Chapter Six: Bottled Lightning
"Boss!?" exclaimed John and Lon'qu in unison. "What about the...?"
"Knight? Yes, I thought this might be the case," interjected Sherlock. The other men stared at him, waiting for an explanation. "Oh, it's quite simple logic, really. If you had been listening to our pyromancer from the beginning, you would understand." He smiled to himself, forgetting that they wanted him to elaborate.
"Don't do that," sighed John with irritation.
"Do what?" inquired Sherlock, puzzled.
"The look."
"Look?"
"You are doing the look again."
"Well I can't see it, can I?" the accused smirked cleverly. John motioned towards the reflection in his warrior's armour. Sherlock was still confused, "That's my face."
"Yes, and it's doing a thing. You're doing a 'We all know what's really going on here'-face." The others bit their lips as the two continued.
"Well, we do."
"No, Lon'qu and I don't, which is why I find 'The face' so annoying."
"When we first arrived in the ghastly world of Dark Souls, Sofia told us something important."
"Well, go on then," urged John impatiently.
"'We must transverse the white light... Sometimes bosses lurk behind them'. There, you see now? What we just fought, the Black Knight, was simply a sub boss, not the main one, because it wasn't behind a mist door." He stared at John, expecting his answer to have been evident from the beginning.
"I see," he grumbled, annoyed that it had taken so long to extract this information from Sherlock.
Lon'qu cleared his throat awkwardly, "So... er... Emma. What boss are we going to be up against?"
"The Taurus Demon. It's a large bestial creature wielding a massive great-axe. As you might have guessed, it's not very pleasant."
"Ok. Sofia, do you know if it has any weaknesses?"
"Well, we're in luck," she grinned, igniting her hands. "It's susceptible to fire and lighting attacks." She removed the gold pine resin from her satchel and showed it to them. "We have three of these, so one of us can enchant their weapon with it."
"Why not use all of them?" asked John, examining the glowing powder.
"It's a rare treasure, John," explained the thief. "We don't want to use it all on a low-levelled boss."
"Ah, right," he lowered his head, embarrassed by his naivety.
"It was a perfectly valid question," reassured Sofia. He smiled up at her gratefully, his cheeks blushing ever so slightly. "Therefore," continued the strategist sheepishly, "I think you, John, should enchant your sword." She interrupted Sherlock before he had even begun to complain," Your club, Mr Holmes, is not suitable for a plunge attack and that is what we are relying on to defeat this monster. Isn't that what you want?"
Sherlock averted his eyes and remained silent. The setting sun had suddenly become very interesting to him.
"Besides, your new black knight's sword is the strongest of all our weapons, John. It makes sense that it should be the weapon to be enchanted."
"I agree with Sofia's judgement," expressed Emma, putting an arm around her friend affectionately.
"Then it shall be so," confirmed Lon'qu, nodding. "Let's get going."
Before them was a long set of broken steps, leading to a wide circular tower. At the very top was an undead, poised with a wooden cask.
"What's he doing?" asked John, studying the soldier's unnerving smile.
"It looks like he wants to knock us off the stairs by throwing down the barrel," observed Sherlock.
"Look, he's setting fire to it!"
The flaming wood raced down the steps as they sprinted away. It rebounded off the stone wall and soared off the side, down into the lower Undead burg. They had managed to avoid it all together, causing the perpetrator to start fidgeting nervously. He knew his time was up. A couple angry fireballs later he lay scorched on the mouldy stone. They proceeded up the steps, leading to a virtually empty platform.
"So, there are two possible paths we can take, correct? The spiral staircase to the next platform or that black door leading to the basement."
Emma gestured towards the door, "However, unlocking that with my master key will lead to another sub boss: Havel the Rock and he, my friends, is no picnic."
Sofia nodded in agreement, "He's very difficult to defeat. He wields a dragon's tooth..."
"A Dragon's tooth? Seriously?" cried Lon'qu in disbelief.
"Unfortunately, it's true," continued the pyromancer. "It's a huge tooth, about as tall as him, that he uses as a hammer. It can't be broken, because it's harder than stone and to top it all off, it grants him a resistance to magic and fire. That's obviously not very helpful for us. Furthermore, he wears an impenetrable set of armour and carries a great shield, so his defence is legendary."
"Is there any point in attempting to kill him then?"
"Well, seeing as one strike of his dragon's tooth can kill us out right, I would say no. However, if he is killed, he drops the 'Havel's ring' item. It raises the wearer's maximum equipment burden by 50%, which, to be perfectly honest, is not very useful to us at this stage in time."
"The staircase to the next platform it is then."
The upper platform, harbouring the mist wall, was littered with rope covered barrels. Emma unsheathed her scimitar unexpectedly and started hacking them to pieces.
"What are you doing? You'll scuff your sword!" cringed Lon'qu running up behind her.
Her focus was so strong that she didn't even notice his warning. Sounds of cracking wood echoed in the tower, as the wanderer watched, his jaw open wide. Suddenly, a small animal scuttled out of the pile of barrel shards.
"Sofia!"
She was already on the case, crushing the colourful creature with her axe. A white soul hovered over her weapon. She pulled out some metal fragments as the others surrounded her.
"What... was that?" stammered Lon'qu.
"A crystal lizard," stated Emma, wiping her brow. She sheathed her curved sword as she justified her rampage. "They're rare reptiles with gems in their backs. When spotted, they attempt to flee by burrowing in the ground. That's why I needed to concentrate. If you kill them fast enough, they drop upgrade material."
"In this case, it dropped a twinkling titanite, a large titanite shard and a titanite chunk," analysed Sofia, putting them in her satchel.
"All of those shards are uncommon and so it's worth searching for the lizards. The only downside is that they don't re spawn after being killed."
"Well, now that that's been taken care of, I guess the boss is next." decided Sherlock.
"Yeah, it's right through that mist."
The party urged towards the glowing wall, hearts pounding as they anticipated the beast ahead. An old stone bridge awaited them on the other side. The edges were bordered by crenelations as it curved out to a circular watchtower. The monster, however, was no where to be seen. Emma took a couple slow steps forwards, studying the dislodged bricks beside the broken walls. Her eyes hovered over the entire length of the bridge, including the tower, but no answers concerning the boss's whereabouts became apparent to her. The others searched with her, just as confused as she was. The thief furrowed her brow as she sensed footsteps up above. Pivoting swiftly on her heel she turned, catching a glimpse of two undead on the roof of the tower behind them. Without a word to her companions she sprinted towards a blood red ladder to her left. By the time the others had realised what was happening the undead where 'un' no more. The others followed her up, ignoring the two archers bleeding out on the rocks.
"This is where we will perform the plunge attacks," she motioned towards a severely damaged ledge, pointing towards the bridge.
"Not wanting to sound stupid..."
"But I'm sure you'll inevitable sound so..." murmured Sherlock, gazing at the dull clouds.
"Hmm..." continued John, a little insulted. "I just wanted to ask: am I missing something?" Sherlock was about to open his mouth again but John rattled his words off quickly, "I mean, but where even is this 'large bestial creature' anyway? I can't be the only one 'not seeing' it, can I?" He awaited an answer, hoping that he was quite sane to do so.
"It is odd that it hasn't made an appearance," mused Sofia, crossing her arms.
"I'm pretty sure that it's just waiting to be lured out," shrugged Sherlock, insisting that there was nothing more to it than that. "Perhaps he wants to know what he's going up against and is watching us from that tower over there."
"Seems perfectly strategic," agreed Lon'qu, unsheathing his uchigatana. "But that means we require bait, correct?" He smirked at Sherlock, who shot back an expression of utter refusal. "You are the lightest of us all, deprived..."
"And you're weapon won't contribute to the plunge attacks so you have little reason to be standing up here with us..." added Emma, enjoying the conversation.
"Yes, but I've done it before."
"As have I," she batted her eye lids at him in an act of fake innocence.
"That silly trick won't work on me, girl," responded Sherlock coldly. Lon'qu instinctively brandished his uchigatana as they stared hard at each other.
"Hey! Stop it!" shouted Sofia, stepping between them with her arms held high. "We are a team and so we discuss tactics fairly. Hmm? We will take it in turns to undertake the less glamorous roles, ok? I can't have you risking the strength of our group by hating each other. I will be the one to lure him out."
"But..."
"I don't want to witness any arguing, you hear? It's my decision to tempt him out – we would be here all day otherwise. Now John, hold your sword out." She sprinkled the gold pine resin on the onyx blade, enchanting it with the power of lightning. "You stand here... in the middle... Lon'qu, guard the left... Emma, the right. Sherlock... stand where ever you please as long as you inflict some damage. Are we all ready then?" Her companions were silenced by her explosion of commands, but they were all secretly grateful that she was in control.
They stood guard, holding their breaths, as she slid down the ladder and sprinted towards the opposite tower. It felt like she was running for an eternity as their hearts began to beat faster, their bodies shaking from nervousness.
"Where is it?" muttered John impatiently. He had a horrible sinking feeling that his pyromancer wouldn't return to the roof in time.
"Any second now..." whispered Emma beside him. She squeezed the hilt of her knife as they waited for its appearance.
"There!"
A deafening crash vibrated the bridge as the beast pounced off the distant tower. The impact sent Sofia flying backwards into the rubble.
"Sofia!" shrieked John, panic engulfing him. Emma and Lon'qu grabbed his shoulders firmly, forcing him back.
"What are you doing? Are you insane?!" He struggled in their grip as he watched their beast bait get to her feet. "Run, Sofia! Run!"
Her vision was blurry but her muscles obeyed, regardless of the searing pain in her thigh.
"I've got to help her!" screamed John pushing the others back frantically.
"You've got the enchantment, warrior," reminded Lon'qu, holding him down. "She'll be fine."
John was furious at their insensitivity, but his anger had triggered a pounding headache. He squinted at the small figure floating towards him. Feeling dazed he lay a hand on his forehead, trying desperately to lock his vision on his pyromancer.
"John! I'm here! I'm ok." He snapped back to reality as she clambered up the ladder.
"Sofia..."
"No time," rushed Emma as she dived off the edge. She sunk her knife into the beast's face right before Lon'qu joined her. The creature's roars shook the tower as he attempted to shake the stabbers off his head. Emma let out a yelp as she was almost thrown off the side of the bridge. "Hurry up, up there!" she cried, her fingers sliding down the boss' thick horns.
Sherlock noticed John's stunned expression and handed him an Estus Flask. "Give it to her quickly, if it will make you relax!" With that he charged of the side, his club held high and his lungs producing a bellowing war cry. A blunt smack was heard from below as he made contact. The Taurus demon had had enough. It picked up the deprived's body in its beefy fist and shook him up and down rapidly.
"Hey! Put him down...pig!" yelled Sofia from above. Its cloudy white eyes fixed upon her as she threw a couple of fireballs in its face. The flames coated its chestnut fur, burning it black in an instant. A loud thud signified the release of Sherlock, along with Emma and Lon'qu who were tossed over the beast's shoulder. She continued to propel pyromancy, ignoring the target's throaty growls.
"Sofia, watch out!" John ran into her, hauling the unexpecting girl into his arms. His motive was made clear when the demon was suddenly on the same platform as them. By the time this had all occurred, the others had healed and were making their way up the ladder to join them.
"John! You need to finish him off!" called Sofia as she circled the giant, burning his body whenever she had an opening.
He placed both shaking hands on the hilt of his sword eyeing the monster before him. 'It looks awfully intimidating at this angle', he thought. 'But I must do this. For our companionship... For our freedom... For Sofia!' He charged valiantly at the tired foe, dodging its incoming blows. His eyes were set on its ugly heart. 'Nothing else matters. Nothing can stand in my way. Nothing can... wait a minute...' He hung from his sword which was lodged deeply into the Taurus demon's chest. It gave him a final look of resentment as it began to crumble into a pile of ash. He plopped gracefully onto the ground as his eyes widened. There, in front of him, was a floating white orb.
"You did it! You did it, John!" exclaimed Sofia, giving him an instinctive hug. She pulled back almost immediately after acknowledging her action.
"Hmm..." Emma grinned as she watched the two blush awkwardly. "What's in the soul, Bottled Lightning?" She winked at him, quite proud of her nickname creativity.
"Er... heh..." He swirled his hand around in the mist. "Um... One humanity, a homeward bone and... whoa, I might need a little help with this one!" It took all of them (minus the always non-participating Sherlock) to haul the weapon out.
"Looks like the demon's great-axe," guessed Lon'qu as they laid it on the ground. "It's huge! Which one of us is going to wield it. I mean... which one of us actually has the strength to wield it?!"
"Hm," Sherlock scoffed, strolling towards the beast of an axe. He ran his fingers over the monstrous bones that formed it, mentally calculating the possibilities... "Perhaps not now..." he decided, wrapping his hands around the huge hilt. "But once my strength has increased... I shall be the one to wield it."