Hello, as you've probably seen in your email this is not the first time I've tried to upload this. I'm tired of trying through my docs so what I did was I wrote it into the copy and paste tab from scratch. Yes, it was a major pain in the ass, and yes, I have only slept 4 hours today because I spent the entire my free time yesterday doing this. I love writing and have even considered making this maybe more than a hobby, I put a lot of effort into this, so I hope you peeps enjoy the chapter. I do not own RWBY or Bloodborne and they each belong to their respective studios.
Bone, Tar, and Malice.
Alaine finally pushed through the dusty rubble, pushing further down into this abyss.
She made enough room to walk through, but on the other side there wasn't anything. It was just darkness and faint shapes. When she walked forward, she realized that she had heard dripping echoing through the stone chamber.
Her gaze swept the room, seeing different shades of gray, seeing odd shapes in the dark but never the full picture.
She blinked and suddenly everything came into focus and the Hunter drew in a breath as the wretched smell of sweet blood filled her nostrils, the odor made her heart quicken.
It seemed that blood still sang its sanguine song to her, she just hoped that she could control that bloodlust in this life.
She was snapped out of her head and back to this dirty reality when she stepped forward and heard a crunch under her boot, she looked down to see that she had stepped onto someone's fingers. Judging by the fact that the arm attached didn't even flinch, the person wasn't among the living. The Hunter took a step back, and her senses were enveloped with that old smell of death she was so familiar with.
Even if she couldn't make out everything clear as day but from everything so far she could tell she was too late and had walked in on a massacre on a grand scale. She bit her bottom lip growling to herself. She imagined the anguish, and the despair these people must have felt, and anger grew inside her.
"Nothing is more horrific than a hunt." Alaine remembered her senior's words, and she would challenge that it was all a matter of perspective. The act of hunting is not horrific even if being hunted is, everything hunts something. What wound her so tightly about this was the lack of necessity. These creatures called Grimm don't eat, from her time in the forest she could tell that they did not mark territory, they were not curious of their surroundings, all they seemed to do was murder, kill, and slaughter.
Madness is what it is, and the only thing you can do with madness is try to treat or cut it from the source to keep such a thing from spreading like wildfire. Madness spreads like a disease. The ones treating such a thing are especially vulnerable to catching the madness that their patients have.
She was too late for these people, and she wasn't naive enough to try and avenge them only for that reason, but what had killed them was a threat to those above, she couldn't let them come up from the mine. When rescue was done or no longer an option, all that was left was extermination.
Steel crackled blue and gleamed in the darkness, as sharp as the Good Hunter's eyes and just as piercing.
Like a beast in the night, her eyes shone in the darkness, although unnatural. Two dots of faded blue... a nearly white glow, it was a sure give away of what she is.
Her eyes kept scanning the slaughter, looking for signs of life, friend or foe.
Ah.
Red.
Glowing red eyes peaked up from deeper in the darkness... coming from deeper inside a passageway in the way they must've made. She stood still, staring it down for a second while it growled deeply. These Grimm never seem to attack her first, "Cowards... don't like it when your prey can fight back?" she snarled out through clenched teeth.
They weren't like the great ones where she did not understand the reason behind their actions.
The creatures of Grimm were something else entirely, like a force of nature that's just what they were. Nothing more. Nothing less.
The Hunter rushed forward with her arm pulled back to bring a bladed punch into the bone mask only for the stake to strike stone. It dove into a hole right before she could strike. She was growing tired of this trick. Where...? She could feel it clawing its way around through the ground. She felt it in her feet... so sensitive to those vibrations that she could feel it even through her tightly bound boots.
She waited patiently, pistol at her side, and the stake driver primed and ready.
She felt them getting more intense to the point that it came up to her knees, her nerves screamed danger. The Hunter shifted her weight and the wall next to her burst, showering her in dust and out of that cloud came the jaws of the Grimm ready to tear her apart.
She outstretched her hand from the stake driver and grabbed the neck of the Grimm, tar like flesh molded under her grip as she pushed it up and then slammed it down onto the blood soaked stone. It thrashed and kicked violently but with Alaine in position on top of it there was little it could do.
Before it could squirm loose, she straddled its long neck, and torso keeping it facing upside down with her gun arm. Her hand let go of its neck safely and she pushed the lever on the driver. The stake thrusted out and into the bottom of the thing's skull and through the skull mask, shattering it and sending a mixture of bone fragments and black ooze across the floor.
Alaine stood from the evaporating corpse and flicked the non-existent blood off of her weapon out of instinct more than anything. Damn Grimm were worse than beasts, and yet not nearly as horrific as they had never been people. The silver lining there is that it makes it easy to kill without the slightest bit of hesitation.
She felt the hairs on her neck raise, she whirled around to see more pairs of red eyes meeting hers. There must have been more tunnels dug out by the Grimm. Their unique split eyes stared her down with hate, burning bright in the darkness... they snarled as they crawled out from their tunnels, attracted by the noise.
Any hunter worth their salt would not just sit here and become prey. However, she saw too many pairs of eyes, too many to dive in and go wild with her weapon. This was where her boom hammer and cannon would have excelled if space and destructibility wasn't a issue.
As the Grimm approached, she left the driver untricked and extended as she ran up to the one that tried to stalk around to her behind. She couldn't afford to take her time like with the first Grimm. The creep ran forward, letting out a hiss of anger as it leaped into the air at her. It outstretched its large and powerful foot to pin her down, but the hunter had already slashed through its belly with the help of its forward momentum. Blue sparks crackled and sparked through the body of the grim as it landed and promptly slumped to the ground dead.
The new Grim she ran towards tried to reel back to avoid her swipe and then bite back only to have exposed its throat that was now torn open with a savage swipe, revealing its red insides. It didn't even have a chance. It opened its mouth, the darkbeasts electricity arcing from its maw as it fell onto its back and began to smoke.
She turned and saw four more charging, one even stepped over its dead kin. A diagonal swipe in front of her stopped the advance of the Grimm if only for a second. The space was too narrow, she couldn't dash freely with this terrain either.
The Grimm all advanced at once and she realized for the first time why Djura used a blunderbuss along with the stake driver. Its wide spread of quicksilver is perfect for multiple opponents.
She managed to backstep, but her senses screamed again. She heard and felt another Grimm behind her, one must have taken advantage of its kin distracting her to try and swarm her. She turned on her heel as quick as she could, using that momentum to slash across its bone mask, sending blue and orange sparks flying along with smokey tar. The beast fizzled and electricity crackled, involuntarily shaking from the pure amount of pain and energy coursing through its body.
She jumped and kicked off the creep's mask and onto its back where she treaded low and raked the stake driver along its hide while being careful of the bony spines protruding out its back. She jumped off its back and slid into a defensive position, hunched forward, legs bent and eyes wild and ready.
The Grimm followed without reprieve, the first one jumped onto the cavern wall before using its powerful legs to launch itself at her with claws and toothy jaw extended. She sidestepped the attack, but one of its claws sliced and scraped through her brass gauntlet, shredding it open easily like a saw through flesh.
The alligator like Grimm that was in front of the pack originally followed behind, snapping its jaws at her. She backed up but the jaw just kept snapping open and close at her, just trying to catch a little bit of her. What she needed to do was make an opening. She dashed back again only to realize she had fallen for a trap, the one that had jumped past her was waiting for the perfect opportunity.
Its long toothy maw opened and slammed closed on her left shoulder. Alaine let out a blood curdling scream as her clavicle was crushed, and one of her lungs was pierced. She kept a death grip on her pistol, no matter how much it hurt it was a death sentence to drop her pistol right now.
She pulled the lever back to pull the stake driver back, and she drove it into the Grimms eye. It snarled but didn't immediately let go, and continued to bite harder, collapsing the lung it had pierced. Alaine was partially on her back, dragged down by the Grimm. she had to kick the ground to keep upright and not fall completely to the ground where she would be as good as dead.
Of course, the other Grimm wouldn't wait patiently, they approached quickly to tear her apart like they did the rest. The one that had been snapping at her relentlessly tried to do so again, this time it aimed to bite her legs and rip up her legs. She drew them back and kicked the Grimm in their snouts, pushing them away from her with her enhanced strength and desperation.
it preserved her life but now she was on her back and the Grimm currently feasting on her shoulder had full control over her body. She wasted no time pressing the lever on the stake driver, and instantly the Grimms head exploded into bone shards and black smokey viscera as the stake driver drove its stake through the beast's head with so much force that anything above its lower jaw was gone, splattered and riddled against the walls of this mine.
She lifted the remnants of the Grimms jaw off of her arm and then rolled to the side as quick as she could. Her clavicle, shoulder, arm, and lung all screamed in pain. Her blood joined the many others on the floor, but she forced herself to her feet as quickly as she could, and then dashed back. She was nearly at the entrance she had made to come down here.
Breathing was very difficult, and the sound her breaths made was labored and wet from the blood in her lung. She coughed and tried to steady her breathing as much as she could. The Grimm continued to come at her, not even fearing her death throes, their malice was that strong.
Alaine had a mad smile on her face as she put her gun in her holster and quickly grabbed a blood vial, she jabbed herself in her left femoral artery purposefully. She had just enough time to pull the needle out before the jaws of the Grimm could finish the job.
The smile she had grew ear to ear, adrenaline and the ancient blood rushing through her mind and veins, intoxication and euphoria flowed with it as she could feel the flesh mending and the pain fading away into memory. The Hunter broke into a full sprint which seemed to catch the Grimm off guard. She dashed and dragged the driver across furthest left of the three remaining Grimm, making it shake and unable to move as darkbeast electricity coursed through it.
She ran past and behind them, the Grimm were slow to turn around thanks to their disproportionate bodies as well as the crowded nature of the mine meant that they were bumping into each other.
Alaine slid to a stop, nearly losing her footing thanks to the blood on the floor, but she positioned herself diagonally to the three hunting her. The Hunter with a wicked smile on her face pulled the driver back into its tricked form and began to quickly prep its attack.
Adrenaline and blood pumped through her like it was one and the same, the driver sucked in air... the hammer was pulled itself back... the trap door closed, and it slammed together to launch out the driver to its full form.
The Stake Driver launched its stake out and cleanly punched through and pierced two of the three Grimm. The first was through its backside and out of its abdomen, the second was through the side and out of its shoulder, and the last had its mask sliced in half as gleaming steel flung its head against the wall from the force it received.
Quick as lightning, it launched, and was just as quickly retracted, causing her to slide back from the recoil and nearly fall on her ass. She sniffed the air, cleaning her nose and moved on. The pain in her shoulder was now nothing but a memory. As much as she disliked this narrow mine, it helped her fight against superior numbers.
The last Grimm seemed to be alive despite its bone mask being cleanly cut in half, it turned to focus its fury on the Hunter, but prey alone is nothing to worry about. She took her time to break open the flintlock that kicked a steaming, half melted casing, and loaded another quicksilver bullet in. The Grimm was almost upon her.
BANG!
Right before the Grimm was about to clamp its mouth shut on her only for the loud sound of a gunshot go off, and quicksilver to go through its unarmored head, not all the way through but enough for the liquid quicksilver to burn through its insides. The black mass of tar reeled back from the gunshot, and the molten metal inside it distracted it easily enough while she finished it off by thrusting the gleaming and crackling stake inside its skull.
She had to use a vial. What was that... seven left? When she gets back she should stop by the dream to restock on quicksilver bullets and blood.
The Hunter returned to go deeper, only to see more red eyes staring back at her. Just like home, and just like old Yharnam.
What broke that delusion was the sudden gasp as a Grimm growled, then a shuffle and finally she heard a man "Shit! Whoever's there please help me!" it was accompanied by the sound of desperate footsteps, clambering to his feet only to run, trip, and fall with a small trickle as he slipped onto the bloodied stone.
The Good Hunters eyes light up and her nose whole face was full of surprise. There was someone still alive down here! She broke into a fast sprint and as a Grimm beast was about to cave in the man's chest with its foot when the Grimm was slammed up against the wall. Electricity crackled again and again as Alaine was quick to use her body to hold the Grimm up while she gutted it with the stake driver repeatedly. Tar soaked her arm and she saw blackened red insides and she kept carving her blade into it until it stopped moving completely.
She then threw the corpse outward towards the rest of the Grimm who had noticed their presence. She had her back to the survivor and was facing out towards the Grimm, she grabbed his arm after putting her gun away, lifting him up off of the ground, "Get up and run. Now!" she shouted as more and more sets of red eyes joined the others from the tunnels in the walls. Growls and heavy, wet footsteps approached their prey.
"I CAN'T SEE! IT'S PITCH BLACK!" The younger man's voice shouted, his voice shaking in a mixture of fear and his crawling emotions. He was still trying to escape even if he said it couldn't be done, feeling around on his hands and knees' trying to crawl his way to safety.
Alaine bit her lip, understanding that there was no real way for him to escape. The Hunter turned toward the Grimm with her stake driver, cloaked in blue electricity in one hand and her gleaming silver pistol in the other. "Stay put. Yell if they're going to attack you. Don't run till I say, or I won't be able to keep you safe... and whatever you see... think of it all as a mere bad dream." Aline spoke calmly, this wasn't the first time she's had to fight like a cornered beast, and it won't be the last. It will be the first time she has protected someone since the early stages of the scourge. She won't let any further harm come to them.
Thank you for reading this, I hope the quality is much better than the last one, I'm a little embarrassed of how I formatted the last one since I think at least on pc it looks off and kind of amateurish to me. I'm not dead I swear, I've been trying to figure out this technical issue and I swear if writing it from scratch onto the site doesn't fix it I'm going to run my head into a wall just to sleep for like sixteen hours. I'll be taking a small break thanks to this issue, if it's fixed then it'll just be one or two days to relax. if it isn't then I have some kind of issue and I'll be looking to contact some kind of support to get this figured out. Thank you guys again for reading, 200 follows is insane to me, I really hope I can continue to write to you guys in the future! I'll try and keep up this quality. See you peeps in the next chapter. :)