-Depths-
Jinta sat by the bonfire, Hollow and exhausted. He was out of Humanity, and his sign was by the corner. Suddenly, his head jerked up.
"That's it!" he said, jumping up. Humanity returned to him from his sign; he'd successfully completed a summon. He removed his sign, drew his two longswords, and moved forward. He knew the way out now, thanks to the one that summoned him, and he didn't want to spend another second in the sewers.
"I'm not sure I want to know what that thing is carving down there…" said Tetsuro, leaning over the wooden railing.
"Dog?" Seiko offered with false optimism.
The two were standing on a wooden platform on stilts over sewer water. There were picnic benches scattered about, aside from the two that were broken in the previous fight with a group of Hollows. Down below, on solid bricks, a large humanoid thing was swinging a large cleaving knife into a slab of meat. It had on a butcher's smock, a sack on its head with eye-holes cut in, and simple pants. There were bones piled up all over the wall behind the figure.
"Do you know a dog that would sleep calmly next to something planning to eat another dog?" said Tetsuro, referencing the dog lying near the butcher, guarding a chest.
"We're gonna have to go that way, unless we want to drop down off the sides of this platform to who-knows-where. I vote against potential one-way trips."
Seiko walked over to the drop off the side. There was a door visible down the hallway they would end up in, closed, and a turn. She walked over and looked down the other hallway. The wall was blown open below her, there was another small platform over her, and a doorway at that end of the hall as well. This doorway was lit with a flickering light, as if from a torch.
"There's a way into the water. It doesn't look like a trap…" said Seiko.
"A last resort, regardless," said Tetsuro.
"The stairs then?"
Tetsuro walked over to the stairs that led to the butcher. "Follow me."
They walked down, Seiko keeping her eyes on the dog. She was right to, as it stood up right away and ran at them. She prepared to throw a Fireball, but was startled by the butcher snapping the wooden table it had been working on in half with a powerful swing. Instead of the Fireball, Seiko had to settle for swatting the dog aside before it tackled her. Tetsuro approached the butcher with balanced steps and slashed across its stomach. It hid incredibly tough skin under its rags, and his blade didn't bite very deeply. The butcher ignored the wound and raised its cleaver like a guillotine, slamming it down. Tetsuro rolled past the butcher to avoid the attack, cutting down its back from shoulder to hip as soon as he gained his feet. The butcher tried to ignore him going for Seiko as she killed the dog, but Tetsuro started clanging his sword off his shield and yelling.
"Pay attention, you brain-dead oaf. Don't you care if I split your flesh and spill your guts!?"
The butcher turned, snatching a meat-hook off its belt and swiping it at Tetsuro. The hook caught the plate strapped to his shoulder, yanking him forward. The butcher took a swing, horizontal. Tetsuro moved with the pull and ducked, then hopped back, almost losing his balance. The butcher swung, back-handed, while Tetsuro was trying not to fall backward. He put up his shield, absorbed the blow, and went flying backward, down a garbage chute.
Seiko had only turned around in time to see him disappear into the chute. She could hear him hit something only a second later, so she knew he wasn't dead, but something about his fate pulled at a nerve in her. She flew into a rage, lashing out with a Fire Whip. The butcher cringed from the heat and turned to slash at Seiko. Seiko stepped in, caught the butcher's wrist, stopping its attack dead, and punched it in the gut. The butcher, easily over two meters tall and hundreds of pounds of muscle, flew back into the wall next to the chest.
"Seiko?" echoed Tetsuro's voice from the chute.
Seiko didn't respond, hurling a Great Fireball at the butcher while it was dazed. The attack exploded on the butcher's chest, engulfing it in blue flames. It screamed in a low, agonized voice, flailing and burning, but it stood. This only angered Seiko further, and she threw two more Great Fireballs, heedless of any chance of exhausting herself. Both attacks struck, causing the butcher to flail and cry out again, falling over and having a fit on the floor. It's flailing slowed amidst the blue fire, and it finally died. Seiko stood over it, seething and taking hissing breaths through her clenched teeth.
"Seiko!"
Tetsuro had yelled several other times, but this was the first one to register with her since his initial outcry. She came to her senses, noticeably tired but needing only a minute to rest, and ran over to the chute.
"There you are! What happened up there?"
"Sorry… I don't know… The butcher is dead, though."
"Judging by the screaming and spitting of fire, I'm willing to bet that's your fault. Are you ok?"
"Just winded. Should I follow?"
"No! There's no way back up. I'll have to find another way back to you. If you find a bonfire, or if you find another way down, look for a ladder near some sewer grates. I can see something like that from up here and the bars look wide set. I bet you could squeeze through, but I'm too big. We'll meet up later, alright? Be careful."
Seiko nodded, backing away from the chute. She walked over to the chest the dog had been guarding, opening it to find a small ornately carved box. She reached in, picked up the box and opened it. Inside, an ember the size of a Humanity burned. Seiko closed the box and held on to it in her right hand, her fingers barely long enough to grip it. She went to the next set of stairs going down to find a stagnant pool of sewer water, the pool underneath the wooden platform with the benches. She looked across the pool to see a pile of rubble that could be climbed back up into a hallway. It was the same hole she'd seen earlier, so she went back up the other set of stairs to the platform and dropped down where the hole let out. Since there was an arched doorway immediately to the left, Seiko tried that direction first. The room she came into was a dead end, full of crates and barrels, and smelled thickly of blood.
"You!"
Seiko heard a voice and looked around, spotting someone stuck in a barrel in the back corner of the room.
"Yes, you! Here! Over- No! Behind you!"
Seiko had started walking across the room already, but turned around quickly. Another butcher had entered the room and was running at her with its cleaver held overhead to chop her in half. Seiko hopped aside, unleashing a Fire Whip as she did. The butcher missed its swing, flailing its free hand at the flames and turning to swing again. Seiko only had her left hand to work with, ducking the swing and punching for the butcher's elbow. Bones were crushed as her fist hit home, and the butcher dropped its cleaver, staggering back in pain. Seiko snatched up the cleaver and slashed backhanded at the butcher, disemboweling it in one stroke, but accidentally crushing the cleaver's handle. The butcher fell to its knees, then to the floor, good hand over its wound to keep its innards where they belonged.
"Help me out of this thing, please!" yelled the man Seiko had seen earlier.
Seiko started running toward him when the cleaver in her hand snapped off above her grip, the metal too thin to support the weight of the blade. Seiko looked at the crushed handle left in her hand, dropped it, and quickly shoved aside some barrels to get to the man. She tore off a few planks from the barrel he was trapped in so he could escape. He scrambled free and looked himself over, wearing hooded rags and thick leather boots.
"Phew… Thank you. Dearly! I might have ended up her dinner if not for you."
"Her?"
"The butcher there, of course. I am Laurentius, a Pyromancer of The Great Swamp. You're quite the talented Pyromancer yourself, I see."
"Quelaana taught me," said Seiko, with a proud smile.
"Que- You don't mean a Chaos Witch herself taught you Pyromancy? Do you?"
Seiko nodded, confused. "She named me too. Seiko, 'Blue Child.'"
"That's… That's quite an honor. D'you remember where she is? Would she still be there?!"
"She's in Blighttown, but she said normal people couldn't see her. I don't know what that means."
"'Normal people can't see her…' Hmm… That is curious, indeed."
"She only taught me basic Pyromancy. She said I should learn the rest on my own, or find another teacher."
"I see. Flames only, then? Well, I believe we can help each other. I've got nothing left right now… I'm exhausted. I'll head back to Firelink to rest. Can we meet up there? We could trade knowledge. I'd have more confidence about being able to find Quelaana if I knew some of her Pyromancy. If you'll teach me a bit of what she taught you, I'll show you what I know as well."
"Deal!"
"Right, then."
The two walked out of the room.
"I know the way back," said Laurentius. "I'll wait at Firelink and do some practicing of my own until you get there. Be careful on your way."
Seiko nodded. "You too."
Laurentius slid down the rubble into the pool of water, trudging across to the brick platform, up to the wooden one, and on his way out. Seiko waited until she was sure he was out of The Depths before moving on, heading toward the other door she'd seen. The door opened to mossy bricks and a set of stairs, leading down into a chamber with a thin layer of water at the bottom, less than ankle-height. The smell was unbelievable. Seiko cringed, but she saw a way forward in the chamber, so she continued. The way ahead constricted to a narrow passage, into another chamber, a narrow doorway, and then a larger hall with grates near where the walls met the floor. Sewer water flowed lazily from the right to the left.
Seiko started down the hallway when something caught her eye. The ceiling was moving, covered in living slime. Seiko shivered in disgust.
"Hey! Is that you?" a familiar voice echoed.
Seiko looked around and didn't see anyone.
"Down through the grate!"
Seiko looked through the grates to her right and left, spotting Tetsuro to the left in a large chamber near a giant dead rat. There was a battle axe stuck in one of its eyes, but that wasn't the killing blow.
"Tetsuro!"
"You're near that ladder I was talking about. Do you see a doorway up ahead?"
Seiko looked down the hall. "There are two. One has a big, rusted lock, though."
"If the other comes this way, that's the right way to the ladder and grate. I have a key that might fit that lock. Come to me first!"
Their conversation echoed well, since they'd had to raise their voices to cover distance. Some of the slime on the ceiling dripped down in a blob bigger than Seiko, flattening into the water. It started sliding toward her, quivering. Seiko whipped a Fireball at it, revolted. The slime caught fire instantly, burning into a charred resin.
"Don't like bugs? What's with you?!" He couldn't see what she'd attacked.
"It was slime!"
"Slime?"
"Living slime!"
"That's… Disgusting."
"It is!"
"Well, come on, then."
Seiko looked up again, at the moving ceiling. She held up her free left hand, still holding the box with the large ember in it in her right, and started running down the passage, unleashing Fire Surge as she did. Burning flakes of the slimes rained into the water behind her as she ran, eyes closed in repulsion. She heard her boots change from water to metal grates, and stopped, finding herself in front of the locked door. She turned around to see charred remains stuck to the ceiling and burnt flakes fluttering into the running water. She took the path Tetsuro had told her about, finding herself walking across more grates after going down a set of stone stairs. Next to the stairs, going down through the grating she was standing on, was a ladder. Tetsuro was standing in a chamber to the left, on a lower level. Seiko jumped down, ignoring the ladder, and ended up on Tetsuro's level, but on the other side of the wide-set bars he'd mentioned earlier. There was another shield resting on his back.
"Here, take the key and this shield. They should help."
"I found this," said Seiko, holding out the box. "There's an ember in it."
"A smithing ember?!"
"Yes?" Seiko had no idea.
"I'll take it! Good find."
They traded items.
"I'll wait here for you. Go see if you can get that door open."
Seiko threw the shield up to the top of the ladder, climbed up, retrieved it, and went back up the short set of stairs to the locked door. The key worked on the first try, the padlock dropping onto the stone with a thunk. It opened to a narrow hallway that ended in a small chamber with a bonfire in it, the same one Jinta had waited at while he'd been summoned. Seiko returned to the ladder.
"It's to a bonfire!"
"Damn… Here, take my flask and go fill it there. Do you see any way I could meet up with you?"
Seiko jumped down, leaving the shield above the ladder. She pointed to the door on the opposite side of the chamber as the ladder.
"Maybe that?" She took the Estus Flask from Tetsuro, then walked over to the door. She tried to open it, but found it locked from the other side. She tried the key in the lock, but it wouldn't open. The door was made of wood, so she punched through it near the lock and ripped it off, causing the door to snap open toward her. It led to a long staircase down.
"It leads really far down," she reported.
"As far down as that?" asked Tetsuro, gesturing to the huge opening in the chamber he was in. The water from above was gushing out sluice gates, joined by the lazily flowing water Tetsuro was standing in. Seeing that made it appear as if what he was standing in, as well as all the water in the areas above, was overflow.
"I think. I'll check after I fill the flask. Hang on."
She went back to the bonfire, filled the flask, had to kill a Hollow that was also in the room near the bonfire, and returned to Tetsuro. She gave him the flask, held up the new shield he'd given her, and went down the stairs. At the bottom, she found another chamber with some stagnant sewer water less than ankle height, a few slimes and passive rats as big as she was, and three new paths. She walked into the chamber a bit when she heard Tetsuro yell. She looked left and there he was, up above the sluice gates. There was enough room on either side of the massive hole the water was being dumped into for one person to walk down on either side. Tetsuro was too far away and his voice was drowned out by the crashing waterfall from the sluice gates, so Seiko only waved. Tetsuro moved to one side and stepped up to walk down the sides of the hole. He took a step forward onto the decline, found the stone more slippery than he expected, and was all at once sliding down the path on his back, hands overhead. He hit the floor of the chamber Seiko was in on his back, sliding a bit further over into the brick wall. He hit the wall feet first, bent his knees and stopped. It took him a moment to wipe the look of mortal terror off his face and stand up.
"That was… Not how I expected that to go."
"Lucky you didn't fall."
"No kidding." Tetsuro looked himself over, making sure he hadn't lost anything. Everything was still on his belt, including his Estus Flask and the box holding the ember he'd put in his half-empty pouch of repair powder.
"If it's alright with you, after that, I'd like to head back up to the bonfire and rest. We can head back down here and figure out the way forward later. You look a bit tired yourself."
"I had to use a lot of Pyromancy…"
"Yeah. Rest it is. Let's go, then."
The two went back up the stairs to the bonfire Seiko had found. Tetsuro put the ember into his bottomless box, depositing his broadsword and switching it for a Balder Side Sword for thrusting in the narrow sewer passages. The two sat down by the fire, resting a while...
A/N: You guys have no idea how much I want to burst-upload everything I have prepared... I'm working on chapter 10 right now... I have a really good feeling about this... If I had to explain why, I guess it's because the new chapter 10 is dealing with things that happened in chapter 3 last time. I'm doing everything I can to amp up detail, avoid skipping as much content as I can in terms of the game's levels, characterize properly, not fail on epic proportions with the NPCs, etc. And, so far, I feel like I've done a lot better. I still see a lot of room for improvement, but I'm curious what you guys think so far. We've really only just begun, after all...