8 Dark Souls: Crossbow

Drake stood, staring down at the dead Hollow for a good minute, the corners of his lips twitching as he tried not to laugh at the both morbid, and comedic death. While this happened, the soul of twirling white light was absorbed by his ring.

Feeling energized from the power-up, he walked past the fallen Hollow to the broken chalice and dead armor laden knight.

Drake first inspected the blue light. It was an Estus flask, not unlike his own, picking it up, He felt a vibration from inside his pocket. Pulling out the Estus he was buried with, the two flasks resonated, vibrating, and with the high pitch sound of a bowed violin, they attracted one another like magnets.

'Clink'

They Fused into one, and when Drake twisted the cap so as that the liquid would be blue, it gleamed stronger than before.

"So it's the ashen Estus flask then, not like I've got any magic in me yet, but it might be useful later," Drake remarked.

He looked down at the knight. It wore a full set of rusted armor, unusable, and there was no weapon, but leaning on it was a clean sturdy-looking kite shield.

It had a steel base, plating the front was a layer of blue wood carved with a depiction of an eerily familiar tree, bolted down by four corners of embroidered gold.

Drake picked it up. It was lighter than he expected, maybe thrice as heavy as his dagger.

He decided to keep it, somewhere in this area was a crossbow-wielding Hollow, at least if the game remained accurate, as it had so far. The shield would protect him against any bolts letting him close in for the kill.

Drake looked around, determining where he would go next, he was in the open-spaced ruins of what could have been a long time ago a church courtyard. To both, his sides were debris remains of buildings made of basic quarried stone, and in front, light shone through a breach in the surrounding mountains.

Drake decided to take the left path, up some stairs, and soon found himself facing another hollow, this time almost hoping it wouldn't trip as the shame of his struggled first battle would be too great. Once again attracting its attention with a pebble, he readied himself for battle.

Like the other, it too couldn't see Drake at first.

Drake tried his matador tactic again, this time with a little more success, as the Hollow stumbled forth, Drake moved to the side letting it glance past his shield, using it as his red cape, before twisting at the hips giving the hollow a sharp spinning kick to the back with his heel. It fell as planned, and Drake jumped atop it and using all his weight shoved his dagger between the joints of its spine, severing the connection between the body and the brain. It died instantly.

Another Kill. Another Soul.

Feeling victorious, Drake gave out a short heroic laugh.

"This is kinda, addictive. The burst of strength after each kill is amazing."

Drake was used to death and killing, maybe not quite up so close, but he had grown a little desensitized to violence after his stint in Mali, a blessing now, letting him see the positives and not allowing the horrors of this world affect him too much.

James had said something to him just before he deployed into an active combat zone for the first time.

"Whatever happens, Drake. Don't let it haunt you no matter how nightmarish the world gets, be steadfast, dig deep, your comrades will be counting on you that's all that matters, that's all that can ever matter in war."

The memory flittered briefly through his psyche. He crouched down, checking the Hollow for loot, finding nothing, he moved on.

Drake walked the ruins of both sides, killing three more hollows whilst doing so, he took them down as he did before. Two of the hollows were located too close to each other. He had to use a stone, luring one of the dumb beasts away, killing it before finishing the other.

All that was left in the main courtyard of the cemetery of ash was the crossbow using Hollow. It stood at the entrance of the cemetery as if guarding the way out.

Drake approached it slowly, one step at a time.

At about 10 meters distance from the hollow Drake thought to himself.

"5 more meters left." all of a sudden a growl emitted from the Hollow, alerting Drake, he swiftly held his shield up high, covering his vitals.

'Krak'

With a subtle thwack, the bolt lodged into his shield, splitting the wood. "Shit! lucky."

A nervous sweat covered Drake's brow if it wasn't for the Hollow alerting him with a growl that bolt would have hit through, smashing its way through his skull. Dead.

It seems the crossbow user had better sight than the rest, Drake rushed forward as the undead reloaded, "dumb! dumb! dumb!" Drake berated himself, "of course it's different, it's using a weapon."

Drake rushed at it, the Hollow had a dim gleam of intelligence in its eyes, and it stepped back.

With each two steps forward, the Hollow took one back, Drake was closing in, but the Hollow still had the initial distance, it shot another bolt, Drake paused to take the blow.

This continued until the Hollow had backed itself into a dead-end, behind it was a sheer drop off the world's edge, grey gaseous clouds below. "Got you," Drake said with a villainous grin. He moved in, a step away, seeing the Hollow without a bolt in its crossbow he dropped his shield and grabbed for it.

Struggling with the Hollow for a moment, now stronger from the repeated tempering of souls, he wrested the crossbow and its bolts from it before giving it a massive kick directly to the chest. It flew back, off the cliff's edge, into the unknown.

Drake held back the urge to say, 'This Is SPARTA!!!'.