Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

11 The Mad King of the Forest

Sam was a man possessed. He dived headfirst into his new goal of collecting a lot of souls. He spent what felt like a few hours on it, mainly fighting the Forest Barkers and running when they'd overwhelm him. He gained enough souls to level up four more times to soul level sixteen, increasing his dexterity to twenty, speed to sixteen, and his vitality to twelve. He wanted a little more HP after being spooked by Caesar's one hit kill blow. He was hoping that his increased dexterity and new weapon would be enough to eliminate the Barkers with one critical strike, but his Rapier did the same amount of critical damage as his Dagger in the end. That meant its critical multiplier was much lower than the Dagger since its base damage was much higher than it. Sam guessed the crit multiplier for the Rapier to be about three times damage compared to the ten or more times of the Dagger. Another negative impact of equipping a heavier shield and sword was that it affected his movement and dodging speed. It wasn't a drastic change, but he could feel the difference, especially whenever he rolled. He didn't cover as much distance as before.

He decided to move deeper into the forest. There were enemies he hadn't yet seen here and these enemies were hostile from the start. There was another plant creature that looked like a matador. It hopped around like one and brandished a red muleta made of flowers while it danced. It seemed like a rose come to life and even wielded a thorn covered sword made out of some kind of durable plant matter. Its face was round and blank like a green grape and on the top of its head was a rose bud fashioned like a cap.

Sam and the rose man took turns thrusting at one another with their swords. Sam attacked safely from behind his shield while the rose man evaded with its muleta. Sam thought he had an advantage with his shield, but the rose man's flowing muleta was effective at diverting all damage from its body. Sam was starting to get frustrated, but he was having a harder time simply anticipating the rose man's attacks. He was afraid to attempt a Parry, but it seemed like it was the best way to get past the rose man's defenses in this case. Nothing else seemed effective against such an evasive and deceptive opponent.

He tried to bait out certain attacks, but the rose man wouldn't cooperate. When it missed a thrust, Sam found his moment to strike. Only it wasn't his moment and the rose man countered him with a Parry from its muleta. It then thrust its thorny sword into his exposed chest and took half of his health, whilst afflicting him with the bleed out status effect which damaged him over a period of time like poison and seemed to slow his stamina regeneration. Sam fell to the ground clutching his chest. The pain was so great that he just wanted to stay on the ground and curl up into a little ball. He only scrambled to his feet once he saw the rose man approaching. He rolled away, created some distance between the two of them and took a swig of Soulfire. On his second approach the rose man launched a more powerful thrust at him. When it collided with Sam's shield, it deflected off of it hard leaving the creature briefly stunned. Sam retaliated with two quick thrusts of his own doing more damage than he normally would. It wasn't close to critical damage, but it was sizable enough to make a difference. The creature's health dipped down by about a fifth with each strike. It quickly retaliated after Sam's second thrust, but Sam had seen its attack already and now knew its point of origin. He looked closely at the creature's upturned wrist and the moment its thorny thrust took flight Sam tossed its delicate hand away which left it wide open for Sam's Opening Blow. Sam's blow was a vicious thrust that went right through the creature and pierced its heart cleanly. Its health quickly faded to nothing and Sam received a Rose Muleta for his troubles along with three hundred souls.

Sam made sure no one was around while he looked at what the muleta could do.

Rose Muleta

Shield

Boost's evasion and blocks magic based attack. Useless for blocking physical attacks.