14 Alexander

D sighed in relief when he heard his affirmative answer.

"Very well. Show me your map. There I will mark you the location."

Max just looked at him without any expression and said:

"Well, that would be difficult to do, because I don't have a map."

This caught D by surprise, and he stared at Max dumbfounded.

"What do you mean, you don't have a map? How long have you been in the Lands Between? How do you even orientate without a map?"

Meanwhile Max just thought: 'Why on earth would I need a map? I know more then you. I already know where to go.'

"I don't need a map, just show me the location on your map, that will be enough."

"Alright, but don't come back to me later, because you don't know where it is."

In truth D didn't really care whether Max had a map or not, he just found it strange. He then proceeded to show Max where he could find the portal to the Bestial Sanctum. Afterwards D wanted to return to the Roundtable, however Max had other plans.

"By the way could you wait a little bit? I think I heard someone screaming for help, back there when we were near the bridge, do you mind if we take a small look?"

D didn't object, as he was currently very satisfied with the overall results they achieved today. So, they made their way back to the bridge and there was indeed someone asking for help.

"Hello-o? Can you hear me?

Help me! I'm stuck.

Hello? Hellooo! Anyone! "

D POV:

Wow, there was indeed someone here, but what does he mean with „he is stuck"?

I saw Max trying to hide a small smile, does he know the person? We then went up the cliff and never in my life did I expect to see the scene in front of my eyes. A huge living jar stuck in a hole in the ground. Once it saw us, it spoke with an excited voice.

"Oh my stars I'm so happy to see you! I am Alexander, also known as the Iron Fist. And as you can see, I'm stuck here. Please, can you help me out of this?"

Max then went towards Alexander and spoke.

"No problem my friend, but first why don't you tell me how you got stuck in the first place?"

Alexander laughed awkwardly:

"Haha don't mind this unimportant detail. My thanks for helping me. Just give me a good smack from behind with something nice and big."

General POV:

Max gave his best to keep a straight face and asked.

"Well, it seems like today it your lucky day. But are you sure? I'm afraid that my mighty sword might mess you up."

"Put those doubts to rest, I'll be just fine. I'm very well trained. Give it your all, I say."

"Very well. Pardon me."

Max gripped the Bloodhounds fang with both hands and performed a heavy attack.

"Ah!"

"Ouuch!"

"Ahhh!"

Finally, Alexander managed to get free after three hits.

"Ahh! Well played good sir. Well Played. Though that mighty wallop of yours almost spelt the end of me! Ha ha ha ha! Well, I'm out now, and that's what counts. I thank you, and as a token of my appreciation, I'd like you to..."

Max interrupted Alexander:

"There is no need to thank me, I believe I haven't introduced myself. My name is Max, and he goes by the name of D."

Max pointed at D.

"Once again, the pleasure is mine. I am the warrior jar known as Alexander. Iron Fist Alexander, in fact.

I journey to the east, where I intend to further my education in the ways of war. Beyond these lands lie the scarlet rot-blighted Caelid Wilds. And upon their southern edge is Redmane Castle, in which a festival of combat is being held. I'd heard whispers of such festivities before... Doesn't the notion set your breast aflutter! Ha ha ha ha!"

"I see, I hope we will meet again at the festival."

They then bid farewell and D and Max returned to the Roundtable Hold. Once they arrived Max tried to make D teach him the Litany of Proper Death incantation, however D rejected. He said that Max should first meet the Beast Clergymen and then he would teach some other incantations. As Max saw that D didn't budge, he resigned to his fate and met up with Melina. They talked for a while and their conversation ended with them deciding to return to Limgrave early in the morning tomorrow.

The next morning Max asked Melina if she could teleport them near the evergaol where he and Blaidd fought.

"Of course, tarnished. Please take my hand."

Max lost his vision for a moment and a second later he found himself near the evergaol. The reason why he wanted to appear in this location was because, it was the closest to the bridge which connects Limgrave and the Weeping Peninsula. His goal was clear, he wanted to visit a certain village which was afflicted by the frenzied flame, in order to obtain a powerful incantation.

On his way there, he was confronted by one singular Godrick soldier, which he killed without any problems. Then he got of Torrent and summoned the wolves. His plan was simple, the job of his summons would be to take out the soldier controlling the ballista and meanwhile he would deal with the other enemies.

"Kill the soldier behind the ballista and then fight the remaining soldiers."

Max then used Order's Blade incantation and began closing the distance between him and the soldiers. The soldiers were surprised when they saw that the wolves charged past them. They though that the spirits wanted to attack them from behind, so they showed their back to Max, which was a fatal mistake. Max used this opportunity to quickly cast Flame Sling two times. The two unfortunate soldiers screamed in pain as they were burning. The tarnished responsible for their agony, then charged at them and swiftly ended their life's.

Meanwhile, the wolves could be seen biting the poor soldier who was in charge of the ballista. He screamed and desperately tried to get the wolves off him using his small sword, however as they were spirits, they didn't feel any pain and therefore it was useless. Slowly, his screams started to die out as he was being eaten alive.

His companions wanted to help him, however they remained indecisive because they also heard screams in the front. The soldiers panicked and didn't know how to respond as the attack was so sudden. They clearly lacked a superior who could command them in these types of situations. In the end, they finally managed to organize themself. Two of the three remaining soldiers went to kill off the wolves, meanwhile the soldier with the Greatshield wanted to stall Max. Their plan was decent, but it came way too late. By the time they finally began moving, Max was already very close to the Greatshield soldier. He infused his right arm with mana and swung down with a huge force. The Greatshield trembled upon impact, it took another hit of the same strength for the soldier to be staggered, Max then plunged his sword through his stomach.

He then charged Flame Sling multiple times and threw the fireball at the remaining two enemies. As they were burning one soldier thought that jumping of the bridge would be a good idea, in order to extinguish the fire. So that's exactly what he did and the other one followed his example. Then Max ran to the edge and watched them fall and cursed:

"Damn it. Now I won't be able to collect their runes!"

Well, it is what is it, thought Max. As usual he then proceeded to loot the corpses giving him around 300 runes. Furthermore, he got one Smithing Stone [1] and another stonesword key. After the one-sided battle, Melina joined Max and they continued to ride on Torrent. In the distance multiple corpses could be seen lying on the road. In addition, you could also see a young blond woman, wearing a ribbon over her eyes and a dirty dress stained with blood. It's obvious that a battle has taken place here not so long ago.

When Max saw Irina, he spontaneously decided to do her quest. Initially, he didn't want to do it, but since her quest is really short, he might as well experiment a little bit. He wondered wether he could maybe change something?

Thats what he is about to find out, therefore he dismounted Torrent and walked towards her.