All eyes were on Astaire as he examined the structures in front of him. "Those buildings belong to the Undead Burg. I would know them anywhere." He explained. "It's not an exact replica, though. I doubt it's the actual Lordran, but I'd bet my coat if it's not rightly close."
He must've been pretty sure. He really liked that coat.
Rise's face paled as a sickening thought turned her stomach over. "No way. So all that crazy stuff you told me back in Hagakure… we're going to have to go through that?! The knights, the undead soldiers, all of it?!" She said a mite hysterically. Her worries didn't quell as Astaire stepped forward, walking past Yu and the other frontline fighters. "And where do you think you're going?!"
"You won't have to go through all that I did if I go through it first." Astaire began, reaching into his coat. "I'm well familiar with the Undead Burg. Leave the fighting to me and-"
He suddenly shuddered to a halt, his hand still in the bottomless box. He knew that feeling anywhere. It was the grip of his Zweihander, without a doubt. He'd held it for so long there wasn't any doubt. It couldn't have been anything else.
But he strained and struggled. Slipped and readjusted his weakening grip. He clenched his teeth, clamped his eyes shut, let out a guttural growl as he pulled with all his might.
Yet try as he might, he simply could not pull it out.
He detached the box from inside his coat, then promptly held it out to Yukiko. "Hold this, if you please." She took it, whereupon Astaire opened it again and plunged his other arm in as well. He grunted and heaved, his back feeling like he might slip a disk if he exerted himself any further. Even with two hands, the Zweihander absolutely refused to budge.
Yukiko stared at his struggle blankly, looking over at her friends and shrugging her shoulders. They all looked just as puzzled as she did. She looked back down at Astaire, still struggling, and decided to help by tilting the box forward a little.
All at once, Astaire braced against the impact of the handguard against his chest, stumbled backwards and found himself pinned under the sword. The sheer force of the ricasso pressing against his ribs made him feel like they were going to crack altogether. Again, it refused to budge even an inch. "What the hell? Quit playing around and get up, will ya?" Yosuke said, tapping a foot impatiently. It was only when Astaire began to wheeze and go blue in the face that he stopped.
"Would someone help him already?!" Rise dashed over and grasped at the sword's grip with both hands, trying to at least shove it aside, if not lift it entirely. Yu and Kanji were quick to follow, the three of them just about strong enough to free one of Astaire's arms. The fact that he'd been carrying something as blisteringly heavy with one hand for all this time wasn't lost on them. This was hard.
With his arm freed, Astaire got an idea. He couldn't move the sword as he was now, that much was clear. Instead, he removed his glasses. The moment he did, he easily grasped the Zweihander's grip and hauled it over his shoulder like it weighed nothing at all. "Phew… Thanks, you three…" He panted, feeling sorry for any being he'd ever swung the sword into before now.
The pain subsided, but left Astaire with a buzzing in his head that only grew worse the longer he had the glasses off. All the same, that meant he still had time. He focused as hard as he could on the glasses in his hands, fending off the fogginess that clouded his mind.
Bear-Made Glasses (Ultramarine).
A pair of glasses assembled through unknown means and said to provide the wearer greater clarity.
Lessens the effects of foreign worlds on the wearer.
What in Gwyn's name?
"It's the glasses. The glasses make me weaker." Astaire concluded, fending off the TV Sickness as best he could. "They lessen the effects of other worlds on the wearer. But why, then…?" He trailed off, clutching at the side of his head. The TV Sickness was rapidly getting worse, his vision blurring and fading the longer he kept the glasses off.
With them, he was powerless. Without them, he might as well have been. The choice was painful but clear. Back into the box the Zweihander went, back on his face the glasses went. Back came that feeling of weakness.
"That's… I never knew that's exactly what the glasses did. Did you, Teddie?" Yu asked, fiddling with the arms of his own glasses.
Teddie shook his head. "Nope! All I knew was that they cleared away the fog in here and kept everyone healthy. This is news even to me." He said morosely, rubbing his chin.
"It does seem odd that something which lessens the effects of other worlds would still allow us to utilise Personas, seeing as they are only usable here." Naoto noted, gesturing at Yukiko to start taking notes again. "Then again, Personas are a manifestation of one's true self, so it could be said that they are in fact something from our world, but given a different form in this one." She concluded, tapping her revolver against her thigh.
All in all a whole lot of 'not a clear answer' as far as Astaire could see. He ran over in his head what to do, pacing back and forth. This was Lordran. This was his element, his domain. He couldn't just sit by and let them tackle it all by themselves! This line of thought was tugged astray as Yu walked up and tapped him on the arm. "Hey, don't worry. This is why we're here, right? Leave the fighting to us."
Leave the fighting to us, he'd said.
Astaire stepped back in a daze, looking at Yu like he'd just punched him in the face. "No. No, I can't do that. You can't be serious." His voice rose gradually as he went on. "If- If I can't fight, then-!"
"You're dead weight." Yosuke finished for him, hiding his coarseness as aptly as Astaire hid his panic. "How'd it go again? 'If something doesn't involve fighting, I'm not the person to go to'? That's how you put it, right?" He pushed past everyone else, feeling their stares boring holes into his back as he approached Astaire. "So if you can't fight, why the hell are you even here?" He finished grimly.
"Yosuke, that's enough!" Yu barked, now striding towards the both of them himself and being closely tailed by Rise.
Oh, to have a retort. Something strongly thought out and witty. Something which would put him on the spot and make his eyes bulge right out of his head, something to give Astaire the upper ground.
But he didn't have one. He didn't have one because he wasn't even wrong.
The thought bit at Astaire like a horde of rats. Him. Useless. Slayer of demons, drakes and everything in between. The Chosen Undead. One of the few to see as much of Lordran as he had. Useless. And he couldn't even deny it.
"Ow, watch it!" Yosuke clutched his side as Rise withdrew her elbow, continuing to walk past him and up to Astaire.
She had her hands clasped behind her back as her expression softened. "Astaire-kun, this is your world, right? Or something close to it?" He nodded. "So that means you'd probably know stuff about this world that we wouldn't, uh-huh?" That sounded… plausible, at least. Astaire nodded slower than before. "Great! So y'know what that means?"
"Not really, no."
Before he could protest, Rise wrapped her right arm around his left, playfully bumping her shoulder against his side. "It means you're gonna help me help everyone else out! Intel double duty, yay!" She cheered, giving his arm a squeeze. "You can keep us posted on anything Kouzeon can't pick up on, can't you?"
In the face of her fluttering eyelashes and her grip on his arm, there was only one answer. "O-Of course! I can do that just rightly. Nothing we can't do as a team, right?" He forced a smile, trying not to look as uptight as he felt.
Rise giggled and beamed brightly. "Right! C'mon Senpai, lead the way!"
Yu looked between the two of them and Yosuke, finally exhaling through his nose and beckoning everyone to follow him. At least some kind of resolution had been reached. He made a mental note to have a talk with Yosuke later as the team mobilised.
Before the Undead Burg proper, the forest dipped down to a familiar-looking stone-clad area, where the grass and dirt faded into brick and mortar. The more eagle-eyed members of the Investigation Team recognised it as the arena where once they'd fought Astaire's shadow. Firelink Shrine. Or at least, the bonfire pit that sat at the center. A bonfire pit which, notably, had no bonfire.
In the bonfire's place, Yu made note of a Save Point glowing and whirling at his feet. Good. At least there was some way to get further up the world in a pinch. From the looks of what awaited them, this wasn't going to be a trip he wanted everyone to repeat too often.
Astaire grunted to himself. What he wouldn't have given to refill his estus flask. It'd have set his mind much more at ease had he-
"Oh, it's you." A hauntingly familiar voice called over from behind them. Everyone whipped around on the spot, anticipating some kind of villainous shadow or Persona user to have followed them. What they got was a destitute looking man in a set of metal armour; unshaven, dishevelled and sitting atop a downed tree. "And you've brought friends as well, isn't that nice? At least you can hollow in the company of others, I suppose." He finished with a laugh.
Someone was in the TV. Another human being was sitting on a fallen tree within the TV, without any notification from the Midnight Channel or anything. Furthermore, he was talking to Astaire like he knew him. "Wait a minute, it's you! That crestfallen fellow from the shrine in Lordran!" He said with an accusatory point in his direction. "You can't be real. I killed you with my own two hands after you went hollow! Who are you?!"
The crestfallen warrior simply laughed again. "Oh, believe you me, I'm as real as the nose on your face. Not that it matters much either way. You and I? Your little band of followers there? We're all in the same boat. There's not much any of us can do now. Better to just rot away and let things be."
"Well you're not gonna get much done by just sitting there, are you?!" Chie said, stomping forward and bending down to meet the warrior head on. "Now are you gonna quit moping and tell us why you're here, or are you just gonna wallow some more?"
The crestfallen warrior looked up to the sky with a wry smile. "I suppose it's too late to talk you out of it now." He began as he raised an armoured finger towards the stone tower at the end of the Undead Burg. "There are both paths going up and paths going down in that tower. However, one would need to climb to the very top in order to reach the bottom. Or so I've heard." He said with a shrug and a chuckle. "But you'll never get that far. Not even with all of you at it at once. You'll wind up just as mad as the rest of them, sooner or later."
Yu turned and followed his gaze, trying his hardest to get even the slightest clue of what might've been further up. "What's at the top of the tower? And why would we need to go up in order to go down?"
"Aaaah." The knight said slowly as a wide, toothy grin spread across his face. "That's the big question, isn't it? The door going down can't be opened, so there's only one other way to go. And what good would a locked door be without a key?" He finished on another laugh, hanging his head again. "But that's just hearsay. Why, nobody even knows what's down there to begin with! I can't imagine why they're so desperate in the first place."
A locked door in the TV World could only mean that there was something significant hiding behind it. However, as for what exactly it would be when combined with the otherworldly surroundings was anyone's guess. It couldn't have been Astaire's shadow, not after their last encounter. Unfortunately, that meant it could be absolutely anything else.
Combined with the Crestfallen Warrior's general demeanour, it didn't paint a pretty picture overall.
"Ignore him." Astaire glowered at the warrior, hands in his pockets and brow low. "He sang a similar song when I first came to Lordran. Didn't even think it was worth trying to reach the first Bell of Awakening, much less anywhere beyond. Don't be drawn in by his hopelessness."
The warrior didn't respond after that. His gaze affixed on the ground in front of him and his fingers interlocked in front of him. Occasionally he'd emit a low, quiet chuckle or two, glancing up quickly at the team before gazing at the ground again.
"He won't come with us, if that's what you're waiting for." Astaire said, turning back to face the Undead Burg. "Linger here any longer and we're liable to wind up much the same."
Leaving him didn't feel right. Any human inside the TV didn't belong there, they all knew it. Standard protocol dictated that they needed to save him, even as miserable as he was.
But ever still, Yu hesitated to speak out to him. If Astaire really had killed him, as he claimed, what did that make him? Some kind of Undead? A being created by this twisted version of Lordran? Some kind of subconscious figment of Astaire's imagination?
Whatever he was, 'human' was looking less and less likely by the minute.
Having mulled it over, Yu turned on the spot and walked past Astaire. "Right. Come what may, we still need to find out what's up there." He brought his sword from his shoulder, gripping it with other hand. "Rise, start scanning for enemies. Astaire-san, if anything shows up that looks familiar, keep us posted on how to beat it. Everyone else stick together and watch your backs. If it's as bad as Rise makes it sound, we're going to be in for a hard run."
This was wrong.
"What the hell is that?!" Kanji all but shrieked as the emaciated, up-until-now-lifeless body began rising to its feet with a sinister gurgle, a scant moment before Kanji pounded it into the ground on instinct.
"They appear to be animate versions of the beings present in the pyramid we traversed through before." Naoto assessed, gun still trained on the Undead that Kanji had pinned. "They seem to be fairly weak. Would that be the case, Astaire-san?"
This was so, so wrong.
"Yo, big guy. Enemies on our twelve, snap out of it."
No, it was worse than wrong. It was unthinkable. The complete opposite of how it was supposed to be.
"I don't think he's listening, Yosuke-senpai." Rise guessed, waving a hand in front of Astaire's thousand mile stare.
They didn't even have armour on. That one didn't even have a shield, for Gwyn's sake. If he could have used his Zweihander, he could have swatted it all the way to the asylum and back. Like brushing away a lock of hair.
Rise's eyes suddenly lit up as she snapped her fingers. "Hey, I've got an idea!" She inhaled deeply, shoulders raising and cheeks puffed out.
He should have been using his Zweihander. This was his world. His enemies. He knew the ways of Lordran better than they did. He should have been leading. He should have been killing. He should have been doing something, anything to lessen the load on them. This was his time to shine. But if he couldn't fight, then what was he even good fo-
Everyone, Astaire included, jolted in surprise as Rise's breathing in became an ear-bleedingly loud shriek all at once, her face screwed up at the sheer force she put into her voice. It was so loud that it could be heard echoing further into the Burg.
"Ms. Kujikawa!" Came Astaire's first response, suddenly completely on guard and alert. "Whatever foul demon should dare accost you, I shall- AGH!" His second response, as it happened, was to try and pull out his Zweihander on instinct. An instinct which halted as his pulling resulted in a stomach-churning cracking sound coming from his shoulder. "Rrgh… Good Gods in Heaven above…" Astaire said through clenched teeth, tempted to begin recounting the contents of his lesson with Kanji.
Well, it'd woken him up, at least. Didn't make the crack any less cringe-inducing though, as the rest of the team soon found. It also didn't make Naoto cracking Astaire's shoulder back into place sound any less painful either.
Yosuke was looking at him. He seemed to tut to himself, shake his head and look away the moment Astaire caught himself on. If he was trying to hide it, he wasn't doing a good job of it. "I know what he's thinking." Astaire thought to himself. "Dead weight."
Dead weight. The words still rang about in his head like the toll of the first Bell of Awakening so high above them.
Eventually it came to a head. "Don't let your guard down. Hollows of that kind fall easily, but they'll fell you just as fast if you're not careful. These ones are weak enough that all you really need to do is hit them before they hit you, but it'll only get worse from here on out." There. Try and utter the words 'dead weight' now, Hanamura.
...What in Gwyn's name was he thinking? Since when was he ever this petty towards anyone? Gods above, it was just as well he didn't say it out loud. Lord Gwyn may have saw fit to smite him where he stood if he had.
Everyone seemed to silently take Astaire's words to heart, Yu and his immediate party taking the lead and heading up a stone-carved staircase into the upper reaches of the Burg.
Out what could laughingly be called the window of the building they entered, being little beyond a square hole, it seemed evident that the only way to get to the tower was to keep heading up until they got to the large stone walkway above them. The only problem was that the staircase didn't go up any further. What did go further was the lower walkway underneath.
"Nuh uh. No way. Not gonna happen." Chie said, waggling a finger in time with shaking her head. "I can deal with killing weirdo zombies from another world. I can deal with having to wash this stink out of these clothes and have five showers when I get home. But I am NOT-" She pointed aggressively at the walkway leading out of the building. "-DEALING WITH THAT!"
Under normal circumstances, stone walkways were great. Solid, sturdy, got you from A to B, what more could you ask for?
Under normal circumstances, stone walkways did not have the supporting pillars of the path above it taking up nine tenths of the walking room. Nor did they require one to precariously shuffle around them in order to get to the other end.
"Unless you've got a better way, you're gonna have to start dealing with it real quick." Yosuke said as he peeked outside at the drop downwards. Considering falling off one side would lay them out like bloody carpets on the cobbles below and the other would leave them presumably falling forever until they starved, neither looked very favourable. "Unless there's another way back in there?"
"Hmm. I wonder." Astaire hummed thoughtfully. Before Rise could turn around and ask what was on his mind, he'd already gone and dove head-first into a large stack of wooden barrels which took up the corner of the room. Everyone looked on blankly as he rolled around like a frantic hedgehog, his head only popping out of the pile once it was reduced to wooden and metallic remains. He stood up, shook the splinters off him and frowned at the blank wall behind him. "Doesn't seem it. Looks like we're out of options."
Wait a minute, what was he looking for another way for? He'd done this before in the actual Undead Burg! This was perfect! Crossing a bridge didn't require any heavy lifting, he could do it even under the glasses' influence!
Astaire strode out confidently onto the stonework, slipping around the side of the pillar without missing a beat. "Worry not everyone! These ledges are surprisingly spacious once you- HEY!" Astaire cut off as an undead gurgle came from the other side of the pillar. Everyone's eyes widened in surprise as an Undead with a spear limply toppled over the side of the walkway, swiping at Astaire as it fell into the aether below. "...It's alright! That was the only one!"
To feel relieved or to feel even worse about crossing over. Which was the more appropriate? None could say for certain.
Collectively manning up, the team walked single file around the pillar, Yu leading the way and motioning for Astaire to join Rise at the back of the line. "Everyone hold back, I wanna try something."
Not exactly eager to have his meagre usefulness taken away, Astaire held out a hand in protest. "A-Are you sure? I may be weakened but even I can-" His words were cut short as a blue card shattered in Yu's hand, Izanagi-no-Okami hovering behind him before a gale force wind exploded from behind the next pillar in their way. A trio of flailing Undead immediately shot out one side of the walkway, ejected by the wind and hot on the tail of their previously fallen companion.
Astaire promptly shut his mouth and shifted back to Rise's side.
Given Izanagi-no-Okami's aptitude for clearing the way, the only real concern anyone had was trying not to look down while increasingly large groups of Undead rocketed out of their hiding places. Each gust of wind left with a howl that dissipated slowly as the rest of the Burg echoed and wailed in its wake.
The end of the walkway wasn't long of meeting everyone else as they filed in quickly, Chie and Teddie in particular praising the ground they walked on like it were made of gold. Brows were wiped, breaths were let out and words of relief were exchanged by all.
Except, notably, Yu.
Yu was doubled over, catching his breath with one hand on his knee. He glanced up reassuringly at Yukiko as she went to his side. "Don't worry… It's just been a little while since I've had to use that much energy at once, that's all." He panted, taking off his glasses to run a hand down his face. "Maybe going all out right away wasn't the best idea…"
He felt a weight slap down on the shoulder Yukiko wasn't occupying as Kanji appeared at his side. "Don't worry Senpai, 's why we're here, isn't it? Take a breather once a while." He grinned.
"Kanji-kun is right, Senpai." Naoto added, performing some routine checks on her revolver as she spoke. "Perhaps it would be prudent to engage any further enemies without the use of our Personas, in order to assess how effective our weapons are." She gave Kanji a sideways glance, if only for a second. "Kanji-kun notwithstanding, of course."
Astaire crossed his arms and tapped his foot off the floor. Of course Kanji hadn't had a problem with facing Undead head on, there wasn't much left of these ones to face. It was like being proud of stomping an ant and boasting about how it didn't put up a fight. What they were doing now was boasting about killing said ant and thinking that doing so meant they could take down a boar.
No. No, this wouldn't do. He couldn't let this happen to them, they didn't know what they were in for.
The box. There had to be something in the box. Something he could use even in his current state. Brushing his Zweihander aside, Astaire's hand dove in and began searching for something, anything of use. It didn't have to be an ultra greatsword, or a greatsword, or even a sword at all! It just had to be more powerful than nothing. If his shadow was to be believed, that he'd been through Lordran as many times as he had, one of his past selves had to have wielded something of use!
"Astaire-kun?" His frantic searching was cut short as Rise's voice made him keenly aware of the sound of shoes hitting off stone. "C'mon, we need to all stick together."
That they did. The two quickly jogged over to everyone else, making good progress up a set of stone-hewn stairs which led to an opening in the top of the building they were in. All the same, Astaire remained thoroughly engaged with his search, walking a good two steps behind everyone else as he mumbled and grumbled half-mindedly.
Ricard's Rapier? The soul within didn't speak to him, so he mustn't have been strong enough for it. Artorias' Greatsword? Again, not a whiff of an answer, not to mention it was heavy as sin. He didn't even attempt to lift the Demon Greathammer floating somewhere behind it. Caesti?
...Given how Yosuke had reacted earlier, maybe Caesti weren't the wisest weapons of choice. So much for that idea.
Actually, there was something there. It wasn't a weapon, it felt like a small shield, but it felt responsive enough. He felt his knuckles hit off a cold blade of metal, pushing it away with an ease that suggested it wasn't all that heavy or sizable. Gods above, he might've been onto something!
It took Astaire's head punting into Rise's stationary back to bring his attention reality-ways. She let out a squeak just as Astaire let out an apology, right before noticing everyone else affixed firmly on one direction, battle stances assumed.
He followed their gazes, and his eyes widened.
They were on top of the bridge they'd crossed the underside of. That was fine.
The central tower looked to be accessed on the same level as this bridge, past a few checkpoints with archways and massive raised gates. That was fine.
What wasn't fine was the amount of Undead in their way. What was even less fine was the equipment they had.
Worn steel, cloth and leather armour, accompanying shields, spears and swords. Sunken sockets where once lay eyes peeked out from underneath worn helmets. Lipless, lolling mouths hung open with sickening moans as their owners either shambled around aimlessly, or lay limply with their backs to the stonework.
Not an unfamiliar sight to Astaire, but the numbers were a bit off-putting. There were thirty or so, and that was merely what he could see now. They'd surely come across more on the way to the tower, no doubt about it.
To the more experienced knight, it looked a trifle. One solid swing from his Zweihander would cut a bloody swathe through them with ease. Armoured or not, the Undead had never bothered him. It was everything afterwards which saw to that.
But Astaire looked on with unease all the same. The Undead didn't concern him, nor his lack of his trademark cutter-of-bloody-swathes. It was everyone else that put him on edge. Shoulders squared, eyes narrow, battle stances long since taken. Maybe they were just being overly cautious, but they seemed too on edge.
"What's our first move, Senpai?" Naoto asked, running a thumb over the hammer of her revolver, barrel trained on the closest Undead's head.
Yu swallowed, risking a step forward. "I dunno if attracting their attention all at once is a good idea. Any weaknesses, Rise?" As Rise shook her head, he turned his head back to the problem at hand, biting his lip. "Guess we've no choice." He shattered Izanagi-no-Okami's card, his glorious presence fading into view behind him. "We'll have to try take them all out at once. Megidol-!"
The incantation ended as an excruciating pain shot through Yu's shoulder from behind, a cry of pain forcing its way up his throat. He dared to look n horror as a thick wooden arrow shaft extended from the quickly reddening wound. Behind them. There was a stout tower behind them, an Undead archer leering down at them as it readied another arrow. "Guys, they're behind us too!"
He only realised his mistake after he'd said it. At the sound of his cry, every Undead on the bridge turned to face them at once. Those that were sitting pulled themselves up, those that were pacing aimlessly stopped and stared.
Son of a bitch.
"Senpai, move!" Yu winced as Naoto's shoved him aside, aggravating the arrow. He quickly forgave her as a second snapped uselessly against the ground where he'd been. He winced again as she took aim and at their Undead assailant, three piercingly loud shots ringing out like bolts of lightning amongst the silence. One caught the archer in the leg, sending it forward and over its perch into the ground below, lifeless on impact.
Everyone bristled as the horde of Undead let out a simultaneous moan and began shambling towards them, weapons raised. "Oh, crap…" Yu said through gritted teeth, lifting his sword with his unpierced arm. "We might have to give up on the four person rule. I'll need you all for this."
Everyone had begun backing away slowly, save for Rise at Yu's words. "What?! Senpai, I can't keep track of that many people all at the same time! What if something happens to you and I can't check for it?!"
"We don't have a choice, Rise. Astaire-san, what would you do at a time like this?!" Yu barked.
This was dire, the pit in Astaire's stomach told him. He had to think of something. "Uh… I'd usually cut them all down in one swing! Zweihanders are good at that!" And here he was without a Zweihander. Useful. "I… I've never needed to do any more than that! These sorts wouldn't be much to me at my full power!"
He heard a frustrated sound from his right, immediately knowing it was Yosuke. "Well that's not going to do us much good right now, is it?! Can't you think of anything better than that?!" He seethed, knives held in a reverse grip in either hand, teeth bared.
It's not my fault you're not as strong as I am. Astaire thought to himself before shaking his head. What an unknightly thing to say, or even think in the first place! Calm. Calm down. Think. "Just try hitting them already! The armour doesn't make up for how weak they are!"
The distance between the closest Undead and Yu was shortening. Without anything better to hope for, Yu stepped forward and slashed at his shambling opponent, the Blade of Totsuka digging into its side with a meaty whack.
The Undead kept coming.
Another slash, this time at its neck.
The Undead kept coming.
Another three shots from Naoto easily tore through the Undead's chestpiece and head. Two in the heart and one in the side of the temple.
And yet, the Undead kept coming.
Everyone's eyes were wide. That was Yu's strongest sword. It was a clean shot through the head. And they'd done little but anger the rotting fiend even more. Yu leapt out of the way as the Hollow soldier jabbed at him with its spear, taking the opportunity to swipe at it as it limply tried to recover.
Kanji bashed at the soldiers with his shoulder laid into the shield he'd brought, toppling a good few of them over, but little more than that. They staggered back to their feet just as quickly as they'd fallen. Naoto fired wildly into the crowd, each bullet doing as much as the last, for a sum total of nothing.
"No way. You're not serious, are you?" Astaire backed away, holding his arm in front of Rise as he went. "You didn't come in here with weapons that haven't got any Titanite in them, did you?!" He asked fearfully, his face a few shades paler than usual. Given the incredulous look everybody not currently engaged was giving him, he got his answer. "Oh Gods above, you did."
Yu sliced at his Undead attacker's legs, forcing it to the ground before a fifth slice sent its head rolling away behind it. "Is it really that important?!" He asked before he intercepted a sword coming down on him from another Hollow.
Astaire felt his heart quiver in his chest. This was exactly what he was afraid of. Yukiko and Teddie were kept busy as they launched healing spells at whoever cried out first, the wounds deep and painful. Chie successfully dodged incoming attacks, but her own kicks did little damage. Yu was one-armed and struggling to fend off other attacks, never mind launch his own. Kanji and Naoto were back to back, Sukuna-Hikona tossing out one physical attack after another and quickly beginning to drain its user of energy. And Yosuke…
"Goddamnit, would you stop being so useless and HELP US SOMEHOW?!" He shouted wildly, dodging hits as best he could and circling around the Hollows, trying to draw them away from everyone else.
Finally, he heard Rise behind him. Soft, sad whimpers which were bordering on full sobs. The sound cut at him like a searing knife to his chest.
"Ms. Kujikawa." He said quietly, turning to her. Rise looked up, tears in her eyes, and blinked as Astaire placed something in her hands. "Hold on to these for me, please." She blinked again, wiping away her tears on her sleeve.
Astaire had handed her his glasses.
An almighty crashing sound shook the battlements to their core, the sound of burning and gurgling and crashing metal all forming into one cacophonous roar of noise. Astaire swung wildly from side to side, getting stuck into the center mass of the crowd of Hollows and tearing through them with his wide, powerful, lengthy swings. Each came with a crash. Each crash accompanied a new choir of pained, long-dead voices as the Hollows fell limp to the ground, seared and parted.
It had taken only a second, but Astaire had cleared away most of the Hollows before anyone could register he was fighting. "Mr. Narukami! Kick the shields away and strike once they're exposed!" He belted out, flattening another three Hollows with one strike. "Yosuke!" Oh damn it all, why'd it have to be him? "Daggers are most effective from the back! Circle around and stab them from there!" He wasted no time in doing so, ambly shifting behind his nearest Hollow and driving both Malahks into their back, kicking them onto the ground after. "Kanji! Stay where you are!"
Before Kanji could ask for something a little more active, Astaire ran up to the Undead that was mindlessly whaling on his shield, swinging the blade in such a way that the parrying hooks gouged into its back with a sickening crunch. He then reeled back again, swinging the Zweihander with such unbridled force that the top half of the Hollow completely left the bottom, cutting the Hollow's pained cries short.
Yu kicked and retaliated. Yosuke danced around nimbly and tore Hollow backs to shreds. Kanji bashed any nearby Hollows off balance long enough for Astaire to crush them flat.
Within no time at all, all that was left were corpses. Thankfully, none bore a Yasogami High uniform.
From Undead utterances to complete silence. The change was startling, especially considering how fast it had happened.
Yosuke brought his hands behind his head, trying to control his breathing. "Holy shit dude. Holy shit. We coulda died there! Legit died!" He said, eyes fixed on the corpses at their feet. "They're real different from Shadows. Real, real different." He broke eye contact with the Hollows at his feet and found himself working his way up to Astaire, panting as much as the rest of them. "Why didn't you do that earlier, huh?! Didn't think of telling us all that before you got a chance to play the hero too?!"
As much as Astaire would have liked to protest, he felt his sickness come back tenfold, bringing him to his knees after he put his sword away. He clutched at his head, white noise filling the space between his ears as he clenched his eyes to fend it off. It had first felt like it would make him sick, now it felt like something was clawing at his heart and scratching at the inside of his skull.
It hurt. It hurt so, so much.
Hanamura. Hanamura. He just wouldn't keep his mouth shut. Wouldn't stop yammering on even after Astaire found himself heaving, feeling like he was trying to cough up a lung. He couldn't hear him over the white noise. All he knew was that whatever he was saying was really beginning to piss him off. Oh, Hanamura. That rat, Hanamura. See how smart he sounds when the bastard was face to face with-
"Astaire-kun! Are you alright?!" Rise cried, running over with his glasses in hand. The moment she slipped them back onto his face, it seemed as though Astaire's thoughts unmuddled themselves completely. His eyes opened, no longer strained. His heart was unclawed and his skull unscratched.
"Good Gods above." Astaire thought inwardly. "Whatever was I thinking just now? That didn't sound like me at all." He told himself, taking a deep breath and bringing himself to his feet. "It's just the sickness getting to me. Must get a fellow's thoughts all out of sorts." He continued reassuring himself, dusting off his knees and coat. "Thank you, Ms. Kujikawa." He finally said, shooting Rise a lopsided grin.
"Wow Stairry-kun! You went through them like they were made of butter!" Teddie said, jumping on the spot. "Of course, if things had gotten really serious I could have handled them all myself…" He grinned mischievously.
His grin disappeared as Astaire' brow dropped. "Handled them all without a scrap of titanite? Don't be ridiculous, it's a wonder any of you managed to kill them at all. Such wanton carelessness will only usher you all to your graves that much quicker." He said as he stuck a hand in his coat, tongue sticking out.
Yu looked between him and the Blade of Totsuka in his hands. "So no matter how strong our weapons are, they're not worth using if they don't have any of this titanite stuff?"
Astaire nodded back. "Even a blade wielded by Artorias himself would be worth little against this world's fiends without even a hint of it." He brought his hand back out, clutching a small metal shield and stuffing it under his arm, going back into the box for seconds. "I have more than a few pieces in here, but we'd either need a blacksmith or a bonfire before we made much use of them. And from the looks of things…" He pulled out a longsword and tossed it into his dominant hand, "...we'll be hard pressed to find either in here unless old Andre shows up."
Yu took a mental note. Introduce Astaire and Daidara as soon as possible. "If we stick to using magic it's going to bleed us dry way too quickly. After all that just now, I don't want us running out of healing magic when we most need it." He said, furrowing his brow as he turned to the team. "Naoto, swap out with Chie. Teddie, you come in and give Yukiko a rest for now. Kanji, stay where you are. We'll focus on using physical skills and Teddie can keep us topped up should things go south."
As the team began rearranging, something jabbed at Astaire from inside. Gods, he didn't want to say it. He really didn't want to say it. "Hang about, Mr. Narukami. Won't you consider letting Yosuke into the fray?" But sard it all, he had to. "Out of the lot of you, he's the only one with weapons that might make do in their current state. Extra damage from behind and all that."
"Count me in." Yosuke said far too quickly, stepping forward with a spring in his step. "Kanji, take five. It's time for some revenge, fresh-cooked Hanamura style!" He touted boastfully, knives twirling between his fingers. "Besides, somebody's gotta look out for Naoto-kun while we're all busy." He couldn't help but add with a grin.
"Shut up, Hanamura."
"I-I do not require protecting." The both of them said at once before falling silent.
"Excellent, then we'd best proceed with caution. Get caught out like that again and we'll be in trouble." Astaire said as he briskly strode past Yosuke, suddenly adorned with leather armour, accompanied by steel pauldrons and greaves.
The metal shifted as Yosuke latched onto his shoulder. "And what do you think you're doing? We've already got four people for the party and you're not one of them. Get back with everyone else before you start causing trouble." Yosuke lifted his chin, glaring at Astaire all the while. "Not like that'd be anything new."
The sound of leather on leather accompanied Astaire's fist clenching as he narrowed his eyes. His gaze worked over to Rise, who fidgeted on the spot uneasily. "...Ms. Kujikawa. You can't keep track of all of us at once, can you?" She shook her head sadly. "I see. In that case, don't keep track of me." With that, he pushed his glasses up his nose and dashed in front of the party, making a beeline for the bridge.
"Hey, get back here!" Yosuke called out, wasting no time in pursuing him. "I already had to chase Chie today, I can chase you down just as easily!"
Yu made another mental note. Get a leash for Chie AND Yosuke. Maybe Astaire too. Rise could keep it. "Everyone after them! Rise, keep an eye out for any enemies, don't worry about us for now!"
Dead weight, he'd said. Useless, he'd said.
Time to show the cocky little upstart who the useless one was.
Astaire tore his longsword out through the side of the Undead's neck, a stream of oozing undead blood coating the blade. He dodged an attack from behind, parrying the follow up with his buckler and driving his sword deep into its chest. It fell limp on his blade before he kicked it to the ground.
More. He had to kill more of them. Hanamura was up to seven, meaning he was gaining on him.
Yosuke dodged every blow expertly, flitting behind every Undead that dared shamble his way and skewering their spines with both daggers at once. He chanced a look at Astaire, kicking away a shield and impaling its holder without hesitation.
He hated to admit it, but he was doing scarily well, even when weakened. Nothing had landed a hit on him yet, and he wasn't the one with dodge-enhancing daggers. "Getting tired yet?!" He called over, deftly placing himself behind his next victim.
Astaire didn't answer. His energy was better saved for results, not banter. Much less so with him. He followed up on a backstep with a slash, the titanite-reinforced blade tearing easily through the Undead coming up on him. He rounded on the swordsman behind him, bringing his other hand to the blade and slicing upwards, sending his target reeling back with a gurgle.
Battlement cleared. Onto the next one.
Astaire and Yosuke sprinted after each other, limbs flailing and armour rattling as they ran past the next archway and engaged yet more Undead, each splitting off and hacking the sorry souls to bits before they could even react.
"Uh, Senpai?" Kanji began, holding his shield behind him over his shoulder. "Shouldn't we be helpin' them out?"
Everyone's casual stroll drew to a halt as an Undead head rolled in front of them, mouth open. "I think they've got it covered." Yu said, stepping over it carefully.
Her attention only set on two targets, Rise opened and closed her mouth for what must have been the tenth time in minutes. Every time something loomed up behind Astaire, close enough to breathe down his neck, it was dead before she could even warn him about it. Between the two of them, the Undead never had a fighting chance.
They were so efficient that it was off-putting, Rise thought to herself.
"Look! We're almost at the tower now!" Yukiko astutely noted. The massive stone bridge only had two more archways to go, and the fogged-over entrance to the tower was inching closer and closer by the minute.
"Keep going you two, you're doing beary well!" Teddie cheered on from the sidelines, thankful he hadn't needed a single healing spell the entire time.
His words fell on distracted ears. Astaire reached into his coat and hurled a black firebomb at the Undead situated on top of the archway, ducking out of range of the firebomb it tossed back. With an explosion of ceramic-sharded fire, the body hit the ground in flames. The sound of the impact rang out like a gong, telling each fighter to cease and catch their breaths.
Only when they were doubled over and their faces red did they take any notice of their teammates following up behind them. "So?" Yosuke said between panting, wiping his forehead. "Who won?" Everyone looked between themselves, exchanging puzzled looks and shrugs in equal measure. "Y'know, who killed more of them? Who was the better fighter?"
"What?! That's what you were doing?!" Chie barked, stomping forward to a Yosuke who didn't have the energy to run away. "Ooh, you're such an idiot! What if something went wrong and we couldn't heal you in time? What if you messed up and got yourself killed over the head of some stupid game?!" She punctuated her words by pulling at Yosuke's ear, ignoring his complaints. "You'd better not have put him up to this, Astaire-kun, or else I'll-!"
"Shoosh."
Chie blinked. "Wh-What?! Don't 'shoosh' me, I'm asking if you-!"
"Be quiet! Listen!" Astaire whispered. Chie obliged and reluctantly shut up as the Burg fell silent. No Undead moans, no footsteps, nothing.
No, wait. There was something. It was unlike anything anyone beyond Astaire had ever heard. A quiet sort of 'jingling' sound, if one had to describe it. Astaire took a tentative step forward, eyes trained on the archway beyond them, the last one before the entrance to the tower. The bridge beyond was lengthy. Lengthy enough to sprint across for a good while. Combined with that sound, it could only mean…
"Ah-hah!" Astaire's eyes lit up with glee as he peeked behind the archway, a small, rock-bodied, mineral-looking creature with a massive, glimmering growth on its back looking back up at him and promptly scarpering, scuttling off down the bridge. "You can't run from me, Crystal Lizard! My cohorts need Twinkling Titanite and you're in just the right place at just the right time!" He called after it, sword raised as he gave chase.
Rise took a step forward, ready to chase after Astaire and see what was so exciting, until something caught her ear. The sound of metal on stone. She jolted back just as a massive, rusted portcullis crashed to the ground mere inches from her feet. "What the…? Astaire-kun, wait!" She cried out. Yet still he ran on singlemindedly.
The Crystal Lizard let out a pained cry as Astaire's leaping attack struck it lifeless. "Yes!" Astaire pumped his fist as he ripped the glimmering mineral from the creature's back, turning around and holding it up for everyone to see. "I got it! With this we…" He stopped short as he noticed the fallen portcullis, as well as Rise's face poking through one of the spaces, Kouzeon's telltale blue shimmer fading from behind her.
"Astaire-kun, something big's coming!" She screamed, eyes clenched and voice cracking.
No sooner had she said it did Astaire hear an ungodly loud roar from somewhere very far off. A roar that sounded awfully familiar. Familiar in a way that, when combined with his current environment, gave him a most unwelcome idea of what exactly was coming.
A shadow darkened the entire bridge, with leathery wings that could sweep up gales and claws that could eviscerate all but the strongest armour. Astaire felt his heart sink to his greaves as he shielded his eyes from the impact of the creature's landing kicking up loose rocks and debris. When he dared to look up, the soul-piercing eyes of the Hellkite Drake looked back.
But something was different. Its scales were a royal yellow and bore tiny crystals which got larger towards the spine, some as thick as Astaire's arm. It was unlike anything he'd ever seen. So imposing and fearsome that words failed him as he stood agog.
"Holy hell…" Kanji murmured. In an instant he was next to Rise, grasping at the portcullis and straining. "W-We gotta get this gate up quick!" He said, the rust pressing painfully into his hands as he heaved upwards.
Teddie joined him, but only to pry at Kanji instead of the gate. "Kanji-kun, knock it off! Throwing your back out isn't going to help anyone!"
Given the gate hadn't budged an inch, Kanji conceded. But no way was Astaire fighting that thing on his own. "Takeji-Zaiten! Ziodyne that bastard!"
Astaire's eyes lit up at the sight of Kanji's Persona. Lightning, of course! If anything would bring this colossal menace to its knees, it'd be lightning!
Or so he thought, anyway.
The fearsome bolts of lightning did indeed strike the drake in the back, pulsing with ferocious power that even Astaire could feel from the ground. But the Drake did nothing. The crystals aligning its body glimmered and gleamed a soft yellow as they seemed to soak up the electricity from the air. The drake took the attack in stride, narrowing its eyes at Astaire as if asking 'Is that the best you can do?'
"Oh no. Oh no no no, this is bad…" Rise said from underneath Kouzeon's visor. "Senpai, it's resistant to everything! The only thing that it doesn't resist is lightning because it absorbs it instead!" She forced Kouzeon's visor up and threw herself back to the portcullis, screaming with all her might, "ASTAIRE-KUN, RUN!"
And run Astaire did. He dashed past the drake's head and hopped over its claws, ducking under its mighty tail as it turned to pursue him. Another roar filled the air with an electric tingle that ran over his skin, spurring him on faster.
It had absorbed lightning. The one universal weakness of all dragons, their imitators and their descendants. It hadn't just played it off like it was nothing, it'd benefitted from it. In the Age of Dragons, such a beast would surely have ripped Lord Gwyn and his army apart singlehandedly. Though he was ashamed to admit it, Astaire was scared beyond belief.
His steps slowed as he drew nearer to the portcullis, viewing everyone beyond it in greater detail.
Kanji's look of incensed frustration. Rise's teary eyes as her pupils shrunk to pinpoints. Even Yosuke looked perturbed, taking an instinctive step back as the drake drew ever closer, fear evident on his face.
Astaire stopped, met Rise's eyes, then slowly turned to face the drake again. As it loomed forward, his grip on the buckler tightened. He was out of his depth. A longsword and buckler weren't drake killing weapons. Hard leather armour wasn't drake killing attire. He was so ill-equipped that he could practically feel Gravelord Nito's embrace slithering up his back, shivering in anticipation of his one, final death.
Even still, he looked the drake dead in the eye. "Don't worry. I've fought worse." Astaire lied through his teeth. "Leave it to me."
Rise's heart leapt as the drake's jaws snapped at the ground where Astaire once stood, having dodged in time to make a break for the beast's rear end. The tail. The tail would be his first target. It slammed into the ground as he approached, narrowly missing the impact and driving his sword into the scaled mass of muscle and bone.
It did nothing. The blade bounced off the scales like he'd hit the beast with a tree branch. It was a wonder the longsword hadn't snapped in two. Astaire realised his mistake only late enough for the tail to counter, slamming into his front and tossing him into a nearby parapet like a ragdoll.
The pain coursed over his entire body. He felt like he'd run a mile and leapt off a cliff at the end. He'd surely broken a bone somewhere, if not every bone in his body.
That wasn't an excuse. Astaire picked himself back up, sword in hand as the drake turned to face him, head low to the ground. Fearsome teeth, sharp as razors, lashed out at Astaire just before he narrowly sidestepped and stabbed at the drake's eye with both hands.
Again, nothing. With an eyelid - an eyelid - the drake bounced Astaire's sword away like it were a toy. With naught but a nudge of its head, Astaire was sent flying into the parapets again, unable to withhold his pained cries any longer.
Estus flask. He needed an Estus flask. Just one sip would do. One little tiny sip. It would be so simple.
But it was fading. It was fading away and there were no bonfires to bring it back. He couldn't. He had to endure it.
The buckler fell limply from Astaire's off-hand as he pressed his back against the parapet for support, hauling himself to his feet once more. The drake snapped at him again, just as he ducked and made for its tail anew, off-hand limply flailing at his side. In the time it took for the drake to turn around, he could sort himself out. Get his thoughts in order. Work through the pain and-
Astaire felt the end of the drake's tail crash into his back, the tiny scale crystals acting like hooks and piercing his armour, knocking him limp as he cascaded across the ground and rolled to a stop at the portcullis, face to the ground.
Rise wanted desperately to call out to him. Ensure he was alright. The only thing stopping her was the fear that he might not answer back. Somewhere to her side, she heard Yukiko cast a Diarahan on him, and even then he was slow to get up. He left the longsword on the ground, clutching at the portcullis with his dominant hand and leaning into it, head swimming and vision clouding, even after Yukiko's magic.
Bent over as he was, his face was inches from Rise's. He looked lazily into her eyes, trying to think of anything he could say to help her stop looking so distraught. So muddled were his thoughts that he barely even reacted as he felt her palm rest on his cheek. "Stop it. Stop doing this to yourself. Find a way of opening this gate and let us help."
Astaire felt his blood ran cold. His haggard breaths stopping dead. "You don't think I can do it."
"I don't think, I know! If you keep going like this you're going to get yourself killed!" Rise's tears began welling up anew as she pounded weakly against the portcullis. "Just open the gate and we can do it together! All of us, as a team!"
Rise withdrew her hand as she noticed the look Astaire was giving her. That same horrified look he'd given Yu earlier. His gaze broke from her and flitted between everyone else, lingering on Yosuke in particular. "I'm not useless. I'm not dead weight, I'm not!" His growing mania was put on hold as the drake took a step backwards, lifting its tail back into the air.
"Listen to her, you frickin' idiot! That thing's going to crush you flat if you don't open this damn gate!" Kanji yelled, banging against the metal and ignoring the pain in his hand.
Before she could pull away to stop him, Astaire clasped Rise's hand, lifted his glasses off and planted them in her palm, walking off before she could do anything about it. "Astaire-kun, don't! What about the TV sickness?!" She cried after him, dread filling her heart.
If he heard her, he didn't let on. The drake had his full attention as it raised its tail high into the air above him, letting out a roar as it forcefully brought it back down, eyes glimmering with a lust for death.
There was an almighty crash, another bellowing roar, and the sound of blood spraying out over the immediate area. In the time leading up to the tail hitting the ground, Astaire had reached into his coat and swung his Zweihander overhead with reckless abandon. The surge of raw momentum and titanite-infused power shredded the drake's tail like it were made of straw, separating body from appendage in an instant and covering Astaire in a fresh, blood-red coating.
If the drake hadn't been angry before, Astaire had fixed that right up. With a single flap of its wings, the beast retreated to the other end of the bridge, a grim rumble forming in its chest as a deluge of sparks and electricity cascaded from its jaw.
"Don't just stand there, it's going to attack!" Rise said, her voice rattling about in Astaire's head. He didn't reply, but the way he erratically scanned around him suggested he wasn't ignoring her. She bit her lip at Kouzeon's map of the area; the bridge was completely straight, there were no spots to hide behind. Where could he even run to?
Wait, no! There was something! "The tail! Get behind the tail!"
Astaire vaulted over the tail and into safety just as the electric crackling of the drake's lightning hit a breaking point. There was a flash of light and an ear-splittingly loud boom as a thick, forked arc of lightning decimated everything in its path, destroying bricks on the walkway, singing the parapets black and turning the very center of the portcullis white-hot.
The team looked amongst themselves after having shielded their eyes, gazing up at Takeji-Zaiten as it stood with its arms splayed between them and the gate. Kanji mimicked the motion below him, sweating profusely. "S-Shit. Thought it was gonna hit us."
"If it launches another, it just might." Naoto noted as the metal began settling to a darker crimson. "The metal's structure will have been compromised as a result of experiencing thermal shock. If it does it again, that structure might give way entirely." As soon as she'd said it aloud, Naoto raised her eyebrows and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Astaire-san! Let it hit the gate again!"
Had Naoto said something? Astaire swore she did, but it felt like every sense he had was muffled. His vision was fading in and out, his chest felt tight, everything sounded like he was underwater. It was hard to focus on any one thing.
But that drake needed to die. That was clear. If everything else was to be swamped and left imperceivable, that was the one constant. The drake needed to die.
Astaire rose to his feet and swung at the dismembered tail, cutting a chaos-seared fissure lengthways. The scales successfully pried away, he forced his hand inside the open wound, working between muscle and sinew as he felt around.
"Ooh, what's he doing?!" Yukiko said enthusiastically as her eyes lit up, ignoring those amongst her friends who winced and gagged as bits of viscera and blood pooled at Astaire's feet. "Do you think he's finally lost it? Should we give him his glasses back?"
"You got a screw loose or somethin'?" Kanji called out, resisting the urge to clasp the red-hot gate again. "Quit messin' around with that thing and start-!"
A gag-inducing noise, somewhere between flesh rending and bone cracking, gave Kanji pause as his hand went to his mouth and willed his breakfast back into place. Astaire heaved and lurched away from the tail, appearing to be pulling at something inside. Each lurch deformed the surface layer of scales, like a snake coughing up something far bigger than itself. Whatever it was that he had hold of, it was big.
With one final strain, Astaire roared as he retrieved his prize, slicked with drake blood and heavy as sin. A mighty slab of bone and scale, as tall as Astaire and rivalling Havel's greatshield for thickness. Blood streaked down the ribcage-shaped pattern on the front, catching on the branches which splayed out from the center.
Lightning Drake Greatshield
This shield, one of the rare dragon arms, is formed from the tail of the Lightning Drake, a deformed, augmented being constructed in the space between worlds. Boasts exceptional lightning defence.
The shield is imbued with a mystical power, to be released when held in the off-hand of one with remarkable strength.
Without a moment to waste, Astaire hauled the shield to his side and sprinted into the fray, charging towards the drake as it reeled its head back, sparks flying from its jaw anew. It sounded like there was somebody yelling behind him. Something about getting back into hiding and… something. It was too muggy, too clouded. And that bastard of a drake still wasn't dead.
Rise could see it clearly, even without Kouzeon. The drake was going to fire before Astaire was halfway across the bridge. "Astaire-kun, please listen to me! If you don't turn back it's going to hit you head on!" Rise cried, not bothering to wipe away the tears that fell from under Kouzeon's visor. "Please… please don't die in front of me…" She wavered, realising that even transmitting her words directly into his head wasn't going to stop him.
They could do little but wait for the impact. Once the drake fired again and destroyed the portcullis, they'd need to rush in and kill it, with or without Astaire. From the way Yu was looking at it right now, he was putting his bets on 'without.' He clutched the fabric on his sleeves as he folded his arms, an anxious anticipation washing over him.
The drake fired. Another flash of light, another earth-rocking boom as the bolt fired off.
The gate remained untouched.
Halfway down the bridge, Astaire braced against the greatshield and powered through the ferocious beam of light, keeping his head low as it forked and arced around the edges, passing him by entirely. It felt like bracing against a punch from an unruly giant who also had knuckles that were searing hot. But the drake still wasn't dead. Ignore it.
Everyone gawked as Astaire whipped the shield to the side, scattering the lightning uselessly to his side with a grunt.
Now the drake would die.
Rise clasped her hands together at her chest as relief mixed together with anxiety. Yes, Astaire was alive, but something still didn't seem right. His Zweihander dragged across the ground behind him, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake as he sprinted with his shoulders hunched and his head held low.
She had to say something. Get an answer from him to be sure he was okay. Kouzeon channeled him directly as Rise took a deep breath, trying her best to quell her fears lest they slip out all at once. But as the line opened, and Rise opened her mouth to speak, she was immediately drowned out. Violent grunting, panting and barely-withheld growls greeted her from the other end.
Her first, most worrying thought was that it sounded more like an animal on the other end than it did any kind of human. Her thumb trembled as it ran over the frame of the glasses in her palm. Whatever was happening to him without them, it sounded horrifying.
The telltale flash of light only sunk Rise's heart further towards the ground. She hadn't been watching the drake. Had Astaire protected himself in time? Had he made it? If Takeji-Zaiten were to cease shielding everyone, would he still be there? It was impossible to say.
Perhaps once upon a time drakes were more intelligent creatures. Seath the Scaleless certainly provided a good case for the rest of dragonkind, but the jury was still out on drakes. Perhaps they were just as intelligent as their ancient counterparts. Perhaps their imitation of them extended only to the physical, leaving their mental faculties lacking in comparison.
Whatever the case may have been, even the drake could sense the sheer malice and malevolence from the knight as he surged forward, eyes on fire. Lightning brewed in the beast's breast, one more to finally be rid of the threat once and for all. The drake opened its jaws with a mighty roar, a thunderous clap sounding out as the knight-
-was suddenly eye-to-eye with the monster. At the side of its head. Out of reach of the lightning. The drake's entire body quaked as Astaire's Zweihander made contact and slammed its head to the ground. Heat seeped in through the scales adorning the drake's head, the sword's inhumane weight parting them like they were waxen.
But he didn't stop there. The first blow was followed by another. And another. And another. Each bone-shattering hit came far too quickly to have been delivered by any mere human. No mortal man could have swung something that large that fast. Yet Astaire pounded and hammered away regardless.
On the other end of the bridge, the drake's final bolt of lightning made short work of the gate, the center having been reduced to a molten hole curtained by pieces of seeping white-hot metal. Yu leapt through and immediately broke into a sprint, turning only to yell at everyone else. "Alright, we're in! Everyone form up on me, we need to take that thing down, and fast!"
Rise nearly knocked Teddie off his feet entirely as she barrelled past everyone else, holding on to Astaire's glasses for dear life. He was alive, thank God, but without them he was clearly suffering, and no force inside the TV or out was going to stop her getting them back to him.
Astaire looked up as the drake staggered weakly, the burning fire inside him all but visible in his blank, dilated eyes.
Had to kill the drake. Not useless if it's dead. Trying to stomp. Dodge out of the way, strike the leg. Trying to swipe with neck. Use shield, strike after. Roll out from under drake. Looks tired. Not good enough. Not dead. Had to kill the drake. Had to kill the drake NOW.
The monster loomed over Astaire and suddenly lunged forward, jaw extended and teeth primed to rip him in two. The strike was like lightning itself, nobody could dodge it, not even Astaire. The drake clamped down confidently, awaiting the sweet sensation of steel perforating under its unstoppable might.
The drake stopped. Its jaw stopped. It had bitten something hard. Something so hard that it didn't even bend under the drake shutting its jaw as strongly as it could manage.
Astaire peeked out from behind the Lightning Drake Greatshield, fiery gaze affixed on the drake once more. Before the drake could pull away, he put both hands to the shield and slammed it full-force into the ground, loosing a mighty shockwave that wrenched the drake's jaws apart with a pained roar. As an injured whimper rolled past the beast's forked tongue, its entire body fell limp at Astaire's feet. It wasn't dead, but it certainly wasn't running away in a hurry.
"Astaire-kun!" Rise cried from behind, neck and neck with Yu as they rushed towards the fallen beast. Kouzeon appeared behind her, letting out a familiar green flash that washed over the entire team, Astaire included. "NOW!"
Without a word, Astaire discarded the greatshield off to his side and raised the Zweihander above his head with both hands. He felt the power course through his arms, augmented even further by Rise charging him up, and ploughed into the drake's head before it even had time to react. The impact could be felt by everyone in the team as it rocked the ground underneath them, chunks of meat, scale and bone exploding from the epicentre of the strike.
And with that, the drake was felled.
"He… he actually did it." Yukiko said in quiet awe as everyone approached the end of the bridge, the cobbles they walked on getting redder the farther they walked. The source of the discolouration, Astaire, was still standing above the drake's body, his hand visibly shaking on the grip of his sword. No other part of him had moved since the impact.
At some point Rise had overtaken Yu on the run up, her legs feeling like they might give out and her lungs feeling like they were on fire. She was never the best when it came to sports, given sprinting didn't usually make up a good portion of her daily routine, but at that moment she could have outrun an olympic athlete. "Oh my god! Astaire-kun, talk to us!" She cried, gaze affixed on his back.
At the sound of her voice, there was an upwards jolt from the grip of Astaire's sword as his hand ceased shaking. He'd hit the drake so hard that he'd embedded his sword in the stone beneath. However, much to Rise's surprise, he didn't turn to face her. Nor did he speak, or laugh, or sigh, or anything. He stood as still as a stone, facing towards the drake's body.
Wait, of course. He'd been acting odd during the fight with the drake too. Rise brought up the ultramarine glasses, making sure to clear the lenses of any sweat her palms had provided, and held them out to him. "C'mon, hurry up and put these back on! Who knows what having them off after doing all that will do to you?" She extended her arm to his back. He had to turn around. She wanted him to turn around. But he never did. He just stood there. "...Astaire-kun? Is something-?"
Rise jumped in surprise as Astaire grunted fiercely and slammed the Zweihander into the drake's body again. And again. And again. With each swing, more blood and viscera splayed out across the ground as Astaire's grunting grew more animalistic over time.
There was no way the glasses weren't causing it. But how could Rise hand them to him in this state? Getting even the slightest distance near him would wind up with her getting lopped in half. She instead found herself backing away in fear, shaking her head as if to try and tell herself it couldn't have been him. Not Astaire.
Not again.
"Senpai…" Rise's voice was barely above a whisper as she hung back, placing herself behind Yu. "We need to get out of here, right now! Maybe if we get him out, he'll stop acting like this! There's no way he'll put his glasses back on like this!" She clutched her hands to her chest, practically on the verge of begging as the tears muddled her vision.
Yu rubbed his chin in thought, right up until something appeared in the corner of his eye. A save point. One that likely appeared in response to the drake's death. Without hesitation he stood atop it and pulled out a Goho-M, just in time for everyone else to catch up from behind them. "Woah, hey, simmer down! Thing's dead enough as it is, it don't need much more help!" Kanji called out to Astaire, noting his lack of a reaction.
Yu rubbed the bridge of his nose. Yosuke was going to have a field day with this. "Well, what're we waiting for, partner?! Get us outta here before he runs out of dragon to tear apart!" Yosuke himself shouted, giving Yu a serious look from a safe distance behind the rampage.
"Right! We're going back to the entrance, everyone hold on!" Yu announced as he tightened his grip on the Goho-M, a blinding light filling everyone's eyes and gently teleporting them back whence they came. When everyone opened their eyes, they were gazing out at the Undead Burg from the remains of Firelink Shrine once again.
The first immediate sound upon relocation was that of Astaire's distressed, ragged breaths through his teeth. Without a drake to tenderise, he'd fallen on his knees and clutched his temples with both hands, rocking back and forth as he murmured unintelligibly. His eyes were clenched shut, his hair clinging to his head as sweat beaded on his forehead.
Rise was knelt down next to him, gently setting her hands on his cheeks and whispering, "Hey now, don't be like that. Everything will be just fine once we get these glasses on, okay?" She smiled gently, wiping her own eyes dry. She reached into her pocket and retrieved the glasses, extending the legs and-
"Oh, what is it now?" Chie asked someone indignantly, catching Rise's ear. "If you're gonna come out with more depressing BS, you can just walk right back where you came from!" She said, hands on her hips.
Chie's face fell at the same time everyone else's did. An Undead gurgle came from behind Rise's back, prompting her to turn around and knocking her onto the ground as she backed away. She looked up fearfully, meeting eyes with the Crestfallen Warrior from earlier. His skin stretched across his lipless face as his mouth lolled open, another groan rolling past his blackened teeth. He gripped a longsword in his right hand as he shambled ever closer to the team.
"No way! We were talking to him just a few minutes ago! How could he have changed this quickly?!" Teddie asked as he hid behind Kanji. "We can't kill someone so soon after talking to them, can we?!"
It certainly felt different. Killing something that looked so human to begin with was bad enough, but watching the life leave the eyes of someone they'd shared words with, however unpleasant? It felt like legitimate murder. It was this very thought that stopped anyone acting sooner, staying their respective weapons as the morality of the situation plagued them.
All of a sudden the Crestfallen Warrior broke into a sprint, raising the longsword above its head and aiming for Rise. They'd tarried too long. By now, he was too close for anyone to intercept. Rise could do little but raise her arms in front of her head and clench her eyes shut, waiting for the pain to come.
A metallic sound, the sound of metal piercing and bending in on itself, stopped the Crestfallen Warrior dead in his tracks. Rise opened her eyes wide, just in time to catch the sight of the Zweihander's parrying hooks piercing the warrior's chest and launching him across the shrine like he weighed nothing at all. Even before he'd hit the ground, a deranged Astaire was chasing him down, sword raised anew and a look of insatiable anger chiselled on his face.
Everyone watched in horror as the Crestfallen Warrior went to get back up, only for Astaire to completely flatten him again, grunting wildly all the while. It was one thing to hulk out on a drake that'd knocked him half to death, it was another thing entirely to do the same to something relatively human looking.
But he didn't hold back. If anything, what he'd done to the drake looked tame by comparison. The ground shook with every hit, and continued shaking long after the Crestfallen Warrior had stopped gurgling.
A tight knot formed in Rise's throat as she watched. It was just like the other day when she was onstage, but far, far worse. She quickly shook her head, rationalising that it was a Hollow, not a reporter and furthermore something's wrong with him, I just don't know what.
At least, she hoped that was the explanation.
"Alright, that's enough. He's dead." Yosuke piped up, daring to approach Astaire from behind as he flailed his sword about recklessly. Again, words did nothing to stop him. Yosuke furrowed his brow and spoke again. "Hey, are you listening to me?! I said he's already dead, you psychopath! Get off him already!"
"Shut the fuck up, Hanamura."
Yosuke froze. Rise's jaw nearly hit the floor. The forest fell silent.
"Always 'dead weight' this and 'useless' that. Always yammering on and on and on about how worthless I am, in combat or otherwise." Astaire continued, turning around slowly. "And now that I've gone and shown you up, you have the gall to sit there and try to take the high ground anyway? Is nothing I do right to you?!"
It looked like Astaire. Carried the same sword as Astaire. But it by no means sounded like Astaire. Yosuke took a careful step back as his voice began to distort, getting worse as he turned around further.
"I've had it. I've had it up to here with you! I'm not going to sit by any longer and let you run my name through the dirt!"
Finally, Astaire turned to face everyone fully, drawing a gasp from everyone behind Yosuke.
His eyes glowed a sickly yellow, his voice now distorted fully.
"I'll show you exactly who the dead weight is here." Astaire's Shadow finished with a cheshire grin.