Chapter 6: The Mission
Laurence glanced at the door and explained: "Just a few moments ago I have sent word to Gehrman requesting help on a very delicate matter, the message must be about to be delivered to him. However, it would be great if you could join whatever group he puts together…"
Ludwig looked at Laurence in an inquisitive way. At that moment, Lady Maria rushed into the Grand Cathedral, running past all the people moving things. Her delicate noble-looking clothes contrasting with the drab garbs of the Church and the tattered attire of the patients. She approached Ludwig and Laurence and adjusted her feathered hat: "Sorry for the wait, I can confirm everything is okay at the Research Hall". Maria carried herself with an air of nobility, her steps were light as a feather and she always brought with her a scent of flowers.
Laurence breathed some relief as Maria gave Ludwig a silent nod and a smile. "This is good, but we must still send out a team, we don't know the situation anywhere else!" said Laurence, asking "Do you two know each other? I'd like Ludwig to accompany you, Maria."
The woman smiled, "we actually have gone on multiple dungeon expeditions together; it'll be good to have someone I know is dependable!"
Ludwig felt himself blushing at those words and asked "is this a combat situation? A Beast Hunt?
Laurence started walking towards the entrance saying "I'd rather brief everyone at the same time if you don't mind. They should be here any minute!"
Indeed Gehrman himself showed up at that moment with a group of six Hunters. Gascoigne, Henryk, Lucca and Djura were amongst them. The other ones were a shorter man and a slender woman dressed in dark Hunter clothes, Ludwig had seen them around, but didn't even know their names. Gehrman addresses Laurence "I'm sorry, this is everyone I could gather in such a short time, although I did send out some messengers, so we might get reinforcements soon."
Laurence nodded understandingly: "You did well, speed is paramount, so it's best we move now! As many of you know," he proceed to talk to everyone in the group, "we have a fragile peace with Castle Cainhurst. It just so happens that I have received a missive from one of my spies in the court and there's going to be an attempt by Cainhurst Knights to kidnap someone of high stature in the Healing Church today." The group became visibly startled at Laurence's statement. "I, of course, can't exclude myself from this equation, but I need you all to split up and check on this situation. I need a team to intercept their supposed infiltration area at the harbour, while another team will go to Yahar'gul and another to Byrgenwerth, just in case."
"There's not a lot of us here right now!" said Gehrman, "I propose we don't split up that much and we have to keep you protected as well!"
Laurence frowns, "I can't tell you what to do, old friend, but I'd hate to think protecting me from nothing got in the way of saving a fellow scholar… I am pretty safe here in the middle of the entire city!"
"Don't worry", said Gehrman, directing the others "Maria, you will take the lead on the harbour, I see Ludwig is here, I assume he's going with you?"
Ludwig nods and explains "Laurence asked me to go."
"Good", the First Hunter continues, "Lucca will join you two, I have a feeling you'll need a sniper! I saw Vitus outside, he will stay here with Gascoigne and Henryk. They will guard Laurence with their lives! In the meantime, I will lead Djura, Eileen and Glenn to Yahar'gul and assuming everything is fine there, we'll go to Byrgenwerth next."
Laurence interrupts: "So no one is going to Byrgenwerth at first? I know they're not part of our Church, but we can't discard the chance that some of the message got a little jumbled in transit and someone might actually target them."
"You said it yourself it was just in case, but you also know I'd never abandon Master Willem", continues Gehrman, "Anyway, the harbour team can move on there as well if they find nothing, but more than likely, my team will be the one running into the Cainhurst Hunters. The harbour team is more of a safeguard, meaning that even if we miss them, their escape will be thwarted."
Gehrman looks at Maria "You know how they act, you know their boats, I trust you won't move on from there if there's a slight possibility this isn't a false alarm."
Maria nods with a warning: "We don't know their numbers, so stay alert everyone!"
"Alright, let's move, people! You all know what to do! Gascoigne, you are in charge of the Laurence team, take him to the Hunter Workshop and send for other people to meet you there, it's probably the easiest place to defend in all of Yharnam!" as Gehrman uttered those words, his team dashed outside of the Cathedral. However, Maria addressed Laurence before gesturing to leave: "We only have three people in our team, and I just walked by a dear friend who has gone on expeditions with me and Ludwig before, she's not a Hunter, but do you think I can include her in this?"
Laurence nodded, "Of course, I'm sure you'll need as much help as you can get!" Hearing this, Ludwig couldn't help but wonder to himself why it always feels like they're outnumbered.
Maria gestured to Lucca and Ludwig and they all left, crossing paths with the Hunter Vitus who had clearly been sent inside by Gehrman, to join Laurence, Gascoigne and Henryk. "So we're fighting people? From your country?" asks Ludwig in the direction of Maria as they were stepping outside the Grand Cathedral.
"You're from Cainhurst?!" asks Lucca surprised. Maria ignores them both and runs towards someone wearing a Healing Church attire, it was Vicar Amelia who at first showed a very worried face at Maria's words, but then smiled at Ludwig and Lucca who were standing a ways off and couldn't hear the two women.
"She'll join us!" says Maria as they both walked towards the other two, "Cainhurst Hunters are incredibly agile and very good at ambushes; we could certainly use a healer!"
Maria directs the group towards some horses and the four leave the Cathedral Ward at full speed on horseback. "I'm sorry, but I have to ask again", starts Lucca, "we're putting our lives on the line here! How are you the one leading us against Hunters from your own country?"
Ludwig interjects before Maria can answer: "Lady Maria has proved herself for the Yharnam cause more times than any of us together, Lucca, she's the leader because she's the best and she knows how they operate, I'm assuming"
"Indeed I do", says Maria, "you are Lucca, right? I don't condemn your distrusting of the situation, but I assure you none of you will die on my watch!"
Lucca stays silent and then apologizes "I had no idea you were THE Lady Maria, I have heard many tales of you! I'm sorry I questioned your loyalty…"
"Think nothing of it, a Hunter must always be cautious", replied Maria, "just focus on your opponents knowing we will have your back!"
"Truth is, I have never faced humans before!" confesses Lucca, "I'm not sure I can just kill a person…"
"Neither have I!" says Ludwig, "can't say I'm looking forward to it."
"Well, you are Hunters of Beasts and I'm in the Healing Church, I think if anyone here has ever really fought a human, it's our dear leader!" says Amelia trying to encourage Maria and comfort Ludwig and Lucca.
Maria, who was leading the pack at galloping speed, looks back at the other three, who followed her as the horses sped through the Yharnam roads: "If we do have to fight, I'll do my best to keep your hands clean of blood, just know that Cainhurst Hunters are much more dangerous than any beast you've fought. They'll use anything you can use, they'll strategize and trick you as much as you can strategize to trick them. It won't be an honourable duel, but a fight for survival. They are known as Vilebloods for a reason… If it comes to a battle, promise me you'll let me take them, none of you are ready for this!" The group stayed quiet.
Rain starts falling and the once promising sunny day turns to a much darker shade of blue, the horses neigh and the group pushes them on ever faster. The harbour of Yharnam is located on a lower part of the city, where new, taller buildings obscure the sunlight that would normally hit the old ones, it connects directly to Old Yharnam and has lost much traffic and population since paved roads became a thing in the city, making travel by boat less common. "I'm sorry", started Ludwig, "it doesn't matter if it's one or ten, if you have to fight, I won't back down and let you do it by yourself."
Lucca smiles as Ludwig speaks, adding to what he said: "He's right, why even bring me along if I'm not doing anything? We protect Yharnam together as Hunters, and the Healing Church is Yharnam!"
"You have an unruly bunch here, Maria", said Amelia with a laugh, "a very correct unruly bunch!" Maria smiled. Maybe they were ready.
As they approached the harbour, Maria signalled for a dismount. "Let's tie the horses down in that shed over there, don't want them to be seen in case we really have to be the ones doing the ambushing", she said. The group tied the horses on a nearby shed, there was no one around, either due to the rain or to the fact this whole part of town had been slowly abandoned over the years. They made their way to the waterfront with light footing and eventually, Maria decided to climb some access ladder to a nearby roof. The others followed and noticed as she pulled an extendable monocular from her pocket, scouting the waters for a Cainhurst ship. The others followed her gaze, even though they had brought no such scouting device.
Eventually, Maria seemed to focus on a particular ship off in the distance and then closed her monocular, putting it away. "That's the one!" she said pointing at a luxurious looking ship in the distance; "they didn't even bother coming in on some small inconspicuous ship, this is at the same time bold, stupid and disrespectful of us!"
"That just means they're underestimating us, right? We can use that!" said Lucca with some hopeful excitement.
"Agreed! We don't know when they'll be back, so we need to set up a trap as soon as possible!" ordered Maria.
The plan was simple, Maria set up Lucca in a high tower overlooking the two roads coming in to the harbour. Lucca's giant crossbow had a gigantic range, and her first crossbow bolts would be the opening salvo to try to lower whatever numbers the enemy had. Ludwig, in turn, set up some rudimentary traps, such as falling logs and a shed rigged to explode with a tripwire. Luckily Maria had come prepared with all sorts of tools for the mission, unlike her companions. The noblewoman was scouting the roads with her monocular from a roof much closer than Lucca's tower.
The likelihood was that the enemy had a hostage, so their plan was predicated on the safety of the hostage coming first. No crossbow bolts were to be shot at a potential hostage, and neither could she let their own traps harm him, which is why Ludwig was hiding very close to the explosive shed, ready to undo the trap if he heard a signal of three birdcalls coming from Maria who could see his position from where she was. Amelia, in the meantime, was to keep an eye on the boat for possible movement or reinforcements coming inland from it, as they couldn't afford to fight a pincer battle.
The four spent a good amount of time like this; at least a couple of hours had definitely passed. What was pretty normal rainfall, eventually turned into a heavy downpour. Ludwig wished he could see the sun, to understand how much time had passed. His mind wandered off to his teammates and what they were likely feeling… Of the four, only Maria knew exactly what she was doing. None of the other two had ever fought anything other than beasts, and they were most likely reticent about harming another human, even if they all acted strong and told Maria they would fight. Amelia was a Vicar, the very thought of harming a human probably never even crossed her mind.
As Ludwig thought this he realized that he, himself, did not actually feel that way. He had no affinity for any Cainhurst Knights and couldn't care less if they lived or died. What he did value instead was the lives of the few people close to him in life. He had to make sure to protect those people, who were counting on him to do so. Amelia, Lucca, even Maria… He would endanger himself to protect them! He imagined his sword going through the flesh of a person, hearing their pain and snuffing out their life. Would he enjoy it? Or would he instead regret ever going to meet Laurence that morning? He wondered if he had ever killed anyone in his previous life that he forgot. He had cut plenty of beasts with his Moonlight Sword; would a human even feel that different? If they were as fast as Maria or Gehrman, would he even be able to hit them with such a massive weapon? As these thoughts crossed his mind, he kept checking up on his trap to make sure the gunpowder didn't get wet.
Maria was having similar thoughts in regards to her team. She was fully confident in her own abilities, but was afraid everyone else would choke when the time came for a real fight. She was especially worried about the newcomer Lucca, as they had never met before and she seemed plenty naïve to Maria. She tried to tell herself Ludwig was battle hardened by their dungeon expeditions and that Amelia knew exactly how to back them up and stay out of the way when it mattered most, which certainly helped ease her confidence. Maria's thoughts ended up drifting to the numbers of enemies coming their way; hoping the four of them wouldn't be overwhelmed. Or maybe Gehrman would be the one coming instead, with good news that his group had intercepted the Cainhurst Hunters and disposed of them before Maria's group even had to lift a finger. At least she fully trusted her companions to not harm Gehrman if he was the one coming. That's a start.
Lucca spent her entire time in the tower looking through another monocular Maria had handed her in the meantime. If the traps were the first surprise, her crossbow bolts were to be the decisive blow in cutting down enemy numbers. She had never attempted a shot at such distance; she had never even covered half of it. Sure, there were moments in training when she dared herself to do it, but the up-close and personal nature of the Hunt meant she always saw those exercises as mere showing off for the other Hunters in the Workshop, more than actual training. There was so much to account for: gravity, wind, rain, arrow weight and her crossbow's draw strength. She kept adjusting the math in her head, trying to forget about the fact she was hunting people in the place of beasts and instead focusing on getting a perfect first shot.
Amelia was unable to see any of her companions, she was holed up in a shed, hiding from the heavy rain, and facing the opposite way from all of them. She was extremely worried about the entire situation, wondering what three people could do against a big group of Knights. If worse came to worst, would she be able to back them up and still see the ship? How would she even know of their possible predicament if she didn't have any line of sight? Would the sound of falling rain mute the sounds of fighting? The heavy rain made it difficult to see the ship offshore, but she could tell the waves were starting to rock it pretty hard and wondered if that particular problem might solve itself on its own. They could use a break…
The Vicar kept thinking back to the same subject her companions were thinking about: if push comes to shove, could she do more than just heals and support? Could she use her Threaded Cane to harm another human? She learned how to use it, sure, but only against the dulled Beats of the Pthumerian labyrinths… A feared Knight of Cainhurst was leagues away from such an unremarkable enemy.
As the rain clouded their vision and pestered the bodies of the Yharnam Hunters, they all realized how much they were depending on each other to do a good job, but also how much they just wished Gehrman would have dealt with everything by now. The boat in the harbour was a clear sign something was wrong, but their dread and anxiety only built up more and more as time passed and the afternoon turned to night.
The moon was already starting to show itself when movement was finally seen on the road. The group was bigger than what anyone expected, with eight people on horseback and a small cart pulled by a horse and driven by one other person. On the carriage were two people with bags over their heads, clearly the hostages, accompanied by two more enemies. Eleven enemies in total. Maria was the first of the Yharnamites to spot the enemies and her blood froze at their numbers, but most of all, at one of the men in the carriage… It was the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst.
The Bloody Crow was infamous throughout all the land as the most skilled Knight to have ever lived in Cainhurst. He was a Vileblood Hunter who served at the direct orders of Queen Annalise and used a cursed blood blade known as the Chikage. He was easily recognizable by his Cainhurst full body armour covered by a cloak of black feathers, a symbol of the Hunters of Hunters; men who specialized in killing other Hunters, not beasts. Covering his face was silver helmet with no eye holes, a distinct design that covered the entire face of the user.
Maria looked over at Ludwig, wondering if she should still stop their ambush. Her mind was racing and her heart rushed like it hadn't in ages. Could she even take on such a foe? Would she fail at her promise to keep everyone safe? If only she could see who they were capturing, maybe she could weigh the risk… She noticed Lucca and Ludwig had started to follow the enemy movements as well, and in a few seconds, any signal to stop them would be too late. She looked again at the hostages and realized they were dressed in garb from the School of Mensis, an organization she knew was an important part of the Healing Church. She could not let their secrets be taken. Maria descended from her position and made her way to the enemy group, hidden by the shadows and the architecture, taking one last deep breath.