Chapter 24

"Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation."

Book of the Healing Church 1:3

Fredricx hissed out a breath, gripping the cane harshly in his palm. The moonlight eyes surveyed him from his coat to the cane. Moreover, the beasts probably smelled him, wrenched body order with that distinctly sour tinge of blood.

Once they had made up their mind, one screeched, setting off a choir of other screaming. It was quite literally deafening as the screeching reverberated off stone and turned into ringing, which was so blaring that the creatures seemed to move silently through the water. Twisting and grappling, the beasts used large forearms to drag themselves forward, trapping Fredricx against the wall. The ladder was just barely too far from reach, how lucky.

The nearest beasts dug their claws through his trouser legs and kissed the meat of his calves and thighs. It was piercing, but that would be the least of his problems if the creatures would be able to buckle him to his knees and parallel him with the horizon.

Thankfully, the closest one could not stand a skewering through the forehead. Yellow eyes lost their life as the beast crumbled. Red, like a rushing river, spread down the wrinkles and contaminated the water. This was successful for a few of the creatures, but this method decreased in effectiveness as the beasts had no regard for their dead and scrambled on top of the deceased to hook and drag at Fredricx.

With more of their nails dug into his flesh, he did the scrambling this time. Jerking and spasming, he ripped free from some hands before toppling into the shallow water. Regardless of the water's depths, this was quite enough to drown Fredricx in this situation as he guzzled down the water like fluid in trade of air. The beasts pressed down on him with what seemed and felt like their entire beings. The weight might have been enough, disregarding the water altogether.

He scraped all his limbs, straining to even get just one nostril above water. The cane was abandoned in favor of using his arms to crawl forward. He took a lesson from these beasts and slammed his elbows against the bottom of the aqueducts to prop himself up ever so slightly. Tingles shot to his fingers, causing him to seize for moment.

The air was crisp and putrid, but in this moment, it was a breath from heaven. The quick breath was overtaken by bodily rejection of the water being ejected from the wrong parts of his insides. Intensified by the beasts, he thought the coughing was going to make him vomit.

Having gained just a little momentum, he groped his way forward ever so slightly and twisted onto his side. This dislodged some of the weight, but not the limbs raked into his backside. Taking advantage of his boots, he stomped the beasts within reach as forcefully as possible. This was just enough to grab the cane on his way up to standing and conscript the release of the beasts. However, they did not release delicately. Instead, punctures lengthened considerably.

Again, they screeched at him as Fredricx retreated further from the ladder. He willed the cane into a whip, striking it back and forth as Adullam had done with no avail. Frustrated was an understatement. The beasts would topple him again, but this time, he was not sure if the adrenaline would give him enough of a fighting chance.

The Hunter struck the weapon in every direction, and taking the opportunity to ram through some of the beasts. The staggering gave him just enough time to wrench the stubborn cane into its alternate form. The links popped free, spreading a line of biting shards widely about his legs.

Fredricx let out a breath of luck before thrashing the whip about vehemently. In fact, there was little thought given to the drag of the coils at all. The beasts probably gave mind to it though.

Crackling as it connected over and over again. The sound might have been from the links whistling through the space or the jingle together of shards. The sound could have more internal and organic.

The approximate dozen had slouched into a measly couple, whose long, wrinkled bodies were quickly just that. Not wishing to be surprised, Fredricx surveyed the aqueducts. Moonlight barely scratched the water as the city loomed far above, blocking most of the precious light. The water was stilling, and red seemed to float on the surface around the corpses. It grew even quieter as the water sent out less and less rings.

"Fred," Adullam cheered, "You had me worried there to begin with, but I knew you could handle it." He was standing on the next platform above the level of water, beaming visible by the folds of his mask.

"I almost drowned, and you just stood there," Fredricx hissed.

There was a head shake and chuckle. "Yes, but you were fine. Let's go. I still want to show you the bell."

With fight response grinding to a halt in Fredricx's veins, he could feel the sliding of droplets down his face and beard, the stiffness of the clothes stuck to his form, and the leather coat weighed down by its own cistern of water. Most of all, the water like fluid covered his person in itchiness. However, all of this was secondary or even tertiary to the gouges in his legs and back.

Fredricx was grateful that he had lied to Gascoigne and fiddled around for one of the blood vials in his deep pockets. It was uncapped and injected into the center of the worst visible puncture. The excruciation piddled off to a minor discomfort. This blood was truly amazing, patching wounds in minutes, untiring muscles, and the euphoria was comparable to nothing else.

Adullam had already left him on the first platform and was climbing up the comically long ladder, which was an engineering oddity of its own. Fredricx followed after. The mouth led out into a residential street. Apartment windows, covered by curtains and wrought iron, were lit up with that yellow lantern glow. Pinkish, sugary smelling incense burned in doorways. This was enough to make Fredricx's nose crinkle.

As the pair passed window after window, they paid no mind to the hushed tones or to the fervent praying. However, one window caught Fredricx's attention.

A curtain slid open, revealing a small girl with such blonde hair and pallid skin that she looked brittle. Her eyes made Fredricx stop and stare back, and the cane became just that. She was young, so young.

"Who... are you?" she squeaked, placing a small hand against the window on her side of the glass.

"Name's Fredricx."

Crystal irises bore through his very person. She, for a lack of better words, was sizing him up. "I don't know your voice, but I know that smell," she began with much hesitation, "Are you a Hunter?"

He nodded.

"Then, please, will you look for my mum?"

His silence was interrupted by a lack of such from Adullam, "We do not have the moonlight. There's much to do."

The tiny girl's gaze ripped back and forth from Fredricx to Adullam and back again. It was as if her look was a cry for Fredricx to reject Adullam's words and give a more favorable, comforting answer.

Almost, Fredricx fell for it. The twinge in his morality dissolved into realism. She would never be found in this hulking city, and besides, Ettie was his top priority, wife before a random stranger.

With that, he trailed after Adullam, whose patience had already run thin.

The girl had decided it was not the end of the matter. She screamed after them, "Daddy never came back from the hunt, and mum went to find him, but now she's gone, too... I'm all alone... and scared..."

"Should we?" Fredricx asked.

"No. Kosm has already seen the resolution in the matter."

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Other beasts were downed with relative easy if the difficulty was averaged between Adullam and Fredricx.

Adullam was skilled, slicing clean through bone of beasts humanoid and otherwise. However, this did not stop him from deliberately allowing Fredricx to take the literal and figurative fall over and over.

"It's practice," he charmed.

This so fluidly formed at his lips over and over, which was simple enough when he was barely scathed, and Fredricx was panting, dripping sweat and blood.

As they fought, the beckoning bell rang again and again. The beasts paid no mind at all to its high, flinch worthy frequencies. However, it seemed to get louder as they were getting close to it. This was not the only thing they were getting closer to. The bell ringing was complemented by howling. The screeches were so piercing and lengthy that the owner must have been titanic.

Having come out on a ledge, overlooking one of the Grand Cathedral's entrances on a ceremoniously long bridge, there was the titanicest beast Fredricx had ever seen or even imagined to have seen.

To say it was tall would have been a gross underestimation, but it was tall. Standing bipedal, it rivaled the height of a steamboat and was taller than many of the buildings in Yharnam.

The antlers were as thick as tree trunks, and its external rib cage could probably fit a few devoured Hunters inside. The beast was equipped with one particularly beefy arm with horrendous claws. They would put marks so deep that the little yellow eyed beasts' scratches would feel like it had not broken the skin at all. It was shrouded by dense silver fur that itself could likely take a beating.

When it roared, the beast revealed gushing red teeth with broken sections. It was also littered with cuts on its legs and torso. Where had the lacerations come from?

Two Hunters were wailing on it at ground level. One of them was Gascoigne, who was made obvious by his tattered black coat and wispy scarf, not to mention the hefty ax. The other?

"I will only say this once, Fred," Adullam offered.

Curiously, Fredricx looked at the back of Adullam's hat.

"I was wrong about this particular bell ringer. Shall we join them?"

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He wanted to mock Adullam, but resolved to gawk at the beast. It was enormous and otherworldly. As if the man sized beasts were not mythical enough, there were ones that were several stories high, and Adullam seemed unfazed.

"We will just need to leave as quickly once the beast has been leveled, but the blood will be hefty," Adullam continued nonchalantly before looking back at him, "You'll be fine as long as you do not catch the stray or purposeful blade of a Hunter."

With no more words, Adullam sprinted toward the ledge and sprung off. While suspended in the air, the blade was unsheathed and drug across the inside of his arm. The sword lit up with the Hunter's blood, whistling as they moved in unison. Skillfully, Adullam landed, but not on the ground. That would have been too simple, and even in the short time that Fredricx had known him, he could tell the Hunter had a flair for the dramatic. In fashion, Adullam landed on the hunched back of the beast, causing it to thrash violently, but not before his blade disappeared into its body and trailed down with him to the cobblestone.

Before Adullam's boots connected with the ground, it attempted a revenge swing. Like a shadow, Adullam sidestepped, avoiding it altogether. Gascoigne took the free moment to connect the ax with one of the creature's grotesque feet if its appendages could be described in such humanoid terms. The other Hunter drew and used several blood vials.

Not feeling as lucky as Adullam, Fredricx lowered himself from the upper to the bridge below. He landed with a clunk.

Cursing himself for still not having a firearm, he swore to himself and to the Queen herself and to any deity itself. No firearm, in combination with the thin whip, Fredricx wondered if he would be any more than an annoyance to the beast or to the other Hunters as they, especially Adullam and Gascoigne, moved with such fluidity.

It roared at the four of them, swiping and knocking Gascoigne to the ground. The beast threatened to squash him, but remaining came to his aid. In an instant, Adullam threw himself over Gascoigne, kneeling over top of his person and bracing his weapon skyward. In true fashion, the foot of the beast came down, spearing and then quickly recoiling itself.

Fredricx and the other Hunter were toward the far side as the beast staggered and landed on its buttocks and elbows. The weapon became a cane, and Fredricx pierced through the thin forearm of the monster. This was not without recoil as it decided to take penitence on him instead of any of the other Hunters. The far arm came up and around. It was an open palm that chased after him, scooping and binding up Fredricx in its fist despite his primary attempt of fleeing and secondary attempt of stabbing.

He had drawn up the cane by its slick middle and was jamming it over and over into the knuckles of the creature. It lifted him from the comfort of the ground, and spittle redrenched his person, soaking his face when it roared at him. These teeth looked even less friendly up close. Surely, it would eat him dead if the squeezing did not do him in first. The tension in his ribcage was unbearable, shifting organs in places they did not belong.

Soon, however, the beast had to select between finishing off Fredricx and defending the rest of itself. He could hear the shouting and weapon wielding below from the Hunters. With a pitchy shriek, its grip loosened, but not before a motion of the elbow sent him hurtling. The cane was lost. The sound of the wind was lost. Finally, the consciousness was lost as Fredricx made heavy contact with a streetpost, practically wrapping himself around it on impact. At least, he had not been thrown off the bridge.

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"Welcome home, Good Hunter."

His eyes gritted after a partial peek, closed, and then surrendered to the outside world. It was the same house with the same white flowers with the same headstones with the same woman with the same gentle breeze. He forced himself to stand, causing the woman to give a slight curtsy.

"Stay a while, Good Hunter. Rest your sickly bones."

This was no time for rest. Placing hands on his lower back, he gave a stretch and push, sending satisfying pops and cracks up his spine.

"I need to get back." He was not sure on why he insisted on relative politeness to his hallucinations. Obviously, the woman was not real. Her eyes were technical, but at the same time maternal. Not to mention the endless sky over the small iron fences that surrounded the house. It was not real, hallucinations conjured up by a blood confused mind.

Dainty fingers appeared out of her shawl and gave a full handed gesture to the familiar headstone. Fredricxon Vinge. He knew what to do, or it had least worked up to this point. Kneeling beside it, he waited for the nausea to fill him, and it did.

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