Dark Souls 2: Rarity's Trials

by Blackdrag-rose

Shrine of Amana

While Edric scouted out the area passed the area that the Looking Glass Knight had been guarding, as he wanted to be sure that there weren't any nasty surprises for him and Rarity as they searched for the way forward, Rarity couldn't help up stare at nothing while her mind wandered for a few moments. She kept thinking about that strange black specter that she had fought and what had happened to her, as she had never fought anything with just her hands before, though she had smacked a few changelings around when she was a pure pony. For a moment she placed her staff against one of the ruined stones that was resting near her and sighed as she pushed her mind to remember what happened, to which she raised her arms up and shifted her body once more, mimicking what she had done back in the fight with the black specter.

For some reason when she thought about the changeling invasion her mind imagined being there again and her body moved with the enemies that weren't actually around her, punching and kicking the projections like she was in an actual battle... before she heard a cough and snapped back to reality, where she found Edric waiting for her.

"I see that your fight with the black specter did more than you realize," Edric commented, though he wasn't sure if this was going to be a recurring thing, where Rarity fought like a fighter, or if she was trying to get it all out of her systems before they moved forward.

"I... all I know is that I gained something when I fought that specter," Rarity replied, as she honestly couldn't explain what was going on at the moment, but at the same time she wrapped her magic around her staff and called it back to her as she landed beside Edric, "but enough about me. Did you find anything, or are we back to square one?"

"I think I found an elevator we can use to reach the next area we need to cross through," Edric replied, to which he beckoned for Rarity to follow him, where she immediately spotted what appeared to be a plate in the flooring, though where was a large circle around them.

When the two of them were on the larger circle Edric stepped onto the plate and they immediately began to lower into the tunnel that had been hidden from them, to which they patiently waited as it slowly moved down to the lowest level it was going to stop at. Rarity took the time to marvel at how deep they were actually going, as she wasn't expecting this at all when Edric mentioned that he had found an elevator, while at the same time Edric silently took in the area around him and kept his weapons at the ready. Eventually the duo arrived at the bottom of the shaft, which ended up being a decent sized room, and found that there was only one path forward for them to take, which meant going through the hole in the wall that the roots were coming from.

They followed the tunnel that the roots were coming from, as it was quite literally the only way for them to move forward, until they came to the location of the first bonfire for this area, which happened to be a large underground cavern area of sorts, complete with standing water and several ruined buildings scattered everywhere... and that was what they saw from where the bonfire rested.

Instead of heading into the new area the duo activated the bonfire and returned to Majula, where they spent some time making sure that the souls they had acquired so far, since entering the castle, went into empowering them even more than they had been earlier. Shalquoir, who Rarity visited while Edric was busy with his tasks, remarked that she had done well in taking out the foe that had been summoned for her, but also warned her that she hadn't done what Benhart had said, since he was talking about the Darklurker. When Rarity inquired how the man knew about the creature the cat replied that some Undead start out as mages and turn towards being a warrior, while some warriors become sorcerers in the end, to which Rarity understood part of it... while guessing that Benhart might have helped someone gain access to the Darklurker and knew the path she was taking, while trying to keep her from falling.

Once their trip to Majula was over they gathered around the bonfire again and teleported back to the Shrine of Amana, which was what Shalquoir called the new area they had discovered, before they appeared in the new area and started searching for the path that would take them to the King... though they both sensed that something, somewhere in this strange area, was singing.

"So, did Shalquoir give you any hints for this place?" Edric asked, because he was sure that if he and Rarity followed the main path in front of them, which appeared to hit the water at some point, they would be solid, but he also felt that it was best if he asking his companion if the cat said anything.

"No, she only congratulated us on a job well done." Rarity replied, though she suspected that if they had asked Shalquoir for assistance she might have said no, since they had been getting nonstop assistance from her, before she beckoned towards the path Edric was staring at, "That appears to be the best path we can take, so we should investigate it before we do anything else."

Since this time around there were on their own, which could have been what Shalquoir wanted, the duo headed down the stairs on their left and found that it was a circular staircase in what could have been a ruined tower, though when they touched down on the first floor they opened the door on their left and followed it outside. They carefully walked along the cliff that was outside the tower and found an area where there were a fair number of crates, guarded by a mutated mushroom like creature that died before it could do anything, thanks to Edric attacking it so suddenly. The chest that it was also guarding contained some herbs and a spice container, which they pocketed before returning to the tower and continuing down to the level below them.

At the bottom they discovered an opening that allowed them to walk along the path that was partly covered by water, though as they started walking a knight charged out from wherever he had been hiding and attacked them. Edric, being faster than Rarity in some cases, jerked his sword out and parried the attack, before bashing his target with his shield and drove the blade into the knight's heart. As the knight died, however, they remained on their guard, because it was only a matter of time until more enemies showed up with the express purpose of killing them, to which Rarity held her staff at the ready as they continued walking. One thing Rarity noticed was that there was something in the water near them, though it charged out and attacked them, revealing it to be a mix of a lizard and a man, though it couldn't stand up to the Soul Arrow that pierced it's head.

"Oh come on... another enemy that's weak against magic?!" Rarity exclaimed, because while she was thankful that she had a firm grasp on the magic arts to make a difference, and the capability to learn all of the spells according to Shalquoir, she was getting tired of almost every foe being weak to one of the elements she commanded.

"Hey, that makes our job that much easier," Edric commented, as he was actually quite happy with this development, because if it hadn't been for Rarity mastering the spells that she had he was sure that he would have hollowed a long time ago, before even claiming one of the four Great Souls.

Fortunately it appeared that Rarity's magic wasn't the only powerful weapon they had in their arsenal when it came to dealing with these lizard people, as when Edric thrust his sword forward, into his target's chest, he sliced through his foe's skin and killed it in seconds, much to his surprise. At the same time that told Rarity that this area might be much easier for them to get through if they were literally carving their way through their enemies, though at the same time she loosed another Soul Arrow and took out the lizard man that was making it's way towards her. With those foes taken care of the duo walked up to the building that was in front of them and opened the door, though as they walked inside, and closed the door in case more lizard creatures came at them from behind, they found a lady, that was identical to the one in the tower, sitting on the floor on the other side of the room.

"We knew you were coming…" the lady said, not even bothering to look up at the duo as they stopped in front of her, though they were happy to hear that she was willing to speak with them, "And stopped singing…"

"Who are you?" Rarity asked, because if they had a better sense of who this lady was, and who the one up in the tower was, then they could come to a decision based on what they learned.

"We are Milfanito. We are here to sing to those bound by death and Dark." the lady replied, though the way she said 'we' told Rarity and Edric that the two ladies they had encountered so far were part of a whole, meaning that they were both Milfanito, "We will sing here, forever, as we always have, from long, long ago. We know nothing of the world outside. And why should we? For we will never leave. Do you seek King Vendrick? But what is a king, after all? We know nothing of the world outside. For we will never leave here."

"That sounds horrible." Edric commented, because it sounded like this lady and the others were cursed to remain in this area for the rest of their existence, however long that lasted anyway.

"When we sing, the little ones dance." Milfanito stated, though her tone suggested that she wasn't paying attention to Edric at all, which meant that it was time for the two of them to depart from this area, "The little ones grant comfort to those who bear death and Dark. This is what we were taught."

Once the Milfanito had stopped talking Rarity and Edric made their escape from the hut, as there was a back entrance that they opened and walked out of, though they turned to the right and found a wooden chest that contained three containers of some crimson colored water. With those in hand the duo returned to the main path and followed it away from where the hut was resting, though as they walked both of them kept their eyes peeled for any dangers that might be waiting for them, since they had already encountered two new enemies so far. As they followed the path the duo encountered three more of the lizard men, all of which died within receiving a single Soul Arrow to the head, and three more of the knights, who proved to be a challenge when they were in packs of two or more.

As they neared the opening of a cave, or what they assumed was a cave, two more of the lizard men attacked them, though they were easily defeated and the duo moved into the cave, where they found one of the mutated mushrooms resting in front of them and four more lizard men to their left. Instead of charging forward, and heading towards the fog door that was behind the mushroom creature, the duo attacked the lizard men and cleared them out, though oddly enough they were passive for the most part, until the last one realized that they were under attack before his death. The iron chest in front of them contained a shiny piece of Titanite, the twinkling variety if Rarity recalled correctly, before they retraced their steps to the mutated mushroom and ended it's existence... before they carefully walked up to the fog door and passed through it so they could face whatever powerful creature was on the other side.

What they found, however, was another part of the underground area that they were in, though the ruins in front of them housed a bonfire that they eagerly walked over to and activated, giving them a moment of silence as they surveyed the area and the surrounding enemies that were waiting for them to move. Yet, at the same time, Rarity could feel the slight hum of an artifact of incredible power, but not powerful enough for her to accurately pinpoint where it was coming from... but she knew something was out there, waiting to be recovered.

As they moved out from their hiding spot a lizard man attacked them immediately, though this time around Edric dealt with it as Rarity turned her focus towards the mage type knights that were ahead of them, as the two that were standing between them and the next part of the ruins were already loosing energy blasts at them. Her response, however, was to summon a mobile shield that protected them from the front, where she could loose her own attacks at the mages that were standing in their way. One thing she discovered was that these enemies were actually much stronger than what she was used to fighting in terms of normal enemies, because it appeared that they didn't have an elemental weakness like all of the other foes they had encountered so far... which actually made her smile as she hurled a Lightning Spear towards the closest enemy and wounded her in the process.

At first she thought that she would be happy to find a group of enemies that didn't die so quickly, though that changed when they passed through the next part of the ruins and found that there were at least a dozen more of these priestesses waiting in their path, as Rarity had figured out what they were after incorrectly labeling them as mages... to which she and Edric ducked behind some pillars as she dispelled the shield.

"Great, we've got too many of those priestesses blocking the way forward," Rarity commented, though she poked her head out for a few seconds to see if there was anything else she might have missed, before noticing the large lumbering creature that was waiting in the water to the right of the path, causing her to pull her head back, "and they have an ogre... this just went from bad to worse."

"The ogre might be weak to lightning, but taking it out will draw the attention of the priestesses," Edric stated, as he already knew that fighting them was going to be hard, because a dozen of the same spell hitting the barrier would likely shatter it, especially with how powerful these priestesses seemed, "so, what do we do now? We've come too far to give up now, but it doesn't appear that we can safely defeat all of these enemies without suffering some sort of defeat."

Rarity, on the other hand, already knew what could possibly work to their advantage, but at the same time her plan would turn her into a target for all twelve of the priestesses that were in their way, though it was either charge at them and die a painful death without a real plan, or go crazy and hope her limited experience would help them out. After debating this for a few seconds she sighed and tossed her staff to Edric, who stared at her in confusion, before she stepped out from where they were hiding and let the faint dark aura surround her body once more. She pulled herself back and repeated the stance she had been in earlier, though since she was still some distance away from the first priestess, and out of her range, none of her enemies turned towards her yet.

A few seconds later she rushed towards the first priestess, like the fighter had done, and watched as her target and all the other priestesses turned towards her, though her target loosed a homing attack on her that Rarity avoided by moving to the right. She honestly had no idea how she was able to do that, where she personally wondered if she had taken the specter's fighting style into herself thanks to the Dark Magic, but she pushed that thought aside as she punched her target and caused the priestess to stagger for a moment. A second later Rarity spun around and kicked the priestess into the water near the ogre, where she summoned a Lightning Spear and sent it flying towards her target, to which she watched as both the priestess and the ogre suffered a painful shock of lightning before crumbling into the water.

Instead of giving the other priestesses the chance to target her, despite the fact that their attacks did that already, Rarity had her body move once more and she moved onto the next foe that was in their way, where she punched the priestess and caused her to stagger, before throwing her towards the next priestess. One thing she discovered, as she moved from target to target, was that the priestesses had no idea how to handle someone like her, but she didn't pay too much attention to that as she hurled a Dark Hail at her current target before moving onto the next one. Fortunately the dozen enemies she had seen earlier, before starting her assault, were the only enemies between them and the fog door that was at the end of the path they had been following.

When the last priestess fell, however, Rarity made sure that there weren't any additional enemies before sighing as she turned the aura off, where she found that she wasn't all that tired, which was another sign that she was one of the cursed Undead, something she had come to terms with some time ago... though she turned around and smiled as Edric caught up with her, where he handed over her staff before they headed into the fog door.

On the other side of the fog door they discovered a larger nest of the mutated mushroom creatures they had found at the beginning of this area, though they were breathing an orange colored mist that Rarity pulled Edric away from, as she was sure that it was harmful. When the mist faded they attacked the enemies that were in front of them and tried to make quick work of them, though they had to be careful of the fact that more mist was emitted from the survivors, allowing them to repeat the process once it faded. Once the last of the creatures fell the duo discovered a bonfire on their left a few steps ahead of where the mushroom creatures had been wandering around, which they activated, though they found more mushroom creatures standing between them and a slightly larger cave exit. Of course they also had to contend with a much larger version of the creatures that they had been fighting in this cave area, though since it was constantly spewing mist Rarity just blew it apart with a Lightning Spear and called it a day.

As they walked out of the cave they were in, however, Rarity discovered that there were a lot more priestesses between them and the hut that the path appeared to be taking them towards, so much in fact that she was worried that her new abilities wouldn't be able to help them all that much. Instead she did the next best thing, she opened herself to the magic that was inside her and summoned an even stronger barrier around her and Edric, one that would tax her body even more than the others did, but it was better than not being able to process. Edric nodded his understanding, showing that he knew why she was doing this, before the two of them rushed out of where they had been standing and followed the path that they had been following the entire time. Sure enough the priestesses noticed them moving and tried to hit them with their magic, and a red invader joined them, but neither of them paid too much attention to what was trying to kill them as they reached the hut... where they opened the door and headed inside, before closing the door behind them and preventing their foes from following them.

What they didn't expect to find was another Milfanito resting beside the tunnel that would take them to a fog door, though as they approached her it simply vanished, as if she had escaped from this area, before the two of them steeled themselves as they walked down towards the fog door... though on the other side of it they found a giant, grotesque frog demon with a corpse skull and arms protruding from the sides of its mouth, and a long tail.

As they approached the demonic creature, giving it the opportunity to notice them, it raised it's hands and pulled the two of it's head over the skull, as if it was trying to protect itself, to which Rarity loosed a Soul Arrow at the demon and found that it simply did nothing as it hit the creature's protective shell. Since they were doing this now Edric volunteered to be the bait and walked out, carefully studying the enemy and avoiding the attacks that where thrown at him, though at the same time they both discovered that even dodging the attacks meant that Edric still took some damage. As the demon revealed it's skull face again Rarity loosed a Dark Hail at it and found that it was slightly damaged by her attack, while the Soul Arrows didn't seem to do much either. Much to her annoyance, however, it appeared that the creature was exceptionally weak to lightning based attacks, as the Lightning Spear that she threw at it's head caused it to violently shake for a few seconds before resuming the fight.

Thanks to that information Rarity felt like this fight would be over too quickly if she threw a few more spears at the creature, so she pulled back and let Edric had some time with the demon, which he appeared to be thankful for since she wasn't outright killing the creature... but at the same time it was exceptionally boring for her to simply stand there and watch her companion fight without lending him some aid. Fortunately it didn't take Edric long to pull back and heal, where he reversed his decision on the matter, allowing Rarity to deal the finishing blow that destroyed the demon, while making her feel vastly disappointed in the process. With the demon dead, and it's soul claimed, the duo started to get ready to move, though that was before Rarity noticed a key shaped lance like weapon resting in the water where the demon used to stand... one that she claimed for later, as she had the feeling that they were going to need it at some point in time.

As they walked away from this area, and advanced through the cave that had been unlocked after the demon's downfall, Rarity hoped that the enemies got tougher than this, otherwise the journey was going to be exceptionally boring and make her feel like they weren't accomplishing anything.

Comments

[zachary12]

nice work.