Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-14138255-20170320024103/@comment-14138255-20170325190004

As promised, here is ch 3, released early today.

Chapter 3: Judge of Ash, Iudex Gundyr

After resting a bit, she got up and looked around in the cemetery, looking to find a way to where she heard the bell toll. She saw a structure in the distance with a thin entryway, and attached to the round building was a tower, a bell tower.

“I guess I know where I’m going now” Pyrrha said to herself as she started to make her way down the hill, where more of the ghouls were. She fought her way through and made it to a large arch, through which she entered a large courtyard, with a statue in the center, a large cliff overlooking the mountains, and a tall double door on the other side. She walked closer towards the center, but when she got there she saw the statue had embedded in it a sword, much like the one on the bonfire, and to the right of it was a halberd, and etched on the blade was the word GVNDYR.

To her horror, the statue started shifting in place, groaning in what seemed like pain. Pyrrha looked to the sword, and after taking a moment, pulled the sword out. Where she was pulling the sword, black shadowy fluid spilled out. Despite this, she successfully removed the sword.

The statue then started moving with less difficulty, finally rising and picking up the long halberd next to it.

Gundyr, its eyes now glowing bright red, looked to her menacingly. It soon became evident she had made a huge mistake. Gundyr brought its halberd down, Pyrrha just managing to dodge away. Gundyr made another large slash immediately after, with Pyrrha leaping in front of it and managing to slash it twice. However Gundyr, while staggered from the attacks, prepared a wide sweep with his halberd. Pyrrha readied her hand to manipulate it with her semblance, but the halberd didn’t slow down in the slightest and hit her with full force, knocking her back. She got up, in great pain, but somehow able to keep fighting.

‘My Semblance, I couldn’t even feel it…’ she thought. She looked to her weapon and shield, trying to bend them with her mind, but she couldn’t. ‘Something is  very wrong.’

With enough distance between them, the statue leaped into the air. Pyrrha saw where he was going and jumped to the side just as it stabbed the ground she was at. She used this opening to unleash a flurry of slashes, as well as one final strong stab, leaping away as he recovered.

Gundyr knelt to the ground wounded, but Pyrrha noticed a strange shadow rising out of him before it exploded into a black morass of a creature. It was uncannily similar in appearance to a Creature of Grimm, except this was larger and more unstable than most she’s seen: a large serpent like creature, growing out of Gundyr and brandishing a large, shadowy, skeletal hand.

‘Could this really  be a Grimm?’

The serpent didn’t wait for her to find out, swinging its hand to attack, with Pyrrha jumping away and slashing at the beast while its back was turned. However, the serpent craned its neck to see her and spun around, striking her and launching her into the grave stones on the wall.

She landed with heavy force and the air knocked from her lungs. Her body was wrecked and she was struggling to see, her gaze darkening. She attempted to get up, but she was too weak, her bones shattered, and slowly her body started to go numb. She went cold and felt a familiar ebb as her vision faded once more…

She stirred and started moving. She felt well-rested and healthy, as though waking from a good night’s sleep. Slowly she opened her eyes, in the haze seeing only a gold flickering light, surrounded by darkness. Her eyes jutted open after regaining consciousness, remembering what had happened, or what she believed had happened. She sat up, and looked around, realizing she was back at the bonfire on the hill.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">“What happened? Was all this a-” Pyrrha stopped as she put her hand to her forehead, just now discovering her tiara was missing. She scampered around the bonfire’s area, futilely trying to find it before giving up and sitting by the fire once more. She again mused on her situation.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">“Was that all just a dream? It all felt so real, and I remember it so vividly,” Pyrrha stated to herself, recalling seeing the words GVNDYR on the halberd, and the shadow creature that had-

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">Pyrrha’s face crumpled in phantom pain. The shadow creature that  killed<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;"> her. She looked to the building in the distance and back to where Gundyr was. She set out to continue her journey. Hopefully what she saw was just a dream. Either way, she needed answers on what these creatures were and what they were doing here.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">She went down the path from the bonfire, but the ghouls were back, just where they had been before. Pyrrha was puzzled. She knew just where each and everyone of them were and what they’d do, but if what had happened before was a dream, how did she know they were all there? She fought through them all as before, but upon reaching the entryway to the courtyard, she saw it was blocked by an impossibly thick wall of fog. She approached it, puzzled at where it had come from. She reached out, her hand passing through perfectly fine.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">‘Well, it  is<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;"> fog’ Pyrrha thought, embarrassed at thinking it’d work any different than it should.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">She pressed on through the wall of fog, where she saw the statue, Gundyr rise up as it had before.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">‘It was real...it had to have been,’ Pyrrha then readied herself as Gundyr leapt into the air and brought his halberd down, Pyrrha dodging forward in order to capitalize on the opening. After a few slashes, Gundyr swept behind himself, but Pyrrha was able to block in time, the impact sending her back. When she readied again however, Gundyr had already brought his halberd down, slamming her to the ground and then lifted her into the air. Shrugging off the intense pain from the impact, Pyrrha lept up back on her feet in time to dodge Gundyr’s next attack, allowing her to get two more slashes in. Gundyr reached out as though to grab her, but Pyrrha was able to dodge out of the way, another two slashes followed. Gundyr prepared to bring his halberd down, but Pyrrha used her shield to maneuver it aside and then stabbed Gundyr in the armpit, with copious amounts of blood spilling onto her, which she ignored in order to focus on the arduous battle.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">She removed her sword and stepped back, with the shadow surrounding Gundyr as the shadow spilled out and exploded into the familiar form of the serpent. Pyrrha braced as the serpent brought its hand down upon Pyrrha, who sidestepped and slashed it as it came down. The serpent craned its head as before, but Pyrrha was ready this time and blocked it, though the impact still caused her some pain. With agility belied by its massive size, the serpent launched itself into the air before slamming down its skeletal hand, knocking Pyrrha back.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">Despite being a gasp away from death, Pyrrha got up anyway and readied her shield. The serpent stared at its opponent and then brought its hand to swing, but Pyrrha rolled forward, getting close enough to swing wildly at Gundyr’s body. The serpent was readying another swing, but Pyrrha chose to use her remaining strength to continue slashing, causing the serpent to stagger and after one final swing from Pyrrha, the serpent and Gundyr both recoiled and began to light up and dissolve into bright light, exploding into nothing but air, leaving no trace of them...except for the coiled sword she had pulled out in the beginning.

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">Pyrrha breathed heavily, collapsing to her knees in exhaustion and pain. While not the most complicated fight, without her Semblance and the reduction of injury (or rather, the typical reduction of injury she expected) usually offered by her Aura, she felt physically weaker than she would have normally, and without her skills she would have-

<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;">Pyrrha froze in place and looked to the sword. She  did<span style="color:rgb(210,210,210);font-family:Calibri,Corbel,sans-serif;font-size:16px;"> die before. It didn’t feel like a dream, and if it were, why would the coiled sword be there? She had never seen anything like the halberd wielding giant, or the sword in its chest. Pyrrha placed her hand on her forehead in tired confusion, not helped by the intense pain she was in as well as feeling light-headed. She looked to the right where she first saw Gundyr, but in its place was another sword sticking in the ground, similar to the first bonfire except it wasn’t lit. Pyrrha picked herself and the coiled sword up and limped to the bonfire, reaching out to it as before, whereupon it lit itself. Relieved, Pyrrha sat down and rested. The bell tower was just ahead, and despite the ordeal she felt as though the worst was behind her.

'''Author’s Notes: Hope you liked the first boss battle chapter. Pyrrha’s first day in Lothric has so far been quite difficult, putting it lightly. But fret not, she hasn’t even been told what she’s doing yet! That’s coming next in Chapter 4: Firelink. As always, this fic will be updated on Fridays at 12PM. See you then.'''