Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose


The Tower's Arena

"One of the downsides to dying is that all of the enemies we fought have come back to life as well," Edric commented, having returned from his very brief scouting mission of the area, as if he went passed the wall that they were hiding behind the first ancient warrior they fought would come after him, "from what I can tell every warrior we killed has returned to life and are still patrolling the areas they were standing in when we first encountered them."

Rarity opened her mouth to say something, to mention that another downside was that their natural beauty was taken from them and that they looked like corpses that had only started to rot, but then she decided not to and kept her mouth shut. Edric had already been through this sort of thing before, if how they had met was anything to go by, and his story told her that he had been through a lot since he had been cursed, so her mentioning their natural looks wasn't really going to help them at all. Instead she wondered how they were going to best the Old Dragonslayer, because he was almost as fast as the Pursuer and hit with the same amount of strength, though even then she knew that the new knight they had encountered wanted some sport before he finished the job... which was why he took his time with them before finally dealing the finishing blows.

It was at that point that Rarity let out a sigh as she leaned back against her rock, because right now there was nowhere else left to go and she determined that the only paths forward rested behind both the Pursuer and the Old Dragonslayer... and neither of them had had even wounded their foes when they fought each other.

"The Old Dragonslayer is too fast for us to defeat, at least for the moment," Rarity spoke up, noticing that Edric was looking in her direction, though he appeared to be curious about what she was talking about, "He's strong and he's fast, exactly like you would expect from someone that might have spent some of their days hunting down dragons and killing them. If we're to have any hope of defeating him, and progressing through this area, we'll no doubt need to place our sign down and offer our aid to whoever is in this area, in one of the other worlds anyway."

She still found it surprising that the natives of this world referred to the other timelines as other worlds, which made sense considering that the people they helped were completely different depending on who touched their sign. She was sure that Twilight would have loved to study this world, its strange magic, and the strangeness that came with the curse that she and Edric were inflicted with.

"I see we have determined the gender of the mysterious Old Dragonslayer," Edric said, though at the same time he sat across from Rarity, where he held the white stone they had used in the forest ruin in his left hand, "I'm all for seeing if there's anyone else in this area, in one of the other worlds, but if we don't find anyone we'll have to try our hand at beating the Old Dragonslayer on our own."

Rarity nodded and Edric set their sign on the ground, though they barely had to wait even a minute before they were called into the world of another Undead, but when they arrived in the other world as phantoms they had no idea where the Undead that summoned them was located. Rarity determined that the Undead in question must have run passed their sign, activated it without even looking at it, and continued on his merry way with the belief that whoever he summoned would act as reinforcements. With that in mind they charged up the steps that they had been sitting next to and immediately found the Undead that had summoned them, who appeared to be another warrior by the looks of his armor, but before they could even help him the ancient warrior he was fighting cleaved him in half.

Rarity and Edric watched as the two sides of the warrior separated from each other as they collapsed on the ground, to which the duo let out a sigh of defeat as they were deported back to their world... where they said nothing on what they had just seen and Edric simply etched the sign back into the ground.

The next world they were called to had a much smarter Undead, as she had stayed in the area around the bonfire to ensure that her backup was with her every step of the way, though once Rarity and Edric arrived they bowed a tiny bit before they followed their leader. They had to contend with the ancient warrior that was standing in the area by the bonfire, who easily fell when three people were attacking it, before they followed the path and repeated the process with the other ancient knights that they came across. One thing that Rarity noticed their leader failed to account for was the fact that there were levers to pull, as when the first one rose from the floor Rarity went and stood next to it, to symbolize its importance, but the leader went on forward and ignored her completely.

They then walked into the ruined building where three ancient warriors were gathered together, which the leader foolishly though they could all take on and made sure to annoy all three of them, but much to Rarity's surprise the three of them were able to take on and defeat the three ancient warriors.

Once their enemies were dead Edric tried his hand at announcing the importance of the lever that was brought up, but once more they discovered that the leader had no interest in pulling the levers, to which they sighed as they followed the female warrior towards the church that the Old Dragonslayer was waiting inside. Rarity and Edric fought the remaining ancient knights alongside the warrior that continued to charge ahead of them, making them wonder if she even knew what was waiting inside the church. The answer had to be no, as the bridge to access the church was still raised, but that didn't seem to deter the warrior from leaving them behind to fight the two ancient knights... though thanks to their experience in fighting these guys, however, they were able to finish their foes off and run after their leader.

They barely caught up with the female warrior as the bridge lowered into place, where she charged forward and completely neglected to check the chest that was on the immediate left, though both Rarity and Edric were used to this and simply followed her through the fog door. When they walked through the other side they discovered that their leader was stunned by what their opponent was wearing, though she failed to regain her focus in time, as when the Old Dragonslayer charged at them he thrust his spear forward... though while Rarity and Edric rolled to the side, however, their leader was impaled almost immediately. Unfortunately for the duo the fight didn't last much longer, as their opponent focused solely on the female warrior and killed her within moments of the battle starting... sending them back to their own world once more.

The duo rested beside the bonfire once more and wondered if they should continue to send their sign out to the other worlds, because so far the Undead that have been summoning them keep getting killed by charging at an enemy without their backup or get too stunned by a powerful foe and die in a few hits. The third time Edric put their sign on the ground they were summoned almost immediately, just like the first person that had called upon them, though this time they were helping out another sorcerer. What really caught the duo off guard was the fact that this sorcerer happened to be slightly older than the other Undead that they had helped out and was currently sitting on one of the nearby rocks... reading one of the spell pages he had acquired from one of the other merchants.

"Ah, good evening my esteemed colleagues," the sorcerer said, though at the same time he put the page he was studying away and stood on his feet, to which he walked over to the duo and shook their hands, "I am Saru the White, and today I would like to share an adventure with the two of you. Come, let us be off."

Rarity and Edric were kind of shocked to find someone like Saru among the various worlds that they could have been called to, but what pleased Rarity was when they discovered that their new leader was more intelligent than the other Undead that had summoned them in the last hour. That was because the sorcerer took his time in understanding the opponents they faced and offered them an idea on how to attack, in such a way that would allow them to coordinate their attacks and bring their foes down quickly. What really made Saru an interesting ally was that he dodged his enemy's movements and watched what Rarity and Edric did, meaning that he was able to study his opponent and take some hints from what his allies were doing... and he also pulled the first lever that revealed itself, much to Rarity's joy.

Saru's spells might have been the same as Rarity's current set, but he only used them when necessary and used the sword that he had picked up, the same one that they had found in the forest area, to deal damage to their enemies, though at the same time he was impressed with the skills that Rarity possessed.

When they reached the ruined building, where the three ancient knights were located, Saru had them wait as he made the first knight follow after him, though once they were outside the trio engaged the knight and easily brought it down before it could hurt any of them. They then moved into the building and engaged the remaining two ancient knights, though while Edric faced his own opponent Rarity aided Saru in fighting the other enemy, where the two groups actually took down the knights without sustaining any damage. With the knights defeated, and the second lever revealed, Saru made sure to pull it as well, allowing the next piece of the arena to move into position... though instead of heading towards the church, where the Old Dragonslayer was waiting, Saru headed towards the other opening that Rarity and Edric hadn't been down yet.

The three of them walked out onto the walkway in front of them and followed the path that they had chosen this time around, where Rarity found it was odd that there weren't any enemies around, but then they glanced down at the area below them and found a single ancient knight guarding a fog door. Rarity had to wonder if there was another powerful creature in this area, one that was hopefully not as powerful as the Old Dragonslayer, but she determined that she and Edric would soon find out. Since the battle was three on one they managed to finish off the ancient knight in a matter of seconds, as he couldn't target more than one of them at any given time and they used that against their opponent, though once the battle was over Saru had them stop so he could loot a nearby chest... to which he returned to them with whatever was inside the chest.

"Prepare yourselves friends," Saru commented, though at the same time he touched the fog door with his left hand, indicating that he was preparing to head through the fog, "I sense a foul presence on the other side of this fog."

On the other side of the fog door Rarity and Edric discovered another armored knight, whose armor was almost crimson colored and was carrying a large halberd with a shield, though at the same time Rarity was relieved, because she wasn't terrified of this knight as she was of the Pursuer and the Old Dragonslayer. Edric charged forward and demanded the knight's attention while allowing Rarity and Saru to circle behind the knight, where they could either launch their spells at him or study his movements and come up with a plan of attack. As the knight brought the axe down on where Edric was standing, however, Rarity smiled as her friend actually rolled out of the way and avoided the attack before hacking into their opponent's side.

Rarity, noticing that the knight's back was exposed, readied her staff and fired a Great Soul Arrow at his back, though at the same time an identical spell surged through the air and slammed into the knight's back at the same time as her attack hit her target.

Fortunately Rarity didn't feel any of the fear or the terror that she felt when she and Edric fought the other two knights, as this opponent actually didn't care about her and Saru, allowing them to strike at his back with all of their might. It was almost like dying a second time had allowed Edric to better understand that dodging an attack was important in battle, something that he clearly hadn't known during the battle with the Pursuer or the battle with the Old Dragonslayer, though Rarity was pleased to find that her companion was already improving. A few moments later Edric drove the tip of his sword into the chest piece of the knight, which came out the other side of his armor and clearly struck his heart, if the blood was anything to consider... though to be sure that the knight was dead Rarity and Saru threw another volley of spells at their opponent, to which Rarity smiled when Edric pulled his blade out and the body fell to the ground without getting back up at all.

With their opponent defeated, and his body resting on the ground, Rarity and Edric gained a portion of souls that was appropriate for them helping someone out, while Saru took in the large amount of souls that was the reward for beating this knight, along with his soul.

"Good show my friends," Saru said, though as he said that he tapped his staff against the floor for a moment, while his gaze was locked on Rarity and Edric, "I see that you two make for a extraordinary team, and that anyone that summons you for aid will no doubt sing praises of your deeds. Hopefully we cross paths again in the future, while striving to complete our own goals."

Rarity and Edric nodded their heads before the world faded around them, to which they waited for a few moments before they reappeared around their bonfire with their rotting skin looking like it had been before the Old Dragonslayer had killed them. Instead of putting down their sign and trying again, and finding another person to aid, they touched the bonfire and used its power to teleport themselves back to Majula, where they could use the souls they had gathered so far to empower themselves a little more and purchase any odds and ends... and maybe figure out what that ring they discovered earlier actually was. Rarity was also interested in seeing what Shalquoir had to say about the opponents they had fought so far, just in case the powerful cat had any advice to offer them.