I was screaming.

The blood had taken hold in an instant and I could feel it ripping through my body, finding things to fix, things that were just wrong, and things that could be better. It got it's bloody grip into everything of me. I staggered at the sensation and went for the wall to get support, something to lean against.

I didn't make it and fell down the stairs instead. Each bruise, each ache, and each scratch that I gained on the way down was snatched by the blood. I ended up lying at the bottom of the staircase, unable to move...

Giggling.

What? It was ticklish.

The rush had been, well, a rush. Oh lord, that felt so good. There was a rustic taste that had appeared at the back of my throat that reminded me of the experience, causing my giggles to intensify. This was a better feeling than junkies in my old territory had described. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. I was still feeling good, it was as if I had been aching so much but hadn't realised it, then found relief.

That was probably exactly it, actually. I felt great.

My old territory. I stopped giggling. I had territory. Had had territory, past tense. I had been a warlord. It was such a long time ago, but it definitely happened. Those days hadn't been taken from me. There was so much that hadn't been taken from me.

I heard movement in the next room and tracked it with my bugs. The beast, it heard me giggling and was coming to investigate. It would kill me as quickly as it had the last two times if I didn't do anything. Damnit, I wanted to think.

I stood, this time moving at a speed much more familiar to me. While I sorted myself out, pulling the saw cleaver from my belt and swinging it with my old, more familiar strength, I sicced all my bugs on the beast. This time making sure to spread them out.

Instead of dying in droves, they were dying in twos and threes. Better. They were successfully distracting the beast from my presence, turning its actions to something resembling what it had been doing the last time it killed me.

I crouched and snuck into the room when the beast was on the farther side. I came to a stop in the same place I had been before and gathered bugs next to me. When there were a reasonable amount I had them start buzzing and gathering attention. In a flash the beast was on them and I launched my sneak attack.

My saw cleaver was heavier than what I was used to, even with my muscles miraculously returned to me. The blood hadn't regrown my arm, which would have been nice, but since it hadn't I was swinging with my off hand. Because of that as well as a lack of practice using the thing, the beast nearly dodged my attack and I only got a few inches of the blade into its neck on the downswing.

It dodged away, blood spurting from the wound. The first wound I had inflicted upon it. This wasn't an impossible fight.

Only… the beast was bigger now. The purple mist trail that had taken over the beast's eyes since last time were still there, and could have been even more intense than before. The size of the beast had increased too. It was about one tenth larger than it used to be.

A small number to think about, but when the original size was already larger than me, the sudden difference in height was pretty damn noticeable. It glared at me and snapped its jaws. I felt it tense through the bugs biting at its legs and dodged to the side at the same time as it leaped at me. Unfortunately I was dodging to my left, so I wasn't in a good position to give it another knick with my saw blade.

It crashed into another operating table and sent the contents scattering across the floor while the table itself hit the wall. It was stronger now. It had killed me twice and grown fat with strength.

Three things.

First, that didn't even make fucking sense.

Second, that was bullshit.

Third, that meant this was an uphill battle. I had been fighting those for years.

This beast was fucked.

But not yet. I had nicked its neck and I was tracking the bloodflow from there, but it wouldn't cause the beast to bleed out anytime soon. Cover was going to be useless if the operating table was any indication. A straight offencive wouldn't end well, since those claws would incapacitate me with a single swipe. I would need to dodge to my right if I wanted to catch the beast with a counterattack.

My tactic was basically to throw my sword and have it trip on it, but the beast was-

It was tensing its muscles. I immediately dodged to my right and slashed to my left, my efforts were rewarded when my weapon was nearly ripped from my grip and the sound of a blood spattering met my ears. The beast howled as I turned towards it and reestablished my footing.

Now it was bleeding from two places. It was tensing again.

I dodged and swung out. Another blood spatter. I got ready to dodge again as the beast moved in the same way it did before. It tensed again, I dodged again, it bled more.

The beast howled and started skirting around me. Now that I had drawn blood it was being more cautious. Yet, it didn't seem like it feared me. It might be too dumb for that. It tensed.

I dodged.

Blood spattered on the floor, the beast wasn't learning. That was it, then. I had already won.

Fourteen more times, it charged. Fourteen more times I made it bleed. Even after all that the beast wasn't showing any signs of slowing down. Which was bad, because I was. The entire time my bugs were still gnawing away at its eyes, ears, and hard to reach places. The whole time, it's eyes glowed with that ethereal purple mist. The whole time I was getting more tired.

Another attack. A slow reaction. It didn't swipe me like it had when it killed me, but I was bleeding again. Enraged, I still hit the damn thing before it turned around. Then I kept attacking.

There was no technique to my attacks. No rhythm or style or flourish, just in, then out. Sometimes the saw blade wasn't even facing the right direction to cut, I was hitting the beast even with the flat of the blade.

In the back of my mind I registered that the beast was tensing for another charge through my bugs. I dodged to the side and started walking in the direction it was charging. The beast charged, heedless of my evasive action. When it arrived I continued the assault. Hacking, slashing, making the beast bleed.

It howled and swiped my arm. I was tired, but I kept swinging. The beast tried to bite me and I managed to catch the blade on its maw and pushed it back. It slashed with a claw and I dodged back. Then I cut into its face, managing to catch the blade again and sawed.

It swiped and managed to catch me off guard, but I kept sawing. This thing was nearly dead, I could tell. I wasn't about to try backing off now and get killed again, damnit. If I was going to die, I was taking it with me.

It screeched again and I pushed, cutting the howl short. The beast fell forwards onto me. I was paying attention to muscle movements, so it took me off guard and managed to pin a leg with its body in its final moments. I had sawed into the beast's skull and grey matter was spilling out. Some dripped onto my trouser leg before I managed to free myself.

I wiped it away only to realise that I was filthy. There was no dirt or grime on me, just a little bit of brain juice and a whole lot of blood. Really, there was nowhere in the room that wasn't at least a little covered in red. The beast had maintained its explosive energy all the way to the end.

But now that the beast was dead, I was free to progress.

The next room had a dead guy in it.

I approached and squatted next to him. My bugs had already informed me of his presence, but this was the first time I'd seen him. I knew there was another corpse in the garden outside.

This one was sharply dressed, save for the blood that had spilled from the wound that killed him. His eyes were rolled up in his head and his mouth was hanging open. There was nothing I could do for his mouth, but I did close his eyes. I offered him a quick mental prayer then looted him.

He didn't have much in his pockets, just a coin that caught the light brilliantly at certain angles. I took it, but what he had at his belt interested me much more. There were two red vials there, each already inserted into a contraption like what Iosefka had given me. I made a mental note to thank her the next time I saw her. Even if I couldn't speak properly, I would try. So long as I tried to say it, I would be satisfied.

I moved one of the vials to my own belt, which seemed to be made with the intent of carrying these things, then inspected the other. A sniff at the needle told me it was blood, the stuff on the street that Iosefka had told me about. This was apparently less potent that the vial the clinic doctor had given me, which was a good thing. If each of these vials held a rush like the one Iosefka's had given me, I would have been tempted to use one right there.

Instead, I slipped the blood vial into the second spot on my belt and kept moving. There was another short flight of stairs before I ended up outside in another garden. Like the one that came before it, this one was filled with gravestones, but was less ordered and less alive. I swept through the half-dead, twisted mess, looted the other dead guy and finding some bullets, but no gun, and looked out at the street through the gate.

The other side of the street dropped away, as the level of the ground became a steep decline after several feet. In the distance I could see a great bridge made of brick. It kind of reminded me of London bridge a little. The moon was full and shining it's pale light on stacks and stacks of buildings that were frankly Victorian in design and flanked the gorge that the bridge was built over.

My bugs gave me a more detailed impression of the exact levels of things. Where the road was uneven, where the gaps in the bricks were, and informing me where the larger gaps in the buildings were. They also gave me an impression of horror that I hadn't felt since Brian had his second trigger.

I could feel so many corpses. There were hundreds of maggots in each of them telling me just how delicious they all were. From where I was, I could look to the left and see three or four coffins scattered around an abandoned carriage. The bodies inside were either malformed like the flies were, half eaten by maggots, or both.

To my right was the corpse of a horse that had decomposed to the point that I could see its ribcage. The smell matched the sight. There were at least four more coffins in my reduced range that I couldn't see. Two of said coffins were inside the garden I was standing in. I just hadn't noticed them because the bodies inside had already decomposed.

If this was the state of where I was, what would things be like in the expansive city I found myself in? This was just a drop in the bucket.

Crazed laughter echoed through the street. This was just like the Slaughterhouse Nine.

I couldn't stand around. I needed to move. For all I knew there could be a serial killer right around the corner.

The gate was nearly rusted shut, but I was able to open it with some difficulty. My stump didn't even hold me back that much. Hinges creaked and groaned as I strained to open the gate. Iosefka needed to invest in some oil, this was supposed to be the entrance to a clinic. But if the Victorian equivalent of the Slaughterhouse Nine were in town, I could understand why she hadn't.

My way left was blocked unless I wanted to start climbing on things, but the way to the right was open. There were more abandoned carriages that I eyed warily, not liking the implications of the smashed glass and dead horses.

My bugs told me there was a moving heat source behind one of the carriages. It was unsteady, but was moving at a relatively even speed towards the corner. I decided to stand where I was as he appeared. The man was breathing heavily, and while I didn't have enough bugs around him to get a clear picture, I could tell that he had arms that were disproportionately long for his body.

His clothes were dirty, but not damaged. A striped green vest over a smudged white shirt, both of which were underneath a dark brown, almost black coat. The heat came from a torch that he held before him, making it hard to make out his hat and face. In his other hand he held an axe that made me glad for the distance between us.

He noticed me, yelled, "You!", and charged at me with his axe raised.

Seriously? I hadn't even dwelled on it.

There was murder in his eyes. That much was evident by the tone of his shout and they way he hastened towards me, to say nothing of how he was brandishing the axe. I didn't want to challenge him bodily, so I backed up while my swarm advanced from the sides. He was immediately assaulted by the flies from the horse's corpse.

He closed the distance to about half of what it originally was by the time my bugs really caught up to him. He killed a few with a swing of the torch before continuing his advance on me, but I had already widened the gap and directed bugs to incapacitate him.

The man screamed as he went down, covered in a writhing layer of my minions. The torch and axe clattered to the ground and I parted the bugs around the heat.

His scream wasn't a fearful scream, but a frustrated one. I didn't like the implications. I approached cautiously and kicked the weapons further away. The whole time the man was rolling around on the ground screaming. When he rolled onto his back for a moment I stepped on his torso and called the bugs back a bit.

His attention was immediately fixed on me.

"What's going on?" I asked.

He spat at me. "Foul beast!"

I looked at him. His beard was scraggy, and it kind of reminded me of the beast I had killed.

"If anything you're the beast. Tell me about the hunt." I demanded.

"This is all your fault!" He howled, gripping uselessly at my leg.

"What's my fault?"

He struggled under my weight, hitting my leg with both arms while he kicked uselessly. I called my bugs back to him and lifted my foot off of him. I was expecting him to launch himself at me the moment I did, but he seemed eager to be distracted by the bugs.

I'd seen this kind of crazy before. The kind where someone just attacked everything in sight. Felt it, even. Recently. Killing him would have been a mercy. That's what it was supposed to have been for me, but I couldn't do it.

I walked past and hoped the bugs kept him occupied for long enough for him to forget about me. Hopefully, he didn't have any powers that could threaten what was left of humanity.

I felt safe thinking that. Fuck what happened to me.

The only way that was open to me came to a dead end with two corpses outside of coffins. No, they were sleeping. My bugs could feel the warmth of their breath and the rise and fall that came from it. I almost took my chances and approached, but with the other guy fresh in my mind I decided against it.

Other than that there was a lever, and a closed gate that only seemed operable from the other side. In other words, it was useless to me. I didn't want to go that way anyway, my bugs could sense a really big guy that was carrying a huge axe around with him. Not dragging, carrying. It was a really big axe.

With nothing else to do, I pulled the lever and was rewarded with a ladder dropping down from high above. My hand twitched in annoyance. Climbing that was going to be a hassle.

One very long ladder climb later I was vindicated in the fact that I was right, but exhausted by the fact that I had just climbed up a fucking long ladder while missing one of my limbs. After catching my breath I looked up to see a lamp. It was exactly like the one in Iosefka's clinic, and it was just there in the middle of the path.

Past that, I could see that the path split in two. Left was closed off, while the way to the right was open. I was getting tired of this 'only one way to go' bullshit, and clicked my tongue as I started moving.

Then I paused. There was a lit window just before the gate on the left, and from my bugs I could feel a person sitting in a wheelchair in the room beyond. There was a red lantern outside the window that my bugs didn't like the smell of. I went to the window and knocked.

I waited as the person wheeled themselves over.

"Oh, you must be a Hunter," His voice was young, but frail. Never a good combination. "And not one from around here either. I'm Gilbert, a fellow outsider."

I bristled. Was everyone going to point that out?

"You must have had a fine time of it." Gilbert continued.

"You don't even know." I told him.

"Sorry?" He asked, then coughed. One cough became two, then four. He sounded deathly ill.

I sighed. The guy before, and now Gilbert hadn't understood me, while I could easily comprehend what both were saying. Something was still messed up in my brain. I decided to just let him talk, then I could do charades when he was done.

"Yeah." He chuckled, then coughed. "Yeah, you must have. Yharnam has a special way of treating guests. I don't think I can stand if I wanted to, but I'm willing to help, if there's anything that can be done."

He paused. "This town is cursed." Gilbert's tone was serious. Much more serious than before. "Whatever your reasons might be you should plan a swift exit. Whatever can be gained from this place, it will do more harm than good."

"Tell me about the hunt." I said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Tell me about the hunt."

"You're speaking gibberish to me. Sorry, but I can't help you." Gilbert said that, but he didn't move away.

I couldn't effectively do charades like this. There was a window between us, and it was barred to boot. I couldn't read his expression through my swarm without creeping him out. If I couldn't sign anything to him, maybe I could show him something. After some swift movements I had produced the paper I had woken up to and pressed it against the glass.

There was metallic creaking as Gilbert wheeled himself closer to inspect it.

"Paleblood?" He read aloud. "Hmm… never heard of it."

I pulled the paper back and pocketed it again with a sigh.

"But if it's blood you're interested in, you should try the Healing Church." Gilbert continued, gaining my attention again. "The church controls all knowledge on blood ministration, and all varieties of blood. Across the valley to the east of Yharnam lies the town of the Healing Church, known as the Cathedral Ward. And deep within the Cathedral Ward is the old grand cathedral."

I looked across the valley at the town. It certainly looked grand.

And Victorian.

It didn't look like it had been visited by a gold man recently, either.

"...The birthplace of the Healing Church's special blood, or so they say." Gilbert wasn't finished. "Yharnamites don't share much with outsiders. Normally, they wouldn't let you near this place, but…"

He paused, dragging it out for effect. Gilbert was placing importance on whatever he was about to say.

"The hunt is on tonight. This might be your chance..."