The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 91

She 'looked' around as they were on the edge of a ridge. Both Artorias and Sif were standing there looking around in complete caution. That was when she heard a crack from the ground. All of them started falling into the chasm of the Abyss.

She wrapped all of them in flames as they slowly descend to the bottom. There was no doubt that even if the knight Artorias survived the fall, Sif would not. The fall was a long one. it was lucky that she came before they started falling.

They have yet to even see the face of Manus yet here they were nearly injured from the environment alone. Although they were enveloped in complete darkness, she felt something coming right above her.

"Scatter!", commanded the knight.

She followed his orders obediently and jumped right from the spot. The moment she was out, a giant black flaming hand crushed the ground in that spot. That hand belonged to Manus, the father of the Abyss.

Just then, black flames started falling onto Artorias. As skilled as the Wolf knight was in combat, the same could not be said for his sorcery. That was how Manus easily defeated one of the four knights of Gwyn.

Of course, no matter how strong Manus was, Artorias was no lamb to slaughter. He was a wolf waiting for an opportunity. He rolled and dodged around as the flames tried to catch up to him.

The spellcasting of Manus was interrupted by Sif who went ahead and bit his arms. She teleported right on top of Artorias and stood by him. The Black flames of Manus can be blocked by her when he used it.

The spell casting stopped for a while, and she got a good look at the father of the Abyss. She could see no resemblance of a human being in that forbidden creature.

It was as if someone pulled all the animals in the zoo inside out from their rectum and stapled them together. He looked like literally when red dots that seems to be eyes.

"MANUS!!", howled the knight like a beast.

With one single motion, he jumped straight into the 'sky', if there was any. With his left shield guarding for any unexpected threats, he slammed his great sword straight on top of Manus.

A wolf does not hunt by ambushing. It outruns its prey and outlasts it. Many would expect Artorias to be a skillful assassin rather than enduring knight. They could not be more wrong.

He may not seem like it, but he was an opportunistic hunter who will seize any small chance rather than an ambushing assassin who would wait for the perfect opportunity to end it all in one single devastating blow.

Wolves do not kill prey in a single blow. The prey usually dies of blood loss and shock rather than killed by a bite to the throat. This was how Artorias fought. He slowly chipped away his opponents until they were too tired to even be considered a threat.

But Artorias had one major disadvantage. He fought like a wolf, but he has no pack to back it up. The only being he had was his loyal companion Sif. And now that, there were three beings, she supposed it was a major upgrade from his last fight.

Manus quickly got rid of Sif who was biting his hand and used it to parry the attack of the Wolf Knight. Artorias rolled right on top of Manus with zero ounce of respect for the father of the Abyss. It was as if Manus was just hard floor for him to roll onto.

If Manus felt disrespected, he showed it very clearly but screaming in rage and conjuring black flames all around him once again. They did not go around chasing him like a snake this time. The fall from the sky like rain.

She shields all of them once again. One hit from that and nobody here would survive. Of course, her role was not limited to shielding.

Despite the love she held for close combat, her combat skills would be of little use against an opponent like Manus. He was far from humanoid for her skills to work properly as they intended. She would harass the father of the Abyss with random balls of fire.

Surprisingly it dealt major damage to him as slowly melts away like plastic being eaten away by acid. This caused the creature to dodge around, something he was clearly not used to. Manus would tank all hits and beat whoever dared challenge him to death.

Dodging was an act of the weak fearing death. Artorias used this information to his advantage. He would slowly cut his legs putting the enormous creature off balance.

Sif kept the father of the Abyss from having free reign over his body as he would bite his arms whenever he tried to use them.

One surprising thing Artorias did was throw away his shield. His shield would not survive a hit from Manus, so he just threw it away in order to move more lightly. Unlike most champions it seems Artorias sees his weapons as nothing more than tools.

As they slowly cut it apart limb from limb, the creature finally fell. It was no longer moving. She looked at it in suspicion and tried to discern any source of life but there was nothing.

"Is he dead?", asked the knight cautiously as he did not believe that someone who once killed him could fell so easily.

"My apologies, Sir Artorias but I cannot tell. I would advise thee not to approach it carelessly."

Artorias listened to her and watched the rotting corpse with suspicion. Sif carefully approached trying to discern the smell of Manus. She could not tell what Manus would smell like, but she reckoned it was not pleasant.

The corpse did not move. Sif turned its back to the corpse and came back to them but just as he turned his back, a giant hand grabbed his legs. Artorias rushed straight ahead with no caution fully intend on saving his lifelong companion.

"Artorias!", she tried to call for him, but the knight has already shot off.

His impulsiveness paid its price as Manus dug his claws deep into the flesh of the knight of Gwyn. She should have known better and hurl a fireball at it rather than letting Sif check it out but now, she must first assure that there would be time for regrets later on.