AN: The fun chapter I had planned has been postponed, on account of... it spoils too much. I'll throw it in later once the information it spoils has been revealed naturally. Instead, have the chapter that was originally going to be chapter 16. Enjoy!
Chapter 15: Deathslayer
Raven hacked through another skeleton as she and Oscar drove them back, towards the city walls. The remaining garrison had joined them, although no one rivaled the effectiveness of the two undead warriors. Raven was wearing one of pinwheel's masks - that of the Mother - and was amazed by the amount of vigor that it granted her. She had also reclaimed her heavy brass armor, an imitation of that worn by giant sentinels, and it was reassuring to have its weight back on her shoulders. Raven slashed upwards with the Zweihander, tossing a skeleton up into the air with the sheer force of the swing, before pivoting to lop the head off of another. Oscar hacked through two others beside her, and the pair advanced further, the garrison slowly chopping apart skeletons around them. They had already cleared out most of the inner city, and their own force was pushing towards the gate - a goal which was now in sight, only about 300 meters distant now.
"When will it end?" Oscar asked as another skeleton lost its head, leaving a skull and a pile of assorted bones to clatter across the ground.
"I would assume," Raven began, "That someone is controlling these skeletons. Likely some powerful necromancer, more powerful than Pinwheel, even. It stops when they're dead." Raven bashed a skeleton's face in with her pommel, before slamming the Zweihander down on the one behind it, continuing to advance.
"But who could be that powerful? Pinwheel has to be one of the stronger necromancers around," Oscar commented as he hacked another skeleton apart. It was slow going, but they were gradually advancing towards the gate.
"Guess we'll find out," Raven replied, chopping through three skeletons with a single, wide sweep. And, suddenly, the street seemed empty, only a few scattered skeletons standing between them and the gate.
"Odd," Oscar began, "If I had to guess, they retreated. But why? It's not like they just started being driven back. They've been on the back foot for the better part of today. And yet..." The Astoran Knight trailed off as he saw what was waiting just beyond the gate. Giant skeletons. Fifteen of them.
"Well, this makes things interesting," Raven said, raising her Zweihander and charging the line, Oscar right beside her. The garrison advanced more hesitantly, nervous about this new threat. They had every right to be. Around five giant skeletons had been enough to turn the tide of the battle outside the city, allowing it to be overrun. Here were three times that number, all grouped together. If Raven and Oscar didn't take them out quickly, their advance would turn into a bloodbath.
Raven reached the line first, and one of the giants stepped out to attack. She raised her Zweihander to block, and swept the giant skeleton's massive curved sword down and to the right, pinning it to the ground under her own blade before lifting the Zweihander to hack at the skeleton. The hack sent a wave of chaos flame through the skeleton, blackening some of the bone, but the blade itself didn't make it past the hip bone, instead leaving a somewhat nasty gouge in the skeletal plate. Raven yanked the greatsword free and danced backwards as two more giant skeletons jumped forwards, each slashing at her. Oscar arrived a moment later, charging the one that Raven had already attacked and sliding past to stab directly at the bone Raven had weakened. Between the effects of the flame and the structural damage, the hip bone shattered and the giant skeleton toppled, not able to support it's weight with only one leg. Oscar turned to engage number two while Raven dealt with the third of the ones they had engaged. Instead of going for the hip bone, one of the thicker spots to try and hack through, Raven instead shoved the blade of the giant skeleton aside with her cross guard before bringing the Zweihander around for a higher swipe, cutting through the skeleton's spine. This was severed with ease, and the second skeleton dropped. Raven turned to engage a fourth just as Oscar killed the third out of the corner of her eye, and began to attack a fifth. The garrison chose that moment to arrive, and drew off the remaining ten from the duo, saving them a large amount of tedium.
Oscar placed his shield on his back and fought with his sword in both hands; a shield wouldn't do much good in this circumstance, given that the giant skeletons were capable of breaking his guard in a single hit. Oscar deflected a slash with some difficulty, before grabbing his sword by the blade and performing an overhead mordhau strike on the giant skeleton's rib cage. The cross guard stuck in between two ribs, and Oscar yanked viciously, causing the skeleton's rib cage to explode, scattering ribs everywhere. The skeleton tottered for a moment, and Oscar used the opportunity to snatch the hilt of his sword again and slash the skeleton's spine in two. That made four down. To his left, Raven kicked off skeleton number five's kneecap and jumped, lopping the skeleton's head off in midair before dropping to the ground and landing in a roll. In unison, the pair turned to face the remaining ten.
The garrison had actually done it's job, to some extent, and one of the ten was also down, along with a handful of soldiers. Raven charged into the fray, cleaving one of the skeletons in two from behind and dropping it. Oscar did likewise with a second skeleton. That left seven. An archer towards the back of the lines scored a lucky shot, and the head of another skeleton shattered as it was struck by a heavy arrow. A group of ten men each picked a bone on a fourth skeleton while it was distracted and yanked, pulling it apart manually. Raven hacked another skeleton's arm off, and then chopped it in half. There were only five left. The garrison had dropped two more while Raven wasn't watching, and she watched as Oscar dismembered a third. That left two which were rapidly swarmed and dismantled.
The garrison cheered at the sight of fifteen giant skeletons lay dismantled on the ground, something which was by no means an easy feat.
"Everyone split up and go help other groups!" Raven shouted over the clamor. The group of soldiers obeyed almost immediately, disintegrating into individual squads which rushed off down side streets.
"That went rather well," Oscar commented, "I thought that we would have a higher death toll from that one."
"The men handled it well and didn't panic like the first time," Raven replied, surveying the scene. It was at that moment that she realized something. The bones of the dismantled giant skeletons were quivering. As the pair watched, they rolled together and began to form into skeletons again. No- not skeletons. One skeleton. One single, massive skeleton which was more a pile of mismatched bones than an actual coherent form. As the skeleton finished forming, dark black smoke rolled off of its shoulders, creating the illusion of a cloak.
"That's not good," Oscar commented as the imposing figure towered above them, raising a skeletal sword.
"We're in trouble. That's NITO," Raven told him, raising her Zweihander defensively. The massive skeleton chuckled.
"You're quite correct, dear," Nito announced in a menacing, empty voice that boomed across the wide street, "And I'm afraid that your little resistance has come to an end. You bear the rite of kindling. It belongs to ME!" Nito slashed at Oscar with his massive Gravelord sword, and Oscar narrowly managed to backstep out of the radius of the swing. Raven stepped into it's path and planted the Zweihander tip down in the cobbles, bracing for impact. Surprisingly enough, the Gravelord sword was actually stopped fast. Raven acted quickly, levering the sword over her head and across her to the other side before jumping on top of it, and sprinting up the blade. A mass of dark red energy formed in her left hand as she jumped and punched Nito's primary skull. A booming explosion sounded, and Nito's form disintegrated, bones blowing apart in every direction. Raven landed in a crouch.
"No one attacks my friends," she said firmly. The skull that she had punched had shattered completely, leaving Nito a head shorter as he reformed.
"Impressive, child. I assume that Kaathe taught you that trick? I'm afraid that lifedrain doesn't work nearly as well on me. Already dead, you see..." Oscar's eyes widened. Kaathe, the primordial serpent? When had Raven talked to him? Raven met his eyes and shook her head, a definitive "ask me later" gesture. Oscar nodded and raised his sword, prepared to face off against the Gravelord in what surely would be a losing battle.
Raven and Oscar charged Nito in tandem, both ducking under the massive sword that he swiped at them before taking a leg and hacking away. Both made it about halfway through their chosen bone before they were blown backwards by a miasma of death and disease, forming itself as a massive explosion of black goop. Raven bounced and rolled to her feet, counterbalancing herself with her Zweihander. Oscar didn't recover so quickly, bouncing to a stop and coughing, before vomiting violently onto the ground. Raven felt it too - a toxin in the goo which hadn't quite gotten to her. She couldn't afford to take another hit from the stuff, though. She'd have to end this quickly.
Raven charged forwards, anticipating Nito's swipe. Just before it hit her, she flung a black flame to her left, a burst of solid heat which stopped the blade fast. Raven jumped forwards, slashing at Nito's right leg, already damaged, with her sword. The limb splintered, and Nito wavered for a moment before an assortment of other bones, acting as padding on his chest, migrated downwards to replace the missing extremity. Raven cursed internally - there was no way to take him down quickly. Nito roared in fury, swiping at her and attempting to grab her. Raven backstepped nimbly, out of reach of his swipe, but back into the range of his sword. Nito brought the Gravelord sword slamming down towards her, and Raven braced the Zweihander to block. It held, but the sheer force drove her onto her knees. Then Nito lifted the sword to slam it down again. Raven managed to ride through the hit, although it was even more jarring than the first. Nito raised the sword again.
Raven let it fall, timing carefully. At the last moment, she slid to her feet and angled the Zweihander so Nito's strike ricocheted sideways and slammed against the ground, sliding Raven a few inches to the right. Raven spun the Zweihander in a full circle and brought it down on the spine of the Gravelord sword, hacking it once, twice, and then a third time. Each swipe dug deeper into the sword, the third chopping almost halfway through. Then Raven slid her sword free just as Nito attempted to yank his own free of the ground. With its weakened integrity, the Gravelord sword snapped in two and Nito roared, though whether in fury or pain Raven couldn't tell. The weapon did seem to be a piece of the Gravelord, after all. Instants later, Raven felt the ground rumble, and jumped aside just as an ethereal copy of the Gravelord sword erupted from the ground beneath her feet. She landed in a stumble, but unhurt, as the blade faded from existence.
Determined, Raven reignited her pyromancy flame in her left hand and threw two flame wheels - one at Nito's chest, and the other at his face. The one aimed for his face hit first, and his primary skull exploded, flinging free several other bones in his upper neck and shoulders. Then the other wheel struck, slamming into the Gravelord's center mass. Nito was forcefully disassembled for a third time as it detonated, flinging intact bones and splinters everywhere. As the gravelord reformed this time, he was considerably smaller - around twice the height of a standard giant skeleton, if Raven had to guess. But as he did, Raven saw something. The dark smoke that was trailing off of Nito's shoulders, forming the illusion of a cloak, had a source. A glowing black orb flicked into existence in the center of his chest, exposed now by the gaps that previously hadn't existed. Raven knew what she had to do.
Charging the Gravelord one last time, Raven nimbly sidestepped the shattered gravelord sword again before jumping into the air, kicking off of Nito's knee joint - which had several small bones to use as a foothold. Grabbing one of Nito's far too many ribs to steady herself, Raven braced against the toxic aura he exuded and rammed the Zweihander into the dark core.
The result was instant. The dark cape flashed white for a brief moment before dissolving into a mass of souls. The black core collapsed in on itself, dropping lazily to the ground amidst a disintegrating pile of bones. And the toxic aura surrounding Raven vanished - although not before inflicting a mild poison on her. Raven ignored it, knowing that it wasn't serious enough to kill her - unlike what was afflicting Oscar. She picked up the black mass - the death soul, as she recognized it - and noticed the pile of ash that it was resting on top of. There was no coiled sword, but... Raven stretched her hand out over it, and sure enough, it burst to life. Praise the merciful gods above, a bonfire! Raven rushed over to Oscar, and helped him stumble over to it, allowing him to collapse within its healing aura. He immediately perked up, the bonfire working its magic.
"How'd we get one of those?" Oscar asked, staring at it.
"Nito left it behind. We're safe now," Raven replied. Oscar chuckled at something she didn't understand.
"What?" She asked, confused.
"You killed him?" Oscar asked, and Raven nodded. Oscar laughed harder, inciting more confusion on Raven's part.
"Raven, don't you get it? You killed death! Death is dead!... I wonder what that means for everyone who's alive..." Oscar trailed off. "What now?"
"Now," Raven announced with determination, "We pray to Gwyn the Lordvessel still works."
AN: One Lord Soul down, three to go! Or, well, two. Technically the Four Kings and Seath each have half of a soul, so there's a total of 3, not 4... oh, whatever. Nito's dead, and Raven and Oscar have a path back to Lordran if the Lordvessel works. I haven't decided whether it will or not yet, so stay tuned and be sure to drop a review.