Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

The Rotten

A few minutes passed before Edric decided that they were ready to move forward once more, though at the same time Rarity continued to concentrate on the strange dark energy she was feeling when she passed by those strange doors that she and Edric had found so far. She was sure that there was some sort of dark creature lurking in the deepest pits, something that she couldn't get to at the moment, but she was also sure that at some point in the future she and Edric would find a way to get at the creature and kill it. She still disliked how eager for battle she had become since she found herself in the area in front of the tree house that the Fire Keepers lived in, but she had to admit that all of the skills she had discovered so far, even those she never considered before, were coming in handy... even the spells that she unlocked due to her usage of Dark Magic.

She knew that Twilight was going to freak out when she returned to Equus, as Dark Magic was one of the most unstudied schools of magic in the entirety of the world, because the notes that King Sombra had made during his reign had been lost to time... and this might be Twilight's only chance to actually learn about this type of magic.

"Rarity, we should really get moving," Edric said, to which Rarity sighed as she stopped concentrating on the dark energy that she had been feeling the entire time, before she stood up and faced him, "also, I hope your shadow is ready for another round of statue smashing, because there were a lot of statues in the area ahead of us and I'm sure that many of them are waiting to spew poison at us."

"On that we are in agreement," Rarity stated, though at the same time she flexed her magic and her shadow stood up once more, to which the two of them nodded to Edric, who looked shocked for a few seconds before he simply beckoned for them to move forward.

As the two of them walked out of the area that the bonfire was resting in, and Edric made sure that he had his torch at the ready, Rarity sent her shadow forward and heard the sound of statues shattering already, indicating that her shadow was already hard at work breaking all of the poison spewing statues. Fortunately it didn't appear that there were any enemies in the immediate area, so they kept their guards up as they walked down the path that was in front of them and surveyed the area that they were heading towards. One thing that Rarity noticed was that there were four black pools of water, or what she assumed was water, resting in the middle of the path, meaning that they would have to trigger whatever was hiding inside them... though Edric also pointed out a hole in the wall to their left, indicating that there might be some armor or weapons inside there.

The duo headed towards the small cave and watched as Rarity's shadow surged passed them, where it sunk into the statues that were nearby and shattered them into a thousand pieces, allowing them to safely investigate the cave before they did anything else. When they entered the small cave they found a iron chest waiting for them, to which Edric opened it and pulled out two items; one that happened to be a curved sword of some kind and another that happened to be a spell page with a different spell that was called 'Great Magic Weapon'. From the details Rarity discovered that with this sort of spell she could imbue a weapon with magical energy for a time, such as her Heide sword or Edric's sword, to which she slipped the page into her tome and they kept moving.

When they approached one of the black pools of water, however, Rarity held a hand out and stopped Edric from crossing, as she wanted to be sure about what she was thinking before something happened, to which she tapped one of the pools with her hoof and disturbed the water. Nothing happened when she did that to the first pool, but when she did it to the second pool a large worm like creature, which happened to have a lot of teeth and a hand for a head, burst out of the water and caused Rarity to back up. She had no idea what sort of creature this was, but it was clearly an enemy and they had to react accordingly, to which Edric moved to the side, as it was more interested in Rarity, and attacked the beast from behind with his sword... allowing Rarity to hurt it with some Soul Arrows to the chest.

As the creature collapsed on the ground in defeat Rarity and Edric moved forward, where they had to contend with two more of the worm like creatures that burst out of the two remaining pools of water that neither of them had checked, as they were sure that there had only been one monster waiting for them. This served as a valuable lesson while they were in this area, as now they knew to check all of the black pools of water to be sure that more of these creatures didn't take them by surprise.

When they neared a hole in the wall, which was actually a large hole and not another cave, a large worm like creature, which was more like an actual worm than the hand headed enemies, burst out of its hiding place and attacked the area in front of it... though at the same time it opened itself up to Rarity's ranged attacks, where she tore apart the creature's health before it dropped dead, allowing them to move forward again. As they started to pass by the hole they noticed a second on in front of them and a second worm like creature came out, where it started doing the same thing as the first one they took care of. Before Rarity even attempted to deal with the creature she found another spell page resting on the ground, one called 'Scraps of Life', though as she gently added the spell to her tome she was a little surprised that she found two spells in the same area... especially since they were so close to each other.

Before they could take a few more steps forward a second worm creature emerged from a second hole in the wall on their left, to which Edric and Rarity repeated what they did on the one they encountered literally a few seconds ago, though once it was taken care of they walked into the next area they needed to walk through.

As they walked close to where some more black pools of water were resting they found more of the worm creatures that had hands for heads coming out to attack them, to which Edric flanked them while Rarity used her magic to blast them backwards. Their combined abilities was more than enough to deal with the two creatures they found, while at the same time allowing them to overcome all of the other worm like creatures that emerged from the black pools. Once they were sure that their enemies were taken care of, and Rarity healed their wounds afterwards, they searched the immediate area and found another cave that brought them to a normal chest. Inside the chest they discovered a strange vial, one that was different from the other liquid containers they had found so far, but they were both sure that Shalquoir could tell them what it was when they returned to her store.

When the two of them returned to the area they had been in a few seconds ago Rarity searched the edge of the area they had been walking on, where she was sure that she spotted a set of stone ledges that would allow them to access something below them... and, more importantly, a bonfire that happened to be close to a large fog door.

Instead of heading towards the fog door, as that was what Edric was thinking of doing, Rarity walked back over to where the small stone ledges and studied them for a few seconds, because she could feel the dark energy coming from somewhere below them. When she jumped down to the ledge below her she found a stone door, one that was different from the other ones, that definitely had the dark energy coming from behind it, though when she tried to open it she found that she needed a key of some kind. Since there was no way back to where Edric was standing, and her only option was to jump down once more, that was what Rarity did, to which Edric let out a sigh and jumped down after her, while at the same time hoping that there was a way back to the area near the fog door.

Rarity had to jump down a third time before she found a cave of some kind, to which she waited for Edric to catch up with her before the two of them entered the cave together... where they found two giants, just like the one they fought in the forest ruins, standing together with some rather large stones that they were using as clubs and spears.

Instead of pulling back and fighting the giants in the passage they had been walking through, and hurting themselves in the process, Rarity and Edric charged into the area that their new enemies were standing in and passed by them before they were hurt. As the giants turned around Rarity let her magic surround her once more and launched a Dark Hail at the giant on her left, causing it to stagger as the series of small dark orbs slammed into it's back while it's companion came at her. Edric, seizing the opportunity that was presented to him, raced towards his target and cut into the legs of the giant that was advancing on Rarity, who moved away and blasted her foe with a Dark Orb, once more causing it to stagger after it had gotten back on it's feet.

Rarity was surprised that the giants were actually weak against dark type magic, meaning that she could easily defeat them without suffering any damage, though she and Edric continued their dance with the giants until they were the only ones remaining... where they collected their powerful giant souls and found a strange key on the body of the giant that Rarity had been focusing her magic on. They then walked into the cave that was resting nearby and found a cage of sorts that would allow them to head back up to an area above them, to which Edric climbed into the cage and let it pull him up to the area it was connected to. A few moments later the cage came back down and Rarity took her turn riding it back to where her companion was waiting, where she discovered that they were in a small cave that was above where the second bonfire was located... to which they jumped down to the floor and returned to the bonfire, so they could rest before their fight with the Rotten.

"I hope getting that key was worth fighting both of those giants," Edric commented, to which Rarity pulled out the key that she had picked up and studied it for a few seconds, as she was sure that she knew where to use it.

"Killing those giants, like everything else we've fought so far, will only make us stronger," Rarity replied, though at the same time she stood up and headed for the entrance, as there was something she wanted to check out before they walked over to where the Rotten was waiting, "I'm going to check that door we passed by and see what's behind it, and then I'll return so we can fight the Rotten and claim the third Great Soul."

Edric stared at her for a few seconds, as if he was determining whether or not he wanted to see what was behind the door as well, before he simply shook his head and beckoned for Rarity to satisfy her curiosity, to which she nodded her head and walked over to the ledge that would take her to the door. She waited for a few seconds before jumping down to the platform below her, to which he held the key out and touched the door that she was sure that it went to, where she found the strength to push the door open and in two parts. What she found on the other side of the door was some sort of alter that was unlike anything she had seen since she arrived in this world, though at the same time she spotted an old man, dressed in a dark hooded robe, that happened to be sitting in a high-backed wheel chair.

She found it odd that she found someone like this behind a locked door, but at the same time she could feel some dark energy coming from the old man... while at the same time feeling an even greater amount coming from the alter that he was sitting near.

"Ahh, look how far this Undead has wandered." the old man commented, causing Rarity to turn her attention towards the man for a moment, though it appeared that he was merely staring at her now, as if he was studying something that only he could see, "And a very fit Undead you are. A bit too alive, but with a darkish shadow. Yet still unprepared. For a deeper Dark. And like every Undead, you have no future. Ooh, my, don't mind me. I'm just talking amongst myself. But if you find a need for a truer Dark, then meet again, we shall."

Rarity, having nothing to say on the matter, simply nodded her head and walked out of the small chamber she had discovered, to which she jumped down to the cave the giants had been in, rode the cage back to the small cave it connected to, and found her way back to Edric... who stood up as they walked down towards the large fog door that stood between them and the Rotten. Edric did not ask what she found behind the stone door, and she was thankful for that considering that she still didn't understand what she had learned, but at the same time they silently prepared themselves for the fight with the third Guardian... before they passed through the fog door and entered the domain of the Rotten.

What they found was a mass of bodies, likely all of the forgotten hollows that had been dropped into the pit, that appeared to be bound together to form what appeared to be the upper part of someone's body, though the Rotten seemed more interested in moving the heads of broken statues onto what they had been attached to earlier. When the stone heads fell to the floor, however, the Rotten got very upset over it and turned it's mass around, where Rarity and Edric got their first glimpse of the monstrous head, chest, and arms that the creature possessed... while also allowing them to take in the massive butcher's blade it was carrying.

"You know, when I heard that this guy was called the 'Rotten', I was imagining something completely different," Rarity said, though at the same time she was disgusted by what she was seeing, as she couldn't imagine the torment the other hollows were in, provided that they could even feel anything at the moment.

"I honestly don't know what I was expecting, because it definitely wasn't this," Edric replied, though at the same time he separated from Rarity, as he knew that the Rotten would be following one of them and, if they split up, it forced the creature to determine who was the bigger threat.

This time around Rarity was relieved to see that she wasn't the one being targeted first, as the Rotten seemed to be more interested in Edric instead of her, thus allowing her to try out some of her spells while she attempted to find the exact element that would greatly improve their chances of winning this fight. Since there were pools of fire resting around the room she and Edric had to be extra careful about where they moved, as they were both sure that touching the fire out only speed along their demise, though at the same time Rarity discovered that the Rotten didn't have any elemental weaknesses. She was always glad when she found an enemy like that, as it meant that the fight was that much more difficult, but even with that thought in mind she knew that the Rotten was a powerful opponent and that they shouldn't take him lightly at all.

When the Rotten started spitting out black globs from it's 'mouth', however, Rarity spotted a weakness in the chains that were keeping the hollows together to serve as it's arms, to which she carefully rejoined Edric and pointed out the weakness, though when he nodded they separated from each other once more.

Despite knowing that there was a way to disarm their opponent, quite literally Rarity reflected, she also knew that they had to bid their time and make sure that they avoided the attacks at were coming at them, as the Rotten really wasn't giving them the opportunity to do much. For the most part the Rotten seemed to do the same attacks, swinging it's massive butcher's blade at Edric and Rarity when they got too close, though the only reason Rarity got close was so Edric could deliver a cut or two into the Rotten's body. With all of the damage they were doing, and none of it really slowing their opponent down, Rarity was starting to think that they couldn't best the Rotten, though that was until the monstrous creature started spewing globs again... which was when she signaled Edric to attack the chains.

The moment Edric struck the chains with all of his might was the moment the tide of the battle shifted, as the chains shattered and the Rotten's hand, the one that was holding onto the butcher's blade, was severed from it's body, to which it roared in pain as Edric and Rarity continued their assault. With the threat of being carved in half eliminated, and the two of them continued to avoid the Rotten's attacks like the plague, they were able to bring down the Rotten in no time, where it collapsed in a heap and allowed them to embrace the third Great Soul. From there the duo make their way towards the area where the Primal Bonfire was waiting for them, where they reignited the bonfire and allowed it's strange magic to teleport them back to Majula.

Rarity was sure that both the Emerald Herald and Shalquoir were going to be pleased with their progress, though she only hoped that she and Edric were prepared for the area they had abandoned earlier, as she was sure that the path to the final Great Soul was through that area... and fight all of the enemies, both lesser and powerful, before they reached the area that the Duke's Dear Freja called home.

Comments

[Randablitz]

Only one more Great Soul left before Aldia!

[zachary12]

nice work.

[erictheblue]

the two of them continued to avoid the Rotten's attacks like the plague