The Hunter's Workshop was not only a place for physical upgrades. Yes, its primary focus was on making modifications to a hunter's weapons by reinforcing them with blood stones or kneading gems into them to produce unusual effects. Yes, it was further used to store an inventory of devices and equipment useful in hunter's work, from bullets to antidotes to fire paper. But the workshop was also a place of learning, of bookshelves where hunters would store notes, research, and theories about their enemies. After all, knowing the attributes of one's prey was essential to skilled hunting, a vital part of the role.
That the Doll was staring in apparent bewilderment at the sight of Balyn seated at one of the desks, furiously leafing through a stack of books, therefore, said a great deal about the workshop's current Hunter.
"Good hunter, what are you doing?" she finally asked, venturing where less courageous animated mannequins feared to tread.
"Research!" Balyn declared. After about five seconds of silence ticked by, it dawned on him that perhaps more was needed by way of explanation. "The Bloodletting Beast. I ran into it in the lower Pthumerian tombs, and it's been giving me fits."
"So, you are trying to see if any of the old hunters encountered such a beast before, and can identify a suitable strategy?"
She probably should have known better.
"I want to know what its name means."
"Pardon me?"
"Bloodletting! Why would they name a beast that?"
The Doll blinked.
"I…do not know."
"I've found records that talk about a weapon called a 'Bloodletter' that some people thought was a way to expel tainted blood. Does the Bloodletting Beast do the same thing? Is it a source of blood? Might it even be where the Healing Church got some of its Old Blood from? Or is it engaged in bloodletting, trying to expel the tainted beast blood from its own body and cure its beasthood? Is there some connection to how the Blood-Starved Beasts I've encountered are half-flayed? There are so many links here, but no one seems to have any firm answers. It's just a lot of speculation and guesswork!"
The Doll tipped her head to one side, curious.
"Will knowing this help you to hunt this beast?"
"Well, yes, obviously, or…um…er…maybe? I suppose it could, if it…well, it might reveal some attribute that…" Balyn's voice trailed off. "All right, I admit it. It's just a personal annoyance. I just want to know because it bugs me. I guess Lady Maria was right about that whole 'wild curiosity' thing. But haven't you ever just looked at something, and some part of it just didn't make sense, and you were just driven to learn why because it nags and nags at you? Haven't you ever had that feeling?"
It was her turn to stare at him for several seconds before she answered.
"Indeed, good hunter, I find myself confronting that emotion quite often of late."
Balyn opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again and picked up his saw cleaver.
"…Maybe I'd better just get back to the dungeon."
~X X X~
While most of the giant beasts that Balyn had slain took heavily after the wolflike scourge beasts with their long muzzles set with far too many ripping, rending fangs, the Bloodletting Beast was different. It reminded him more of the distorted huntsmen from Central Yharnam, their bodies cloaked in fur but their faces still basically flat and human-like. It had abandoned clothing in favor of its shaggy pelt, and it carried no spear or saw, but things that stood thirty feet tall or more tended to have trouble finding gear sized to match.
Not that it needed any.
Balyn danced and darted back and forth, trying to get at the creature's legs. He ripped at them with his saw, drawing sprays of blood. The beast's claws whipped past, and Balyn couldn't help but think of legends of swords sharp enough to cleave the air itself—he would have sworn that they missed him, but they still opened a row of slashes along his side.
At least, when it pounded the ground and the shockwave knocked him sprawling, the festering pit the beast inhabited shook with the impact.
Wincing, Balyn pushed himself back to his feet, but it was too late. The beast had pivoted; it raised its clenched fists above its head, and brought them down in a devastating hammer-blow. The effect was not unlike dropping a stone block onto a grape; blood splattered everywhere as darkness claimed Balyn yet again.
~X X X~
"Welcome home, good hunter," the Doll greeted him.
Balyn groaned, deciding whether to get up out of the surprisingly comfortable grass.
"Well, I think I figured out how the Bloodletting Beast got its name."