• Published 28th Nov 2022
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Elden Ring: The Deaths of Tirek - Blackdrag-rose



Tirek, following his defeat at the hooves of Twilight and her friends, is transported to a world unlike anything he could imagine, filled with large trees, violent creatures, and danger around every corner.

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Dangers of the Lake

Following his discovery of the Dragon Church, since Tirek had nothing else to call it, he warped back to the ruined church and stared out at the Tree Sentinel for a few seconds, debating whether or not to engage him again, before deciding not to as he sat back down and used the Runes from the Demi-Human Chieftains to empower himself. After that he called Torrent and moved out of the church, heading back over to the ruins that he had found the map at earlier, as he wanted to continue on that path and head to the east, because while he wanted to tackle the castle up on the cliff he suspected that he might not be ready to do so. His thought process was easy to follow, if he couldn't best the Tree Sentinel, likely a guard from the very castle he wanted to invade, then it told him he wasn't ready to head up there, so for the time being he focused on his current plan, gathering more power so he could move onto the castle. He also wanted to find some way to utilize the odd pillar he had found back in the ruined island church he had discovered, because he was sure that it held some sort of power that might be useful on his venture, but it seemed like it would be some time before he could tap into it's abilities.

Tirek discovered that the Soldiers and Hollows of the gate ruins were still wandering around the area, not that he was even surprised by such a thing, before spotting a Grace sit down the road to the right of the ruins, causing him to wonder why two were so close to each other, but decided not to argue with it.

Such a thing prompted him to go back to the ruins once the Grace was rekindled, where he blasted the Soldiers and the Hollows that were in front of him, while at the same time saving his sword for when a weakened foe approached him, just to see how he had grown since his first visit. Based on his observations he had grown somewhat, that much he knew for sure, but not really enough to celebrate over since he found that his foes went down in the same number of hits as the last time he had tackled them, causing him to realize that this had turned into Rune farming, a weak one at that. Still, he acquired all of the Runes that the enemies of the ruins had to offer, even though he had looted all of the chests for their potential treasures, a knife and a few weapons he wasn't planning on using, and Tirek ended up walking away with several pieces of gear. By his reckoning he had two swords, one of the impressive shields, two pairs of boots, three gloves, two of the helms, and none of the chest pieces, as it sure seemed like his magic broke them or something, causing him to quickly return to the Grace and rest so he could utilize the Runes for more power.

He wasn't too sure why the powerful creatures turned into mist while the other foes he fought were left behind, corpses scattered in the wake of him exploring the world and fighting those that inhabited it, especially since he couldn't take the whole set of armor from each foe and sell them, as to acquire items he had to find small glowing orbs that contained all of the potential treasure of this world.

Once he was done turning the new Runes into power Tirek got up, climbed onto Torrent, and started to make his way down the path that lead away from the gate, as he was in the mood to explore and gather more power, findings that the night was approaching once more, not that such a thing mattered to him. On the road he discovered a couple of Hollows wandering around the area, seemingly without a purpose as he observed them for a time, though at the same time he glanced off to his left and found something strange, one of the bushes had a different aura than the others. He wasn't too sure what such a thing might mean, especially since everything was strange in this world, to him anyway, but, on the off chance that it was an enemy lying in wait for an ambush, he decided to investigate. He really doubted that anything would come of this, as in this was a waste of his precious time and that he'd take out his frustration on some of the enemies by the stone bridge he had been making his way to, but it was worth checking in case something good was lurking nearby.

"Oi! You there! Could you help us out, cully?" a voice said, where Tirek glanced around for a moment as he tried to pinpoint where it was coming from, as while he assumed it was the bush he also knew it could be a thrown voice to lure him into a trap, a poorly designed one at that, "You... yeah, you there! Stop pretending you can't see me!"

Tirek made sure no one else was nearby, in fact it was just him and the bushes, before climbing off Torrent and striking the strange bush with his staff, where he heard someone yelp as some mist dissipated, an illusion being broken as a figure took it's place, a little Demi-Human dressed in finer clothes than his brethren were wearing, plus he had a hat on his head.

"Now what did you go and do that for... oh, right, some clod turned me into a tree, and you broke the spell." the little figure said, where Tirek was surprised to find a more intelligent Demi-Human during his travels, especially after discovering that all of the ones so far were mostly feral idiots who didn't understand anything, since this one seemed somewhat smarter than the rest of his kind, "Thank you. My name is Boc... Boc the Seamster."

"Well, hello... Boc. Shouldn't you be with one of the Demi-Human groups, living in a cave or roaming the land?" Tirek asked, as while he had better things to do he had to admit that part of him was curious about what he had discovered, enough to justify standing here for a time.

"Oh, I lived in a cave on the western shore for most of my life... at least until I was pushed out, told never to return, and one of them must have followed me to turn me into a tree." Boc replied, showing Tirek that he must have considered what had happened to him and that he had an idea as to who might have done it, before he seemed to deflate, as if someone had given him bad news or he had remembered something sad on his own, "The brutes took everything I owned, especially the sewing needle and tools that were all I had to remember my mother, who used to be a seamstress before she died..."

"Tailoring tools? You mean like these tools?" Tirek inquired, where he withdrew the items he had obtained from the pair of Chieftains from the cave Boc was talking about, something that caused the little Demi-Human to be filled with joy as he laid eyes on them once more, no doubt because he thought he would never see them again.

"Mum's sewing needle..." Boc said, where Tirek could practically see the tears in his eyes as he took the materials from him, focusing solely on the one thing that came from his mother, an item that he carefully tucked away before wiping the tears from his face, "Thank you... Master."

Tirek raised an eyebrow to that before telling Boc that he'd take his service, he really had no idea why he would even need a seamster in the first place, causing the little Demi-Human to bow his head and depart, causing him to wonder if he'd see him again or if this was the first and only time it would happen. After that he shook his head and climbed back on Torrent without delay, where he returned to the road and glanced out at the lake that was in front of him, the area that was to the east of the church that the Tree Sentinel was guarding, though he also discovered a ruin in the distance. Based on what he could tell it seemed like something had trashed the area before moving on, likely whoever or whatever had damaged the church that a merchant was resting in, so there was a chance that there might not be a powerful foe in the area, which he would be annoyed with if it was true. In addition to that he found that someone new was on the bridge he had spotted, a knight in black armor while riding on a horse that seemed to be wearing black clothing, likely a night knight that appeared as the night arrived, or maybe he had missed it previously and it had been there the entire time.

He stared at the night knight, or whatever it was called, and opted not to deal with it right now, because if he couldn't best the Tree Sentinel there was no way he had the power to take down such a mysterious figure and it's steed, so, since the path he wanted to use was currently blocked, he focused on the lake. He found a diagonal path heading down to the edge of the lake and directed Torrent down it, allowing him some time to observe the area since he decided to walk slowly this time around, as the battles with the Tree Sentinel was forcing him to be more cautious about things. From what he could tell there was an area with a decent sized bonfire, surrounded by Hollows that likely had no idea why they had done such a thing in the first place, but it did mean that the ruins might be less occupied since some of there were over here, or not since he knew the gate ruins had been well stocked. Tirek also spotted what appeared to be small poison spewing pods, all egg shaped with little spouts that seemed to release the green substance whenever foes got close to them, but so far it seemed like he would be able to avoid them for a time, since none seemed to be near his targets of interest.

Tirek glanced out at the rest of the lake, a mostly dried up area with a low water level based on what he was seeing, as he was surprised that there was no powerful creature hanging out in the area, making him wonder if he should bother even trying to explore the area or not... only to pause as he heard a piercing roar and watched as a gray scaled dragon, whose wings were also it's front limbs, flew down and crushed the Hollows, along with their bonfire.

"A dragon... there's the powerful creature of the lake." Tirek remarked, speaking to himself since Torrent couldn't speak to him, or if he could it was only something the mystical steed shared with Melina, though from what he could see nothing else seemed to change about the area his new target was wandering around, plus he gained the Runes of those that had been downed by the beast.

With that in mind he rode Torrent into battle, as it appeared that his chosen foe wasn't paying too much attention to the rest of the area and that would work in his benefit, and readied some of his magic into a series of pebbles that he would loose when he got close enough to make sure they hit. The dragon, as he soon found out, was more observant than he originally thought it was, as the beast heard him charging towards it's position and burst into the air as soon as it saw him and Torrent coming, where it actually hovered in the air for a few seconds as Tirek glanced up at it. In the next moment the beast surged back down to the ground, like it was utilizing the speed of it's descent into a shockwave to hurt whoever it was fighting, while it's claws actually seemed to hurt Torrent, causing him to be alarmed immediately as he moved out of the way. As such he aimed at the beast's hind legs, figuring that if he hurt it enough he might be able to bring it down for good, crippling it so he could work his magic on the rest of it's body, though he still had to avoid being crushed by both of it's claws when it tried to crush the ground around it.

As that happened, however, Tirek noted that the dragon seemed to have either hair on their tails or odd scales that just looked like hair, though his foe sensed where he was and spun around, using it's tail to make sure it's backside was safe, a fact that allowed it to knock him off Torrent, who disappeared a few seconds later. Tirek groaned for a moment, because he wasn't expecting it to happen, in fact he was learning that more and more as time went on, though at the very least his foe didn't crush him while he was down, causing him to get up so he could make sure the dragon didn't crush him, but he did start channeling his magic. His change of tactic was because he wasn't about to do down without a fight, where most of his pebbles struck the dragon's hide, leaving him unable to figure out if he was able to hurt it or not, but after his last spell the beast rapidly took to the skies and turned to look at him, where it rained flames down on the area that he was in, or at least that was what Tirek assumed would happen and found that it actually set fire to everything on his right, or the dragon's left, missing him entirely. It was a strange tactic, unless the beast thought that it's foe would move if it rained fire down in a straight line, so it might actually be an incredibly smart move on it's part when Tirek thought about it, though he did have to worry about the flames that struck the area he was in, missing him entirely as he shielded himself to the best of his ability.

In the next moment, as he fought to look passed the flames, he heard a growl behind him and turned his head, finding that the beast had used the flames to hide itself and distract him at the same time, all while it looked like flames were still building inside it's toothy mouth.

"Cleaver dragon." Tirek remarked, which was the last thing he said as the dragon loosed a burst of flames at him, which tore through his flesh and burned him from the inside out, to the point where he was still flailing his arms around for a few more seconds before he collapsed in the water and expired.

A few seconds later he reappeared by the new Grace he had unlocked and sighed as he sat down, as he was going to need a new plan of action, as Tirek suspected that it was foolish to fight the dragon at this point, so he needed a new area to tackle and just hoped whatever he found next wasn't as bad as what he had discovered so far.