Author's Note: Forgive the minor delay. Blame the holiday season coming up to bite me in the ass, among other IRL issues.
04 Strategic Manuevering
As Thomas and Oscar rested at the Bonfire, the Prophet thought it best to "illuminate the future" a little bit. "Okay," Thomas began. "We have the bonfire here." Tapping the ground with his catalyst, a small glyph of a flaming sword appeared. Okay, unexpected. He didn't know he could do that. Oh well. Appear wise, and strategize. He could ponder this little event later. "Just outside, we have the hollowed crossbowman, three hollowed warriors, and two hollowed Spartans." Oscar gave a puzzled look. "Spartans? I have not heard of such things before..." mentally slapping himself, Thomas corrected. "The spearwielders. Where I am from, the Spartans were fierce warriors who fought with shield and spear. Once, they repelled an invading force of Persian warriors numbering in the hundreds of thousands, while only having three hundred themselves." Oscar's eyes widened. "Three hundred companies?" Shaking his head, Thomas replied. "No. Three hundred men." Oscar, who had taken off his helmet to better watch the plans, let his mouth fall slack. "That's... that's impossible! How were they not overrun?" Thomas smirked. "Oh, simple. The Persian army had drafted anyone able to lift a sword, regardless of actual skill with it. Farmers, stable hands, some children even. The Spartans had trained for battle their entire lives, however, training to be incredibly deadly both solo and as a team. The Persians washed against them like water on stone. Swords, spears, arrows be damned. It helped that the Persians fought because their emperor commanded it, while the Persians had a home to defend, thus boosting reason to fight. And as the Persian body count grew higher, their own fear, and respect, of the Spartan forces grew. In fact, when the three hundred were eventually overrun -By trickery, I should mention- the Persian armies quaked when they faced whole armies of Spartans, remembering what only three hundred could do."
Oscar's mouth hung at Thomas' tale. "And I have never heard of such warriors because..." Thomas shifted uncomfortably. "Like I said. I come from a very far off land. Hell, just getting home will be a trick..." Sitting in silence, Thomas ruminated on his home. Some time after silence, Oscar spoke up. "The plan?" Right. Inwardly cursing, Thomas pulled out his catalyst again. "Okay, so we have the Bonfire, the Hollows here. Across this bridge is a small building. In it are two more hollows with battle axes. Simple creatures, but they hit pretty hard. I'd avoid their attacks, if you can't block them." Making a note that he remembered that Hollow Shields don't have great stability, he unequipped it for better equipment load. "Only two Hollows?" Oscar asked. "Even with axes, we can take them individually, I'm certain." Thomas nodded. "In this, you're right, but they have an ace in the hole. Let me bring it to light." Making a quick square with his catalyst, he quickly put an X over part of it. "Right here is a door, and on the other side of it, is a Hollowed Soldier. Sword and Shield variant. Fierce warriors, them." Oscar's face darkened with worry. "Then, we're outnumbered. How will we push through?"
"We stick to our strengths. You're a solid warrior in solid armor. You'll take the Axe Hollow on the left, I'll take the one on the right. Play defensively when the Soldier Hollow gets in, as he'll likely go for you, as you'll be closer. Once I take down my Hollow, we team up and gank those fuckers." Oscar had no idea what Thomas meant from the words "gank" or "fuckers", as such words were not in Lordran's vocabulary, but from the context, he assumed it was somewhere along the lines of 'take them down'. He could work with that. "All right, anything else?" Thomas frowned, thinking. "Well, not really. OH! Right. There's a few hollows on the roof that will throw firebombs onto the bridge. We don't have a bow, so our only option is to just sprint across the bridge really fast and pray." Oscar chuckled. "Prophet, you forget." he then pulled out his bow. "We do have a bow." Right. Thomas felt a little stupid for that, but he had a sword in his chest at the time. Cut him some slack. "All right. So the rest of the plan stays, but before that, we secure the area here, outside the Bonfire, and then you snipe some bitches. Good plan? Great plan." Thomas stood, and swiped his foot over the blue drawings in the stone, erasing them from existence. What the Hell caused them, anyways?
Before they left, Thomas decided to give Oscar the Winged Spear. "You'll appreciate the reach, I'm sure." Bursting out, Thomas fired two Soul Arrows, one into the Hollow on the stairs, another into the crossbow wielding hollow. The warrior was quickly felled by the magical dart, but the crossbowman still stood. Not for long though, as Oscar's spear was able to reach it, the tip puncturing the unprotected belly of the Hollow. Thomas turned to the stairs, and fired two more arrows into the Hollow charging up at him, taking it down even as it's broken sword swung wildly at him. Not that it reached him. Thomas smirked, turning to the soldier. "look," he pointed. "There's the firebombers. We're out of reach here. Take 'em out. I'll defend your rear." Oscar nodded, stringing his bow while Thomas turned to the stairs once more. The other hollow charged forward, but dodged to the side as he fired another Soul Arrow... stupidly, it jumped off the stairs, and fell off the side into the bottomless pit. "Idiot," the sorcerer muttered, watching as a Hollowed Spearman slowly approached. Thomas' eyes stayed on the soldier, his ears hearing the twang of Oscar's bowstring, His Dark Sign occasionally feeling the occasional flux of souls as another Hollow died. When the Spear Hollow got close enough, Thomas watched. It didn't attack yet. These Hollows were almost cowardly with their shields. Had to make his own openings. Kicking, Thomas knocked aside it's shield, and casually swiped at it's neck and belly with his blade, felling the creature. "It is done," Oscar said, the souls confirming. "Right," Thomas said, turning to the bridge. "Now for the building. You want the spear now." Oscar nodded, putting his helmet back on, and then pulling the winged spear out. "Right. For Astora!" Thomas charged across the bridge. "For Asgard!"
As it turned out, the axe hollows were a little bit faster than Thomas gave them credit for, and had to focus almost entirely on dodging. Oscar was hard pressed, taking what jabs he could, but largely falling back. Eventually, Thomas managed to find time to fire a Soul Arrow, and shot it at the Hollow Soldier's unprotected back. Good news: It hit, stumbling the soldier. Bad news, the soldier now looked at Thomas, hate in it's insane eyes. "Shit." Rolling backward to avoid an axe swing, Thomas swung his catalyst like a sword, firing a Soul Arrow at the axe hollow in front of him, killing it. Then he dodged to the side as the Hollowed Soldier stabbed the air he just occupied. "FUS!" Thomas shouted. Nothing happened, of course, as he wasn't the dragonborn (At least, if he was, he was in the wrong game for that.). It DID have an effect he was hoping for. The Hollow jumped, not expecting the word so loudly spoken, and Thomas kicked, knocking it's shield away as he spun, slicing it's throat. Oscar then finished it with a thrust to the skull. Nice. Oscar's shield deflected an axe, but his shield was knocked aside, leaving him open to counter attack. "No!" Thomas rushed forward, and stabbed, his sword gutting the Hollow. As abruptly as the battle started, it ended, and Thomas drew his sword from the Hollow, letting it clatter to the ground as he wiped the blood off his blade. "All right. That went better than expected. Now, for the next part." Thomas began drawing on the ground again, making the building, and the bridge they crossed on. "We are here." He drew a pathway. "Down here, there's a door on the right. Inside that door is a building with a hollow guarding another doorway leading to a decent sized room that has a chest with black firebombs. We're gonna nab those. There's also another Hollow in the building here," Thomas indicated the location. "we can handle him easily. Now, exiting the building, there will be three hollows. One can throw firebombs, and we can't shoot him from outside his range this time. We'll have to be careful." Oscar nodded. "I'll take on the bomber with my soul arrows, you distract the two hollows, and then we each take a hollow. Over here," Thomas drew a circle. "Is a tower. In it is a crossbow wielding hollow. He can't reach us while fighting these hollows here, but when we go here," Thomas drew up a walkway leading to an open area. "There are three hollows, two soldiers and a Spartan. They're trouble enough, but with the crossbowman shooting at our backs, things will get ugly quick. So, I'll take him out, then rain magic from afar. At that height, I'll be able to reach over their shields. After this, we'll backtrack over here. This room has gold pine resin."
Oscar's eyes raised. "That stuff is exceedingly rare. It will be an invaluable asset." Thomas nodded. "We're going to save it. There will be a time when it will be most useful. But not yet." Oscar nodded. "Got it. Anything else?" Thomas stood, swiping his foot over the plan, banishing it. "Yeah. Don't die."
They executed the plan almost flawlessly, dispatching the lesser troops with ease. As Thomas fired magic from afar, however, Thomas noticed a small... problem. Oscar had nearly dealt with the last of the Hollows, engaged in a vicious sword match, but a certain enemy decided to investigate the noise just outside. As Thomas watched in Horror, the Black Knight of Gwyn strode out from it's hiding spot, stalking towards Oscar. "Shit. OSCAR! YOUR REAR!" Oscar spared a glance behind him, and paled underneath his helmet. Thomas, meanwhile, bolted down the stairs, and burst into the Residence building, grabbbing the gold pine resin. What made him come out?! Why now? I wanted us to be able to take him on tactically! But the time for tactics had gone. Oscar had gone on the defensive, avoiding and blocking whatever hits he could. Thomas gauged the distance, and chucked a firebomb. It sailed into the air, and fell on the Hollow Oscar was tangled with. Sorry about that Oscar, Thomas thought as both were engulfed in flames. Oscar would survive, though. Thomas applied the Gold Pine Resin to his shortsword, and jumped down, slicing at the knight's achilles tendon. His sword managed to cut through the armor, somehow, and ash bled from the wound. Electrical energy arced along the armored form, but it seemed to faze the knight none. It turned swinging it's shield at Thomas, and knocked him across the room. "HUOF!" Thomas grunted as the wind was knocked out of him. The knight stalked towards him, and Thomas raised his catalyst, firing Soul Arrows to slow it's approach as he tried to recover his breath. But the shield of the Black Knights are incredibly stable, and his bolts had little effect, save to slow it down. Thankfully, that was all Thomas counted on, so he wasn't surprised by this. He prayed that the thing kept it's shield up, because if it decided to poise through his attacks, he'd be a goner. The knight stalked forward, and raised his sword, about to strike, when it stopped, a sword sprouting from it's chest. Oscar! He'd managed to stab it in the back! Thomas rose, and stabbed it in the face. The electrical energy was what finished it, and the knight dropped it's sword as it cried out in pain, dissolving into souls.
Thomas was breathing heavily after that. He'd recovered enough to stand, but hadn't fully caught his breath. Oscar, however, was frustrated, lifting his face plate to drink an estus to heal from Thomas' firebomb. "You set me on fire, Prophet." Thomas shrugged apologetically at that, picking up the Black Knight Sword. "Sorry. Splash damage. I needed to take care of the Hollow so we could join forces against the knight." Oscar looked unimpressed. "And you didn't mention him earlier because..." Wincing, Thomas spoke up. "Because I didn't expect him to develop such a high aggro range, I guess. Come on, we have a ring to pick up. Blue tearstone. Increases defense at low health." Looting it went without event, and Thomas pointed to the tower. "Strategy time, because THAT is a bossfight." He made a hologram of a bridge with a tower on either end. "Now, here's where we pop in from. On the tower behind us are a couple archers. You're going to climb up and deal with them. They're cake. I, meanwhile, will draw out the Taurus Demon, who's waiting here." He indicated the other tower. "Once he's out, I'm going to turn tail and run like the Gravelord himself is after me to climb the tower. Once the Demon, who will be chasing me, gets in range, you take the plunge, and stab him in his stupid little head. Once you're out of the way, I'll do the same. Then we can finish him from the ground, as he'll not be able to withstand our combined force of R1 Spamming." Oscar cleared his throat. "And R1 Spamming is..." Thomas chuckled. "Swinging our weapons with absolute wild abandon. No focus on defense. Pure, barbaric offense. Feel free to two hand your weapon at that point. You want to do as much damage as possible." Oscar nodded. "Sword or spear?" Thomas shrugged. "Whatever you're comfortable with. Actually, idea. As it charges towards you, take shots with arrows before plunging into its head. Now let's go."
Thomas watched as Oscar climbed the ladder, hoping the Taurus Demon didn't aggro early like the Black Knight did. As the knight signaled to him that the path was clear, Thomas allowed himself a dark grin. This would be a quick fight. Practically a speedbump. Walking forward, Thomas pulled out a black firebomb, tossing it and catching it in his hand like it was nothing more than a baseball. A shadow flew over him, and the demon jumped down, roaring in challenge. Thomas first threw the firebomb, then turned heel, fleeing. He kept his head down, watching arrows fly over him as he felt the ground shake from the charging demon. Reaching the ladder, Thomas immediately began his ascension as the demon pulled it's arms back, ready to swing. The sorcerer ignored that, focusing on the climb, when he heard a yowl of pain. He spared a glance. Oscar had stabbed his spear in the Taurus Demon's skull. Finishing his climb, Thomas pulled out his shortsword, and another firebomb. Waiting till Oscar had jumped off, he threw the bomb, and then jumped after it. He timed the throw well, as the flames from the bomb faded even as he was landing. He stabbed it's skull with his sword, and jabbed it in the eye with his catalyst, willing a Soul Arrow to fire from the end. Screeching in pain, The demon threw it's head back, attempting to throw Thomas off the bridge. Thomas anticipated that trick this time, and rolled backwards, tumbling down. It wasn't the smoothest drop, but he landed on his feet. That was the important thing. Swords out, Thomas and Oscar chopped away. "R1! R1! R1! R1! R1!" Thomas shouted, each cry of "R1!" timed with the impact of his blade. The Demon stood no chance, and quickly died.
As they felt the souls of the defeated enemy fill them, Thomas allowed himself an exhilatory shout. "Yeah!" He swung the blood off his sword, and twirled it in a small flourish before sheathing it. That felt good. Oscar nodded appreciatively. "All right, what's the next step?" Thomas smiled, knowing what came next. "Now, we meet the embodiment of incandescence most glorious."