid bursting into pale light as soon as it touched the darkness. What looked like an invisible disc of light spread with it and wiped the figure apart.

The arrow remained luminous for almost a minute, leaving a clean hole in the dark fog, a pocket where the shadows could not reform.

When the glow faded, Yang Yi counted again.

Sixty-one.

It was enough. The holy water didn't just drive them back. It erased them.

They waited several minutes to make sure no figure returned, then Yang Yi nodded.

“That settles it. Holy water kills them. One is gone.”

He contacted Zhou Dai and tried to buy fifty more bottles. Only thirty were available since supplies were tight. Others clearly understood the value of holy water too, especially against things like these.

He drew the Ironbreaker greatsword.

They could keep firing from the lookout, but that would drain resources quickly. One bottle only coated five or six arrows. Clearing the flock below would cost ten to twelve bottles at least. A waste.

If he coated the blade instead, three bottles were enough for a full strike window.

He was confident that he could cut them down in half a minute if they stayed clustered and did not scatter. The sword was long enough that he could fight from the edge of the fire circle and withdraw whenever he needed.

He moved as soon as the idea settled.

The flame below was shrinking fast. It was nowhere near as durable as he had hoped. Fire fuelled by pale worm oil usually burned for hours, but this time not even forty minutes had passed and the heat was fading.

The corruption had changed the wood and vines, made them less willing to burn. Given time, even ignition would become difficult.

Yang Yi uncorked a bottle of holy water and tilted it over the blade. The steel lurched in his grip.

The greatsword shook as though something hammered against it from inside. In the reflection on its dark surface, he saw the source, an outline of a skull, translucent and frantic, smashing its forehead against the metal again and again.

He opened the Three-Eyed Vision. The image sharpened.

It was the fear-spirit bound within the Ironbreaker blade. Usually invisible, usually silent. It offered no aid in battle and Yang Yi barely remembered its presence most days.

But now it fought him with everything it had. It didn’t want the holy water anywhere near the steel.

It butted the sword over and over, desperate, panicked, as if the blessing would kill it too.

Yang Yi watched the spirit for a few seconds, and everything clicked.

“You mean this sword can touch things without a physical body?”

The skull stopped headbutting the blade. A lump swelled where it had been ramming itself, and then it bobbed up and down in an almost frantic nod.

So that was it. The Ironbreaker sword, after its upgrade to an exceptional relic, had gained a hidden trait. It could cut the intangible.

Suna walked over in confusion.

“Who are you talking to?”

She saw only empty air. She had no idea a spirit lived inside the blade.

“I’m talking to the sword’s spirit,” Yang Yi answered.

“Spirit?”

“Yes. It seems the sword can harm incorporeal creatures. I’m going to test it.”

He handed her the holy water, slung the greatsword across his back, and climbed down the mast instead of jumping. The fire had faded too much for that. The safe zone around it had shrunk to a narrow ring.

He dropped onto the deck, back to the firelight, and steadied himself.

He had stayed in his werewolf form the entire time. Most of his fur had dried, and the heat had curled the hair along his back, though he barely noticed.

He chose a target, swung, and felt clear resistance. His eyebrows lifted.

“It connects.”

The blade bit like it had snagged heavy cloth. The darkness tore cleanly under the strike, and the shadow split apart before dissolving into the deck and vanishing.

After that, it was simple work.

Shadow after shadow came forward, mindless and unafraid, drawn only by life and movement. Yang Yi never even learned what they could do if they got close. They just advanced and died, one after another.

Soon he barely needed to move. He stood at the edge of the fire and cut them down as they reached him.

Twenty seconds was all it took.

When the last one fell, he heard a whisper as it unravelled.

“Thank you…”

Something dropped from where the body faded. A dark orb, smooth, pitted with small holes like porous stone.

He nudged it closer with the greatsword, and its information surfaced before his eyes.

【Name: Core of Darkness】

【Description: The core occasionally forms after the death of a Shadow. When soaked in water, it stains the liquid pure black. It can be used as high quality dye or as an alchemical material. Because of its smooth texture and unusual structure, collectors sometimes keep it as an ornament. Compatible with Monster Vending Machine.】

【Note: Shadows are souls condensed from darkness. From the moment they awaken, they seek release. They cannot leave the dark. They are drawn to light, to life. If you cannot destroy one, the darkness it carries will swallow you too, and you will become the next.】

“So they’re called Shadows.”

He finally had a name for them. And as simple as it looked in the end, he knew very well he had survived only because of luck and gear. Without the sword or holy water, they would have been untouchable.

Fire might have worked, but only if he could burn hot enough, long enough.

He shared the information with Suna, then slipped the dark core into the Blackened Worm ring.

It could be useful as a dye, an alchemy ingredient. Possibly even catalyst material for potions.

Something worth keeping.

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