Vessel

Trial

The gaze of the mantis lords bore down on us. The knight turned to look at me. Despite it's expressionless face, it was surprisingly clear, that they were trying to decide if I were friend or foe. I did my best to convey that I was a friend, and they seemed to believe it.

The battle started with a single mantis lord. She landed on the edge of the platform, immediately launching an attack. Jumping over the mantis was easy enough, but the knight was skilled enough to downswing. Their attack missed, and I tried to cover by charging the mantis lord.

Instead of being hit, she leapt into the air and slammed down hard, barely missing the knight, who immediately launched an offensive. To the mantis lord's credit, she was able to parry any attack the knight could throw at her, but she had no opportunity to strike back. I came in from behind, only to discover that she could also wield the pole of her spear as a weapon.

I parried a few strikes from the back of the spear before getting hit in the head with it. Luckily the knight was more than capable, and kept the mantis lord from stabbing me. She didn't notice when I stood back up, and was barely able to block my attack. The knight however, was able to slash the mantis lord's leg. She screamed in pain, and withdrew from the match.

The other two mantis lords stood, leaping into battle. The knight tossed me a charm, which I hurriedly equipped. I had little time to check what it was. The knight charged into battle against one of the remaining mantis lords, apparently leaving the other for me.

Not knowing what else to do, I rushed forward. The mantis lord in front of me simply deflected my attack, following up with her own flurry of attacks. The first few were simple enough to deflect, but soon it was one hit after another. Shortly, the mantis lord knocked me to the ground. She raised her spear to finish me off, but something happened.

I felt a surge of power through my whole body. It seemed as though the power was instructing me. "GET UP!" It seemed to yell. "THIS IS NOT THE END!" With the power surge, I leapt up, ready to fight.

The mantis lord swung. I returned with my own swing, knocking back the mantis lord's spear. I continued my attack, each slice quicker than the last. All the mantis lord could do, was keep blocking, but I had a feeling that I was mere moments from my first meaningful victory!

Then the knight leapt over me and slashed the mantis lord's arm. She withdrew from the fight. It appeared that the knight had taken care of their mantis lord while I was still fighting, and decided to "help".

I sat there, staring in silence, at where the mantis lord had stood. The knight looked up, towards the thrones of the lords. I followed their gaze, and saw all three Mantises stand. Instead of jumping down to fight, the three mantis lords bowed. Checking, I realized that the charm given to me was the "Fury of the Fallen" charm. That would definitely explain what happened at the end of the fight.

Me and the knight headed back up, towards the trap door. On the way, I managed to convince them to stop in a side chamber. In the side chamber was the mantis treasure trove. We split the geo amongst ourselves, and both took the "Mark of Pride" charm, given to us, by the mantis stationed in that room.

We then ascended the rest of the way to the top. Once there, it was pretty easy to trek back through the wastes. At long last, we reached our destination, the end of the pilgrimage to Hallownest.

Standing there, was none other than Hornet. She seemed a bit surprised that me and the knight had teamed up, but didn't question it. In typical Hornet fashion, she ran away, towards the city.

Since she actually wanted us to follow this time, we did. Eventually, through yet another parkour challenge, we reached the city gates. The knight pressed the city crest, taken from the False Knight, into the statue guarding the gate. The gates opened, dramatically, with dust falling from the bottom. We walked in to the city. The gate slammed shut behind us. There was no turning back now.

Sorry for leaving the last one on a cliffhanger. I just knew that this would be a long fight, and the previous chapter was already the longest one to that point. This chapter is actually the longest chapter right now. Hope you enjoyed, see you in the next chapter.