"What is this thing?! It's like a rabid dog!"
"Captain, this thing literally looks like a dog!"
The sounds of battle rolled across the bridge to Irithyll of the Boreal Valley — crackles and explosions layered so densely it sounded almost festive, a New Year's celebration gone catastrophically wrong.
Most of the crackling came from the creature's lightning.
The moment everyone engaged the strange hybrid — half dog, half crocodile — its aggression caught them off guard entirely. Its claw swipes chained together in rapid, unbroken succession, the kind of relentless offense adventurers had come to label a "mad dog" enemy type.
Applying "mad dog" as terminology to something that already resembled a dog felt slightly redundant, but nobody had time to workshop better vocabulary.
"Roar!"
The creature slammed into Tami, sending him flying, then chained a spinning back kick that launched Ais through the air behind him. It raised a claw and fixed its attention on Luluwo.
Luluwo rolled.
Inspired by the Ashen One's fighting style earlier, she had decided rolling belonged in her own repertoire now.
One roll.
Two.
Three.
She looked up. The monster's claw was still raised, motionless, refusing to come down.
Only after she'd exhausted herself rolling and finally tried to stand back up did it finally strike.
What kind of shameless delayed attack is THIS? Which designer thought this was fair?
Luluwo screamed and took the hit directly.
But that was all it managed.
She'd blocked the sharp edge with her chains, so only the blunt force of the impact actually reached her. And with her Bonfire Level well past seventy and heavy investment in Vitality and Agility, she had long since become someone who could shrug off a direct hit without much drama.
Objectively, this bizarre-looking creature was roughly on par with a standard elite monster carrying unusually aggressive AI — nowhere close to Crucible Knight territory. Even the very first expedition team into Sein Dungeon could have handled it without much trouble.
The problem was everyone's tank was empty. HP, stamina, mana — all running on fumes. They knew exactly how to counter it. Their bodies simply weren't cooperating anymore.
Worse, everyone had been so locked into the fight that the cold had crept up on them unnoticed. By the time anyone registered it, frost had already spread across most of their exposed skin. Neither Ais nor Aim had enough mana left to conjure another heat source, and the whole group was drifting toward genuinely dangerous territory.
Watching everyone deteriorate, Elsa's greatsword lit up with glowing runes once more.
"Everyone — get over here!"
She drove it into the ground.
Anyone standing nearby felt stamina flooding back almost immediately, warmth radiating outward from the blade and driving the cold from their bodies.
Strength enhancement. Stamina restoration. Heat generation.
What exactly was the true nature of this weapon?
Without the sword in hand, Elsa made a decision that startled everyone watching.
"Gut, get back here!" Tami's eyes went wide as she charged the creature bare-handed and engaged it in direct melee.
Unbelievable ferocity.
She was overpowering it.
She looked less like a person fighting a monster and more like a second monster that happened to be humanoid.
The Beast of the Boreal Valley lived up to every expectation of a classic Souls-series beast enemy — thick hide, absurd durability, relentless aggression that never quite let up. Even while being systematically dismantled by Elsa, it still had enough left to struggle and counter.
And Elsa wasn't at full capacity either — she couldn't fully suppress it.
"Hah!"
After several exchanges, her patience ran out.
She seized its jaws with both hands, visibly preparing to tear it apart through sheer force.
At the same moment, the beast had its own fangs and claws primed for a counter.
However this ended, both sides were about to come out badly hurt.
"That's enough — we're running!"
Luluwo grabbed Elsa by the back of her collar.
With Tami on the other side, the two of them sandwiched the still-furious Elsa between them and sprinted back toward the cave entrance — stamina restored just enough to make actual speed possible.
Meanwhile, Ais and Aim stared blankly at the greatsword still lodged in the ground.
"W-we have to carry this while running?"
Mercifully, Mira turned back and retrieved it for them.
A happy ending, more or less.
And so the adventurers' first encounter with the Beast of the Boreal Valley concluded — with the adventurers running away.
Fortunately, once they cleared the bridge, the creature didn't pursue.
The group settled by the bonfire to recover. After a brief discussion, the consensus was unanimous: teleport back to Firelink Shrine.
They were simply too depleted to continue. Pushing further would only hurt their efficiency, and everyone knew it.
"Ahh… blue sky and white clouds really are the best."
Back at the familiar Firelink Shrine, the environment shifted from bone-deep winter to warm spring in an instant. Anyone's spirits would lift under a transition like that. Even the rattling of skeletons wandering the adjacent cemetery sounded almost welcoming.
Everyone collapsed onto the ground without a shred of dignity, gasping.
It genuinely felt like surviving a natural disaster.
Luluwo lay spread-eagled, staring up at the dungeon's artificial blue sky.
A question surfaced.
Farron Keep led into the Catacombs of Carthus. Defeating Wolnir opened a path through his boss chamber into Irithyll of the Boreal Valley.
Did this map layout actually make any coherent geographical sense?
What if someone in Irithyll wanted to travel somewhere else? Would they have to clear the Catacombs and Farron Keep in reverse order just to leave?
Her brain issued a formal overload warning and declined to process further.
In the end, she filed the whole thing under the dungeon's unique interpretation of spatial logic and moved on.
When in doubt — blame the dungeon. It rarely disappointed as an explanation.
Thump. Thump.
She noticed Elsa still furiously kicking the ground over the entire humiliating monster encounter and couldn't hold back a laugh.
It was warm and infectious, the kind of laugh that spreads before you can stop it. Soon everyone around her was laughing too. Before long, all of Firelink Shrine had caught it —
Everyone except a thoroughly confused Elsa.
"Haha — Captain, why is everyone laughing?" Tami asked, wiping his eyes.
Luluwo knocked him lightly on the head.
"Because we beat Wolnir, you idiot! This is restrained. I feel like I should be dancing."
Their attempt at Irithyll had failed, sure. But taking down Wolnir alone made every single second of today worth it.
This day — or really, everything they'd invested over the past stretch of time — had reached exactly the ending it deserved.
"Come on! Tonight, Royal Capital, full feast, my treat!"
Luluwo threw her arm up dramatically. With that much energy behind it, the announcement sounded less like a dinner invitation and more like a declaration of war on the concept of restraint.
"Then I'm eating back every ounce of stamina I burned today," Mira said, both fists clenched with enthusiasm.
Ais and Aim, perfectly in sync as always, fired a small magical firework into the sky in celebration.
"We've earned well recently, Captain, but please don't let the Royal Capital's prices empty your entire wallet," Belto said, unable to fully suppress his own grin despite the warning.
"Long live the Captain!" Tami cheered, then turned to Elsa. "Gut — come with us too."
Elsa hesitated.
Looking at the group in front of her, memories of fighting alongside them surfaced without effort.
Battling monsters in the dungeon.
Fighting people alongside mercenaries on an actual battlefield.
Completely different experiences, and not just in degree.
Defeating powerful monsters here filled her with genuine exhilaration and joy. Making other humans bleed was something she had never once managed to feel good about, no matter the justification.
If she had a genuine choice —
She thought she might prefer the life of an adventurer.
But —
"I'll pass."
She shook her head and bowed deeply.
"Thank you, all of you, for everything during this time. I need to go back now."
Luluwo smiled as though the answer had never been in doubt.
"Go ahead. If you ever want another dungeon run, you know where to find us."
"Mhm."
Elsa nodded firmly, and used the bonfire to teleport back to the Catacombs of Carthus.
She needed to tell Eliphis about defeating Wolnir as soon as possible. Rumors had reached her recently — that his own attempt had failed, and that it had genuinely shaken his confidence.
She had been worried about him.
"So — she's gone."
Watching Elsa leave, Belto turned to Luluwo.
"Captain… have you considered — you know?"
He mimed swinging a hoe.
Poaching her, in other words.
Elsa's combat ability had already surpassed everyone else in the party by a considerable margin. Her value to any group was obvious to anyone watching.
"Heh. You think that hadn't already occurred to me?"
Luluwo grinned.
"I've been swinging that particular hoe for a while now."
Mira considered this.
"But… can we actually offer better terms than the Light Eagle?"
The most direct route to poaching someone was better conditions, and the Skyrim Group couldn't reasonably compete with the Light Eagle Corps on material terms.
"Don't worry about that."
Luluwo's smile carried real confidence.
"I can tell she's the type who values connection over material reward."
She left something unsaid.
Besides — I know a lot more about her than the rest of you do.
"Honestly, running into her again after all this time surprised me," she added aloud. "I never expected she'd end up there."
"Captain, you knew Gut before?" Tami asked.
"Not exactly. I knew of her."
Luluwo blinked, then added quietly, almost to herself:
"I was already in Bedford City before Count Philip died, after all."
"Captain? What was that?"
"Nothing."
"I said let's hurry up and find somewhere fancy for tonight!"
The group headed happily toward the Royal Capital.
Elsa was in an excellent mood of her own as she made her way back to the Light Eagle Corps.
"Captain Gut? Where have you been? Haven't seen you in a while," one of the mercenaries called out.
"Where's the commander?"
"Usual place. Discussing dungeon plans with the other captains, I think."
She nodded.
"Thanks. Good work out there."
She hurried off.
The mercenary stood there a moment, her words replaying in his head.
…Does Captain Gut seem more cheerful than usual? Am I imagining that?
A short while later, Elsa pushed open the door to the war room.
Eliphis was mid-discussion with the other captains.
"Gut? You're back!"
Sali — who had been covering meetings in her absence — looked genuinely pleased.
Eliphis sat at the head of the long table, silver hair loose over his shoulders. A faint smile crossed his handsome face when he registered her presence, and he gestured toward the open seat beside him — a silent invitation.
He had recovered his usual composed, confident bearing entirely. Whatever had happened in the Catacombs might as well never have occurred, for all it showed on his face.
Elsa noticed the documents about the Catacombs spread across the table. The name mentioned most frequently was High Lord Wolnir. It seemed everyone was already deep in strategy discussion.
Perfect. I got here at exactly the right moment.
She launched into her account, describing everything — the Skyrim Group, her arrangement with Luluwo, and the correct approach to defeating Wolnir.
"Oh? Well done, Gut."
Even Aston looked impressed, and the captains around the table immediately began comparing notes.
"So we needed to target the bracelets… our entire approach was wrong from the start."
"As suspected — we were simply missing key intelligence. If we'd known about the bracelets, we could have taken him too."
"Captain Gut has made a real contribution here. Good work."
The discussion gradually shifted into open praise for Elsa.
She looked toward Eliphis, quietly proud.
His expression remained calm. Gentle. He gazed at her without speaking a single word out loud.
Then his lips moved. Just slightly.
Elsa went completely still.
Because it looked — unmistakably — like he had mouthed:
"Are you looking down on me?"