Guardian(Part II): Soulborne

Chapter 39: Nato

It felt as though we had fought through Azzuran's fortress for hours. Finn began to grow exhausted from the constant combat, needing rest more frequently than I did. That was because he had a rather aggressive combat style that took more out of him than mine. My own method of combat was just as aggressive, but only when Azzuran's soldiers were close. Either that, or I could warp directly in front of them and kill them with a relentless assault with my fists. Part of my training at Qonghai involved unforgiving and constantly attacking, allowing no chances to attack back. It had served me well in my brief time as a Guardian, even after I left Qonghai. Finn was likely trained by his mother, or the Ancient One, Xyhra. We both fought our way through what must have been hundreds of Turned as we went further up the levels of the fortress, following the Archdemon's immense aura of darkness. Eventually, we made it to the floor below the surface, but there weren't any Turned soldiers. Instead, there was a platform in the center of a dark, bottomless pit that had a towering suit of black armor standing in the middle of it. A plasma bridge stretched from our side of the chamber to the platform, and another one went from the platform to a large door on the other side of the chamber. Azzuran's aura was coming from the other side of that door. We were right on top of him.

"We almost have him," I hoped.

We rushed across the first plasma bridge, and between the legs of the suit of armor, but before we could get to the second bridge, it suddenly disappeared.

"What?" Finn gasped. Suddenly, an aura of darkness appeared behind us, and the platform we stood on trembled. We turned around, seeing the suit of black armor beginning to move, with a large, black sword in its hands.

"That's just a bunch of specters," I guessed.

"Yeah," Finn agreed. The armor raised its sword, then Finn and I warped away as it brought the blade down. It was clear to both of us that we wouldn't get any further unless we killed it. Finn drew his bow, then pulled the string back.

"Foria!" he shouted, firing a flaming arrow at the animated armor. The projectile exploded against the armor's back, and staggered it forward a few steps, but when the smoke cleared, I saw no damage done. The fire did nothing! The armor began to step towards Finn, and he formed his broadsword-shaped aura blade as it raised its sword. I charged an aura blast with both of my hands, and unleashed it on the armor's hands. I knocked the giant black sword out of its hands, and the dark blade fell into the bottomless pit. Finn rushed at the armor's greaves, swinging his aura blade. A cut in the armor opened with a swing from his sword, and thick, black smoke sprayed from it. Specters. I took this chance to try and find a weakness in the animated armor, rushing forward and climbing up its legs, then its torso before it could attack again. I looked at every single part of the armor, but couldn't find anything that would take serious damage from an effective attack. The armor itself wouldn't, anyway. Maybe Finn could break off pieces of it with whatever shots he could fire from his bow. I warped back down to him.

"Keep firing at it," I advised.

"With what kind of arrows?" asked Finn.

"Whichever kind can break armor," I said. "I'll distract it."

Before Finn could speak again, I rushed at the animated suit of armor as fast as I could, even as a new black greatsword formed in its hands. It raised the blade, and I strafed to the left right as the sword crashed into the ground. I stepped onto the edge of the dark greatsword, balancing myself as I rushed along the sword, then the hands holding it, and slamming my fist into the helmet. The force of my strike sent the black helmet clear off of its body, crashing into the wall, and falling into the pit. In its place was a cloud of thick, black mist, with a pair of red, glowing eyes floating in it. The aura of darkness that the animated armor gave off didn't weaken or grow.