Chapter 7: Hunter X Hunter
An explosion was heard: Ludwig's trap had been sprung. Lucca was watching for that signal and was the only one who could see the damage it did. Two horses had been killed, the closest horse to the blast was the one who activated it, and got blown into bits of flesh and gore, with its rider being thrown quite far and landing on the floor in a bloody, dismembered mess. The other rider didn't die from the explosion as his horse wasn't as close as the first, he however fell from the horse, who also was killed, and whose dead body fell on him, making him unable to move. The other horses panicked and Lucca immediately started firing crossbow bolts towards the mounted group, taking care to not fire at the carriage with the hostages. Her first arrow didn't even make it to the enemies, the second came closer but was still not good enough. However, the Cainhurst Hunters noticed the arrow hit the floor close to where they stood and warned each other. As they tried to manoeuvre to hide from a possible good arrow, they tripped the falling log trap and two of them got trampled and killed along with their horses. Finally an arrow hit its mark, piercing one of the horseback hunters in the chest and making him topple over with the strength of the impact. Lucca felt her confidence swell up, as her on-the-fly adjustments were working, but saw the Hunter sitting in the cart get up and descend, looking towards her tower while the others took cover. The Bloody Crow was facing her, but she had no idea who he was.
Maria was seeing this happen and awaiting for the moment when Lucca's arrows stopped flying to jump in. She hoped Ludwig would wait too. Lucca took a shot at the Bloody Crow, certain it would hit him. It didn't. The Bloody Crow swung his cursed blade at the perfect moment and it cut the crossbow bolt as it was about it him. Lucca's blood froze. Although she couldn't see the man's face, she could feel his piercing gaze on her. He knew where she was positioned. The Bloody Crow gestured and two of the retinue dashed towards the tower on foot, taking cover in the walls on the way. Lucca tried to snipe them to no avail, and decided she couldn't stay on the tower. As she stood up to leave, another explosion was heard. She had time to think to herself that Ludwig only had gunpowder for one trap, but she quickly realized it wasn't him, as the whole floor below her started to crumble. For a split-second everything froze, her whole body stuck in place like she was but a doll. Her tower was collapsing in a giant explosion, and even thought time almost felt like it had stopped, she could do nothing but watch as her whole body felt the full force of the blast. The enemy had a cannon, just like Djura's.
Maria decided to move as soon as she saw the Crow's companions rush towards Lucca. She dashed towards the Bloody Crow, taking a surprise swing at him with her Rakuyo in dual wield mode. The Crow wasn't exactly caught by surprise. Her swing came fast from above, but the Cainhurst Knight withstood the attack with his blade, using a hand to push on blunt side, and with that push Maria back as well. As she was pushed back he said in a condescending tone: "Ah, the Lady Maria. It's been a while, comrade."
Maria's face gave him the gravest look: "You are no comrade of mine. Relinquish your captives, or face me!"
Ludwig ran to join her side, as he had promised not to engage before her. He raised his sword with both hands, letting the enemy make the first move.
"Do you two and whoever is on that tower plan to take out seven of us?" asked the Crow, "then come and get them!" It was then that Ludwig and Maria saw the tower Lucca was on start to crumble to pieces, a large explosion was making it collapse.
Maria dashed at the Crow, then, before getting to him, dashed to his left and swung her Rakuyo again. The man dashed back avoiding the attack and then dashed forward to take a swing of his own, missing Maria by a hair, as she herself dashed out of his way. Ludwig looked incredulous at this dance of blades, but then noticed the four remaining companions of the Bloody Crow. One man seemed a leader-type, an older fellow, with dark clothes and a red flowing cape. He had white hair, just like the Bloody Crow, and his helmet had a stroke of nobility. The second man looked like an intellectual-type, clad all in black. He also had white hair but his glasses were definitely his most distinguishing feature, as well as an Yharnam Hunter-looking triangle hat. Next was a woman who wore a crow feather cape like the Bloody Crow's. She had a round hat covering her pony-tailed silver hair and a cloth covering her mouth. Her gaze, however, was on a full, terrifying display. The last one was also a woman, with a noble-looking white shirt and a scarf resembling Maria's. She had short, black hair and wore a kind of balaclava that covered her entire head, only leaving her face visible. A round hat completed her look.
As Ludwig watched them approach him, he saw the balaclava woman plunge her sword into her wounded companion, trapped under the dead horse, killing him. Behind them, Maria and the Crow fought a battle so fast that he could barely make out what was happening. The doctor-looking type was the first to talk, as Ludwig held his sword with both hands, still unattuned: "Four on one, boy. If you surrender now, we'll make it quick!" The others let out a few laughs.
Ludwig had kept his sword unattuned because he knew that would be an unexpected trump card; even if they had somehow heard of his sword, as long as they didn't know the face of its owner, he could probably get one of them by surprise. "My name is Victor", starts the leader-looking enemy, "this gentleman to my side is Janus", the intellectual-type tips his hat, "next is Marle", he says, pointing to the face-covered woman, "and last but not least, we have Ayla", the balaclava woman was the last one, but didn't even bother looking at Ludwig. "Can we have the honour of your name, good Hunter?" asks Janus.
Ludwig didn't want to say his name, his whole idea to surprise them was predicated on the fact that they didn't know about the Moonlight Blade, but if he gave foreign spies his real name, odds are they heard about it. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you!" yells Ludwig.
"What a rude man!" exclaims the woman just introduced as Ayla, "I'll enjoy ripping your flesh from your bones!"
"A real shame!" says Victor, "Youths have lost all respect for the art of war… Free lesson, kid! Giving your name to the enemy is the honourable thing to do. It shows respect, in you letting the other person know the name of their killer!"
"It doesn't matter anyway, you'll never be able to kill us, small fry!" taunts Ayla.
Ludwig braces himself as the woman dashes to attack, sword in hand. She swings from above, going for a vertical cut, but Ludwig holds his blade close and lets her blade slide on his, deflecting the blow and then swinging horizontally at her with full force. She barely manages to get out of the way, still getting grazed in the arm by the massive blade.
"Cool sword, young man, but a little too big to swing around at us regular folk, don't you think?" asks Janus in a mocking tone.
Ayla was definitely pissed as she checked her grazing wound "Your blood will make for an excellent offer to our Queen!" she yelled as she attacked again. Ayla didn't have a gun like most Hunters, she only had a normal-sized sword, but moved it around with great dexterity. The others only watched as the woman relentlessly attacked Ludwig, who was pushed into only defending left and right, moving his massive blade in time for defence, but not fast enough to counter-attack. He sensed her getting more and more frustrated with his constant defense and wanted to use that to his advantage. That is if the others didn't get wise to his scheme and decided to join in their fight before he could finish it.
In the meantime, Maria's fight with the Bloody Crow was at a standstill. The two evenly matched each other and predicted the other one's movements. The first one to tire and miss a beat would likely be the one getting defeated. Maria knew this as she flawlessly jumped between offence and defense, never managing a hit. The same was true for the Crow, who in spite of his earlier confidence, was now fully focused on the fight, no longer interested in mere taunts. The two warriors were both lightning fast and their fight wasn't just fought on the ground, with them jumping onto roofs and back to the floor, each time trying to get a tiny sliver of advantage; a tiny foothold that would allow them to break the other one's concentration. Maria tried her hardest to not let her mind wander to her friends, but she knew there was no way they could handle that many enemies on their own. Her eyes sometimes darted to the rubble of Lucca's tower, where smoke now rose to the sky, other times they darted towards where she had last seen Ludwig, surrounded by four Cainhurst Hunters. The tiny sliver of lost focus was enough for the Bloody Crow to seize the opening and slash Maria in her side, next to her belly, as she was swinging but failed to hit him.
As Maria was cut, she groaned and held her bleeding side, blood flowed through her hand and big drops of it started colouring the floor.
The Crow stopped moving and took the time to speak again: "Maria, your traitorous blood will make our Queen rejoice, I can hardly anticipate how she'll reward me!"
Maria groaned again and replied "I'm sorry to disappoint, but you're the one relinquishing his blood today! And how dare you call ME a traitor?"
"You can't betray something you were never loyal to", laughs the crow mockingly "Byrgenwerth could burn, for all I care!" The Crow then held a bone in his hand and crushed it, becoming enveloped in clouds of fast moving air. "I'll even use our old master's technique to destroy you, his favourite pupil. What a glorious day this'll be!" says the Crow as his dash speeds up so fast he becomes smoke himself.
Maria's eyes widened; that was the technique Gehrman invented; the Art of Quickening.
Gehrman was more of a groundskeeper at Byrgenwerth than an actual scholar. Although he used the institution to study, create and perfect the super-fast Art of Quickening, his biggest scientific achievement was a battle technique and one that only two other people in the world ever mastered, his two greatest pupils: Maria and another Hunter, now deceased. Then how could the Bloody Crow be using it too, she wondered as she defended against his even faster strikes. Maria knew she had to match his speed, even if the technique itself was an even bigger drain on her stamina, she braced and dashed faster than ever, becoming almost like smoke herself and matching the Crow; perhaps going even faster. She ran at him, and slashed, being deflected by his armour, but kept dashing around him and attacking at an ever rising speed, chipping damage against his protective plating.
The Rakuyo was a fast weapon, maybe the fastest ever created, especially when she wielded it, but it wasn't made to attack armoured enemies. It focused exclusively on speed, forgoing power, especially when the blades weren't attached. Finally, she thrust her Rakuyo in the man's shoulder, managing to pierce his armour; the entire longer blade of the Rakuyo going inside his vile body. Blood spilled as she used her legs to kick him to the floor and draw her blade back out of his body. As the Crow fell, however, he turned in mid-air and finally used his repeater pistol he had been holding and shot at Maria point blank, knowing he would never have been able to hit her from afar.
A repeater pistol shoots two bullets at once, and they both hit Maria in her abdomen. She dashed back in pain, and knew immediately she couldn't focus enough to use Quickening again.
However, a quick glance at the Bloody Crow, showed the man holding himself up by stabbing his sword on the ground with one hand and the other trying to stop the bleeding from her wound. Blood was gushing out of the Crow's wound; she had hurt him profusely. The Crow reached for his pocket and Maria realized what he was going for, dashing again at him, at her normal, but still super-fast speed. The Crow took a few shots at her again, this time just to prevent her from getting close, since she was forced to dodge, and out of his pocket took a blood vial that he quickly injected into his leg. Maria was desperate to hit him again before he could do it, but couldn't get through the rapid shots he fired at her; he had healed himself. She dashed back and reached for a blood vial of her own, using it. The rapid Healing Blood sealed her wounds and restored some of her breath. She could see the same happening the Bloody Crow as he threw away his gun, clearly out of bullets. She knew this was going to be a fight of attrition, but her wound on him had been much more severe; he wouldn't be anywhere close to recovered by just using Blood Vials.
"I'm sure you're wondering how I can use Quickening too, aren't you, Maria?" asks the Bloody Crow as he tries to steady his breath.
Maria, not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, takes the time to try to collect herself as well: "Please, enlighten me." She can't see the man's face, but she can sense his gleeful malice through his scary metal helmet.
The Bloody Crow shows her another bone, just like the previous one. "These are bones from our old colleague, you remember when he died, right? I killed him! I took his bones and by crushing them I can temporarily use the power he held!"
Maria couldn't believe was she heard. The only other person to master Gehrman's Art of Quickening was an old friend of hers and this man hadn't just killed him, he was desecrating his remains to power up. "How dare you kill him?" asks Maria enraged, "wasn't it enough that you stole the Vile Blood and created this unholy curse?"
"Created?" laughs the crow, "I created nothing; I merely gave Queen Annalise the power to activate her own Blood. You partook of it too, didn't you? You are a Vileblood too, dear Maria, don't lie to yourself!"
Once, the Bloody Crow was just another student at Byrgenwerth Academy, joining at around the same time as Maria and learning the art of battle from Gehrman alongside her. However, while she excelled as a scholar and a warrior, dedicating her life to the higher pursuits, he was the famed betrayer who ran away with a stolen vial of impure, unholy blood. An attempt by Queen Annalise to no doubt get her own version of Yharnam's exclusive Healing Blood. This made Byrgenwerth and later the Healing Church brand the inhabitants of Cainhurst as heretics; Vilebloods who partook in something deemed extremely profane.
As the two traded accusations about the old days, another big explosion was heard and a nearby building's wall turned to debris, blown up in many directions. Among the debris of rock and cement was a bloody Lucca, who is flown through the air alongside her broken crossbow, hitting the wall of the building on the opposite side of the street. She tries to get up, but collapses to the floor, lifting a hand towards an astonished Maria, in a supplicating gesture. When even Lucca's hand falls down, she completely stops moving.