Novel Bin Chapter 22: Praise the Sun!
Chapter 22: Praise the Sun!
My mind raced faster than ever before to think of something, anything to survive this breath. I couldn't use estus, the breath would break the bottle. I couldn't use heal, I couldn't focus to cast it. I couldn't call out to Solaire, my lungs were scorched.
Is this it?
And suddenly the blue aura that was the only thing keeping me together shattered. Alongside the wave of despair that came with that realization there was also a brief moment of clarity, I felt more focused, and pushing the pain to the back of my mind I scoured through everything I had while I was getting cremated alive.
-
The Hellkite Drake had never encountered such troublesome undead before.
Sure there were a rare few who could stand up to its flames for a brief moment and inflict some injuries before perishing. But none were as persistent as the one occupying its back.
No matter what it did to shake it off. I still stayed on firmly like a parasite and inflicted one injury after the other causing it much agony. And what's even worse was the pests friend fired off spears of lightning that caused no small amounts of pain to the mighty drake.
But now that the pesky undead got another wave of the Hellkite drake's breath without that obstacle of his, it was certain that the undead would be burnt to a crisp to the satisfaction of the lesser dragon.
At least that was what was supposed to happen. Much to its confusion.
After its breath subsided it saw a sight it couldn't even comprehend.
There stood the hollow, standing upright as he crushed a black sprite that miraculously healed his broken and burnt body. And the cold, dead stare filled with malice the hollow gave sent a feeling of primal fear down the drake's spine.
-
In a last-ditch effort, I remembered the healing properties of humanity. So I risked it all and summoned and crushed the solid humanity as I quickly approached death. Fortunately, the humanity healed me marginally faster than the wave of scorching death tried to claim me.
<Your skill {Elementary Fire resistance lv.3} has leveled up!2x>
< {Elementary Fire resistance lv.3} -> {Elementary Fire resistance lv.5} >
< {Blue tearstone ring} has broken. >
< *!?Error: Insufficient *********** ?!(?) >
< {???} has ??? the {???}. >
<You have...>
I didn't care about the messages at the moment as the moment the drake let up its breath I popped another humanity to stay alive and shouted at the top of my lungs.
''SOLAIRE! ITS WINGS! BRING IT DOWN!!!''
And a moment after the words left my mouth the drake suddenly recoiled as it lost its balance and shrieked in pain. As courtesy of Solaire, it now had a significant hole in one of its wings. I grabbed my blade stuck to the Drake and braced myself for the rough landing.
*Slamm!*
The instant we were about to make contact with the ground I jumped out and landed next to sunlight bro to regroup. We needed to change our plans and approach. The Drake took far less damage and dealt far more damage than we expected.
''How much focus do you have left in the tank?''
''I can only cast another {lightning spear} before needing to recharge.''
Great. Our main DPS, support, and ranger just ran out of mp.
''I will distract it while you take to recoup your focus alright? How long do you need?''
''About two or three minutes.''
Better. It would just be too cruel to have ashen estus in this age huh?
We exchanged a wordless nod and I dashed out to the bridge to confront the drake once again. And boy did he look pissed. My current biggest problem at the moment is his breath. A massive aoe with low stamina cost and short cast time.
I needed to disable it somehow.
Thankfully I had a tool Solaire had given me when we discussed our plans beforehand. I just needed to land it.
Utilizing my maximum speed and the fact that the drake couldn't take flight I danced around it, slashing at its legs with my machete whenever I could and barely dodging dragon breaths that threatened to cook me to well done.
This dangerous performance went on for a solid minute or two before I got my big chance in the shape of the hellkite drake lunging its head at me with its maw open wide.
The moment its gaping mouth got close enough I summoned my tool acquired from Solaire.
A lightning urn. They apparently actually existed in this age of fire.
And thanks to my high throwing skill I dunked that shit right down hellkites throat. And the roar of agony it released as the urn exploded into lightning inside his throat was better than any music to my ears.
*Raaaaaarggghhh!!!*
Now its fire breath should be effectively disabled. But now it has started attacking me in a berserk fashion. I was able to dodge most of its attacks except for a swipe it did which flung me 50 fucking meters and made me hit a wall like a soccer ball and I bounced like one too.
I had to chug three whole estus for that as I'm pretty sure that hit rearranged my whole ribcage.
Thankfully by this time Solaire had completely restocked on his juice supply and could unleash his spears of lightning that dealt actual damage to the drake unlike my ticklings with an unbuffed blade.
In our ''Fight'' if it could even be called that. We were completely and utterly outclassed. The drake was too strong even with its breath disabled. And to make it even worse it had started /DODGING/ our fucking spears of lightning once it realized the threat they posed it.
A sentient alien pickle person would probably be proud of it for dodging but I sure as hell wasn't. This just made our job infinitely harder because the overgrown lizard was fucking learning. The bolts it couldn't dodge It instead swatted it away with its already injured arms.
Clever girl.
At some point me and Solaire had started taking turns fighting the drake as either my stamina or his focus would run out and would have to retire to the backline. We took turns fighting and resting trying to wear down the drake in a battle of attrition. And it was working, it was getting worn down slowly but surely.
The problem was that the same applied to us as well.
After fighting for a while we were bound to run out of estus at some point which made us resort to healing each other which meant Solaire couldn't cast as many of his other miracles giving the drake breathing room. And although our stamina recovered during the breaks our equipment didn't.
I was on my third set of hollow soldier armor set.
Solaire's armor, while better quality than mine wasn't doing any better either. His chainmail was mostly broken, his shield was dented to hell and his gauntlets leggings and helmet had dents and scratches. His sword was also dulled from the Drake's thick hide.
The worst part was exhaustion. Although we may recover our stamina faster thanks to our (barely) superhuman physiques, exhaustion was starting to set in. We may still be able to fight but we're starting to get sloppier. Though that was largely offset by the drake getting sloppier as well.
It had been an hour.
A fucking hour.
The damn drake still hadn't died. Its wings were tattered, a majority of its scales had fallen around the place, it was blind in one eye and had a limp from one of the deadman's blows I had landed but the was still standing while we were barely scraping by at this point.
We were clearly losing this battle of attrition.
We needed to end this, our focuses were starting to stop recovering from the exhaustion. We were both tired as Izalith(hell) and our equipment was barely existent. And I don't think I have enough strength inside me to finish this fight with a decisive blow. Hell, I don't think I could even execute a proper deadman's blow in this state.
Think, John, think! What can you do to end this fight?
[Humanity: 2]
I may just have an idea. It may or may not work but it is worth a shot. I turned to Solaire who was barely faring better than me and explained my plan. Although I wasn't very convincing since even I myself didn't believe in myself, Solaire still gave me an encouraging gaze and a reassuring smile even still.
That's right. I could do this.
I wasn't alone.
I had Solaire with me.
Who believed in me. Even though I didn't believe in myself.
A man too good, righteous, and pure for this world. If a man like that believed in me then who was I to disappoint?
Exchanging a nod between us we both started. Suddenly Solaire released a full-power lightning spear(which he hadn't done in a while) and hit the unsuspecting drake causing its attention to turn to Solaire.
And you may ask about my role here. And that was running.
While Solaire kept its attention my job was to run to the end of the bridge. To the bonfire.
I ran with all the strength I could afford. My lungs burnt. My muscles ached, my mind was screaming and my body was crying. I could barely walk yet I was running. But it was not in vain, my combination of focus and acrobatics kept me on my feet long enough to reach the bonfire.
[BONFIRE LIT]
I knew I couldn't rest at the bonfire long enough to get any meaningful healing but I knew I could do something here. I was still in hollow form after all.
[Offer humanity and reverse Hollowing? Yes / No ]
Yes! I felt the surge of warm wash over my body getting rid of my accumulated fatigue and filling my undead body with vigor. I didn't dare dally any further and dashed toward Solaire with renewed energy. Along the way, I found the perfect opportunity and summoned the winged spear in my hand and chucked it full strength at one of its many open wounds.
*Raaaaaaaooooooouuuuurrrrh!!!*
When it turned around I had already ran under its legs and reached Solaire who was relieved to see my plan had succeeded and moved onto the next stage. I brought out my zweihander and Solaire used every single focus left in his body to enchant with sunlight blade.
''...Good luck friend...''
With that Solaire collapsed to his knees though he didn't pass out. Giving him a reassuring smile just as he had given me I dashed out and drew my accursed adversaries attention once more. Since Solaire had passed out in its mind I was its only target. Which worked for me as I forced it to give chase to me even in his battered form.
Even though I had far more energy than before, I was still pretty exhausted. And I didn't even for a second dare underestimate my adversary for I knew I was only an attack away from certain death.
I ran while avoiding its attacks not worried about it not being able to keep up with me as one step for him was 50 steps for me. And I finally reached it, his perch. Truly a poetic place for his execution even though I didn't mean it to be so.
I leaped up and climbed crevices around to leach higher while avoiding the occasional lunge then the beast. And once I got solid ground I used my focus skill to its max as I felt the world around me slow down. The dragon was below me and I was above it. But that wasn't enough.
I used {Deadman's blow: Leap} and reached higher and positioned the sunlight-clad zweihander below me and descended at frightening speed toward the Drake's head before it could see me coming.
Unsatisfied with even that my willpower directed what little remained of my focus and directed it toward the aura covering my blade, making it stronger. And with that, my blade plunged down.
''{Sunlight Guillotine}!''
*PLUNGE!!! *Fshhhhhh!!!*
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My blade went all the went through its skull. Killing it
But even though I had slain it I knew I had to do something. I climbed up the lesser dragon's unmoving body and reached the top of its body, making eye contact with Solaire. And as though we had an unspoken agreement we both straightened our bodies out and held out our arms in a o/ shape to signify and celebrate our victory.
Praise the sun!
<You have slain the {Hellkite Drake} +20,000souls>