This is just a one-shot I threw together during some downtime while working on another project. Nothing too much here, but I hope you enjoy.
The Hunter leapt back as the wicked beast took another swing at him with its spindly fingered claw. Seeing an opening in his opponent, the Hunter retaliated with a lash from his threaded cane, ripping into the creature's mangled flesh with its razor notched whip-like cord.
The feral creature let out a shriek as the whip sliced through its body, and began to back away from the Hunter to create some distance between them, revealing what the Hunter believed to be the last fragments of rational thought remaining inside the mind of this blood-starved beast.
Snapping the whip again, this time to ensure the distance between him and the monster remained, the Hunter watched as his prey stalked around the chapel, lurking its way behind one of the many stone columns that lined the sides of the building.
The beast's back had been flayed, leaving its skin draping over its face like a shawl of flesh. Yet somehow it still acted as though it could see the Hunter. Its partially obscured face remained directed at him while its lipless mouth shifted into a razor-toothed grin as it rounded the column.
Sensing danger, the Hunter tightened his grip on the cane and stepped to the side just as the creature leapt towards him, barely avoiding the tips of its claws. Seeing an opening in his opponent, the Hunter took another swing with his whip.
As he watched the whip swing cleanly through the air, failing to extend far enough to reach the beast, he realized he had made a fatal mistake.
The crazed creature pivoted on its heel and leapt once again at the Hunter. This time one of its claws sliced cleanly through the Hunter's side. The tearing of tissue sent blood flying through the air, splattering against the marble floor.
Taking another step to the side, the Hunter reached into his satchel for a blood vial and hastily planted it into his leg, putting an end to the bleeding. Those wounds were soon reopened, however, as the monster pounced forward and began swinging wildly at the Hunter.
The first thing that he could feel was the excruciating pain of a claw ripping through his chest, followed by a sudden numbness in his side as its other claw nearly gutted him. Had it not been for his survival instinct, he wasn't sure if he'd have been able to leap out of the way of the third strike.
Clenching the wound in his lower abdomen, he could feel heaps of blood oozing from him, filling his nostrils with the heavy scent of iron. A faint putrid smell came with it as well. The scent of rotten blood, no doubt belonging to the monster. Though tempted as he was to reach for another blood vial, he knew he didn't have enough time.
The erratic beast wasn't finished yet. Lurching back and raising its two great claws, it prepared for another attack.
Without even taking the time to consider his next action, the Hunter rose his blunderbuss and fired a shot off at the monster. The bullet not only connected, but it stunned it as well, knocking the creature onto its belly, leaving it wide open for another attack.
With lethal force, the Hunter ripped into the beast's chest with his hunter's claw and tore out a chunk of flesh from it, creating a cascade of crimson as blood spewed from the wound. The monster cried out in pain as it reared back from the blow, staggered as it was though, it still managed to pull itself back onto its feet.
Once it was standing strong, it let out a banshee-like wail as a greenish liquid began spouting from its wounds. It had done this before earlier in the fight, but now the awful smell of its rotten blood was near overwhelming. Just inhaling it was almost enough to put the Hunter to his knees.
He couldn't lose now though. He'd come too far. He'd come too close. The beast was finished. All he had to do was land the killing blow and that'd be it. Taking hold of his blood vial, he injected it into his leg and readied for the creature's next move.
With a howl, it began flailing its arms wildly, swinging every direction it could. The Hunter side stepped the first few attacks, but found himself growing closer and closer to being on the receiving end of its strikes. He had fought many feral beasts in the past, but this one was more wild and unpredictable than any he had ever faced. There was no rhyme or reason to its movements, only crazed swings and chaotic lashes.
Taking every opening he could get, he swung his whip at the creature with deadly precision, ripping through its flayed skin and bringing his prey that much closer to death. He knew that if he kept this up, then the battle would be his. However, the ever pungent smell of his prey's rotten blood grew stronger and stronger with each passing second. At first it was nothing more than a mild annoyance, but now it was becoming almost unbearable.
After sidestepping another attack, the Hunter felt like he had been punched in the gut. It was as if he had suddenly been stricken with a terrible sickness. He felt like he wanted to vomit. Had the stench of the beast's blood really been that powerful?
Impossible.
The Hunter had brought this beast too close to death for him to be undone by the smell of its blood. Gritting his teeth, he stepped towards the flesh veiled monster's next attack, dodging its wild swing, and pierced his cane into its chest, reverting it to its sword form.
He was within perfect striking distance of the heart. This was it. This was the final blow. This would end it once and for all. Thrusting forward, her aimed to pierce the creature's most vital organ, but the strike didn't land true.
Leaping back, the beast skidded on its heels before lunging forward with all of its ferocious might. Unable to move, and unable to strike back, the Hunter felt his entire body raised off of the marble floor of the chapel as two claws ripped through him and shredded his torso apart in a brilliant spray of blood.
Forced onto his back, the Hunter could feel his entire body grow cold as the beast began to rip into his flesh with its razor sharp teeth. Feeling his grip on his cane loosen, the Hunter turned his head to face the flayed creature as it began to devour him.
In all his pain, and all of his anguish, the Hunter could only mutter two words before the cold and heartless embrace of death took him over. Two words that rang clearly through his ears even after the sound of his own organs being shredded had grown silent.
"Not again…"
The cold embrace of death soon turned into a faint chill as the grey clouded skies of the Hunter's Dream came into view. No longer were his nostrils filled with the scent of blood, but instead the faint, sweet scent of dew The Hunter could feel the grassy ground of the graveyard beneath him. No longer could he feel the claws of the beast, instead he could feel a cool and comforting breeze on his cheek. Many times he had awakened in this exact same spot after suffering from countless terrible fates, but never before had it ever felt so comfortable.
Surrounding him were the graves of the many hunters who had come before him. All of whom had resided to their fate. After suffering so many deaths and so many failures. They had just lost the will to continue on, and now rested here in an eternal dream. Maybe he too would join them in that dream.
When he first awakened from death at the hands of the cleric beast, only to learn that he would be reborn again and again until either he gave up or he had brought an end to this eternal night, he thought that this would be easy. Being that he was effectively immortal, nothing could stand in his way. He had merely thought that all of the other hunters who came before him were just weak willed and gave up too easily. Now though, he was beginning to understand their torment.
"You should get up, good hunter."
"Huh?" Knowing whom the soft and soothing voice belonged to, the Hunter tilted his head slightly to find the piercing grey eyes of the porcelain-skinned doll staring down at him. Her white hair dangled along the sides of her face while she leaned over him, staring at him with her ever present vacant expression.
"I said you should get up, good hunter." Neither her expression nor her words shifted from before.
"In a little while." The Hunter sighed. "I just want to lay here for a little while longer."
"The last hunter who said that now rests over there." Raising one of her ball-jointed hands, she pointed towards a lonely tombstone on the far end of the graveyard. The name on the marker had long since faded away, leaving it unknown to the Hunter whom that person was before giving in to their fate.
"Please, just let me rest here." He sighed, placing a gloved hand across his chest. "I'm just so… tired."
"You may do as you wish, good hunter. I am merely here to assist you should you need my help." The Doll's gaze shifted from the Hunter and towards the endless fog that surrounded the Hunter's Dream. Her expression remained neutral, giving no signs as to what was going through her mind. "However, I will let it be known that I have no desire to see you perish here, just as so many others have before you."
"I'm not going to give up and die here, if that's what you're worried about." The Hunter replied, grunting and groaning as he pulled himself up against a tombstone, resting his back against it.
"Good hunter, I would like to believe you, but I have heard those words countless times before, and every time the men and women who spoke those words did exactly that. They have given up and now rest here forever trapped in the Hunter's Dream."
"Look… I just…" The Hunter brought his gaze upon the numerous headstones before him and then lowered his head back down. "It's just so hard… I've died again, and again, and again. No matter what I do, I just can't defeat that beast. It's just too strong."
"Isn't that what you also said about the beast you fought on the great bridge?"
"That was different." He replied. "True, that creature was imposing, but I could at least read its movements. I could pick out its weak spots and exploit them. This thing though… It's just impossible. I can't read its movements. I can't predict what it'll do next. All I can do is hope to keep it at a distance with my whip, but even then, the thing is so damn fast that I can hardly react in time when it tries to close the distance between us."
"I apologize, good hunter. I did not realize that the creature was impossible for you to defeat." Her tone was far too dry to be meant as a jab or an insult, but that didn't make her words sting any less. If anything, it only made them hurt worse.
Letting another sigh escape, the Hunter let his head fall back against the tombstone.
"It's not impossible." He said. "I had it beaten. I just got too bold and tried to finish it off up close instead of keeping it at range."
"If you know it to not be impossible, then why do you continue to rest here?" The Doll asked, folding her hands in front of her.
"Because I don't want to die again."
"Good hunter, I will not make any false promises. This will likely not be the last time that you die on this journey. However just because your enemies can kill you, that does not mean that they can defeat you. In Hunter's Dream, only you are the one who can decide when you've been defeated.
"That doesn't make the pain of dying hurt any less."
"No." The Doll replied. "No, it doesn't. I suppose." The Doll lowered her head and looked down at her feet with an empty stare while the Hunter looked up at the sky with hopeless eyes. For a moment they remained in silence, leaving nothing to be heard but the faint sound of the wind and the occasional murmuring of the messengers that lurked about.
After a moment though, the grass around the Doll's feet shifted as she lowered herself onto the ground and took a seat next to the Hunter, resting her back against the tombstone as well.
"Even so..." She spoke up, breaking the silence. "Though the feeling of dying will always hurt, so long as you don't give up and continue forth, you will at least be able to feel. Let it be the pain of a sword going through you, or the cool breeze on your skin." The Doll paused for a moment, bringing her jointed hands before her, staring into their porcelain structure. "Or even the warmth of another. You will always have that as long as you continue on. If you give in though, you won't ever be able to feel again." Turning her head, she looked amongst all of the graves before her. "All you will be able to do is dream."
"Is it worth it, though? Is it worth continuing on if there will be so much pain?"
"I think so." She said, lowering her hands onto her lap.
"But you're a doll… I mean…" The Hunter halted himself, taking a moment to think of a way to restate his thoughts. "Do you even know what it's like to feel anything?"
"No. I don't. But that is also why I think it is worth continuing on. I can only dream of what it is like to feel anything." She paused for a moment as her expression shifted a bit. Her eyes widened briefly as if she were considering something, but her neutral expression returned as she reared her head to face the Hunter. "Does that perhaps mean that you dream of what it would be like to feel nothing at all?"
"Of course not." The answer came easier than both he and the Doll thought it would.
"Then answer me, good hunter. Why is it that you still sit here?"
"I guess there isn't one." He sighed, pulling himself back onto his feet. Once up, he extended a hand out to the Doll to help her up, which she accepted.
"Always remember that, Good Hunter. As long as you continue to feel, even if it is pain, then there is still hope for you to escape this dream."
The two made their way across the graveyard and towards the headstones along the stairs leading up to the workshop. The Hunter took a knee next to the one at the base of the stairs, ready to be transported back to Old Yharnam, where the crazed beast awaited him in the chapel, while the Doll stood closely behind him.
"Before I go, can I ask you something?" The Hunter asked, turning around to face the Doll.
"Of course, good hunter."
"You said that you dream of what it would be like to feel things. Well, I was jut wondering… Do you… dream?"
The Hunter noticed the Doll's expression shift slightly at his question. Her features softened, and lips began to curl into the faintest of smiles. "All the time." She replied
Darkness soon faded around the Hunter, and the Doll's smile vanished into the shadows as he found himself no longer in the comforting solitude of Hunter's Dream, but instead entrapped by the eerie silence that plagued Old Yharnam. Bringing himself to his feet, the Hunter brought his gaze towards the large doors leading to the ruins of the long forgotten district, and cautiously stepped forth.
From the ledge he could see almost the entirety of the area. From afar like this, the view wasn't that bad, really. At first glance one might not have even thought the place to be abandon. Though aged and weathered, the structures had maintained themselves quite well all things considering. However there was no time to gawk. He had a duty to fulfill.
Stepping from the ledge, the Hunter dropped down onto the roof of a building a few feet below him, bringing him ever so closer to ground level. Hopping down from the roof, and onto the walkway below, he landed in front of a doorway leading into a dimly lit staircase.
Taking great care to observe his surroundings, he stalked down the stairwell, only coming across two of Old Yahrnam's monstrous inhabitants. The Hunter appeared to go unnoticed by the first, but the second one had to be hastily dealt with since it stood in his way.
After making it to the bottom of the stairwell, he proceeded outside, sneaking past a wolf beast as he continued towards the chapel. Though he was certain he could defeat the creature, he knew he had to reserve his strength for the fight that was to come.
After slipping by another monstrous inhabitant, nothing more stood between him and his destination. Realizing that he finally had a moments peace, he took this time to consider the Doll's words from earlier. She said that no matter how many times he died at the hands of his enemies, they'd never truly be able to defeat him. Though at first this seemed like little more than hopeless words of inspiration, the more he considered it, the more weight they began to carry.
Though he had fallen to this beast numerous times before, each time he always managed to do a little bit better than the time before. For each death he endured, he grew a little bit stronger. A little bit wiser. A little bit better. Every death was just another chance for him to try again. And if he failed again, then he could just try, try, try, and try again until victory was his.
Even if the pain of death was excruciating, it was never permanent, and whenever he awakened in Hunter's Dream afterwards, he'd be met by the soft breeze and the sweet smell of dew; a reminder that he was still alive, and would continue living so long as he chose to carry on.
Pulling off his gloves, the Hunter took hold of his cane, feeling the cold steel that composed its handle as he swished it through the air, extending it into its notched whip form. With his other, he took hold of his blunderbuss, feeling the rough wooden stock and smooth metal of the trigger assembly as his grip around it tightened.
The chapel sat along the bottom of the hill, where he knew the flesh veiled beast awaited him. With bound determination in his steps, he marched forward with great resolve and a revitalized will. Stepping through the threshold and onto the marble floor of the chapel, he saw the beast on the far end of the building, snarling and flaring its vicious teeth.
Feeling his heart race and the blood beginning to pump through his veins, the Hunter prepared himself as the beast rushed towards him on all fours. Like a rabid dog it leapt into the air just as the Hunter swung his whip. The strike landed true, and caused the creature to misjudge his target as it landed on the floor a few meters away from the Hunter.
The monster let out a growl as it began to stalk along the chapel, keeping the Hunter locked in its gaze. However, the Hunter did not falter. Instead he stood strong and began searching for another opening in his prey.
"You can kill me again, and again, and again, but you'll never defeat me. I am the Hunter, and you are my prey. I have nothing to fear of you, and I will destroy you. Even if it takes me a thousand tries. I won't give up."
The beast let out another growl as it rushed the Hunter. Ready to meet his prey head-to-head, the Hunter stepped forward into the attack, managing to slip through the monster's claws. Lunging back, he flung his whip forward, aiming for the head.
Though the Hunter was unsure of how this battle would end, he knew for certain what the final outcome would ultimately be. He would defeat this beast. He would destroy his enemy. He would slaughter his prey. Even if he had to endure a thousand more deaths to succeed, he knew he would win eventually, and he was ready for that.
For as long as he carried on, he would continue living, and as long as he continued living, he continued feeling, and as long as he continued feeling, then there was still hope that he could escape this Hunter's Dream.
That in and of itself was all he needed to continue on. As long as he chose to endure, then there was still hope, and hope was all he needed to face any of the obstacles that stood in his way. Be they Gods or monsters, he would defeat them all.
Then, and only then, could he finally awaken from this Hunter's Dream.