Vessel

Mastery

After our almost, half triumphant victory over the soul warrior, we pressed onward, further into the soul sanctum. None of the soul twisters stood a chance against the knight's vengeful spirit, and I continued to slash through mistakes and follies.

It wasn't long before we found an exit to the sanctum. Piled up next to it, were several jars of soul. I grabbed them, and we kept walking. Outside, we stood on a balcony. There was no way out, besides the way we came.

We turned to leave, but the definitive CLANG of the door, told me where we were. There was a figure rising in the distance. His cape fluttered in the wind. An eerie orange glow, gathered around him. With a burst, the egg shaped leader of the sanctum, teleported over to our balcony. The battle with the Soul Master had begun.

The soul master was definitely a master. Just not a master of soul. He threw several orbs of infected soul at us, but even I could dodge those. When that didn't work, he teleported behind me and charged. I sidestepped him, as the knight leaped over him and down slashed, barely missing.

The soul master realized that had nearly gotten him killed, so he went with a different approach. Teleporting above the knight, he slammed himself into the ground several times, producing shockwaves for me to jump rope over. I will admit, I got hit by three of them.

The soul master was back up quickly. He spun orbs around himself, before charging across the balcony. I dodged as usual, but the knight seemed to be lining up a shot. They leaped through a gap in the orbs, and slashed at the soul master. The swing connected, and down came the soul master. He seemed to be in distress, teleporting around the balcony, screaming, until finally, he just poofed away.

Left behind, was a floating ball of soul. It had dark black eyes, with the top trying to come to a point, but trailing off before getting close to it. The knight seemed captivated by this floating ball of soul. I noticed that the floor was made of glass, and looked up to warn the knight, but it was too late. Upon contact with the knight's nub hand, the orb of soul turned into the still living soul master. He crashed through the glass floor, dropping all of us into a hidden room.

This dark room was piled high with the bodies of bugs that had been drained of their soul, in an attempt to prevent the infection from spreading. The soul master appeared in the air above us. The second phase of the fight. He slammed into the ground, over and over, in an attempt to kill the knight. He sat still for a moment to fire some orbs of infected soul, and probably rest his aching head, before launching into more head slamming.

Then, I knew what I had to do. I was going to pull out my Gruz Mother trick. I knew I only had one shot at it, but he didn't sit still long enough for us to slash at him. I waited, face pointed at the ceiling, waiting for him to appear. Finally, he appeared above me. As he fell, I threw my nail, straight up, into his head. I tried to dash away, but got caught by the edge of his massive frame. Luckily, that wasn't nearly enough to kill me. Not to mention, the soul master was dead.

The floating soul orb reappeared, and the knight grabbed it. Now equipped with the desolate dive, the knight could get us out of here. Crashing through the floor, we encountered at least twenty mistakes and follies. Fortunately, they are much easier to deal with in 3D. Back at the entrance to the sanctum, I rejoiced, happy to be rid of the place. The knight, didn't question my joy, but as expected, showed no emotion of their own.

Well that's it for this chapter! Special thanks to Puppet the Shadow, and Xminh for actually enjoying these. See you in the next chapter!