EPISODE TWENTY-EIGHT:
HUNTED
For a tense second, Vash and the Scaleback just stared at one another, neither making a move. Vash’s fingers twitched, wanting to draw his weapons, but knowing that as soon as he did, the lizard-man would attack. Without taking his eyes from his opponent, Vash used his peripheral vision to take in the tunnel.
Vash thought quickly.
The thought was like the ringing of a dinner bell. The Scaleback hissed and surged forward, faster than anything Vash had ever fought before. His Core warned him a heartbeat before the Scaleback struck. Vash pivoted and the Scaleback’s jaws snapped in empty air, a hair’s breadth from Vash’s nose. He could smell damp moss and rotted fish as the Scaleback appeared in front of him.
Vash summoned , splitting the Talent evenly between general speed and dexterity, and his perception. It wouldn’t help to be fast if he couldn’t tell where the next attack was coming from.
Leaping back, Vash drew his dagger and short-sword, dropping into a crouch.
. Iona had taught him.
The Scaleback growled, launching itself forward again, but angling in anticipation of Vash trying to pivot away from his attack again. Vash’s awareness shifted as his Talent slowed his perception of time, allowing him to think quicker. Rather than pivoting to one side, like before, Vash dropped into a deep stance. He slid his front foot forward, pushing off with the back foot and remaining as low as possible to the ground. The muscles of his thighs protested from the sudden stretch, but he’d worry about that later.
His Guild medallion was already sending pulses of healing energy to mute any pain.
As the Scaleback passed above him, Vash picked a point where the leg met its hip and stabbed out as hard as he could with his short sword. The Scaleback twisted. Even with Vash’s Talent bolstering his speed and agility, the creature was just naturally faster. Steel sliced along the Scaleback’s thigh, but instead of a crippling wound, the lizard-man took a shallow cut to the thigh.
It skidded to a stop, stumbling slightly from the wound on its leg, blood flowing from the long, shallow cut. The Scaleback gave a hissing growl of irritation and adjusted its own footing. The hulking creature shifted its wounded leg back, keeping it out of the way while blood dripped onto the stones beneath its feet. It glared at Vash, yellow eyes going from predatory to an all-to-human anger. Reaching over its shoulder, the Scaleback drew a short spear and held it before itself with practiced ease.
Not just a big, ugly monster. Vash thought. A fighter, too.
The Scaleback lunged. Vash parried with his short sword, then barely avoided when the Scaleback stepped through its lunge and slashed with their off-hand. The long fingers, with wickedly sharp claws, cut through the air just in front of Vash. Stepping back, Vash brought up his dagger and scored another shallow cut on his opponent. This time, Vash cut the soft underside of the Scaleback’s forearm. The creature gave a croaking grunt of surprise, pulling its arm back and whipping the spear around in an arc, trying to club Vash with it, knock him off-balance.
Vash dropped beneath the swinging spear and rolled himself clear on the other side of the Scaleback. He came up from his roll, landing lightly on his feet. His Guild medallion pulsed a warning, but there wasn’t enough time to react. Vash turned slightly and the Scaleback’s tail caught him across the midsection.
The tail was like getting hit with a club made of muscle and leather. Vash felt his concentration break and his Talents falter. The impact knocked the wind out of his lungs, then he slammed into the tunnel’s rock wall, his head hitting the rough stone. Vash’s vision swam, and his limbs went limp. He crumpled to the ground.
Vash screamed internally. He knew he had bare heartbeats before the Scaleback leaped on him and tore him to pieces.
Another pulse from his medallion. Vash flailed, scrambling away desperately. A sudden yank on his back and the sound of tearing cloth. The straps of his pack yanked him backwards. Vash glanced back. The Scaleback was snarling with its teeth sunk deep into his backpack, tugging him backwards, jerking its head from side to side with animalistic fury.
Vash slipped his arms from the straps, scrambling forward, thinking that the Scaleback would tumble backwards. But he stopped suddenly. The straps clipped to his belt, designed to take the weight off his shoulders, now held him fast to the jaws of the Scaleback.
Thinking quickly, Vash slashed at the straps with his dagger. The leather parted beneath the blade, and Vash was free.
The Scaleback stumbled back a few steps, but not as much as Vash had hoped. It spat out the torn remnants of his pack and lunged forward again. Vash desperately sought the control to activate one of his Talents while he scrambled to his feet.
Before Vash could turn, he took a heavy blow to the back again. Three lines of fire raked down his back from right shoulder to left hip. He cried out from the sudden pain, rolling away from the Scaleback and striking out wildly with his short sword, trying to gain some distance.
His medallion sent out waves of healing magic, but he knew it was more serious than his other injuries had been so far. The medallion’s healing properties numbed the pain slightly, dulling the edge, but Vash could already tell that his range of motion was affected and a warm wetness was soaking the back of his tunic.
. Vash thought.
The Scaleback made a quick hopping step back, away from Vash’s wild slash. Its jaw dropped, and it made a series of rhythmic, barking grunts.
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Vash thought, astonished.
Fury blossomed in his chest. Vash felt a sudden connection to his Core as anger pushed pain, fear, and fatigue to one side. Mana flowed into familiar constructs: and A burst of vitality erupted in Vash’s muscles. Then, just as he hoped, he felt a throbbing pulse of mana from the Scaleback.
Many monsters had their own Cores, like the Talented. Which meant that you could use the same tricks to track a monster as you did a person. The Scaleback moved to press its attack, then hesitated, jaw snapping shut, and yellow eyes glaring at Vash with suspicion.
Vash thought.
Vash hooked the ring on the alchemical lantern with his short sword. He flung it at the Scaleback’s face. The lizard-man dodged contemptuously, but Vash hadn’t intended to hit it. Just get the light on the other side.
Color leeched from the world as Vash summoned the construct for . Chill and numbness overcame his body, and he heard sounds as muffled and distant. The shadows wrapped themselves around Vash like a thick blanket.
The Scaleback stopped short, long head whipping from side to side, searching for its quarry.
Vash dashed to one side, coming at the Scaleback’s unprotected side, aiming for the soft, pale-gray hide that marked the creature’s belly. He pulled in more mana, forming , and for good measure he summoned to pour extra damage into the attack. It was doubtful he’d get a second chance at this, so it had to count.
The Scaleback seemed to sense Vash’s presence in a bare heartbeat before the attack came. It pivoted, but did not turn far enough in time. There was a sudden, golden flash of expended mana as Vash’s short sword struck the Scaleback in the side, sinking to the hilt in the creature’s thick torso.
Bellowing with pain and rage, the Scaleback tried to twist and counter-attack against Vash, but it was too late. Releasing the short sword, Vash continued past the Scaleback, the dagger in his left hand slashing a long, bloody rent across the creature’s soft belly.
A torrent of blood and entrails erupted from the enhanced strike, splattering over the stones at Vash’s feet. He skidded to a stop, feeling his knees go weak. Stumbling to the side of the tunnel, Vash turned to face the Scaleback, panting with exertion.
The lizard-man stood dumbfounded, staring down at the bloody mess of its torso and trying to comprehend what had just happened. Slowly, it wobbled, then sank to one side, falling first to its knees, and then collapsing onto the stone floor.
One breath, two, and then Vash felt the creature’s mana wink out, like snuffing a candle.
Almost sobbing in relief, Vash sagged against the tunnel wall. He was shaking with adrenaline and mana usage. It had been a long time since he had had to combine Talents that way.
Vash felt muted pain from the slashes on his back, but knew the adrenaline wouldn’t block it forever. Also, the smell of blood would likely bring the other Scalebacks soon.
Vash thought. He stumbled, rather than ran, to the body of the Scaleback. Gripping his short sword with both hands, Vash pulled the blade from the lizard-man’s torso. Sheathing his weapons, he searched for his pack.
Vash cursed when he came upon the shredded remnants of his pack. He found his water bottle split open, its water spilled over the contents of his pack, rendering it useless and leaving him without water. The squares of travel bread had scattered all over the floor of the tunnel. Vash felt his heart sink when he saw that most of them were lying in the pool of Scaleback blood and entrails.
A few odds and ends had survived, including the Gideon’s Guide, only suffering another scratch on the battered cover.
Placing the remnants of his meager belongings into his belt pouches, Vash scooped up the alchemical lamp and stumbled deeper into the tunnel.
The slap of reptilian feet came close to where Vash wedged himself onto an overhanging shelf of rock. In the dim light of the glowmoss, two shapes weaved their heads back and forth, blunt snouts lifted high in the air.
Vash held his breath. The Scalebacks had been hunting him for hours. He started hearing their calls not long after his fight in the tunnel. The tunnel had been fairly short, opening into another cavern. This cavern wasn’t near the river, so Vash had to move toward where he thought the river should be, hoping either this cavern connected to the river or a tunnel led back to the previous one.
As he’d moved toward the river, he’d heard the sound of the hunt a ways behind him. Hoping to throw off pursuit, he had thrown his lantern up on a high ledge. Some hunters had followed the light, and he’d heard the echoing roars of frustration. That had given him roughly an hour’s reprieve, but the Scalebacks had quickly returned to his trail. Now they were following his scent.
Between his wounds and the fact that the Underlands were the Scalebacks’ home, Vash had soon found the hunters nipping at his heels. It had come time for him to do something clever, or resign himself to becoming dinner for the lizard-folk.
Vash prayed to any god that was listening.
He had dabbed a few strips of cloth from his tunic in the fresh blood from his wound. Then he had scattered them throughout the area, the last he’d wrapped around a rock and had hurled it down a side tunnel going away from his intended escape route. Then he had found this hiding spot and carefully climbed up while trying not to leave a trail.
Angry grunts and hisses came from various places that he’d left scent markers. One hunter approached the two near Vash, holding one of the bloody strips of cloth. It held it up for the others to inspect. Judging by their body language, they were neither impressed nor happy with this information.
One of the Scalebacks turned away from the group, clearly frustrated. It walked a few steps away, close to where Vash was hiding. Grunting and snorting, it squatted below Vash’s outcropping. Vash held as still as possible, trying not to make any noise or draw any sort of attention.
After a few moments, there was the sound of trickling water and the hunter made a deep sigh.
Vash bit his lip to keep from letting loose a manic laugh.
A loud roar came from the direction of the tunnel that Vash had tossed his last strip of bloody cloth. The two hunters turned immediately towards the sound. One darted off, the other followed for a few steps, then turned and made an impatient gesture at the third.
The Scaleback relieving himself made an irritated hiss. Then there was the sound of claws scraping in the dirt and stone. Finally, the last Scaleback trotted out to join his companion, adjusting their leather skirt as they went.
Vash waited, listening as the growls and hisses receded into the distance. When there was silence, he slid from his hiding place, still careful to avoid making much noise. He hurried off in the opposite direction from the Scalebacks, heading for a tunnel that, he hoped, would lead back to the river caverns.
His back was a constant, throbbing pain. He couldn’t tell if he was still bleeding. His saturated tunic clung to his back, and he couldn’t feel any blood trickling. The Guild medallion had stopped pulsing some time ago. Either it had run out of mana or there was nothing more that it could heal. Ever since then, the pain had crept back steadily. Vash had been relying on Eth Mitaan techniques to push away the pain, to deal with it later, when he wasn’t running for his life.
The tunnel was smaller than the one he’d encountered the Scaleback in earlier. Like the other one, however, it also was devoid of glowmoss. After a few steps, he would be in total darkness.
Vash chided himself.
A roar echoed somewhere behind him. It did not sound happy.
"Damn, I’d hoped that trick would have kept them occupied a little longer." Vash swore, leaning against the tunnel entrance. He was exhausted. Too much mana, too little rest, and now blood loss. He needed to find a place to rest, just for a few hours.
The tunnel looked like a black hole in the fabric of the world. But it was his only option.
“Well, only option other than getting eaten by lizard-men.”
Vash chuckled at his own morbid joke, then took the first few hesitant steps into the darkness.
