A Farmer Turned Hollow

All in a day's worth

Lykos Megalos, a farmer of some sorts, your everyday farmer in your everyday kingdom. Paying taxes, caring for his harvest, harvesting his harvest, he leads the everyday life of a farmer! Only, he has a bit more gold compared to the other farmers. He gets a bit social sometimes, and everyone thinks of him as a great guy!

One day, a farmer who lives close by, killed him out of jealousy, he skinned Lykos' face so that he can be him. That didn't work, and the people hated him. Thus, the farmer ended up committing suicide. However, in another realm, a certain someone rises from the grave. Lykos has come back to life! He slowly gets up and out of the ground covered in ashes, he looks at himself and notices that nothing really changed, his face was still there! Remembering where he was, he takes a look around a notices that he is in a location he's only heard in children's stories he told the children of Zamora. The Cemetery of Ash, the place where lost souls are taken, and they have to traverse the cemetery and survive in order to have another chance. Very few people get this treatment, however, and this hasn't happened in over 7 millennia. It explains the bed of ash that blankets the ground, really. He walks forward, the cemetery seems a bit flooded, water evident until a lord vessel, which is probably where the water has come from. Lykos begins to walk to the well, that is, until he looked to his right and saw a man, standing there with a sword that has a broken blade. The man wears a cloak, dark and plain. As for his facial features; he is pale, his eyed are hollowed and some of his teeth are missing. "He has an odd posture," Lykos says to himself as he walks closer.

"Excuse me!" Calls Lykos "Can you somehow give me directions? I've heard stories of this place and they.. Never mentioned.. The Architecture..." He drifts off, seeing the man slowly walk closer. "Sir..?" He asks nervously, the man takes another step closer. "Sir!" He yells, only letting the hollowing being release an ear-piercing screech, and the man charges forward.

Lykos has little fighting experience, but one of his friends taught him the importance of timing and spacing. When the being gets close enough, it lunges forward, only for it to hit the ground after Lykos takes a quick step to his left. Realising the current situation, he attempts to find a weapon, but he can't. So he hits the hollow with his fists, dealing a considerable amount of damage for someone of his height. The hollow steps back, dazed and confused. Lykos runs past him, grabs a rock and bashes the hollow's skull in. The being falls down, dead, and a dim light comes from the being's eye sockets, rushing towards Lykos with an oddly satisfying sound. He feels stronger, oddly enough. After dealing with the same kind of people, he gets to the point of the cemetery where there is an open area where a 10-foot knight kneels, his chest pierced with a sword. Lykos recognizes the knight.

Iudex Gundyr, the judge of ash. He has read about him, they say that when he is approached, he rises and pulls his legendary halberd out of the ground. Except, in Lykos case, he doesn't move, and the books didn't say anything about a sword in his chest. He approaches the knight, staring at his face in wonder since he is finally able to see the face of a legend close up. After a while, he sees that a symbiot seems to be protruding out of his back, along with the tip of the sword.

He tries to remove the sword in hopes of getting a better weapon. Yes, he picked up a sword. He pulls it out with relative ease only for it to reduce to embers in the blink of an eye. He feels disappointed and thinking about something, until a hard, loud sound followed by a dust cloud snaps him out of his thoughts. Gundyr has pulled his halberd from the ground.

The knight winds up to bash Lykos skull in with his fist, shoulder bash him to knock Lykos off his feet, and slash down on him to split him in half. It fails and Lykos, surprisingly, is able to dodge all three attacks.

He was able to land many hits on Gundyr, the legendary knight has slowed down in the many millennia. After a few more hits, the knight winds up to punch him again, only.. The symbiote seems to grow and a large serpentine monster has grown atop Gundyr, along with a large arm.

Of course, Lykos was surprised. One; because of the how the creature suddenly chimed in, two; he's never seen such things happen in front of him. A hit from the arm snaps him out of thought, the thing seems to be controlling Gundyr. A few more hits were landed, of course, Lykos had to do half-swording in order to actually hurt Gundyr through the armour.

After a lot of effort has been put into the fight, and patience was tested, Lykos has bested the champion who wanted him decapitated. Now, he breathes a breath of relief, and he suddenly feels a lot warmer than he did before the fight. He seems to be engulfed in embers, something he doesn't usually see, so he panics.

Yet, no matter what he does, he just can't seem to put it out. First, he thought he was gonna die, then he took a few breaths, and he suddenly feels stronger, that he can fight a large, powerful being and win.

"So this is how it feels to take someone of such greatness down... Wonderful..." He mumbles to himself, seemingly delighted from the power he gained.

He turns his head to look around and, in the process, he saw two large doors that obviously lead somewhere, but what lies beyond is something he can't quite figure out.

Lykos walks closer, pushing the doors open to a place he never thought he would visit.

"The Firelink Shrine"

1036 words

[I don't exactly know the story of Dark Souls 3 completely, but I'm not really following that, this is an AU]