CH 45: Ulcerated Tree Spirit Boss Fight

The Ulcerated Tree Spirit slithered on the ground, its very movement cursed as its hands assisted its movement. As it approached Alistair in the giant arena, he locked in. Eyes turning sharp as he readied his blades.

Noticing the left claw dragging on the ground, he dodged to the left and into him just as it came for him in a sharp swipe. After getting a quick light attack of both blades, he dodged to the right just as its right claw came.

Getting a few more hits, he stayed careful of any more attacks. Seeing it interlock its claws and raise them to the air, he waited for just the right moment to take advantage of his iframes.

"Don't panic" was always the motto for any Ulcerated Tree Spirit. Looking at its random and weird movements, any new, heck, even experienced players tend to panic. But the panic was always what made the fight a struggle.

In fact, all Ulcerated Tree Spirits had very easily dodgeable attacks. Their attacks were very few, and even if high in damage, were pretty slow. It was only a matter of remembering their dangerous attacks, like the grabbing one.

Alistair was very aware of that. After all, he hated the bastards. He could never forget the first time he got jumped by the first one he had ever seen under Stormveil Castle out of nowhere. He had beef with them with a passion. And like the hater that he was, he had to know all their movements to hate as best as he could.

But that was in the game, where he had limited movements himself. So now, where it was his real world and he could do every move that he liked, should he have been even more careful? No, he had to hate even harder.

As the claws came down to hammer him, he rolled and jumped on top of them, making the Ulcerated Tree Spirit growl. But its cursed sounds turned into a pained howl as Alistair's blades dug into its arms and he began to run up, his blades dragging inside of its arms, cutting them right open.

This was reality now, he could attack however he wanted. His blades slashed up fiercely, cutting its arms open to slash at its chest. It screamed in pain. It excited him. This was reality now, he could dodge however he wanted. He rolled as it tried to bite him. As he came falling down, he spun vertically like a beyblade, cutting open its disgusting body, from its chest down to its stomach.

This was reality now, he could move however he wanted. Instead of falling completely, he struck his blade into its cursed body. Holding tight, he swung on the sword's handle and shot himself up. Pulling out his sword, he used his momentum to slash like a beyblade again, cutting it open even more.

He was a fairy dancing around a disgusting flower. Truly a student of Maliketh. The wolf of death would be proud of how he had learned his acrobatic battle style.

The Ulcerated Tree Spirit howled as he slashed at its throat. The huge momentum of which he shot himself up caused him to go above the monstrosity and into the air. He could swear he saw a grin on the eyeless bastard's face. But just as it tried to bite and eat him in one gulp, Alistair spun in the air.

This was reality, he could roll wherever he wanted. The Ulcerated Tree Spirit made a surprised sound as its mouth passed through the Tarnished, but its surprised sound turned into a howl of immense pain as both of his blades were stabbed fiercely into its head.

It didn't try to attack anymore. Instead, moved its head harshly to get Alistair off. It succeeded. He spun in the air before landing smoothly on the ground.

Once he was down, the Ulcerated Tree Spirit began to charge up. Yellow fire glowing from its body, parts of the ground around it glowing as well. Alistair frowned before quickly sprinting away, careful to avoid the glowing spots on the ground.

A giant explosion set off from the Ulcerated Tree Spirit, causing pillars of yellow fire to rise from the ground. Alistair, having dodged everything smoothly, smirked. The enemy growled before it slithered quickly towards the wall.

Climbing up on it, it lounged at him. But unfortunately for the Ulcerated Tree Spirit, it was the single easiest attack to dodge by anybody who expected it. And how could Alistair, as a professional hater, not master dodging it?

He rolled to the side before immediately running after it, already expecting its breath of yellow fire attack. With its head low and health bar even lower, he leaped once close enough. His beloved blades dragged harder than before in its body, cutting just enough for its guys to finally come spilling out just as he double slashed at its throat, causing its head to come falling down.

This was reality now, he could fuck up anybody however he wanted.

As the body of the Ulcerated Tree Spirit fell onto the ground, unmoving before it dissipated into dust, returning to the Erdtree, the Tarnished twirled his blades and sighed in relief. He had expected the worst and was as serious as he could get, but fortunately, he had overestimated the Ulcerated Tree Spirit.

[Runes: 22,615 -> 37,615

15,000 Runes

Golden Seed

Banished Knight Oleg Ashes]

"(That was easier than I expected.)" Miquella relieved voice echoed in his mind, his smile apparent in his voice :"(But I suppose it's because you made it so easy.)"

"Nah, not really." Alistair chuckled :"This was just a lot easier than I expected it to be. I sometimes forget I'm just in Limgrave of NG+0 difficulty. But hey, that's more than fine. Better to overestimate them than underestimate them."

Miquella sounded pleased :"(Now that is the kind of mindset that would make you Elden Lord. So are we finished here? You said there is a very useful talisman here, but I didn't anything until now.)"

"Hahaha said everyone who entered this dungeon without knowing anything. It's just a bit of a hidden path. But we need to return to the start first. While we're at the Site of Grace, let's level up a bit. Honestly, getting the talisman is more annoying than defeating the boss. I'm going to need your help in that fight too."

"(Oh, then let's go back quickly! Don't worry, you can count on me!)"

Chuckling fondly at his excitement, he teleported back to the Stranded Graveyard Site of Grace. Groaning comfortably at the healing and refreshment his body instantly went through thanks to the Site of Grace.

He stretched before sitting down and summoning Miquella :"Alright, let's see what we got."

But frowned at the very limited options they had :"Hmm, we only have the Catch Flame incantation though."

"Didn't you say that incantation is already extremely good?"

"Yeah, definitely. But I would appreciate a long range incantation too. I can't always be in the enemy's face, after all."

"Hmm, that's true. If I have some long range incantations to use, I could take the heat off of you so you could take a moment to breathe or heal. But where could we get an incantation like that quickly? Hmm... oh, wait! What about brother Corhyn? If I remember correctly, didn't he have the Flame Sling incantation?"

"Oh, you're right! Alright, we've got enough runes to indulge ourselves a bit, so let's go and buy it. Hmm, there's also an amazing Dragon Cult Incantation in the Weeping Peninsula, so we should definitely get that too later."

- (Roundtable Hold)

'Now, where is he?' He looked around, but frowned when he couldn't find him.

"(Try the hallways. Maybe he is with Hewg?)"

"Maybe."

Walking into the hallway where Hewg stayed, he saw the Misbegotten blacksmith working on a weapon like always :"Oh, hey, old Hewg. What's up?"

Hewg stopped to glance at him :"Oh, it's you. Well, where've you been hiding?"

"*Smiling* Oh, nothing. You know, just going around, searching for items that I would need, enjoying the adventure, all of the fun stuff."

"You haven't been around in a while. Your blacksmithing skills won't advance if you don't work hard, you know? Don't tell me you gave up."

"Nah, nah, nothing like that. I was just in a hurry to get something I needed, so I didn't stop traveling for a while. I was constantly on the way since I really needed it."

"(And you were rewarded for your hard work~.)"

Alistair bit the inside of his lip at Miquella's seductive tone. Hewg nodded :"It's alright then. Then come on, let's start the session."

"Oh, I can't right now, sorry. I'm actually in the middle of clearing up a dungeon and needed something from brother Corhyn."

"So you're looking for Corhyn? Then he's downstairs."

"Oh, thanks, old Hewg!"

But just as he was about to go down, Corhyn walked up the stairs :"Is someone talking about me?"

"Oh, brother Corhyn! Nice to see you again."

Corhyn smiled :"Oh, if it isn't our young Snow White. How have you been? Do you need something from me?"

Alistair chuckled at the nickname, but just dismissed it :"Yeah, I needed to learn an incantation. You teach the Flame Sling incantation, right?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, I do. If you would like to learn it, then let's sit around the roundtable and I shall happily teach you."

- (Stranded Graveyard)

"Alright, now let's see." He sat with Miquella again :"So how are we going to do this?"

Miquella smiled :"It's simple. Take out the Memory Stones you have."

He took the two he had woken him with out of his inventory.

"Now, focus on the Incantations you know and try to "put" them in the Memory Stones. It may be a bit hard, but you will succeed in a few- oh, you already did it. You learn pretty quickly. Very quickly."

Alistair smirked at his surprised femboy :"It's basically like copy pasting from my mind into the Memory Stones. Although it's not something people did with their minds, since that was literally impossible, we did it with devices you saw in my kind.

And it's pretty easy considering I've been trying to literally enter my mind. By the way, how come Memory Stones are necessary when I've already learned the incantations? In the game, it was to limit how many incantations somebody could use. So what's going on here?"

"Alright, first off, do you know what Memory Stones are?"

"They're used to memorize incantations and sorceries. You can basically equip as many as you want as long as you have enough Memory Stones."

"Yes, that's correct. But you don't seem to know exactly how using incantations and sorceries work, so allow me to explain. You said that you could use only the incantations or sorceries that you have equipped onto the Memory Stones in the game.

But although that can be true, it's not entirely correct. How can you not use the incantations that you've already learned? To put it very simply, they're like traveling. To use an incantation without the use of a Memory Stone is like traveling from one Site of Grace to another.

You need to know your starting point, your way, your direction, and your destination. And as you already know, that can take a long time, considering our own travels. But when using the Memory Stones, it's like teleporting from one Site of Grace to another.

It's like the way has already been crossed by the Memory Stones and you just need to move from the starting point to your destination in a single moment without bothering with anything in-between. It's as simple as that."

"Ooh, alright, I get it. Then should I keep these out and wear them like my talismans? Or is it alright to keep them in my inventory."

"They need to be out to be usable."

"Alright then." He nodded before hanging them next to his talismans around his belt. Something very useful was that anything equipped could literally not fall off or be taken off except by unequipping it. Even when Maliketh himself tried to take off his talismans, he still failed. So they weren't worried about losing anything at all.

After that, he took out his Dragon Communion Seal and held it out for Miquella with a grin :"Then shall we see how messed up our team up is going to be?"

Miquella grinned back, taking the Sacred Seal with a wink :"Very ridiculous, that much I can guarantee."

(A/N: Bro, just imagine the fucked up scenario of somebody with a Bleed build stun locking you with his twin curved swords while Ancient Dragon's Lightning Strike is constantly getting spammed💀.)