EPISODE 56:NO GOOD DEED“Vash, wait!” Corwin called, but Vash was already charging down the hallway.
. Vash thought. He would have laughed at the exchanged positions, but the Scalebacks took that opportunity to turn and face the new threat behind them.
One of the three normal Scalebacks peeled off from the group to intercept Vash, spear held at the ready. Vash pushed mana into , focusing on his agility. His steps became lighter and more sure.
The Scaleback hissed a challenge when Vash was a few strides away. Vash brought his arm around in an arc and flung his long dagger at the Scaleback. The blade flew true, no tumbling through the air, and sank to the hilt in Scaleback’s eye.
The creature looked confused, sinking to its knees as its body refused to obey its commands. Vash kept moving, planting one foot on the Scaleback’s chest and grabbing the hilt of his dagger with his free hand. As the Scaleback fell, Vash yanked the dagger loose and walked over the body, focusing on Kurt.
The blond warrior had one hand clamped to the wound on his chest. Blood flowed out between his fingers, and his face had taken on an ashen undertone. The big obsidian Scaleback—Vash called them Nightscales to make things easier—had its spear raised, ready to deliver the killing blow.
Vash thought. His eyes fell on the inky black shadows that hugged the walls of the hallway.
Vash reached out with his aura, finding the shadow on the far side of the Nightscale. Hooking on to the shadow, Vash activated and pulled on the shadows with his aura.
The world disappeared. Sound vanished, replaced by a roaring in Vash’s ears of his own blood running through his body. Vash pulled desperately on the shadows still anchored to his aura.
Outside of the dungeons, this is much harder! Vash thought, straining to pull himself through the absolute darkness. Cold settled into his bones and muscles, much the same as when he used . His lungs burned, but something told him not to take a breath in this void.
A heartbeat later, Vash burst out of the shadow on the opposite side of the Nightscale. He drew a deep breath and stumbled, disoriented.
The Nightscale turned, its night black eyes looking at Vash in confusion.
“What, never saw an elf step out of a shadow before?” Vash asked.
Sarcasm was lost on the Nightscale, which growled and lunged at Vash.
Parrying the spear thrust, Vash stepped back and ran into the stone wall of the hallway. The Nightscale swept its spear around in a wide arc, aiming for Vash’s face. Anticipating the attack, Vash dropped to one knee and the spear blade scraped across the stones where his head just was. Sparks rained down on Vash when the dark metal struck the stone wall.
Keeping low, Vash darted towards the Nightscale’s legs, slashing with his short sword at the tendons just above the creature’s ankle. The blade struck, but just like with the one he and Corwin fought, it skidded off the Nightscale’s tough hide, leaving only a shallow cut behind.
The Nightscale pivoted, striking with the butt end of its spear and catching Vash in the temple. Everything swam in Vash’s vision. Vash rolled to one side by pure instinct. He felt the wind of the spear head passing just to one side of his body.
Vash thought. The world stabilized after a cool pulse of healing mana from his Wayfarer medallion. Vash could see Kurt on the other side of the Nightscale. Kurt had slumped against the wall, looking pale, fumbling with blood-slick hands in his pouches, looking for something.
The Nightscale finished its turn and settled into a ready crouch between Vash and Kurt. Its black scales were so dark that they drank in the shadows.
Vash thought, looking at the shadows around the Nightscale, shrouding it like an aura of night.
Vash called up his Talent, but instead of drawing the shadows around his body, he focused on his weapons. The structure of the Talent in his mind resisted the change at first. Color leeched from the world and Vash felt the familiar chill bite of growing around him. But he refocused, pushing the meld down to the weapons alone. Something clicked in his mind. He could see the new structure of the Talent, a variation on , but instead of drawing its target into the shadows, it drew the shadows to the target. Wisps of black smoke ran along the edges of Vash’s sword. The blade had turned a black so deep that it looked like a sword-shaped hole in the world.
A wave of fatigue passed through Vash. The , coupled with this new Talent had used a lot of mana.
. Vash thought, launching himself at the Nightscale.
Vash thrust with his dagger and the Nightscale parried with a circular motion of its spear. The parry knocked Vash’s dagger off to one side and left his torso open. The Nightscale pivoted, landing a blow with the butt end of the spear against Vash’s ribs. This time, his armor protected him. The leather stiffened around the point of impact, muting the force of the blow and giving Vash a chance to counter-attack.
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The shadow-wrapped short sword sliced through the Nightscale’s wrist like a hot knife through butter. Vash barely felt any resistance as he cut cleanly through the bones and tendons.
A shriek of pain came from the Nightscale. It dropped its spear and stepped back, clutching the stump of its left wrist. Vash didn’t stop, even though the power of his new Talent was surprising. He pressed forward, slashing at the Nightscale with the shadow-wrapped blade.
The Nightscale awkwardly tried to dodge Vash’s flurry of attacks, but the creature was too big and it moved like a new squire in full armor for the first time. Vash landed several deep cuts on the Nightscale’s arms and legs as he pushed it back.
. Vash thought, dodging a clumsy slash from the Nightscale’s surviving claws. He came parallel to Kurt and risked a glance down. Kurt’s eyes were fluttering, struggling to stay open.
Vash called up and picked a spot just to the left of the Nightscale’s breastbone. He hoped that lizard-men kept their hearts in the same spot as other humanoids. Using a quick feint, Vash pulled the Nightscale’s attention to its right, then Vash lunged, unleashing Bloody Strike and putting all the strength he had into the attack.
The Nightscale brought up its good arm to block, but Vash’s Shadowblade merely sliced through its fingers and kept going. The pure black blade sank deep into the Nightscale’s chest, point erupting from its back in a sudden eruption of blood and shattered bone. A look of puzzlement passed over the huge lizard-man’s face as it regarded the sword in its chest, then the half-elf that had put it there. It looked like it wanted to rage, roar, or strike back at Vash. In the end, it just sank to the floor, black blood streaming from its wounds.
Vash withdrew his sword as the Nightscale fell, stepping back to assess the situation. Only a few moments had passed since his initial charge. The remaining pair of Scalebacks fell to the combined attacks of Valys, Corwin, and Ollie. Sera rushed to Kurt, laying hands on his heart and on his forehead.
“.” Sera prayed, her voice filling with the power of the gods, giving it a strange ringing echo, light a peal of thunder from a great distance.
A warm yellow glow shone on Kurt’s chest, directly over the wound. He convulsed, spasming up against Sera’s hands. The cleric held firm, pressing him down and keeping her hands in place. The glow intensified to where Vash had to look away. Kurt’s boots drummed against the floor and Vash felt a great surge of mana.
The glow vanished, like a candle being snuffed out, leaving afterimages floating in Vash’s eyes. He looked back at Kurt. Color had returned to his face, even if he still looked pale and clammy. Though his chest wound had closed, an angry red scab was still visible. Vash had heard of clerics of Taella closing wounds and not leaving a mark behind. Sera, obviously, did not have that much pull with the goddess of healing. She looked exhausted, almost as bad as Kurt.
. Vash thought.
Sera sank down next to Kurt, head bowed and breathing hard. Kurt’s eyes fluttered open, and he looked about himself in confusion for a moment. He looked at the exhausted cleric, then down at his healed wound, and the dead Nightscale in front of him.
Finally, Kurt looked up at Vash, who was standing over the pair of them. A look of wary consideration passed over Kurt’s face. His eyes flicked down to Vash’s sword. The shadows had faded after Vash struck down the Nightscale, but from the look in Kurt’s eyes, Vash could tell he had seen.
Vash thought.
But the thought kept nagging at him: would others see him calling up a blade of pure shadow as ‘just another Talent’? Kurt locked eyes with Vash and, for the first time, Vash didn’t see mocking dismissal. Kurt looked wary, like he’d seen something that scared him.
“We should get moving.” Corwin said, cleaning the blood off his sword and sliding it back into its scabbard. “The Scalebacks that took Jabez could be all the way to the falls by now.”
“Took Jabez?” Valys asked. She’d just kneeled beside Kurt to check on him, but now her attention turned to Corwin. “Why would anyone take Jabez?”
“We’re not sure,” Vash said. “But we think the Scalebacks are here to get sacrifices for the temple down in the Underlands. There are nine Heartstones ready to form a Dungeon Heart. They just need a push over the edge.”
“Go tell Master Sellick.” Ollie said. “The other Masters are treating this like a normal monster raid. If they’re kidnapping people to sacrifice. Then we don’t know how many others they’ve taken while we’re fending off Scalebacks by the river.”
“We can’t do that.” Corwin said, firmly. “We’re going after Jabez.”
“Don’t be idiots.” Valys said. “You’re going to face an emergent Dungeon Heart by yourselves?”
“If I have to.” Corwin said. “If I go to tell Sellick, then they might kill Jabez before I can get to him. I can’t let that happen.”
Valys looked up at Corwin with a mix of disbelief and annoyance. She turned her luminous blue gaze to Vash. “You seem like you’ve got some sense. Talk to this big ox.”
Vash hesitated. She’s right. Going after Jabez is dangerous, maybe even suicidal, if they’ve gotten him down into the Underlands.
He looked up at Corwin, ready to argue. Corwin wasn’t even looking at him. He was already looking at the doorway, ready to spring into action. It reminded Vash of when the village children had been mocking Vash about being a fatherless bastard. Corwin had stood up to them, defending Vash from taunts and shoves. Then the bullies had turned on Corwin. Calling his father a coward and a traitor. That he probably hadn’t died during Duke Raef’s War, that he’d run and abandoned him and his family.
The icy rage and determination that Vash had seen that day was visible on Corwin’s face now. The irascible old dwarf meant something important to Corwin.
“You four go find Master Sellick.” Vash said, sheathing his blades. “Kurt’s alive, but he’s still badly wounded. He’ll need help from the Masters, anyway. Corwin and I will follow the raiding parties and see where they’re going.”
Valys stared at Vash. She blinked slowly, then shook her head. “Fine, it’s your funeral.”
“You three go.” Sera said, rising unsteadily from the floor. “I’m going with Vash and Corwin.”
“You’re so close to mana burn you can barely stand!” Ollie scoffed.
“I’ll be fine.” Sera said. “You’ll need help against those big Scalebacks.”
“Nightscales.” Vash said.
“Pardon?”
“I’m calling them Nightscales.” Vash said. “It’s easier to give them a name than just go around describing them.”
“Whatever.” Sera said, shaking her head. “You’ll need help against any Nightscales and so far only Celestial mana is doing actual damage to them. You need me.”
. Vash thought.
“Vash, we’re wasting time.” Corwin said, obviously ready to get moving.
“Sera, you’re with us,” Vash said. “The rest of you get Kurt back to the Lodge and warn the Masters about what’s going on.”
Corwin jogged for the door like a dog let off the leash. Vash hurried to catch up with Sera not far behind. As he passed, Vash couldn’t help noticing the considering stare that Kurt was giving him.
