AN: Happy New Year everybody! Wow, was I surprised when I checked up on this fic to see all the nice reviews people have left me. You guys are so great. And on another note: Dark Souls 2! Can't wait! If you're as impatient as me, then maybe this lil fic will kill some time. Enjoy everybody!
DARK(ish) SOULS
Greatsword
Bob was back to square one. Gone was that overwhelming sense of confidence and vigour that had fuelled him in Lordran's other areas. That place, Sen's Fortress, Solaire had called it, cruelly reminded him that he was out of his element, that the Knight Armour he bore was a farce, and his blunting longsword a pointed joke. He'd realized all this as soon as he'd gone chasing after Stacy once the conversation between Solaire and Andre had taken a turn that'd embarrassed her beyond her threshold.
The first enemy he came across was a serpentine warrior that walked him down effortlessly. It brandished a blood-rusted cleaver of a greatsword with the same finesse that Bob managed with his own comparatively puny weapon. It wasn't stupid either, blocking his own swipes and jabs with a large round metallic shield. Solaire couldn't help him, as another of the reptilian bastards flanked the one Bob was already dealing with. Bob couldn't spare a glance at his companion and how he was faring, he couldn't let down his concentration for a moment.
With a venomous hiss, the man-serpent lunged at Bob again, clanging his huge sword over Bob's shield once more, causing him to curse darkly. Each blocked hit had too much force behind it that Bob just didn't have the strength to counterattack. He was constantly backpedalling now to try and catch his breath, only for the monster to leap an ungodly distance and crash his sword into the ground just as Bob wildly rolled out of the way.
Dammit, Stace! The hell were you thinking running in here!
Bob thought he was starting to memorize the man-serpents patterns, only for the scaled bastard to switch it up on him when he least expected it; by way of snapping it's giraffic out and gnashing its' teeth so close to Bob's face that he felt its pearly fangs graze his eyelashes.
The attack had him so stunned that he toppled back, scrambling to sit up with his shield still miraculously in hand just as the man-serpent yet again pounced on him mercilessly.
Only this time, it stopped. And spasmed. One. Two. Three times in total, letting out pained hisses each time before collapsing in front of him, dead, with the culprit being three pointed bolts lodged several inches into its back.
Bob initially thought Solaire had helped him, but wrote that off when he saw the aforementioned man still fighting off the man-serpent atop the stairs that led further into Sen's Fortress.
Rather than sit there and wonder what had happened, Bob sprang into action to help his friend, already cutting at the surprised beasts' unguarded flank from behind.
It slashed wildly to keep Bob at bay but that was all the opening Solaire needed as he lunged forward, parried its round shield away with his sword and slamming the rim of his shield into its snake head with enough force to clean it of its feet and drive it into the wall, bursting its cranium like a jar of Estus.
Solaire didn't pause for comment, and Bob didn't think of wasting time with his own. They moved as one then, a terribly mismatched singular unit, but united with the same goal in mind. Their pace was quick, but cautious, scanning every inch of the rooms they entered for signs of Stacy. More man-serpents were in their way, but never more than one at a time so they were dispatched easily. Bob was a little relieved to see some of them had wounds before he engaged them, broad cuts against their flesh and shields, from a two-hander he gathered.
The two men passed some hilariously slow guillotines and pendulums as well; taking the narrow paths across warily all the same. At one point, another serpent monster started attacking from a beam a floor above, throwing bolts of lightning down at them as they crossed another tiny bridge.
Since Solaire had the lead, he blocked the projectile easily, and before the beast even cocked another shot, the Warrior of Sunlight hurled his own bolt of lightning at the monster. The gleaming golden spear crossed the distance in less than a blink, lighting up the dank fortress with its brilliance for that short moment, and cleaved into the monsters chest without defiance, effectively knocking it off its smug perch and into the inky depths.
Their pace didn't slow a fraction, save for a few awkward seconds when they passed a man-serpent just lackadaisically resting against a wall with its arms crossed. It didn't attack, just eyed them curiously with a flick of its forked tongue.
'I guess even monsters get days off.'
After ascending the fortress to its topmost heights, Solaire and Bob finally happened upon Stacy, sitting dismally on a staircase as the sunlight poured in from the doorway above; her white robe reflecting the light so brightly that Bob winced away until his vision could adjust.
She was gasping for breath, holding her Zweihander loosely as its long shining blade rested at her feet. Stacy looked up when they'd arrived and regarded at the two men with an indignant and regretful expression.
'Stace. I don't know where to start on how unbelievably stupid that was.' Bob chewed her out, pushing his thoughts of concern and worry aside for that moment. 'You have seriously got to get your emotions in check. Dare I say it, you almost acted like a spoiled little girl back there.'
Her watering apologetic gaze immediately sharpened to steel. Bob had to fight off a smirk from crawling over his face. Solaire, ever majestically in the loop, picked up on what Bob was doing and pitched in.
'I certainly would not marry a woman who ever questions and pities herself like the one before me.' Solaire started with a stern commanding tone. 'However, the one who laughs in the face of death, and catapults men such as I through the air without hesitation, that is the one I would highly consider.'
Solaire reached his hand out to her. She took it and was hefted to her feet. Bob noted the way Solaire had done it. It hadn't been the typical "Help princess to her feet" motion, but a more straightforward and respectful gesture, like the one used on a person the other considers their equal.
'So then, no apologies, doubts or empty words, Fair Stacy.' Solaire finished with that impossibly cheeky glint in his eye.
Stacy smiled. Not a sweet, happy smile, but a wide, almost frenzied grin that bared her teeth.
'Right. Fuck this place.'
She twirled about and led the way, literally shining with newfound confidence. Just as she reached the doorway that led to the roof, an instantaneous wall of fire blasted her off her feet.
Bob and Solaire reacted and caught her airborne form as one, grunting at the surprising shunt of weight that almost careened them down the flight of stairs.
Stacy was allright, albeit surprised and sporting a thin mask of soot on her face.
'What the hell was that?' Bob sputtered as he propped Stacy on her feet. Solaire inched towards the passageway that had seemingly exploded before, cautious and watchful. He must have noticed something when he quickly raised his shield as another blast of flame roared out.
'My oh my. This is familiar.' Solaire chuckled, moving back to his companions. 'Someone or something is throwing explosives in our path. Perhaps another joyous sprint is in order.'
Bob groaned. Sure he was a lot stronger than before, but running was still something he wasn't a fan of. That incident before with the Drake had been a reckless coin toss. He still felt that phantom singe in his hair, having grown a habit of checking whether it had caught on fire when he wasn't looking.
'Same deal as before, Sol? Okay. I believe in you.' Stacy seemingly had no such reservations. Then again, Bob's trust in Solaire was set in stone. It was his own bravery that he doubted.
'No rest for Warriors of Sunlight!' Solaire announced, bracing himself for the run. 'On my mark, my dear friends!'
Another blast rang out at the top of the stairs, and Solaire shot off the mark before the flames had even withered out.
That familiar sensation of running for one's life overtook Bob again. But it was different that time; strengthened by camaraderie, newfound strength and maybe even a speck of insanity. Howling winds rang in his ears, muffling the symphony of rattling from his armour.
Solaire surged forward, analysing the path in mere moments, guiding the two behind him across charred stone and step. Bob spared a glance upward as the sun just crested the high walls above them, blinding him momentarily, then felt his stomach contents churn when a mysterious sphere monstrously ballooned into his vision; blocking the dazzling rays as it zeroed right towards his head.
But it missed. Barely. Having scraped across the tip of his helmet and shattering a distance behind him, immediately deafening him with an obnoxious explosion louder than anything else he'd heard up to that point. For a terrifying instant he felt a searing heat begin to engulf him, and grit his teeth when plumes of wicked flames lashed the corners of his helmet visor. He saw Solaire and Stacy at arm's length ahead of him, sprinting with abandon as he was.
The heat fell away, the flames vanished from his view. And he let a heaving breath of relief escape his parched lips.
Then he fell.
Lordran became a maelstrom of green, grey and blue as he tumbled end of over end, powering forward with the momentum of his sprint. He reached out with his hands to steady himself, and yelled out in a panic when he gripped nothing but air. Wherever he was, there were falls at both his sides, and no walls to stop him.
Finally his tumble broke and he blinked blearily at the clouded sky above, mind screaming at him in various signals of pain and panic.
Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap
Bob sat up and the first thing to truly dance into his vision was a black giant draped in rusted chains standing imperiously on the structure above him; another of those huge explosive spheres hoisted in its hands.
Before Bob could even un-jumble the mess of mental screaming in his head, the giant was already curling its massive body back to throw the bronze sphere of death right down at him.
Bob knew there was no time to move out of the way. He'd barely escaped the blast running at top speed. What chance did he have on his back? It was over. At least he'd die in a cool explosion.
A figure. Seemingly falling from the sky itself. Too big to be Solaire. A flying fortress of Black Armour missiling down towards the giant.
Tales and stories from Bob's past rushed into his psyche, crashing into his panicked survival instinct and utterly numbing him for a moment. Only one thing managed to push past his twirling psyche; the urge to shout a name that had held him in awe in his younger days.
'…TARKUUUUS!'
As he bellowed out the name, the Black Iron Warrior speared his greatsword into the explosive sphere, detonating it immediately . The giant roared in shock and confusion as molten flames from the bomb splashed out all over its body. But that happened to be the least of its worries, as Tarkus himself burst forth from the fanning explosion, his armour cutting a wreath through the flames as if totally immune, and plunged his giant sword into the burning giants' head.
The strike didn't just connect, it crushed the giant into the ground with an immense force that tore the fabric of the air around the tower. Such was the power that shockwaved out that it set off the small mountain of spare bombs nearby which instantly obliterated the tower the giant had stood upon, sending a dazzling shower of flaming bricks and concrete out in a wide cloud of destruction.
In the few moments that had occurred, Solaire and Stacy had rushed to Bob's side previously, only to stare up in abject silence at the same site Bob had taken in.
Then, like a passage right out of the stories in Bob's past, Black Iron Tarkus emerged from the towering pillar of flame above them, impregnable armour basked in the flickering fire and with sword resting on his shoulder.
'Fuck…is that…?!' Stacy breathed, her own deep blue eyes shimmering in recognition.
'A warrior, descending from the Sun itself to lend us aid…how marvellous.' Solaire stated with clear astonishment and respect.
'That…' Bob smirked to himself, still lying on his back. '…is motherfucking Black Iron Tarkus.'
A few times in his life, Bob asked himself how he'd react to meeting a celebrity. The naïve part of him thought he'd be able to play it cool and casual, treating such an individual with aloof conversation. Real life was a whole different sword game.
He couldn't say anything. Not one thing. And neither could Stacy as Iron Tarkus silently gauged them from within the fog gate room.
'Black Iron Tarkus, I did not recognize you at first sight.' Solaire remarked him evenly. 'Tales of your heroic deeds are spread far and wide. The most recent being the gripping account of that Golem you tangled with on your lonesome some time ago. It is good to see you lead such credence to these tales with that mighty display earlier.
Tarkus didn't speak, or react at all to anything Solaire said. A silent goliath who teemed the very air with power with his presence alone.
Eventually, Stacy broke free of her star struck trance and dared to speak.
'Uhm, Mr Tarkus? N-nice to meet you. So…what're you doing in this place?'
Bob thought to snap at Stacy for such a blunt question, but was silenced before he could speak when Tarkus actually responded. Not with words, but a slight tilt of his barrelled helm, motioning towards the fog gate.
'You're going to help us?' Solaire pressed, having no such inhibitions in his manner of speech.
Tarkus replied by lifting his greatsword a bit from his shoulder and clanking it twice against his armour.
'Fuck yes.' Bob blurted without thinking.
'What luck is this, huh?' Stacy grinned devilishly. 'Let's stomp whatever's behind the fog right now!'
She brashly moved forward and was already phasing through the murky fog, quickly followed by the three warriors close behind. After passing through, Bob took in the narrow bridgeway ahead, and the Iron Golem already powering towards them from the far end.
He steeled his will as best as he could despite the quakes from the Golems' thunderous footfalls. When Tarkus and Solaire took the lead, his own bravery numbed the shaking in his limbs. Suddenly, the Golem didn't seem big at all even as it smashed its huge axe into the ground right in front of him as Tarkus and Solaire rolled left and right to dodge.
The two warriors charged forward fearlessly as the Golem was more than happy to meet them at the centre of the precarious structure.
Tarkus and Solaire working in tandem was a brilliant sight to behold. The Golem would swing wild with its axe, sending shockwaves ripping from its blade but Solaire dodged them with ease; rolling to and fro with grace and precision. Tarkus didn't even bother to dodge as his giant shield absorbed the onrush of attacks and barely buckled him with each impact.
Bob wanted to help them but the pace of the battle wasn't something he could keep up with at all. He'd tried to stab the Golem in the ankle when it was preoccupied but it moved much quicker than he had anticipated; suddenly swiping him off his feet and held fast in its stumpy iron hand.
'A-AH!' Bob yelled when the already brutal grip around his body tightened suddenly. For a terrifying instant he felt every organ in his body swell painfully as his armour begun to collapse in on itself around his helpless form. But the agony was gone was fast as it had come when the Golem shunted and let out a dull mechanical groan, releasing Bob from its grip in the process.
Bob somehow managed to land on his feet and staggered backwards. Solaire and Tarkus were still tussling with it, utterly absorbed in the fight. Bob thought twice about attacking again and took another step back…and felt nothing beneath his back foot.
For whatever reason Bob felt a stupid smirk crawl onto his face as he fell backward, his one dulling thought:
'Fucking pits, man.'
His fall was cut short abruptly when Stacy appeared and violently yanked him back onto the platform before he freefell.
'Stupid!' She spat with a pained expression between relief and fury.
Bob just nodded dumbly, feeling his senses return one after another. Just in time to shove Stacy out of the way of a stray shockwave that cut a path between them.
The two decided to back off for a bit. Fighting a Golem on such a small platform with four people was just asking for disaster. After all, they agreed it was best to give Solaire and Tarkus the room to fight the damn thing.
As soon as they created some space, Bob and Stacy witnessed a whole lotta magic.
Solaire charged a Great Lightning Spear in his hand and hurled it at the Golems' head at close range, immediately spearing it through its clunky helmet. The attack clearly stunned the giant as it staggered on its feet clumsily, dropping its axe right after. Solaire followed up the perfect strike by rushing forward and stabbing the Golem in the groin.
'Urk.' Bob winced on reflex.
As the beast toppled to its knees, clasping its iron jewels on the way down, Tarkus was there to meet it almost face to face.
He slung his shield onto his back and two-handed his greatsword, then gripped the very tip of his huge weapons' handle and reared the blade back high above his shoulder.
The Golem could only sit there in pained disbelief for the half-second it took for Tarkus to swing his sword in a brutal arc that connected flush into its chest; caving it inward with metal-shrieking carnage. There was a brief pause after the attack connected, as if Tarkus' sword would just stay embedded in the creature, but then glorious momentum took hold.
Tarkus' sword completed its arc and rended right through the Golem and threw the entire mass of iron high into the sky at a speed that rewrote the laws of physics. It flew higher and higher before cresting over a mountain in the distance and colliding into the ground with a distant and resounding thud that shook Bob to his very bones.
Bob and Stacy just burst into an onrush of cheers and jubilation. They held nothing back with their ceaseless compliments and awestruck praises. Solaire took it like he always did, brushing it off like it was nothing. Tarkus didn't display anything save for that curt nod once they'd managed to shut their traps.
'Phew.' Bob sighed, feeling the stinging adrenaline in his veins fizzle out with the accompanied cooling breeze so prevalent at that height. As he admired the view from up there, it slowly dawned on him that the narrow bridge appeared to be a dead end. What was once a gigantic gateway at the opposite end they had entered from was now a wall of broken stone and rubble.
How could that be it? The Golem had obviously been guarding something. A gatekeeper to whatever lay beyond Sen's Fortress no doubt. He pondered this for a bit as Stacy and Solaire chatted exuberantly to one another, their voices distant and muddled.
As if magically derailing his train of thought, Stacy suddenly piped up when she pointed out something on the ground behind them.
'Oooh, look at this thing. A Ring of Light?' She commented curiously.
Bob didn't even have a chance to tell her off for picking up random things off the ground. As soon as her white-gloved hands touched the shining ring, Bob suddenly found himself yanked into the sky roughly by his armpits.
It was so sudden. Abrupt, motion-sickness induced flight. When Bob managed to dart his eyes upwards through the shock, he witnessed raw-pink flesh, exposed brain matter, bony wings and a set of teeth gnashed together in a perpetual snarl.
'The FUCK?!' Bob screamed and made the idiotic decision to struggle against the tight uncomfortable grip of the winged abomination.
It shrieked in protest as Bob flailed around like a moron and even slapped the top of his head in indignation. It hadn't been meant as an attack, more as a warning. Even through the utter randomness of what was happening, Bob quickly understood. He had to ride it out, and see where the monster would take him. On cue, he spotted Stacy and Solaire nearby, also being carried roughly by the beasts. At least, Stacy was. Whilst she screamed and kicked her legs about, Solaire had actually managed to mount the thing; standing on its back with perfect balance with his arms crossed, gazing aloft without a care in the world.
Only Tarkus was missing, and through sheer luck Bob was able to spot him far down below. He was looking up at them, standing commandingly like the silent warrior that he was in the spot the Golem had once stood.
Bob was disappointed that Tarkus wasn't going with them, and through his bouts of nausea, hoped he would see him again soon.
Sen's Fortress was shrinking, smaller and smaller, gradually being swallowed by the thick forests and misty mountains of Lordran.
Higher they flew, eventually reaching over the crescending mountainside. Bob was blinded momentarily by golden light, but once his vision had cleared he was at a total loss for words. The impossibility of what he was seeing was too much. Images from various texts and scrolls flooded his mind as his recoiling psyche repeated the name of what he was witnessing over and over before his consciousness was blotted out from motion-sickness and disbelief.
It was the Lost City of Anor Londo.
…And then he finally puked.
=][=
After the battle with the Golem, Tarkus remained there on the bridge for a little while. His job was done, he had helped the three defeat the Golem, as he had done so countless times in that warped reality. It didn't bother him that he'd be forced to repeat the fight until the Fires were finally linked, it was his purpose after all.
Soon, he would vanish from that reality and appear as a phantom in a new one, ready to slay the Golem with that same chilling efficiency that repetition had hammered into his soul.
…But then he immediately felt something was wrong when that white sheen common among phantoms wrapped around his form. What troubled him was that he was still in the same dimension, the Golem still defeated and his sole role in that world unclear for the first time in what felt like hundreds of years.
Someone was approaching from the entrance. No, two.
A warrior donned in the Elite Knight set, wielding flaming claymores in each hand. The other, Tarkus recognized as the treacherous Lautrec of Carim, also a white phantom as he was.
It was too late to question what was happening, he could already feel his free will slipping away as the warrior came closer, such was the way of phantoms in that world.
Tarkus only felt a slight drop of pity for whatever that warrior would have him tear apart.
