The job of a hunter was not easy. On the contrary, it required split-second timing, lightning reflexes, physical strength, and mental fortitude (not to mention an extremely strong stomach), and even then one slip-up meant that you'd be bleeding out, eviscerated by the talons of some hellish beast. Again.
Honestly, Balyn had no idea how people like Gehrman, Ludwig, and Maria could have done the work without the eldritch link to the Hunter's Dream that sustained him. It was no wonder that they'd become legends in Yharnam.
But sometimes, now and again, there were moments of triumph that made it all worthwhile.
Well, worthwhile if you ignored the way the moon had immediately turned blood-red, the night sky had gone a pale shade of madness behind purple clouds, the beast scourge swarmed the streets anew, and every other building was crested by an Amygdala. That made the sense of victory seem somewhat less than unequivocal. But hey, who expected perfection? The point was, he'd achieved success, rather than another miserable death.
"Welcome home, good hunter. Things seem to have somehow changed. Have you accomplished something?"
Balyn was surprised. The Doll was generally perceptive about his state (honestly, she was the most observant doll that he'd ever met…wait…) but she rarely commented about the actual progress of the hunt, leaving that to Gehrman.
Then he looked up and noticed that the sky had changed in the Dream, not only in Yharnam.
That was unsettling.
Ah, well, it's not like the place is on fire or something.
"As a matter of fact, I did! I finally managed to take care of that vacuous Rom."
"You seemed to be having considerable trouble with her in the past."
"You're telling me! It's bad enough that she had all of those little baby spiders scuttling around, but on top of that, she also had magic. If I got too far away from her, meteors would start raining down out of the sky at me. And if I got a little bit closer, well, then the meteors would start blasting up in a ring around her. I just couldn't get away from it all for the longest time."
"It does sound very difficult, good hunter," she allowed. "How did you deal with it?"
"I decided that since I was at Byrgenwerth, I should allow myself to be guided by the words of Provost Willem."
The Doll tipped her head to one side in an attitude of curiosity.
"Indeed? Gehrman has mentioned that name on occasion, when he is dreaming. I did not know, though, that he had wisdom to offer hunters."
Balyn nodded.
"He did, though. I just needed to stay as close to Rom as I could, whenever she'd allow it, 'cause then no matter which way the meteors came, I's on the inside."
The cracked porcelain at the corner of her eye looked awfully like what would happen if a face that couldn't move somehow developed a nervous twitch.