Chương 16

"You're burning." The statement broke his focus. Kiki stood beside him. When he looked back, the ship was gone.

"What?" he asked.

"You're skin. It's pink." He touched his exposed face. It stung. In his years without it, he'd forgotten that the sun could be a threat. However minor that threat might be. His years in the dark left him more susceptible than ever to sunburns. How annoying. He sighed. He'd been enjoying soaking up warm rays for once. He lowered his hat to shield his face from the sunlight.

"I don't suppose you have sunscreen?"

"Why would I need sunscreen? I have my armor. It's equipped with a self-cooling system. I very rarely remove any piece of it so I don't have much need for further skin protection." Of course. He stood and moved himself over to the shaded forest. Over to the side, crab boiled inside a split open coconut shell. How Kiki had managed to get the coconut to function as a pot rather than bursting into flame was a mystery to him.

On his way over, he snatched up Kiki's bag and dragged it over to join him in the shade so he'd have someone to chat with.

"How does the sun even work?" Oliver asked Ben.

"Is it the real sun above us?"" It is not. If I were to fly high enough, I would reach an invisible barrier, keeping me from ascending further. I believe we are actually deep underground. All weather is controlled by a system, hence why we have biomes of snow covered tundra adjacent to sprawling desert dunes."

"Could you hack into it?"" Not with my current administrative clearance." Oliver was about to ask another question about the weather system, when he glanced back at the water. The words died before ever reaching his lips. The ship he had noticed earlier had silently approached. Now it was moored over to the left, a little more than a stone's throw away from them.

"Ben," Oliver said seriously.

"You told me to tell you if I noticed anything suspicious."" I did, indeed. Have you spotted something of concern?" Oliver continued to stare out at the ship. It flickered again.

"There is a ship here next to the island. I assume you can't see it?" Ben's drone made some whirling noises for a few seconds." Nothing picked up on my scanners. That is concerning." Oliver stood.

"Kiki! It's time to go now!" Kiki glared up from her coconut pot.

"Absolutely not." Before he could explain, a cold wind swept over them. The fire's flames flickered a deep purple. A man stood on the beach, his transparent form barely visible in the sun. Even with Uncanny Sight, the man was near impossible to spot. He smiled, showing Oliver a mouth that lacked many teeth. Then he raised a blunderbuss in Kiki's direction. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. But Oliver shot first.

The bullet rippled through the ghost's form, but didn't disperse the undead spirit altogether. The ghost's gun still fired, but it went wide as it struggled to maintain its form after Oliver's attack. That wasn't to say the ghostly bullet did nothing. Instead of the intended target of Kiki, the bullet went wide and struck her bag beside Oliver. Ben's communication device buzzed and the mechanical device inside the bag sparked. The fan inside made a racket as a wisp of black smoke rose up from inside.

Phantom of First Mate Charles 'Black Gum' Hinkley. Level 55. Oliver's quick Appraisal at least informed him why his gunshot didn't kill on the first strike. A level 55 was far more powerful than the average wraith he usually fought. Unlike Oliver's gun, this phantom appeared to have more than one bullet in its blunderbuss's chamber. This time, the ghost took aim at Oliver, the true threat in this exchange. Oliver spun his shovel out in front of him, deflecting the shot with the flat of the spade.

The sand gave way underfoot, slowing Oliver's dash forward. He triggered his Death Aura, but the phantom shrugged it off. A high level spirit with a focused intent wasn't likely to give way to lethargy. But it had been worth a try. Over to the side, Kiki had thrown her helmet back on and was rapidly seeking out her attacker. From her perspective, it probably looked like Oliver was running straight into the sea. She had no way of knowing who, what, or where her threat was.

After the unsuccessful shot at him, the phantom took aim back at Kiki. It clearly expected Oliver to alter his course to defend her. Maybe even take the bullet for her. That would be a great scenario for the ghost. But it was wrong in that assumption. Instead, Oliver whipped back his shovel and threw it with all the force he could muster. His Strength and Dexterity states worked in tandem to launch the silver weapon. It sliced through the air, swinging horizontally.

The ghost crumpled as the silver passed through its form. Then the shovel splashed into the surf behind his undead opponent. For a moment, the phantom was prone. That would have to be enough. Oliver barreled forward, not slowing down for an instant. He had no bullet loaded into his chamber and he'd thrown away his primary weapon for fighting undead. But he was far from useless. The silver shovel and blunderbuss were recent additions to his arsenal.

He hadn't survived in the Nightmare Biome for five years without learning how to kill undead. A pouch of salt went flying from his hand, a line of salt seamlessly mixing in with the sand. That created a barrier between the phantom and Kiki. The second toss of salt landed behind their attacker, spilling into a practiced line. By the time Oliver arrived in front of the phantom, he'd already begun boxing it in. The phantom didn't even realize what was happening to it.

Utterly clueless to Oliver's tactics, it lunged forward at Kiki, its gun raising to once again point at the [Neon Samerai], only to be stopped with the force of a brick wall as it slammed into the invisible barrier set up by the salt. Oliver threw the third handful of salt directly through the phantom and it howled in rage as the mineral passed through its incorporeal body. It turned back to him and lined up a point blank shot at Oliver, who was now defenseless without his shovel to deflect the attack.

Oliver stepped to the side in a dodge but the ghostly bullet still clipped his shoulder. The wound sent a tingling cold through his arm. However, Oliver was familiar enough with the damage type that he could ignore it for a moment. He still had his last remaining silver grenade. But that would be overkill. Already, he nearly had the phantom destroyed. It was on its last legs. He just needed a little more damage. Close now, he grabbed a fistful of salt and jammed it into the phantom.

It hollered in pain, an ear shattering screech. Oliver's knuckles went white inside the phantom's icy form. Instead of numbing like from natural cold, it felt like a thousand needles of ice jabbing through his skin and chilling his blood. The pain trickled up his arm to his elbow. Still he held firm. The salt trickled from his fist. Then the ghostly form flickered, the face frozen in a snarl of rage, then the undead spirit collapsed in front of him in a heap of ectoplasmic waste. Oliver fell to the sand, panting.

He ripped off his jacket and stared at his arm, now paler than ever and clammy. The bullet wound in his shoulder was a nasty shade of gray-ish white, but he still had use of his arm for now. Sighing, collapsed onto his back. He looked up to the blazing sun above. A sunburn sounded rather nice at the moment.