Chapter 5:
Upon arrival to the start of the Royal Waterways, we proceeded to defeat some Hollows that had either torches or knives from afar, as there were way too many to deal with in hand-to-hand combat. And when they were all dead, we then went forward and down into the next part, where we saw a couple demon dogs and a very fat butcher, who I recognized from her having a sack on her head and nothing but fur undies on. It was Mildred the Maneater, who looked at me in anger.
"Intruders?!" she asked, me actually being shocked at how her voice was actually very high-pitched, which I didn't expect. She then slammed her cleaver into the table with the giant dead dog there, which not only cleaved the meat in half, but also demolished the table.
"Easy, miss! We aren't here to attack, we came to find our way to Blighttown," I said, hoping not to have to deal with killing her. Mildred growled at me as she then sniffed the air, which confused me. And then she lost her anger and lowered her stance.
"Truth smell?... You truthful?" she asked, me nodding as I saw the others in my group were concerned or confused. "Fine... actually... me ask help?" she asked.
"Help? With what?" Solaire asked.
"Sisters... they catch friend... want him for food. Save friend... kill sisters. Them hollow. Me no hollow," she requested, me smiling at her notion.
"Where is they?" I asked.
"Back room. Go through water behind you... quick, almost lunch," she said, me nodding as we then rushed through the deep water, seeing it wasn't dirty at all, and we then went to the back room, where we immediately got jumped by the giant cleaver of one of the sisters, who I then had to kill via a Soulmass attack, which ripped her fat, flabby skin apart until she was nothing but a pile of meat herself. And when I saw this? I ended up puking, which got the attention of another sister, who came from the right of us.
"C-Can you get that one?... I feel sick..." I gagged, my allies doing so as I saw that Pollocks forced the dead gargoyle to give the final blow with a tail slam, which allowed me time to recover, the others in the group looking at me in concern.
"Are you alright, Master Penny?" Pollocks asked as I coughed one more time and nodded.
"Sorry... I'm not good with this amount of gore..." I sighed as we then went to the west and we saw that the man in question was Laurentius, who was trapped in a barrel.
"Oh! Hello there! Can you help me out?" he asked, me nodding.
"We already did. And you can thank Mildred for us rescuing you," I said as I then proceeded to break him out of the barrel by prying it apart with my hands, which was very easy. The main thing he was unable to move in the barrel was because he was binded in ropes, which we sliced to ribbons shortly after.
"Thanks to you regardless... can you show me where Mildred is?" he asked, us nodding as we then went back to the meaty girl and she then looked in our direction and squealed a bit before rushing over with happiness in her movements.
"You save Laury! Thankies muches!" she said happily before then hugging Laurentius as I smirked.
"Another happy ending," I smirked.
"By the way, what are your names? I am Laurentius of the Great Swamp," the pyromancer smiled.
"Penny's my name, this is Solaire of Astora, Pollocks of Minos, and Castor of... um..." I said, him smirking.
"Oh, my apologies! I forgot to say where I hail from! I am Castor of Carim. I was there at the same time as Pollocks when that bastard Lautrec corrupted our minds," Castor said, me nodding at him.
"You want go Blighttown you said?" Mildred asked, me nodding at her.
"Good luck with that, then. I had to block the way there because it's home to monsters from Izalith," Laurentius frowned.
"What?! But we need to get down there posthaste to ring the Bell of Awakening and save the sickly witch!" Solaire shouted, which made Mildred frown.
"Me lead to key," she said, me looking at her in surprise. "Me very hardy and tough. Me come with to find key... as thanks for saving Laury," she said, Laurentius frowning at that.
"If you let anything happen to her, I won't forgive you and I will kill you," he said to me, which I nodded at and crossed my heart. "And... if you are determined to go to Izalith on a fool's journey... be wary of Quelaana, Quelaag, and especially the Knight of Thorns. They will kill you if they hear you want to reach the sickly sister," he said, me nodding at that.
"I'll keep that in mind. But the reason we want to meet her is so we can heal her," I said.
"That's impossible. Only by gaining 50 humanity and giving it to her all at once can she be healed to full health, but Humanity is very scarce lately..." he said, me looking at the others and me smiling as we then showed off that, between each and every one of our group, we had a total of 70 hunks of Humanity to spare! "How... How do you have so many hunks on your person?!" he asked in shock.
"Simple. We've been finding them on most of the hollows that we pillage, alive or dead," Pollocks spoke for me.
"Incredible... but as I said, be wary of the three I've mentioned. Kirk is a ruthless member of the Darkwraiths, Quelaana is the most gifted Pyromancer (and my teacher), and Quelaag will stop at nothing to protect her sister and only trusts Kirk to give her sister humanity," he said, me being surprised when I heard his voice in my head when speaking of Quelaana.
"Quelaana is your teacher?" I asked, causing Laurentius to gasp.
"H-How did... did you just read my mind?!" he gawked.
"I think, though unknowingly... maybe if I could control it better, we could do good with trying to reason with the three you mentioned!" I said happily.
"We should get going before those Hollows rise again," Solaire suggested.
"Yes... come this way. Careful of rats and slimes," she said as she led us to the area to the back of the room, leading us through to the back room that would lead to a bonfire. We found quite a few nasty slimes, but I managed to defeat them from afar and snuff them out from their ceiling hiding spots with Homing Soulmass, which forced them to fall down for us to defeat. And it turned out that Mildred was very strong and, indeed, very sturdy. She actually got hurt by one of the slimes using a spike attack, but the most it left was a tiny puncture on her stomach that didn't even bleed!
"Ow," she groaned afterwards.
"That's all you have to say? A slime monster skewers you and all you say is 'ow'?" Solaire asked in surprise.
"Sturdy good. Big knowledge of Iron Skin," she asid, me knowing that wasn't what it was called, but knowing what she meant as I only then saw that she happened to have a Pyromancer left hand and that it was actually so deeply ingrained within her, that you couldn't even see it unless you saw the small insignia on it!
"Cool! You mastered a Pyromancy skill to the point it's constantly active? I wonder how good I'd be if I were a Pyromancer?" I asked as we then went down the stairs to the next part, where we then looked to the left and I was in awe at what I saw. The biggest damn rat in the game... and it was actually even BIGGER! It was so big, it was able to reach the upper portions with ease, meaning we couldn't have possibly went the other way without getting eaten!
"THAT is one BIG ASS RAT!" I shouted, getting the rodents attention as he tried to reach us, but the bars protecting us didn't budge. I proceeded to use a Soul Arrow attack on the rat, which completely made it explode, its guts and blood going into the water immediately! And when it flowed down the waterfall, I heard a voice as Mildred smacked down the iron door in front of us to cheat a bit.
"UGH! What the fuck is this disgusting slop?! Wait... I sense humanity... tons of it!" said a voice that had some very dark and brooding reverb to it, me immediately looking at the others and speaking.
"I think we just got Kirk's attention, guys. Huddle formation. But when we find him, do not kill him. Let me speak," I said, them nodding as we then did just that, me seeing that the knight of thorns appeared from the staircase from where the basilisks roamed, him looking at me and walking towards us with intrigue.
"Halt, Kirk, Knight of Thorns!" I said, him then stopping in place when he heard me speak.
"How do you know my name and title?" he asked with intrigue in his body expressions.
"Laurentius of the Great Swamp told us... and he also mentioned that you are very protective of a fair maiden called Quelinde, right?" I asked, Kirk gawking before then getting his sword out and pointing it at me from afar.
"If you dare to do anything to the Fair Lady, I shall defend her to the day I die!" he said, him then rushing at me and attempting to skewer me with his sword, but I parried him with my Black Knight Sword, allowing me time to grab his sword with my mind and use it to skewer a nearby rat! I then kicked him to the ground and spoke to him.
"I'm not going to hurt her. I'm going to save her with the buttloads of humanity we have. I believe she needs 50 at the minimum to be able to heal her from whatever ails her, right?" I asked, Kirk frowning as he then tried to grab me with his Darkhand, which I then got off of him before he could do the deed.
"Lies! I shall not allow you to harm the fair lady!" he shouted, causing Castor to speak.
"If we wanted to kill the Fair Lady, don't you think we'd have done the same to you by now?" Castor asked, which made Kirk stop in place before looking at us in confusion.
"I don't know if you noticed, but we outnumber you 5 to one and we have only been defending ourselves without attacking with intent to kill. You'd be dead by now if we were plotting to kill Quelinde," Solaire spoke, which made Kirk growl before he then grabbed his sword from a distance with his Dark Hand and looked at me angrily.
"I will await you in the Fair Lady's resting grounds and will watch the whole thing. If any harm comes to her or her sister Quelaag, I will kill you and give your personal souls to my master... and the others shall go to Quelinde," he said, me nodding at that.
"Then our souls will be safe," I smirked as Kirk then simply teleported away... before we heard the klinking of a key falling on the ground. I then looked at where he stood and I swiped the key that would lead to Blighttown!
"Huh... not where Laury leave it... he leave it by Gaping Dragon..." Mildred said as I then knew that something was going to happen for sure, since I could hear some powerful steps coming from the area with said dragon.
"Um... I think we'll need to ask you to go back, Mildred. The big boy that we're after is arriving," I said as the man then arrived. It was Havel without a doubt, him looking at me as he lugged his giant dragon tooth along with at least 30 dragon scales on a hide of the Gaping Dragon along with him!
"You cheat dragon scales... Havel no like that... Havel make you pay," he said as he then tried to attack us, but I simply grabbed his Dragon Tooth with my magic and smacked him in the back with it before getting it to my hands... and immediately dropping it from the sheer weight it had!
"HOLY SHIT! Good thing I wasn't holding on tight and far back, or I'd get a broken back AND smushed feet!" I exclaimed before Havel growled at me.
"Give Havel Dragon Tooth back. Or Havel smash face," he said angrily.
"Okay, big baby, I'll explain in baby terms," I said, getting Havel mad as he then rushed forward a bit faster and me simply holding him back by conjuring the water to hold him in place, which I was surprised I could do so! It was like I was an avatar! "Havel went to Oolacile 10 years ago. Havel steal special Dragon Scales from temple. Havel cause Oolacile's downfall. Havel cause Minos to be constantly attacked by crazed Oolacile. Havel have many deaths from his hands. Havel is in BIG trouble with Lady Gwynevere," I said, him growling at me as I then released his resraints and he then tried to move forward again... and I gawked at how his ankel crumpled like a big lump of wet clay!
"GAUGH! My ankle! Havel in pain! HAVEL IN PAIN!" he shouted as I then looked at the others and then at him.
"Ugh... I know I shouldn't, but... I can't ignore this," I said with annoyance as I then went to Havel and he looked scared.
"S-Stay away from Havel! No kill!" he shouted.
"Stop crying like a baby and take off that heavy armor. I need to get that ankle looked at," I said, him looking at me before then taking his helmet off... and me seeing that he had a chubby face underneath. He then took off the rest with the feet being the last, which he winced in tons of pain as his right ankle was the one that was busted. I then looked at it and saw that, as of now, it was inflamed and when I felt in certain spots, I could feel that nothing was off.
"Nothing's broken, it seems you got either a twisted ankle, tore a muscle or tendon, or you sprained a muscle... until further notice, you're our prisoner and we're going to try and get you to someone that can heal that foot injury, since none of us have any healing magics on standby and I don't think Estus Flasks can heal an injury like this," I said, Havel gulping as he then whimpered a bit with his body being very elderly and very chubby, filled with more wrinkles than a pug dog's face. And he started to whimper like a baby.
"Bless you... Havel ashamed to try kill you... Havel serve under you forever..." he said, me looking at the others and Solaire smiling.
"I think you may have broken him," Solaire smirked.
"I think she just did a great deed... but I'd like an apology for endangering my people for 10 years, mister Havel," Pollocks frowned at him angrily.
"Havel... sorry... Havel not know those dragon scales important..." he said, me then hearing his thoughts. (Havel very ashamed... shouldn't have ever sided with Everlasting One... not if innocent get hurt.)
"He's truthful. He said he wouldn't have done so if he knew it'd hurt innocent bystanders... now I'd say we should get going to Blighttown and that we proceed to have Havel put his armor on minus shoes. I'll carry you and the Dragon Tooth with my mind until we can get to someone that can heal you up," I smiled.
"And me go to Firelink to tell Laury me okay," Mildred said, me smiling at her.
"Hmm... how about we get you a partner to travel with in case the Hollows have risen again? Castor, you mind?" I asked, him smirking at that.
"You're making the smart decisions here. I heard tell there's a way to make a shortcut from Blighttown to the Firelink Shrine from the Great Swamp. Be cautious while going there, since I've heard that Chaos Beasts lie in wait at the swamp itself,"Castor said as he and Mildred then went back the way we came and we then proceeded to go forward and I then placed the big key into the giant door and, with help from the other men, we managed to slide it open the whole way to show a ladder that would lead downwards. It was time for one of the worst locations in the game, mainly from framerate drops galore. That and the confusing layout and the toxic dart blowers.
