Chapter 459: The Hollow Knight

Figg put up absolutely no argument. He hadn’t even seen the construct moving, nevermind being capable of blocking or avoiding its strike. If it hadn’t been for Belladonna, then his head would have been rolling across the floor.

Dying wouldn’t be the end of the world, at least on this side, but it would just be humiliating to die to something he didn’t even see. That would put him on the level of those useless little scavengers.

Raev’s thumbs up and goofy smile was hidden behind yet another cloud of smoke that billowed from his nostrils, like he was some ancient and slumbering dragon, whilst Revenant simply grunted and scoffed.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever. If this is what you need meat head.”

He turned away, crossing his arms and turning up his chin, as if such a squabble was beneath him. But really, he just didn’t want to admit that he was on the same level as Figg. Although his stats were more evenly spread across the board, he was still built for magic more than physical combat, preferring to let his minions do most of the fighting for him.

In his mind, that was all this was. Just another lowly minion, fulfilling their purpose for him.

Belladonna smirked at the Necromancer, able to see through his pitiful act, before she glanced over herself.

Her arm was already healing, the bleeding stopped as the wound was rapidly stitching itself back together despite her arm almost being completely severed moments ago. But that wasn’t what Belladonna was focused on.

“Hmm… This definitely isn’t the right outfit for this.” She muttered to herself, before her glamourous dress disolved into black sludge that rapidly engulfed her body.

The sludge quickly pulled away, revealing the shine of metal, as almost an exact copy of the knights own armour manifested around Belladonna’s body. The main difference was the colours.

Whilst the normal armours were white, and the knight was pale blue, Belladonna’s armour was pitch black with haunting silver decals in place of the gold.

There were some hints of white trimmings around the gauntlets and the boots, as well as the inside of the cape that fluttered dramatically behind her without any need for the wind to move it.

The armour then shrunk, pulling itself into Belladonna’s body, and becoming more suitable for her movement style as well as more form fitting.

The breastplate became sleeveless, revealing her well toned biceps, and the heavily plated thighs were substituted for light, armour with deep grey trousers underneath. It was the perfect blend of protection and movement, and best of all the material this armour was made of was so light weight that Belladonna felt like she was wearing nothing at all.

“Mm, Now this is more like it.” Belladonna laughed, bouncing from foot to foot as she tested how it felt.

“I see why you guys wear this stuff. It’s great. What do you say, want to help me give it a spin?” She laughed, before darting forwards.

The grinning knight raced forwards to meet her, already bringing his sword down in an overhead strike. Belladonna raised her arm again, the same arm that she had blocked with the last time. However this time, the sword scraped along her armour as she deflected it to the side, and sent to swing cleaving into the ground.

“Oh, I am definitely keeping this.” Belladonna cackled, before a swift kick sent the sword flying across the room until it buried itself up to the hilt in the far wall.

A palm strike sent to the chest sent the Hollow Knight flying backwards, as Belladonna gave chase. Raiding down her fists as she clattered against the Empty Knight.

For an empty shell, it was surprisingly durable. The metal refused to buckle despite her devastating blows and the Knight surprisingly held himself together despite nothing logically doing the holding. Smith was absolutely going to kill to get his hands on some of this stuff.

“You know, I do have to wonder.” Belladonna said, ducking under a punch as she sent her own slamming into the knights codpiece. It might not have done much, but it was all about the love of the game.

“Why didn’t you have the others attack us? Why didn’t you try to kill us?”

She blocked the next two punches, and tanked a sneaky kidney punch that only made her stagger back a few steps.

Weaving like a boxer, Belladonna floated like a butterfly and stung like a hornet. Constantly and relentlessly.

She drove the knight back step by step, before dropping down and sweeping his legs out from underneath him.

The Knight hit the floor with a clatter like a blender full of spoons, before quickly rolling out the way of Belladonna’s axe kick that cracked the elegant, chess-board flooring.

“There has to be a reason for it, right?” Belladonna said as she rose to her feet, watching the knight do the same.

By a coincidence that definitely wasn’t coincidental, he had ended up right next to his sword, and was already wrapping his fingers around the hilt that was sticking out the wall.

“Was it perhaps, because of this?” With a magicians flourish, Belladonna produced the Golden Tree Emblem that she had acquired from the first Elf she had met. The one that she had saved from a less than pleasant fate at the grubby little hands of Grimshawls, and who she had thought would be here to meet her. If only that Elf had given her better directions, although that is what she got for just letting her walk away.

The Knight ripped his sword from the wall and swung it at Belladonna all in one motion, cleaving through the black leather gloves she wore underneath her gauntlets. The Golden Tree Emblem clattered across the floor, alongside the fingers that had been holding it.

“Ugh, Rude!” Belladonna shouted, leaning out of the way of the next swipe and side stepping an upwards slash.

She slipped behind the knight, kicking him in the back of the knee and driving him to the floor, before giving him a spin kick right to the helmet that sent him crashing down face first.

“But even despite that, despite all this. You’re still not trying to kill me, you’re just trying to scare me off, aren’t you? So why?”

She asked, planting her foot on the knights helmet and driving its head further into the floor.

“Oh, and just to be clear. None of these questions are directed at this walking tin can. Who I am actually talking to, is you.” She said, tilting her head up and glaring at a shadowy patch in the white marble ceiling.

A patch that shifted, as a set of long, bone white legs slowly crept into the light.