AN: The Depths won't have the same layout - Laurentius and the butchers will be towards the Blighttown entrance side of things, and Kirk will show up a lot sooner. I tried to set it up to be more enjoyable and linear for the sake of storytelling. Basically the entire chapter is supposed to be a dynamic fight of high tier dark souls style combat, worrying about true combos, kill confirms, etc., between Tarkus and Kirk that moves throughout the Depths. Also, in case you guys haven't noticed, I'm largely trying to avoid the concept of phantoms - I've always viewed it as more of a game mechanic than an actual lore element. As such, Kirk will be here in the flesh. However, that doesn't mean that phantoms don't exist in this lore set - the golden eye orb should be proof of that. I'm just trying to use phantoms less and get more in the flesh action. One final note, I'm calling right here at the beginning. This is going to be the single longest fight scene, and potentially the longest chapter in general, in the entire story. Please review and tell me if it starts feeling cumbersome. Enjoy!
Chapter Twelve: Sewer Scramble
Tarkus trudged forwards through the disgusting muck of the burg sewers. He was getting frustrated at the circuitous design of the place, and he hadn't encountered much of anything just yet. Sure, there had been the occasional rat, one or two clusters of hollows, even a few sentient piles of goo - but it had all been winding, looping tunnel after winding, looping tunnel, all filled with so much moist sewage that Tarkus was beginning to worry that his armor would rust.
"Where the hell could she have wound up that I have to go through this shit just to figure out where she is, never mind anything about getting her back?" Tarkus grumbled aloud as his frustration with these godforsaken sewers grew by the minute. If he didn't uncover some evidence that he was making progress soon, he was going to snap a homeward bone back to Firelink and try to find another way into the Blighttown ruins.
"Lose someone, did we? A shame. I feel you, you know? I'm on the verge of finding myself in the exact same predicament, only... far more permanent..." Tarkus froze as the honeyed voice drifted through the sewers to reach his ears. It somehow seemed both friendly and malicious at the same time - never a good sign. Those types of voices always belonged to the most dangerous of foes. Tarkus recalled a certain golden knight from Carim boasting a similar voice, and he had gotten far too lucky during that encounter. Tarkus slowly looked up, towards the source of the voice, and, for the first time since he had set off to find Raven and her mass of followers, felt true fear. The figure that stood before him had made it into most history books based on his pure infamy - a figure dressed in dark armor, with thorns sprouting out of every bit of the attire. The man he now faced, sure to become his opponent in a few moments' time, was none other than the Darkwraith Kirk, Knight of Thorns.
"Oh, you recognize me? Then I'm sure you know what's about to happen. Terribly sorry about that. It's nothing personal, you see. Just... for lack of a better word, well, business." Kirk chuckled ominously, drawing a barbed straight sword and spiked shield. Tarkus drew his own greatsword and black iron greatshield from his back, falling into a combat stance as Kirk charged him. Tarkus planted his shield in the ground just as Kirk reached him, deflecting Kirk's opening strike, before swiping with his greatsword. Kirk nimbly rolled backwards from the swipe, backpedaling as he realized just how much of a threat to his health the greatsword was. Kirk was by no means giving up, however, as he was spacing himself so that he was just out of reach of Tarkus' massive blade. Tarkus took a few quick steps into a long thrust, aimed squarely at Kirk's chest, which the knight of thorns deftly sidestepped, spinning into a horizontal slash at Tarkus' neck. Tarkus brought his shield up quickly, spinning his body so that it deflected the blow sideways, before taking another wide swipe with his greatsword. Kirk promptly rolled under the blade, depositing himself squarely behind Tarkus. Kirk began a series of deft, rapid attacks, each one striking at an area which Tarkus' greatshield didn't quite protect, forcing the black iron knight to twist and turn in a very exhausting manner in order to defend each strike in turn. However, Kirk was thinking more strategically than Tarkus by far - the fifth attack was a feint, a thrust that was never intended to hit Tarkus, but which came close enough that it forced Tarkus to block it, just in case. Kirk then spun into his sixth strike, a slash from the opposite direction that Tarkus had no hope of getting his shield to. Tarkus made a split second decision, rolling backwards and reducing what would have been a fatal blow to a glancing strike against the black iron knight's right pauldron, which did nothing beyond scratch the sturdy metal. Kirk tried to follow up on his advantage with a dashing attack to the spot where Tarkus came to his feet, but Tarkus responded more quickly, raising his greatsword in an upwards slash and forcing Kirk to dive to the side, lest he be cleaved in two.
Kirk's own dive sent him into a roll around a corner, and it became Tarkus' turn to press the advantage. He took it immediately, rushing forwards with his shield, aiming to shove Kirk off balance and guarantee a hit with his greatsword. Kirk responded quickly with a nimble sidestep, allowing Tarkus to barrel past him and giving him a window to strike at Tarkus' undefended back. Tarkus realized what had happened instantly, and ducked into another roll as Kirk attempted to exploit the opportunity with a slash from left to right. Kirk sprinted after him once again, bracing himself to sidestep another rolling attack, but nothing came. Kirk dashed at Tarkus and lunged with a thrust attack that should have slipped right through Tarkus' armor plating. Tarkus, however, sidestepped the thrust, allowing Kirk to stumble past him before swiping at the already off-balance Knight of Thorns. Kirk allowed himself to drop to the ground in a roll, causing Tarkus' swipe to meet open air. However, Kirk was out of space to maneuver. As he came to his feet, he found his back placed against a very solidly made sewer grate. It would seem that the pair had reached a dead end. Tarkus grinned as a look of panic manifested on Kirk's face, despite his mask. Kirk quickly glanced around, first left and then right, for a method to escape. Tarkus chuckled at Kirk's panic, but then swore as Kirk spun and dashed towards a small maintenance door cut into the wall. That hallway was too narrow for Tarkus to swing his greatsword inside, so he had only one option: Tarkus charged into the hallway with his shield in front of him, both completely blocking his vision and also preventing Kirk from attacking him in any way. Tarkus charged forwards, trying to catch Kirk in his charge and pin the Knight of Thorns to a wall, but he realized his mistake too late as he felt his shield slam into a dead end and stick fast, watching helplessly as Kirk approached him from an intersecting hallway.
"You seem to have gotten yourself in a bit of a pickle, there," Kirk commented, chuckling as he advanced towards the vulnerable black iron knight. Kirk spun his body forwards, bringing his barbed straight sword up into a thrust aimed squarely at Tarkus' neck, one of the few places that his armor wouldn't save him. Tarkus quickly dropped his greatsword to the ground and yanked his arm out of the straps on his greatshield, spinning and allowing the thrust to pass him by.
"Nothing I can't improvise my way out of," Tarkus commented, as he grabbed Kirk's wrist with his left hand and spun again, digging his elbow into Kirk's own and forcing the Knight of Thorns to drop his blade, which Tarkus grabbed out of the air with his waiting right palm, bringing the blade around in an overhead slash at Kirk. Kirk pressed himself to the wall of the narrow maintenance hallway, allowing Tarkus' swing to pass right by. Kirk brought a knee up into Tarkus' wrist, pinning it against the wall and grabbing his barbed straight sword out of the black iron knight's grip, before reorienting the blade and bringing it into a forwards lunge. Tarkus reacted with lightning speed, catching the blade from both sides with his gauntlets, holding the attack fast. The black iron knight brought his foot up into a high kick which caught his opponent in the chest, the power of the move sending the knight of thorns crashing to the ground. Kirk pulled himself to his feet, backpedaling warily and raising his shield as a precaution.
"Like that's going to do anything against someone my size," Tarkus growled as he rushed forwards. Kirk desperately raised his shield, which did in fact deflect Tarkus' lunging attack with thr barbed sword, but it completely failed to aid the knight of thorns as Tarkus spun his momentum, slamming his shoulder into Kirk and shoving him backwards. Tarkus pressed the advantage, using his momentum to force Kirk backwards several feet. The two spilled out of the service tunnel and back into the larger sewer passages, stumbling in opposite directions. A trio of rats squealed, noticing the pair in combat as potential victims, and rushed forwards. Tarkus skewered one quickly, while a second fell to a heavy slam of Kirk's barbed shield. The third rat was deflected by the corpse of Kirk's kill, flying towards Tarkus, who skewered it as well. The result was a barbed straight sword with two giant rat corpses skewered on it, destroying the blade's balance and covering its edge.
"Well, that's certainly a bother, isn't it?" Kirk's honeyed voice drawled. Tarkus chuckled, tossing the sword aside with a fleshy splat. The pair stared each other down for a brief moment, before Tarkus turned and sprinted towards the dead end from which the rats had come forth - he had noticed a corpse which still bore a weapon lying face down in the sewage, covered with hundreds of various rat-induced wounds. Tarkus wasn't interested in the corpse at present, but rather its armament. Tarkus snatches the weapon up, noting that it was a great axe whose blade was still gleaming and sharp, not damaged in the slightest by its time in the muck which the black iron knight now waded through.
Tarkus chuckled as he whirled on Kirk, raising the massive axe in a menacing manner. Kirk, in turn, raised his own shield and freshly de-ratted sword, his posture radiating determination and defiance. Tarkus charged again, swinging the great axe over his head to slam it downwards at Kirk with a single hand. Kirk sidestepped nimbly, but Tarkus was more than prepared. As the axe slammed into the ground, Tarkus shifted his momentum and pivoted, spinning into an uppercut towards Kirk's new position. The knight of thorns swore as he couldn't react fast enough, and so Tarkus' uppercut caught his shin mid-roll and interrupted the motion, sending Kirk sprawling. Tarkus chuckled as he noted the not insignificant amount of blood which now coated the blade of the great axe - the massive hunk of iron had sheared clean through Kirk's armor. Tarkus rushed forwards, trying to exploit the opening in Kirk's normally steadfast guard, but Kirk deftly rolled to the side as Tarkus slammed the great axe down. Kirk swore again as he put weight on his injured leg, and stumbled away from Tarkus as he took a large gulp from his Estus flask, regaining his balance and turning to face Tarkus warily. Tarkus once again charged Kirk, but this time the Knight of Thorns was more than ready for the capability of his weapon. Kirk sidestepped Tarkus' swipe, but this time immediately spun himself into motion, attempting to get a hit on Tarkus' relatively unarmored neck. Tarkus managed to duck forwards, but overbalanced, causing himself to stumble and nearly fall. Kirk charged in for a follow up thrust attack, which Tarkus was forced to roll away from. Kirk sprinted at Tarkus again, trying to keep pushing the Black Iron knight backwards. However, Tarkus brought his great axe up and shouted in determination, charging right into Kirk's attack and bringing the attack into a brutal uppercut, forcing Kirk to stop his attack attempt and roll out of the way, even so barely avoiding the sudden onslaught. Tarkus spun in the middle of his motion, slamming the axe back down towards Kirk, who brought his shield up in a desperate attempt to block the blow with the knowledge that he wouldn't be able to dodge again in time. The massive axe, with Tarkus' brutal strength behind it, slammed down on the shield and sheared in clean in two, sending both halves of the defensive instrument flying off to the side. However, the shield did manage to do it's job, as Tarkus' heavy swing was deflected sideways. Kirk staggered backwards from the force of the blow, taking a moment to regain his footing. Then, noting the severe disadvantage which he now bore, Kirk turn and ran.
Tarkus watched as the Knight of Thorns, one of the most fearsome enemies which had ever been described to him, sprinted away in panic before his eyes. Tarkus' shock gave Kirk a considerable head start, before Tarkus realized that he had the opportunity to do that which no one else could - save his companions, who were now scattered across Lordran, or potentially even the whole planet. The Black Iron knight wasn't about to let the opportunity slip through his fingers, and, bracing himself, sprinted after Kirk. Fortunately, Tarkus could still hear Kirk's clumsy, panicked splashing up ahead, giving him a clear path to follow. Tarkus noted one oddity as he ran - the figure of a person in pain, turned to an odd form of crystallized stone, resembling a person in pain. Tarkus ignored the strange omen, sprinting after Kirk, whose splashing had oddly stopped.
Two corners later, the Black Iron knight discovered why. He found the Knight of Thorns locked in combat with 8 separate frog-like creatures with oversized, glowing orange eyes. The corridor was filled with a dark mist which radiated evil - even Kirk himself was doing his best to stay out of the stuff.
"Well, what sort of honorable knight would I be if I let these creatures interrupt our duel?" Tarkus muttered to himself, before charging into the fray, chopping one in half, while careful to avoid the mist. Kirk dodged past another creature which jumped, spewing more fog across the tunnel, which spilled right onto Tarkus. The Black Iron knight felt a horrible sensation of utter wrongness at touching the fog, and he quickly dispatched the jumping monster before charging out of the fog. Kirk took a swipe at him as he did, attempting to use the commotion of other enemies to dispatch his true target. Tarkus, however, yanked one of the monsters up off of the ground and used it as a fleshy shield, allowing Kirk's swipe to kill it without harming Tarkus. Tarkus shoved forwards, throwing Kirk off balance using the corpse and shoving him into some of the evil fog. Kirk immediately rolled further backwards, moving out of the fog again before it had a chance to harm him. Upon rising, Kirk slashed the head off of another of the strange creatures. Tarkus slammed his axe down on another, being jumped by the remaining three simultaneously. Tarkus rolled under the monsters and deposited himself behind them. He killed another with another overhead great axe slam, before slamming the axe, still attached to the body of one of the creatures, sidways. The move swept the other two into a wall, and Tarkus heard two distinct, satisfying crunches as they impacted. Tarkus whirled towards Kirk, only to find him disappearing into yet another side tunnel - slightly larger than the last, thankfully. Additionally, this one was actually lower than the surrounding sewers, resulting in an even deeper sludge mixture.
"Really, who would have thought that the infamous Knight of Thorns would be such a coward?" Tarkus wondered aloud before resuming the chase, hoping that he'd have room to swing his newfound weapon inside the tunnel. However, it never actually came down to that. Tarkus was suddenly body slammed from the side, and he stumbled backwards, tripping over a small ledge and dropping through a cutout in the floor, landing hard on the ground some ten feet below. The Black Iron knight watched as Kirk's dark figure leaped through the hole himself, bringing his sword down in a deadly plunging attack. Tarkus managed to roll out of the way of the deadly slam, and spun to his feet, swiping hastily with his great axe. Kirk simply ducked under the hasty swing, before lunging towards Tarkus as he rose. Tarkus dropped his shoulder plate to match the position of Kirk's faceplate, while deflecting the thorned knight's sword with his left bracer. Kirk's lunge was suddenly turned against him as the Knight of Thorns' head met Tarkus' far more armored shoulder, causing Kirk to stumble backwards from the sudden impact. Kirk, to his credit, regained his bearing impressively quickly, and managed to avoid being caught in Tarkus' follow up slam, diving into a combat roll to one side. Kirk's roll deposited him near a ledge, to which another corpse was desperately clinging, with a red shield, bearing a spider design on it, placed on the corpse's back. Kirk snatched up the shield, placing it on his arm to replace the one that Tarkus had shattered, and turned to face Tarkus in defiance once more. Tarkus charged Kirk, axe raised, and brought it down heavily towards Kirk, who made no attempt to dodge.
I have him now, Tarkus thought with satisfaction, as the great axe descended, and Kirk remained still far too long. Then, Kirk's reasoning behind neglecting to dodge the attack became obvious, as the Knight of Thorns brought his new shield up, dexterously deflecting Tarkus' attack and leaving the Black Iron knight wide open.
Shit, Tarkus thought, watching the tip of Kirk's sword as it was brought forward in a thrust to slam into his chest. His armor didn't protect him from such a directed, well aimed blow, and Tarkus felt the horrible pain of being ripped apart as the barbs of Kirk's straight sword shredded his skin and internals. A fresh wave of pain came as Kirk slid the sword out, those same barbs ripping the wound open even wider. Through the pain, Tarkus managed to grab his estus flask, taking a swig to heal the wound back to functioning even as Kirk kicked him off of his straight sword. By the time Tarkus hit the ground, his head was clear enough to function again, although he dropped his Estus Flask, empty from attempting to heal such a drastic wound, off of the ledge. Tarkus immediately rolled off the ledge after it, not intending to let a perfectly good Estus flask go to waste, even if it was empty at present. However, halfway through his fall, Tarkus caught sight of the largest rat that he had ever seen - easily ten times his own size. The Black Iron knight twisted quickly in the air, slamming his great axe down onto the monstrosity. The great axe chopped deep into the rat's head, digging in and sticking. Tarkus swore as he pulled at it and it held fast. The Black Iron knight saw Kirk, jumping at him for yet another plunging attack. Tarkus abandoned his great axe, rolling backwards and out of reach of Kirk's drop. The giant rat lunged forwards, trying to get at Tarkus and prevent him from escaping, which deposited it immediately underneath Kirk's plunging attack. The Knight of Thorns slammed into the rat, which fell limp from the impact. It seemed that the combined damage of both plunging attacks had managed to kill it. Tarkus located and snatched up his Estus Flask as the rat dissolved into souls. Tarkus charged forwards, shoulder bashing Kirk away to give him a window to pick up the great axe, which clattered to the ground as the rat dissolved.
"Such a shame that we're locked in combat like we are," Kirk commented at the irony, "for it seems we make an excellent team anyways!" Tarkus chuckled at the accuracy of the quote, but didn't let it go to heart, instead taking a swing at Kirk once again. Kirk blocked the stroke with his shield, and Tarkus' arm bounced at the recoil. Tarkus rolled backwards, noting his proximity to a close ramp. Kirk apparently noted it as well, as the Knight of Thorns charged forwards with a yell, apparently attempting to shove Tarkus down it. Tarkus, however, was ready for the gesture, and sidestepped, tripping Kirk on his way past. The Knight of Thorns lost his footing and fell onto the ramp, bouncing and rolling down it. Tarkus jumped after him, sliding down on his feet. Tarkus noted a drop-off down below, and crouched, preparing to leap. Kirk bounced one final time, seeming to hang in the air over the gap, just as Tarkus made his jump. The two knights sailed across the chasm in tandem, Tarkus above, and Kirk below. However, Kirk didn't have enough altitude to clear the gap. Tarkus did. Kirk slammed into the wall, grunting before dropping into the chasm. Tarkus landed in a clumsy roll on the ground above, coming to a stop and panting, pausing to analyze his surroundings. He noticed that he was standing on some sort of balcony or landing; there was a railing, with stairs leading down to a lower wooden platform. About ten hollows, wielding a variety of weapons from broken swords to torches, stood on the platform, moaning and waiting for prey. Further below that, Tarkus noted a massive butcher with a sack over his... her? head? Tarkus couldn't tell. Based on the size of that cleaver, though, as well as the number of dogs and hollows surrounding the butcher, the Black Iron knight knew that he would have to approach this very carefully.
Kirk slammed into the ground shoulder-first, the impact sending a massive spike of pain through his body. The Knight of Thorns screamed a curse as the intense pain shot through him. Kirk found that he couldn't even bring himself to stand up for several seconds through the pain. When he finally gathered the strength to push himself up off of the ground, he realized that he had a very serious problem; his right arm, the side which had suffered the impact, wouldn't move. Kirk quickly scrambled for his Estus, only to find the flask shattered completely by some impact or another. Damn. He checked for humanity sprites next. None of those, of course; he had just finished offering his entire stash to his lady. He almost screamed again at the thought - not in pain, this time, but in frustration. Kirk had to have offered the woman several thousand humanities by now, and she never seemed to get any better. But back to the matter at hand, Kirk had a dislocated shoulder and absolutely no healing items. At all. This... this was going to hurt. Kirk forced himself to his feet using only his left arm, and charged the wall that he had fallen next to, slamming his shoulder into it. A massive flare of pain flooded Kirk's body, far worse than even that of the original dislocation. But after a few seconds, the pain faded, and Kirk found himself able to use his arm again. The Knight of Thorns quickly snatched up his barbed straight sword, which he had dropped, and assessed his surroundings more thoroughly. He was in a narrow corridor which had a grate on one end and an opening on the other side which seemed to lead onto some sort of balcony. Kirk moved warily out onto it, noting that it opened out onto a massive cavernous area where all the sewage was draining into. Kirk noticed a few doors - one seeming to lead deeper, while another lead to stairs that came up to Kirk's very balcony, also intersecting with another room, presumably the one that his quarry had jumped across to. Kirk saw no way down from where he was asides from jumping, and the fall was definitely lethal. Kirk looked around for something to cushion his fall, and his eyes settled on a pack of large rats. Kirk rushed them, slicing them to bits easily. However, as he was finishing, he was suddenly blown backwards by a soul spear to the shoulder.
The Knight of Thorns slid backwards, managing to keep his feet as he twisted to face the caster - one of the paledrake's channelers. Kirk growled in anger, and rushed the channeler just as the six-eyed abomination fired off another soul spear. Kirk kicked himself into a slide, slipping under the blue beam while continuing to close the distance, before kicking himself to his feet and body slamming the channeler, the thorns on his armor digging into the caster's chest. However, before he could bring his sword around for a swing, the channeler teleported away. Damn, these things were annoying to fight. Kirk scanned back and forth, waiting for the channeler to appear. Sure enough, the thing materialized a good fifty feet down the balcony - way too much distance for Kirk to close before the six-eyed caster had pelted him with fifteen soul spears. Kirk sighed in resignation, raising his shield and sprinting towards the nuisance. Three soul spears pelted Kirk's shield, part of the matter punching through and burning at him, before he managed to get into sword range. Kirk lunged forwards, aiming his sword to impale the channeler right through the neck, and found his sword deflected neatly by the channeler's surprisingly nimble trident, just as the thing teleported away again.
"Oh, screw this," Kirk muttered as the bastard appeared again, this time much closer to him - it had run out of balcony. Kirk rushed the channeler again, not even bothering with the shield this time. Instead, he took a wrestler's stance as he got close, lunging forwards and grabbing the channeler in a loose hold. The Knight of Thorns' momentum carried them both over the balcony railing, and Kirk yanked his sword out of it's sheath as they fell, stabbing the channeler right through the face before it had a chance to get away. Kirk felt a moment of panic that he had just destroyed his cushioning for the fall, but then calmed again as he realized that the channeler hadn't disintegrated into souls like most of the larger creatures in this land would upon death. Kirk pushed himself off of the Channeler's corpse just before it hit the ground, cancelling out some of his downwards momentum, before landing squarely on the channeler's squishy body and throwing himself into a roll. The impact stung, but Kirk could tell that nothing was broken or sprained - he'd still be able to fight when his prey came through this way. Kirk noted that the channeler's trident hadn't broken on the way down and grinned - that thing might be handy to have down the road. He stuffed it into his box just as the white fog covering one of the doorways to the pit rippled.
Tarkus casually tossed an alluring skull into the midst of the hollows, causing them to rush towards the site of impact, all bunching together. As an unexpected bonus, the three dogs in the room wanted in on the action as well. Tarkus charged forwards and sliced cleanly through all of them with a single strike of his greataxe. There was one problem handled. Now it was only the butcher he had to face. Tarkus rushed at the the monster, who yelled a slurred battle cry - so it was a woman, judging by the voice. Tarkus jumped into a roll, avoiding the butcher's initial attack, before coming up with a swipe from his greataxe. The butcher, impressively, survived the strike, but stumbled forwards from the impact. An overhead slam from the axe finished the job, causing the butcher to drop to the ground, limp. He left the cleaver that she had been wielding - it was an inferior weapon to the greataxe which he held now. Tarkus moved on, wading through some deep water and hacking through a hollow and two more dogs until he came to a new hallway. One end had a door with stairs leading up, the other with stairs leading downwards. Tarkus moved towards the descending end, and was three steps down when he heard a weak voice call out.
"Someone! A-anyone! Over here! Please, you have to help me!" The Black Iron Knight hesitated at the desperate voice, then decided against the risk of a trap, opting to continue down the stairs towards finding out what the hell had happened to Raven. He made it all of two more steps before his conscience got the better of him - using that very woman, bless her kind heart, as the example. Tarkus growled in frustration and turned around, going back for the man. As he got close to the door leading upwards, a second butcher dropped down from the rafters with a plunging attack, and landed a glancing blow on Tarkus' shoulder. Tarkus roared in fury and cleaved the butcher neatly in two with a massive vertical chop, before lowering his axe and stepping up into the room beyond the door. There was a pile of barrels in one corner, and a man, dressed in the tattered robes of a pyromancer, was tied up and stuffed into one of them. Tarkus hastily smashed apart the barrels trapping the man with the blunt end of his greataxe, before using it to carefully cut the man loose.
"Th-thank you! I would have been her supper without you. Being eaten alive... I shudder to think. I'm Laurentius, of the Great Swamp. I'm forever in your debt," the man said, greatful.
"Glad to have you, man," Tarkus said, patting his newfound companion on the back, "You know the way back to Firelink Shrine?"
"Sure, yeah," Laurentius replied, nodding.
"Most of the enemies on the way are already dealt with. I'll meet you there," Tarkus told him, and the pyromancer grinned, hurrying off in the direction from which Tarkus had come. Tarkus wished he could have had the pyromancer's help, but he didn't want to risk the life of such an innocent man. Tarkus jogged down the stairs, determined to catch Kirk and take him down for good. That was, until he came to the fog gate.
This was a problem. The last time Tarkus had seen one of these, he had nearly gotten ripped apart by a goat-like chaos demon. There was no way to predict what nightmare was behind this one. And yet, it had to be done. Steeling himself, Tarkus readied his greataxe and stepped through. The enemy waiting for them on the other side was none other than the man he had been chasing throughout the sewers. Kirk, Knight of Thorns, raised his weapons in a final stand. Then, Tarkus noticed the other one. A small head, peeking up out of a chasm at the far end of the large room, pulled itself up onto the knights' level, and in doing so, revealed it's body. It was a massive, distorted dragon, with a tiny head and a mouth on it's stomach, far too small wings, and six short, stumpy legs.
Both knights glanced at the dragon, before meeting each other's eyes, and nodded simultaneously. Raising their weapons, they rushed the monstrosity simultaneously. The dragon lifted it's stomach-mouth up off of the ground as they approached, preparing to slam it back downwards. The two knights split off to either side of the dragon, Tarkus to the right and Kirk to the left. The gaping maw of the dragon slammed downwards, finding nothing under it to chew on, and the knights swung sword and greataxe to strike the beast from both flanks simultaneously. The dragon rushed forwards, and both knights recognized the danger of it's stomps, backing off.
"Why do you do this?" Tarkus asked Kirk as they rushed after the dragon, "I can tell that it isn't for greed. You're too honorable for that. A greedy man would have helped this creature kill me and then finished it off."
"Ah, you've caught me. It's easier to show than to explain, I'm afraid. Would you like me to do the former, or attempt the latter?" Kirk replied as the dragon stopped. Both knights hacked once at the dragon's haunches, before it's tail swiped back and forth across the ground, forcing them both to roll out of the way, before hacking again. The dragon slowly spun, raising it's front half once again.
"How close is the former to the second bell of awakening?" Tarkus asked, hacking at the dragon again.
"Oh, is that where you're go-AH!" Kirk's response was cut off as the dragon charged again, the distraction of conversation having stalled his retreat from the danger zone too long. Tarkus uttered a curse, rushing towards the dragon in an attempt to help Kirk, who stumbled to his feet behind the dragon, which raised it's tail to strike the Knight of Thorns once again. Tarkus could tell that Kirk was too dazed do dodge. He also knew that he wasn't going to make it.
But his greataxe might.
With all of the strength he could muster, Tarkus heaved the greataxe forwards and flung it, spinning end over end, towards the base of the tail. The tail swept towards Kirk, and the axe hit home. The tail, suddenly not anchored to the dragon anymore, flew out past Kirk and towards Tarkus himself while it disintegrated into souls. However, one spinning mass, a famed dragon weapon, another greataxe, was left behind - and it was hurtling straight towards Tarkus. Tarkus spun to the side to avoid the impact of the axe head, and grabbed the haft out of the air. The massive thing yanked him off of his feet - it was heavy, easily twice the weight of the one that he had just thrown. It was, shockingly, too heavy for him to swing with one hand. Tarkus placed his other on the haft of the massive weapon, and rushed to Kirk's side, steadying the Knight of Thorns.
"You... you saved me. You actually..." Kirk wavered. He was hurt - badly. Tarkus would have to finish this on his own.
"Get yourself to safety," Tarkus told Kirk firmly, not wanting to risk the Knight of Thorns charging in again despite his wounds, "I'll finish this out. Then, we'd better talk." Kirk nodded, stumbling away from the dragon, and Tarkus raised his new weapon with determination, yelling in defiance as he charged the dragon with the remnants of its own tail. The gaping dragon swiped at Tarkus with it's forelegs, trying to grab him, but Tarkus easily chopped them off as they swung at him, one after the other. Damn, but this axe was deadly. The dragon collapsed forwards, no longer able to support its front half, and Tarkus slammed the axe downwards on it's small head, decapitating it. The deformed dragon dissolved into souls, leaving behind a humanity sprite, and a key. Tarkus slipped the key into a satchel, and grabbed the humanity sprite, running it over to Kirk.
"Here," Tarkus told the Knight of Thorns, proffering the humanity. Kirk accepted it, crushing the black sprite in his hand. He immediately perked up, his breathing normalizing.
"Now. I want you to tell me where you want to take me," Tarkus told Kirk, looking into his eyes.
"Quelaag's domain. The second bell. It's very close by," Kirk replied, and Tarkus nodded.
"Show me," Tarkus said, standing. The pair set out towards Blighttown.
AN: Whew, that was hard to write. I went through about ten different choreographies for the first half of the fight before I finally settled on this one. Hope it was worth the wait - I had to rewrite this chapter so many times that it isn't even funny. Please leave a review. Next chapter: More Rock and Onion darkwraith drama. Things aren't looking so great for the city of Catarina right now.