An Old Knight

Undead hollow soldiers fill what us left of the land, he looks for redemption and vengeance. Stay out of his way!

Today only legends remain. Legends about the curse, about the king who sacrificed himself in order to save his family, about the thousand silver knights at his command, about the way to end the nightmare. Killing King Gwyn. The Crusader thought that to himself as he wandered around the worn out castle, equipped with his reliable Zweihander on right hand, a sword so big he could barely wield it. A shield on his left, the knights’ shield he got back when he joined the holy army, a shield blessed against creatures of the deep and the dark. A shield, which legends say, heals whoever bares it.

Everything before the rising of the curse over the world seems like it happened a thousand years ago. Only 25 years had passed, yet, everything looked as if it had been abandoned for centuries. He can still remember his family, wife and yet to be born child. All of them brutally murdered when undead, monsters and demons attacked the city. Nothing he could have done would have prevented the loss of his family; he was miles away defending what was left of the wall who used to cover the city of Lothric. All resistance was useless, the whole wall shattered to the ground at the first hit of the dragons. On a desperate attempt to prevent the curse from hurting his people, King Gwyn sacrificed himself to the demons, becoming a hollow vase for the curse to live in, a personification of it, killing all of his family and locking up himself in the castle, guarded by his thousand silver knights. Everything after that was just like a blur, scattered soldiers throughout the battlefield, demons feasting on their hopeless victims. Fear, desolation, and death, for those lucky enough. Since then, he traveled alone, with the tales of the old wise men resonating in his head: “Kill the king; kill the evil in him, and you will reverse the curse”. Killing King Gwyn, or at least what was left of him, seemed like the task for the old crusader.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sound in the room right in front of the decrepit hall he was walking in, he peered inside cautiously. One, two, three undead, easy to kill low-range soldiers, hollowed out by the curse, they are no different from zombies, but they can severely hurt you if you underestimate them.

Shooting a throwing knife straight to the ground near him, he caught the attention of the closest soldier, one wield from his sword at and the undead abomination fell dead to the ground, his body and skin turn into ashes as soon as his lifeless body touched the ground, leaving a sulfur smell around the air.

The sound of the blade cutting through the flesh draws the attention of other two soldiers, they start running his way, all it takes is a step back and a counter attack, the Zweihander is long enough to kill the two objectives at one slash.

His stamina runs out, he is panting, his sword gets heavier with every day that goes by, and his shield gets harder to keep up and block the attacks. Could it be time for an equipment change? No way, that blade on his right hand had made him come through some tough times, and even tougher enemies, he could not change that.

The room with the three hollow soldiers resembled a library. Books with names as “Crystal Magic” filled the shelves. He remembered hearing about some magicians who used crystal weapons to fight against dragons, the Crystal Guild. Could they have written these books? Or maybe just read from them? Learning from them would represent a huge advantage over the enemies to be faced along the way. With that thought, he saved one of them on his bag. Reading keeps the mind from going hollow.

At the end of the library-like room, the soldier finds a stone stairway. Finally, he thinks to himself, a way out of the dingy count’s castle, hopefully it would led him to the exit, and he would be a step closer to the king’s castle. The top of the ladder leads him to a gigantic hall, filled with paintings of many of the Count’s victims. Mutilated and tortured peasants who were unlucky enough to fall in his trap. The ceiling is partially destroyed, allowing him the gaze at the orange color the sun provides just at evening, a few more hours to reach nighttime. The echo of his footsteps provide him with a false sense of calm. However, since nothing is that easy for him, he surely hears a growl, coming from the sky, the sun reflection blinds him for seconds, but he recovers his sight just in time to avoid the fatal blow.

A stone gargoyle stands right in front of him wielding a long axe. The castle was crowded with them, all of them with decorative purpose, or so he thought. One of them became alive. How? Questions flooded his mind, but his instinct acted first. Immediately adopting a battle stance, he is ready to counter attack the next hit. The gargoyle turns around and attacks with its tail. Being able to roll out of the attack, and dual wielding his Zweihander, the Holy Knight chops off the tail of the monster. The gargoyle lets out an inhumane growl, the knight’s bones shiver. The beast starts pounding relentlessly the ground in his direction. He prepares his next move, but his reflexes betray him, as he begins to think he is not a youngster anymore, his shoulder is hit and he is thrashed through the hall. The aftermath is a broken rib. He is familiar with pain; he has learnt to live with it. As he stands up the gargoyle starts running directly at him, managing to roll just in the exact moment to avoid the gargoyle punch, he stabs his sword in the creature’s neck.

As blood starts to cover him, he smells its rotten aroma. It gives him energy, he has learnt to enjoy killing. He recovers his stamina, stands up and lets out a sigh of relief. Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself, he mumbles as the same time as he turns around, where he spots two gargoyles waiting for him. He cleans his sword, drinks a sip of mead, and ignores the pain on his rib.
He is ready.

Author's Note

What do you think about grammar? English is not my first language, so I'm looking forward to any corrections and/or observatinonswr you would like to make!