Ryuma was sitting quite comfortably in Hogback's lab, humming as he made himself a cup of tea as if he was waiting for someone. He had just raised the cup of tea to his lips when Skull arrived.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" he said.

"I'll never quit until I regain what I lost; I will keep fighting," said Skull.

Ryuma slammed his sword to the ground. "Don't you remember who I am? Men cower in fear at the mere mention of the Sword Master Ryuma."

"Silence! You're nothing more than my shadow!"

"Yet my body is much stronger."

"I will return you to where you belong, beneath my feet."

Meanwhile, a group of zombies were rather shocked to discover a bunch of purified zombies on the floor.

"What the hell?"

"I don't believe it; somebody other than that Humming Swordsman knows our weakness."

"This sucks. We can't die doesn't really work so well when someone knows how to kill us."

Eret and the others were now running down the staircase, and they began to explain everything to Fishlegs and the others.

"We were told they use this staircase to transport people whose shadows have been cut," Heather explained.

"That makes sense," said Fishlegs. "They took Hiccup here; we were heading this way to write before Astrid was kidnapped."

"I'm so worried about her," said Chopper. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"This is Astrid we're talking about," said Tuffnut.

"Yeah, the toughest girl on our ship," said Ruffnut.

"When she is armed, but right now, she's completely defenceless," said Snotlout. "But if they wanted her dead, they wouldn't have captured her; we can get her back easy enough."

"The best thing we can do for now is to get back to the Night Fury," said Eret. "We'll regroup there and wake up the other guys and take back their shadows."

"But this place is crawling with zombies; that won't be easy," said Chopper.

"And how did you beat those zombies anyway?" Fishlegs asked.

"It's another one of those six secrets the skeleton guy told us about," said Eret as he poured out a bag of salt. "Check it out."

"So even the zombies have something that hurts them," said Chopper.

"Believe it or not, it was perfectly simple," said Ruffnut.

"Yeah, all you need to do is throw salt in their mouths, and they become harmless husks," said Tuffnut.

"So we put these in their mouths, and it purifies them," said Snotlout incredulously.

"Yep, you just saw it in action," said Eret.

"By the way, do you know what that monster roar was we heard earlier?" Heather asked. "We couldn't see anything."

"Yeah, we were trying to see where it came from, and then we ran into you," said Eret.

"That roar was Hiccup," said Fishlegs.

They immediately stared at him.

"What did you say?" Eret stared.

"We'll tell you everything we saw; we're not going to like what you hear," said Snotlout.

Meanwhile, zombies were dashing all over the place, gathering food and bringing it to the freezer for Oars.

"Keep it coming! He's nowhere near done!"

"How much food can this Special Zombie eat? He'll knock out this entire island's food supply."

Oars was devouring any food he could get his hands on, and he showed no signs of slowing down.

"My, that's quite an impressive appetite," said Moria.

"According to you are, been frozen for 500 years. Is it any surprise I'm hungry," said Oars as he ate.

Perona was glaring at Treacle. "Treacle! Would you care to explain the reason you are hiding those pirates?"

Treacle looked at her awkwardly. "Well, you see—"

"Stop talking! It's not cute at all!" she snapped.

Oars looked at Moria. "I'm still rather surprised that you give me this much food, though I will admit I tasted better."

The zombies immediately looked at him in outrage.

"That's rude!"

"Don't be so cocky!"

"Moria gave us all the power to move, and that includes you!"

"How can you be so rude to the ruler of Breakneck Bog?"

"Yeah, the master is pretty much the king of the island!"

"What?" said Oars glaring at them.

The zombies on screen with cried and immediately fell to their knees.

"We're sorry about that! This guy over here was the one that was being a jerk to you!"

"What the… Don't sell out your friends like that!"

"The zombies of yours don't have much of a backbone, do they?" said Oars turning to Moria. "And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm still nowhere near full."

"Then we shall give you more," said Moria turning to the zombies.

"Sorry, master, but we already brought nearly all the food on the island."

"You did?"

"I have some food stored in the mansion that was saved in case of emergency," said Cindry. "You may use it as you please."

"Well done, that's our Cindry for you," said Hogback. "Always ready for anything, to think that you are ready to prepare for something—" He then stopped and frowned. "Hold on, if they bring it here now, that defeats the purpose of having emergency food."

"Even if you starve, it is fine," she said coldly.

"Come now, Cindry, that's hurtful."

"Nep! Nip! Nap! Go to Hogback's mansion and retreat the provisions and bring them here," Hogback ordered.

"Right, you got it, Master!" they said and dashed off.

"We'll go with you and help!" said a zombie as he and a few others followed them.

"We've got to try and not be seen by those pirates or the humming guy," said Nap.

"Yep, they're bad news!" Nep agreed.

"After what happened after the spider monkey and his underlings, you can't be too careful," said Nip.

Nep then screamed, causing them to stop.

"What is it? Did you see them?" Nap asked.

Nep ran through his pocket and pulled out a key. "I thought I dropped it somewhere, but look, I found the storeroom key."

Nap and Nip then punched him in the head. "Don't scare us like that!"

They then continue to make their way to the storage room.

"Down here, this way!" said Nap and opened the door revealing a large amount of food. "Grab what you can and take it all!"

The zombies then immediately began grabbing the food and ran back up to the freezer.

"Master, we're back!" said the three colourful zombies as they entered the freezer with the food in tow.

"Good, now feed him," Moria ordered.

The zombies presented Oars with the food, and he immediately began gulping it down.

"This stuff tastes way better," he said.

"Among its contents is some salted fish," said Cindry. "I'm sure he would love that."

The three colourful zombies immediately screamed as he stared at her.

"S-salted?" said Nip.

Nep panicked. "If that special zombie finds out that fish and eats it, his shadow will—"

Nip and Nap quickly covered his mouth, preventing him from talking.

"We can't let that happen, guys," Nap whispered. "If it does, the master will punish us mercilessly. Come on, we got a find that thing before he does."

They immediately began rummaging through the food, trying to find the salted fish.

"Fish! Fish! Where's the fish!" Nep yelled, rummaging through the food.

He then accidentally toppled some crates, and a large fish fell right down on top of him.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Nip asked.

It was then that they saw the fish which had squashed Nep.

"I found it!" said Nep's muffled voice.

"He found the fish?" said Nap.

Nep managed to pull himself out, scraped his hand on the fish and studied it. "Is this salt?"

"Idiot!" Nap and Nip yelled, punching him in the head.

"That's the salted fish we been looking for, no doubt about it!" said Nap.

Oars then turned his head towards them. "That fish looks tasty."

The three zombies immediately panicked.

"This old fish isn't really suited for your taste Mister Special Zombie!" said Nip quickly.

"Yeah! Yeah!" Nep and Nap nodded.

"I won't know that until I try it," he said as he reached out to grab it.

He didn't just grab the fish for the three zombies as well.

"What are you fools during?" Moria asked. "Are you trying to get yourselves eaten too?"

Oars then placed them in his mouth.

"We can't let him swallow this fish no matter what!" said Nep.

The three of them then quickly grabbed the face and jumped out of the mouth before Oars could close it. They landed on the observation deck deeply relieved, but that soon turned to panic as Oars leaned towards them.

"What do you think you're doing?" he growled. "Are you trying to get in the way of me and my food?"

They then quickly presented Oars with some beef jerky.

"We-uh, thought that you would like this much better," said Nip.

"Yeah! Yeah!" Nep and Nap nodded.

"I see," he said as he grabbed the beef jerky and placed it in his mouth. "Not too bad."

The three zombies gave a sigh of relief, but then a regular zombie approached the fish.

"All that hard work brought up an appetite; I've got to have a bite out of this," he said.

The three coloured zombies panicked and tried to stop him, but it was already too late as he took a bite out of the fish. A split second later, his host's shadow left his body and flew away.

"While you're eating, listen up, Oars," said Moria. "500 years ago, you were notorious and a legendary villain. And now you have been reborn through my power and will serve as my underling."

"Underline?" Oars frowned. "Thanks, but no thanks, I have a dream."

The zombies immediately roared in outrage.

"The audacity!"

"I've never seen such a zombie!"

"This fight is far too small," he said and began punching the wall. "I think I should step outside for a while, or maybe I should just go out to sea and see the world."

"You on a boat?"

"You idiot, that's impossible!

"Besides, the special freezer is made of super dense steel; you'll never get out."

"Slam your fist into it all you want, but that wall is never going to budge."

"Dragon Fist!" Oars roared and punched straight through the wall with a single blow.

The zombies just stared in shock and terror at Oars' strength.

"What the hell?"

"That's amazing!"

Oars then stepped outside.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Oars then jumped and landed on the ground so hard everything shook.

"This is bad! Oars is escaping! Somebody do something!"

Oars lifted his hand confused. "That's strange; I thought I would turn into a dragon or something. No matter, but no matter what, I am going to be the King of the Pirates!"

Ryuma began pacing up and down the lab.

"It'll just be like before, you talk big, but you fall beneath my feet," he said.

"Wrong! This time is different!" said Skull.

Skull began to remember five years back when he finally managed to find Breakneck Bog again after his shadow had been stolen. Once he had learned, he began making his way through the island, but he knew defeating the zombie was next to impossible.

'I don't stand a chance; no matter how many of the zombies I take down, they just get back up, and more take their place,' he said frustratingly. "But they must have some sort of weakness; I have to find our before I find the zombie that holds my shadow."

He then suddenly hit behind a tree when he saw a group of zombies in a nearby graveyard.

"Whoa, one of our bodies was purified!"

"How did that happen?"

Skull looked and saw two zombies looking down at a third zombie who had a fish in its mouth.

"It looks like he ate some salted grilled fish."

"Idiots?! Was he a new guy or something?"

Skull frowned upon hearing this. 'Salted grilled fish? Could this be the weakness I've been searching for?'

Before he could do anything, he needed confirmation, so he decided to go and interrogate Moria's surgeon Doctor Hogback. He found the good doctor in his lab and immediately drew his sword at him.

"You bastard!" he yelled. "You're the guy whose shadow we stole a few days ago! How did you get back here?"

"Just answer my question," said Skull threateningly. "Which of my zombies has my shadow? If you don't tell me, I'll scatter fish all over this island!"

Hogback frowned. "Fish?" He then burst out laughing. "What the hell is that going to do?"

"So it wasn't the fish, which means the only other thing you could be the salt," said Skull.

"Salt?" said Hogback with a slightly panicked face, and Skull smiled as he finally got the confirmation he needed. "B-but w-what the h-hell good would be spreading salt?"

"Thank you for confirming my theory, Doctor," said Skull.

Armed with this new knowledge Skull made his way into the forest.

'The good doctor was rather tightlipped about the zombie that possessed my shadow, but I called enough may he might come out. So I'll just simply keep your fine zombies until he shows himself, but I can only do it during nightfall.'

He then started to hum his song, which creeped out the zombies.

"What's that creepy song all about?"

"And who's the one humming it?"

Skull then pounced and took out the first zombie, moving so fast they didn't see him put salt in its mouth, causing the shadow to fly out of its mouth. The regular zombies were completely overpowered by Skull; he was moving so fast that he didn't give them a chance to defend themselves.

The zombies then immediately reported to Absalom.

"What happened? What the hell is going on here?" he demanded.

"He hides in the darkest of the night; all you hear is the humming; the swordsman with a terrifying face is going around killing zombies one by one, trying to find his shadow! He has devastated our ranks, purifying every zombie he's come across! It's a nightmare!"

Treacle went to wake Perona, who was fast asleep in her bed.

"Mistress Perona, there's been an incident…" he said.

"Shut up! Don't wake me when I'm sleeping, Treacle," she said.

Skull went on a rampage, purifying any zombie he laid eyes on, humming while he did it. It was then that he came face-to-face with the zombie that held his shadow.

"At last, we meet," said Skull as he drew his sword.

Ryuma drew katana, and the two swordsmen stood there as the wind blew across the grass. Skull then launched himself at Ryuma, but his opponent moved with faster speed striking him, and he collapsed.

'Why is he so strong?' he groaned. 'I thought he was supposed to be me.'

Regardless he picked himself back up and faced Ryuma once more, and the two of them began trading blows. Skull was finding it difficult to keep up with the zombie as he began cutting through everything in his path, including trees and headstones.

'Even though swordsmanship is evenly matched, I can't keep up with him,' said Skull.

Ryuma managed to land a blow causing Skull to fall to the ground, but before he picked himself up, he saw Ryuma pointing his sword towards him.

"Give up; no matter how many times you try to defeat me, the outcome will always be the same," he said.

"I won't stop; I will never stop until my shadow returns to me," said Skull. "If you were truly my shadow, you would know why I must keep fighting and keep living."

"I may be your shadow, but I have forgotten everything about the days we spent together," said Ryuma. "As of now, Moria and Absalom are my masters now; they give the orders, not you!"

He then plunged his sword towards him, but Skull blocked it with his own blade and, with all his strength, got back up to his feet.

"Though I do find it curious that the living skeleton has something to live for," he said and then pushed back.

He then began swinging his sword with unbelievable speed, and Skull was barely able to dodge them. Skull managed to step on his sword and use it as a springboard to launch himself into the air, but Ryuma quickly followed him and continued to thrust his sword at him.

Skull blocked the blow as best as he could with his own sword, but no matter how well he defended against the attack, he was still struck by the blade and fell to the ground. He had the ground, and when Ryuma approached them to finish the job only, to find that he was gone.

He looked around at the forest, trying to find him, and then Skull appeared directly behind him. Ryuma quickly blocked his strike the two of them began to clash once more, but it was clear that Ryuma's body was stronger and faster compared to Skull's.

"A foolish trick; you should be ashamed of yourself," said Ryuma.

"You can say whatever you like, but there is a reason why I can't lose and why I must fight!" Skull yelled defiantly.

They kept on trading blows, but Ryuma managed to twist his sword around Skull's and managed to disarm him.

"How pathetic you are, my former master," said Ryuma pointing his sword at Skull.

"It would seem as if I have lost, and I accept defeat," said Skull. "But if you think that this will stop me, you're wrong. One day I will have my shadow returned to me, and I will fulfil the promise I made a long time ago."

Ryuma then struck him with the back of his blade, knocking him unconscious.

The next thing Skull knew, he was back on his ship, and there was no sign of Breakneck Bog.

"It would seem as if nothing except death would stop you, but if that were to happen, I would die as well," said Ryuma.

Skull then pulled out his sword and charged at Ryuma, and the two of them began to clash once more.

Unlike five years ago, the two of them seemed to be evenly matched this time, and Skull was actually forcing him onto the defensive. He quickly had to jump to the side as Skull swung his blade, making him cut through the table.

Skull then turned to face him. "During these past five years, I have been thinking of nothing but this second chance…" Their swords cast one another once again. "…and I have trained to become stronger!"

Meanwhile, Absalom was carrying the unconscious Astrid down a corridor until he entered the room where a zombie of an old man sat.

"Oh, good evening Master Absalom," he said as he sat up.

"Have you gotten everything in order for the ceremony?" he asked as he placed Astrid down on the table.

"Ah, yes. Everything is ready whenever you are."

The zombie portraits looked at Astrid, mesmerised by the beauty.

"My my, what a beautiful bride."

"Then started once," Absalom ordered the old man. "Put her in a dress and bring her to the wedding all."

"Of course," said the old man, then began measuring Astrid with his tape measure.