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The first held a new weapon.
A wooden handle with a spiked metal ball at the end.
[Item: Morning Star]
[Description: Hammer with a sharp spike on its pommel. One of the more barbaric cleric weapons. Uniquely, this hammer inflicts thrust damage and causes bleeding.]
Naruto swung it once experimentally. The weight was fine. The balance was manageable. But he would rather use a sword.
The second chest held a talisman, similar to the one Petrus had been using.
[Item: Talisman]
[Description: Medium for casting miracles of the Gods. Standard talisman issued to common believers. Equip talisman to cast miracles. Attune miracles from a scroll at a bonfire.]
Naruto pumped his fist once as he now knew what to do with the miracle.
The third chest made him go still.
He pulled out a handful of small red eyes, cracked across their surfaces like something had broken them from the inside trying to get out. They radiated something that made his hair rise up.
[Item: Cracked Red Eye Orb]
[Description: A fragment of forbidden knowledge. Grants its wielder access to abyssal realms where only the strongest prevail. The bearer becomes sovereign of the arena, binding all within until their opponent is vanquished. A pale echo of the Darkwraiths' true mastery.]
Naruto threw these eyes into his inventory with a visible shudder and moved on without further comment.
The fourth chest was behind a separate pillar. He was reaching for it when something in his peripheral vision made him stop. A cemetery ran along the cliffside. In Konoha graveyards were arranged in neat rows with maintained paths between them. These stone tombs jutted from the earth at irregular angles and sizes.
Naruto looked at it for a moment and opened the fourth chest.
He found a metallic object inside.
A medallion polished to a mirror finish. The edges were worked in an ornate design with a rusty chain wrapped around it tightly.
[Item: Lloyd's Talisman]
[Description: Talisman utilized by Allfather Lloyd's cleric knights to hunt down the Undead. Blocks Estus recovery within a limited area. In the outside world the Undead are accursed creatures and Lloyd's cleric knights are widely praised for their Undead hunts. This blessed talisman blocks Undead recovery allowing the knights to fight with impunity.]
Naruto read a couple of times as his mind focused on the location of these items, the treasure chests and their relation to the Way of White.
"This whole stash is a hunting kit," he said quietly. "These are not treasures. This is a stockpile for hunting Undead like me."
The anger came up slowly and then all at once.
"So that is what this is about. Petrus gets me to join the Way of White, uses me for whatever he needs, and then what. Put me down when I have served my purpose."
His boot connected with the chest before he fully decided to kick it. The wood cracked sharply, the chest tipped backward, rolled down the incline and disappeared over the cliff edge in a series of fading crashes.
Naruto stared at the empty space where it had been.
"Yeah," he said. "That is what I think of your holy coven, Petrus."
He stood there for a moment with the anger still in his chest. Then something quieter moved through him underneath it.
"I have got to thank Alexander for saving me back there from that scammer."
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After calming down Naruto decided to use the staircase in the cemetery moving up to the Firelink Shrine.
Jumping down to the graveyard it felt like someone was watching him.
Naruto ignored the feeling as he walked past a strange sight. A shield resting against a scatter of bones, its face turned upward like it had been set down carefully by someone who had intended to come back for it.
He reached down.
Clack.
Clack.
The bones moved.
The shield came up on its own and Naruto found himself looking directly into the hollow sockets of an animated skeleton.
Drip.
Something warm hit his cheek.
Naruto touched it. His fingers came away red.
The skeleton was bleeding. Dark wet blood seeping through bone, running down its ribs and off its fingers. The scimitar came around in a wide arc before Naruto had finished processing any of this. He threw himself back, flickered sideways on instinct, and landed between two graves.
More of them were rising.
Not one or two. Every grave in the cemetery was moving. The earth breaking open with skeletal hands reaching upward through the soil. And every single one of them was bleeding, soaking the ground around them until the grass between the markers was dark and wet.
[Bleed Status Effect: 69%]
"What does that mean?"
The ground shook.
He turned to see a ten feet giant skeleton running at him. Its cleaver was roughly the same length as Naruto. Its eye sockets ran with dark rivulets of blood that dripped from its jaw in a continuous stream. It raised the cleaver with both hands and brought it down.
The blade hit the earth where Naruto had been standing and sent a crack running through the stone beneath it.
A dozen more skeletons closed from the left. He hurled a fireball into the group. The explosion tore through them with bones scattering outward in a radius of fire and smoke.
They began pulling themselves back together before the smoke cleared.
He felt lightheaded.
[Bleed Status Effect: 90%]
Naruto looked down at himself. His armor was soaked. The ground was soaked. The blood of the skeletons was everywhere. And apparently the system treated contact as doing something.
He jumped onto the nearest tombstone, then the next, moving across the tops of them in quick succession while wiping his face and hands against the inside of his sleeve as he went. The skeletons below tracked him with their swords reaching upward.
"This place is a goddamn deathtrap, dattebayo."
He pulled a kunai with an explosive tag and threw it into the densest cluster below. The explosion bought him a few seconds to breathe while the skeleton horde reformed.
He needed a weapon.
The Morning Star and axe were in his inventory but neither of them felt like the right answer to a horde of skeletons.
As if the universe was answering to his plight, he caught a glimmer between two grave markers.
A sword.
Stabbed point down into the earth beside a corpse slumped over a gravestone. The blade was catching what pale light filtered through the fog above. It was enormous. Six feet of double edged steel. The blade tapered gradually to a point with a long fuller running its center. Wide simple crossguard. A heavy pommel at the base that could crack stone if applied correctly.
Jackpot.
Naruto landed beside it and grabbed the handle with both hands.
It did not move.
He pulled harder. Nothing. The sword sat in the earth like it had grown there, heavier than his armor and completely indifferent to his effort.
The shadow fell over him before he heard the giant coming.
The Knight's sight made it known that the cleaver was already descending, with death's hands slowly closing around his throat. Naruto's chakra flooded through his arms and body faster than ever.
The sword came free. He swung it with the momentum of the pull. The blade caught the cleaver mid descent and redirected it hard into the earth beside him. The impact traveled up his arms and into his teeth.
Naruto swung the Zweihander up in a diagonal cut that caught the giant across its ribcage. It swung the cleaver horizontally at ankle height. Naruto jumped, landing on the flat of the cleaver, pushing toward the giant's skull with the Zweihander raised overhead.
The giant raised its free hand to block.
The blade broke through it, splitting the top of its skull.
The remaining skeletons were still coming.
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Author's Note: Yes, yes, I know. Boo me for the cliffhanger. Now let's get to the Q and A.
Q: Why are the skeletons bleeding?
Consider: Bone marrow is where blood is produced. If you reanimate a skeleton, you are by extension reactivating the bones themselves, which means the marrow becomes functional again. A living skeleton should not only be capable of bleeding but should be doing so continuously, because the marrow is producing blood that has nowhere to go.
The bleed status effect in the actual Dark Souls game can be inflicted by skeletons, so this was my way of incorporating that mechanic into the prose in a way that makes sense.
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That's It… For Now.
I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and follow along with this story. Your feedback means more than you know, and it helps push me to make each chapter bigger, sharper, and more true to the worlds of Naruto and Dark Souls.
Until next time,
Praise the Sun.
\-Adam-/