[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/230422/84b8ab2f12c3cc9b89d7079bd70e30ba.png[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/tfV5JeK.png[/img]
[sup][i]In collaboration with [@Zoey Boey][/i][/sup]
[b][color=376877]Wordage:[/color][/b] [i]2,530 words (+4 points)[/i]
[b][color=376877]Experience:[/color][/b] [i]8/20 EXP || 63/70 EXP[/i] 
[b][color=376877]Location:[/color][/b] [i]The Under (Home of Tears)[/i]
[sup][b][u][color=376877]Interaction[/color][/u][/b][/sup]
[sup][sup]Rubick's, [@Scarifar], Ganondorf's [@Double], Prim & Therion's [@Yankee], Sectonia's [@Archmage MC] and Koopa Troop's [@DracoLunaris][/sup][/sup][/center]
With a mighty sigh the knight sunk into a seat at the center of the paper boat, the vessel noticeably sinking under Artorias' weight. The dirt and debris was washed from his armored shoulders as the slow downpour above fell. The fluffy red ears protruding from the side of his helmet twitched reflexively as rain droplets met them. 

He shook his head flicking flecks of water this way and that, before his gaze wandered to the water and his eyes reflected upon the black surface. 

[i]'[color=376877]What...Hath become of me?[/color]'[/i] the knight touched his face, his [i]real[/i] face and pale skin slightly exposed beneath his helmet, his face felt no different yet the instinctive swish of the vestigial tail upon his rear and the intermittent twinge of his ears told the Abysswalker otherwise.

Pain and hunger gnawed at his body, joints and stomach in reply to the feral's words, shaking the knight from his malaise. Though he said not a word when he peered down at her he sighed, nodding in silent agreement with Nadia.

He needed to focus on something else, something...He tried his best, looking at the less than scenic view pass them by, close his eyes but all he could see and do was slowly grow more irriated by the rain, the changes and the voice at the back of his mind that was growing in volume.

[i]Did he lose his humanity? Or did he finally become a monster by his own volition?[/i] the knight muffled an agitated growl, digging his fingers into the side of the paper boat and biting his tongue hard filling his mouth with the taste of his own blood.

The meaning of the word Consul was lost to a newcomer like the knight but as he peered upwards at the light he sensed the beacon did not bode well for the Seekers. Once their boat reached the docks, unlike Nadia the knight wobbled to his full height as the boat rocked from the feral leaping from the vessel. 

After a moment he stumbled onto the dock, accidentally capsizing the boat as he tripped onto the boardwalk. With a grunt, he picked himself up off the ground growling as he became increasingly agitated gripping the handle of Finstertöter tightly as he walked along with the rest of the Seekers.

Their arrival at the cities center was greeted by two others Artorias had yet to become acquainted with but when a boy appeared in the center of the fountains remains where a statue had once stood the knight's mind was far from the need of pleasantries. Immediately holding forth his greatsword in one hand while he held the other next to his chest almost instinctively as a boxer would. Luckily for Artorias he only vaguely followed what F began to prattle on about, more paying attention to the Consul than what he was saying.

There was something to F, a familiar lack of something that took the knight a moment too soon to realize; taking a step forward as the petulant Consul disappeared laughing. Artorias cleaved at the air where the Consul had stood, snarling angrily.

The Abysswalker's fury was beginning to flare like a fire, turning just as an arrow sunk into his shoulder illiciting a pained howl from the knight whom found himself surrounded by a sea of unfamiliar faces that droned a mindless phrase.

[i]'[color=376877]The...City folk? How...[/color]'[/i] his anger was replaced by confusion then pain as another arrow from a certain centaurs bow hit him bouncing off his chest, there was no winning this fight with so many enemies. Artorias ripped the shaft of the arrow protruding from his shoulder with a pained grunt. He had to get away, there wasn't time to linger and so he rushed towards the caves and after the whale along with the rest of the Seekers.

[hr]

	When Jesse Faden met up with the others, they unfortunately had to put up with Consul F again. Annoying little shit. As soon as he made his hostile intentions clear Jesse aimed to shut him up with some machine gun fire to chase him away. He talked a big game about how much weaker Consul P was but Consul F didn’t seem very keen to actually engage in combat. All he did was zip around. Of course he loved being annoying, but Jesse was confident that if they put their minds to it the Seekers could overcome anything. Though she had to admit, the way he was talking, he made it sound like there were threats to them other than the Seekers. Or threats to them from before the Seekers?

[i]Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Every bad guy is always undefeated up until the point they get defeated.[/i]

	But what she couldn’t shoot at was the large amount of civilians, some of which she recognized, heading their way with hostile intent.

	[i]Shit. Can they really just do that? Anyone who’s under Galeem’s control? Friend Hearting just got a lot more important. We should have done it to Gallo while we had the chance.[/i]

	Bowser took the lead for the escape plan, and Jesse was eager to follow. She stayed behind to make it easier for the others to escape, confident in her own ability to defend herself. Though that may have been overconfidence, because she had to re-calculate her strength with the idea that she couldn’t actually shoot back at any of these people. They were all innocent. Killing them was not an option. Unfortunately, Jesse was really only good at that. Her non-lethal options were minimal. She actually felt that she had access to Seize and Charge, but both were lethal abilities. Right now she didn’t want to detonate minds or shoot rocket launchers. 

	As she absorbed a great amount of projectiles, she felt her Shield weakening quickly. But at least she provided some cover to her allies. As she Evaded to catch up, she realized she was now low on Energy. 

	Someone threw something at her from the side, and she went to Launch it away from her, but she couldn’t get a grasp on it. “Huh?” It struck her hard in the chest and she grunted, stumbling to a stop. 

	Only when it bounced and landed did she realize it was a green-skinned human head! Living people couldn’t be grabbed by Launch, but living might have been a strong word here. This green-haired green-skinned zombie girl named Rottytops stared at Jesse with the same lifeless conviction as all the others. Jesse instinctively pointed her gun at the head to blow it away, but she quickly pushed that idea out of her mind. So she went to spring on by. Much to her surprise, the distant zombie body vanished in a cloud of smoke and re-appeared underneath Rottytops’ head, suddenly teleporting her right to Jesse. Jesse turned around with a start as the zombie girl began walloping her with a great wooden mallet the size of a watermelon, smacking Jesse around. Saturnus activated, defending Jesse with a circling ring of debris, but Rottytops took the damage with no sense of self-preservation.

“Ah! Damn it!” Jesse flattened her hand and blasted Rottytops with a short range melee attack, which knocked Rotty backwards. Minimal Health elements from that, which meant Jesse was still pretty beat up. What a day this had been. 

Rottytops was relentless. Jesse had to shoot. She looked like a zombie, so Jesse assumed she would be okay. She aimed at Rotty’s leg and blew it off with a single shot. At least it looked that way. But Rotty span forward, her leg somehow now in her hand, and brought it down hard on Jesse’s head with an attack that caused her eyes to ring. Rotty began swinging the leg around. Jesse Evaded backwards to get out of range. 

“Shit.” Jesse held her head which was now bleeding, and aimed her gun.  That was when some of the other civilians caught up.

A series of tornadoes whipped towards Jesse, and they were razor sharp, cutting into her skin. “Aah!” When she looked at the source, it was some bird kid! Whipping his holographic glaive to create the dangerous whirlwind. To his right was the deer girl from the class at that school she had visited earlier. Berdly and Noelle had magic at their disposal and they intended to use it. 

Jesse ran backwards trying to get onto the whale. She thought to reach into her jacket and produce her Tool Gun to think of some way out of this. Rottytops’s head came her way again. Jesse avoided it, and a burst of ice came her way from Noelle, and Berdly began shooting A+ Graded Papers at Jesse. Those, admittedly, didn’t do much, so Berdly went back to creating his deadly wind and trying to close the distance to strike Jesse with his glaive.

But when she dodged Rottytops, the head bounced, and the rest of Rottytops soon followed, ready to wallop Jesse with her own hammer or her leg. If she could just use her gun or her powers…but Jesse wouldn’t do that. She’d just have to figure something else out.

“I’m in trouble over her!” She shouted, but her allies were in no less danger than she was. Not to mention the fact that there were projectiles coming in from all directions that Jesse had to avoid, and the swarm of controlled people meant she couldn’t control where she wanted to go. The cave itself was full of obstacles. Jesse ran to try and navigate the dangerous terrain, but she ended up taking a bad turn and had to run in range of their attacks again to get around. Arrows and bullets pinged the ground next to her.

 As Jesse sprinted out of the way of a few more attacks from the middle schoolers, Rottytops prepared to throw her head again. As it sailed midair, Jesse leveled the Tool Gun at it and fired! She hit enough shots, and balloons appeared on Rotty’s head. Much to her shock, her head began to float away! Apparently she couldn’t teleport to it when it wasn’t on the ground, because she began chasing it down in an impressive platforming sequence that nonetheless took her away from Jesse.

That was when she was struck by Ice Shock from Noelle. Jesse felt her limbs slow down, and a deep chill settle in. More tornadoes came her way, but she created a Shield to prevent them from reaching her. She had to spend the 50% of her energy she had gained back to do it, though. She was almost to the whale. 

Berdly was in melee range and scraped his glaive against her Shield. Noelle approached and fluttered her hands, and a blue mist went over the shield and settled over Jesse. Jesse wondered what the hell that did, when her eyelids got really heavy. Noelle had cast Sleep Mist, an attack that specialized in pacifying exhausted, sleepy, and or wounded enemies. Jesse was all three. 

“Damn, I…[i]Ugh.[/i]” Jesse wavered and then her eyes shut. The debris that made up her Shield clattered to the ground, and Jesse fell with them, landing on her side with a thud. Berdly approached, raising his glaive in the air to bring it down on her. It was at that moment when Berdly tried to drop the glaive on Jesse’s head that the grade A student found his weapon held by the hand of Artorias, yet before he could wrench the glaive from the nerds hands the knight was buffeted by a strong gale that pushed Artorias back.

[center][youtube]https://youtu.be/HZO3xw91eHw[/youtube][/center]

Berdly and Noelle both prepared their magics to deal with the new foe, but Artorias wouldn’t be able to delay long. A short distance away Rottytops grabbed her head and was wrestling with the balloons to get it on her stump, and of course traveling down the cave tunnels was a horde of controlled townspeople all as dangerous as they were innocent.

Noelle cast Ice Shock, sending a very fast moving blast of ice towards Artorias. And as if to force Artorias to tank for her, Berdly sent a tornado towards Jesse, who still lay on the ground. 

The knight gritted his teeth, stepping in front of Jesse's unconscious body he used his blade to keep from being carried by the turbulent tempest, Artorias' gaze darted between Jesse and the horde rushing towards him and he had to make a split second decision. So the knight lifted Jesse over his shoulder and prepared to run. With one arm keeping the woman from falling and the other tightly gripping his sword.

Rottytops began throwing her head to catch up with teleports, and Noelle and Berdly fired their spells after Artorias. But without Rotty to intercept, combined with Artorias’s long, quick strides, he was able to elude them! 

Outpacing his pursuers, Artorias raced through the caves with the distant sound of the city folk shouting [i]"Enemy, Enemy, Enemy!"[/i] echoing against the walls, and the sound of his own heavy breaths as he carried on with Jesse, he too having been separated during the chaos that broke out earlier. Finding the others would have to wait, when they weren't being chased. The knight looked behind them, then ahead out of breath from all the running. 

Resting the unconscious woman against the cave wall he knelt a golden flask appearing in his hands that he shakily unstoppered, and lifting Jesse’s chin ever so slightly he poured the draught into her mouth, her wounds would heal in a glow of light as the Estus took effect. And as she came to the knight lifted Jesse to her feet "[color=376877]Come there is no time to linger nor ask questions, let us find the others.[/color]" he hoisted Jesse now very much not unconscious and carried the grown woman cradled in his one arm with his sword slung on his shoulder in the other, despite whether or not she protested he cared little as he rushed headlong after the whale.

Jesse was pretty disoriented. “Uh-” But Artorias was right. She glanced up to see Berdly and Noelle still chasing them in the distance and was relieved. “Thanks!” She managed to say to Artorias, trying to hold herself steady over his shoulder. Eventually the pair caught up with the whale joining the others in their escape.