Chapter 6 Part 1: A Battle Im The Corridor

The Paladin left a lingering spell on the wall of the hall full of metal pipes, and readings he didn’t even begin to comprehend then disappeared around the corner. He listened to nothing. Nothing but a whisper of moving air. A hint of cold in a heated compartment with little air flow. Xavos just waited for his spell. His patience was soon rewarded.

A flash of light and spark of lighting danced over the hall in a blast of sudden violence. So The Paladin was being followed. His spell would have only been triggered by the passing of a body of some kind. Whether fully physical or not.

Xavos rushed around the corner, and though he wasn’t certain what he had been expecting, the site that greeted him made him pause. A figure stood in the lightning based entrapment spell. Shaped as a man cloaked in shadow beneath a dark jacket and hood. Under the hood were bright purple eyes. Most unnerving was the spectre's complete lack of interest in the lightning sparking over his person. A normal being would be rendered unconscious to that much energy, a natural ghost or being of spirit would have been entrapped, and then there was this thing. Xavos doubted very much his intruder was a man though shaped as one.

The Arch Paladin pulled not his great sword that would’ve been more damaging to the ship than any opponent given the limited maneuvering range. Instead, out came Xavos’ old personal weapons from his acolyte days. A sword and buckler, though given he was the Arch Paladin these were more than simple high quality weapons.

They were enchanted weapons from the Necromantic Wars of the first age though as unassuming as a kitchen knife made from sterling silver and blessed steel. No one but the undead, or the extremely magically attuned would know their power unless the Arch Paladin wielded them in battle. Xavos figured this shadow being already had a handle on who he was contending with, and no subterfuge was necessary till the intruder was dealt with.

The shadow man didn’t tarry. A flurry of branching shadows shot out over the walls before leaping into the air reaching for Xavos’ exposed chest. The Paladin could just remember the last time he forgo his armor for agility and speed.

An exhilarating time was the life of a skirmisher, and not something being the Arch Paladin he could risk partaking in often. The branching magic come at him as if a hundred shadowy cursed trees were reaching for his soul from a haunted wood. The threat of the magic brought a simple half smile to Xavos’ face. He would have been a lying false Paladin if he’d said he didn’t enjoy this change to his dance. Variety was the answer to life’s boredom as a wise soul once said.

Twisting his body the Paladin lifted his left arm releasing the trapped magic energy within his buckler even as he lunged forward toward his purple eyed opponent. The second the corrupt black shadow branches struck the small shield a clang like church bells echoed in the corridor, and then a lightning bolt of pure white light struck the shadowed tree like appendages burning them to a green ash.

Ah the magics of Ithlieg the Bolt of Herthorm the eighteenth Arch Paladin of Man was still bright with life and energy. The taste of combat made the buckler hum to the tune of Holy Is Thy Smiting Hand, one of the most ancient of the Brotherhood of Paladin’s battle hymns. In that moment of exhilaration Xavos knew he was going to dread giving the beautiful shield up, but also knew his Scout Sergeant would use her with true grace and beauty she deserved as soon as he passed his trials and became a full Paladin. Till then she was all the Arch Paladin’s.

The purple eyed shadow did not stay idle either. A whole forest of cursed branches sprouted from the shadows on the walls launching like a thousand spears into the corridor. Speed was the answer, and Xavos had already passed by half before the attack struck the passage. The Paladin used his momentum to slide on one knee while shielding from the attacks more bolts from the singing Ithlieg, and with his free hand reached for the power with the long dagger Orithwan.

Xavos had a long sword as well, but the corridors were still too constricting for her use. The Arch Paladin was glad he had elected to bring three weapon artifacts of power with him since Juradill would have to await a more frontal engagement being too cumbersome for clandestine operations. Orithwan sang, and out from her depths holy water shot at such speeds they cut with more precision than any blade could hope to match. Of course, the Holy Water would also burn the undead. The shadow didn’t burn, and neither did his trees of darkness. So whatever this fiend was he was no undead.

The piercing streams of water still rendered the cursed shadow branches low. With a simple thought and release of power, Xavos chilled those beams of water to such temperatures that the errant black branches touched by them froze and snapped. Each shattered to the floor in a million shadowed pieces. With all this the Arch Paladin’s pace was hardly checked. Soon he would be at the monster’s neck. Assuming there was a neck under that leather black long coat and shadowy hood.

Xavos ran into his final lunge kicking off the wall and shattering a very important looking brass pipe under his new boots as he did so. The Paladin was beyond caring. Battle energy was coursing through his veins, and the spirit of his weapons were soaring at being used in combat after their long silence in the vaults in the fortress isle.

After Xavos had dodged the last wall of branching shafts of solid darkness, but before the Paladin could lash Orithwan across the smoking torso of his opponent the purple eyed shadow acted. A staff of pure obsidian black wood appeared in the invaders hands which he used with blinding speed to block both the incoming jets of water, and the lightning bolts from Ithlieg.

With a blast that shattered the air in the hallway the two combatants met. Neither staff nor blade or buckler could find purchase on their targets so even was their meeting. With a second strike that shook the ship both figures slid on the smooth floors separating them both. Xavos let out a long breath, and cracked his neck. This shadow was an excellent warmup. The being was certainly putting up a better fight than the vampire did.

As he thought this a jagged burning purple smile appeared on the face of the shadow. The fiend twitched and swayed like a puppet on strings attached to an oak buffeted by a hurricane. An unsettling display which only made the Paladin grin back. Yes, his opponent had another trick up his sleeve. Xavos for one was intrigued to see what his new sparring partner had in mind.

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