Shades (I)

Shades (I) requires 40 Energy to fight and is a random encounter appearing in Against the King.
Difficulty	Stats	Gold	XP	Energy	HP	Deck
Normal 	0 0 0	40 	40	40 	1 	26
==Deck List==
The enemy's deck has:
(See Enemy Deck for more information)
===Alphabetical Table===
Card 	Normal
Acid Shot 	1
Amnesia Toxin 	1
Avenging Ranger 	1
Back to the Grave! 	1
Block out the Sun 	1
Catalyst Bolt 	1
Crippling Shot 	1
Dead Shot 	1
Desperate Volley 	1
Flammable Ammo 	1
Handheld Ballista 	1
Improvised Ammo 	1
Keep Your Distance 	1
Lethal Libation 	1
Line up the Shot 	1
Lurking Pack 	1
Running Shot 	1
Salve of Shadows 	1
Serendipity 	1
Silas the Undying 	2
Smoke in the Wind 	1
Spectral Arrows 	1
The Double-Tap 	1
Trick Shot 	1
Up Close and Personal	1
==Transcript==
===Introduction===
Fanto, Commander of the Shield, slapped aside his opponent's sword and slammed his shield into the soldier's face. The man grunted and stumbled back, giving Fanto enough time to run him through.
He'd been separated from the duke's honor guard when the idiot had panicked and tried to flee the battle. The other knights had foolishly tried to keep up with the man, and they had all been cut down within moments. Fanto had seen the foolishness of the pursuit and sent his horse off without a rider; without him on it, the beast hopefully wouldn't be a target for enemy fire.
Fanto cocked his head. The last of the soldiers had been cut down and he was alone, for a moment at least. But he could hear the sound of distant war drums.
The drums. The drums soothed him. They centered him. Provided cadence. To him, battlefields were like dance halls, and everything in them had rhythms he could understand and move through. It was how he'd managed to survive and dominate the theater of war for so long.
Out of the corner of his eye, shadows flickered and moved. He snapped his head to the side and searched for the source. But there was nothing, only more shadows.
And then Fanto realized it was the shadows themselves that were moving, floating towards him in a truly unsettling manner.
There were two of them, roughly the shape of men, but ... different. They were more outlines than anything else, the only notable features being heads that looked like hoods, glowing eyes, and clawed fingers. Although they were shadows, they weren't stuck on the ground, they floated freely in the air.
There was something unsettling about these shades, outside of their sinister appearance: They were completely silent. He was unsure how to move with them; it was like dancing with someone when there was no rhythm. It felt awkward and strange and alien.
The shades continued to glide towards Fanto, who took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes until they were barely slits.
And breathed.
He kept the shades in his line of sight, but his narrowed vision shut out just about everything else. He focused on shutting out the sounds of combat, the screams, and any external distraction. Finally, there was only his heartleft. His breathing slowed, and he slapped his sword against the shield in time to the beat.
The shield chimed, and the shades paused. They had no faces, but their body language was almost... uncertain. They were used to their victims being afraid, or recklessly charging at them, not standing calmly and creating a melody of challenge and defiance.
The large man shifted into a guarded stance, gracefully spinning his massive sword. His eyes were still half closed, and his head was bobbing slightly in time to some rhythm only he could hear.
"Well, come on then." His deep voice was calm, like an avalanche that was only just starting to move down a mountain. It held the promise of impending violence. "I haven't got all night."
===Conclusion===
Fanto parried one of the shade's strikes. The runes carved into both his sword and shield had offered him some protection, but their claws were still able to pass through the steel, similar to how one could gradually push through hardened taffy.
His sword skewered one of the creature's hands, but it still moved forward. The claws inched closer towards his chest, straining to reach his heart.
Fanto spun away, absently raising his shield to block the other creature's hand from impaling his head. There was a muffled sound of impact, and then the fingers were slowly poking through the metal.
He continued his spin, but the claws managed to pierce his armor, spreading a terrible cold before he could completely move out of the way. Fanto grunted from the pain and lost all feeling below the shoulder, causing the shield to drop from numb fingers.
Fanto almost laughed out loud. After all the times he'd faced death on the field of battle, this was not how he expected to die. If anything, he'd believed his end would come at the hands of the Kasan. But apparently that was no longer the gods' plan.
His sword scythed up, deflecting another blow from his otherworldly opponents, but a shadow hand slipped past his guard. Claws of darkness passed through his arm and his blade dropped into the mud.
Two more quick strikes at his legs brought Fanto to his knees, but he kept his head up. He would not surrender to these fiends, even if they had bested him through unfair means.
More of the burning cold pierced his side, working its way into the middle of his chest. A terrible pressure squeezed his heart, and Fanto quietly closed his eyes.
He heard a cry in the distance and saw a figure riding towards his location, long red hair whipping wildly. He smiled when he saw the gleam of that strange crystalline sword in Anya's hands.
"Oh, you poor doomed idiots." There was a lot of pain in Fanto's voice, but there was also a healthy amount of amusement. "You two don't stand a chance. Not against what's coming."
And with that, Fanto -- Commander of the Shield, Defender of the Realm, the Giant of War -- shuddered and collapsed. He took a final breath before darkness enveloped him. It smelled like blood and dirt and metal.
It smelled like his life.
And, all in all, it had been a good life.
Category:Against the King
Category:Demons
Category:Random Encounters