Chapter 8 - With Fire and Blood

Whatever the unsettling letter meant it would have to wait for now. If the mysterious entity who had invited Tanya to Cainhurst knew her name as well as the date at which she would find the message then they would surely be patient enough to wait a bit longer.

She glanced up from the bloodstained parchment at the blue, bulbous creature moaning and murmuring to itself a few meters away. Most likely it had been a normal, mundane human at some point in the past.

(The whispers sounded so terribly familiar.)

Should she put them out of their misery? Vegetating in loneliness and confusion was a fate war worse than an honest death. It would be the morally correct choice to relieve these blue abominations of their sad existence...

But why did her heart feel so heavy when she raised her blade?

No. A hunter's job was unrelenting and did not allow for hesitation. She would help these beings in the only way she could. The strength of their blood would add to her own and in return she would grant them peace.

"Shrnnnk!" made the sharp edge of the cane as it opened the leathery skin along its back.

The misshapen thing cried out and sagged to its knees in pain when she promptly drove her hand into its exposed flesh and ripped out its gelatinous heart through the ribs. A technique as brutal as it was effective and one of the first hunter tricks she had learned. By focusing on the blood in one's hand the muscles and tendons became temporarily stronger and more durable, the fingernails sharpened and grew as the inner beast was unleashed.

"Klinnnnng..."

"Hmm? What was that?" she wondered. Perhaps a flask had fallen from the nearby shelf?

No, it was a small item that rolled out of the dead creature's hand onto the floor. Carefully she picked it up with the hand that was not caked in blue gore. Under her gaze it revealed itself to be a vial full of dirty, yellow liquid. Something she hadn't come across in a long time. Its odour was unforgettable. A distilled amount of the special blood Dr. Iosefka had handed to her at the beginning of the hunt. Tanya had never questioned why she stopped after a while...

Why was such a valuable medicine in the possession of a beast? Theft, random chance? Was it meant as treatment possibly?

Was this wobbling creature a patient?

No...

That could not be...

Why then did she only encounter this specific type of monster inside the clinic?

Feverishly she searched the room for documents that might grant her further clarity on the topic, but unsurprisingly everything was soiled in the omnipresent layer of grime and blood. Her hurried footsteps took her back to the corridor where she hunted for any sort of hint towards what she was beginning to fear. Finally she found some form of horrible closure as she pushed open the heavy door at the other side of the hallway.

The sweeping light of her lantern together with the pale moonlight was more than enough to illuminate an operating table on which a floppy, blue cadaver lay sprawled out. Surgical tools were arranged in messy rows next to it and bottles with all sorts of tinctures stood prepared, making it abundantly clear that they had been positioned there with intent.

Judging from the smell, the corpse on the table was relatively fresh. Clotted, azure life fluid on the floor proved that it had still been living after it was put under the scalpel; or at least died soon before that.

So transfixed was she by her find that she nearly overlooked the note pinned to the underside of its foot. Ink stains were blotting out some of the text as if it had been scrawled down too hastily before it could dry. Nonetheless was Tanya able to make out some of the words on the small card:

"Experiment 7... Partial success... More subjects required..."

Success?

This monstrosity was considered a success?

Suddenly the heavy stench of blood and rot in the air became gut-wrenchingly oppressive. These whispers in the back of her mind were back again and slammed into her cerebral cortex like a tidal wave of ice-cold water. Ghostly fingers seemed to caress her skin and she involuntarily shivered despite the thick layers of leather she wore on her skin.

Tanya's thoughts were running a mile a minute; never arriving at an unambiguous conclusion, for the truth of what she had done was unbearable.

"No, I need to find more evidence before jumping to conclusions. This could be a misunderstanding..." she whispered to herself.

Maybe Dr. Iosefka was not twisting her patients into beasts, but instead was attempting to cure them?

Desperate for answers she turned to the final and most foreboding doorway near the rooftop entrance. Creaking and rattling the ancient wood moved out of the way, providing her with the view of a large staircase to the upper floor.

Tanya had barely stepped inside when Iosefka's voice rang out from above:

"Ah, moonlit scents..."

Her eyesight was inhumanly enhanced, yet even she could not spot the face of the speaker through the darkness. If Iosefka could sense her so effortlessly then that made her a highly dangerous opponent to go up against in this unknown and obscured environment.

"How did you worm your way in here?" the doctor asked bemusedly.

Forcefully calming her voice Tanya replied: "Through the backdoor actually. It was wide open. I even called for you, but nobody came. Now tell me, what are those blue things wandering around in here? Did you turn them into monsters?"

She needed to know what was happening now! Regardless of how much the truth was already beginning to hurt.

"Well, I won't make any excuses. Would you mind leaving us alone...?"

Cold, sick fury bubbled up inside her. The nerve of this wretched woman! With a white-knuckled grip on her pistol she took another careful step towards the stairs.

"What kind of answer is that? You tricked me! I trusted you!"

How could she turn her back on this place after learning that the woman she believed to be a sane and rational being was a fiendish murderer? Tanya was not about to let herself get swindled again!

"If you refuse to leave... Ah, well... I've always wanted to try my hand on a hunter... Hahahaha..."

It was official now. Something was wrong with the doctor. Very wrong. This woman whom she had trusted with the lives of innocents was a lunatic. And now Tanya would have to live with the guilt that she had helped a sadistic madwoman lure upstanding citizens into her scheme.

How could she have been so blind? In hindsight the signs were so incredibly obvious. To be used as a pawn like this hurt...

"Ahhhhgh! Was it worth it? Precious few are alive or still human in this damned city and you threw that away! Just for some demented experiment that won't work?"

Revenge was on the forefront of her mind, causing her teeth to grind unconsciously in the desire to rip and tear that bitch to shreds, yet her ironclad self-control kept her rooted in place. Thinking her situation through was what kept her sane and no matter how much she wanted to taste Iosefka's blood, Tanya could wait. Simply rushing in and springing the ambush of her prey was not acceptable.

Stealth was out of the window considering the groaning floorboards and the keen sense of smell of her soon-to-be victim. Sniping Iosefka from afar like she had done with the brainsucker was also next to impossible in this darkness, not to mention that it would be far less satisfactory to kill her so quickly.

Subsequently, flushing her quarry out of her hiding spot and into the open was the only option left. Tanya was not keen on letting Iosefka dictate the rules of their engagement which meant that she had to strike first.

From her right pouch she produced a clay urn filled with flammable oil while her other hand fished for a Molotov cocktail. Uncorking the bottle with her teeth rewarded her with the heady reek of strong booze before she plugged the opening with a dry cloth. Meanwhile she internally spun together a small enough heat formula to create a spark and lit the specially prepared fabric with her fingertip. Every second counted here and she didn't want to give her plan away by the recognizable scent of a sulphur matchstick.

With one hand she threw the oil urn up to the second floor, already taking aim with the Molotov whose fuse was going up in flames. A startled, feminine cry filled Tanya with satisfaction while the brightly flaring bottle from her other side sailed through the air.

The explosion of light would have caught her off guard if she hadn't closed her eyes beforehand. This way, she could acclimate herself to the suddenly brilliant illumination more smoothly. Iosefka's wailing and panicked shrieks were entertaining her greatly as she stormed up the dusty stairs in order to capitalize on her surprise attack.

What she found was a woman in a smouldering, white dress, frantically dousing herself with a slimy liquid that appeared to flow from a black portal above her hand. Its edges were sprinkled with miniature stars and nebulae, giving the vaguely circle-shaped void a cosmic appearance. Tanya had seen other phenomena that were only explainable with magic, but this was definitely the most obvious one.

Under other circumstances she might have tried to study such a useful skill, but the wriggling pale worms falling out of the hole in space made it rather undesirable. Whatever these animals were, she wanted nothing to do with them if possible.

Putting those musings on hold, the young hunter jumped over the flickering pool of burning sludge on the ground, transforming her Threaded Cane into its whip form to deliver a devastating strike with her full momentum behind it. Countless small blades lined up on a wire unfolded themselves like deadly flower petals.

Her prey noticed the vengeful shadow closing in with evident fright as her eyes widened and she gasped in shock. The huntress gleefully swung her arm, intent on striking Iosefka down...

Only to be flung backwards by the milky tentacles emerging from the doctor's magic portal!

Tanya landed mostly outside the blazing puddle, although her left leg was less lucky. Without delay she rolled to the side so as to avoid a follow-up attack. By slamming her leg on the ground she attempted to put out the worst of the fire knowing that she needed to finish this fight first. Enduring pain and discomfort was something she had become very good at during her time in Yharnam.

From her position on the floor gave off a blind shot with the pistol, her aim steered by instinct as much as reflexes. Unfortunately the bullet missed by a narrow margin which gave Iosefka ample time to jam a blood vial into her body and heal the partially seared skin around where the oil had touched her.

As useful as the wondrous properties of the Old Blood were, whenever enemies used them against Tanya it became incredibly annoying. Determined to not let her opponent rejuvenate herself any more the hunter lashed out with her long whip. Here the older woman demonstrated astounding agility as she dodged the tiny blades. Only her white dress got further shredded in their wake.

"Hush, hush... Stay still... This won't hurt a bit..."

As if she would fall for that! On her feet again, Tanya kept her distance in hopes of reloading her pistol and blasting the bitch's kneecaps out.

"I'll soon have you right as rain..."

This proved to be a mistake when the hall appeared to further darken and stars appeared above Iosefka's raised hands. A shifting wrongness saturated the ether that filled the hunter with a primal dread. Reality itself felt like it was warped and distorted, pulling at her brain in a thousand different directions.

And then a hail of scorching-white lights burst outwards like a swarm of artistically arranged comets stolen from the heavens. In a single heartbeat they burned through wood, plaster and most importantly, her.

Against all odds Tanya managed to not scream her lungs out as the deceptively tiny sphere of radiant energy ate through the bracer which was meant to shield her, ignoring the silver armour as well as the flesh and bone underneath. It continued its way from side to side of her limb until it exited through a gaping hole in her forearm and impacted her shoulder where it left a deep, steaming crater.

Pure, absolute agony radiated from the parts of her arm and chest that had not been cauterized. Veins had been boiled and muscles cooked simply by the passing of the projectile. At the edges of the wound leather from her clothes had fused together with the skin. Tanya's hand which had been attached by a string of sinew fell off moments after to complete the grizzly picture.

When the shock of her mutilation really set in, her flight response triggered hard and she desperately scrambled for the stairs to put as much space between herself and the star-flinging lunatic as possible. Because of her hazy vision and disoriented state she almost tripped, but was able to catch herself.

Blood! She needed Healing Blood immediately!

Inside her breast pocket she fumbled for a newly acquired item. Ironically it was Iosefka's blood vial which would hopefully now save her life. With trembling fingers and her prey in hot pursuit she injected the life restoring fluid into her wounds, unsuccessfully trying to let no drop go to waste.

Soothing numbness soon spread throughout her ailing body as flesh miraculously regrew and knitted itself back together. The crater in her shoulder vanished near instantly, while a terrible itching overtook her stump. Tanya knew that her regeneration was enhanced beyond what other seasoned Yharnamites were capable of, but even for her, restoring whole organs from scratch was no easy feat.

In the meantime the mad doctor had caught up and was readying another spell.

"Just die! Enough of you!" the woman screamed, eyes glowing with eldritch motes of magic.

Calling on the power of the old hunter's bone Tanya's form exploded into translucent mist at just the right time to avoid being skewered by the emerging tentacles. While draining, her mobility in this state was unmatched and so she managed to emerge behind Iosefka's back unscathed.

"Booom!" roared her pistol and spat its payload towards the unprotected tissue above her quarry's ribs.

What previously had been exquisite white cotton turned red as bits of gore were sent flying. Staggered by the force of the impact, the doctor fell forward onto her face, hitting the stairs with a resounding thud.

Tanya chased after her, awkwardly attempting to not slip and fall down herself. Due to one of her hands still growing and developing into a frail facsimile of her original limb, she needed to end this fight severely limited in options. On a whim she dropped her gun and pounced on her downed opponent.

Once again her bestial instinct kicked in, transforming her fingernails into claws and strengthening her remaining arm. When she purposefully landed on Iosefka's spine and drove the breath out of her the hunter made sure to grab ahold of her head and repeatedly hammer it against the ground.

"Now, stop that!" whined the pinned psycho, as if she was merely playing around with an unruly child instead of a fearsome predator who was presently giving her a concussion.

Such delusional rambling only further incensed Tanya who redoubled her efforts to pulp the surprisingly resistant skull. At long last, after the fifth try she bore witness to the glorious sound of her adversary's nose caving in and her teeth shattering. Vicious joy about the destruction of her hated enemy expressed itself through a wide grin and a manic giggle.

"Not so cheeky anymore, ey? Guess what? You deserve this!"

Over and over again, she crushed her prey until the parquet was slick with blood. Absentmindedly, her second hand reached out to it. Although her freshly restored nerves were highly sensitive the feeling of warm slickness on her fingertips was too gratifying to pass up and it sped up the recovery process too!

Ultimately though, the hunter grew bored of the repetitive bludgeoning and took the time to grasp a knife from her boot. Driving the weapon into Iosefka's slender neck was truly a beautiful experience.

"Curse this oblivious fool!" near-incomprehensibly mumbled the mess that a few minutes earlier had been a reasonably pretty face, finally going still.

Admiring her handiwork, Tanya suddenly coughed. During their fight the fire on the upper floor had dramatically increased in size and the acrid smoke of burning tapestry was making it difficult to breathe.

Oh well, this whole shithole could burn down completely for all she cared.

Cleansing the memories of such a tainted place would only be a good thing.