AN: Of course I missed my date again. Sorry about the extra day. I'm pushing for Saturday as the next chapter. On to more story-based stuff, remember how I said Tarkus and Andrew vs. the Capra Demon? I forgive you if you don't. It was a long time ago. I'm going to correct that right now: It's just Tarkus vs. the Capra Demon. You'll see why just a few paragraphs in.

Chapter Eight: Blood and Iron

Despite his usefulness so far, Andrew's constant griping had almost driven Tarkus to kill him several times. He restrained himself because, as depressed as Andrew was, he was quite likely only a single death away from going hollow. However, Andrew was likely only inches away from death, as he had just fulfilled what Tarkus viewed as his only purpose on this mission. The key Andrew possessed clicked in the lock of the tower door, which swung open. Andrew led Tarkus down a set of stairs, and gestured to a very, very long ladder.

"Just down here," Andrew said, "Although I can't say I'm exactly eager to climb down." As of that last, irritatingly repetitive complaint, Tarkus had had enough.

"Of course not. What was it you said before? Oh, never mind, I remember. You said that you'd 'die again before stepping foot in that miserable cesspool.' Well, it looks like you'll have your way." Tarkus raised his foot, and Andrew suddenly found himself positioned between it and a very long drop.

"No! I didn't mean it like tha-uhh!" Andrew was cut off as Tarkus shoved his foot forwards, sending Andrew reeling over the edge. He made a very satisfying thud as he hit the ground, Tarkus decided. He'd rather face whatever monstrosities Andrew had warned him of, in an extremely annoying manner, than put up with more of the crestfallen warrior's complaints.

"Good riddance," he muttered as he slung his shield and sword over his back and began to climb down down the absurdly long ladder. Who in their right mind would ever make a ladder that was so damned long? Why couldn't the entrance to the Lower Undead Burg be, say, a staircase leading down from one or more residences in the Upper Burg, or, even more conveniently, another branch of the waterway between the Upper Burg and Firelink Shrine. At the very least, couldn't they have put this ridiculously long ladder closer to the entrance of the Burg? Tarkus had been forced to fight his way through the entirety of the undead burg whilst being peppered with annoyance by a complaining asshole. All of that managed to find it's way in and out of Tarkus' mind before he could even reach the bottom of this damned ladder. And, when those thoughts had finished running through his brain, he realized, with all of his complaining about the ladder, which he should have simply buckled down and dealt with, that the most horrifying thing he could imagine had occurred. Andrew's depressed, complaining personality had rubbed off on him. Before the incident outside of Sen's Fortress, he had been cheery and upbeat despite the massive task that he had to accomplish. After what felt like hours, he reached the bottom, and stepped out of the tower basement onto a landing. Instantly, the stench of accumulated rot and decay washed over him. Tarkus knew it would only get worse as he descended. He wanted to get through this, and get his damned answers, as quickly as possible.

Tarkus raced down a flight of stairs, and was immediately tackled by a massive, rotting undead attack dog. Somehow, with it's massive claws and teeth, it managed to find it's way to gaps in his armor, causing an extreme amount of pain and actually drawing blood. Tarkus managed to impale the first dog with his greatsword, only to be pounced on by two more, which pinned him to the ground. He was mad. He had come all this way to be killed by a trio of dogs? He didn't think so. With a growl, Tarkus yanked himself to his feet, throwing off the two hounds. One of the dogs was flung free into a flaming pyre nearby, and was incinerated. The other dog landed on its back, rolling to its feet as Tarkus raised his shield. The dog bounced off of the massive iron plate as it pounced again, and Tarkus took the opportunity to slam his greatsword down on the pitiful creature's prone form. Somehow, Tarkus knew that those damned dogs were far from the last challenge that he would face as he moved through this rotting mess.

Tarkus started forwards, moving down the foul smelling street as it sloped downwards. He assumed that downwards was the best way to go - deeper was the answer if he was trying to find the second bell of awakening. Whatever creature that these bells were supposed to awaken would have a very unpleasant time for making a test this damned hard, just so that Tarkus could figure out what had happened to his friends. Tarkus hadn't made it 15 paces down the street before he heard the sound of doors swinging open. A black-garbed hollow thief jumped out from a doorway in front of him, and, as Tarkus glanced over his shoulder to check his flank, he saw two more approaching silently from behind him. Tarkus immediately broke into a run towards the thief in front of him, and brought his greatsword around into an overhead slam which had to be enough to kill the hollow thief.

Unfortunately, Tarkus' powerful attack never actually made contact. The thief dexterously turned his blow aside with a swipe of it's shield, leaving him wide open. All three thieves took that moment as opportunity to jump onto him, stabbing him in various places. He felt more blood flowing out of the wounds as the thieves jumped free of his encumbered form, kicking him to the ground as they scrambled away. Tarkus grabbed his estus flask out of his satchel and took two swigs as he rose, but it was still nowhere close to enough - Tarkus could feel that there were still wounds between his armor, slowly leaking blood. Tarkus growled at the three thieves, cowering behind their tiny yet effective target shields, before rushing forwards again. He wasn't making the mistake of moving into anything that they could parry - instead, he jumped, bringing his foot up to kick one of them over, before slamming his weight down on its prone form. He felt multiple ribs shatter under the combined weight of his body and his equipment, and knew that the thief wouldn't be getting up. The other two thieves rushed at him in anger, which Tarkus supposed did make quite a bit of sense; he had just killed their friend. Tarkus slashed with his massive greatsword, and he felt it connect with one thief. It didn't stop there, following through to slice the first thief in half, connecting with the second thief and dismembering it as well. Tarkus heard the satisfying squish of flesh as the meaty chunk remnants of both thieves hit the ground. Tarkus moved onwards, rounding a tight corner that could act as a bottleneck and cutting through another dog that rushed at him. He pressed onwards, slashing through three more thieves that jumped out of doorways at him without a second thought. Another dog hit the ground, dead as it made the mistake of rushing towards him. Then Tarkus reached the end of a street, and the way forwards was blocked by a fog door. Without a second thought, Tarkus stepped through it, and into the worst nightmare he had ever seen.

He found himself faced with a very cramped space, and noted two more dogs rushing at him. That wasn't the problem, though. That challenge was tame compared to the third monster that occupied the space. Standing at about ten feet tall, a massive cross between a man and a skeletal goat, seeming to wear a ram's skull as a mask but more likely having that horrifying of a head, raised two massive greatswords that bore a remarkable similarity to machetes. In fact, Tarkus realized, that's exactly what they were. Giant machetes. He was about to be squished flat by a pair of giant machetes. Tarkus managed to sidestep the creature's first, massive overhead slam, but was immediately tackled by a dog, which pushed him back into the path of another massive swing. Tarkus raised his shield above him desperately, and felt a horrifyingly massive impact slam into it, crumpling and denting it like it was made of paper. Fortunately, the dog that had been on top of him had been similarly squished. Tarkus discarded his shield, knowing that it would be of no more use to him without a repairbox, a blacksmith, or some other method of reforging it. Tarkus took his greatsword in both hands to face what he now realized was a chaos demon.

Tarkus impaled the second dog as it jumped at him, but regretted it immediately as the demon performed a horizontal slash with it's right machete, and he had no method to avoid it except hitting the ground. Tarkus did so, hard, and felt a sense of relief as the machete passed harmlessly over his head. Tarkus cleared the dog corpse off of his greatsword, and started to stand before realizing that the left machete was coming around for a second pass. Tarkus dropped to the ground again, and his foe, undoubtedly expecting a larger amount of resistance in the form of Tarkus himself, overbalanced. Tarkus took the opportunity to stand up and slash at the chaos demon's left Achilles tendon. The demon dropped to one knee, and Tarkus promptly lopped its head clean off. Both the head and the body disintegrated into dust, as did both of the demon's weapons. However, a humanity sprite, and a small key, were left behind. Tarkus retrieved both of them, and moved on.

AN: Sorry about a shorter chapter, but like I said, I'm trying to break the ones still in Lordran up by zones, and the Lower Burg is incredibly small. Stay tuned for Siegmeyer and Havel in the next chapter.