Girolduses Journey
Chapter: 2
The crow set the two down in an area of which Giroldus was not familiar with, the ground had stone steps covered in moss which led to another bonfire but besides that the area branches three different ways. One towards a bridge that led into a walled off area, steps leading downward to an unseen place, and another of which led to the crumbling ruins of whatever this place used to be.
"Where are we Oscar?" Giroldus enquired
"The farthest I can accompany you I'm afraid." The Knights answer confused Giroldus
"What do you mean?" He said quite bewildered
"We each must have our own separate journeys that mold us into what we are, never forget that. It's called Fire link by the way." With that the knight left into the ruins without any sort of goodbye and a message that was all too clear.
"I have to get stronger I guess. Only then can I rejoin Oscar and figure this dastardly place out." With that he lit the bonfire and sat next to it to ponder his situation, with his main focus being getting stronger, and what his journey meant, why he was on it. With that he sat up and felt something within him stir and his arms begin to feel muscular, not by much, but still more muscular.
"As I uncover more answers to these odd fires they only raise more questions." As he said this he flexed noticing his already muscular arms tighten and strain against his armor.
As he wondered what had given him this strength a voice broke the silence he had created,
"It was the fire you know. It has the ability to make you gain abilities far beyond your imagination, you can become either the strongest and most brute like knight in all of Lordran, or become the fastest silent killer since the Lord's Blade." The voice was calm but sad at the same time. Turning to the source of the voice, Giroldus was greeted by the sight of a brown haired warrior who donned a chain mail suit without the hood.
"How long have you been there? And why didn't you say anything before?" The man chuckled simply replying
"I wanted to wait long enough to determine where here or not you are another new one or a knight of old just passing through."
"What do you mean 'new one'?" The man laughed again, pointing to the bridge
"Your journey can only begin through there and only then will you figure out what I mean. If you're clever enough that is."
"Why do you not just tell me now? Why must I always go to these great lengths for answers?" The man gave no response even after multiple attempts at conversation. This irritated Giroldus beyond belief so he set off for the bridge to figure out what the man had said for himself. As he tracked towards the bridge he came upon a group of hollows who seemed to be guarding the bridge, four seemed to be stationed at the top of the stairs that lead to the bridges side door and two sat at the bottom one lightly armored with a combination of leather and chainmail. The other wearing a long decayed but still suitable metal armor. He charged to meet the first soldier who wielded only a broken short sword and a broken wooden shield, the hollow swung fast and the two locked blades sending sparks flying.
Unlocking the two blades Giroldus did a counter to the hollows next move batting the swords frail swing away with his shield and driving his sword into the hollow, killing it. As the hollow slumped off his blade he noticed the souls travel to his pouch wondering what they were and what they meant. Another hollow dropped down from the stairs and charged forward towards him, the cliff face to the left of them provided an exceptional way of dealing with the hollows, he waited unit it was almost upon him and then grabbed its waist turning and shoving it, sending it skidding off to its doom.
As he approached the armored foe he noticed it seemed to be guarding something and would only attack unless he was close enough, though he could easily take him he decided not to waste the time and headed up the stairs that led him to his answers a newly found pride in his steps. As he reached the top an explosion and a fire greeted him burning horribly for a second and then faded leaving the scent of burnt flesh lingering in the air.
The source was another hollow with only a broken sword who was guarded by another with an axe and a third with a broken sword and shield. Knowing he needed to be careful and get some range on the hollow he decided that if he had no now or arrow he would make his own. So taking his sword he drew near as the fire bomb hollow prepped his weapon, throwing the sword into it as it was mid throw causing the bomb to drop from its hand, exploding on the ground and incinerating the feeble creature.
As the first hollow crumpled to ash the other two approached the axed hollow jumping at Giroldus who managed to move as the axe sank into the ground. The other hollow though got a luckier hit, managing to impale his shoulder, the pain shooting through Giroldus as he screamed. Taking the hollow who had been using the axe, now attempting to pull it from the ground which it was firmly planted, Giroldus picked up the surprisingly light hollow and threw him into the second causing it to let go of the blade, now firmly implanted in Girolduses shoulder.
Grabbing the axe Giroldus lifted it with one hand, standing over the scrambling hollows and saying with a grin
"May I axe you two gentlemen a question?" Chopping into both hollows and firmly sticking them to the ground. As he took a sip from the green flask he pulled out the broken sword hilt, feeling relieved and a lot healthier.
"Guess they couldn't make the cut." He chuckled as he walked through the bridge door into a weird looking sewer type system.
"Must be an aqueduct." He wondered aloud as he walked down and quickly found another exit, he was glad to be out of the dim and humid tunnel but was greeted by only more hollows the first approached with the same broken combination of sword and shield and was quickly dispatched by a jumping stab motion that penetrated his heart while the second axe soldier was dispatched with a backstab after he failed to land a heavy hit.
Rounding a corner he was hit by another firebomb this time in his face.
The tar seared and burned his face but after his recovery he ran toward the hollow that stood between two decayed sets of wood that once held a bridge of some sort, now long gone.
"I am about done with this fire shit!" Giroldus yelled as he grabbed the hollow throwing him into the woodpile, impaling him on a broken board and killing him. As he did so another hollow approached him from behind, his mistake being his loud footsteps, so taking his sword Giroldus plunged it behind his back stabbing the hollow and ending its life. From the point he approached a fog wall and passing through it he experienced the cold dew again just as he had the first time.
Through this wall was an old house which led to a small bridge which in the other side held four hollows three being standard and the fourth being another more heavily armored one. Deciding a deadly approach may be necessary, Giroldus grabbed one of the dead hollows battle-axes and readied up. The first two stood in the stone plaza that connected to a pair of stairs in the front and another plaza to the right, at the top of these stairs sat the third hollow, and to his left in a small tower of sorts sat the fourth and final hollow who possessed a crossbow.
The first hollow ran at him but was again killed easily by an axe blow to the head after jumping to far at Giroldus and landing weirdly on the stairs, breaking its ankle and falling forward.
"Try walking it off." Giroldus said laughing, but realizing no one else was there to hear he quickly stopped and felt stupid. The second hollow broke through a barrier and ran at him along with the third who descended the stairs, the first was fast but slipped up and was parried, and subsequently picked up and thrown over this side of the plaza falling into a valley below.
The third stood in front of a small door into a utility looking sort of tower, trying to guard it and the stairs to its partner this proved fatal as Giroldus tackled it through the door to avoid crossbow bolts, killing it on impact. Finding a wooden shield he decided to keep it for later, so he put it into the bottomless box he had carried with him since he was imprisoned. After exiting, Giroldus ran up the stairs and as the hollow turned to face him, it had its head lopped off and it's body pushed over the side.
Turning away from the gruesome sight Giroldus saw a pillar of the bridge which contained a room that held a fire along with a not yet descended later to a higher up portion. Lighting the fire Giroldus continued, sipping an Estus to heal his burns and slashes. He crossed a bridge into a room of three hollows two being light with axes, both jumped at him so he was able to chop into one and swing its body into the other, killing one and pinning down the other.
After this fiasco another soldier another with shiny metal armor kicked down the door, this one wielded an actual shield and long sword. The hollow swung and then blocked but Giroldus knew what to do and slammed his body into the shield knocking the hollow back and slashing its chest with the axe, the hollow slowly recovered and looked down, as if it knew it was dying, and fell over dead. Seeing that the shield was much larger than his, Giroldus took it and places his current heater into the box continuing through the door the hollow had kicked down and into another house on his right where he was greeted by another light soldier who swung it's broken sword at him but not expecting the resistance, had it ping off leaving it exposed to a fatal chop to the ribs.
After exploring the small house Giroldus found a small chest containing what looked like firebombs but a lot darker as if to symbolize their deadliness.
Leaving the house Giroldus continued up the stairs next to the house seeing a group of three hollows, deciding to end it quick he lobbed a black fire bomb into the group incinerating them as he walked towards them he noticed and archer tower and upon going up it found another hollow armed with a crossbow.
Due to the hollows position Giroldus was able to easily hack at his legs causing him to fall forward plast Giroldus and down the stairs to the bottom. Returning to the base of the tower Giroldus came upon a house that had a looked door. At first he turned to leave due to the task of finding the key seeming rather boring and time consuming, but then remembered he had an axe, so hacking down the door he opened its remains and walked inside and out onto some porch finding what appeared to be the resin of some sort of tree, it's appearance being gold like the sun.
From the porch he could see three heavy hollows two with shields and Long sword and one with a spear but if he was quiet he could drop down to the street only feet below him and take them out.
As he carefully climbed down the porch, Giroldus approached the spear wielding hollow who seems not to notice, and waited for it to move from its position, for it was standing in front of a flight of stairs with small stone towers sitting at the base. Soon the hollow began to walk forward and seeing his chance Giroldus snuck behind it and chopped into its back sending it sprawling forward dead.
The other hopes approached and as one swung the other blocked causing them to get a few good slashes on Giroldus before he threw a firebomb at their feet, burning them to death and searing his boots. Turning to the stairs the hollow had guarded, he noticed a barrel at the top and began to ascend them, sipping some Estus on the way. The barrel began to light and become aflame as it also started to roll at him, so crouching down Giroldus hid behind his shield as the barrel impacted and shattered, heating the metal and causing his hard leather gloves to become hot and tight. The hollow behind the scheme descended but was easily thrown over the side of the staircase, landing spine first on an outcropping of stone and shattering whatever bone was left as it fell into the seemingly bottomless valley below.
As he ascended the tower he came upon another fog wall but he had a feeling about this one, a rather odd and gut wrenching feeling. So approaching the wall he entered not sure what to expect.
Finding himself on a stretch of bridge between one tower and another Giroldus was happy but confused and looking for another way around he spied a ladder to his right and proceeded to climb it. Finding two crossbow hollows at the top was a surprise but the two posed no threat and were quickly chopped to bits. Giroldus found it odd that the fog walls on either door of the hallway had not dissipated but paid no mind as he walked across the bridge but at about eighty percent of the way across he was interrupted by a mighty roar and a demon jumping down from a perch atop the other tower.
The demon resembled that of a man in its stance but had the skeletal head of a bull and the body of a large ape with clawed feet at the bottom, it wielded an axe made of what could only be bone and struck fear into Girolduses heart. As the beast approached Giroldus snapped out of his trance and got ready to fight, He would defeat this beast no matter what. The beast swung its axe sending it crashing down in front of Giroldus stalking the ground around them. His instinct was to run back to the ladder and get a good vantage point on the beast, so turning he began to run with the beast close behind, he managed to make it to the ladder before the beast but he was only seventy five percent of the way there before it's hammer impacted into the side of the tower, shaking it violently.
The beast had only just missed Giroldus, the head of the axe being embedded only five feet away, so finishing his climb he came upon an idea.
Turning to face the beast it looked up as it attempted to pry its axe from the wall and gave another mighty roar.
"Not today monster!" Giroldus called as he jumped down onto the head of the axe, running up the handle and swinging his axe into the demon's eye, causing it to read back in pain and stumble about, until it regained its sense as it now stood in the middle of the bridge. As the beast eyed Giroldus, he stood in front of the stairs and got into an odd position with one hand above his head pointing forward and the other arm extended his hand doing an old school Kung fu style beckon. The demon snorted and scraped its feet on the ground preparing to charge, while Giroldus stood in the same position, waiting.
The demon roared and began to charge horns forward and just moments before impact Giroldus rolled between its legs dodging the blow. As the demon sat stuck trying to pry loose from the same wall its axe sat stuck in, Giroldus climbed its back whispering in its ear,
"You're all bull, no horns." As the beats roared with anger Giroldus swung his own axe into the demon's neck, chopping and chopping till the roars of pain and anger subsided and the beast's body went limp. After climbing down Giroldus found the beast had dropped a black small item and a bone, picking them up he continued to the other door, now without fog, and without knowing prepared to meet a new friend. The bridge was now quiet with only the whistle of a calm breeze signifying the end of an epic battle Giroldus would not soon forget.