Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

Smelter Demon's Surprise

Like Rarity said, the first thing they did, after her shadow possessed the seemingly powerful suit of armor that was guarding the fog door that a powerful creature was lurking behind, was that they started the search for the other lever that would allow them to lower the rest of the bridge that they had walked over. The only options they had were walking towards the area behind them, or dropping down onto the walkway below them, where another possessed suit of armor was patrolling the area. As Rarity looked at the knight, however, she shifted her gaze for a few seconds and spotted the lever that they were looking for, or the one that was the lever they were searching for, and determined that this was a good time to truly test the power of the suit she had taken control of.

Rarity held a hand to the side, to prevent Edric from doing anything dangerous, before she willed her shadow to move, to which the suit of armor walked over to the edge of the walkway they were on and jumped off the edge, where it landed on the walkway the other knight was on. Rarity and Edric watched as the shadow infused suit approached the other knight, where the two of them drew their lightning empowered swords and clashed with each other, to which sparks flew as their blades came into contact with each other. It was an interesting fight to behold, as Rarity's shadow moved the suit around and fought like it was the actual knight, making Rarity wonder if her shadow had, somehow, taken the knowledge of the suit and was acting on what it had found... or if her shadow was letting the suit fight on its own.

In the end it didn't matter, as the shadow infused suit cut down the other knight and threw the armor into the lava around it, though both Rarity and Edric knew that, when they rested at the bonfire, it would return like all of the other enemies they had fought so far.

With the enemy taken care of Rarity dropped down onto the walkway below her and approached the lever, to which she pulled it and watched as the rest of the bridge lowered into position, though before she did anything Edric told her to wait for a few seconds. Edric then walked halfway up the bridge and turned towards the building that Rarity would be heading into, to which he jumped over to what was clearly a wheel of some kind and moved it a tiny bit, where he heard the sound of what had to be the fire turning off in the building that Rarity was standing in front of. He then carefully maneuvered himself over to were his companion was standing and watched as she opened the door in front of her, to which they discovered that the chamber in front of them had absolutely no fire in it anymore... and that there was a ladder that would no doubt take them away from the powerful creature that they were planning on fighting.

Edric moved to the right and collected a large Titanite Shard, and what appeared the be a petrified dragon bone, before they determined what they were going to do next, though once Rarity determined that the door on the other side of the chamber took them back to the other side of the bridge she decided to check out the ladder.

Climbing the ladder brought the two of them, and the suit of armor, up to a small walkway where they spotted another knight blocking a second ladder, to which they stepped aside and let the shadow infused armor step forward so it could do battle with the knight. They waited for a few moments before the other knight was a pile of scrap as well, though before they climbed the ladder Edric collected a Lifegem and a blossom that were behind the ladder, which was followed by them actually ascending towards the highest point that they could see at the moment. When they reached the top Edric engaged the knight that happened to be overlooking the area that one of the other knights, one that Rarity had bested with her magic earlier, had been standing in... and its back was wide open for a devastating attack that ruined it.

Before they moved on Edric insisted on checking the area where the other knight had been standing, where he found an iron chest that contained a new ring and a twinkling piece of Titanite... though after he pocketed the items he made his way through the now empty chamber and climbed up to where Rarity was standing.

"I tired the door on our right," Rarity commented, beckoning to the door that she had been standing in front of, to which Edric looked at it for a few seconds before turning back towards her, "and it either requires a key to open it, or we have to fight that powerful creature to gain access to whatever is on the opposite side."

"Well, maybe this time around we don't actually have to fight all of the powerful creatures that are in our way," Edric replied, as while he was grateful that the powerful creatures possessed stronger souls than the others did, and a fair amount of smaller souls from the enemies they killed over the years, he was certain that they didn't need to kill each and every one of them, "Come on, let's see where this path takes us first... and then we can decide whether we to fight the creature that's on the other side of that fog door, or just leave it alone and skip it entirely."

Rarity thought back on their previous experiences and knew that killing all of the powerful creatures benefited their quest, as it allowed them to empower themselves at a much faster rate and, if they were lucky, their enemies would be guarding some sort of armor or weapons that they could use. She felt that it was foolish for them to even consider leaving whatever creature that lurked behind the fog door behind, especially since she knew that something interesting would happen in that area if they killed the creature. In the end, however, she decided that Edric had more knowledge about this world and likely knew what he was talking about, to which she nodded her head a few times before they entered the next chamber that was in front of them.

As they walked into the chamber Rarity discovered that it was a simple walkway that came to a stop in the middle of the chamber, where they would have to cross a second walkway to get to the other side... and the other walkway was being torn apart by some large knights that reminded her of the ones they fought in the forest ruins. Since neither of the knights had noticed them yet, as they were too preoccupied with tearing a section of the walkway out, Rarity decided to change her mind and pulled Edric back for a few seconds. Instead of going any further she insisted that they return to the first bonfire, rest for a few seconds, and then come back with their full might and face whatever creature was lurking behind the fog door... and she knew that there would be a bonfire behind the powerful creature as well.

Edric hated to admit that her plan sounded good, especially since they hadn't found a bonfire near the passage into another section of the keep, so he guessed that fighting the powerful creature would be well worth the effort, since they would get a bonfire as their reward.

Once they agreed on a real plan of attack the two of them retraced their steps towards the front of the Iron Keep, though as they walked Rarity had her shadow hurl the armor it was possessing into the lava around them before returning to her. She knew that the suit would reappear once they had rested at the bonfire, so she wasn't worried about losing it all of a sudden, though at the same time she silently wondered how well the shadow infused armor would deal with whatever creature they were heading towards. It had made short work of its fellow knights, but that was because they wouldn't have expected there to be someone who could use their shadow to possess empty suits of armor, and she was still surprised to find that such an ability worked. It did, however, make her wonder what else she would possess with her shadow, but she also knew that now wasn't the time to experiment with her abilities... as that came after they finished off the powerful creature they would be fighting.

They rested at the bonfire for a few minutes before they got back onto their feet and started fighting their way through the Iron Keep once more, though this time around Rarity possessed one of the weaker knights to distract their enemies... though when they came to the fog door, and she had control of the stronger knight again, she and Edric braced themselves as they pushed themselves into the lair of whatever creature they had been looking for. The creature in question, however, was what appeared to be a large suit of armor that looked demonic in certain places, though it only started moving once the two of them, and the shadow infused armor, walked into it's lair. The suit's first movements were to pull it's arms apart from each other and set it's insides on fire, to which it walked towards them and seemed to glare down at Edric.

Rarity and Edric jumped to the side, Rarity to the left and Edric to the right, as the massive suit brought it's large sword down on where they had been standing, though at the same time Rarity knew that getting hit by the blade would either severely wound them or outright kill them. As the possessed armor turned towards Edric, once more causing Rarity to wonder why their opponents only went after him first, she waved her staff in front of her and several Dark Balls formed in front of her, to which she unleashed a Dark Hail spell at her opponent's back. While she may not have staggered the armor, or made it fall to the ground, she knew that she did a decent amount of damage, but their opponent was definitely more durable than what she originally thought it was, which made sense considering that they were fighting a large suit of armor at the moment. As the shadow infused armor attacked the larger one, however, it did some damage before the larger one simply crushed it, giving Rarity little time to vacate her shadow from the armor before it was turned into scrap.

When their opponent started to empower it's blade with fire, by stabbing itself in it's own core for a few seconds, Rarity and Edric found that their attacks seemed to do less damage than they previously did, while at the same time they did their best to avoid the rest of the armor's attacks. Edric ended up slipping up at some point as the armor swung it's weapon and clipped him in the side, sending him flying into the wall behind him for a few moments, but Rarity breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her companion moving once more. When their opponent did the whole flame empowerment thing again, and Rarity noticed that their damage wasn't all that great, she immediately came to the conclusion that attacking the armor at that exact moment was a terrible idea, as they could save their energy for after the armor was done with that motion... something that Edric agreed with when she stopped beside him for a few seconds.

Rarity knew that her spells could deal a decent amount of damage, and even a greater amount if she knew which element this suit of armor was weak to, but since the armor liked to empower it's blade every now and then she and Edric simply had to wait it out... to Rarity offered Edric some healing before they continued the fight, until eventually the two of them brought down the demonic armor and cleared the area it had been guarding. With the demonic armor taken care of, and thus ridding the world of another powerful creature, Rarity and Edric walked over to the stairs that it had been guarding and walked up them, where they found two interesting things at the top; a bonfire and an iron chest. The first thing they did was activate the bonfire, so they could relax after such a hard fight, but before they sat down they walked over to the chest and opened it, where they found a nice looking shield and a butterfly of some kind.

With those items in hand the two of them returned to the bonfire, which rested near a door that would take them to the chamber with two walkways that overlooked a pool of lava, and rested for a few minutes, as they definitely deserved it after everything they had been through since they discovered the Iron Keep. When they stood up, so they could move forward, Rarity glanced back into the area they fought the armor in and her body went cold for a moment, as the Pursuer was rising out of the middle of the arena, out of a shadowy vortex, and stared up at her the entire time.

"Either there are more than one of these bastards out there," Rarity commented, though at the same time Edric stared down at the black knight that looked exactly like the last one they had fought, which made it impossible to tell if it was the same one or a different one, "or the one I killed broke out of Tartarus, or whatever you call it here, and came straight for me."

"He's probably offended that you finished the fight in such a manner," Edric stated, recalling what Rarity had gone back in the forest ruins, and how she had ended the fight with the Pursuer that she wanted dead, "or, if this is another Pursuer, it has come to restore the honor of the one you killed."

"Well, we can't have him following us to the lair of the Old Iron King now can we?" Rarity asked, though at the same time she turned towards the stairs and started making her way down to where her opponent was waiting for her, "Though let's face it, whether or not this is a new Pursuer or the old one doesn't matter... this one came for me, so I'll be more than happy to tear this guy apart."

Edric sighed as he watched Rarity walk into the chamber that the Pursuer was now standing in, though after seeing what sort of damage his companion could do when she was feeling a large amount of hatred towards someone, the Pursuer being one of those people, he knew that he didn't have to worry about her this time around. Rarity, on the other hand, didn't even bother to draw her sword this time around, because she knew that she really didn't need the blade anymore, not with how strong her spells were getting. Sure, she knew that there were certain enemies that she couldn't strike down with the fury of the gods, simply because she had no idea what their weakness was, but she knew that the Pursuer couldn't handle crystal magic... so all she had to do was look for an opening and exploit it, then she and Edric would be walking out of this part of the Iron Keep.

The Pursuer followed Rarity as she walked down the stairs and entered the arena once more, though once she had stopped moving the knight drew his large sword and swung it once, to which he floated into the air, just like he had done when they encountered him in the forest ruins.

Rarity, being slightly faster thanks to the number of times she had to dodge an attack that was meant for her, threw herself to the right and rolled out of the way as the Pursuer charged at where she had been standing and brought the weapon down on her, to which the knight realized that she had dodged him entirely. When she got back onto her hooves, and faced her opponent, Rarity summoned a decent number of Dark Balls and sent the hailstorm at her target, though that was when she discovered that this world's version of dark based magical attacks had little effect on the Pursuer. Once she understood that fact, and realized that part of her spellbook was useless at the moment, she switched back to calling Soul Arrows, Lightning Spears, and Fireballs into the arena.

In the off chance that this was a different Pursuer than the one she had killed, as there didn't appear to be any markings on the chest piece to indicate he had been pierced with a crystal spire, Rarity made sure to keep her Dark Magic a secret, that way she would be able to surprise him when the opening revealed itself.

For the most part she was actually able to dodge the attacks that were coming her way, making her wonder if she had gotten faster thanks to the amount of souls she had absorbed so far, or if her opponent was intentionally going slower to make her lower her guard. Considering how bad the Pursuer had bested her and Edric in the past, with little effort on the knight's part, she had to assume that her opponent was trying to trick her, to which she made sure that her guard as at the ready while she avoided several more attacks and dealt several more smaller blows to her opponent. Of course fate would have a hand in messing things up, because she had been so focused on the Pursuer's blade she completely forgot about the shield that her opponent carried... though she remembered it when the side of the shield struck her chest and knocked her into the wall that was behind her.

That was followed by the Pursuer driving his blade into her chest, in the heart area again, and pinned her against the wall, where she coughed up some blood for a few seconds before she went limb against the edge of the blade... though a few moments later the Pursuer tried to pull his blade out and found it stuck, and that there was now a black vortex resting between his weapon and Rarity's heart.

"I hope you didn't think you had killed me already," Rarity said, though as she spoke she raised her head and looked the Pursuer in the face, where the Dark Magic mist emitted from her eyes in full force, while at the same time resting one of her hands on the blade that had pierced her chest, "though now that you've gotten that out of your system, it's time for me to repay the favor!"

Dark Magic raced along the edge of the Pursuer's blade, forcing the knight to let go of it and jump backwards before the dark mass touched him, to which he watched as Rarity gripped the blade and pushed it deeper into the vortex that was above her heart, before it was gone completely. With that deed done Rarity grinned as she stared at the Pursuer, who happened to be drawing one of the smaller swords that he had brought with him, before she charged at her opponent like she didn't have a care in the world. As the Pursuer swung its weapon at her, however, Rarity called the shadows to her and they formed a small shield that blocked the attack before it could reach her, to which she raised a hand and pressed it against her opponent's chest... and then blasted a small hole where one of the Pursuer's lungs would have been. Since the Pursuer was likely an Undead, like everything else she and Edric had fought so far, she knew that this wouldn't be enough to stop the knight, but she had a plan to take him down.

As the Pursuer came down on her with his sword again, in an attempt that was meant to split her in half, Rarity moved to the side and let the attack pass her by, though at the same time she waved her hand towards the arm that had come down on her. She then smiled as a cuff, made out of shadows, wrapped around the Pursuer's wrist and disappeared, though she followed that up by dodging the attacks that were coming her way and made sure to do the same thing with her opponent's other wrist. As a precaution she also wrapped some cuffs around her opponent's legs, where she was amazed by the fact that he hadn't noticed what she was doing, before she flashed into the area in front of the stairs she had walked down and beckoned for the Pursuer to come at her again.

As the Pursuer came towards her, with the intent to kill her, Rarity snapped her fingers and the cuffs fully materialized where she had put them, to which the shorter chains, attached to the Pursuer's wrists, pulled the knight forward while the slightly longer chains, which were attached to his legs, pulled him backwards. Rarity smiled as the Pursuer was forced onto his chest with his back facing the ceiling, where a black vortex opened and his large sword came out of where Rarity had been holding onto it. She watched as the large weapon pierced the Pursuer's chest from behind and caused the knight to moan, though at the same time a ring happened to land in front of it... so Rarity simply waited for the knight to die before claiming the ring and heading back to Edric.

Something told her that this wouldn't be the last she had seen of the Pursuer, as she was convinced that this one was different from the first one she and Edric had fought... which meant some more of them would likely be coming after her and her friend, and this time she had the power to stand up to anything and everything they could throw at her. Now all they had to do was find where the Old Iron King was resting, challenge him to a fight, and claim the Great Soul that he was holding, which would put them one step closer to completing their long quest.

Comments

[Randablitz]

Looks like we're getting close to the next Great Soul, after that they only have one more, then they can speak to Aldia about how to ignore the fire linking curse.