Hello! I am not dead I promise. heres a chapter for you guys, I got a bit busy with work and the hollidays and also some stage freight for no reason. I'm posting it and still want to write, I just sometimes have a thing where i'll hang onto a chapter because I don't know what you peeps will think. anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter, if you can please give me your thoughts in a review if you have criticism or a way I can improve my writing or story telling I would love that. I do not own Bloodborne or RWBY and they are owned by they're own respective studios.

A Hunter's heart filled with empathy.

She slid down the gravel on her back and found the floor, stumbling for a few steps before she looked around and gathered her surroundings.

This part was empty.

Perfect.

She turned back up to the light pouring in and then descending farther down into the depths of the mine.

As she descended into the abyss a thought punctured her head. The Boom Hammer was ill fit for this place, as much as she loved the destruction it caused to beasts she had to think about her strength and the area she would affect if she were to use it's full capability.

She pushed her thoughts to a higher plane and asked for the messengers of the dream to deliver something from her personal workshop.

She stopped and looked around again, making sure there was no one to witness what she was about to do.

She knelt down to the stones to set down her beloved hammer.

The little ones came up through the ground and they clambered for the thin handle and the head, raising it up vertically a little before it was pulled into the ground along with the messengers.

A few seconds later and they returned with what she requested.

They raised their thin, fragile arms up and presented another weapon that her workshop had created.

She reached through the brace and grabbed the bar at the other end.

Lifting it up from her little helpers and up to her face inspect a weapon that came from the new generation of powderkegs.

The Stake Driver.

It was also the parallel to her primary weapon of choice.

While the Boom Hammer was wonderful against the many beasts, but as she began to fight more and more kin she lacked the advantage that it had against beasts.

This weapon was more precise but just as deadly.

And it was the perfect killer of kin.

She was less comfortable with it so sometimes she opted to not use it depending on what she was fighting.

It was a black powder stake driver, meaning that it used both a spring and a smidge of black magic in order to thrust the beautifully adorned silver stake forward with catastrophic speed and force.

This weapon was not for the weak of body, even hunters needed to brace their bodies before unleashing the true power of this weapon.

Alaine however would be straying from that teaching, it was reckless but she paid the price of learning the limit during the endless hunt.

Her shoulder ached remembering those times, even if it had saved her life a number of times.

She pulled the lever at the end of her fist and it released the stake, it protruded forward and it sparked with electricity as metal slid against metal.

She had put a damp cursed bolt blood gem and two cursed cold abyssal gems into this weapon, she watched the intricate design of the stake flow with a very strong electrical current.

She was done inspecting it and remembering how to use it.

With pistol and driver in hand she went to walk deeper into the mine.

That was until she felt a gentle tug on her cloak.

She turned her head back and found two messengers using one hand to pull on her cloak while holding something else up.

Oh how could she forget.

She turned around fully and then kneeled while putting her gun away on her side to pick up a weapon that went completely against the powderkegs ideals but was undeniably useful.

It was a bar of iron with finger holes, the most brutish pair of knuckle dusters ever conceived.

The Fist of Gratia.

She put it in her inside coat pocket just incase her and her pistol were ever parted and then gave the two messengers a gentle rub on their heads as a thank you.

"Be on your way now.. tell the doll I will see her soon" Alaine said before getting back up, readying her weapons and descending into the dark.

Oddly enough the dark never was blinding to Alaine, not since she became a hunter.

She could still make out the cavernous shape and navigate well through this rocky cavern

That was always odd to her even as a hunter, no matter how dark it was she could still see very clearly even in pitch black she could see movement and the colors never seemed to truly go away.

Then she heard a rock fall to the floor as she walked.

She stopped and pulled the lever, the clink of the stake pulling and locking into place could be heard echoing through the stone walls.

But nothing came.

Her senses were tingling, she had her head turned to the side, her left eye looking behind her as she walked forward.

These beasts weren't too smart but they learned, she would not put it past these grimm to learn to lie in wait to ambush their prey.

Her peripheral picked up a bit of white light.

She turned her head forward to see better and saw just how large the expanse was that she was traveling down.

In the middle there was a strange machine, there seemed to be plenty of those in this world.

She began looking around and noticed people, plenty of people around.

Some were sleeping or trying to sleep, others were entertaining themselves with cards.

Some even had what looked to be a see through, flat, glowing piece of paper in front of them.

It was strange and unfamiliar to her like so much in this world.

But now wasn't the time to marvel over designs from another engineer.

She took out a little lantern from her pocket and placed it on her belt.

She opened the small door on the front with her off hand and then struck a match against the stake driver before she pushed it into the lantern to light the wick.

She then shook the match out and tossed the stick aside.

She then cleared her throat to announce her presence. Heads turned to her, then joy spread across their faces as they realized they were saved.

"Head towards the surface but be careful. There are Grimm digging through this mine. There is also a huntsman and your friends and family on the surface." Alaine said while pointing her arm out behind her to indicate that there was an exit now.

Alaine finished talking, she had tried to speak in a way not to cause panic and she seemed to accomplish that judging from the reactions she received.

People were eager but they weren't trying to climb over the person in front of them to desperately try and get out as fast as possible.

More and more people seemed to keep coming and passing her at various speeds depending on that individual person's eagerness to get out and see the sun.

She waited while people moved past her, she didn't want to cause any accidents by moving through the flow of the crowd with the stake driver.

Once she had the room to she began walking deeper into the room.

She wondered just how many people she had seen walk past her.

She hoped Qrow could handle them.

She pushed those thoughts away as she was met with a wall of rubble.

It was imposing but it was too dangerous to bring people down here with the subterranean beasts.

She'd have to move the rubble herself.

She put her gun at her hip and then flipped the lever of the stake driver once more to extend the stake outward and decompressed it.

The silver let out with a hiss along with a clink as the metal slid and locked into its untricked form.

The then stepped forward as she inspected the rubble.

It was simple enough, she began clearing through it, using the spade like shape of the stake to shovel through and push aside rock, leverage boulders and find how the rubble locked together.

Once she moves one of the boulders locked in place the rock above will collapse onto where it was.

She shoved the stake between the boulder and the rock above it, shoving it in and leveraging it off.

Her arm shook slightly as she wiggled and shoved the stake farther in.

She then pulled the driver back, using the leverage to pull the thing out.

Once it was out the sliding of rock could be heard as the space she had created was filled with loose rock and gravel.

Using the stake and her left hand she began digging and shoveling through.

Thanks to her strength she was able to do this faster and without a break.

Eventually she believed that she was half way through.

She had made enough of a dent in the rubble for it to look almost like a doorway.

It took her a little while but she was making quick progress.

She was careful not to take out large chunks of rock but that meant that her doorway was getting narrower and eventually she was met with a boulder with a thin split.

She shoved the stake into it and once it was wide enough she shoved her hands into it and began prying it apart.

She managed to make a gap large enough for her idea.

She backed away and flicked the lever.

The spring was pulled back until the driver locked into place along with the stake pulled into into its primed position

She brought it in front of her face. It was a very complex mechanism. which made it different from other weapons she'd used in the past.

She turned it over. On all sides were incredibly detailed engravings, giving it an air of grace when it would eventually drive through the bodies of the kin.

She loved its intricacies, she respected it as a weapon, and she feared its power.

She pulled her arm back and clenched her teeth.

She braced her shoulder as she held the button that made the mechanism make a hollow sound as air was being drawn in and compressed inside it, pulling the spring loaded piston farther back.

She heard the air's hollow pitch from inside reach the highest it could get.

The hunter was gauging its pressure based on the sound alone.

let go of the button as she punched forward.

Time seemed to slow as she heard the clicking of the stake being released and a small hole popped open inside.

A bit of black powder fell like grains of sand in an hourglass between the shaft of the stake and the locked spring.

For only a moment metal screamed against metal as the lock was released and the spring went and slammed into the back of the stake driver, using the air and gunpowder mixture and slamming it into ignition.

The gunpowder exploded and launched the electrically sparking stake forward along with a small jet of flame from the gunpowder.

The stake slammed into the rock and split the boulder violently, blowing the rest of the rubble forward and pushing it out the other end with ease.

The recoil shot into her arm and shoulder, pushing her back and forcing her to keep her arm tensed or risk injury.

Alaine dashed back as the rest of the superheated air vented out of the top of the housing for the driver with a hiss.

The broken rock and rubble slid forward and what was left was a hole that was half a meter in diameter.

She pushed the rest forward with the stake and her free hand, making a hole that could be walked through if she leaned down.

She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in and then looked at the Stake and its gleaming pattern, this weapon was so destructive it was terrifying even behind it.

She had a large wicked grin from the adrenaline running through her mind and her blood rushing through her veins.

She hunched over and made her way through the small archway she had made.

Surprisingly the next area was also peaceful, she did not dare to let her guard down.

But she did call out.

"Hello?! Is anyone there?! I'm here to get you out of this place!"

She waited for a response and just as she was about to move on she heard the sound of a rock hitting stone.

She turned to what looked to be the corner of the room and saw a large circular shape, made with stones and loose debris, even a part of that one moving machine that she had seen.

Oh.

That wiped the smile from her face.

The top was caved in and blood stained the wall behind it.

She walked over to the dome and climbed up, only to peer into the pool of body parts, blood, guts and heads.

The sight reminded her of the river of blood and bodies that trailed from below the jail of the church, or at least a small similarity to that literal nightmare.

Now that she noticed, her boots had already stepped through the thin line of bloody grime that had flowed from between the stones.

She couldn't let the people from above down here.

If they did they'd weep and despair.

There wasn't even a Grim around to claim vengeance on.

She probably already killed it above without a thought.

Either way she would never be able to tell, most if not all Grimm have the stench of tar and blood.

What a waste of life.

nothing down here could amount to the amount of life taken from here.

Alaine backed away from the bloody scene.

She turned to the rubble in the way of going deeper and then she paused her hand as she had a realization that chilled her to her bones.

The Grimm beasts did not feast on their prey, they just slaughtered.

She tried to find a reason to it, even the beasts of Yharnam killed because they wanted to eat.

She couldn't understand the why of it.

These intelligent monsters hunted people, not to eat..

Territory? Maybe, but she didn't think that was the entire reason.

Alaine knew too little, she would have to ask what her new acquaintances know about them.

She wouldn't give up on her mission down here, even if it was unlikely anyone survived.

She could kill the grimm infesting the mine and eliminate the threat it had to the town below and the last of Onyx's people.

Her hands reach out to dig through the rubble.

Dirt smudged her face and dust caked her cloak and clothes.

The Hunter used her weapon as a spade, pushing dirt out of the way with that and her off hand.

She was considerably strong so it was not like it was a problem for her to clear a path completely on her own.

Alaine spoke little, she thought little, she was waiting… waiting for that moment to let her instincts and training take over.

She dug through the rubble, if only to kill this infestation like cutting a cancer off from the body.

Thank you for reading, I love writing this and I have a lot of concepts I want to explore in the future, I just have to get to them. I wish everyone well and hope everyone had a good year and that this new year goes well.