Chapter 25: The Undead Parish Rodeo.

It had been a month or so I would say. And I spent basically every damn day of it training until I collapsed. And it has officially been more than a few months since I last slept. It is certainly unpleasant but it doesn't phase me much.

My glowing hollow looking eyes also faded away over time. Now I just have normal-looking eyes again. It was kind of a shame though, they looked gnarly as hell.

During my training arc, I had acquired numerous skills and refined the ones I already had. Alongside that I had also learned all the miracles in the tomes Solaire had given me in my free time. These were the results.

[ (Basic) Cooking lv.7 ] -> [ (Basic) Cooking lv.10](max)

[ (Basic) Swordsmanship lv.6 ] -> [ (Intermediate) Swordsmanship lv. 1 ]

[ (Basic) Blunt weapon mastery lv.3 ] -> [ (Basic) Blunt weapon mastery lv.9 ]

< You have acquired [(Basic) Spear Mastery lv. 3 ] >

< You have acquired [(Basic) Axe Mastery lv. 4] >

[ Multitasking lv. 3 ] -> [ Multitasking lv. 5 ]

[ Sewing lv.2 ] -> [ Sewing lv.4 ]

[ (Basic) Blacksmithing lv.3 ] -> [ (Basic) Blacksmithing lv.5 ]

I didn't only practice swordsmanship after all, when I evolved it to intermediate I switched to practicing my other weapons. And doing maintenance on my equipment leveled up my miscellaneous skills. As well as cooking drake meat which gave me ridiculous amounts of cooking exp.

I had also acquired quite a large mass of souls during the month which I invested into faith to learn Lightning spear. Which meant I actually had a ranged option now which was nice. Though my spear was nowhere near as strong as Solaires which was to be expected.

But that wasn't all, along the way, after I had learned more than five miracles my interface actually changed and made a new tab on itself.

(Miracles)(-)

[ Heal lv.5 ], [Homeward lv.2], [Seek Guaindance lv.2], [Force lv.4], [Lighning Spear lv.2], [Sunlight Blade(Incomplete)lv.1]

The sunlight blade miracle appears with the incomplete prefix because although I know how to cast it I can't do it properly because I don't meet its faith requirement. But now I feel quite confident in challenging the Undead Paris. And since I hadn't in a long time I opened my status.

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[John Moore]

[Titles: Chosen Undead, Drake Hunter]

[Souls: 8,040] [Humanity: 7]

[Soul level : 45]

{Vitality : 16 }

{Attunement : 14}

{Endurance : 15 }

{Strength : 21 }

{Dexterity : 15 }

{Resistance : 15 }

{Intelligence : 11 }

{Faith : 20}

[Skills]

(Active)(-)

[ Inspect ], [ Focus lv.9 ], [ Deadman's Blow lv.6 ],

(Passive)(-)

[ Cooking lv.10 (max) ], [ Pain Tolerance lv.10(max) ], [ Mad Hollow combat lv.1 ], [ Basic Acrobatics lv.5(max) ], [Critical lv.8],[ (Intermediate) Swordsmanship lv. 1 ] [ Basic Blunt weapon mastery lv.9 ], [ Multitasking lv. 5 ], [ Throwing lv.8 ], [ Sewing lv.4 ], [ Blacksmithing lv.5 ], [ Sneak lv.1], [(Basic) Spear Mastery lv. 3 ], [(Basic) Axe Mastery lv. 4] [??? lv.1 ].

(Miracles)(-)

[ Heal lv.5 ], [Homeward lv.2], [Seek Guaindance lv.2], [Force lv.4], [Lighning Spear lv.2], [Sunlight Blade(Incomplete)lv.1]

[Traits]

< Natural Craftsman >, < Curse of Undeath >,

< Deranged >, < Elementary Fire resistance lv.7>

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Satisfied I bid farewell to Solaire and Gerald, then headed out of the shrine with the Black Knight Sword in my hand. And the Hellkite Capre over my black leather set. I held no shield as I didn't need to and could take it out in a split second if I needed to.

It didn't take me long to get back to the Hellkite Bridge as every hollow I encountered I could fell in one blow. Thanks to my high-quality heavy blade and intermediate swordsmanship I could even cleave through the shoddy armors the Hollows wore.

After resting at the midway tower checkpoint I climbed the ladder and arrived at the bridge that was now infested by hollows due to the lack of dragon flame. I quickly ran up to them and dispatched them one by one before they could gang up on me. I was confident, not arrogant.

I picked up the Unknown soldier's soul and the claymore of mediocrity. And then lit the bonfire inside. After making sure my estus was filled I pulled the lever to open the gate leading to the parish.

Walking up the wide stairs I saw a sword-wielding hollow that charged at me like a mindless hollow. I just parried his stab and countered with my own as the critical notification popped up. And after pushing the corpse of my sword I contemplated for a bit, then decided fuck it and started walking up the tower next to me.

And when arrived at the top I was greeted with the sight I expected. A black knight wielding an ultra greatsword so large that it makes my zweihander blush. The blade actually dwarfed my own body in size.

Although I didn't need to fight it now, I wanted to test myself. Gwyn knows how many times I died to the Undead Burg knight. And now I wanted to see how far I had come from back then.

When he saw me he rushed at me and went with an overhead swing that was deceptively fast considering the size of his blade. The moment I saw his intent I hopped to the side and avoided the blade that dug a chunk out of where I had been standing moments prior.

I took out a modified hollow soldier shield(courtesy of yours truly) and used {Deadman's Blow: Leap } while holding the shield in front of me as he retrieved his sword. My legs strained under the pressure I put them under and I shot out like a bullet.

With the shield raised in front of me, I tackled Black Knight pushing it to the edge of the tower and nearly down it. I quickly cast heal on myself and summoned a table that I kicked toward him which disorientated him further. And now my legs were healed I used {Deadman's Blow: Leap } once again to dropkick him. This time he was pushed off of the tall tower.

Taking no chances I leaped off after him and summoned my zweihander in front of my hands and gripped it tightly as I fell down. When the Knight landed on the ground he took some heavy damage and was stunned but not dead as I expected.

{Guilotine}

Well, that didn't last long as me and my oversized blade fell on his chest like a 130kilo (280+ lbs) guillotine, piercing through him all the way.

[CRITICAL!]

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

< You have acquired 1x {Black Knight Greatsword} >

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< Black Knight Greatsword >

Greatsword of the black knights who wander Lordran. Used to face chaos demons.

The large motion that puts the weight of the body into the attack reflects the great size of their adversaries long ago.

Options:

-Deals extra damage against chaos demons.

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If the zweihander was a beast that what does that make this? I took it out of my inventory which it was automatically deposited to and immediately dropped it, involuntarily. This thing was absurdly heavy. To the point where I couldn't even lift it properly with both hands. So I, unfortunately, have to shelve it for now.

Dislodging my zweihander from the ground I cast heal on myself to recover from the injuries I got from that fall. After that, I brought out oen of my Demons Machete, and marched forward. After walking forward for a bit I arrived at a courtyard. Which felt more like an ambush than anything.

I think it would be fair to note that this place is far more unforgiving than the game it seems. Since there are at least a dozen of archer Hollows on top of the ledge and a few dozen flanking an oversized pig covered head to toe in armor. And as I stepped in the gate in distance closed as the hollow archers took aim at me.

But before they could shoot the armored boar started charging at me with speed more fitting of a small car than a boar. As I was coming closer I summoned a lightning bolt in hand and just as it was about to reach me I leaped over it with a flip and slammed the spear down on it.

*Squeeeelll!!!*

Of course, a bolt of lightning would hurt someone covered completely in metal. But suddenly I got an ingenious idea and landed on the back of the bull and looped a chain(Acquired from outer burg) around its neck like the reign of a horse and prepared for the most stupid idea to enter my Undead brain.

''Ladies and Gentleman! Welcome to the annual Lordran rodeo!!!!''

< You have acquired the skill {Riding lv.1} !>

Although, it got slightly easier with the acquisition of the skill, keeping yourself balanced on a raging giant metal boar wasn't an easy task by any means. Hell, I was just impressed the chains hadn't snapped. And then the boar started charging, just what I wanted.

Using all of the strength my undead could afford to spare me along with the reign I was able to somewhat manage to steer the hulking metallic beast. Anything unfortunate enough to be on the beast's path got pulverized almost instantly by the several tons of solid steel and boar hitting them, that Boar cleared the hollows around us faster than I ever could.

By steering its rampage closer to the groups of hollows near me they were getting killed by the boar's wild trashing. Getting an evil idea I summoned a firebomb in my hand and threw it at the Armored tusk's hind legs. Making it go into a frenzied charge which I used to like a car to get around.

A dragon rider? Hah, who needs that when you have involuntary hog riding?

It's hog-riding time!

I summoned my claymore in my right hand that I used as a joust against the hollows the Tusk couldn't run over or trash. And thanks to my unpredictable movements the archers could barely shoot at me. And while the rare shots that landed on me hurt like a bitch, they weren't lethal so I could easily shrug them off.

Torrent doesn't have shit on the Armored Tusk.

The hog was getting wilder and wilder by the second. It was getting incredibly hard to stay on it. And since most of the hollows around me had died or had been crippled irreversibly I made the choice.

I slammed another firebomb on its butt and directed its furious charge toward the closed gate. And braced for impact.

*CRASSHHHHH!!!!*

We burst through the solid metal gate as we were both flung away from the impact. But while the Hog hit the ground like a sack of flour I managed to re-orient myself midair and land on my feet. Sadly the poor hollow standing by the gate got turned into fine red mist by boar bursting through.

As the Boar lay on the ground with one of its tusks broken I charged a lightning spear and nailed it to his forehead, peeling most of the plating there. Then, I charged in with the Black Knight sword, and just as he was about to get back up I plunged the blade into its exposed forehead. Not taking chances with it having a thick skull, I used {Deadman's Blow} and pierced through its brain completely.

< You have slain 1x{ Armored Tusk } +750souls >

I quickly stored the Boars fresh corpse and fell to my knees from exhaustion. That was quite a wild ride(pun intended). And unfortunately, it seems my public stunt had garnered the attention of the local churchgoers as several balder knights left the church because they heard the commotion.

Shite.