14 Dark Souls: Iudex Gundyr

Drake stored away some of his possessions into the newly crafted bag.

He picked up the titanite scale, and including it, he placed the crossbow and white tree branch into the main bag. Sadly his trusty old dagger had basically been reduced to scrap-metal after being used to create barbs and cut out crafting materials, so it was tossed. In the finger pockets, he stored away his bolts and Estus, taking up two of the three fingers.

It was time to get moving.

Drake slipped on his leather cloak, tying together the chord, and strung the bag over his shoulder before picking up his bone spear and shield.

He made his way to the bonfire, past where he defeated the crossbow hollow and up a narrow passage. To the right-hand side was a sheer drop, the distant landscape was a sea of grey fog surmounted by countless snowy peaks.

The bonfire was situated on a small clearing at the end of the narrow passage. Like everything else in the cemetery, it was surrounded by a twisted mass of gravestones.

The bonfire itself was a nest of burning bones piled upon a bed of ash, sticking out of its center a coiled sword that glowed with the light of molten steel.

"Its a lot more sinister looking than I remember," Drake remarked, he hadn't given it too much thought when he played the game, but the bonfires were essentially just piled up burning human sacrifices.

Now that he had reached the bonfire, Drake wasn't sure of what to do, Quella said he could cleanse the bonfire with his divinity, but he wasn't sure exactly how it was done. Walking gingerly up to the bonfire, as if it might attack, he grabbed at the coiled sword. The fires burned brighter for a second before the bone nest collapsed, and all that was left was fire, ash, and sword. After the fire was cleansed, tendrils of flame curled up Drake's arm and burrowed into his chest. He felt a small surge of energy well up from the fire, it was hot and felt somewhat like heartburn. This energy was quickly absorbed by the cool seed of his divinity in his chest.

"Well, that wasn't too hard, and it came with a bonus to boot," Drake said happily.

The cleansed fire had given him energy equivalent to a quarter of what Quella had given him for two trips.

"If I can cleanse another bonfire, it'll definitely open up my travel options which would be useful for evading that bloody champion."

Now with the bonfire cleansed, it was killing Iudex he had next on his list. After killing the Crystal Lizard, Drake had gained plenty of strength, but unlike the Lizard, he would have to face Iudex in straight-up combat.

There would be no traps he could implement with Iudex being sealed away in his own arena, and he had to be defeated fairly to unlock the gated entrance up to the firelink shrine.

Iudex was a sort of guardian for the firelink shrine but also a test for any unkindled that wanted to relight the flame, it would be a hard fight.

There were still some hollows left between Drake and Iudex, not wanting to waste any time, he pulled out his crossbow and cleared them out one by one from afar. Two of his bolts broke hitting off the bones of hollows, but he gained another five from a crossbow wielder, leaving him with a nice round total of ten. While killing his way to Iudex, Drake found five small firebombs and a titanite shard. He put the shard into his main bag and stacked the bombs into the remaining unfilled finger pocket, they would be useful in his fight against Iudex.

Passing through a stone archway, Drake stood in Iudex's arena, it was a full disk-shaped platform. To Drakes left a semicircle of graves, the audience for his upcoming fight, and to his right the world's edge. Iudex was kneeling dead center of the arena. He was a hulking petrified man, a coiled sword pierced through his chest, and tar-black liquid spewed out his back, wriggling like a parasite.

Drake had stored the crossbow in his bag and in his hands, he now held his bone spear and shield, the bolts would prove useless against Iudex's armor, so he didn't bother trying to use his ranged weapon.

Remembering how it was done in the game, Drake pulled the coiled sword out of Iudex, freeing him he let the sword clatter to the ground before stepping back and getting into a battle stance.

Iudex awoke, taking a step forward as he stood up and pulled his halberd out of the earth.

Drake wasn't planning to contest the warrior with strength, its a fight he would probably lose in. His strategy was similar to the one he took against most bosses in the game, dodge, dodge, and even more dodging.

He would try to dance around Iudex and jab him with his spear, hitting through the gaps in the armor.

Once he had inflicted enough damage, he knew that the pus of man, darkness from the abyss, would take over Iudex and when this happened, Drake planned to finish off Iudex with the firebombs.

The pus of man was naturally weak to fire, the firebombs should burn up the blight.

Iudex opened with a full 180-degree swing, it was fast, and Drake ducked, avoiding having his head chopped off. Iudex followed up with a stab, stomping forward to give it power. Drake dodged to the side and ran up to Iudex following the halberd as it was pulled back in, for another swing. He stabbed up with his spear between the stacked ring plates that protected Iudex's stomach. It went in deep, cutting up the warriors innards.

Drake tried to pull the spear out, but it was stuck.

"Shit!" Drake said letting go of the spear as Iudex punched him with his free hand. Drake blocked the blow with his shield.

The force of the punch was momentous, it sent Drake sliding across the ground. His feet somehow finding purchase he manages to stay standing. Drake was now weaponless. It was too early to use the bombs, and his spear was stuck in Iudex. Thinking fast, Drake could see only one method to kill Iudex. If he could get to that spear and push it in and up further, he could maybe force Iudex into his next stage, releasing the pus of man.

Drake held his shield central to his body and waited for Iudex to make a move. Another full swing came dodging under it. He ran low to the ground and, with his shield, smashed the backend of the spear, before quickly backing off.

It went in with a squelch, and Iudex roared, the black parasite on his back grew out and spread overtaking Iudex. It formed into a massive serpent-like black blob over his head and a pale pronged claw on his left arm. The clawed arm dug deep into the earth and flung Iudex, sending him flying at Drake.

Drake pulled a firebomb out of his bag, throwing it at the midair Iudex before rolling to the side.

The bomb exploded on impact setting the black parasite alight. It screeched a deafening roar as it burned, but one bomb wasn't enough to finish it.

Drake pulled out two more with a flick of the wrist he had one in each hand and threw them both simultaneously.

Boom! They both exploded inside the open mouth of the abyssal creature.

The pus of man burned brighter it started to disintegrate and along with Iudex's whole body, it turned to ash dispersing in the air. Drakes spear clattered to the floor.

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