It was pretty clear I was outmatched. The instant my bugs died I stowed my axe as I let out an almost repressed sigh, then pulled out a strip of paper that Eileen had given me what felt like a really long time ago. I pressed it to my head and saw that symbol, the one that almost reminded me of a hanged man. The Hunter's mark. It pulled me under and I let my body fail to maintain itself as my mind drifted to 'sleep'.
The beast's electrically charged claw came down on my instants after I was no longer physical enough to be affected by material blows. My eyes lasted longer than I thought they would, and I was treated to an up close view of its sunken face before I stumbled forward into the garden of the Hunter Dream. Its stench, unfortunately, lingered.
Ozone still filled my nose. I felt justified in kicking a nearby stone and yelling, "Fuck!"
Doll, who wasn't sitting too far from my outburst, jolted awake. She resumed her calm demeanor quickly, and rose to her feet far slower and more gracefully than I think I ever had. "Is something the matter, Taylor?"
I breathed. "More beasts." I explained, repressing the urge to kick another, less important stone.
"You do not enjoy hunting beasts?" Doll questioned.
I rounded on her. "Don't you start too. I've got Gehrman and Teilgean on my case already. Everyone else is always crowing on about it too, and I can't even communicate to them so I can't exactly tell them to stop. Meanwhile I'm trying to find some goddamn answers, and what I get for it is a kidnapping and instructions to hunt a beast that has lightning shooting off of it. Which, by the way, doesn't even make scientific sense!"
"It was only a question." Doll said calmly in the face of my outburst.
"What do you think?" I waved my hand as I turned away to look at the moon instead of giving a straight answer. I redirected my gaze elsewhere when I felt like it was telling me to hunt too, somehow.
"I think you do not."
"What gave it away?"
"It is good you do not enjoy it." Doll told me. "The best hunters never find joy in bringing death to those that need it."
"You almost had me calmed down," I said, "Then you ruined it."
"Only the best hunters make it to an old age." She continued. "This dream will not sustain you forever. Once you are done with it, as it will be done with you, your paths will diverge."
"And where does that leave me?" I asked sardonically. "Do I get a grave in a good spot?"
"No." Doll said both calmly and definitively. It was incredibly hard to make her get excited about anything. That was part of why I found myself calming down so quickly. I turned around curiously, asking a question without speaking.
"There will be a marker of your presence within this dream," Doll explained, "But you will persist, as all hunters before you have."
That explained Eileen then. Actually, that was a connection I should've made earlier. If she had a grave, but still existed in Yharnam, then clearly I would continue is some capacity once whatever it was I was doing was done. It was hardly a comforting thought.
"So I do get a second chance…" That was not the bag of cookies most people thought it to be. For me, at least. What I had done back on Bet was unforgivable. That I had made peace with it was irrelevant. The capes that remained would be on the lookout for me, and they wouldn't be happy if the knew I was alive.
Come to think of it, did they even know I was alive?
I thought of Lisa, Rachel, Bryan, Aisha. Theo. In all fairness, it was probably better if they didn't figure out my eventual fate. Whatever conclusions they had come to, it would be for the best if I just left them there. I cleared my throat and lifted my hand to the familiar position.
"Close your eyes," Doll told me in ritual. "Let the echoes become your strength."
I obeyed before her power could pull me into a false calm and made me need a reminder. "There should be seven echoes of a similar nature. They'll be strong, unnaturally so, and they should have a talent for the arcane as well."
"Ah," Doll murmured as I felt several somethings rushing through my veins. "I believe I have found them. They possess great strength indeed, as well as the talent for arcane you described. Although, the talent they possess is not nearly as impressive as the strength in their bodies."
"I have enough strength." I told her. "I want their talents."
And just like that, I became another Victor. One that took a blood price instead of leaving his victims talentless but alive.
"You have a great many more echoes at this time." Doll told me before using her power. "Where would you prefer they be directed?"
"The ones that are best used for my constitution should go there." I said darkly, recalling a fuzzy scene I couldn't quite remember where I literally got conked over the head. "Actually, put all the rest there too. I don't want another headache like the one I just got."
"Of course." Doll allowed her power to run its course and once again Visions flew past my eyes. Like before, I watched them, only this time I made an effort to observe all of them at once. Well, seven in particular.
The bag men had started out as simple Yharnamites. Family men and labourers. Each of them had a distinct memory of being taken in a similar way to how I had been taken, and then there were flashes that were all too familiar to me. Having their bodies cut open and operated on. There were a lot of those. There were almost as many where I saw important looking figures reading from a book, though the words they said were faded.
About those figures, I noticed something interesting. The garb they wore was almost identical to that of the woman I found in the basement, which was similar to what I remembered Gascoigne wearing. It not only confirmed my suspicion that the Healing Church was responsible, but it gave me reason to hate it. After all, now I had memories of being mutilated and tortured by them.
I let out a breath. "Thank you Doll."
"Of course, Taylor." Doll rose, her eyes lingering on my arm.
I eyed it, then shoved Maria's bone in there. If it lasted longer than before, then I was heading down the right track. "Tell me. Did the other hunters relive the echoes when you did this with them?"
Doll tilted her head. "They did not say."
"Hm." I'd ask Eileen if I saw her again. I looked at the workshop. "I think it's time I started taking care of my weapons."
My collection of bloodstones had only grown since I picked up my first few and I had since started leaving them sitting in a chest in the dream. I still didn't know how they worked, but I was not looking forward to facing down that lighting beast without securing every available advantage. Doll didn't have the knowledge to be helpful, but there were books, and if push came to shove I was certain Gherman would be more than eager to help me get it right.
That turned out to be exactly what happened. After spending an hour getting frustrated and wasting three rocks, I shut the book and got the old man to help. He suggested I split the bloodstone enhancements between two weapons, seeing as bloodstones of a certain size only allowed a certain amount of improvement before requiring coagulated blood of a larger size.
That's how I interpreted it anyway. It was quite simple once you realised all the little anecdotes Gherman put in were irrelevant. Once I filtered everything out, I had a new appreciation for how serrated weapons more easily bit into the bones of beasts, and how bolt would be more effective against unbeastly foes that weren't human. It was strangely specific of him to say that, but the advice regarding a diversified arsenal was sound, so I made my picks.
My axe and the taser ball. Maybe I should've enhanced the saw cleaver for the fight against the lightning beast, but I felt more of a connection to the other two. The mystic arm I had been blessed with shattered about halfway through the procedure. That proved there was truth in Teilgean's words, though I worried that using the echoes of my current prey would make an otherwise standard if misty arm also light up in electricity.
Only one way to know.
After that it was back to the lightning beast that defied physics. All too soon I was watching it rise from a sleeping position once more. It slowly and dramatically took its time getting up and subsequently lighting itself up, and while it did that I walked closer to I could get into a good position to hack at it. This time I kept my bugs off of it for the most part, and instead of climbing all over it, had them try messing up its footing. Results were minimal, to say the least.
That is, until I used my axe to forcefully trip it by straight up removing half a limb. I had half a second to duck out from underneath the beast as it fell, which I nearly wasted appreciating how effectively my axe was cutting now. There must have been something insulating it on the bottom of its feet, because the moment it hit the ground all the lightning that was shooting off of it dissipated.
It wasn't the only vector through the lightning travelled. My axe was made of metal and metal tended to be conductive. Thankfully, it had a non-metal grip, so I came away largely unhindered from striking the charged creature. The worst I had to deal with was a warm handle and a smell of burning that was eclipsed by pure ozone.
As much as I tried to destroy its head while I had the chance, the lightning beast was hardier that I was able to destroy. It was back on its feet before long, then it was swinging down at me with the limb I cut off and I dodged in to give it another strike of my own. Since it didn't seem to be lighting itself up again, I had my bugs climb on it, but kept the majority of them in the back.
Most of these beasts seemed to be the result of uncontrolled growth. That just resulted in them having overextended reach. It wasn't true for all of them, but it was a general rule of thumb that being close to a beast was actually safer than being at arms length, so long as you were actively dodging or trying to kill it.
That wasn't true for all of them. As with all rules, there were exceptions. Not that I was saying this lightning beast was an exception. It did manage to get a few lucky hits every now and then. As seemed to be the theme with my larger prey, each of those hits sent me flying. After each one I had to heal up, even despite the fact that I'd hardened my body up between fighting the cleric beast and this thing.
That being said, I wasn't feeling nearly as much tension fighting this thing as I did the beast of the bridge. I had a weapon I was more comfortable with, I had more strength and more speed, and I had significantly more blood vials available this far into the fight compared to when I fought the other oversized beast.
It was nearly over when the beast lit up with lightning again and swung at me with it's shortened limb. Only it wasn't shortened anymore and I didn't dodge back enough. I narrowed my eyes at the healed claw that now had my blood on it, then got pissed off as the beast howled and lit itself up once more.
I jabbed the blood vial into my leg and ignored my mad giggling as I crouched low and darted back in. It bit at me with its sunken jaw, but that was much easier to dodge than a limb that I thought was missing. In moments, I was back at its leg and preparing to swing.
My bugs warned me retribution was on its way and I dodged away, only I went in the wrong direction. It was a failure of exhaustion. My bugs afforded me a perspective of the battlefield that was difficult to put to words, but it let me know which direction the strike was coming from, and I dodged into towards it instead of away. I didn't close my eyes and watched the blow that would put me on death's door once more approach and… pass.
I blinked. That should have hit me.
There was no time to ponder on why I was fine or the implications, as the beast was coming back for more. There were precious moments where I was in the perfect position to strike as the oversized thing repositioned to hit me. I didn't let it, and the beast had three and a half limbed once more.
It hit the ground. I beheaded it, then waited. That seemed to be enough.
My thoughts troubled me as the beast started dissolving into two specks of silver light. That strike that should've hit me, frankly, but it didn't. It didn't feel like a power. There was no flashy effect of sound or light, and it didn't feel like I tapped into anything. I just moved and the attack failed to connect. If there was something supernatural going on, it was so subtle that it almost wasn't noticeable to the user, and was as easy to do as clenching one's fist.
If it was momentarily phasing out of existence like I thought it was, then that was useful. The only question was why?
I lit the lamp as I thought on that and then picked up the other object, a blue crystal suspended in a metal ring meant to hang from a necklace. I paused, looking at it, then let myself think out loud.
"How did I dodge Darkbeast Paarl?"
Disturbing. That was knowledge I had no way of knowing, yet there it was. I had discussed this beast with precisely two people, neither of which had mentioned its name. Either defeating the beast and having its echoes flowing through my veins was enough for that knowledge to be imparted, or it was my handling of this crystal that did that.
The only thing was, that sounded suspiciously like telepathy. The only thing I knew of that imparted influence on the minds of others with that level of subtlety was the Simurgh, though there were words to be said about that thing's interpretation of subtlety. Nebulous, for one.
What was bothering me in the moment was that the knowledge could be traced. I killed the thing, then I learned its name. The new power on the other hand… where did it come from? When did it appear? Why was I getting new powers without triggering?
All that and more coursed through my head, but they were just more questions, and this time I didn't even have the virtue of having some answers. Only questions. I set that all aside for now and went to make myself an arm.
~drip~dripdrip~drip~
o** ****u***a***n *s ****ci**t
The echoes flew past and I barely understood them. What little I was able to glean, however, was that Paarl had been studied. There were multiple memories of a figure dressed in hunter garb I wasn't familiar with fighting the beast, but not to the death for whatever reason. My perspective fought the hunter in ways I never could, and more than once I saw the crystal I picked up hanging from his belt like a trophy.
In the memory, it sparked. The hunter wrote in a book instead of wielding a weapon. The sight gave me an idea.
I had no idea if it would work, but I shoved two things into the manifesting limb this time. Maria's bone, and the blue crystal. As it had done multiple times already, the lines of my skin fractured to let the foriegn objects in, but took them with earnest once the mist surrounded the items. Unlike what it had done before, the mist crackled briefly with electricity.
The sparks ran along the length of the limb and hastened the hardening of the mist inside. Just like that, I had my right arm again. But I didn't know if it was still fragile. So to test it, I hit it with all the strength of my left.
"Argh!" I immediately started cradling the arm. That stung like a bitch.
Doll, who was watching in curiosity, covered her mouth with a masterfully carved hand to hide her tittering. But covering the mouth did nothing to stop the sounds coming from within. I shot her an indignant look as I got used to feeling complete again.
It was strange. The arm wasn't my old one and I could tell. I had no way to compare it to others that had prosthetic arms, seeing as I hadn't had the time to get one back on Bet, but what I was feeling at the moment almost made me think I had five limbs. As I had just reaffirmed, the projected arm had feeling, but that didn't stop the ache that came from having lost a limb.
I couldn't get over the disparity of having an arm at the same time as not having one, though I wasn't complaining. This was much better than the alternative. I got over the pain and started flexing the arm, testing its range of movement. Overall, it was good. My old arm had been lost long enough ago that I couldn't one hundred percent recall how it felt compared to this one, but it was coming to me as easily as using the one I had left.
"Congratulations, Taylor." Doll told me once she got over herself. "It pained me to see you struggling. I'm honoured to have been able to help you as I have."
"The struggle is far from over." I said, "But thanks." It was a short and awkward way to thank someone that had just restored a limb to me, but in all honesty I was somewhat glad that Doll hadn't gone for the low hanging fruit like Teilgean would have. I was worried that would change if I said anything on the matter, so I kept my mouth shut.