Darklurker

Asshole(s)

     Where to start with this one? This guy is one of the hardest bosses in the game, and you have to go through three of the hardest areas of the game to get to him. Firstly, you have to find Darkdiver Grandahl (the old guy in the fancy wheelchair) in three hidden area. Once you find him in all three, you can join the Pilgrims Of Dark covenant. Unlike every other covenant in the game, this one has nothing to do with any multiplayer. This is strictly PvE. As such, there's no ABSURD requirements to rank up in this covenant. All you have to do is beat the three Dark Chasms Of Old. Beat one, and you gain rank one. Beat the other two (for a total of three), and you gain rank two. Beat Darklurker, and your gain rank three and max out the covenant. Even though this is a tough covenant, it might be my favorite. I wish there were more PvE covenants (I do plan on trying the Company Of Champions also).
    Okay, each Dark Chasm Of Old has four enemies you must kill. After that, all you have to do is light a giant torch. Killing four enemies sounds easy, but they are very difficult enemies. There are a couple NPCs from Dark Souls (Havel the Rock, Pharris, a few others I don't remember), and other various tough human-type enemies. Havel in particular is the toughest of all the regular enemies in the Chasms. All three are dark and full of cliffs and falling hazards, which just makes it all so much harder. But, preserve throughout the three, and you're "rewarded" with one of the toughest bosses in the game.
    After you beat the final Chasm, you'll jump into the hole with the mist, and you'll get a loading screen. Shortly after, you'll land in a dim cave, and in front of you is the Darklurker. I was hoping he might be some new, updated version of Flamelurker. But alas, this one might be more annoying. Let's talk about his appearance: very unique for a Souls game. He's a dark, angelic being. He has wings, and four arms (one set of arms is always crossed over his chest). He wears some dark robes with a hood. He's great looking, and very ominous and mysterious. 

Casting that bullshit dark orb attack

    Now, his attacks. He has a million attacks. Literally, I think he has more attacks than any other boss, by a couple at least. If you're close to him, he'll swing a bright sword at you. This sword has a longer reach than you would think, and it can be tough to dodge. Next up, if you're really far away, he shoots a soul spear, which can be rolled from easily enough. He has two other attacks where he lifts his arms and creates either a fire, or dark, circle over his head. The fire one shoots three fireballs, and these are very easy to dodge. The dark one shoots a slow, semi-homing dark ball, and it explodes when it hits you or the ground. This attack DESTROYED me so many times. It does considerable damage, and it's tough to dodge. Run from it! Don't roll! ROLLING JUST DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK!
    Besides these attacks, he can also teleport, which doesn't really accomplish much. He will float up and shoot a magic beam out of his hands. It is slow, but hurts a lot. It's easy enough to dodge (run under him), and it gives you a brief breather to heal/buff, what have you. Now, the fun part: when he gets down to around half health (sometimes it's like 75% of his health left, sometimes it's less than 50% of his health left), he duplicates himself! Oh yes! You thought one Darklurker was too easy? Well, take this motherfucker! THANKFULLY, they both share a health bar. I couldn't imagine doing this battle if the second Darklurker had its own health bar. After the split, they both have those same moves. Let's get down to the dirty. 

He's more dangerous than he looks

    Fighting two of these guys is incredibly difficult. They both use different attacks, and they don't let up. You have to keep them both in front of you at all times (this is where the teleporting move really sucks. Having them both in front of you, then having one teleport to anywhere else in the cave, thus losing him, can be a battle-breaker). Also, BE MINDFUL OF THAT SOUL SPEAR ATTACK! Let's set a scene quickly: you have Darklurker(s) down to only a quarter of his health. They are both in front of you, and you're feeling good. Let's say you get hit with a sword attack from one, and the other moves back a bit. As you back up, getting ready to heal, you keep your eye on the Darklurker closest to you, and you press, "square" to drink Estus. Just then, you notice the other Darklurker has hurled the soul spear at you, and you don't see it until it's too late, becayse you forgot about him. You die, because you can't possibly get healed in time before the spear hits. I died this way at least four times. It's unbelievably frustrating.
    Next frustrating thing: dying. And why is this? Because, every time you die, you have to go through a Chasm again to reach the Darklurker. This is super tedious. And you can't even just run through the Chasm, bypassing the enemies. You have to kill all the enemies in the Chasm to open the fog gate to access the boss. I cannot tell you how tired this is. Actually, I can! First off, I'd suggest using the Chasm that's past the Shaded Ruins bonfire. It's the easiest of the three. So, you start at the Shaded Ruins bonfire, and run through the area, killing all those lion soldiers, until you get to the Chasm. Then, you have to talk to Grandahl, and offer up a human effigy. YUP! Every time you die, you need to use a human effigy to gain access to the Chasm again. I ran out, and had to murder the old hag Fire Keepers and their handmaid, for nine more effigies. Anyway, after the portal to the Chasm opens, your step in it, and wait for the loading screen. Then, you run through the Chasm, carefully killing the enemies (can't die here, that would be a waste of a human effigy), until you get to the fog hole. Jump in, wait at a loading screen, then FINALLY you're at Darklurker! Imagine doing this a dozen times. Not fun. I will say, by the end, all of the lion soldiers and the enemies in the Chasm stopped respawning, so the last few runs were pretty easy.
    Okay, I think I've discussed every annoying thing about this battle. How did I beat Darklurker? This was the only boss battle where I didn't use my sword to kill the boss. I have a Pyromancy Flame (+7 I believe), and a few pyromancies. I used Flame Swathe and Fire Orb, because Mr. Lurker is weak to fire. At first, I would use these as much as I could, then use charcoal pine resin on my sword. Eventually I ran out of the resin. My sword otherwise wasn't doing sufficient damage, and I don't like fighting him close anyway. I also used every item I had that restored spell usage. After I ran out of ALL OF THAT, I decided I needed to change my strategy. And here it is:
    I used the Pyromancy Flame, and, wait for it, an avelyn! This is a fast-shooting crossbow. I bought 180 fire bolts for it, and used almost 80 of them. They only did 39 damage, which sounds super lame, except it was enough to push me over the edge. I needed distance, and the avelyn really helped with that. The battle I finally beat Darklurker I didn't take my sword out once, which must be a first for me, for a non-magic build. I kept my distance, shot fire bolts (the avelyn shoots three in quick succession) until Darklurker split, then I exhausted all my pyromancy spells (which all told was only 6). After that, it was just about being very careful, shooting one of them when I had a chance. The avelyn is dangerous, because after you shoot, you can't roll, and you walk very slowly, for close to a second. You're VERY vulnerable. Through determination, attrition, and that trusty avelyn, I beat Darklurker, and my final boss of my first playthrough of Dark Souls II.
    Sorry for the lack of (good) pictures with this very lengthy post. I couldn't afford to get killed taking pictures in this battle. The battle was tense enough. This is a great one though. It makes up for a few of the easy bosses, for sure. His design is really great, and the whole dark environment was overall fabulous. Tedious to fight him over and over again, but I'm very glad I persevered and beat him. So y'all in NG+! 

Times I died: 12
Difficulty: 9/10
Rating: 9/10

So, what's next? Well, I have ideas for two more non-boss-specific posts (an overview of the bosses here, and a ranking of all the bosses throughout all the games and DLC), then I'm going to make a NG+ boss update blog. I'm going to do all updates in this one post, because some bosses I'll either write very little, or write quite a bit. I don't want entire posts dedicated to three sentences. So, ladies and gents, thanks for joining me in this crazy journey. I plan on doing boss posts for different games, so stayed tuned! Smooches!

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BOSS SOUL DESCRIPTION: "Soul of what lurks in the Dark Chasm; The Dark Chasm of Old is the remnant of some ancient, dissipated being."