Malenia had been resting, dreaming for a very long time. Her dreams where that of the past, her greatest fears and failures. The battle that forced her to give in and spread the rot. A rot that she feared would consume and corrupt everything and yet still decided to let loose.

It was far from a peaceful sleep, but she believed such was appropriate considering her failures. Ultimately, her nightmares, though they may haunt her, were of little consequence and once her brother returned to her, she was certain they would cease entirely. She simply needed to wait.

And yet when this stillness and her slumber were finally disturbed, it was not thanks to the return of her beloved brother, as was her hope, but rather due to the intrusion of an unwanted guest. A tarnished, no doubt, seeking to usurp her great rune.

So, she did as her duty demanded.

She forced her muscles, both flesh and mechanical, to move. They groaned and pained in complaint after so long of disuse, but move they did, as was her will, and she stood to face the intruder.

"I dreamt for so long.

My flesh was dull gold…and my blood rotted.

Corpse after corpse, left in my wake…"

She picked up the prosthetic arm laying on the floor and slotted it in her shoulder. The pain of the nerves reattaching themselves was severe, but she showed no indication of having felt it. Her speech didn't stutter and her breath didn't hitch.

"As I awaited his return" She continued putting on her helmet once more.

"Heed my words.

I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella.

And I have never known defeat."

With those words, her sword blade attached itself to her hand and she finally turned to analyze the trespasser, as she slowly walked towards him.

Judging by the sound of his walk, he was wearing full plate armor, which likely covered him from head to toe. From the reverberation of metal, she could tell he was using a great sword that hang and bounced loosely from his shoulder. Otherwise, there didn't seem to be anything of note about him. His steps and armor suggested average height for one of his kind and perhaps on the lighter side. A strange combination for the kind of weapon he brought.

However, that was not to say there was nothing strange about him. The way he carried himself was as if a corpse had come back to life, yet failed to remember what it meant to be alive. His movements were sluggish and purposeless, his steps unsteady, barely lifting and dragging on the ground. More so than that however, despite her acute senses, she could not perceive breath coming from within that helmet of his. Were he not currently moving towards her slowly, she would have assumed him already dead.

And whether he had heard a word she said, he showed no indication.

There was an eerie incongruity to the scene before her. She would think a warrior who managed to make it past all the guards to reach this place, would at least be of respectable strength and will, and at most a worthy opponent for her. Yet he was neither. As was soon proven.

Having already wasted enough time deliberating, it really was unlike her, she charged right in and with flowing motions made multiple cuts across her opponent. Each strike connected fluidly to the next as she drew an accurate image of his proportions with her sword.

He managed to avoid some of them by clumsily rolling backwards, but she had expected as much and as he was getting back up, she extended her sword again and carved a deep groove into his stomach.

He jerkily stumbled back and made to drink something from a flask, yet before he could even finish, she was already upon him again, intending to finish this farce. Grabbing him by the neck, she tossed him in the air, before impaling him on her sword with finality.

Unceremoniously dropping his corpse on the floor, she proceeded to sit back down. She knew it was for the best, but part of her was disappointed that he amounted to so little. After the way her last fight went, she had wanted to…

But before she could think any deeper about it, another intruder appeared, or more accurately… the same one.

'Strange and yet utterly pointless.' She thought as she got back up and slew him again.

…

…

…

She showed no mercy as she killed him over and over again and yet she could not get rid of him. Every time he died, like clockwork, he would simply appear again soon after. Every fight followed the same course as well, lasting less than a minute, full of mistakes, missteps and misjudgments. She suspected he might be trying to win through attrition alone, in which case he would be sorely disappointed, as every time she drew his blood, she recovered her stamina and her injuries, not that there were any to speak of.

…

…

…

At this point she started to suspect that there simply was no thought occurring in that frail skull of his. The same tactics over and over again, the same result. It mattered little, though, her duty was clear and she would see it through, regardless if it required strength or, in this case, patience.

…

…

…

And so, the slaughter continued for countless hours and days. She killed him in as many ways as she could think of; piercing his heart, his head, decapitation, dismemberment, disembowelment and yet he kept coming. She knew it was only a matter of time until his will broke and he left or chose to remain dead. But truthfully, he had already lasted longer than his frail appearance suggested. If there was another way to deal with him permanently, she knew not of it. She wished her brother would awaken already, for he surely would know how to deal with this situation, learned as he was in the ways of grace.

Even so, she remained unconcerned, as he was too weak to pose a real threat to her. If she could not find a solution, she would simply outlast him, or keep him busy until her brother awoke. Either way her victory was assured.

And yet, it seemed she had underestimated her opponent, at least to some extent. She noticed a small change starting to occur after a while. She wasn't sure when it started, as all the "fights" blended together into a monotonous nothing, but he started improving. Slowly yes, but steadily. More so than that however, he started feeling more… alive, with every death and every defeat.

The thought was amusing at first in its absurdity. Yet that amusement turned to concern as it was proven more and more accurate with every repetition. He approached her with more and more purpose every time, his grip was firmer, his attacks sharper and his steps surer.

It was a strange and novel thing for her to witness. It was as if he too was slowly awakening from a deep slumber himself, even if it took considerably longer.

It was during one of their fights, she had lost count which one at this point, she had once again charged at him with her sword in retracted configuration and slashed at him rapidly, aiming for the weak spots in his armor. This time however instead of haphazardly rolling and jumping, he purposely stepped back just out of range and simultaneously thrust forward his greatsword. Being caught off guard and in the middle of her own swing, she could not dodge in time and was hit in the abdomen, forcing her to stagger back, for the first time.

The pain was negligent, the wound near non-existent and her retaliation instant and yet as he slid down her sword once more, she heard a chuckle, one that filled her with unease. It had a satisfied undertone that was very out of place for the situation that triggered it. More importantly, it signified that he was either going insane or that his will was far from broken.

And then nothing. He didn't appear immediately again like he had every other time. And yet she could find no comfort in that. She was certain this was not the end. It felt more like the calm before the storm. The longer she waited the more on edge she became, but she was no novice. She steadied herself and stood tall awaiting her challenger once more. Though she could also feel a small part of her growing in anticipation at what was to come.

And come It did.

He took far longer to appear again, but when he did, he made his presence known. Wielding a new thicker sword made of solid steel and longer than he was tall, he charged at her with clear intent. A far cry of his previous attempts, his steps thumped strongly on the ground as he approached her, sword held firmly and at the ready.

His swings were still slow and imprecise, but they contained considerable power and weight behind them. Even if they failed to cut through her tough skin and metal limbs, they were still capable of doing considerable damage within.

She managed to avoid most of them, but uncaring for his own health as he was, he often chose to trade hits whenever he was sure he would survive the exchange, even if only barely. They could both heal, as she figured out was the purpose of those flasks of his, but it quickly became apparent that she could heal far more than him and more importantly she didn't have to drop her offensive to do so.

And so, countless battles followed and an equal number of victories were achieved. However, his improvement was becoming palpable at this point. With every encounter he grew faster and more precise. He could now dodge a lot of her attacks and the rapid change in sword configurations failed to surprise him anymore. As a result, she was effectively being deprived of her healing to a large extend as well.

Most annoyingly of all however, was the fact that she couldn't feel an ounce of frustration, anger or resignation from him. Despite suffering one humiliating defeat after the other, he didn't seem any more intent on quitting than he was at the beginning. If anything, it seemed as though he was growing more and more excited. There was a certain giddiness and excitement to the way he charged right in after every defeat and she could swear she heard more laughs every once in a while.

Regardless, she was far from finished as well.

The fights continued and though she won every bout, her advantage was growing smaller and smaller each time. He was slowly analyzing her fighting style, finding patterns in it and figuring out how to use them to his advantage. Every move she made was either dodged, blocked or halted and many were punished with precision and timing. Her stabs were sidestepped, her grabs dodged, her slashes interrupted.

They were both still accumulating damage but she was receiving far more than she could heal anymore, not with the few hits she managed to land at least. Even her infamous waterfowl dance was slowly being outmaneuvered. Where he would, at first, start running at the mere sight of it, in the vein hope she would fail to reach him in time, he was now slowly finding ways to avoid more and more of the rapid slashes that made it up.

Loathe as she was to admit it, he was taking control of the pace and the rhythm of the fight and she found herself being forced back more and more. Had she not witnessed the slow rise to this reach this point, she would have assumed to be fighting a different opponent now.

And still that infernal chuckling continued, as if he was mocking her for fighting against the inevitable. He was enjoying himself; she could tell. The idea of battle lust was not foreign to her, she herself thirsted for war and battle, and yet even compared to hers at its height, this seemed overmuch. Especially considering he lost every single time, in evermore painful and gruesome ways.

Strangest of all, though, was that he had even started breathing again at some point. She could hear them now, steady and deep at first and growing rapid with exhaustion and excitement. Again, her amusing thought of him awakening from a deep slumber, seemed all the more distressingly likely…

Once more, she managed to edge out a victory, though it could have easily gone either way. She knew however that he would return shortly and she feared this would be her last. Regardless, she would fight to the bitter end if she had to. So long as she still drew breath, she would let no-one reach her brother. Although, since some time ago there was another matter vying for her attention. She could feel the scarlet rot respond to her emotions and her desperation. She could feel it promising swift victory once more, if she only unleased it…

Soon her adversary stood opposite her once more and once more they clashed. He had switched weapons again, another colossal greatsword, though this time it was a little shorter, much heavier, but also duller. It felt more like a chunk of rock than a sword, though that distinction did little to lessen the injuries and pain she was dealt.

She knew she would lose if she allowed him control again and so she charged at him immediately.

She lifted her sword and in an instant was already before him thrusting into his chest, only for him to dodge to her side and transferring his momentum into his sword, swung it into her stomach, tossing her back.

As soon as her feet touched the ground again, she retracted her blade and launched an assault on him. He rolled back and though the last slice connected with his shoulder he paid it no mind as he pushed forward from a kneeling position forcing the tip of his sword into her chest, before following up with a downward strike.

Dodging to the side she pulled back and in a powerful uppercut tried to sever his arm unsuccessfully, launching herself in the air. However Instead of the follow up she normally did, she forced her stance to change midair, as she prepared her best attack. Expecting a downward cut, he moved towards her only to realize too late, that he had been fooled.

Upon descending once more she strained her muscles to finish this fight in the next move. With nowhere to run he raised his sword to block as much as he could instead. Though, as her cuts came from every direction and far too quickly to be defended against with such a heavy weapon, he still got hit multiple times. There was great satisfaction as she felt her sword cut through his flesh again and again and felt strength slowly returning to her. Even when the blow was blocked, she simply allowed her sword to slide on his own before cutting his arms and side once it reached the its edge.

Unfortunately, that was the extent of her success. As the first chain ended, she found him still standing, hiding behind that annoyingly wide sword of his. And in the split second it took to launch her second assault he had already recovered from his shock and dodged behind her, avoiding most of the slashes. In her third and final chain he moved further back, just barely managing to leave her range, rendering her last attack useless.

Or so she thought, as instead of getting away to heal, he moved towards her, taking the last cut into his side, all the while dragging his own sword behind him. Sliding right in front of her he raised it high in an arc from behind him and brought it down on her.

She had no time to recover from her own attack, much less escape, the only thing she could do was try to minimize the damage. She angled her head to the side and putt her flesh and blood hand up, but could do little more than redirect it to miss her head. The sword connected with great power as it still crashed against her shoulder and forced her to take a knee, leaving her momentarily stunned.

Wasting not a moment, he pulled back again and slammed it diagonally into her torso burying her into the floor, as she felt the soil beneath parting and compressing to make room for her body. Then, he brought it up high and once more slammed it into her, forcing her even deeper.

Malenia felt the air get violently knocked out of her lungs and could barely gasp pathetically. Her senses were also starting to fail her. Her touch was muddled and overwhelmed with pain and her hearing was muffled, as if she were underwater. Even so she could still hear the heavy panting of her opponent and the distressing sound of his footsteps nearing the Haligtree. Nearing her brother. But above all else she could feel the rot clawing aggressively against her once mighty defenses and encroaching upon her mind. Maybe she could stop it long enough to die and take it with her, but when she thought of her brother's imminent danger, she found she could not deny the power the rot promised her anymore. Maybe she would come to regret this decision later, or rather she would certainly come regret it later, however, she would regret letting her brother and his work die, far more.

And so, she let go of her restraints and let the rot invade her unrestricted. It was freeing, in a twisted way. She knew this freedom she felt would come at the cost of thousands of lives again, if not more. And yet, she could not care at the moment, she had a duty to fulfill and now she had the strength to see it through.

"Wait" she uttered as she felt the bloom take effect and from the hole she was forced into, many long and spiraling petals grew forth engulfing her form. They were glowing various shades of red, looking almost like heated and molten metal. They closed around her, hiding and protecting her from the world, as her bloom was reaching its climax.

And then they opened. It was quick but gentle, as they untwisted themselves, releasing rot into the air and revealing her form in the middle of a giant blossom.

"The scarlet bloom flowers once more"

She could feel the rot on her skin spreading steadily and rotten wings emerging from her back.

Rot was her element, she could sense it as it covered everything in her little garden, including the tarnished. For the first time, she could get a somewhat accurate, if distorted view of him. She could read great surprise and apprehension from his body. Even so he still lacked the outright fear he should be feeling. For the scarlet rot is all consuming.

If anything could break him, it would be this.

Using her newly formed wings she rose to the air and gazed down at her opponent. For a moment she felt pity for the poor warrior that would soon shatter. Under different circumstances she could have grown to like this lowly tarnished. Though his strength was ordinary, his will and ability to adapt, to suffer a thousand defeats and get up a thousand and one times, was truly remarkable. Nevertheless, she had a duty to see to.

"You will witness true horror.

Now, rot!"

She exclaimed and descended upon him forming a scarlet aeonia which crashed down and bloomed, spreading even more rot in the air. There would be no chances taken this time, the tarnished would die and rot forever.

She could feel him scramble to get away, only barely managing to avoid the blast, though evidently not the rot as he started coughing soon after and taking more sips from that flask of his.

Now that she could see him, she could go on a proper offensive. Mixing old attacks with new and incorporating rot into every move. Each time she drew blood, she could feel the rot spreading a little further, causing more and more decay and pain.

Of course, as she expected, the tarnished had no intention of going down without a fight and he started quickly adapting to her new style of attack. Many injuries were traded, but he received the majority of them and failed to take back initiative. With the rot now spreading inside him, it became increasingly unlikely for him to gain the advantage again either. So, when even his flasks ran out of uses, she knew it was time to bring this fight to a close.

'Though you have intruded upon these lands, you have fought valiantly little tarnished and as such I offer you, my respect. Now perish'

Were her final thoughts before she ascended back into the sky and prepared her rotten waterfowl dance. The tarnished realizing this, started distancing himself, but it was no use. She descended upon him like a gentle stream, yet everything that came close to her was cut to pieces. He blocked as much as he could, he dodged as much as he was able to, but in the end, he fell to the ground, wounds small and big littering his armor and flesh beneath.

Malenia landed not too far away and walked slowly towards him. His resilience continued to amaze her, as he managed to hold onto life for just a little longer.

As she approached, she saw him pushing himself up into a kneeling position, coughing up pieces of his lungs. Still holding on to his sword he looked up at her defiantly and… chuckled?

She paused. That uneasy feeling returned to her in full force as she saw him lift his arm while holding a small shard of… rock? Whatever it was, she could definitely feel great heat emanating from it and yet could not identify what it was. An act of desperation was always the most dangerous, so trusting in her instincts she quickly leapt back, putting distance between them.

In the next moment, instead of throwing It, or otherwise using it, however, he crushed it withing his hand. Her confusion lasted only a mere moment, for in the next, the tarnished burst into flames. A fire that coated his armor and flowed in waves across it causing it to glow red and yellow. Even his sword started heating up rapidly. And yet, he seemed perfectly content within that blaze. In fact, she could feel it burning through and eliminating the rot from within him and without. At the same time the shallow lake they were standing in started evaporating, covering and hiding him in a cloud of steam.

Her unease quickly grew and reached the point of apprehension. She was familiar with the flame of frenzy and its sickening followers. She could think of no worse scenario than letting such filth loose in her brother's Haligtree. Although, she could tell this was somehow different, its unpredictability only made it more threatening in her mind.

Without hesitation she launched herself back into the air. Emitting even more rot, which she proceeded to morph into clones of herself, before launching them against the dangerous tarnished.

He barely managed to roll out of the first one's impalement, before getting clipped in the arm by the second's. Quickly raising his sword, he partially blocked the third and fourth ones' attacks, before having to roll to avoid the first one again. But by the time he got back up he had only a split second to react to Malenia's own thrust, as she dived towards him at blinding speed.

Her sword connected and gouged out his side, tearing through armor, cloth and flesh alike, yet at the same time she felt a burning, crushing pain in her stomach, before being thrown back by his now fiery sword.

His retaliatory attack landed on her barely healed injuries from earlier and caused them to reopen and worsen considerably. She expected another attack to come, but it seemed he couldn't quite ignore this injury, as he had the previous ones. Meters apart now, the tarnished was leaning against his sword, while Malenia was forced to take a knee. They were both breathing heavily and trying to recover from their injuries. They had given everything they had and more, but in the end one of them would have to fall.

They stared at each other for a singular long moment, before Malenia initiated the final confrontation. Taking into consideration their close distance and his state, she decided to rise in the air and prepare the final attack. She was hurting, injured and exhausted, but for the sake of her brother she would dance one last time. But as she pulled back her sword and forced her failing body into position, she realized the mistake she had made.

The tarnished didn't run or hide like he had every other time during their hundreds of fights. He took a few heavy yet quick steps towards her and before she could initiate her attack, he jumped.

And he struck her down.

Were she in a better state she could have withstood it, ignored it, but she was barely holding on as it was. When she saw the fiery sword falling towards her, see knew it was over. She had lost.

It connected hard into her shoulder and had enough force to tear off her prosthesis and drop her back towards the ground.

As she was falling, she couldn't help, but acknowledge quietly;

"Your strength, extraordinary…"

And it certainly was. Even without his strange fire, he was a formidable opponent with an iron will. She pondered for a moment, how come she had never heard of one such warrior and more to the point, how long was she asleep that she didn't…

Then she connected with the earth once more, the shallow pool doing little to soften her fall. Behind her, she heard him land as well, with a heavy thud of his armored feet and another louder one as his sword dug into the ground.

As her strength quickly left her, so did the rot, taking her rudimentary vision away once more. The last thing she saw being the tarnished standing on shaky legs, using his sword as a crutch as he leaned back, panting heavily yet victoriously.

"The mark… of a true lord…"

She made a vein attempt at getting up, but she could barely lift her arms, much less support her entire body.

As she lay there, trying to breathe over the pain in her chest, she barely made out the thumping of footsteps, slowly getting louder.

"O, dear Miquella…

O, dearest Miquella, my brother

I'm sorry. I finally met my match" She lamented, yet could do nothing about it anymore.

When they finally stopped, she felt the burning metal of his sword brush against her neck. Its dull edge struggling to pierce through her skin as it was pressed harder and harder against it.

Even through the haziness of her thoughts she could feel death approaching swiftly, yet slowly. There was a pang of shame at her failure and her loss of control, but underneath there was also a sense of great satisfaction. After so long, she finally found a worthy opponent, one wiling and capable enough to overcome the cursed rot that defined her life since birth.

Even now she could feel it writhing around inside her, trying to recover by consuming her. She wanted to laugh at its pathetic and pointless squirming, unfortunately the sword pressed against her throat made that somewhat difficult.

Though as the first rivulets of blood rolled down and she prepared herself to meet her end, he stopped.

Instead, she could now feel his eyes on her, looking, searching… judging.

Before she could understand what was happening, she felt a hand close around her neck as her head was roughly lifted out of the shallow pond.

His scrutinizing gaze bore into her even harder, though her muddled mind failed to understand what it possibly hoped to find.

After a while of quiet deliberation, he seemingly reached some kind of decision, as she felt his hold release her and drop her back into the water below.

A shallow breath was all she managed, however, before his hand, now covered in flames, slammed sharply against her chest and she felt a blinding pain explode inside her. It was as though her blood was boiling, her skin had caught fire and her bones were melting. Though her mind was focused on something else.

If the scarlet rot was struggling anxiously before, then now it could only be described as thrashing in desperation. For every inch of ground it infested, it lost twice as much, as the merciless, cleansing flames incinerated it with extreme prejudice.

Despite everything she could feel her mouth curve up slightly into a cathartic smile.

After what felt like hours, yet could not have been more than a couple minutes, she felt the searing pain subside into a dull ache at the edge of her consciousness, along with the incessant needling as the rot started spreading again. Her curse could not be so easily broken after all, but it had been a long time since she last felt this free from its influence. All this was to say that, strangely enough, she was still alive, if barely.

Hearing footsteps getting further and further away, she struggled to quickly lift her back off the ground to look at the departing tarnished through blurry and darkening vision.

"Why…" was all she managed to utter through labored breathes, as she fought to stay awake.

He stopped walking as he reached the entrance of the grove and slowly turned back towards her. Their eyes met for the first time and after a few moments of silence, he finally pulled something out of his pocket and threw it towards her.

She barely managed to catch the small object with one hand as she felt her other buckle under her own weight and drop her back into the water once more. Lifting it above her, she saw a small golden and intricate needle, that she realized with a startle looked very much like her brother's handiwork. More importantly the moment she caught it, she felt the remnants of the scarlet rot inside her recoil in agitation.

Strangely enough, it was also covered in fresh blood as if it had just been removed from someone's… flesh…

With only a moment's hesitation she plunged the needle into her chest and felt the building pressure on her mind subside for perhaps the first time ever.

The unexpected relief it brought finally caused her to lose her grip on her consciousness, as she finally fell into a deep slumber.

Her rest was quiet and peaceful, without the usual nightmares, though her awakening wasn't nearly as pleasant.

Her brother was gone. Had been gone for a long, long time it seemed, leaving no trace behind.

The warrior she fought had also left by now, though she doubted the two were related. Not only had he spared her life, he had also helped her fight off and seal the scarlet rot after all.

She had to find him. He was the only lead she had to find her brother, though beyond that, she still needed to express her gratitude to him.

As she stepped out into the open and looked at the state of the Haligtree she realized she had been sleeping in this little corner for far too long. It was time she stepped back into the world and cleaned up this mess.

Her body was still severely injured as she lifted her sword once more, but as she watched the scurrying pests that dared invade her home, she knew it wouldn't be a problem for long.

This is a one-shot I wrote some time ago, after the first time I fought and beat Malenia. A large part of the fight is, therefore, inspired by my own build and tactics I used to eventually beat her. It wasn't a very good build, mind you and it did take me a good three days of on/off attempts, but it was very satisfying. One of my favorite boss fights from the series as a whole to be honest.

The waterfowl dance was my biggest source of frustration in it, but eventually I managed to learn how to dodge that as well, so it was smooth sailing after that… more or less. In fact, I fought her so many times, I was able to guess pretty accurately when she was about to do it and intentionally trigger it.

Second phase was not that different from first phase so while the new attacks managed to kill me a couple of times, it only took a few more attempts after reaching it to finally beat her.

In any case, that's all from me.