Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

2:32 Twin Fire Bearers

Despite being called the Brothers of Stone, Tiemos and Largos both appeared to be just as fleshy as Sam himself was and neither wore much armor. Tiemos wore a single stone sleeve on his right arm and shoulder while Largos wore what appeared to be armored bracers. Tiemos wore the pelts of various silver furred beasts around his waist along with silver furred boots. Besides the silver furred cape he wore, Sam couldn't see what else Largos wore from his seated position. Just as well, with Tiemos swinging his massive black axe around in one hand like it was a toy. The axe appeared to be made from stone and was roughly hewn, appearing to be more blunt than sharp. The handle of it was much thicker than any of his own weapons, but there was no doubt that Tiemos could easily handle the weapon with all the densely packed muscle stacked on the giant's body. Largos had a nightmare weapon as well. Sam saw it laid next to him. The slab of stone looked like it could've been a sword or club with its blunted blade and was made of a beautiful ocean blue stone.

"Why are you here, cursed one?" asked Largos from his seat by the fire.

"As if it matters," Tiemos roared. "His presence here is an affront to everything we hold dear. We will be rid of him and his reasons with him."

"Nothing to be done about it then. You heard him, human. When Tiemos makes up his mind about something, there is nothing that can sway him."

Sam banged his sword against his shield. "Maybe my blade can," he said as his boiling blood mingled with his growing fear.

"Should've picked better last words," Tiemos said before dashing forward and swinging his axe towards Sam's body. Sam ducked under the blow and ran at Tiemos—a mistake. Tiemos swung the blade right back in the opposite direction and the handle caught Sam in the ribs and pushed him to the floor. He landed on his hands and rolled away from a descending blow.

"Not bad!" Tiemos yelled out while pursuing Sam. Sam blocked his next horizontal blow, only to be pushed nearly into the wall of fire. Sam ran back towards Tiemos, preparing to dodge another swing of his axe, but Tiemos changed up his attack and instead hit Sam with the butt of his axe. Sam hit the ground hard and was briefly unaware of where he even was. His eyesight was filled with stars and he was so stunned that he couldn't even move. He rubbed his eyes and looked up to see Tiemos' crushing axe coming his way.

YOU HAVE DIED

He woke up at the Soul Beacon feeling incensed.

"He freakin' wrecked me!" he said, shaking his head.

His death now brought another cumbersome trial. He'd left all his resources, including his souls and quintessence in the boss room when he died. Without quintessence, he couldn't restore his dead flesh to living flesh and death in revenant form meant real death. He needed quintessence more than anything else and luckily for him, he had an itemized version of it, several in fact. He held the black crystal up to the azure flames and once it was nice and cooked the flames jumped onto him and spread across his body. Dry old flesh was burned away while new flesh spread across his body chaotically. Smoke rose off his body as his flesh finally settled.

"I need to make sure to grab that Death Mark, first thing," Sam said to himself as he contemplated how he'd proceed the next time he faced the Fire Bearers. "Ok, let's go!"

He assassinated the golem outside his cell then proceeded down the corridor to assassinate the mage halfway down. Once his path was cleared, he buffed himself with a Stim Plant along with Pierce, then made his way through the Soul Barrier into the Fire Bearer's massive prison and took the slide down. Tiemos was already standing up and facing him by the time he landed on the platform below.