There were two beasts like the one in the clinic on the bridge.
Not one.
Two.
One was hard enough for me to take down by myself. I died twice doing exactly that, and who knew how large the mob that took down the burning beast was. Or how many casualties there were taking it down. From the smell of things, it was still burning.
Anyway.
TWO BEASTS.
I had a dozen or so bullets in reserve after looting another man with some to spare, and I suspected they were made of quicksilver for some reason, that how they felt. Cold and soft. I put that down to the technological progress of Earth Yharm lagging behind. Regardless, I wasn't sure they would be enough to take down both of the creatures.
Did I take a chance and run past? I looked before I leaped, and I was glad I did. There was another brute standing around further down the bridge, covered in bandages much like the first, staring off into the distance. After that there was a long expanse leading to a closed set of doors.
If I was going to make it to Cathedral Ward, I would need whoever was on the other side of those doors to open them. That may be an issue, considering the fact that I couldn't speak, and writing in bugs wasn't about to win me any favours. But I needed to get there first, and I didn't want to have to talk while a brute and two beasts were trying to kill me. If I got lucky they would attack each other, but I wasn't about to take that chance.
That everything was trying to kill me seemed to be a pretty reasonable assumption at this point.
So. The two beasts first.
My bugs wouldn't do much to them, if my previous encounter was any indication. What covering them in bugs would do was give me an awareness of where they were and a sense of what they were about to do. That was key, since it gave me a chance to react.
Okay, so I could theoretically dodge their attack. I was pretty sure I could jam a blood vial into my leg if I failed to dodge once or twice and got ripped up, but it depended on whether they slashed my handy arm or not. That meant I could survive in an extended melee with them, which was something I had not put the most effort into practicing during my days as a Ward.
Sure, I'd done the exercises and practiced sparring, but I was no Tecton, and I was certainly no combat thinker. I was a master that sent my minions to carry out my will. I had been a scout and coordinator first, melee combatant distant second.
There was a chance that the two of them could corner me, or pincer me by chance. This would go best if I was fighting one, not two. That meant that if I managed to separate them, the gun was out. A loud bang was a great way to get attention, so I stowed the gun away. I considered the saw cleaver. It was my only option, really. I wished there was a more useable weapon available. The axe's the Yharnamites were using were blunt and ineffective.
Now, how to goad one of two beasts?
I glanced around, then moved a few feet away from the beasts and picked up a stone that my bugs had noticed was loose. The aim was to attract the attention of one beast, so I waited until one of them wandered behind an obstruction before throwing the stone at the other. The stone sailed through the air and hit the beast on its hind leg, prompting it to aggressively spin to face in my direction and start stalking towards me.
I have to admit that was quite thrilling.
The other beast didn't seem to have noticed anything, but I didn't want to take any chances and backed up further. As soon as the beast was in range, I swarmed the thing. It snapped and struck out a few times, but my losses were minimal.
It kept snapping as my bugs kept biting. As I had many times before, I went for the eyes. The beast howled some, making me worried that the other one would come to investigate. I looked with my eyes to see that it was wandering away from us at the moment.
With the behaviour I'd seen from this place so far, I was expecting the beast to attack me while I was distracted. Instead, it was going to town on my swarm, which was spreading out so it could only get one or two bugs with each attack while still maintaining the number of bugs on the thing.
If it was a battle of attrition between the beast and the bugs, the beast would win. I already knew that, so I unholstered my saw cleaver and got ready to attack.
Something about that action pulled the Beast's attention away from the bugs. I got a split second of warning and dodged to the side with hairs to spare. There wasn't really any force I could put into my left hand's strike, but there was plenty that the beast was putting in. The counterattack involved getting out of the way and letting the beast rip itself apart on my saw cleaver while I held on for dear life.
That reaction also told me that these beasts were using their ears more than their eyes. I redirected bugs to climb into its ear canal and just keep going in.
Blood hit the ground and the beast turned towards me. It was operating in the same way the other one was. I was its target. All it was going to do was attack recklessly. We settled into a pattern. The beast would charge, I would dodge, and the beast tore itself apart.
This time the beast seemed to be tiring at the same rate I was. Its first strike had almost caught me off guard, but I had focused and not let it get near me since. The problem was that I had to evade just enough that I could hold out the cleaver and let the beast do my work for me. Now that the fight had been going on for a while, it was getting dangerously close to getting me every now and then.
I nearly had it on the ropes, then bugs started dying behind me.
A chill went up my spine and I dodged early. One beast flew past me while the other altered the trajectory of their charge and bounded forwards while I was still off balance. I was ordering my bugs to swarm the other beast while trying and failing to put the saw cleaver between the jaws of the beast and my face.
Thankfully, it wasn't actually going for my face. It was going for my shoulder and once it got its teeth sunk in, it reared its head and started to shake. The strength drained from my arm holding the saw cleaver and it sailed into the window of a nearby carriage.
No. I was not about to let one of these beasts kill me again, damnit. I held on through sheer force of will when with a final swing, the beast released its jaws and threw me into a stone wall. It charged at me, going in for the kill. I raised my gun at the final moment and shot the motherfucker in the face.
It went reeling, but it wasn't dead.
My body didn't want to move, but I made it stand halfway up and dodge to the side as the other beast swiped at where I had been. I fumbled with my gun as I backed further away, trying to put it away before eventually just dropping it and having some oversized cockroaches carry it. Grabbing a vial from my belt took a moment because of the blood dripping down my arm. I still got it and jabbed it in, feeling immediate relief as that rustic taste returned to the back of my throat.
One of the beasts took my distraction as an opportunity to slash me, drawing blood all the way down my torso and undoing the healing I just underwent. It was rearing back to bite at me and I punched it in the head before it could. The attack bought me a second, and I dashed under the claw it raised to retaliate.
My bugs tracked the position of the two beasts as I fumbled for another blood vial. The belt was designed so that they were more accessible to right handed people, which grated on me as I finally retrieved my second vial and dodged another beast before jabbing it in.
Giggles escaped my lips as I dodged left and swiped my gun from the cockroaches obediently following me around. A dark mood overshadowed the surface pleasure.
This wasn't funny, damnit.
I considered shooting the next attacking beast, but decided to dodge back instead and circle around. It wasn't the one I'd been working on first, better to kill one and then the other, than to try and finish both off at the same time. The wounded beast charged and I shot the fucker, putting it off balance and letting me follow up by spinning the gun in hand and hitting it where I assumed its temple was.
The beast hit the floor and I dodged to evade the other beast. I put distance between us as I checked the downed beast with my bugs. It wasn't moving. Finally.
I still had the other beast to deal with and I wasn't about to get any rest, but now this seemed more manageable. The saw cleaver had hit the window of a carriage, but had failed to get all the way in. I made a pass and pulled it out. Then the beast and I settled into that pattern where I killed it.
It took a while, but the beast eventually killed itself on my weapon. I staggered away and leaned against a wall. Then my knees gave out and I sank to a sitting position against the wall. My breath came ragged and heavy.
A Yharnam man approached and was immediately set upon by bugs. I wasn't having any of his shit right now.
After catching my breath I made it to my feet and kicked the yelling man down the stairs he had come from, then moved on to the brute. He didn't even know I was there before he was blinded by bugs. There were three dark feathery forms on the ground around him that swarmed with bugs as well and kept my distance from.
It was a good thing I did. They flew into the air, cawing, screeching, pecking, and clawing with their talons. Two flew into each other and both fell back to the floor. One moved to attack bugs, while the other didn't. None of the birds stayed up. They didn't seem capable of sustained flight.
I left the bugs that were on them where they were as I moved on to clearing in the bridge after them. I ducked behind a pillar and had my bugs retreat and regroup. The brute charged at a wall, but it wasn't anywhere near where I was. The crow- things made more noises, but seemed to calm down once the bugs were gone. The brute charged a few more times before eventually calming down as well. I tracked him with flies and he never came close to me.
Once things were calm again, I slunk away down the bridge. Nothing but empty space and a closed door between me and Cathedral Ward, now. I stepped on a loose piece of cobblestone, making it clink against its neighbors.
A horrifying mix between a howl and a scream filled the air, stopping me in my tracks.
One of these days I was going to learn to stop thinking.
The scream was punctuated by faint vibrations in the ground that were picked up by my smaller bugs. Then more obvious vibrations. Then even bigger ones. The scream stopped.
There was a moment of silence.
Then a fucking Endbringer leaped over the gate leading to Cathedral Ward.
I was stunned. I hadn't expected this, how could I have? Back on Bet the fights I had with the Endbringers were built up to by months of rising tension. Even the Leviathan fight had a degree of tightening nerves before it. It had taken me off guard at the time, I had just been trying to go undercover as a villain, but even still there had been a gathering of heroes and villains before the fight. Legend did his uplifting speech where he told the room that a quarter of them were going to die if we got lucky.
Then I calmed down, a sharpness settling in my mind. This thing reminded me more of Noelle than it did Behemoth or Leviathan. In size, if not shape. It was vaguely humanoid, with arms, legs, a head, and a sunken rib cage that showed off a rib cage where the individual ribs didn't necessarily meet at the middle, and all of them were sharp and pointy. It was covered in fur that was less than half an inch thick in some places, while in others the fur was shaggy, matted, and longer than my own.
The thing's left arm, which was covered in such fur, was grossly larger than its right. Both arms had hands that ended in claws, and it used the larger one as an additional point of contact with the ground. It was a pleasure to look at that compared to the head.
The head of the thing was almost like a deer's, in that it had the same general shape and horns. That was where the similarities ended, because the maw of the thing was dripping blood, and had a row of sharp teeth dedicated to eating things that deer didn't. Its horns grew asymmetrically, with one thick horn growing out of the right side of its head and curling around the half dozen smaller horns that twisted in a similar way.
Its eyes were too small to make out as it crossed the bridge making its way towards me. The fact that its head was looking at me was much more obvious. I directed my bugs to cover the thing and start biting as it jumped.
My gaze followed it up and I dodged back… right under its oversized claw.
The attack hit me in the head first, then slipped down my body and raked its claws down my front. All the way down.
Blood spilled from me as I struggled to comprehend what just happened, my head spinning and bugs obediently following my order to climb on the thing. They were too late to give me any warning as I stared dumbly at the thing. It casually reached forward with both arms and picked me up, almost gently.
Then it hurled me off the bridge, over the dried up fountain, and far down to a place where I finally hit something, part of my body hitting a stony wall while the other part wrapped around the corner. I fell down to the ground far below. Nothing more than a broken body.
Dark mist welcomed me.
~Drip~Drip~
When I came to I was staring at two moons piercing a cloudy sky.
That made me frown. There was only one moon, how could there be two? I reached up to wave a hand in front of my eyes but nothing happened. That made me squint as I frowned. Why hadn't anything happened?
When I glanced down I remembered. No right hand.
I used my remaining hand and touched my face. I still had my glasses, so I could see. Why had I been seeing two moons? I looked up again.
Not moons, I realised. Eyes.
The clouds had been the face surrounding the eyes, I had just been too disoriented to realise. Glancing past the side of their head told me the moon was exactly where it was supposed to be, then I made eye contact again. I stared back at the eyes.
Their face was perfect. I couldn't find a flaw or blemish to sneeze at. Her, it was a her, hair was neatly cut into bangs that split just off centre while longer strands framed the face, giving it just enough asymmetry to not be inhuman. Her skin was frightfully pale, reminding me of when I first saw Dinah all those years ago, but there was a touch of colour here and there, signalling to health that the drug addled precog had not possessed. The hair was a white even paler than the skin. She was looking down at me with… it was less of an expression and more of an intent.
She was looking at me carefully. Like she wanted to care for me, hold me, and tell me everything was going to be alright. Yet at the same time, there was no intent to carry through on those desires. All summed up in the way the eyebrows were arching over the eyes, how the lids were positioned, and how the mouth hung open ever so slightly.
I reached up with my hand and touched her cheek. It was hard. Wooden.
A hand slowly wrapped around my own and held it there. It was wooden, like the face, and segmented. The craftsmanship was beautiful.
"Hello, Good Hunter." She said, breaking the spell somewhat. Her voice was soft and soothing, but that wasn't it. I wanted to ask about the hunt. Why did she call me a hunter?
"I am a doll," She continued, and I made the connection. She was. I glanced over to the building and saw the doll had vanished. Well, she hadn't. She just moved. "Here in this dream to look after you.
"Honourable hunter, pursue the echoes of blood and I will channel them into your strength. You will hunt beasts and I will be here for you, to embolden your sickly spirit."
The doll finished speaking and released my hand. When I started lowering it, she gently tugged at it, so I stopped. She placed one hand underneath my own, mirroring the gesture with her other. A silver orb swirled into existence above my own.
So Doll was a Case 53. A Trump with powers that were reminiscent of Ingenue's if that speech was any indication. I was immediately suspicious. People didn't just offer their powers like that.
Doll's power was an oddly calming one, forcing a calm over me which I ended up basking in. The doll made the orb swell until it was roughly the size of my palm. It captured my attention and I didn't think I could have said anything if I was able.
Which I wasn't, so… moot point. I wondered if Stranger protocols were necessary.
Doll seemed to be satisfied with the demonstration and pulled her hands back, the silver orb vanishing as she did. The calm sensation left with it, and I ended up staring at the sky. I didn't feel any urge to move at the moment.
I just fucking died, leave me be.
"Good hunter, are you well?" Doll asked matronly.
"You wouldn't understand me if I told you." I said.
Doll tilted her head quizzically. "I would be unable to assist you if I did not attempt to. What would prevent me from understanding you?"
