The beginning of my adventure in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was pathetic and clumsy. I had to die several times before accepting that I was no longer in the Lands Between and that my Level 200 character was of little use thanks to the new Blessings of the Shadow Realm.
The massacre of the Knight of Solitude in the Nameless Western Mausoleum was just an excuse to not face all the challenges that awaited me in the DLC. I was going to have a bad time and I had forgotten what it was like to have FromSoftware put their boot on your neck with any difficult area or boss. I had to move on.
Assault on Belurat, Tower Settlement in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
I left behind the Burnt Ruins and I traveled to a huge door located in a mountain range next to the Grace Cross of the Three PathsThere I saw the first Cross of Miquella: “I leave here the first piece of flesh from my body.” I also met the first followers of Miquella. Freyja, a fierce warrior, and the Horned One, a guy who didn’t inspire much confidence in me.
La Gracia is not called that by chance. It is a point where several paths intersect, one for each cardinal point. I took the western path, which passed through the large door in the natural stone wall, and arrived at La Gracia. Main Gate CrossThere I saw another Miquella Cross, “I abandon here part of the flesh of my body,” and I met Sir Ansbach and Moore. The latter left me indifferent, but his companion had something special that I liked.
I found a message from a player before storming the gates of the great castle that stood before Grace. It urged to “Search Causeway” while its ghost pointed south. I took the path it indicated until I reached a small wooded area. There I found the City of Possibilitieswhere I died due to a carelessness with the enemies, and then continued south to the Artist’s Hut and the Church of Blessing. These last structures always fascinate me due to their architecture and statues dedicated to Queen Marika.
The assault on Belurat, Tower Settlement It wasn’t easy. The city, now in ruins, was filled with enemies of all kinds: from human and knightly spectres to giant scorpions and other nasty critters. Like Leyndell, it still retains remnants of its former golden magnificence. And with good reason: it lies at the foot of the enormous fortress of Enir-Ilum, which looks like something straight out of a Dracula story.
I came across another Miquella Cross and I was overcome with Fire Knight Queelignwhich I dispatched with relative ease with my Wheel of Giza, before reaching the most important Grace of the fortress: In front of the Stage. My first encounter with a DLC main boss awaited me. Divine Beast Theater is the combat area chosen by FromSoftware.
The name of the battle arena is not without irony. The first main boss I face in the DLC is called Divine Beast Dancing Lion…and it certainly lives up to each of its names: it is a beast, it is divine because it uses elements such as ice, lightning and winds; it is a puppet similar to the Chinese Lions (operated by two people) and finally it dances. Its movements are similar to those of a dance, except when it swoops down to crush you with its teeth.
Fighting this boss is a pretty sight, but it’s also a pain in the ass. Some of its movements are erratic, and it occasionally strings together combo attacks that are hard to dodge. Needless to say, it ran over me time and time again, even using the Mimic Tear. It wasn’t long before I had to turn to the players to take the beast down.
The winning attempt came from two players named W and Mhtt1, a dual-scythe warrior specializing in bleeding and a massive broadsword warrior respectively. They dodged most of the attacks, unlike the players before them, and between the three of us we managed to take down the first half of his health in a matter of a minute.
The second phase of the boss is much more complicated. He starts to summon lightning, wind and ice at a rapid pace. It was very difficult to get close enough to hit him because the beast changed targets very quickly. The less health he had left, the more nervous I became and the more afraid I was to land a few hits. Even so, I went for it with everything together with Mhtt1 when he had a quarter of health left.
The beast was unstoppable, but we managed to land enough hits to leave it with so little health that the red bar was not even visible. It knocked W and me down with a wave move and it was Mhtt1 who held on to deliver the final blow. I thanked them for their help and they returned to their world with their rewards.
I made my way forward a bit until I came across a large door blocked by a black bramble bush. There was a message from a player: “Oh, you don’t have the right,” which is a community way of saying that you can’t go through there yet. So I turned around and spent my next 5 hours in Elden Ring helping other players with the beast. I didn’t move forward until I managed to defeat it several times in a row. Once again, revenge. To be continued…
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