(23)
Leontius' brisk jog through town to Toriel's house was rife with a mounting sense of dread and urgency, as if at any moment that massive red-eyed knight would drop from above and initiate battle then and there. Thoughts like these ran through his head over and over as he passed through the residential area of town and down to the base of Snowdin's plateau.
More than once, Leontius felt his hand subconsciously twitch in the direction of his sheathed claymore. He knew how to fight the knight, he'd done battle with him countless times of course… but this time there were no conveniently located siege weapons or ballistae capable of piercing the knight's dark-imbued Vanguard armor. It would have to be a one-on-one battle on equal ground.
Leontius looked up from his ponderings just in time to see Toriel's house come into view, and he picked up the pace to a run. Some of the lights were still on, namely on the first floor. As he got to the door, he slowed his run and began rooting around in his box momentarily.
'If I am to be fighting a foe like him under these circumstances, I will need to have a fallback. Being safe is better than regretting not taking precautions, these people are depending on me to stop the knight and they do not even know it...' At the end of that thought, he felt the metal handle of his coiled sword bonfire-poker, which he grasped and extracted from the bottomless box.
The red-rusted sword let off small wisps of floating cinders as his undead hand contacted it, begging to be fueled with Embers, Humanity, or the bones of faded undead. Leontius stood before the front of the home and knelt, pressing the sword into the cold, hard earth beneath him. The ceremonial coiled sword's innate heat warmed and softened the ground, allowing it to be slid deep enough down to secure itself.
Once the blade was seated, Leontius procured an Ember from his box, and with it in his hand, grasped the handle of the sword once more. The ensuing flash of magical warmth and light immediately had a slight calming effect on him, his undead bones seemingly urging him to rest at the slowly-accumulating pile of Ember-fueled ashes. He briefly succumbed to the urge and sat out of instinct, having quickly attuned himself to bonfires for convenience's sake many times before. The bonfire let out a glowing aura, signifying he'd been attuned.
As he stood, Leontius was overcome with the familiar short-lived headrush bonfires granted; the facsimile of blood flow, a physical trait he lacked entirely with his non-functioning organs. He brushed off his coat and pants, then entered the home. He had to be swift, lest the knight get too close to Snowdin.
As Leontius hastily cleaned his boots on the mat and walked in, he noticed Toriel tiredly sitting at the dining table, near where he'd last left her. She immediately noticed him when the door opened and stood to meet him, a smile gracing her features as Leontius went over to her and the table. He then began removing gear, starting with his equipment belt.
Toriel greeted the man, but quickly took note of his atypically troubled mood. "Welcome back Leontius, have you… is something the matter?
Looking just as troubled as he was outside, Leontius spoke. "Where is Asriel?"
Toriel's concern grew, still glancing at the numb-looking form of Leontius. "He is upstairs, asleep… why?" Leontius still couldn't look away from his task of managing his items, despite his relief.
Just as he got his old coat and armor pieces off, he answered her. "Things from above have made their way down here-" A look of surprise from Toriel… "-one of that river person's ramblings have come true, however, two of my old foes made it down here. One of which killed the other…"
He leaned against the table as he began sorting out his gear, and horror corrupted Toriel's concern, prompting her to ask just what the threat was. "Which is it? The knight-"
Leontius popped open his box, now in his thin, regular clothing beneath the coat. Despite still busying himself, he answered for her. "-On wings with eyes of red; a deadly foe I have done battle with before plenty of times. This will be the first time I will actually have need of truly defeating him, he quite reliably flees if he fears defeat… usually when siege engines are used against him."
Leontius had just lifted out his suit of chainmail and slid it over his clothes, fastening it tight to himself with a belt about his waist to adjust its weight distribution. Toriel took a seat, she could feel a similar numbing fear to Leontius' own taking hold: fear for the whole of the kingdom, should the knight gain the freedom to act with impunity.
Toriel looked to him again. "Will any of Asgore's forces be able to stop him…?" Leontius' simple head shake in response sealed it for her. "Then you will have to take it upon yourself… you can handle him?" After asking that, a familiar set of armor made its appearance.
Leontius pulled the massive set of steel Vanguard armor free of the box and carefully set it on the floor so as to not damage it (the floor, of course), then he got to putting it on. His strength allowed him to lift and don the pieces easily, but Toriel soon took notice of his difficulty getting many of the discrete and protected attachment points quickly, specifically the ones on his back. She got up from the chair, and assisted him as he got the pieces on, she'd undone the suit before and had an idea of how it went together.
With Toriel helping him get armored, Leontius was soon coated in his old steel set in record time. The final pieces would need no assistance. His massively weighty footsteps creaked the floorboards beneath him as he turned back to the box and away from Toriel. She saw him re-apply his belt and sheath his claymore.
After the equipment belt was once more around his waist, Leontius took the last pieces out of the box. A pair of rings, one natural and green, the other golden and intricately etched upon. These two magical rings completed his set of four: the agility-granting Darkwood Grain Ring, the load-bearing stone ring of Havel, the stamina-enhancing Chloranthy Ring, and the all-around empowering Ring of Fina.
Once the rings were on his fingers, Leontius slid on, attached, and tightened his gauntlets to complete his armor set. The shield he would take was the grass-crest shield, which followed the theme of his stamina ring. The enchanted shield was strapped to his left arm, freeing the use of his left hand, while still allowing him to take advantage of the shield and its enchantment. Then came the last piece, his long-time mask.
Toriel watched as the undead put the Mask of The Child and its hood over his chainmail coif, and with finality, he tightened the mask's strings. He was armed and ready for battle. When Leontius turned, he was exactly the same as he appeared the first time they'd met, only this time Toriel knew who was inside all of that steel. He held his box in a hand, the other retrieving another solidified Ember piece, which he held out for Toriel to take.
The boss monster took the warm chunk in her paws, inspecting it. As Leontius reattached his box to his belt, he explained what he'd be needing her to do while he battled the knight. "That is an Ember, a kind of fuel for magical bonfires, one of which I have set just outside the house, and I need you to tend to it. It acts as an anchor for me; should I fall in battle I will return there. If it is lit I will reappear fully healed, if not, I will be temporarily weakened until I heal myself. To prevent that, all you must do is press the Ember to the handle of the sword if the flame is dying, that will keep it alive. I am unsure of how long the battle will be, so it is best to be safe."
Toriel silently clutched the Ember and looked back to the masked face Leontius now wore, and for a moment she saw through the eyeholes of the childish mask, catching a glimpse of his determined gaze in the dark before he turned to leave the house. "I will return. Stay here, turn out the lights. Be safe, Toriel."
And with that, he shut the door behind him. He was off to do battle.
vvv
As Leontius ran through the town to the bridge, he could feel familiar sensations overcoming him. Another great foe to overcome, more soul power to take. He may be better than most undead when it comes to curbing the hungers of the curse, but he still shared the need to have purpose, to continue to have a reason to exist.
'I suppose my purpose is to defend this place from what is above, at least for now.'
It would be late at night by now, so no one was out on the street to witness his passing by. All the lights of the town were finally out as well, hopefully ensuring the knight's attention would solely be on him. Leontius had led these threats here, so he would have to be the one to face them, not an innocent or guard.
When he finally arrived at the bridge, Leontius slowed himself before he considered crossing. He was in much heavier armor than the previous times he'd crossed, but he rationalized that he'd have to get across one way or another, allowing the knight any ground into Snowdin would be disastrous.
Leontius decided a measure of caution just in case would be necessary, so he casted a Fall Control spell before crossing and did his best to distribute his weight as he went. Looking down gave him flashbacks to some of his most common deaths, those being deaths by falls. Much of his kingdom's architecture tended to be on the more grandiose and 'lofty' scale, and more often than not he ended up having to climb things not intended to be tread upon.
Precarious footing, indeed.
Once he made it to the other side of the bridge, he started planning how to begin his vigil in defense against the knight. Should he go deeper in? Meet the knight halfway? Remain here, and let the knight come to him? He was unsure, considering all the options, but it seemed it didn't matter in the end. He could hear and see the tell-tale signs of a large foe approaching. The trees ahead of him seemed to be getting shoved aside or cut down, with vast amounts of settled snow being dislodged and released into the air as his enemy got closer and closer.
Leontius drew his claymore and decided to use this time to begin preparing spells and the like, he felt this would be an intense battle. The metallic slices of the knight's ultra-greatsword taking down trees became increasingly clear, soon Leontius was able to tell when the blade would meet and leave the trunk, and he could make out the shape of the knight just ahead.
Leontius advanced to the more open area of the large-armored guard dog's post just as the knight came into view, having cleared enough of the path's trees to get through. For a moment, the two locked eyes- though they could not see through each other's visored helmet and mask, they both knew their gazes had met- and the Pursuer momentarily alighted onto the ground to immediately begin powering up.
He was not expecting to meet his quarry so soon, but he did not mind. This was merely a side objective to him finding and taking that power.
Simultaneously, the two combatants released their empowering magics, the Pursuer's visor releasing a red-eyed glow and his armor venting dark fumes, meanwhile, Leontius' claymore glowed intensely with the multitude of empowering miracles and sorceries being released. A slight golden-green glow surrounded the undead warrior, his various stamina and vitality enhancements having enough intensity to become visible about him.
The next moment the two were at each other's throats, with the battle being kicked into high gear the second it began.
vvv
Even as tired as she was, Undyne was rapidly making her way through Snowdin, armed with one of her summoned spears and fully covered in her suit of Royal Guard captain armor. Matching her semi-frazzled condition, her hair-plume wasn't quite as straight and flowing as it was normally, suffering from a case of bedhead.
As she ran through it, the empty main street of Snowdin brought odd flashbulb memories, pictures of a similar scene of emptiness, only truly desolate. She put them aside for later, considering talking to Alphys about it since they were becoming more and more common as of late. With an unvoiced inner grunt, she sped up her pace to get to the bridge, since she saw nothing out of order in the town proper.
Alphys had called Undyne frantically in the middle of the night, warning her of something terribly strong in the area of Snowdin's forest, saying it was a 'dire emergency' as she put it. For a while, Undyne was beginning to doubt the integrity of the warning, but that doubt was quickly extinguished once she caught sight of the intense battle going on across the bridge.
The royal guard captain was rendered speechless by the sight she saw: a gigantic, floating, heavily-armored knight with a massive round shield and equally huge glowing-blue sword doing battle with a vaguely similar looking grounded figure, who wielded both familiar and unfamiliar equipment. He had the human's golden-hilted greatsword so she guessed it was him, but he also now wore far bulkier armor and what seemed to be a mask of sorts.
The duo of knights had made their battleground out of Tiny's sentry area, the aforementioned doghouse post having already been reduced to a pile of splinters. The area was heavily damaged as well, with deep cuts in the ground everywhere and fallen trees lying strewn about like building toys tossed carelessly.
The two knights battled on totally unaware of Undyne, who found herself gripping her spear tighter, but not yet daring to try to cross the bridge. The image of the human's show of insane speed and accuracy with his greatsword, footwork, and shield made her doubt she'd be up to snuff to fight the floating knight, considering that the two of them seemed to be more or less evenly matched.
She was skilled- the human just backflipped to dodge over a horizontal cut from the floating knight's sword- but not this kind of skilled. Undyne shook her head at the doubt working itself into her and jogged across the bridge. If she was going to just stand by and let this human fight alone, what kind of hero was she?
Once she was on the other side, Undyne began to summon in spears, allowing them to float freely while she created more and more. Once she had a favorable amount of spears (close to thirty) she got within firing range of the intense melee and began to send them at the airborne knight. It didn't surprise her much when they seemed to bounce harmlessly off him, not having much of an effect at all. If she couldn't penetrate the human's other armor, she obviously wouldn't be able to get through this veritable wall of a knight.
After the last of her spears impacted, the knight chanced a glance to see just what was pinging away at his back by rotating around Leo, spotting Undyne standing at the end of the bridge. Luckily for her, he seemed to deem her a non-threat compared to the undead warrior currently pressuring him back towards the woods.
He silently agreed with himself that he'd end her after he got through with his current prey.
vvv
The battle between the two surfacers continued to rage with Undyne watching, not daring to interrupt knowing she would immediately be in the way of their greatswords. Leontius had just landed a well-executed parry with his shield which off-balanced the floating knight, allowing him to half-sword his claymore and thrust it through one of the few gaps of the Pursuer's dark Vanguard armor.
This was one of his only ways to reliably do physical damage to the Pursuer, normal strikes from his enchanted blade hardly bit into the metal enough, and rarely got through the armor to damage the man beneath. Thankfully the pursuer was in a similar situation, but his weapon was much heftier and dealt considerable blunt force with its mass. This battle was essentially on equal ground, but Leontius had a few things the Pursuer didn't, one of which was a weapon capable of firing off traditionally catalyzed sorceries.
While his claymore was still jabbed into the stunned knight, he activated two readied spells, one after the other. The first was Crystal Magic Weapon, extending the size and power of his blade by coating it in crystal-reinforced soul power. The crystal extensions further damaged the knight, his armor being bypassed by the half-sworded pierce. The Pursuer was audibly groaning in pain now, but Leontius wasn't finished. He furthered his weapon's power by firing off a Soul Greatsword attack, allowing him to viciously force the weapon through the Pursuer's body and armor. He brought the knight to the ground, then onto his knees. The Pursuer's head lolled back in pain, his grunts having been silenced.
Leontius' sword was now slicing through the ground behind the knight thanks to the Soul Greatsword extension, but this was short lived when he finally ripped it free with a spray of dark haze chasing it on the way out. He backed away while reaching down to his Ashen Estus flask to top off his magical focus. He had a large quantity, but his strongest spells were quickly depleting it and he felt caution would be necessary if he needed to use them more.
The knight slowly arose once more, the dark haze acting to seal the broken armor. The Pursuer was flagging, but his dark power could fuel him further. Despite this, his shield arm was heavily damaged and near useless thanks to his demolished clavicle and shoulder muscles. Without a second thought, he released the now deadweight of his shield. Though it served well to block his foe's attacks before, it would only slow him now.
The massive steel slab of a round shield impacted the ground and managed to stand upright by breaking the stone underneath with its sheer weight. The sight of resilience made Undyne curse audibly, distracting Leontius for a few moments since he was unaware she was behind him.
That brief window was all the Pursuer needed to take advantage. He quickly lunged forward with his greatsword becoming a light blue coloration. The moment Leontius caught on to the attack, he knew he was backed into a metaphorical corner. He couldn't move since the lunge would strike Undyne, and he wasn't able to parry or effectively block since his shield wasn't prepared for the attack.
The moment he realized these facts, the Pursuer's greatsword met his body. Its point managed to get a good enough bite into his armor to successfully pierce and go straight through him. The Pursuer had paid him back for that previous attack.
Leontius was lifted off the ground and the glowing blue sword began to drain his vitality, fueling the Pursuer's own power. With an air of disgust the floating knight tossed Leontius off his sword and back to the middle of their battling area, giving a red-eyed flash in Undyne's direction before returning to his prey.
Leontius got to his feet, a gaping through-and-through hole in his left side visible through his wrent open breastplate and mail. Thankfully he had the inhuman resistance of an undead, not like he needed those parts of his lung and stomach. The ribs would be an issue though.
He instinctively reached down to his Estus Flask for a heal to get back into the battle, drinking the bottled bonfire energy through his mask's mouth hole, closing up the wound and putting a stop to the grinding feeling his pulverized bones were giving him. With his body mostly healed of the normally mortal wound, he met the Pursuer in close combat once again.
Undyne continued to stand in the same spot, frozen and aghast at what she'd seen. These two just inflicted grievous wounds on each other, and they were still going. That really proved it to her, these surface dwellers were most definitely no longer human, she'd read some crazy things about them but that was definitely not on the list of what a human could do. The gigantic shield the knight had dropped caught her eye, and that's when a quick plan popped into her head. She had one technique that would allow her to at least help in the battle, if not put it to an end.
While the floating knight was distracted, she readied her green soul-coloring attack and approached him from behind. A quick swipe from her now green spear was all it took to permanently kill his mobility. She quickly backstepped to watch the result, which went just as planned. The knight was now stuck floating in place, a light green glow issuing out from him. For a moment, the two fighters were confused as to what had just occurred, but Leontius spotted Undyne and her green spear a ways behind his foe, making it clear she was responsible.
Undyne quickly tired of his hesitance. "Well? What are you waiting for?! It's not like you need to wait for an invitation or anything!"
Silently, Leontius took that as his sign to act, sheathing his claymore to use the Dark Hand technique. He knew from past encounters that the Pursuer was an undead like himself- just cursed with something else in addition to the Darksign- and undead or humans could be forced into a soulless state, and possibly final death, by ripping out the deepest part of them: their humanity, the part of them that the curse fed on to keep them from true death.
Slowly, Leontius approached the immobile floating knight as dark auras enveloped his gauntleted hands. The knight could do nothing but watch as his target got closer, still just out of range of his sword. The next moment Leontius was just close enough for the Pursuer to initiate a horizontal slash.
That was the Pursuer's final folly in this hunt gone awry.
Leontius intended to bait out that attack from the Pursuer, and was ready to parry with the grass-crest shield. His reaction time and perfectly-angled shield allowed him to intercept and redirect the attack with such vigor and force that it wrenched the ultra-greatsword from the Pursuer's grasp and into the ground next to him. With his opponent now disarmed and open, Leontius leaped onto the floating knight, bringing him to the ground as he assaulted him.
Leontius quickly plunged his right hand into the dark sealing which covered the damage he'd dealt earlier, giving him access to the Pursuer's chest. The dark hand technique allowed Leontius to force his hand into the knight's chest similar to how he'd done to himself, but instead of carefully pulling a minuscule piece of his soul away, he reached deeper into the Pursuer, past the soul and to the origin of what made up "The Pursuer" and his soul: his Humanity.
Leontius grasped at it and began to violently tear it free of his foe's body, eliciting deep cries of pain that were quickly silenced once the vital mass was wrenched out and into the cold air of Snowdin. As Leontius stepped off the body of the Pursuer, he looked down at the precious mass of Humanity. The sound of soul absorption and the knight's posthumously convulsing body signified that his loose souls were being transferred to Leontius. After it ceased convulsing, the Pursuer's body, armor, and weapons then wholly disintegrated into ash that dissipated into the winds of Snowdin.
His soul joined his humanity in Leontius' opposite hand shortly after.
Undyne stood by even more astounded than before at what had just happened. The Pursuer's body and gear seemingly vanishing as ash went almost unnoticed by her, instead, she was focused on the things in Leontius' hands. She could easily tell one was a soul. It was dark-gray in coloration and rather large, but its vague upright heart shape was unmistakable. The other odd floating pure-black mass was unknown to her, yet still familiar somehow.
Before she could further ponder what it was by looking at it- let alone work up the ability to ask what it was- Leontius seemingly crushed and absorbed it into himself, and the soul was deposited into the small box at his belt. Undyne watched as he stood tall, hands clearing of darkness and a general look of renewal about him after crushing the black mass. He then promptly fell backward into the snow, letting out a low groan.
Undyne approached the fallen human and looked down at him, pulling off her helmet, letting her bedraggled, tied up hair free of the helm-plume. "You've got some explaining to do."
Leontius looked up at her through his child mask's eyeholes, then let his head fall back against his steel collar before he replied. "Can I not at least have a few moments to collect myself? I did just defeat a foe who I have been dealing with for the last… oh, nevermind it."
The sound of footsteps in the snow made both of them look to find the source, with Leontius having to view the world upside-down since it was coming from behind him, in the direction of the thoroughly damaged forest.
An image of Sans, of all monsters, was what greeted him. "lying down on the job, huh leo? you're not trying to replace me or anything are you?"
When Sans got no jovial response in return, he decided to cut it out, looking at the damaged battleground around him. "yeah i saw the fight. and i gotta agree with undyne though, that was something i'm sure we'd have a hoot hearing you explain."
The undead let out his trademark airless huff then stiffly sat up, hand grasping at the gaping hole in his armor. "So be it, at least let me deal with this armor first… and perhaps after I have gotten adequate rest at home."
Sans knowingly winked at Leontius, not arguing with the prospect of procrastination. "hey, take your time. how about we get going undyne, you look like you just woke up or something."
Undyne didn't even grace his poking remark with a response and just trudged off towards Waterfall, a storm of thoughts raging inside her head.
Sans watched her stomp into the town before addressing Leontius. "anyways, i'll be waiting for you at grillby's with undyne later. i'll get ya some food, i got a tab there. be seein' ya around, leo." The next moment he was gone.
vvv
After Leontius picked himself up out of the snow and trudged back to Toriel's house, the first thing- or rather, monster- he noticed was Toriel standing in front of her home by the bonfire. He had long since taken off his mask and put his shield on his back, and the sight of her standing before her home gave him the last bit of drive he needed to get his cabin and spend his first peaceful night in his own living place. He'd need to deal with the bonfire first, though.
Toriel was clutching the Ember close to her chest and staring into the flames, tired yet determined enough to battle the night's call to remain vigilant as she watched the bonfire, but once she noticed Leontius a little way down the road, she felt relief flood her senses.
Once he was close enough, Toriel held out the Ember for Leontius to take, only to have her feeling of relief drop like a stone once she saw the gaping hole in his armor.
For a few seconds, she gripped the Ember tighter, worry apparent in her features. "You defeated the knight, but he did that to you?" She got closer to Leontius to examine the hole and the wound beneath, seeing that the warrior's steel plate, chainmail, and shirt were damaged enough to the point that she could see his bare- and still raw looking- skin.
Toriel's proximity made Leontius recall the earlier armoring session. Whenever she got close like this, that warmth always returned, without fail. He'd ignored it earlier, he was too on edge, but now it was certainly having its usual effect on him. "Yes, the knight is no more. We traded blows, and he got a particularly good thrust in when Undyne-"
Toriel's no-nonsense tone interrupted his recounting of how he got the wound. "It is still fresh, it seems like you healed it by a good amount, but… just stand still for a moment." With that she unhesitatingly placed a furry paw flat against the man's skin and began to heal him, her other hand placing the Ember in one of his own.
Leontius was entirely caught off guard by the sudden influx of healing and warmth and found that words were not a luxury he could afford as his senses seemed to overload. He locked up stock still and looked down at the woman as she did her work, not even acknowledging that she handed him the Ember. Toriel realized that the wound was more than just frontal, noticing that a similar looking exit wound was oriented on Leo's back.
With the entry wound dealt with, Toriel shifted her attention to healing up the still red-raw exit wound. "It certainly was a good thrust, he impaled you hard enough to put something this massive all the way through you!"
She was definitely an experienced healer, she knew the story just by looking at the wound alone. Still experiencing an absolute flood of sensation, Leontius only gave a shaky "Yes" in response. He finally noticed he held the Ember in his right hand, so he dropped it into a pouch on his belt. He was still almost entirely locked up thanks to Toriel, so he continued to allow her to heal him.
Once she was done, Toriel lifted her still somewhat glowing hand away from the wound at his back and came around to face him again. "I healed your body, but what about your equipment? Your shirt, your armor, they are all ruined."
Leontius subconsciously put a hand to the spot where the raw mark of the impalement wound used to be as he answered. "I can repair the plate and mail with some smithing tools and items at the bonfire, but the shirt is another issue. It's tattered enough as is, it hardly matters."
Toriel didn't accept that answer. "I can repair your clothes for you in no time. You certainly do not have to be going around in torn up and ruined clothes, it simply will not do. Come by later in the morning to drop off my things, and I will see about mending your clothes for you."
Leontius knew there was no arguing with her. "...Alright. I will return here before I head into Snowdin to handle some things then. What about you?"
At the question, Toriel's fatigue seemed to finally catch up to her, and she let out a deep and long yawn, her answer coming at the tail end of it and having all the weight of sleep in every word. "Sleep, right now. I am exhausted beyond belief, all the walking I did." She wiped under her now drooping eyes with a thumb, then eyed the undead. "You should at least try to do the same, but do not forget to come see me sometime today, okay?"
Leontius nodded in response, and Toriel gave the battle-scarred undead another one of her genuine smiles before turning to enter her home for the night. "Good night, Leontius."
"Yes, good night, Toriel." With that, she shut the door behind herself, leaving Leontius alone outside. His hand was still at the bare skin of his side, feeling the remaining vestiges of Toriel's warmth still in him.
It was then Leontius knew what his calling in the Kingdom of Monsters would be.
Defending something truly worth it.
(23)
