Chapter 14: Battle against a true black knight

I decided to fight the black knight for 2 reasons. One is the blue tearstone ring which will massively improve my survivability. And the second one I the black knight weaponry. They are strong enough as they already are and the anti-demon powers they have is just *Cheff's kiss*.

But I wasn't risking all of these souls against the black knight as I knew they wouldn't nearly be as exploitable as in the game. So I warped back to the bonfire and decided to spend most of my souls leveling up.

---

[Soul level : 13] -> [Soul level : 16]

{Vitality : 11 }

{Attunement : 11}

{Endurance : 11 }

{Strength : 18 } -> {Strength : 20 }

{Dexterity : 11 } -> {Dexterity : 12}

{Resistance : 11 }

{Intelligence : 11 }

{Faith : 11 }

<[Souls required: 4342 ] Confirm: Y/N>

---

'Yes.'

The moment I confirmed I felt the power enter my body making me stronger and more dexterous. I got up and did some moves to test my new body and get accustomed to the changes. After a bit of testing, I started moving forward.

I went on my way efficiently slaughtering hollows with my zweihander on the way. I did get tagged a few times due to my carelessness but a swig and a half of my ten charges of estus made those blunders basically irrelevant.

After 10 minutes or so and a dozen hollow corpses, I was back in front of the black knight's staircase. I walked down with my morning star and hollow soldier shield in hand. Making sure to make as little noise as possible as I approached him.

[ You have acquired the skill {Sneak lv.1} !]

Although I had acquired a new skill my attention wasn't on it. No, my attention was on the Imposing 2.5 meter(8ft2 in freedom units) figure clad head to toe in black armor.

Although the Asylum Demon was far scarier. This black knight gave off a different aura. He felt like a domineering wall in front of me. But I naturally did not give that much a shit so I got in position and lobbed a brick at the back of his head with all of my strength.

*Clank*

But all the brick managed to accomplish was to make the knight's head tilt forward. After which he slowly turned around and started making his way over to me with his shield slightly poised in front of him. I also readied my blade and braced my shield in front of me to gauge him.

When he got close enough the black knight raised his sword above his head and delivered a quick horizontal slash. Thankfully I was barely able to respond by raising my shield in his blade's path.

*Crash!*

His blow was so strong he nearly lifted me off my feet and made me slide back half a meter. My shield-bearing arm felt numb. This thing is an absolute monster! If I had to guess his relevant stats should be in their 30s to 40s. Far outstripping my meager stats.

And he wasn't like the Asylum Demons who just utilized brute force. He possessed the technique and skill to properly utilize his stats. But that wasn't enough to make me give up. After his blow, I charged in and tried striking him with my morning star.

Tried.

As he simply raised his shield just like I did but unlike me he barely budged. Feeling my instincts flare up I unsummoned my morning star and two-handed my shield. Just in time to receive his kick which actually launched me a meter into the air.

But he didn't relent as, as soon as I landed he delivered an overhead slash which I also blocked. The weight and force of the blow nearly made my knees buckle. But he didn't stop his onslaught. he slammed me with his shield which broke my poise then stabbed forward skewering me with his blade and killing me.

[YOU DIED]

Wow, while I expected him to be considerably harder than his game counterpart I didn't expect this kind of monster in his place. But in hindsight, I should really have expected this.

After all, these were the black knights the elite knights of Gwyn who were given the duty of slaying demons. I had severely underestimated them which had cost me a life. But I was not one easily dissuaded.

After resting for a brief moment I made my way back to the black knight, retrieved my remains, and challenged him once again. Performing slightly better before being felled once again by his blade.

But just like how I went against the asylum demon I didn't relent. If being turned into a pancake hundreds of times didn't make me give up then how could a few stabs and slices?

So I challenged him again and again. I also made a game out of getting to him as fast as possible. My current record was 3 minutes.

I eventually got used to the sheer gap between our abilities and capabilities. I found ways to bridge those gaps. I gave up my shield since blocking was counteractive with the massive difference between our stats.

I switched out the shield for an axe instead that I bought from the undead merchant with the souls I gained after farming for a bit. I even acquired the basic blunt mastery skill and leveled it up to 3 while also leveling up my swordsmanship.

Honestly, I actually enjoyed fighting against this black knight. Playing the dance of death with him, barely dodging his blows while trying and scouting out gaps to deliver my own. Just watching how he moved and acted toward certain actions helped me improve.

The most evident was the fact that my swordsmanship skill improved even though I hadn't been using it a whole lot. And even though my acrobatics skill couldn't level up I still felt like I was utilizing the skill itself better. The Black Knight almost felt like a mentor with how much I learned from him.

But now I felt confident enough to fight him to the death for real. So I used a humanity to reverse my hollowing to put myself in peak condition. As I had noticed that even though my stats are the same in both forms I utilize it better and more efficiently in my human form than in my hollow form.

I sped my way over to the black knight while efficiently disposing of the hollows in my way in record speed. After I reached him I walked down the steps loudly, drawing his attention. Which lead to both of us approaching each other menacingly.

I even felt the urge to say ''I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer.'' But I quickly stomped that thought down and focused on the upcoming fight in front of me. This one wasn't to learn this was to win.

As we got within slashing distance of each other he acted first with a horizontal slash which I backstepped, narrowly avoiding getting nicked. I acted the moment the blade missed and closed the distance and struck down with my morningstar but as I expected the blocked it making my wrist slightly numb.

But I didn't relent as I unleashed a new technique I invented. I quickly unsummoned my morningstar and resummoned it into my left hand, surprising the knight which gave me the opening which allowed me to twist my full body and slam my weapon into his exposed side staggering him a little before he kicked me to make distance.

Catching my balance I resumed position to barely sidestep his lunging stab toward my midriff. Taking advantage of his move I struck his hand with my morningstar which nearly made him drop his weapon but I wasn't strong enough to do so.

He withdrew his sword and tried bashing me with his shield which I responded to by temporarily switching my mace for my shield and two-handed it to receive his shield bash and not get completely staggered. I would have tried to kick him since his position opened his side to attacks but since I would probably break my leg so I opted to just hop back.

After our exchanges, we started circling each other while observing one another carefully like a hawk. And suddenly, he did something unexpected, He shoulder tackled me and due to its suddenness, I couldn't bring up my shield to defend myself which led to me being launched at the wall quite painfully.

But he didn't stop with his aggression as he repeatedly stabbed with speed unbefitting his frame while aiming for my head repeatedly.

Hey, remember that game you played as a kid where you kept stabbing the pencil into the gaps between your fingers while trying to avoid stabbing yourself?

Yeah, this is that but the hand is my head and the pencil is replaced by a greatsword that intends to cause severe bodily harm.

I could barely react to his attacks with panic and move my head out of the way to dodge the sword aiming to ruin my handsome mug. In one instance he actually took the exposed half of my ear off.

After dodging stab after stab I decided enough was enough and used all the power in my body to deliver a {Deadman's Blow} kick into his unguarded waist.

{Deadman's Blow!}

[CRITICAL!]

< Your skill { Deadmans Blow lv.1 } has leveled up! >

< { Deadmans Blow lv.1 } -> { Deadmans Blow lv.2 } >

*Slam!* *Crunch*

''Arghhh!''

Although the attack had launched him to the wall opposite of me and dented his armor I was fairly certain that I had broken literally every single centimeter of bone in my leg. Taking advantage of his stunned state I took out an estus and chugged it twice to heal my leg completely.

But even the estus didn't recover my bottomed-out stamina after using the deadman's blow. So to recover my stamina I pulled out my trump card. I first took out the tablecloth from my Inventory toward him. And At the moment he was covered I used my trump card.

I ran.

After removing the tablecloth off himself the black knight confusedly looked around for his opponent before catching sight of our cowardly hero most of the way up the stairs.

The moment the knight noticed me it started sprinting after me up the stairs but before he could take more than a step up I took a barrel full of something out of my inventory and chucked it at him which knocked him back a little. But I didn't stop rolling and throwing barrels and other heavy shit in my inventory down the stairs until the knight had lost balance and stumbled.

This is my chance!

I rushed down the stairs and jumped off one of the tables I threw down. Then I brought out my Demon's great hammer mid-air above my head. And because the knight's view was hindered because of the stuff I threw he could barely react to what I did next.

*SMASH!!!*

The poor man barely had the time to bring his shield out before I slammed down the Hammer of God with all my might. The moment the oversized Demon's great hammer made contact with his shield his arm bent and his knees buckled and the pressure.

I released the hammer and took my stance on the half-broken table in front of the stunned knight and used what little stamina I recovered to bring out my Zweihander and slashed down with both hands toward his sword-wielding arms shoulder.

[CRITICAL!]

< Your skill {Critical lv.5 } has leveled up! >

< {Critical lv.5 } -> {Critical lv.6 } >

*CHOP!*

I had chopped the knight's whole arm off but I still did not finish as I use the momentum of my previous attack to change into a charging stab as I use the rest of my stamina and my whole bodyweight to pierce through the knight's chest.

<You have slain 1x { Black Knight } (+800 souls)>