A Soulsborne's Traveler System

Chapter 21: Jolly Co-operation and Adversity

Now that I had done my preparations it was time to hunt a camper. And so I equipped my Scuffed Set(that's what I will call it because it's true) and marched over to the drake while still in my hollow form as my confidence in hunting this thing wasn't sky high. Plus while wearing this thing it's basically impossible to distinguish whether I'm hollow or not.

While going to the bridge I took the time to test my chosen weapon on the poor hollows. I used the great demon's machete which, almost dislocated my shoulder when I tried to summon it one-handed. This thing is an absolute beast of a weapon. Nearly taller than me, It's significantly more durable than steel despite being made of cast iron, and most of all...

It will keel.

It is heavy and surprisingly sharp, and it is the best weapon I have for the Hellkite drake. Even though the lizard may be tough, a Deadman's blow with this thing should hit like a truck. Hopefully, I will get to use it before getting burnt to a crisp again.

On my way over to the bridge, the Machete performed just as I expected. It cleaved literally everything in its path. Even their shields if I put some backbone into the swing. It was a bit messy and stained my armour but it didn't matter as I didn't expect this armor(if you could even call it that) to make it through the hour anyway.

I finally reached the bridge, and oh boy is my remains far away.

I have about a zero percent chance of retrieving it without being Hellkite Drake'd in the process. What can I do now?

That's a lot of souls on those remains, I got complacent because I hadn't died in a while. That led me to this situation, I have to remember to never get confident. The moment you get even an inkling, a drop of confidence here, Lordran likes to stomp it down the nothingness the moment it gets the chance.

Why would you even need to have self-loathing here to lower your self-confidence here when Lordran already does that for you amiright?

But as I was mulling over my choices I suddenly remembered some words.

'Why not help one another on this lonely journey?'

That's right, why do I have to do this alone exactly? Especially when I've got someone to do ''Jolly Cooperation'' with? Especially when that certain someone is a master at lightning miracles, which the Drake is weak against? With that in mind, let's pay our new friend a visit.

''Hello, Solaire!'' My voice came out a bit gravelly and rough due to my hollow form.

''Ah, hello again! You certainly look worse for wear. Is there anything you need from me, friend?'' That's true, I am kind of wearing makeshift armor covered in blood while holding an oversized machete.

''Well, yes. Say Solaire, would you like to engage 'Jolly Co-operation'.'' Hearing my words it seemed like Solaire's already bright aura lit up even brighter.

''Hah hah hah! I thought you would never ask! Alright friend lead the way, I will try to provide the utmost assistance I can to help each other in our journeys''

''Thank you, Solaire and I've already got a target in mind.'' Saying that I then explained to him my objective of hunting the Hellkite Drake.

''Hmm, the Hellkite Drake I see... It is certainly a formidable foe, but since it is a descendant of the dragons I'm fairly certain my sunlight miracles should hurt it quite a lot no? I think it should be rather doable.''

''Alright, I will face it head-on while you support me with your miracles, I am confident in my abilities to get its attention on me while you throw your lighting spears at him.'' After fleshing out our plan a bit more and getting Solaire's agreement we got to work.

I stood in front of the bridge's entrance while staring down the oversized lizard. With Solaire standing quite a distance behind me. Just as I was about to apply lighting resin on my blade Solaire stopped me.

''Allow me.''

Saying that he took out his sunlight talisman and cast the {Sunlight Blade} miracle on my blade. Giving it an aura of orangish lighting.

''You gotta teach me that sometime.''

''Hahaha! I am always glad to spread the teaching of Gwyn the Lord of Sunlight, friend! But let's hunt this drake first shall we?'' ''Alright, let's do this!''

I sidestepped out of the way and the moment I did Solaire let out a lightning bolt that flew /significantly/ faster than the game counterpart and hit the drake right on the schnoz.

*ROAAAAAAR*

The moment Solaire's lightning bolt hit the drake it released a pained roar as a quarter of the scales and hide on his face was burnt and ripped off.

Although I expected lighting miracles to be effective against dragons I didn't think it would be by this much. But after that roar, Hellkite flew down from his perch and spat out a pillar of flames in our direction.

"Bunker up!" As I said that Solaire got behind me as I summoned my surprise tool just for this occasion. A giant shield made from other shields melted down and fused together. It was over 2 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide.

Honestly, aside from the scorching hot metal, it wasn't that hard to defend against his breath. Since Solaire also held up the shield with me.

After a solid few seconds, the stream of scorching flame subsided as the Drake took flight. I quickly took back my mishmash of shields back into my inventory as I got ready for the drake to swoop down, and then I heard it.

''Solaire fall back!!'' The moment I said that we both bolted to the railing and jumped down to its lower level just before the hellkite Drake swooped down on our positions. Knowing it had missed us it peeked its head over the railing to breathe fire down on us.

*Roaaargh!!!*

Unfortunately for the poor drake, I had already given Solaire the signal to charge a lightning bolt the moment we vaulted over. And even better is the fact that the bolt hit him right on the neck Interrupting the sure death breath. We had already discussed our capabilities and potential maneuvers before this so I could trust Solaire to have my back and I could have his.

Seeing the Drake recoil I knew this was my chance as I used {Deadman's Blow: Leap} which consisted of me applying the same principle of deadman's blow to my legs which still activated the skill thankfully. thanks to the boost of the skill I successfully reached the Drakes back in one leap but then was faced with another problem.

My legs were incredibly sore like I had been running for hours on end without a break which would be problematic, to say the least when trying to keep your balance on a very pissed lesser dragon. So I called out to Solaire.

''Heal me!''

''Alright, {Heal}!''

Immediately I felt a surge of warm energy fill my body and heal my wounds. Which was significantly more powerful than when I used the exact same miracle. Probably because Solaire's faith stat being at least a few times bigger than mine along with his unique talisman. Speaking of which that was the reason why I didn't use heal on myself.

I had to focus to cast it and with my mana bar and pitiful faith trying to do so would just be a fool's endeavor. So why not leave the job of miracles to Solaire who probably has more faith than an entire church combined? At least that was the plan we agreed on before this.

Even with my now healed legs, it was incredibly hard to keep my balance on the violently struggling drake. But it was manageable. I got into position and wielded my sunlight-buffed machete with two hands while successfully keeping my balance thanks to acrobatics. And then I slashed down with full force as my blade cleaved through the drake's ''scales'' and thick hide dug into its flesh, drawing out a pained roar from the beast.

*Rooooaaaaarrr!!!* *Flap* *Flap*

The drake took flight but thankfully It didn't stray too far away from the rampart as it still had smoke with Solaire. Speaking of Solaire, as I was trying desperately to not fall off the drake, he nailed yet another fully charged bolt of lightning into the drake's back. Though unfortunately a bit of the lightning bolt's aoe hit me too due to my proximity. Sending a slight wave of pain throughout my whole body as the electricity crawled through it. Almost causing me to lose my footing and plummet to my death due to my muscles tensing involuntarily.

*Roaarr!!!* ''Ah fuck! Dammit Solaire! Cant, you aim somewhere that /isn't/ within a meter from my asscheeks!?'' ''Sorry!''

I sensed the Drake preparing to flip over. So I needed to do something, FAST. I quickly summoned my Mad Hollow Sword into my offhand and hastily applied gold resing to resin to it. And then I grabbed one of the Drakes ''scales'' as leverage and thrust my sword into the dragon's hide. Digging in deep and giving me something to hold onto.

Sure enough, just as I stabbed the blade in the drake roared and flipped over in an effort to throw me off of its back But I used my new handle to not get chucked down to hell. Thankfully, Solaire was not slacking one bit as he exploited the opening I created and landed yet another fully charged {Lighning spear}, this time hitting its unguarded belly. I could've sworn I heard the critical hit noise when that happened.

This grievous hit caused the drake to turn to flip back over and because I couldn't injure it while hanging for my life its ''aggro'' naturally landed on Solaire. After which it proceeded to launch a wave of scorching flames at Solaire. Fortunately, Solaire somehow managed to get to the tower containing the stairwell in time, successfully taking cover from the wave of death that swept over his position a second prior.

''Can you really afford to pay attention to him with me on your back!? You Scaly ****!''

I re-summoned my sunlight-blessed machete in my hands and let out several light attacks on the drake's back in succession. Successfully drawing the brunt of his aggression back on me and not on Solaire(the MVP).

Even though I was using light attacks I could still pierce his ''Scales'' thanks to the Sunlight blade buff cast on my blade by Solaire and also thanks to the fact that, unlike true ''Everlasting'' dragons which have mineral scales. The Hellkite drake's scales were more like hardened spiky flesh/bone protrusions than actual scales.

But after a few attacks, my luck had run out it seemed as if the Hellkite drake seemed to have realized that its neck was long enough to reach his back.

A fact he promptly started to exploit. And now I had to deal with the hellkite Drake's jaws lunging at me, trying to get a chomp out of my hollow ass. And worse was the fact that since its attention was focused more on killing me than flying, my ride got a lot bumpier. Making it even harder to dodge which led to me getting a bit too close to death a bit too many times than I liked.

It seems like my luck had finally run out as the drake suddenly let out a gout of flame toward me. I didn't even get a chance to bring up my shield when the pillar of flame washed over me.

Pain.

Agonizing pain. Even with my pain tolerance skill the wave of fire washing over me and burning off my clothes, scorching my skin, and melting my armor was an unbearable sensation. Its flames were too strong. Even as my mind raced through the possibilities I knew I had no way of getting out of this.

I couldn't do anything.