The stone giant swung it's sword diagonally towards the man. The ninja dodged the blade easily, and countered with a stab to the back of the giant's knee. The mossy creature was too slow to block or dodge, so the hit knocked his leg away, and he was forced to kneel. The ninja then cut his katana twice into it's neck, and the giant fell over, dead.
Shiva's bodyguard sheathed his sword, satisfied with his kill. One less enemy to worry about before reaching the end of the forest. Shiva and Pharis were behind him, battling the bush-like trees that came out of the ground when you passed them to strangle you with their extendable branches. The stone giants were a more direct threat, but the trees were annoying as hell nonetheless. It was only because of the ninja's experience in stealth that saved them from their sneak attacks. He could hear them miles away, their clumsy branches saying tick tick tick against the grassy ground. The stone giants never had a chance of sneaking. Their leg's heavy THUMPS gave them away everytime, but they seemed to prefer direct combat anyway. Their armor was unpenetratable, and weak spots were few. Only their neck and eyes, armpits, and the back of their knees were unprotected, but they were spots that were constantly moving. Fighting them was still no hazzle for the ninja, though. He was too fast for their slow blades and clumsy, although large, shields. Fighting them was a pleasure for him, like a warm up, or a preparation for the outside world. For he knew the beasts of the outside were quicker than these slow, clumsy and mossy giants.
At least he hoped so.
"Hey, wait up!" Pharis' voice called.
He turned around to see Shiva and Pharis casually jogging towards him, their weapons and shields stained with treeblood. The ninja pointed down at the giant, explaining why he went in front.
"It didn't sneak up on you, did it?" Shiva mocked.
The ninja stared silently at him, before smacking his own face and turning his look skyward. Shiva and Pharis laughed at the man's unbreakable silence. How this man still had humor was a riddle. Pharis were still going on first impression's of him because of his casual personality. Maybe he was shy, and that's why he was a spook.
"I'm just joking with you." Shiva said. "Let's press onwards."
They didn't see many more enemies throughout the rest of Darkroot Garden. They stumbled upon a few unsuspecting tree-men, but they made quick work of them. It was when they reached their first split path that they found trouble. Forest Hunters rarely traveled outside of their territory, only the Undead did. Shiva, Pharis and the assasin were not Undead, and therefore had a poor understanding of the map of Lordran. They only had vague hints thanks to the Undead that travelled outside sometimes.
Pharis went to check the path that split upwards. She came sliding back shortly; "This path leads down to the Basin. I guess there is a pattern from there to a giant fort that I also saw."
"We should head out of Darkroot area the quickest way possible, and the Basin is a hostile place." Shiva said. "We take the other path."
Pharis agreed, and they took the path to the right, which went straight to a tower of sorts. Inside was a big square room. And in the middle a stone beast stood. It was not like the giants at all. It was not overgrown with moss, it was missing a leg, and had some strange curves sticking out of it's back like horns. It also weilded a giant pole in it's right hand.
"Silence..." Shiva whispered, but it had already noted their presence. It turned around abruptly, and Shiva noted it didn't have a face. Just a rock-plate. He knew what this was. A Titanite Demon. It raised it staff high, and a yellow light emanated from it's horns, slowly climbing to the top of it's back, before transferring the light to the staff.
"SPLIT UP!" Shiva yelled, before throwing himself sideways, barely dodging the lightning bolt emanating from the tip of it's staff. He slided across the stone floor, and banged his head into a fallen-over pillar. Sparks alighted in his head, and he saw stars wherever he turned his gaze. He could hear the monster dragging itself towards him. When his sight returned he saw the Demon stand over him, pole raised high for a bone-crushing smash.
Shiva panicked, and threw his hand back to find his shield. He found the handle, and brought the iron shield in front of him just as the demon brought it's weapon down. The pole smashed with the power of 30 men into his shield, but it held the hit back. Shiva silently thanked his uncle for forcing him to create it, and making his ring. Only their abilities together could hold this thing's immense power back. Shiva regained his battle instincts, and forced the shield sideways. The momentum of the Demon's strike caused it's staff to slide off his shield and into the ground. Shiva used this chance to roll away before the Demon could ready another swipe. This was his first chance to check what happened to his bodyguard and Pharis. Pharis seemed to have almost taken the hit directly, her leather armor almost fried up and exposing her burnt skin. She was crawling away from the stone beast towards a corner, while clutching her stomach. The ninja seemed to be in a better condition. Slightly shaking from the voltage of the lightning, but with no clear damage on his body or weapons. Shiva pulled his Murakumo free from it's sheath, and brought his shield back up in front of him. The Demon jumped around on the spot, facing Shiva and his bodyguard. They circled it slowly, until they felt their shoulders touch eachother. They faced the other, and nodded. They were facing a dumb beast. They were two smart men who have fought together for years. This Demon were no match. They charged it, and Shiva felt his blood pump quicker and quicker.
They split up about nine feet away from it, and Shiva chose his target. It's functional leg. The bodyguard went for it's tail. The Demon seemed to have some intelligence in it's rocky "head", as it instantly used it's tail to swipe the ninja away before turning it's attention to Shiva. With now only one enemy to worry about, it attacked aggressively, and Shiva got more than enough with defending himself. The monster was ruthless, and every hit knocked Shiva back plenty of feet. But this is what Shiva wished for. It's attention to be fully placed on him. For he knew that the bodyguard had successfully blocked the hit, and was already closed to it's unprotected tail, with his weapon two-handed and ready to swing. The Demon let out an un-earthly scream as it's tail was separated, but regained surprisingly quickly. It jumped back, and landed behind the ninja's exposed back. The bodyguard flipped forward quickly, but it didn't seem like he needed to. The Demon's "gaze" was directed elsewhere, more correctly on Pharis' exposed shape. With it's left hand it grabbed her body and smashed her down onto the floor in front of it, before pinning her down with the head of it's pole.
"NO!" Shiva yelled, as he thought it was going to crush her.
But it didn't.
Instead it looked at Shiva and his bodyguard, at least Shiva thought it did, as it was hard to tell from a faceless beast. It was... threatening them. The beast was indeed intelligent. He was holding Pharis hostage, because he knew he couldn't hold his balance properly without it's tail. The situation looked hopeless, but then a voice called: "WHAT IN IZALITH'S GOIN' ON DOWN HERE?!"
Shiva turned his gaze towards a small door in the stonewall, and saw a huge man standing there. He was clearly a blacksmith, his white apron and black metal hammer giving it away. The man had white hair, as long as his apron was. He was clearly an older type, although nonetheless intimidating because of his booming muscles all over his chest and arms.
"WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE ATTACKING MY TITANITE GUARD?!"
"Titanite... GUARD?!" Shiva yelled as a response. "IT ATTACKED US!"
"Well, yeh. It's a GUARD boy!" The Blacksmith answered, unfazed by Shiva's answer.
"Well... Are you telling me this thing is under YOUR control?!" Shiva continued, very surprised by the Blacksmiths sudden calmness.
"Yes, I created the thing from an ember the Chosen Undead gave me."
"You... You know the Chosen Undead?" Shiva asked, baffled by his luck.
The Blacksmith went silent, before saying: "Shall we discuss this under better circumstances? You look tired after battling, and I have food if you're hungry."
Although they hadn't travelled for long, they were all hungry and they wanted to save their own supplies of arrows for hunting. Shiva gave him a quick nod, before saying: "Could you..." while pointing at the Titanite Demon still pinning Pharis down.
"Ah." The blacksmith gestured the Demon, and it raised it's staff. Shiva hurried over and picked Pharis up on his shoulder, all while staring eyes to plate with the Demon. He was still keeping an eye on it when he exited the room after the large man. His ninja bodyguard followed closely after. The next room was simply laid out. To the left was the blacksmith's anvil, and some of his work were stashed along the wall, as well as on a table in the opposite corner. To the right was a staircase leading up, which was where the smith was headed. Going up the steps with an unconscious Pharis on his shoulder was not much for Shiva, who were used to be swinging a blade just as large, although not as heavy. Up the steps was another square room, with a dead bonfire in the middle. This reminded Shiva; "I have to ask him what he knows. If he knew the Chosen, he might know what happened in the Kiln."
The blacksmith kept going up another set of stairs, which led to some destroyed altar of sorts. Now it was only ruins, but it was still a very small room for the type of interior. He understood why it was so small when the large man led them through a walkway, and they arrived at what seemed to be a giant church. The previous one must have been a preparation room of sorts, not the main hall.
The smith now turned around: "Now, warrior, I have something I must ask you to do before I give you some food."
Shiva pushed his frustration away, and asked: "What is that then, smith?"
"Inside this church there's a bunch of knights from different lands around the world. I haven't been able to deal with'em yet, but once you kill them, they're gone for good."
"You want me to kill innocent knights? Why not make peace with them, instead?"
The smith let out a thundering, although dimmed, laugh.
"Peace? With hollows? What planet are ye from, boy?"
"Hollows?" Shiva asked. If these "knights" he spoke of were hollow, this would be his first chance to see one.
"Yeh, hollows. Ye know, dead, rotten, skin n' bone killing machines?"
Shiva went silent for a second, but agreed to the smith's requirements.
"I'll wait for ya here, and watch in case yer girlfriend gets worse. And maybe repair her amor."
Shiva didn't bother with correcting him about Pharis not being his "girlfriend", and just mumbled a "thank you" before walking up the steps leading into the church. His bodyguard followed right behind him. The room they came into was large, with statues lining the walls and pillars as thick as the Darkroot trees holding up the ceiling. To the left of them he saw a pack of knights in steel armor, and to the right... was a hulking monster of a man. A man clad in heavy armor as black as night, and standing at about 9 feet tall. In his right hand was a mace which looked like it could crush Shiva's ribs into dust, and in his left was an impenetrable greatshield as black as his armor. But his face... Every description Shiva had heard of hollows fit this man's face. It was almost black-ish brown, with skin so rotten and thin in strong contrast to his unbreakable armor. It was almost just a skull with thin white strokes for eyes.
And this monster had clearly noticed them, and was holding his greatshield in front of his gigantic body, and now starting to charge them with every footstep like the thundering thumps of three bulls.
Shiva didn't collect his mind before the giant was right on top of them, and it had it's huge mace lifted high above his head.
"DODGE!" he screamed, and pushed himself and the ninja away from eachother, and his slide ended at a wooden bench. He pushed with all he could, and that is what it took, for in the next millisecond the mace collided with the floor, cracking it up so badly the dust flew right into the roof. The immense strength of this hollow gave Shiva a horrible impression, and he hoped he would never have to fight a man like this again. The berserker was also fast, unlike the stone knights, and got right back up and charged at Shiva's bodyguard, who were still recovering from Shiva's push. Shiva widened his eyes as the mace came crashing down, but where the ninja had stood was now a very ruined pillar, the aftermath of the giant's swing. The bodyguard rolled quickly towards Shiva and gathered himself. They drew their weapons and shields, and readied to fight the tanking giant. But then they both heard noises behind them, and they saw the group of smaller knights attacking them with varied choices of weapons and shields. A rapier and buckler weilder went right for Shiva's bodyguard, who parried the attack and stabbed the knight in his gut. Shiva saw the light in the hollow's eyes fade, and noted this behaviour. A sword and shield weilder swinged for Shiva's gut, but Shiva blocked the hit and bashed the knight with his shield. Another knight quickly stabbed for Shiva's exposed side, but was driven off by his bodyguard. They dueled a while before Shiva remembered something: The big, bruising monster was still alive, and the sound of air bending around a very large mace told him to dodge very quickly. He rolled towards the sound, and in the next moment the knight he was dueling with got his face bent inwards, before his head got entirely ripped off by the swing from the harbinger of destruction's sledge. Shiva saw the next swing coming, and quickly rolled away again. Now he stood face-to-face with a 9'5 feet tall, mace weilding berserker with impenetrable armor and a greatshield bigger than Shiva himself, and the forest hunter-captain now realised his chances. His ninja bodyguard was still duking it out with one of the other small knights, and they seemed even at this point. They bruiser would grind him into bone meal before he was done with the dueling. Shiva braced himself for the oncoming battle. The hollow monster didn't wait for long, and charged the Eastern warrior with his greatshield first. Shiva realised what he was going for, and quickly dodged sideways before the knight could crush him into the wall. He then blocked the follow-up swing from the giants mace, and tried to counter attack. Surprisingly enough it worked, and the swing hit the hollow's macehandle, cutting the head right off. He followed up with a quick bash with his shield's edge to the knight's shield-arm, which caused the big knight to roar in pain and drop his shield. Shiva tried to end the knight by smashing his Murakumo into the knight's ribs, weakening his armor, before impaling the spot he hit him on. The giant fell to it's knees, and roared in anger. It hadn't given up though, as in the next moment Shiva felt the giant's hand wrap around his throat, lifting him off the ground. The immense strength of the knight caused him to instantly lose all air, and stars were already filling his vision. He couldn't breath in the slightest, and he used the last of his strength to twist his sword in the giant's chest.
The last he heard was the dying, although triumphant, roar of the giant.
And the last he saw was the ground quickly rising towards his limp body.
