C31: Out Of Bounds PT4, Holy Knight Priestess- Sasha
1/13/26-published
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I find myself back in the alchemical workshop once more with Father Norbert as he guides me to a specific bowl filled with a strange liquid.
"You may release your unnecessary essence into this container. The alchemical solution will cause the essence to harden which I can then purify it through fire to make it safe for consumption and from there can be made into a mutagenic elixir. Though of course purity changes depending on the quantity of essence and my own techniques."
It seems he is quite excited about his line of work but after a while, it just went in one ear and out the other but I did at least hear what product he was making. I wonder how much better it is than the mutagenic vial I can get from the system. For the sake of science, I'll allow this priest to use my 8k shade essence to refine an elixir.
To pass the time, I do some short maintenance on my weapon. Primarily polishing it up as it's been with me for a while. It's not much but it's honest work.
When Father Norbert finally finished, he opened the nearby window or I guess air duct as the entire process did make the room quite cloudy. Surprised he didn't do that earlier but I'm not an expert on the subject.
"Voila, it is done, and about 55% purity as well. It has been quite some time since I had seen one so bright and beautiful." the priest muttered as the final concoction was created. He soon pours it all into a new potion before handing it over to me.
"Are there different grades depending on purity?" I ask and he nods in return, "of course, simple elixirs for short term use have to have a minimum of 20% and up to 30% with the grade increasing every subsequent 10%. I myself have only ever seen up to 68% once, done by my teacher,... long ago"
Father Norbert explained in excitement until it came time to mention his teacher and his earlier passion seemed to have calmed as a slightly angry look crossed his face before he fixed it. It seems he hates his old teacher, who knows what they did, I'm just a hunter. The simplest choice is often the right one.
I pocket the potion before getting up. "I'll go check out the rest of the cathedral ward. Maybe take care of the greater shade there if I'm capable. Otherwise I can only try my hand at your side of Old Yharnam." Father Norbert is pleased I would try to slay the shade so he offers what he knows about the shade from before becoming one.
Knight Priestess Sasha. Tall, capable, uses a buckler and sword to unleash quick attacks while parrying away offensive attacks as she uses her speed to bob and weave around shades to strike at their weak points. As her fate fell through and she began to manifest as a shade, she had lost thrown away her sword and shield but the demon had reclaimed at least the sword while her offhand had metalized into what can be considered a new shield.
Far slower than before due to the metal limb but her power is much greater now as her sword has gained an echo of itself.
"Echo?" I question the priest who explains that certain shades who already had weapons in their natural state could cause a purple copy of the same weapon to trail just a second after the original weapon was moved.
'Ah, Pontiff clones but lesser, I guess.' I think of Dark Souls three, my original introduction to the Soulsborne games. More specifically, one of the late game bosses in one of the most annoying to navigate locations [1].
"I see, I'll be careful of its swings. I say and begin my ascent up the stairs and to the large golden doors which are closed. Pushing them open, I see that it leads even higher like normal. Arriving at the top, I do like before and activate my silent skills and begin to investigate the room but don't find anyone here immediately.
[Challenge mode Option Available. Set Difficulty for fight: Holy Knight Priestess, Sasha.]
"Hmmm, I don't really care about the boss at all. Not even sure what the point of anything I'm doing here is, so let's just set it to level 3 okay." I say with nonchalance as the atmosphere grows heavier upon my decision.
Before the central altar where a still bleeding human head lies upon, a fog begins to gather there.
"Painful, regretful, obstinate, sinful,....monsters" A feminine voice rings out and I notice the still bleeding head encased within a helmet begins to speak as the fog condenses and the head is lifted up, given a new body while retaining its mind. It stumbles forward at first but in doing so, 'she' picks up her sword. Originally using it as a crutch, she begins stumbling forward like that, her sword piercing into the stone of the church before her body compresses further into humanoid form.
Her ghostly body begins to form armor but it's most definitely a different style than the gargoyles I fought before. She takes up a stance, lowering her waist while her sword lifts up like a rapier. I bare witness as her name gradually gains an enormous health bar like so many bosses before her but she is my first humanoid one.
Click
I extend my weapon as I ready myself as well. Yet I was not ready enough as her first action was not to dash forward with her signature shortsword like a rapier stab but instead condense a beam at the tip of her sword which shoots it out like a cannon.
I got hit in the head but my helmet blocked it and my body recovered the damage while the pressure in my chest grew instead.
"Fucker" I curse while dashing forward, my saw cleaver meets the cheats blade as im forced back from the collision.
"Shit" I curse again as my leg gets cut in half but like a phantom limb, I keep walking and running, dashing around as best I can. I land a few hits but overall I'm too weak in this area to properly do much of anything.
Seeing this, I try to pivot into using my gun and do a lucky stun where I jam my fist into her chest.
'It's so wrong' I can't help but feel as it's a similar sensation as when I jammed my hand into the knight statues. Something that is there but also not. Most importantly, it's like a swirling something, constantly moving, worming about near my hand. I grab onto whatever I can as I tear. I haven't found any semblance of the similar sensation in a beast's body, their souls.
'Cahawww" I gurgle my next words as my throat is pierced by the bosses blade.
[You Died]
I attempt to resist this sleeping urge that encompasses me but only land a few pitiful blows before simply fading away and returning to the lamp at the Oedon chapel church. But on my original side of Yharnam. I equip the runic title and then begin my mad dash back to the other side. I must collect my echoes!! I've had hundreds of thousands still.
Going out the left door and across the small clearing, I go up the stairs and into the side route. My speed a great extreme as my full stats allow me to easily clear all this until I get to near the border of the out of bounds area when I jump.
With my current momentum of level 7 sprinting combined with my level 2 jumping, I cross roughly 1/3rd of the bridge already but have to stop and rest to recover my stamina as I immediately lost it all due to the 85% debuff.
"Whooo" I huff and catch my breathe as I begin dashing back into the other sides cathedral ward, bypassing all the returned shades as I get back to the boss arena. With a quick rest, I, out of habit, start my stealth skills as I reenter.
Strangely enough, I do not spot the boss immediately, so i go to collect my echoes, only to find a silvery pool where I died.
[Lost Shades essence recovered]
"Huh? I didn't lose my echoes? Then why the hell was I rushing so hard" I kick a nearby pillar in annoyance as I soon spot the decapitated head on the altar again.
I approach with annoyance in my eyes as I directly rip the helmet off. "Ehhhh" I stare shocked as I take in Sasha's appearance which bears a strong resemblance to Mar's but with different colored hair, Sasha's is blond.
Upon taking the helmet off, her eyes opened and the fog condenses instantly as she swings her sword but it just barely misses me. Her eyes look gray and dull.
'Is she blind?' or is the shade part not able to properly see with her eyes?' I can only guess the reason as I make full use of my stealth skills. I begin to unleash strike after strike, making sure to mitigate my noise while not completely giving up attacking.
The boss is able to dodge every once in a while by hearing the airflow bursts from my swings but to counter this. I take out the tontritus and begin to wallop her.
Strike after strike and her originally pretty face begins to be bludgeoned into putty. Throughout this disfigurement procedure, her health only dropped by a third. It's progress but it's not looking good for me as the boss has taken to more randomly swing her sword during times that it seems she realized I was attacking.
This forced me to change my patterns or just randomly delay which I can definitely do as procrastinating is one of my strong suits in my past life. Through these random delays, I was able to gradually knock the boss's health down to half when she entered her second phase. The fog still around her body becomes concentrated around her legs as she begins to sway about the arena, like a dance.
Except it's a very deadly dance and there are suddenly two of her. Both versions of her, one white, one black are dancing around the arena, just spinning as they go like something you would see in a play or olympics with how many circles she is doing.
"I'm right…" I attempted to speak out to lure her back as I was too lazy to keep chasing her but I soon regretted speaking as she seemingly crossed half the arena in just a split second with two attacks coming at me. If it wasn't for my shadow teleportation, I would have died again.
I grab my neck where I feel a bit of blood dripping down from where the edge of the boss's blade had come in contact with before I got away.
'I'll dismember you, bitch', I get angry as I activate my berserker skill, increasing my power while I rush forward with my sprint skill combined with shadow teleports as I no longer choose to give this entity a peaceful death as I begin striking at strange angles only to land on the calf or elbow.
I'm quite happy to widdle the boss down if need be since the option is available. Im just impatient which is why I kept targeting the neck and chest in hopes of tearing her ghostly body's heart out.
Bang
I got a lucky riposte as I entered a sort of state of flow, like controlling my own body like a puppet. It's a sensation that i've entered before in my past life but during those moments it was primarily just typing for long periods for some homework which I then got through super easily as all hesitation left my body. It's a similar sensation to seeing double but felt throughout the body.
Due to this state, I'm more sensitive to all that I'm doing, as my fist plunges into Sasha's chest, I see the ghostly aura dissipate a fair bit but seemingly on a different level than me damaging her. It's not more or less but equalyet greater. It gives me the information I needed to properly understand what shades actually are, especially with how they differ from beasts' bodies.
And that being crystallization. Most beasts have lost their souls, at least the souls of the human. Maybe a piece breaks off which mutates under the beast's influence. That is what I'm grabbing at whenever I stick my hand into their chests via ripostes. Yet here, the remnant souls directly possess a being or object here. More study will have to be done about how this theory works with other bosses on this side of Yharnam but I figured out at least this one's current form.
It's a physique, like my own but on a much higher level as it creates a reverse Dullahan situation. A bodyless head looking for a body, using her own soul as substance to be able to move around. What constitutes the heart here I'm tearing out is more so the purity of the shades essence and less so, its actual heart and soul.
This means the clump in my hand that I just tore out of the Holy knight priestess, Sasha's chest is her brain. It's weird but it's the only thing that makes sense, like I'm a brainsucker extracting insight if that makes sense. Except it's her soul, in a metaphysical way of things. The exact reasoning doesnt matter as how this all happened is completely out of my grasp but that is how the logic works for me as I 'reenter' my own body and dash away. (concentration end…sorta)
[Shadow mastery level 1 has gained mastery: 1%->2%] My consecutive teleportation giving way to an easier way of doing so as it feels smoother and less reliant on Gascoigne's axe.
Huff huff I breath heavily for a bit as I regain my stamina, shortly teleporting a moment later as Sasha swipes at me with her sword. She somehow heard me breathing, so I had to take a moment to catch myself to make it less obvious. Though not for long as I soon drop her health down to a fifth of her total. My crazed attacks on random limbs proved to be effective yet I pause as the boss begins to vibrate. Then before my very eyes, I see her own grayed out eyes begin to regain a hazelnut brown coloring.
"Fuck, three stages and she regains her sight in the last one" I curse and dash forward only to be intercepted by her blade as I teleport behind her and strike again only to be kicked away.
"Gahk" I audibly grunt from the kick as I go sliding across the floor, the boss watching my every action as I'm forced to use a blood vial or just die if she so much as breathed on me.
I take up a stance as I try to concentrate once more but at least to a lesser degree so I can just pay attention to whatever is the boss's next action. I'm glad I did this as I just barely dodged her next thrust attack by shooting her in the face. Afterall, why dodge when gun do same but better.
Exiting idiot mode which I unintentionally entered by concentrating, I thrust my fist into her soul body and extracted a bigger chunk of her 'heart' and soul, her body trembles as it temporarily loses substance and her health drops to regain said substance.
With how much health she has left, I would need roughly three or four riposts to take her down. So I will get to it, if possible. I'm sure she is wary of my left hand now as its bullets sting pretty hard now.
Yet contrary to my thoughts, she does not simply charge in again but raises her sword and speaks a prayer. "Oh agony, lend me the sense to wield the light once more. Oh hatred, set my body ablaze so that I may rend the skies. Oh obstinance, shine the light to my blade, make it all end".
Her prayer causes her blade to shine like it's a moonlight greatsword but a sunlight short sword instead. A proper blade of light condenses around the metal as she swipes her sword, the mirage doing so too as four waves of light come towards me and I manually dodge to save my bullets as I'm running low again.
"Youre not the only one with a special weapon." I swap out my saw cleaver and tontritus for Gascoignes axe, properly wielding it as my shadow mastery causes the blade to be coated in darkness. The curved bend of the axe eliciting fond memories of training under the old brute. I then shadow port to the clone of the boss and strike it, the darkness warping it's body as it loses form from the single strike. Yet a new clone appears behind the boss once more.
I shadow port again and get both the clone and boss this time as it seems she is indeed stuck while the clone is forming even if it doesnt look like she is doing anything. Maybe it's something like a mental prayer or something rather than a physical action, but regardless, the new clone is taken down while the boss is stunned.
Seeing this, I unleash a heavy attack which knocks her down to her knees and I take the plunge once more. With the extra strikes, I should only need one more visceral to take her down. Seeing her so low nearly causes me to lose my cool and do something risky, only to screw up at the last moment and die.
'Eh fuck it' I think as i charge up another heavy strike while she is getting up.
I whiff it.
I dodge her counter strike.
It's now down to one last strike for us both, either she pierces me with her rapier, or I get this stun now. With my last boolet. She charges at me, sunlight gathering to make a similar piercing blow as the first she unleashed on me in our first fight.
We are nearly face to face, her sword poised to strike at the center of my chest and immediately pierce through with a sunlight railgun of sorts. It's in moments like these that my brainrot really kicks me, and maybe it even spread to her.
"I cast GUN!!!" I yell out which seems to startle her as her position shifts to avoid the incoming bullet. Yet IT IS ALL A LIE!!
Here I am charging up a heavy strike as the boss charges me, the slight shift in my weight slightly similar between them. As I said, I infected her with brain rot and she didn't notice my swing.
That perfect curvature.
Of the weapon
Of the swing.
Of the dark arc it laid upon the air as the blade came in contact with the still sentient head.
SQUELCH. "Oh fuck, thats an eyeball" With my axe cutting into her head, it's as if it blew up with me having to dodge said eyeball while her body collapses.
Im exhausted, i fall to my knees besides the still dissipating body of the shade.
[PREY SLAUGHTERED]
"Yea yea. Give me the goods" I say as I let myself fall backwards, turning myself into a pretzel as my legs lay limp, reaching up to my upper waist as I just do not have the strength to change positions, so i guess ill go cramp my legs now.
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Word Count = 3559
Doing some El Alchemy then fighting the boss who naturally kicks our ass.
Enjoy
Whether you like the chapter or not, drop a comment. I can't be letting myself get complacent in my writing. I still have plenty of growth in all forms.
[1] When I say it's annoying to navigate, it's true. But only because I'm a dumbass who took too long to go down the stairs in the chapel of that area to find the proper path forward. Got looped around for like 10+ min with a rando coop who also didn't know the wae.
Of course this was only during my second playthrough, I don't remember much of my first as I just know I never beat the game in that first play through, got shit on by soul of cinder and lost all my embers (didn't know summoning help increased help at the time)
discord channel still has the next chapter preview like usual: https://discord.gg/rE6gtg28XH
Patreon.com/Xanok to find me.