The bandit was kneeling in the same damp room as before; the hole in the ceiling above him was shining down on what looked like a small pile of bricks stacked upon each other, most likely a grave for the knight who had given up his life to help him escape. After a few moments of deathly silence, the man stood up and headed back out through the giant hole in the wall. Now fueled by melancholy anger, the man rushed up the stairs with almost demonic speed and slashed the Hollow at the top, cutting it in half across its torso in one fell swoop. As crimson sludge oozed out from the chopped up Hollow, the man continued his mad rampage through the empty halls of the Undead Asylum.
Just a little further from the top of the staircase, there was a large open balcony overlooking the mountains where the Undead Asylum was built. Still blinded by rage, the warrior failed to notice the Hollows in the same balcony as he rushed outside, allowing two of them to slash at him with their broken swords. While they only wielded hilts just as useless as the one he had before, the edges of the hilts were still sharp and managed to cut deep through the man's thin leather armor and his Undead skin. Before the man could launch his own counter attack, he felt a strange sensation run through his head as an arrow pierced right through his left eye, or whatever was left of it.
He stumbled back in shock, not sure what he was more shocked about; the ferocity of the attack he had just endured or the fact that he could still think with this arrow lodged in his head. Nonetheless, he pushed himself up off the ground and readied his axe. But before he could even swing it, another arrow flew straight at him and pierced through his left shoulder, rendering him defenseless as it hindered his ability to even raise his shield.
With a sloppy swing, he managed to take down one of the Hollow swordsmen, but ended up leaving himself open for the second one's attack as it slashed his right leg. As his legs buckled up, he fell down to the ground, almost completely crippled by the Hollows before him. But with one last push, he swung his axe at the other Hollow swordsman, slicing through both its legs and then its head as it fell to the ground.
He slowly pushed himself off the ground again, now using his axe as a crutch, and slowly limped towards the archer, becoming a virtual pin cushion as each arrow the Hollow loosed pierced through his armor. Finally, after almost his whole body had become riddled with arrows, the bandit managed to get close enough to the archer to swing at him with his axe. But due to how weak his body had gotten, his axe had only managed to lodge itself deep into the archer's chest and failed to kill the Hollow. With one swift blow, the archer thrusts an arrow deep through the bandit's forehead. As his vision began to slowly fade away, the bandit caught a glimpse of the archer stumbling towards him, an arrow in its hand, just before it stabbed the arrow right through his neck.
Then, there was nothing but a black abyss all around him. He couldn't see himself, the Hollow that had just slain him, or the familiar walls of the Asylum. He couldn't feel the ground beneath his feet or hear the sound of wind blowing faintly through hallways that had been empty for hundreds of years. He couldn't feel the numerous arrows that had pierced through him, or the deep cuts his body had sustained. All he could do was wander in this abyss his consciousness had found itself in. But then, he could see a faint orange light. He couldn't tell where it was, as all directions had no meaning in the black abyss he was in; all he could tell was that there was a light there. He felt himself being drawn towards it, yet at the same time growing more distant from it.
In a burst of white, the man found himself back in the same damp room that led into the hallway where he found his weapon. Still unsure of what had just happened, the bandit looked down at the bonfire beside him. Had he just felt the cold sting of death? Had he been brought back from the realm of nothingness by this simple flame? He was sure he was there, he could feel, hear and see everything that was there. He knew the fire could heal his wounds, but could they really have restored his life? As these thoughts began to race through the newly arisen bandit's mind, a familiar moan echoed through the empty hallways.
He readied his axe and his shield, and charged through the hallway, cutting down the same Hollow archer he first met with equal ease. With a blistering speed, the bandit ran through the hallways he had passed through before, cutting down the Hollow that was waiting for him at the top of the stairwell with almost no hesitation. Suddenly, the man slowed down to a halt as he reached a familiar balcony. At the end of the hallway were two Hollows aimlessly stumbling around the ruined floor, but he could still remember the feel of the arrows that the archer nearby loosed onto him.
His axe and shield at the ready, the man took a deep breath, before charging at one of the Hollows, knocking it off the side of the balcony with his shield. He then turned to face the other one shambling towards him and swung at it, slicing both its legs clean off. Just as he was about to land the finishing blow, the familiar sound of an arrow being shot through the air reached his ears, and he just barely managed to dodge the arrow that was aimed for his head. The warrior ran towards the archer that was waiting for him near the edge of the balcony and bashed it to the ground with one swing of his shield. As he stood over the archer's body as it began to bleed out, the bandit had noticed the fog wall behind him. He approached it slowly, swinging his axe once at the leg-less Hollow crawling towards him, but stopped a few inches from it as a feeling of unease washed over him.
From the other side of the fog wall, he could hear the low grumblings of the very same grotesque demon that had attacked him before. He stepped back a bit and glanced behind him. The balcony he was on overlooked the mountains, and the ground below was covered with grass instead of stone. Looking back at the fog wall the bandit knew that the only thing standing between him and his freedom now was the demon waiting for him in that room. Steeling his resolve, the man took a few more paces backwards, before charging right through the fog wall, only to find himself flying through the air above the Asylum demon. Time seemed to slow down as he fell through the air. He could see the demon below him, swinging its giant hammer wildly at the air. The bandit, slowly readying his axe for a plunging attack, wielded it with both his hands and positioned it just above the demon's head.
Suddenly, time began to speed up, and in one swift motion the bandit could feel his axe sliding right through the demon's exposed skull. He pulled it out just as quickly, making the demon stumble back in pain as it shook him off. As deep green blood began to ooze from the demon's head, the man quickly got back up to his feet and charged at the demon. With each furious slash, another wound was added to the demon's fat hide until there were even cuts within the folds of its flab.
Soon, the demon's energy had evidently left him, as even holding its own hammer was becoming a chore for it. Yet, the demon still had some energy left, managing to hit the bandit every now and then with force that belied its fatigued demeanor. But, in the end, after one last slash, with the entirety of the bandit's weight behind it, the demon toppled over backwards and breathed its last breath. The bandit stood over the beast's gigantic carcass as he caught his breath, until suddenly, the beast's body was enveloped in a bright white light as it began to fade out of existence. Soon, nothing that even resembled the beast was left; not its deep-green flabby hide or giant black hammer. Instead, a giant key, most likely for the giant doors that led to the outside world, appeared out of thin air and landed with a loud clank onto the stone floor of the large hallway.
Without any hesitation, the man lifted up the key with both his hands easily, despite his fatigue, and hurried over towards the two iron doors. He placed the key deep within the keyhole on the giant lock, hearing a loud chunk echo through the asylum. He struggled to twist the heavy key, but soon enough the lock fell to the ground; finally opened after hundreds of years, and the bandit pushed open the Asylum's doors, hearing them creak as centuries of age were shaken off along with the numerous layers of rust.
As a gust of fresh air filled his withered lungs and blew against his dried skin, the man finally felt the feeling of the sun beating down on his skin and the feel of grass crunching softly underneath his feet. He took his first step out from the Asylum, the sight of towering mountain ranges all around him forming an almost majestic cell of nature around him, and continued forward until he reached the edge of a sheer cliff. Looking over the edge just to see how far it was, he wondered just how he was going to escape from this cliff, until the faint sound of flapping wings in the distance. Suddenly, a giant bird with lustrous jet-black feathers appeared from below and took a firm grasp of the man's body with its equally giant talons.
As the bird took flight off the ground, holding the man within its talons, the first thought that ran through the bandit's head was how much better it would have been, had he just stayed in his cell.