Fipp: There's probably some grammar issues and typos here, but today is not a good day, and I just want to get this thing out.
The Knight of Thorns
The stench of the waters did nothing for him, though he supposed after the fires and lava of Lost Izalith, the murky atmosphere of the sewers were a welcomed change. The rat screeched as the sword pierced its body, running straight through its fur, flesh and bone and scrapping the brickwork and sludge below. Placing his armored boot against the unmoving corpse, he pulled the sword free and kicked the rat to the side. He then reached inside the corpse, pulling it apart to search for the treasure he had hoped that was inside.
There is was. He pulled his arm out, and nestled in his palm was the small black sprite, brimming with humanity. This small thing, was what this world came to know, something that the men and women of this cursed land would happily kill for. It was what made the difference between being the person who you had been your entire life, and a simple mindless creature, a soul-starved husk that roamed the land, searching for what had long since been lost.
Kirk, the Knight of Thorns, stood to his full height and pocketed the humanity before taking in his surroundings. All around him were the bodies of large, sickly corpses of giant rats, each one killed in the hopes of finding the one bit of humanity that they may have nestled within them. He had been at this most of the day, but his search had mostly been fruitless, offering only one other humanity in his entire hunt. Seeing the pointless of the task at hand, he had decided that another path should be taken, and withdrew the cursed item.
From his palm, the shard of the Red Eye Orb stared madly at him before it began to quickly turning, looking around, searching. Kirk squeezed it tightly, the shard glowing a deep red as he felt its remaining power course through it.
"Looking for someone to invade? To pillage humanity?" a deep voice said, and Kirk released his grip, canceling the process. He spun around towards the voice's originating spot, and came to face a doorway, a shadowy figure standing inside it. The figure came forward, Kirk placed the Cracked Orb back, and reached for his barbed sword.
"Good evening, Kirk," said the figure, a dark creature draped in skeletal armor and a cowl of the blackest feathers. "So, this is where you have been hiding, hasn't it?" they said, raising an arm to the sludge-covered walls. "A sewer? What in Lordran would possess you to come to this place?"
Kirk said nothing, and merely stood his ground, his eyes never leaving the Darkwraith before him.
The Darkwraith laughed, a deep and sinister chuckle. "Why, not saying anything? Of course not, from what I remember, you tended to keep to yourself mostly. Unless it was to make an offering to Lord Kaathe, you had a tendency to to avoid the others if you could, and while I admit that we are not exactly the most open of groups, some would say that you were a suspicious man, Kirk."
Slowly, step by step, the Darkwraith approached, yet Kirk stood his ground
"Could it have anything to do with why you left in the first place? Oh yes, you certainly made something of scene; taking all the Cracked orbs you could and vanishing without a trace, and I'm guessing that maybe you wanted it that way, for us to not find you. Though, I don't see why you would be worried, since it's not like we have much interest in what you do outside of the covenant. All it means is that one day, should you be unlucky enough, you'll find yourself at the end of our swords." To drive their point forward, they raised their weapon, the dark-silver shining in the torchlight.
Kirk raised his shield, but still did nothing.
"Now, there's no reason for us to actively hunt you down like a dog, I honestly see no real reason to track down a deserter, as I could get what we want from anywhere else much easier. Though," he said, drawing the word out slowly. "I came upon a rumon in that dreaded Blighttown, horrible place that it is, the residents there willing to selling their own mother wile they beg for their lives, though I thinkyou are more than familiar with that habit of theirs."
Still, Kirk did not respond.
The Darkwraith continued. "From what I heard, that somewhere there exists a source of humanity, a strong one too, but weak of body. Certainly, something like that would be worth pursuing, wouldn't you think, though I will admit that my searches have brought me nothing. But," said, the word laced with venom waiting to be sprung. "You know something about it, don't you?" They leaned forward. "Tell me, Kirk, where is she? Where is the Firekeeper, that damned child of Izalith?"
Kirk sprung and swung his sword down, but the Darkwraith caught the blade on his own, the sleek metal sliding against the jagged rusty thorns, but the Darkwraith pushed their weight to the side, sending the blades down, leaving Kirk's side exposed. The dark creature raised their free hand, and a thick dark-red aura began to emanate from it and it lunged forward, right to Kirk's face, but Kirk threw his shield up, catching the Dark Hand on the spiked shield. The knight pushed back and made to swing with his freed sword, but the Darkwraith rolled out of the way.
Coming out of the roll, he swung the sword again, but Kirk blocked again and pushed it forward, causing the Darkwraith stumble back, giving Kirk time to slash downward, cutting into the Darkwraith's body, but before he could get in another strike the Darkwraith lunged forward, tackling him to the ground and into the shallow, filthy waters. The two of them trashed about, rolling on the ground, flailing wildly as they each tried to grab and stab at one another, trying to get in what they could at the other.
Suddenly, they both fell, rolling down the sloped waterfall, tumbling in a mess of limbs before going right over the edge and crashing to the ground, breaking apart one of the large, slimy piles of flesh that stuck up from point to point.
With water filling his helm, Kirk fought the vertigo and tried to regain his bearings and pushed himself up, coughing the polluted water up as he did so. His shield was still in his hand, but his sword was gone. Frantically looking around, his saw it resting a short crawl away from him, partially submerged in the water. He reached out to grab for it but a sudden force collided with his head, sending him back into the water.
The Darkwraith kicked at Kirk's side once more, making sure the man would not get back up before stabbing their sword down, driving the blade right into Kirk's shoulder.
The knight yelled, and the sword was dug in deeper.
"Don't like this?" the Darkwraith mocked. "I had thought that this was something your were fond of, making sure your victims knew they were suffering before you ended their lives."
Kirk tried to reach for his sword once more, but the Darkwraith was quick to deliver another swift kick, causing him to crumble into the water.
"So, where is she?" they asked, leaning down to Kirk's level, twisting the sword through the gaps in his armor. "I can do this all day, and a part of me wants to, and I also know that you are not yet undead, so I'm going to make certain to be extra careful with how I treat you. But first," They then raised the Dark Hand and raised it over Kirk's face. "Let us see just how much humanity you've acquired, shall we? If I drain all of it, well..." It followed with a deep laugh.
There was then a croaking noise from behind, and the Darkwraith turned their head to see a pair of massive, bulbous eyes.
The basilisk took a deep breath, greatly expanding the pouch beneath its jaws and let loose a cloud of sickly gray gases and smoke, directing it at them, but the Darkwraith was quick to roll off of Kirk and to the side, avoiding the cloud as best he could. They strafed the monster, making sure to keep their eyes it and jumped at it, swinging the sword down and bringing the metal down onto the creature's neck, cutting through the bone. It gave out a gurgled growl as it slumped to the waters, its entire body going limp.
With the basilisk dead, the Darkwraith turned around, only to have Kirk's sword swing down into his side, the spiked metal digging through armor and flesh, digging deep and the Knight of Thorns used both hands to force the blade into their body. The pain was enough for Darkwraith to drop their sword as Kirk pushed them to the wall, but their other hand began to glow darkness. The hand reached up and grabbed at Kirk's helm, grasping around the through and into the eye slits and began to feed.
The two of them struggled, but only succeeded in barely pushing at one another slightly as their weapon slowly began to kill the other.
The Darkwraith's grip on Kirk's helm began to loosen, and soon their body fell limp, taking Kirk's sword, which had been sawed deep into their abdomen. Blood poured with the wound, seeping into the water, before Kirk quickly followed.
His body wracked with pain as he began to violently cough into his helm. He tried to grasp for his sword, but his hand ad become too unsteady to even grasp it in even the slightest. Pain filled his entire body, every inch of trying to cope with the loss of humanity, but failing, and soon the agony had begun to be replaced with numbness and nothing.
Despite no longer feeling as though his body was going to collapse onto itself, Kirk reached into his pouch and withdrew a dusty white object, small and brittle. It crushed easily in his hand, and the world around him became lighted smoke. Within moments the dank sewers were gone, and a comforting warmth replaced it, leaving nothing of the previous environment was left.
"Sir Kirk?" a voice rang, worried and frail. "What is the matter? Has something happened?"
Kirk ignored Eingyi and forced himself to his feet to stand before the figure before him.
The Fair Lady shivered slightly, despite the warmth of the nearby ruins, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, the spider that was her lower-half remained mostly motionless, only giving the occasion twitch of its legs. Her entire form, both witch and demon was completely white, pale from sick without the ability to speak, see or even hear. In the entire time that he had served this covenant, he had never even so much as understood what she said.
He broke the humanity, offering it to the Fairy Lady. Her body reacted slightly, becoming more active, if only for a moment, but it was enough for him to see.
Eingyi kept speaking behind him, but went ignored. All Kirk could do was stare at the Fairy Lady.
The egg-bearer, in his current condition, was defenseless, despite whatever threats he had. Mistress Quelaag was dead, slain by the undead that he had come across three times before, and the illusionary wall between this chamber and and the bell room would only remain hidden for so long.
Who would protect her now?
Kirk, Knight of Thorns, then fell back, and died.
000
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Mrfipp