Dogs of War Part 2
- Location
- The Z-Cave
Disclaimer: I do not own Kamen Rider Drive or Bloodborne
…Yeah, so much for the 'less than three months' comment'. I really have not excuse other than a lack of enthusiasm. Hope this entertains.
Chapter 7: Dogs of War Part 2
Lavinia was a consummate member of the Choir. She understood that humanity was nothing more than ants stuck in an uncaring cosmos. Doomed to amount to nothing in their insignificance and thus needed to find their own purpose in life if such a thing existed. Luckily, Yharnam had found the true answer to life in the form of the Great Ones and the Old Blood thanks to the genius and tenacity of the First Vicar, Laurence.
But for the brilliance of this design there was always a downside; a counterpoint. In the rush to become something more the Old Blood instead revealed how truly insignificant humans really were. It ripped apart the façade and revealed her race to be in reality less than ants. There was no choice at that point; Lavinia knew that humanity needed a better future than to be less than ants. She had accepted the Choir's offer to join and went to work to gift humanity with salvation.
Lavinia knew that she had to bring ascension to everyone else the first time she had seen Ebrietas with her own eyes and she realized what was truly at stake. She then did things that would make even the most hardened Hunter's skin crawl as she helped spread the Old Blood throughout the city, facing failure after failure. But to bring humanity to a higher level; to give them an actual purpose she would do anything, any crime, or suffer any failure to bring the rising sun of ascension with the Old Blood. She would craft a great purpose for humanity.
She would do anything not to share the fate of everyone else; to succumb to the trials of their salvation and become a beast.
It had all started like every other time Yharnam finally devoured too much of itself; the Night of the Hunt started, the Hunter of the Dream was assuredly chosen and the citizens became less than ants en masse. As she had expected, something had gone completely wrong, the pawn ant had reported that Old Yharnam had finally come back to haunt them and that the beasts were spilling in. As the most martial of the Choir she had mobilized to meet the threat and fortune had smiled upon herself finding four high quality Hunters, her pawn had done her job gathering together and pressuring them into working for the Church and they had set out to deal with Old Yharnam once and for all.
She had done her job, speaking with the Hunters, marginalizing Djura's complaints, courting the interest in Briner and Chase who could be useful in the future, and not stepping on the Hunter of Hunters toes; she was a fixture in Yharnam by this point and too useful to anger.
Their planned trump card, Chase's ability to slow time to a crawl, was rendered useless because every beast had bathed themselves in the Old Blood, no doubt taken from any beasts not a part of their pack and Church creations they could find.
But that had not been the worst that had happened. They had been outsmarted, out thought, by a beast. Unconceivable. Impossible. Asinine! It went against how Yharnam had work. It went against her purpose! The truth that had served Lavinia since childhood had been broken and destroyed by the Bloody Beast. Cornered by all sounds by its mangy slaves, back sent up to a literally burning wall.
"Less than an ant, less than an ant, less than an ant, less than an ant, less than an ant…" she rambled endlessly unable to deal with her worldview crushed.
Of course, the other Hunters didn't know any of this, caring more about being crushed by the horde. But as they were backed up against the burning building, Chase grabbed the stammering Lavinia all the while Djura gave him a disapproving look.
On all other sides the beasts were gathering, forming a wall of savagery and blood around their prey, closing every avenue of escape with their bodies making a cage. Around the Bloody Beast a guard had been formed, a personal pack that walked with the alpha in perfect tandem, a perfect offense to strike with the Bloody Beast and a great defense to shield it from bullets and physical blows.
The Bloody Beasts then walked forward on all fours with a powerful stride, its bloody guard moving with it. It wanted the killing blow.
Then, something unexpected happened: a giant stone hammer flew through the air and hit the Bloody Beast in the back of the head, drawing blood and sending the beast reeling and with that, cohesion was lost. The beasts panicked and scampered at their leader's wounds, losing all of their organizational skills. The pack becoming a swarm of confusion.
"Everyone!" the man who threw the hammer shouted. "I heard you could use a hand!"
Eileen was the one to respond, and she didn't answer with words. She vanished in the Quickening. Appearing in the middle of the swarm releasing a hail of knives to kill as many beasts as she could to make a hole, before Quickening outside of the circle completely another salvo of knives ready to be thrown, thinning the horde just a bit more.
"Djura! Another grenade!" Eileen ordered, Djura immediately complied throwing the explosive at Eileen who caught it while he drew another. Briner then revealed his own payload and the three veterans threw their grenades in a manner that formed a vertical line through the horde. Each exploded killing the beasts in the conflagrations and creating a weak point in their offensive line.
Djura looked to Chase, his hands and feet becoming wolfish limbs once more and yelled. "Take the front with me! Briner will carry the Church stooge!"
Chase immediately complied handing the Church Hunter to the elder apprentice and then ran up to Djura, picking up his savior's hammer along the way. With a look but not a word the two charged at the weakpoint before it could be filled, axe and claws drawn and swinging. Their great strength pushing aside any of the remaining beasts with the help of their chosen weapons while Briner followed.
Lavinia saw the man who had saved their lives as they escaped the trap. A handsome man in white with blond hair, green eyes, and a strong chin flashing a charming smile as Chase threw him back his Kirkhammer. He was the Executor. A survivor from Logarius' Crusade…Alfred was his name. But still, that meant had Amelia done her job, her ant had performed well for the colony.
Wait, she knew that name.
"Nice to meet you all!" the Executioner called jovially. "It's an honor to work by your sides! Shall we take these vile beasts to-?"
"No, we run!" Lavinia ordered from Briner's shoulder, her expression restored to normalcy. "We can't beat that horde and the alpha will be back soon!"
"You do know I can drop you, right?" Briner said darkly.
"She's right!" Eileen agreed, angry. "We have to retreat and regroup!"
And as she finished her sentence, the ground began to tremble again. The beasts of Old Yharnam surged forward from behind them, their numbers struggling against the houses that boxed in the road to the point where it almost looked like a bloody wave, the Bloody Beast itself emerging from the horde, its acidic slobber being spat out in pain and rage.
That was all the motivation that the Hunters needed to run faster.
"We need higher ground!" Eileen shouted, looking up to the roofs. "We can't escape conventionally."
As she spoke female beasts, also covered in blood, revealed themselves on the rooftops. Lined up in rows as a countermeasure to Chase's Slowdown. Their mouths open and inhaling back to unleash a barrage of acid.
"We're trapped…" Chase said.
"I'll admit that the situation looks bad." Alfred admitted.
"No. I won't die to these things. I won't die to beasts." Lavinia vowed, reaching for something in her priest robes. It was an orb that allowed the channeling of higher mysteries of the Cosmos like the Augur of Ebrietas. This one allowed the control of those the Church had ascended. Back up will be on its way.
"Stop moving! You're slowing the both of us down." Briner complained.
"Hand her to me, then." Alfred casually offered in mid-run. "Us Hunters should help aid one another." His countenance cheerful despite the dreadful situation.
"Gladly." Briner said, tossing Lavinia to the Executor.
He's tossing me to the Executor. Martyr Logarius' most deranged follower. He might look like a storybook knight but there was a reason he had gotten guard duty of Old Yharnam.
Lavinia looked at the orb fighting the urge to shout "Hurry up!" knowing that it would do nothing.
Then the female Yharnam beasts fired their acidic payload from their mouths. Fighting the inevitable Chase activated a Slowdown to block the first barrage, then a second to block the second barrage, then the third.
By this point the Bloody Beast's newest strategy became clear. Its pack and it attacked at their full ferocity from behind, meaning all focus needed to be put into running, meaning that the time to aim a projectile attack would be fatal, and with its ranged attackers guarding the rooftops it would eventually whittle away at the group, even with Chase's Slowdown.
But that was fine. Lavinia would survive, the Church weapons would come to her aid and create confusion, and the Hunters would be a suitable sacrifice to help her escape.
Because no matter what, she had sworn; she would never fall to monsters that were beneath ants in the proper order of the Cosmos… of the eldritch Truth.
It was a pity, Lavinia thought, as she repressed a giggle. The newcomer, Chase, seemed like a perfectly decent human being, a person from the outside most likely drafted into the Hunt not understanding what he was getting into. It was because of people like him why she couldn't stop and couldn't fail and couldn't die. If she died and the secrets of the Church vanished than everyone who had been hurt and suffered sacrifices would be rendered meaningless. If needed to grant ascension she would survive past her pawn, past the Church, past the Choir, past Yharnam itself no matter what. She would survive.
Then there was the banging sounds of gunshots breaking Lavinia from her thoughts as she saw the female Yharnam beasts fall of the rooftops, dead.
"Who did that?" Chase asked.
"Who cares right now? We have an escape!" Djura retorted, and used his wolf legs to make the jump to the safer rooftops, Briner and Eileen following.
Alfred then made the jump next, but he was a fraction too slow because of Lavinia, the Bloody Beast would capture at least one of its prey. Its claws reaching out in a desperate lunge, in a perfect position to slaughter the flailing Lavinia. Only for Chase to push them both out of the way.
He was rewarded for his heroism by his armor being shred once again his blood spilling out along with scraps of machinery.
But he had bought time.
"Hey, ugly," Briner called out, the Gatling gun pointed at the overextended alpha beast. "Ready for another experiment?"
And the Gatling gun unleashed its rapid fire payload. The bullets being fired at full speed, the lesser beasts of Old Yharnam rushed forward to defend their leader, and were rewarded for their loyalty with their bodies being reduced into piles of gore and without a single regard by their leader, who was using them as cover to try and finish the job.
Then Djura jumped down dual magnums drawn, pointed at his former test subject's face, and fired.
The Bloody Beast whimpered in pain as its skull was broken. Its gaze growing more hateful at the sight of its former warden.
"Not letting you heal from this!" Djura shouted as he fired more, ruthlessly capitalizing on his turn of good fortune.
Of course, that was when the Church Servants and Giants stumbled in to make a mess of things. They converged groaning and moving with quickness provided by Lavinia's orb. Stumbling to move as quick as they could one giant threw its ball and chain at where the Bloody Beast and Djura stood.
The Powder Keg's eyes widened and he holstered his guns, sprouting his wolf limbs to dodge as the ball and chain pulverized the house Briner used to mount the Gatling gun, Eileen barely catching him and Quickening in time.
Djura angrily turned too Lavinia, face contorted into rage. "What did you do?!"
Lavinia didn't care for the Hunter's condemnation, she ran. Escape was in sight. Her plan was flawless. The Old Yharnam horde would pay more interest in the Powder Kegs and potential food. She would rise above everyone, she would live.
Sprinting madly Lavinia dodged the confused mob her distraction had created. Running as quickly as she could.
A giggle escaped her lips. She was going to escape!
"Well, well, well. What a fortuitous turn of events for my scheming." A deep voice said, dripping with smugness.
Lavinia was broken out of her thoughts, barely dodging a Tonitrus swing. Sword drawn to block, only to be hit in the back by a spear being used as a club.
"Looks like things are finally going our way," the second man in black said in a higher pitch in black while throwing a net on top of her. "I've got a feeling that the Headmaster will be interested in you."
Lavinia knew those uniforms. The Hunters of Yahar' gul formed by those Mensis traitors! Everything was going wrong today.
"You don't need to worry," the leader of the duo waxed false reassurances. "You won't suffer the fate of the others. You clearly know too much to just be cattle for our master."
Ambitious ants who didn't know their place, she could use this. "How about I tell you the secrets of the Cosmos and you shall release me? I could be a great friend to have."
The leader of the duo smacked her down with his mace. "Trust the Church? No. If you refuse to talk it's safer to have Mensis make you talk. Talk or not I know we'll be guaranteed a reward from the Headmaster."
So these ants had brain cells. Very well then, they would learn their insignificance. Beneath her sleeves an Augur of Ebrietas slid out, landing in her hand. And with that the power of the Cosmos turned the tide.
Ebrietas' mighty tentacles lashed out ripping the net to shreds, still flailing madly knocking the Hunters of Yahar'gul away and still spread outward casually slicing a house into pieces.
With that, Lavinia continued her retreat laughing. She had survived once again. She'd always survive.
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Robert and Maurice forced themselves up after whatever that Church Hunter used against them.
"What the hell was that?" Robert gasped.
"A secret of Yharnam that has slipped through out fingers," Maurice spat out in rage. "Damn it!" Then to his friend's confusion, he immediately calmed.
"Huh, usually you seethe a bit more when things go belly up," Robert mumbled.
"There's no need for anger now, Robert. With the way I've set up the board we'll be coming out on top. A true genius makes every move go towards his victory."
"So that's why we saved those Hunters? They're your pawns?"
"Yes. I have the opportunity to play chess thanks to this crisis."
"I dunno, this seems more like gambling to me."
"Say that again, Robert," Maurice said, testily.
"Well, you can't control everything in a situation like this. You don't have a full plan because of the chaos, playing fast and loose while trying to stack the deck in your favor. It seems more like gambling while cheating to me." Robert explained his rhetoric.
"It's chess, I assure you."
"Gambling."
"Chess."
"Gambling."
"Chess."
"Gambling."
The two Hunters bickered as they returned to the rooftops, tracing the path of destruction the four Hunters' escape caused.
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The four Hunters managed to drag their way into one of the Cathedral Ward's church like buildings that was surrounded by the unerring statues of women that the designers of the district favored. Alfred walked ahead, his smile plastered on his face, with Eileen keeping pace with a casual stroll, her speed serving her well. Briner stayed in the middle, while Djura carried the wounded Chase, making sure to cover his mechanical and bleeding innards.
Finally, the Hunters entered the church building, and sat down in varying states of exhaustion with Chase consuming a blood vial given to him by Alfred – a gift from the Church -- rubbing the place where the Bloody Beast had torn him open suppressing the irritation he felt at failing in combat twice in one battle.
And even worse, his Slowdown had now been completely negated and the answer had been staring him in the face the whole time. The Old Blood in great amount of quantities could null or completely negate a Slowdown. It utterly confused the Roidmude, how could a type of blood, mysterious and magical as it was, counter time control?
Chase was broken from his thoughts by Alfred's voice. "Well, I think that went well. Amelia sent me to back you up, and it seems I arrived in the nick of time. It must be a blessing."
"'Well'?" Eileen scoffed as she removed her mask to help catch her breath. "We were outsmarted, outnumbered, and escaped by mere luck after Lavinia's episode. This has to be the biggest embarrassment the Hunters have suffered in years."
"And Lavinia's out there somewhere, I'm worried about what she'll do alone," Chase added.
"I say good riddance to the Church stooge," Djura growled. "She lost her wits and made things worse. I bet she wanted to use us to cover her mistake."
"You don't know that for sure. She was panicking, it could have been an honest mistake. "Chase argued…but it didn't come out as very convincing.
"Or she could be close to turning." Eileen pointed out cynically.
"I hope she isn't, Church beasts are some of the worst and we can't handle another alpha right now." Briner groaned, slumping against his seat.
"Oh, chin up. You all got out alive, and now you know the wily beast's secrets. Master Logarius always told us that understanding an enemy was vital to defeating them." Alfred said.
"He's right, but I don't think the ultimate threat is the Bloody Beast, it's its pack." Chase mused.
"Heh, forget a pack. That thing had an army. Probably the faction in Yharnam with the largest numbers." Eileen said.
"And it knows how to use it," Briner continued. "They're like puppets on strings to the thing and after how the battle started I doubt it will drop its guard."
"And there's no way for us to win if it keeps the army. The only option is to deprive it of it. I could deal with its tricks by myself if its thralls were gone." Djura finished.
"Then we have a solution, just kill the army of beasts. With all the blood it needed to bathe its army it can't bring its full forces to bear meaning that it's operating under limited resources." Alfred said. "Trust me, I know that the beast hasn't brought its entire army to battle. It couldn't get enough blood to cover it's entire horde."
His compatriots all looked at him in confusion, with Eileen giving the answer.
"That's far too optimistic, we don't have a way to kill an army of that size without being overrun even if it's smaller." Eileen said.
"There's also another problem to consider," Chase added. "By eating the creations of the Church the Bloody Beast can heal any wound and the chaos of combat will provide ample opportunity for hidden beasts to heal the alpha."
"And Lavinia called more of the Church monsters to cover her escape. It's probably better stocked than we are." Djura said.
"A true shame, the Church made the Servants to protect the people. To see them having fallen into the wrong hands." Alfred mourned.
The four other Hunters stared at Alfred in confusion before deciding not to push. The Church was the wrong hands. But then again, he did guard the main entrance to Old Yharnam without complaint.
"Still, together, I think we can defeat the Bloody Beast by ourselves. Without its army the five of us can slay the beast. Even if we have to kill it a hundred times." Briner said.
"Well said," Alfred complimented. "A Hunter should fight and kill to his dying breath for the good of all."
"While I agree and we seem to be in agreement of the Bloody Beast, the question remains…how do we neutralize the army?" Chase said the most important question.
Djura looked at the two, a frown creasing his lips.
"We lure them into a trap, of course." Eileen declared. "We've seen that even if the Bloody Beast has intelligence, it can't turn down hurting humans and its pack will follow."
"But even so, it might become suspicious," Chase pointed out.
Djura's frown deepened. He had no choice. "Not if we give it something it can't turn up. You saw how it treated me; it'll never turn down a chance to kill me, even if it's too good to be true."
Chase might not have liked Djura…but he didn't trust a human who might be mentally unwell in such a situation.
"I think I should be the bait. Out of all of us I'm the most durable." Chase made his own proposal.
"I don't care what you are, you're simply not useable bait." Djura put special emphasis on the 'what' and turned away. "Besides, I've got something I need to settle now."
Chase thought back to how Djura reacted to the fire. "But still-"
"I agree with Djura, Chase." Eileen interjected. "He's the best man for the job. Now for the next step of the plan: what kind of trap can kill enough beasts?"
Djura smirked. "Hmph, easy." He pulled out a grenade. "An explosion. A Powder Keg explosion."
Chase, having experience with explosions of all kinds, immediately caught on. "Lead them into some kind of land mine?"
"Your grenades wouldn't last long enough to set a trap before the explosion, however." Eileen picked out a flaw.
A similar smug air had overcome Briner as well. "You would be right…if you didn't know about our cache of dynamite. We used it to demolish useless buildings in Old Yharnam that got in the way and we made sure there would always be enough."
Eileen rubbed her chin in thought. Dynamite could work. "Do you have enough?"
"We're the Powder Kegs!" the retired Hunters crowed as one.
"Ah, silly me." Eileen deadpanned.
"We're moving into the right direction," Chase began. "But what where would be a good place to set the trap?"
Alfred then put his fist into the palm of his hand. "I know the perfect place: the tomb that leads into Old Yharnam. I saw it first hand, the beasts escape ripped apart the main exit to Old Yharnam, and it's much larger than it was before. We can lead them into that oversized tunnel that they made and escape back into the Ward or the emptied Old Yharnam depending on how the Hunt goes, and the collapse of the tomb will surely kill some stragglers."
Briner and Djura looked at one another before agreeing. "It's true," Briner said. "The beasts ripped the tunnel to pieces so that they could escape as quickly as possible. It's only because the absolute best work was put into the tomb is why it hasn't collapsed."
Eileen gave Alfred an inquisitive look and said. "The beasts dying because of their own rampage…I like it. And if we can't clear the rubble after the kill and get stuck in Old Yharnam, we could just take one of the longer routes some of the beasts must have taken."
But Chase felt that there was more that needed to be said. "The plan is still very risky, dynamite runs on a timed fuse, right? That means that this will have to be perfectly timed. If we do anything wrong we could be trapped again."
Alfred put a hand on Chase's armored shoulder. "Chase, I can surmise that you're new and from your words that you're a man of principle. A person of principle makes a good, strong Hunter like the Executioners. We put ourselves on the line to purge the unclean and the beasts that fester in Yharnam like a cancer. Our back is against the wall, so we have to take the risks, give everything for the sake of our just cause to punish any abominations. We must never stop in the face of difficulties. Ever."
Then Chase understood, this was a man who sought justice. Meeting someone like this in this city was...refreshing.
"Then let's do it for justice and humanity." Chase held his hand out.
"For justice like Master Logarious would have. The filth shall be purged from the streets."
Neither noticed Eileen, Djura, and Briner look at Alfred with worried glances.
"While I wouldn't have worded it in the way Alfred would have, I agree with his point." Briner said. "I know the risks of the plan, but we don't have anything else or the time to find it.
Eileen nodded in agreement. "But now it's time for the real problem. Finding the Old Yharnam beasts before they find us. Wouldn't be much of an ambush otherwise."
"And we'll need to set the charges, so we'll have to split up." Djura added. "One group to get the dynamite ready and another to lure in the beasts."
"I don't think we'll need a signal, a noise or symbol could warn the beasts and the sound of their stampede would make a good sign to when to light the dynamite." Briner made his own contribution to the plan.
"I don't think we should split up until the charges are planted though, we shouldn't split up in the crisis until we need too." Chase finished.
"Agreed." All the Hunters said as one.
"Then the next order of business will be how we'll hunt the Old Yharnam horde." Chase said.
"Well, then. Let's Hunt like hawkers, then." Alfred suggested. "Stake out our prey from a distance like a noble bird of justice."
"Don't you mean a vulture?" Djura couldn't help but add a grouchy remark.
"I thought it was an excellent analogy," Chase defended.
"I don't need two justice obsessives," Eileen groaned.
"Still, everything's been ironed out as well as can be. Shall we begin?" Alfred said with a hint of giddiness.
"Yes, here's what we'll do," Eileen began to give out orders. "Briner and-"
"AWOOORRRRGGGGHHHH!" All of a sudden, the Bloody Beast's howl tore through the night.
"That direction!" Alfred shouted. "That's from the Grand Cathedral! Those filthy beasts must be sieging the chapel!"
"The humans inside are in danger!" Chase's said in horror.
"And I bet the Vicar let the refugees in to have insurance that we'd come back if something happened." Djura, as always, had a cynical remark.
"Even more importantly, it means we have less time than we thought." Eileen began to give orders. "Everyone, here's what we're going to do."
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Across the street, Maurice and Albert heard a howl and then saw the official Hunters exit the building saw them begin to split into two groups.
"Damnation!" Maurice growled as he realized what they were doing. "They're splitting up to help the refugees."
"Wow," Robert gasped in shock. "Even I know how dumb that is. And they even had a good plan."
"No time for any more japes, Robert. Looks like we'll be covering for those three idiots!"
"They're leaving the building for the roofs." Robert warned.
"Then we have to hurry!" Maurice said as he began his sprint to beat the Hunters to the Grand Cathedral.
"…Told you this was gambling." Robert had to have the last remark this time.
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Vicar Amelia once again put her hand on the shoulder of the refugees she had let in, an old women. "There is no need to fret, the Church has assembled the finest team of Hunters seen in a generation to deal with this outbreak. It's even made the Powder Kegs see the error of turning their backs on us."
"I know, Your Holiness, but I don't understand why you didn't send anyone but the blond man to aid them, I know that the other Hunters of the Church aren't as strong as those six, but against such numbers they'd surely be useful."
To protect myself as insurance. They'd be a good distraction, if the worst comes. She thought, looking at the dregs of the Church Hunters that now guarded the Grand Cathedral's door.
"To protect all of you," Amelia lied effortlessly, "The Hunters are strong but the beasts' numbers are great, even with their skills they can't slay all of them. Some could find their way here while the Hunters fight the greater threat."
Amelia knew that her platitudes were completely pointless, but it was best to take advantage of this gathering to re-endear the Church to the populace. They might be nothing more than sacrifices to her superiors, but better them willing to be used than be hateful to the Church.
The Scourge had made fear the only option of control for the Church up until this opportunity, and she didn't want it tip over to hate. She would surely become the sacrifice to placate the people by the Choir as had happened to other Vicars.
Years of politicking stopped Amelia from showing fear or rage at these thoughts. Her calm cool voice and talent at creating improvised answers and speeches that helped her spread the Old Blood letting the Choir to do their experiments without interruption in the Northern Ward. She was a successful Yharnanmite making herself too valuable to the city's true rulers to be just a mere scapegoat. She knew it.
As she walked away from the sheep she felt her fingers twitch, seeing the blood in her veins through the skin.
Yes, she had to be. She wouldn't die, become one of them, and if she had to be a puppet to this cult so be it. It was just politics at the end of the day.
The Choir hadn't met her in person in years, merely sending messages to tell her to run the Church as she had been doing and to always find a way to get more blood ministrations going with whatever new concoction they had devised and sent.
When the Church Hunters told her of the outbreak she was even more surprised that the Choir had responded, sending one of their own; Lavinia, to oversee the events and devise a solution.
The choice made sense, Lavinia was the most martial member of the Choir. Having learnt to fight like a Hunter before she rose through the ranks to the secrets of the Cosmos before Amelia joined the cult's front.
Amelia's only concern about Lavinia's aid was that strange ideology she had, she knew mankind was insignificant but Lavinia took it as gospel like a desperate man infected by the Scourge.
But it could still be an opportunity! Amelia knew that she was merely a bishop at best to her masters not knowing all of their secrets. If she was useful enough in this crisis perhaps the Choir would deem her a useful enough asset to help her with her recent…problem.
Her blood veins became visible again.
But before she could notice someone walked up to her, a young women in a Cainhurst dress. Utterly despicable. "Your Holiness." She said, her voice servile. "I took a walk to the front door and heard something."
Amelia immediately put on her mask of a trustworthy authority figure. "Tell me what you heard, child, a rouge beast? The wall will protect us."
"I think it was a beast, yes. I heard scratching on the door. Lots of it."
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The young women's statement was followed by the sound of trembling doors.
It took all of Amelia's self-control not to swear.
At that point, the refugees began to panic.
"The Hunters have failed!"
"The beasts are coming to kill us!"
"What about the incense?!"
"That breed ignores it, you fool!"
Amelia heard the doors buckle again and frowned as she felt her heartbeat accelerate, the chains on her emotion coming undone. Begging to lash out.
At that point, Amelia made her decision. If Lavinia and the Choir failed to keep their end of the deal. She would drag them all down with her.
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Chase had climbed to the top of the roofs for this Hunt, along with Djura and Alfred. Hearing the Bloody Beast's howl had forced the Hunters to split up. Eileen, the fastest of their numbers, along with Briner, their weakest and a trained Powder Keg, would go to Old Yharnam to get the dynamite and set the trap in the tomb, while the three of them would have to lead the beast and its army into the trap ahead of schedule.
They had only just started the plan and it was already falling to pieces!
So they decided to take some solace by taking the high ground, the most annoying advantage the Bloody Beast had used its numbers for.
The difference was quite noticeable. Despite the roofs of the Cathedral Ward's odd angles and uneven inclines it was easy for super humans to traverse them. Easily bypassing the maze like routes they were forced to employ to reach their destinations.
The Grand Cathedral was now much easier to reach now that they could just run and jump forward in a straight line to it.
That must be why the rogue Hunters used the roofs: all they cared about were their objectives and not hunting the beasts that preyed on the people.
As they hopped across the buildings Chase looked at his two partners. Alfred seemed to be a friendly and reliable fellow, he liked his simplicity, his quirks reminding him of the Special Division and he understood the merits of justice, a comfort of his home and normalcy. The only risk were his combat capabilities…
Chase then looked towards Djura, the retired hunter's face twisted into his grouchy scowl. He did not completely trust the Powder Keg leader. His stand against the Bloody Beast had been impressive, but Chase wasn't sure if that meant he could trust him. His line of thought was wrong, and now that he knew that Chase wasn't human he wasn't sure how he effected Djura's point of view. Was his cooperation just a lie and he would try to protect the beasts again now that he knew it was possible to fight alongside something not human?
"When we get there should we try to drag the fight out?" Djura suddenly asked. "We don't know how long it will take for the others to set the trap."
"We should wait until we can see what the beasts are doing in the Grand Cathedral before deciding on a course of action." Chase opinioned.
"I'm asking this now because I highly doubt that the beasts will let us strategize when we reach the plaza."
"I say we go all in," Alfred suggested. "We can't let the beasts tarnish the streets of the Grand Cathedral so we should slay as many as we can with an all out attack."
Then the three made another leap.
"The foolishness of youth," Djura chastised. "We'd be slaughtered…but an ambush has merit. We should stay to the rooftops as long as we can and snipe the beasts while our perch is defensible; they will knock the buildings down to get us."
"I didn't expect you to be so willing to kill so many beasts…" Chase's voice a mix of grudging respect and distaste.
"Still don't like me? That's fine, I stopped caring about what other people thought decades ago." Djura said as he made a leap.
"That's not all I'm worried about." Chase mumbled.
"Now you're probably making things up in your tin head to feel justified," Djura smirked. "You don't need to worry about me doing something stupid. I'm in to deep and I like myself too much to want death. I'll do my part of the plan."
"Said like a proper Hunter," Alfred praised. "But now we're here."
The three Hunters ducked down in case of the acid spitting beasts and saw nothing. Strange… Chase thought.
Then he looked down. He didn't like what he saw. The plaza was a bloody storm of crimson fur, the blood making Chase's cherished Slowdown useless. The beasts of Old Yharnam swarming towards the Grand Cathedral clawing, biting, and smashing the walls. The biggest beasts surrounded the Bloody Beast as living shields, and the alpha along with others were tackling the Grand Cathedral's door.
"That makes no sense, even without its numbers the Bloody Beast could blow up the doors with its blood. "Chase said.
"So this was all to lure us out. It's utterly despicable for such a monstrosity to be so cunning." Alfred said in disgust.
"And it's got bodyguards covering it too take the fall. How I'd love to snipe that that thing and end everything. Save the victims," Djura mused leaving who the 'victims' were ambiguous as he removed the Gatling gun from his back (Briner had traded it to him) and began to set it up and aim.
"Okay you misfits. If you see a Church Servant under all that fur, eviscerate it with your bullets. Now ready, aim, fire!" Djura ordered as the three Hunters raised their guns and did as they were told. A rain of bullets and plasma soared down from the rooftop, making the plaza even bloodier as the rounds burnt away and tore apart the beasts' bodies. The Gatling gun a herald of death, its incredible rate of fire seeping through the horde like a storm of metal rain. Beasts died in droves, caught by surprise thanks to their missing rooftop guards and the plaza began to flood with blood.
But it wasn't enough. Such firepower would never be enough.
The surviving female beasts on the ground howled, empowering the pack many times over and then began to spit acid at the houses, trying to make it collapse.
"We need to attack!" Alfred shouted.
"Keep firing!" Djura ordered. "We still have time!"
Then, the Bloody Beast turned away from the Cathedral's door, glaring at Djura as he sprayed death down onto its pack.
It inhaled its too large mouth showing its overly large teeth, and spat out a gout of blood as it ran forward on too legs towards the house the Hunters stood on, claws already clashing against one another to make sparks for the explosion.
While Chase and Djura prepared to jump into the wolves den Alfred had already made an Olympic worthy leap ahead of them screaming a battle cry.
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With the strength of a true believer Alfred righteously smashed his Kirkhammer into one of the female beasts. The unclean must be punished like Logarius did to the Vilebloods but one must be prudent in battle. Can't have the filth empower themselves with more filth.
As Alfred smashed away another beast he felt the joy, the euphoria flow through him. While he had dedicated everything to Master Logarius and cleansing Yharnam of their disgusting ways he knew the need to protect the clean from the normal filth, being a beast Hunter was how he got his start and Master Logarius said to never forget ones roots.
Alfred looked at the horde, still appearing as expansive as ever in the plaza in spite of his fellow's impressive barrage. Good Hunters, they were.
But he couldn't forget the prize. His act of initiative had landed him closer to the Bloody Beast than anyone else. If he was swift and true then his fellows wouldn't need to use such a risky trap. He would barrel through the horde and slay that beast!
Muscles bulging, Alfred charged forward deeper into the horde to reach the greatest quarry smashing the Old Yharnam beasts away with each mighty swing of his hammer. Heads flew off from the force of his blows, bodies broken into heaps, some even snapped in two as he meted out proper justice.
But the abominable creatures still had retained their despicable cunning. One had used the deaths of their comrades as a detraction, jumping onto Alfred back, trying to dig its toxic claws into his body.
"How despicable to use your comrades like that!" Alfred roared as he swung his rifle backwards but of the gun crushing its face and shattering its skull.
Then five beasts leapt at from all sides; a double trap.
Before Alfred could even roll out of the way to dodge five bullets soared through the sky, each scoring a perfect headshot killing them as Djura came into view holding his impressive new guns in each hand.
"Thank you, Powder Keg." Alfred said to his ally. "Do you know where Chase is?"
Djura opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped and frowned, shaking his end. Was he getting senile in his old age? He did live in Old Yharnam after all.
Finally, Djura answered his question. "Chase seems to be an explosives expert. He rode the shockwave to the Grand Cathedral and began slaughtering the beasts trying to tear down the door. From what I saw the beasts on door duty didn't rejoin the pack and began to put effort into tearing down the door. A tactic to divide us."
"While protecting the innocent is an important mission, I think punishing these abominations metes out justice better." Alfred said easily.
Djura seemed to resist rubbing his forehead with his hand. "Just remember the plan, we can't keep this up much longer with these numbers."
It was true, while the two Hunters talked they dodged acid and shot and crushed the beasts that swarmed them.
Alfred thought it over, and decided. "The Bloody Beast is cornered, we can't waste this chance, Powder Keg."
He then looked over to the Bloody Beast, it was once alone from its assault, but it was calling lesser beasts back to it. He would never have a better chance.
"Wait," Djura mumbled, "It's not focusing on me, and a horde that small makes no sense…" Djura's eyes widened under his bandages as he realized what was happening. "Wait! It's a trap!"
But Alfred wasn't listening, he had a beast to crush into a pulp.
Once again his Kirkhammer was swung with brutal skill, killing the rabid guard of the Bloody Beast.
With each swing he got closer and closer, but it took its toll.
The Old Yharnam beasts clawed at him, drawing blood and burning his skin with acid, but Alfred soldiered on; a protégé of Logarius couldn't falter. One beast tackled him starting a dogpile but powered on by his belief Alfred overpowered those mangy mutts and kept going, ignoring his injuries as he drew closer to the fiend who dared besmirch the Cathedral Ward glaring at its dead white eyes that seemed to mock him.
Because it was, blood dripped off a self-inflicted wound, the life-giving liquid slithering through the puddles of blood the three Hunters gunfire bathed the street in. And with a clang of its claws a spark was sent flying towards its explosive blood.
Bogged down by the beasts Alfred seemed to be doomed…until he activated the Kirkhammer's Trick Weapon ability causing the heavy hammer head to fall off revealing the staff to really be a sword. With his load lessened Alfred broke free of the beasts tackle and rolled away to dodge the explosion springing up to his feet and using the momentum to lunge at the Bloody Beast shouting. "Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!"
Only for the Bloody Beast to gore him through with its wicked claws mid-jump.
Alfred coughed blood. No! No! No! No! No! No! He was an Executioners, he was the one who punished the wicked.
His grip tightened on his sword.
"I can't fail now!" he roared like a wild beast and with the last of his strength swung his sword, impaling it through the Bloody Beast's chest with a sickening squelch.
Alfred smiled at his victory. A fatal death blow! Yes, he had did! He had purged Yharnam of another abomination and saved his comrades from performing a ris-
Then a paralyzed Church Servant was thrown into the air right into the Bloody Beast's mouth by one of its pack mates.
What?! Where did it hide them?
It then clamped down on the bio-weapon and chewed on it, swallowing the sentinel as quickly as it could. With a burst of renewed power as the bio-weapons mysterious biology renewed its strength, the Bloody Beast lifted the drained Alfred into the air removing the sword in its chest as it did so and then smashed Alfred into the ground head first. Human blood was spilt and the last Executioner could no longer stay conscious, his last sight being Djura desperately running towards him on all fours.
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It was strange how everything worked out so well but was also so horrible, Chase mused.
In his line of work everything exploded. Everything. Hell, he had exploded twice in the past. He had learned to see them coming. It was what helped him save Lavinia from the Bloody Beast's explosive trump card, and now his experience with explosions let him ride the shockwave, Break Gunner and axe in hand as the shockwave propelled him over the plaza to the beasts who sought to rip down the Cathedral's doors and butcher everyone inside.
He saw his targets as he fell and he fired the Break Gunner scoring multiple head shots at the beasts' door attack team.
But despite this impressive display, Chase couldn't help but think. Djura would have fired faster, in envy as gravity did its job and he landed on the ground, using the force to cut a beast in two vertically. Not wasting time Chase spun around using his mechanical and blood given strength to swing the axe in a circle, fully extended, to cut apart the beast that tried to surround him.
Then Chase heard multiple howls. He grimaced as the surviving beasts muscles bulged and similarly empowered males replaced the lost. Things were about to get harder.
Chase swung his axe but in contrast to every clash he had had with the beasts of Old Yharnam in the past, his target was able to parry it with its acidic claws.
But it wasn't ready for the snap kick. The beasts then tried to swarm Chase but he once again tried to take a page out of Eileen's book. His body slackened as the memories of the Hunter of Hunters agility flowed through his CPU.
Then, he sprinted, his footwork resembled that of a dancer instead of the steady charge he preferred. Trying to sneak through the openings to act as bait to lure the beasts away and have a better escape route for the trap.
But there was still too many. His good fortune at an end, Chase was blind-sided by a tackle , the Roidmude using all of his strength to not be knocked over, getting hazed by acidic claws lashed out, scarring his Violet Guard armor.
"That's it!" Chase redoubled his efforts, extended axe swinging wildly easily cutting through the overzealous beasts.
One swing. Two swings. Three swings. They were all dead.
But more still came. Chase mastered the art of grimacing in disdain as a bigger section of the horde ran up to him. He tightened his grasp on his axe, and readied himself for the worst as he pushed down that hateful feeling of irritation and rage!
…Then gunfire sounded out, shooting multiple distracted beasts in the back, followed by a mace sparking with electricity knocking a sizable portion of the horde into another portion of it, creating breathing room.
Chase didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and joined his new allies. Break Gunner firing at the stragglers helping them mop up this horde.
Then Chase saw his latest helpers. The Black tunics, black capes, their weapons, the helmets…they were the kidnappers Eileen had fought, Maurice and Robert she had called them, from the Unseen Village, Yahar'gul.
Chase immediately raised his axe towards Maurice. He couldn't kill the two of them, but he could in incapitate them.
But neither of them were afraid of Chase. "Such an ungrateful brute," the taller one, Robert, tsked.
The shorter one, Maurice, nodded in agreement while smacking a beast with his mace. "I was hoping that he would be smarter than that."
"What could scum like you offer? Fallen Hunters who target humans?" Chase hissed out, his baritone garbling into a guttural growl once again.
"Because you'd be dead without us." Maurice's smugness was palpable. "Don't you think it's strange that the rooftops weren't guarded by those acid-spitters?"
Chase felt his momentum falter. As much as it angered him, it was suspicious that the Bloody Beast hadn't employed one of its most tried and tried tactics. Looking back, there hadn't been any roof snipers since their retreat.
"Why help us?" Chase asked.
"Pragmatism is a virtue in Yharnam." Robert said sagely.
"And helping others can also mean helping yourself." Maurice finished vaguely.
At that point Chase knew Maurice had an insufferable smirk under his helm. "And you just don't have the time. You can't hold out on whatever you're doing. Especially since that Executioner signed his own death warrant."
"A true lunatic until the end." Robert backed his partner up.
Chase felt his grip on his axe tighten as his rage returned. They were right and he hated it.
As if to punctuate their point Djura ran by holding a bleeding mess in a fireman's carry. "Let's go, Chase! We've stalled as long as we can."
Chase saw then saw the Bloody Beast chowing down on another Church Servant, greedily slurping up the last morsels of the things blood as its horde surrounded it in defense.
The Roidmude sent one last glare at the Yahar'gul Hunters as he followed his reluctant ally.
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Meanwhile, Eileen and Briner were finishing up their part of the plan. As the fastest member of their group, the Hunter of Hunters had sped ahead of the Powder Keg following his instructions to where their dynamite was located.
While dashing through Old Yharnam Eileen couldn't help but note how quiet the old city was. For decades there was always noise in the streets of Yharnam, from the citizens going about their lives putting up their façade of normalcy, to the men becoming beasts, or the inevitable paranoia of a beast that slipped through the cracks putting people on edge, to the hopeless situation making people explode with rage, to Church propaganda filling the city with noise, to the rustling that cults made as they slinked about. There was always something happening in the City of Blood.
But here, it was completely quiet. Despite the city still showing all the scars of the burning it no longer had the despair that pervaded Yharnam enveloping it.
This place…is peaceful. Eileen realized. It was hard to remember, and even harder to accept. Eileen wanted to stop her sprint, actually enjoy a place that wasn't trying to kill her. To enjoy something about life.
But she couldn't. Her duty drove her on. Her mission had to be fulfilled. Her dignity would refuse such a temptation.
With that, Eileen acquired the dynamite and found Briner waiting for her in the tomb at she re-entered it. Eileen had entered the tomb before, and she originally feared that the hallways would be too small to hold the ambush despite what the Powder Kegs said, but the beasts themselves had fixed that.
As the main exit to Old Yharnam it had become the main entry point for a majority of the Beast's escape. Tunnels had been smash and expanded for quicker escape, widened in scope by pure numbers and brute force and the walls to the Church built above the pathways had been smashed apart.
"Good time," the more stable Powder Keg complimented her. "I didn't expect you to be so fast even after what you did in that fight."
"We can only hope those three don't try to stall for too long," Eileen was far more pessimistic. "I hate being underestimated, though this time the reasons are different."
"Master Djura's more stubborn that steel, and that Chase fellow you've got following you around seems to have more heart than sense despite the way his face is stuck."
"I'm more worried about Chase. He has strong ideals about justice." Eileen admitted.
"So did Master Djura." Briner said sadly. "The dynamite, please?" he immediately changed the subject.
Eileen complied handing him the explosives and some matches.
As Briner took hold of the dynamite, his melancholy disappeared as an ecstatic grin appeared on his face as he admired the payload.
I shouldn't have expected a Powder Keg to be completely sane. Eileen thought as she saw the childish glee Briner exhibited as he placed the explosives.
After the task was done and both knew where the dynamite was hidden both held up matches and looked at one another. "And now we play the waiting game." Briner said morosely.
"Feels wrong to be safe and cozy in here while those three hold the line." Eileen agreed. "Maybe I should try an-"
Then the ground began to tremble.
"Should we light them now?" Eileen asked, deciding to delegate to the expert.
"No, we need as much time to escape as possible. We need the Bloody Beast to be in here for the explosion, and I doubt it will be easy." Briner ordered.
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The two Hunters had taken advantage of the reprieve and the Yahar'gul Hunters had given them to find an alcove to hide Alfred.
Djura injected his last remaining blood vial into the Executioner as he said. "Good thing he had nothing in his head or he'd be dead right now. Stupid kid."
"He wasn't stupid," Chase interjected while pacing back and forth. "He just wanted to kill the beasts like a proper Hunter should."
Djura huffed. "Since you aren't going to listen about the infected, I'll spell things out in a way you'll understand. Something is very wrong with Alfred here. He cares more about killing beasts than protecting any people. He's blood drunk and unstable. This is one of the reasons I retired."
"I won't have you praise your own cowardice again!" Chase shouted, pointing a finger at the retired Hunter.
Djura returned Chase's glare with one of his own. "Now you're making things up again. You're gaining problems; everyone in Yharnam gets them. But I won't have you project whatever fantasy you have going on in your tin head onto me!"
"I don't need to listen to you! You're clearly mentally unwell! Alfred stood guard over the death trap you fostered! He killed beasts like any proper Hunter would, he never killed a human!" Chase shouted back.
And with that, Djura's eyes widened under his bandages as everything fell into place. "So that's why all of this is so deeply affecting you. Are all of these distinctions are because you're not human."
And with that, Chase stopped in his tracks. "Yes, I'm not human. I'm a Roidmude."
"Some kind of automaton, I take it?" Djura guessed. "But why would something not human treat our kinds life as so much more precious? There isn't much worth to our kind…"
"So you project non-existent value onto beasts? Are you really so misanthropic?" Chase's said, for the first time managing to inject venom into his tone.
Any sense of Chase's feeling of superiority ended the second Djura said his rebuttal. "What about you?"
Chase almost recoiled at those words. "I-I don't understand what you mean."
"You claim to see human life as precious but you reject and project upon a person that you should see as human because they don't agree with you. Does the need to be right mean so much to you?"
"I need to be right. I was programmed with a perfect sense of justice. What will they think of me if I didn't do right…?" Chase said, sadness creeping into his tone.
Djura looked at Chase's lost expression, it reminded him of himself after the Burning. Lost, bitter, traumatized, everything he wanted and believed in burnt away in the flames.
…Himself. Did he want anyone else to turn out like him?
Before the retired Hunter could continue the conversation a familiar tremble shook the ground. They had been found.
"Let's go! We have to lead them away from Alfred!"
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Djura and Chase sprinted as fast as they could, using every ounce of their stamina to outrun the bloody horde, the Bloody Beast taking the point of the charge, eyes fixed on Djura.
Djura tilted his head towards Chase, motioning to the church, standing out with its front wall being demolished by the beast's original escape that held the pathway to where the crypt used to be, now effectively a large hole in the ground. The metal man caught on and ran in the right direction. The two Hunters ran into the hole at full speed the once thin hallway having been forcefully smashed into a larger pathway soon hearing the mixed blessing of a burning fuse.
Old Yharnam would be their only hope of survival. Other people would have seen that as bitter irony, but for Djura it was perfect for his home.
To Djura's chagrin the Bloody Beast didn't follow the rest of its army down in to catacombs, choosing to stay in the back in the aboveground church. The horde swarming into the underground like an army of fire ants the noise of their entrance cloaking the sound of the fuses as they stumbled and overstepped one another.
But still, they were too many, they spilled through the freshly dug catacombs, some walking over the others to block the second hallway that led deeper into the crypt, blocking the path to Old Yharnam.
Eileen saw the way. "Plan B! Copy me!" she shouted while holding the slower Briner in a fireman's carry. Jumping above the cluttered horde of beasts running on top of the swarm, her boots thundering downwards with such speed and force that she crushed skulls and spines.
Djura and Chase immediately caught on and copied their de facto leader, the Roidmude's weight being especially effective in stunning the bloody sea while Djura had sprouted wolf limbs once again, using all four claws to dig into any beast he could reach as he sprinted forwards with all his strength.
The four Hunters neared the exit, and to Djura's satisfaction he saw the Bloody Beast yelp in shock. It had overestimated its army and the four Hunters were eager to repay it for all the trouble.
Despite his position, the gunmanship of the Powder Kegs shined through as Eileen hurled Briner at the Bloody Beast as he quick drawed his magnum and shot it in the eye as he rolled under the beast feet. It wasn't able to use its blood to spark an explosion as Eileen didn't let up the pressure as she unleashed one of her barrages of knives causing it to roar in pain. Chase was next, his axe hacking into its side sending it off balance letting Djura finish the job.
The old Hunter turned around his clawed hands curled up into a fist, ready to unleash a haymaker, and with all of his remaining strength punched the Bloody Beast's face sending it flying down into the crypt.
With that done with the four Hunters sprinted out of the ruined building as the dynamite's fuses finished burning, letting out the full force of the Powder Keg brand. The explosions flames and force flew out of the crypt leveling the building built above it as the four Hunters looked at their work.
Like any good Powder Keg Briner basked in the fruit of his labors, eyes alight at the explosion. Good man, maybe he should forgive him for pressuring him into working with the Healing Church.
Going by Eileen's body language she was surprised by how powerful the dynamite really was. They had told her that it was Powder Keg make.
To Djura's dissatisfaction Chase watched the explosion with casual nonchalance, but there was an undeniable air of smugness about him. The tin man could feel, he knew that from their spat.
Eileen then turned to Djura and Chase. "That was a bit too close back there, I won't accept personal grudges jeopardizing lives."
"There were problems, but things didn't get as bad as you assumed." Djura explained.
"So, fist fight?" Eileen said dismissively.
"No. Things didn't reach such an extreme," Chase said.
"So it was a fist fight." Eileen joked.
Then blood seeped its way out of the rumble. The Hunters cautiously walking closer to examine it.
"Did some get that close to the entrance before it collapsed?" Djura wondered.
"We should excavate the rubble," Eileen ordered. "Make sure that abomination is really dead…and I might have a plan for Old Yharnam."
Then the rubble exploded. An explosion far bigger than any that the Bloody Beast had made before and Djura's world became fire, rubble, and pain as he scrambled to escape the conflagration and failed.
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The explosion happened too fast for Chase to have a proper reaction. But the Roidmude knew his explosions having witnessed hundreds of them and having exploded twice himself and knew what to do to mitigate the damage even after being consumed by it. Working with the force instead of against it and trusting his Mashin Chaser armor and Roidmude body to protect him, rolled to safety.
Chase landed on all fours and examined his wounds. His armor was singed black by the explosion and his pain receptors were screaming at him.
Then he saw Briner, Djura, and Eileen laying on the ground, even more burnt then he was, their clothes charred black by the explosion, smoke rising from the leather. Given that their bodies were in one piece they must have tried to escape the blast. They just weren't as successful as him.
"Damn it!" Chase growled out. If he had reacted faster he could have used a Slow Down to stop the damage. How had he so quickly gotten used to his trump card being useless?
Getting his thoughts in order, Chase decided to check on Briner first, as he was their weakest member. He checked his allies' pulse, and to his happiness found out that he still drew breathe.
Chase felt his second true smile grace his lips. The Hunters of Yharnam wouldn't die so easily.
Chase then looked at the remains of his coat melted by the Old Yharnam beasts during the first battle…which meant that the blood vials must have fallen out. From how durable they were back during the Cleric Beast fight Chase wondered if they had survived the acid.
Still, there was now a solution. He knew that Eileen had some blood hidden away, he could heal everyone up with that before the Bloody Beast returned.
Too late.
A thing shambled out of the rubble, all of the Bloody Beast's power and strength was gone, burnt away by the explosion. It now resembled the emancipated form Chase had first seen. Its body was shredded and smashed too pieces, torn ligaments and muscles showing, half its face was gone and its jaw was barely attached.
Chase was unenthused by the sight and drew his Break Gunner. "The final act of spite of a mad beast? I won't forgive you using that to hurt my friends." Chase said as he prepared to pull the trigger.
Then, the Bloody Beast managed to jump away to a corner of the rubble, and began to slurp something up. Chase turned to see it. It was the burnt corpse of a Church Servant.
"No!" Chase shouted and pulled the trigger. The bolt of plasma soaring at the beast as the final blow. But the beast twitched, and stumbled as if it was having a seizure.
Then it became something more disgusting, more terrifying, and more impossible. A sight that was mind-scarring and utterly horrifying.
The eyes! The eyes had grown across its body. Exploding outwards like pus, gazing aimlessly and without focus like a seething gaze of idiocy. Its body had shot upwards and split in two. Bloody tentacles sprouting from the mangled hole and wrapping around the body to support itself, massed like a gnarled and ancient tree. The tentacles that weren't needed for support shot out like branches as blood dropped off them as they mindlessly wriggled. The only thing that had healed in any way was its head, but its neck had extended, being attached to the squirming mass by the largest tentacle but still a horrible sight as giant eyes now consumed the skull and the beginnings of tentacles were coughed out of its mouth.
Chase felt his eyes burn as his mind was inflamed. Burning as needles gored through his CPU at the sight.
ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERUKGVFJGUKFCDDUFYFDTYUCFUIYDTFUGIYSTZXDFUKJDGHGFXGH!
What he saw did not compute! What it was doing to him did not compute! It just didn't compute!
Chase dropped his weapons and clutched his head a futile effort to dull the pain as the thing that was once the Bloody Beast shambled forwards, its legs lumbering forth slowly, somehow supporting its impossible form and weight.
Shambling towards Djura. Even as that thing it wanted revenge.
Chase saw this but he couldn't move. What he was seeing just hurt too much. The eyeseyeseyeseyeseyes gaze hurt too much. It was beyond what his systems could handle.
…But Djura was going to die.
He didn't like Djura, but he didn't want him to die…And did Djura really dislike him. What did they say to each other when they hid away…Albert? WHAT DID THEY SAY?!
Protgghect TTe HYUmenns…
What was that? Chase thought. This time his thoughts took on a soft depth, like he could barely hear them.
P-p-p-p-rotect-t-t thhhhhheeeee hooomammmss…
His core programming sounded out, broken and glitching but it spurred him on. Chase rushed forward, his running form no longer composed and methodical, more resembling a bum's rush as his primary directive pushed him forward.
The things tentacles tried to stop him but Chase pressed onwards and with an awkward punch sent the abomination flying.
Chase looked away from the thing and his mind began to clear and some semblance of clarity was restored. Besides whatever it was doing to his mind the Bloody Beast's mutation hadn't made it stronger at all. Whatever cocktail the Church Servants were made out of had proved to be dangerous too overdose on.
Then the tentacles wrapped around Chase's body and his world became pain as his mind exploded once more, no longer to form coherent thoughts.
He was sent to the ground, the tentacles trying to crush him, squirming and wriggling wildly, the remains of the Bloody Beast's head letting blood and drool slide out of its mangled face as it tried to gain enough cognizance to bite him with what was left with its mouth.
Chase didn't think, his madness now aiding him, like the beasts he had slain, he frenzied. His arms ripping the tentacles off his body, and his feet flailed wildly kicking the monster away, luckily hitting one of its new eyes, making the organ explode in blood and pus. The eldritch beast did something that resembled a shriek as it recoiled and feel to the ground.
Chase welcomed the pain of the fall as he landed on his stomach…until he realized that he was staring right at the mind-scarring thing. It made his head hurt even more from looking at it, depriving him of the coherency to even stand up. His opposition struggled to stand, now too unintelligent to think of using its tentacles to help it stand.
Chase lied on the ground utterly defeated. It was a familiar event to the Roidmude. In spite of his ailing mind, Chase remembered; he always lost at important moments. Always lost when it mattered.
He remembered Heart crushing his face underfoot during the Roidmude's revolution. If he had succeeded the death count wouldn't have escalated and everything would have ended right there.
He remembered being frozen solid by Freeze and left to die.
He remembered being completely defeated by Brain's new psychic powers after he achieved Ultimate Evolution.
He remembered the fight against Banno…he had died there, and he didn't know if his sacrifice had amounted to anything. Did Banno emerge from his funeral pyre unharmed, and crush Gou underfoot and complete his goals of world domination?
He had always lost when it mattered and now winning mattered more than ever.
That made Chase feel angry.
He was angry that if he fell here that his comrades would all die, Eileen helped him at his lowest, Djura helped in spite of all his grievances, and Briner was a valued comrade.
He was angry that Alfred would no doubt die from his wounds if they didn't come back for him.
He was angry that the Old Yharnam beasts would no doubt continue their rampage through the Cathedral Ward, killing everyone inside and no doubt spreading out to the rest of Yharnam.
And with that Chase mind began to clear. The angrier he got, the easier it became to move. The red hot rage burning within him surpassing the shearing pain in his mind, hands pushed his body up to stand once more.
The thing that was once the Bloody Beast sent its tentacles flying at him wrapping around his limbs, Chase struggled against the tendrils, the rage letting him stand his ground.
More. He needed more. Rage was all he had left. Rage would let him enact justice. Rage would protect his friends. Rage would make the pain stop.
No. Rage alone wouldn't grant him victory. He was losing his mind. He needed it back.
And with that everything became clear. The inferno burning inside of him welded his tattered sanity as it changed from red hot rage to a white hot passion. A singular focus.
Not wasting any time Chase ripped the tentacles off the abominations body through his robotic strength. He sprinted at his target at full speed, but he still stumbled.
No, need more focus! Chase thought, but what? What would give him the drive to save them all?
Oh…Oh! It was so obvious.
Fist thrusted back for maximum force Chase shouted his prey's death knell.
"Rider Punch!"
And with that, his fist punched through the remains of the abominations head and entering its body the fist exiting through its back as its body went limp and all of its countless eyes stopped staring at him.
Chase then removed his fist and turned around as the abomination finally died, losing its precarious balance as it stumbled down onto the Cathedral Ward's street, blood pooling outwards from the wound.
Chase then walked around and went to tend to his friends, forcing himself to ignore the damage done to his mind by a glimpse at what should not be.
To Chase's surprise, Djura had gotten back up and had managed to walk up to Chase, staring at the corpse of the Bloody Beast in horror and revulsion.
"Do you know what that was?" Chase asked, finding his voice in a low rasp.
"No. But looking at it…" Djura then motioned to Briner and Eileen still forms. "Still, helping our allies are more important."
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Chase and Djura each carried their friend on their backs. Eileen on Chase's and Briner on Djura's. Each step was a great task as their bodies ached from their burns and it turned out that Eileen held no blood to offer them surcease. Luckily, the Old Yharnam Outbreak had completely overcome the regular Scourge. There were no more beasts to block their path.
Still, that meant that the two conscious Hunters only had silence to tide over the trip to Oedon Chapel. There was a Lantern there which meant that Chase could get everyone the medical aid that they so desperately needed after the fight.
And Chase had another problem to deal with.
All of a sudden, the Roidmude lurched back, and he struggled not to drop Eileen. The headaches weren't as bad when the Bloody Beast was alive, but they still hurt.
"What's the matter?" Djura asked, his now uncovered eyes were alight with concern.
"It's nothing. I'm just imagining something dead." Chase said as he took a step forward. "Don't ask me to stop, we need to get to Oedon Chapel to recover. I don't trust the Church. Not after what its creations did to the Bloody Beast."
Djura frowned at his mission statement. "You do realize that you sound just like me? Maybe you should consider a break as well?"
Chase almost tripped over himself at that remark. Distrusting the Church, barely surviving an endless tide of abominations, utterly exhausted mentally…and he had never been so tempted by the word 'break' in his life. Had that fight turned him into Djura?
What would constantly giving into rage end up doing to him in the end?
"There's no time," Chase pushed aside the temptation. "We still need to pick up Alfred."
"I can pick up Alfred," Djura said. "You can rest in that chapel. With the beasts gone and the incense burning there should be enough for a break."
"Not with those rogue Hunters. Not unless I stay in the Dream…" Chase mused. Gehrman had said that time passed more slowly there. A chance to sleep all the mental scars away…
"So you're a part of the Dream…" Djura's voice reminded Chase of a recording. Out of place and in the past. It reminded him of Eileen. "Take its benefits while you can. Pace yourself. You'll need it.
Chase felt his mind burn again from the apprehension and stress and began to become more partial to Djura's opinion. He let out a groan at that realization.
"You hurting too much?"
"No. Just realized that I was probably thinking like you."
"I don't think I'm that bad."
"No. Not like that, when I first saw you, I disliked you because I stopped Eileen from executing a Hunter with the Scourge and everything went wrong. I felt I had to take responsibility for what I did, so after his mutation I killed him."
"That sense of responsibility is dangerous. You are like me." Djura mused. "You feel like everything that goes wrong is all your fault. That you should have been better. You have to be smarter, faster, more efficient. But you can't. You get angrier and angrier and just keep piling up the bodies. I saw where that path lead."
"Then I got caught up in a big outbreak, became part of an elite team of Hunters sent out by the Church, Church influence escalates the threat, and I end things all so angry, crawling off to heal what's left. I'm like the man I hate, and I realize that being like you isn't so bad. What does that mean?" Chase finished Djura's monologue.
Djura's next words surprised Chase. "You're not like me, Chase."
"Because I'm not human?"
"No! You're clearly young for your species, you haven't reached your full potential yet, and you just need a break. You've got quite a ways to go before you become a person like me…" Djura's voice trailed off as he let out a low hum, his face in deep thought as he walked forward while carrying his apprentice. To Chase's surprise he then smiled and extended his fist outward.
"Peace?" the Powder Keg asked.
And for that moment, the pain in Chase's body and mind vanished and he had his fist bump against Djura's own. "Peace."
This just made Chase think even more. Him and Djura were alike. He didn't truly know the Powder Keg's past, but he had clearly had gone through what the Roidmude was going through now. His new found rage had carried him to victory twice now…but when would it turn against him? Where had it come from? What could it turn him into? His dislike of Djura was biased but the man was clearly scarred and Chase did not want to end up carrying the same wounds.
Then his headache came back.
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After entering Oedon Chapel and putting Eileen down, Chase walked up to the Lantern while returning to his human guise and entered the Hunter's Dream.
Chase opened his eyes and stared at the mysterious demesne's full moon. The only truly safe place in all of Yharnan, given to him through a Contract he could not remember signing.
Still, maybe Gehrman knew something about what he just saw.
Chase walked up the stairs to the Hunter's Workshop to meet his mentor. To his surprise he found that Gehrman was already waiting for him.
"The Messengers informed the Doll of the outbreak and your triumph. I must admit to being impressed. Persevering against that while so raw is a great feat." For the first time Gehrman wasn't so flippant. His eyes were focused on Chase, and the Roidmude couldn't help but note how he made Djura look so young in comparison.
Chase read through the lines. "You know what happened to the Bloody Beast." He then clutched his head from another headache.
"It appears that such a clash is a blessing in disguise. This will prepare you for what will come later. Now take advantage of your boons and rest. Sleep will help you acclimate to what you saw."
"But what about-?"
Gehrman wheeled himself closer to Chase and raised a hand to put it on his shoulder. "Rest. I will have spare gear and supplies ready for you when you awaken. You only have one life. Don't waste it when you can recover."
Chase's headache intensified and the Roidmude decided to listen to his mentor. He managed to shamble down the steps to a tree trunk and closed his eyes to sleep, going offline to allow his systems to process what he saw.
Sleep was empty but peaceful.
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Djura watched Chase exit the Dream now wearing a new trench coat lined with an impressive stash of blood vials as well as three sets of folded clothes under his arm. His stride was also much easier. He must have met the Doll.
"You're looking much better," Briner pointed out.
"Gehrman forced me to take a nap, take advantage of the Dream." Chase explained. "I wanted to rush, despite the time dilation, but he was very insistent."
Djura nodded, that was a big advantage of being a Hunter of the Dream: the ability to take a break with no consequence.
Too bad about all the downsides. He'd quit for a reason. He couldn't have handled dying again.
"Gehrman also had copies of your and Eileen's outfits for some reason," the Roidmude's voice had an air of suspicion around it as he prepared to inject a blood vial into Alfred. But he didn't press.
Kid's too nice for his own good, the Djura thought. …I used to be like that.
The Executors wounds were by far the most grievous of their rag-tag band and did not awaken even after more injections from Chase's resupply but he was stable and would awaken soon.
Chase then moved on to Briner next, and then to Eileen while handing some vials to Djura who quickly got up to examine the chapel backroom; an old looter standby, and finding some sturdy chairs.
Soon, Alfred was wrapped up in a blanket on a gurney while the four other Hunters were enjoying the simple pleasure of sitting down.
"You shouldn't spoil me like this, I won't want to get up if I sit here too long," Eileen said.
Djura merely smirked. "This is merely one of the befits of retirement,"
"I'm not quitting, Djura." Eileen said flatly.
"I don't want another fight," Chase cut in, causing Eileen to look at him strangely. "So I think we should move onto a more important topic. What did that thing turn into?"
Eileen immediately regained her composure. "What happened after everyone else got knocked out by that explosion?"
"The Bloody Beast ate one last Church Servant and it…mutated into something. It had tentacles…and eyes. So many eyes. It hurt to just look at it." Chase recalled the horror, his expression successfully emoting the horror at what he saw.
"I can vouch that he didn't imagine it. I looked at that thing's corpse and my head was set afire. There was nothing human in that thing by that time Chase killed it."
Briner almost fell out of his seat in shock at his master's words. "Master Djura, you didn't see that thing as human? What happened to it?"
Chase was the one who answered. "I think it was because of whatever was done to make those Church Servants. It ate too many of them and overdosed."
Eileen surveyed the group of Hunters that surrounded her. "We'll need to report to the Church then recover the corpse for study. But before that we should rest first," she decided. "Chase might have the benefit of the Dream but the rest of us are still fatigued even with blood healing. So I think all of us should enjoy this little moment of peace for as long as we can."
"Then either you are Chase will be the ones to do it. Briner and I have our own things to do." Djura said.
"Retreating back into retirement?" Chase asked, sounding almost sad.
"Not yet. We also have to track down the punk who started this whole mess and round up any of the stragglers now that they're lost their leader." Djura then narrowed his brow in thought, looking Chase in the eye, what he was going to say next was going to hurt his stubborn pride, but would be worth it. "But if you ever run into too much trouble, don't be afraid to come to Briner and I to ask for help."
Briner was now even more confused. "What happened while I was out? Did the Bloody Beast's corpse somehow make you madder, Master?"
Djura's face returned to being his grouchy frown as he was reminded of the other reason for the olive branch. He had thought things over and looking at the Bloody Beast's mutated corpse reminded him of the feeling he got on his Night of the Hunt when the moon turned blood red. Combined with Chase being the newest Hunter of the Dream, it meant something was coming, and he couldn't alienate potential allies.
"No, I'm just being considerate to a green Hunter. But I'm not going to go running off guns blazing to kill people wantonly. Now, for our next order of business.
Djura then turned back to Chase, his expression serious. "Chase, I also think you should know more about the man who caused the Bloody Beast to escape. I think he might be familiar to you."
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Maurice and Robert walked down the streets to where they heard the explosion, hoping that there would be something left to salvage.
"Ohhhhhh," Robert groaned, holding the line had been far too strenuous. "Talk about no good deed going unpunished; now I know why you shouldn't do them."
Maurice awkwardly walked side by side with his partner, nodding in agreement. "If I hadn't had that wire saved up we'd have died for nothing. This mess better not have been a waste of time."
"It's the risks of gambling, Maurice."
Maurice rubbed his forehead in exasperation; his partner wouldn't stop saying that. "Okay, fine. This wasn't some brilliant scheme. It was a big gamble. I admit it. Happy now?"
"Verily!" Robert said in a cheery manner.
"Now that you've proven yourself right help me see if there's any prize left for us."
Robert waved his hands. "Right, no need to think that I'll slack off…Oh."
"Hmmm…what is it?"
The two Yahar'gul Hunters had found the leveled building that held the main entrance to Old Yharnam…and what was in front of it.
"It has tentacles…just like what that Church Hunter used against us. What does this mean, Maurice?"
"It means that we've reached our quota! My plan worked!" Unlike Chase, the two Hunters looked on the Bloody Beast's mutated form without any effect on their mental health.
"And you just admitted that you were gambling!"
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Lavinia skulked through the Cathedral Ward's streets, trying their best to not be seen despite the Old Yharnam beasts' complete loss of coherency. That meant that the Hunters she had gathered had had a successful Hunt. Which in turn meant that some of them were alive, which in turn meant that she was in very deep water. There was no doubt in her mind that the Yahar' gul Hunters were still after her or that the pawns she had gathered would want answers she refused to give.
Lavinia nervously repositioned her sheathed sword. Tonight was going to be very difficult because of her episode.
As she walked forward she felt her boot step on something small, but hard. She looked down, it looked like some oddly shaped carriage. It had four wheels and was covered in bulky black steel. Some kind of toy.
Then to Lavinia's surprise, the small black thing moved on its own and drove off.
Then there was a sound that resembled a low roar, and a something riding a two-wheeled mechanical contraption covered in blood drove up to her before stopping.
The man got of the machine, and removed his helmet, revealing an ethnicity that looked very similar to that new Hunter's as well as a similar style of clothing.
"Finally. You must be the one my friends have been leading me too. Tell me…do you have a purpose…and do you know mine?"
The man reached into his metal steed, and pulled out a very large black gun. It was large enough to need two hands to hold, made of blocky black metal, with an indent on its back that Lavinia would think one would hold ammo. "My friends tell me to use force this time if you don't answer my questions, just to let you know."
He then cocked the weapon, and yellow bolts of super-heated electricity surged through the weapon.
Finally finished this chapter. Yeah, this took way too long and I have no excuse. Writing this chapter was a pain and I'm still not completely sure about it. More seriously, I've really pushed to finish this chapter so the first arc of Blood Hunt could be finished and I constantly felt my enthusiasm slip away each time I did it. In light of that I've decided that I'm going to be starting a new project while this one goes on hiatus.
…Yeah, so much for the 'less than three months' comment'. I really have not excuse other than a lack of enthusiasm. Hope this entertains.
Chapter 7: Dogs of War Part 2
Lavinia was a consummate member of the Choir. She understood that humanity was nothing more than ants stuck in an uncaring cosmos. Doomed to amount to nothing in their insignificance and thus needed to find their own purpose in life if such a thing existed. Luckily, Yharnam had found the true answer to life in the form of the Great Ones and the Old Blood thanks to the genius and tenacity of the First Vicar, Laurence.
But for the brilliance of this design there was always a downside; a counterpoint. In the rush to become something more the Old Blood instead revealed how truly insignificant humans really were. It ripped apart the façade and revealed her race to be in reality less than ants. There was no choice at that point; Lavinia knew that humanity needed a better future than to be less than ants. She had accepted the Choir's offer to join and went to work to gift humanity with salvation.
Lavinia knew that she had to bring ascension to everyone else the first time she had seen Ebrietas with her own eyes and she realized what was truly at stake. She then did things that would make even the most hardened Hunter's skin crawl as she helped spread the Old Blood throughout the city, facing failure after failure. But to bring humanity to a higher level; to give them an actual purpose she would do anything, any crime, or suffer any failure to bring the rising sun of ascension with the Old Blood. She would craft a great purpose for humanity.
She would do anything not to share the fate of everyone else; to succumb to the trials of their salvation and become a beast.
It had all started like every other time Yharnam finally devoured too much of itself; the Night of the Hunt started, the Hunter of the Dream was assuredly chosen and the citizens became less than ants en masse. As she had expected, something had gone completely wrong, the pawn ant had reported that Old Yharnam had finally come back to haunt them and that the beasts were spilling in. As the most martial of the Choir she had mobilized to meet the threat and fortune had smiled upon herself finding four high quality Hunters, her pawn had done her job gathering together and pressuring them into working for the Church and they had set out to deal with Old Yharnam once and for all.
She had done her job, speaking with the Hunters, marginalizing Djura's complaints, courting the interest in Briner and Chase who could be useful in the future, and not stepping on the Hunter of Hunters toes; she was a fixture in Yharnam by this point and too useful to anger.
Their planned trump card, Chase's ability to slow time to a crawl, was rendered useless because every beast had bathed themselves in the Old Blood, no doubt taken from any beasts not a part of their pack and Church creations they could find.
But that had not been the worst that had happened. They had been outsmarted, out thought, by a beast. Unconceivable. Impossible. Asinine! It went against how Yharnam had work. It went against her purpose! The truth that had served Lavinia since childhood had been broken and destroyed by the Bloody Beast. Cornered by all sounds by its mangy slaves, back sent up to a literally burning wall.
"Less than an ant, less than an ant, less than an ant, less than an ant, less than an ant…" she rambled endlessly unable to deal with her worldview crushed.
Of course, the other Hunters didn't know any of this, caring more about being crushed by the horde. But as they were backed up against the burning building, Chase grabbed the stammering Lavinia all the while Djura gave him a disapproving look.
On all other sides the beasts were gathering, forming a wall of savagery and blood around their prey, closing every avenue of escape with their bodies making a cage. Around the Bloody Beast a guard had been formed, a personal pack that walked with the alpha in perfect tandem, a perfect offense to strike with the Bloody Beast and a great defense to shield it from bullets and physical blows.
The Bloody Beasts then walked forward on all fours with a powerful stride, its bloody guard moving with it. It wanted the killing blow.
Then, something unexpected happened: a giant stone hammer flew through the air and hit the Bloody Beast in the back of the head, drawing blood and sending the beast reeling and with that, cohesion was lost. The beasts panicked and scampered at their leader's wounds, losing all of their organizational skills. The pack becoming a swarm of confusion.
"Everyone!" the man who threw the hammer shouted. "I heard you could use a hand!"
Eileen was the one to respond, and she didn't answer with words. She vanished in the Quickening. Appearing in the middle of the swarm releasing a hail of knives to kill as many beasts as she could to make a hole, before Quickening outside of the circle completely another salvo of knives ready to be thrown, thinning the horde just a bit more.
"Djura! Another grenade!" Eileen ordered, Djura immediately complied throwing the explosive at Eileen who caught it while he drew another. Briner then revealed his own payload and the three veterans threw their grenades in a manner that formed a vertical line through the horde. Each exploded killing the beasts in the conflagrations and creating a weak point in their offensive line.
Djura looked to Chase, his hands and feet becoming wolfish limbs once more and yelled. "Take the front with me! Briner will carry the Church stooge!"
Chase immediately complied handing the Church Hunter to the elder apprentice and then ran up to Djura, picking up his savior's hammer along the way. With a look but not a word the two charged at the weakpoint before it could be filled, axe and claws drawn and swinging. Their great strength pushing aside any of the remaining beasts with the help of their chosen weapons while Briner followed.
Lavinia saw the man who had saved their lives as they escaped the trap. A handsome man in white with blond hair, green eyes, and a strong chin flashing a charming smile as Chase threw him back his Kirkhammer. He was the Executor. A survivor from Logarius' Crusade…Alfred was his name. But still, that meant had Amelia done her job, her ant had performed well for the colony.
Wait, she knew that name.
"Nice to meet you all!" the Executioner called jovially. "It's an honor to work by your sides! Shall we take these vile beasts to-?"
"No, we run!" Lavinia ordered from Briner's shoulder, her expression restored to normalcy. "We can't beat that horde and the alpha will be back soon!"
"You do know I can drop you, right?" Briner said darkly.
"She's right!" Eileen agreed, angry. "We have to retreat and regroup!"
And as she finished her sentence, the ground began to tremble again. The beasts of Old Yharnam surged forward from behind them, their numbers struggling against the houses that boxed in the road to the point where it almost looked like a bloody wave, the Bloody Beast itself emerging from the horde, its acidic slobber being spat out in pain and rage.
That was all the motivation that the Hunters needed to run faster.
"We need higher ground!" Eileen shouted, looking up to the roofs. "We can't escape conventionally."
As she spoke female beasts, also covered in blood, revealed themselves on the rooftops. Lined up in rows as a countermeasure to Chase's Slowdown. Their mouths open and inhaling back to unleash a barrage of acid.
"We're trapped…" Chase said.
"I'll admit that the situation looks bad." Alfred admitted.
"No. I won't die to these things. I won't die to beasts." Lavinia vowed, reaching for something in her priest robes. It was an orb that allowed the channeling of higher mysteries of the Cosmos like the Augur of Ebrietas. This one allowed the control of those the Church had ascended. Back up will be on its way.
"Stop moving! You're slowing the both of us down." Briner complained.
"Hand her to me, then." Alfred casually offered in mid-run. "Us Hunters should help aid one another." His countenance cheerful despite the dreadful situation.
"Gladly." Briner said, tossing Lavinia to the Executor.
He's tossing me to the Executor. Martyr Logarius' most deranged follower. He might look like a storybook knight but there was a reason he had gotten guard duty of Old Yharnam.
Lavinia looked at the orb fighting the urge to shout "Hurry up!" knowing that it would do nothing.
Then the female Yharnam beasts fired their acidic payload from their mouths. Fighting the inevitable Chase activated a Slowdown to block the first barrage, then a second to block the second barrage, then the third.
By this point the Bloody Beast's newest strategy became clear. Its pack and it attacked at their full ferocity from behind, meaning all focus needed to be put into running, meaning that the time to aim a projectile attack would be fatal, and with its ranged attackers guarding the rooftops it would eventually whittle away at the group, even with Chase's Slowdown.
But that was fine. Lavinia would survive, the Church weapons would come to her aid and create confusion, and the Hunters would be a suitable sacrifice to help her escape.
Because no matter what, she had sworn; she would never fall to monsters that were beneath ants in the proper order of the Cosmos… of the eldritch Truth.
It was a pity, Lavinia thought, as she repressed a giggle. The newcomer, Chase, seemed like a perfectly decent human being, a person from the outside most likely drafted into the Hunt not understanding what he was getting into. It was because of people like him why she couldn't stop and couldn't fail and couldn't die. If she died and the secrets of the Church vanished than everyone who had been hurt and suffered sacrifices would be rendered meaningless. If needed to grant ascension she would survive past her pawn, past the Church, past the Choir, past Yharnam itself no matter what. She would survive.
Then there was the banging sounds of gunshots breaking Lavinia from her thoughts as she saw the female Yharnam beasts fall of the rooftops, dead.
"Who did that?" Chase asked.
"Who cares right now? We have an escape!" Djura retorted, and used his wolf legs to make the jump to the safer rooftops, Briner and Eileen following.
Alfred then made the jump next, but he was a fraction too slow because of Lavinia, the Bloody Beast would capture at least one of its prey. Its claws reaching out in a desperate lunge, in a perfect position to slaughter the flailing Lavinia. Only for Chase to push them both out of the way.
He was rewarded for his heroism by his armor being shred once again his blood spilling out along with scraps of machinery.
But he had bought time.
"Hey, ugly," Briner called out, the Gatling gun pointed at the overextended alpha beast. "Ready for another experiment?"
And the Gatling gun unleashed its rapid fire payload. The bullets being fired at full speed, the lesser beasts of Old Yharnam rushed forward to defend their leader, and were rewarded for their loyalty with their bodies being reduced into piles of gore and without a single regard by their leader, who was using them as cover to try and finish the job.
Then Djura jumped down dual magnums drawn, pointed at his former test subject's face, and fired.
The Bloody Beast whimpered in pain as its skull was broken. Its gaze growing more hateful at the sight of its former warden.
"Not letting you heal from this!" Djura shouted as he fired more, ruthlessly capitalizing on his turn of good fortune.
Of course, that was when the Church Servants and Giants stumbled in to make a mess of things. They converged groaning and moving with quickness provided by Lavinia's orb. Stumbling to move as quick as they could one giant threw its ball and chain at where the Bloody Beast and Djura stood.
The Powder Keg's eyes widened and he holstered his guns, sprouting his wolf limbs to dodge as the ball and chain pulverized the house Briner used to mount the Gatling gun, Eileen barely catching him and Quickening in time.
Djura angrily turned too Lavinia, face contorted into rage. "What did you do?!"
Lavinia didn't care for the Hunter's condemnation, she ran. Escape was in sight. Her plan was flawless. The Old Yharnam horde would pay more interest in the Powder Kegs and potential food. She would rise above everyone, she would live.
Sprinting madly Lavinia dodged the confused mob her distraction had created. Running as quickly as she could.
A giggle escaped her lips. She was going to escape!
"Well, well, well. What a fortuitous turn of events for my scheming." A deep voice said, dripping with smugness.
Lavinia was broken out of her thoughts, barely dodging a Tonitrus swing. Sword drawn to block, only to be hit in the back by a spear being used as a club.
"Looks like things are finally going our way," the second man in black said in a higher pitch in black while throwing a net on top of her. "I've got a feeling that the Headmaster will be interested in you."
Lavinia knew those uniforms. The Hunters of Yahar' gul formed by those Mensis traitors! Everything was going wrong today.
"You don't need to worry," the leader of the duo waxed false reassurances. "You won't suffer the fate of the others. You clearly know too much to just be cattle for our master."
Ambitious ants who didn't know their place, she could use this. "How about I tell you the secrets of the Cosmos and you shall release me? I could be a great friend to have."
The leader of the duo smacked her down with his mace. "Trust the Church? No. If you refuse to talk it's safer to have Mensis make you talk. Talk or not I know we'll be guaranteed a reward from the Headmaster."
So these ants had brain cells. Very well then, they would learn their insignificance. Beneath her sleeves an Augur of Ebrietas slid out, landing in her hand. And with that the power of the Cosmos turned the tide.
Ebrietas' mighty tentacles lashed out ripping the net to shreds, still flailing madly knocking the Hunters of Yahar'gul away and still spread outward casually slicing a house into pieces.
With that, Lavinia continued her retreat laughing. She had survived once again. She'd always survive.
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Robert and Maurice forced themselves up after whatever that Church Hunter used against them.
"What the hell was that?" Robert gasped.
"A secret of Yharnam that has slipped through out fingers," Maurice spat out in rage. "Damn it!" Then to his friend's confusion, he immediately calmed.
"Huh, usually you seethe a bit more when things go belly up," Robert mumbled.
"There's no need for anger now, Robert. With the way I've set up the board we'll be coming out on top. A true genius makes every move go towards his victory."
"So that's why we saved those Hunters? They're your pawns?"
"Yes. I have the opportunity to play chess thanks to this crisis."
"I dunno, this seems more like gambling to me."
"Say that again, Robert," Maurice said, testily.
"Well, you can't control everything in a situation like this. You don't have a full plan because of the chaos, playing fast and loose while trying to stack the deck in your favor. It seems more like gambling while cheating to me." Robert explained his rhetoric.
"It's chess, I assure you."
"Gambling."
"Chess."
"Gambling."
"Chess."
"Gambling."
The two Hunters bickered as they returned to the rooftops, tracing the path of destruction the four Hunters' escape caused.
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The four Hunters managed to drag their way into one of the Cathedral Ward's church like buildings that was surrounded by the unerring statues of women that the designers of the district favored. Alfred walked ahead, his smile plastered on his face, with Eileen keeping pace with a casual stroll, her speed serving her well. Briner stayed in the middle, while Djura carried the wounded Chase, making sure to cover his mechanical and bleeding innards.
Finally, the Hunters entered the church building, and sat down in varying states of exhaustion with Chase consuming a blood vial given to him by Alfred – a gift from the Church -- rubbing the place where the Bloody Beast had torn him open suppressing the irritation he felt at failing in combat twice in one battle.
And even worse, his Slowdown had now been completely negated and the answer had been staring him in the face the whole time. The Old Blood in great amount of quantities could null or completely negate a Slowdown. It utterly confused the Roidmude, how could a type of blood, mysterious and magical as it was, counter time control?
Chase was broken from his thoughts by Alfred's voice. "Well, I think that went well. Amelia sent me to back you up, and it seems I arrived in the nick of time. It must be a blessing."
"'Well'?" Eileen scoffed as she removed her mask to help catch her breath. "We were outsmarted, outnumbered, and escaped by mere luck after Lavinia's episode. This has to be the biggest embarrassment the Hunters have suffered in years."
"And Lavinia's out there somewhere, I'm worried about what she'll do alone," Chase added.
"I say good riddance to the Church stooge," Djura growled. "She lost her wits and made things worse. I bet she wanted to use us to cover her mistake."
"You don't know that for sure. She was panicking, it could have been an honest mistake. "Chase argued…but it didn't come out as very convincing.
"Or she could be close to turning." Eileen pointed out cynically.
"I hope she isn't, Church beasts are some of the worst and we can't handle another alpha right now." Briner groaned, slumping against his seat.
"Oh, chin up. You all got out alive, and now you know the wily beast's secrets. Master Logarius always told us that understanding an enemy was vital to defeating them." Alfred said.
"He's right, but I don't think the ultimate threat is the Bloody Beast, it's its pack." Chase mused.
"Heh, forget a pack. That thing had an army. Probably the faction in Yharnam with the largest numbers." Eileen said.
"And it knows how to use it," Briner continued. "They're like puppets on strings to the thing and after how the battle started I doubt it will drop its guard."
"And there's no way for us to win if it keeps the army. The only option is to deprive it of it. I could deal with its tricks by myself if its thralls were gone." Djura finished.
"Then we have a solution, just kill the army of beasts. With all the blood it needed to bathe its army it can't bring its full forces to bear meaning that it's operating under limited resources." Alfred said. "Trust me, I know that the beast hasn't brought its entire army to battle. It couldn't get enough blood to cover it's entire horde."
His compatriots all looked at him in confusion, with Eileen giving the answer.
"That's far too optimistic, we don't have a way to kill an army of that size without being overrun even if it's smaller." Eileen said.
"There's also another problem to consider," Chase added. "By eating the creations of the Church the Bloody Beast can heal any wound and the chaos of combat will provide ample opportunity for hidden beasts to heal the alpha."
"And Lavinia called more of the Church monsters to cover her escape. It's probably better stocked than we are." Djura said.
"A true shame, the Church made the Servants to protect the people. To see them having fallen into the wrong hands." Alfred mourned.
The four other Hunters stared at Alfred in confusion before deciding not to push. The Church was the wrong hands. But then again, he did guard the main entrance to Old Yharnam without complaint.
"Still, together, I think we can defeat the Bloody Beast by ourselves. Without its army the five of us can slay the beast. Even if we have to kill it a hundred times." Briner said.
"Well said," Alfred complimented. "A Hunter should fight and kill to his dying breath for the good of all."
"While I agree and we seem to be in agreement of the Bloody Beast, the question remains…how do we neutralize the army?" Chase said the most important question.
Djura looked at the two, a frown creasing his lips.
"We lure them into a trap, of course." Eileen declared. "We've seen that even if the Bloody Beast has intelligence, it can't turn down hurting humans and its pack will follow."
"But even so, it might become suspicious," Chase pointed out.
Djura's frown deepened. He had no choice. "Not if we give it something it can't turn up. You saw how it treated me; it'll never turn down a chance to kill me, even if it's too good to be true."
Chase might not have liked Djura…but he didn't trust a human who might be mentally unwell in such a situation.
"I think I should be the bait. Out of all of us I'm the most durable." Chase made his own proposal.
"I don't care what you are, you're simply not useable bait." Djura put special emphasis on the 'what' and turned away. "Besides, I've got something I need to settle now."
Chase thought back to how Djura reacted to the fire. "But still-"
"I agree with Djura, Chase." Eileen interjected. "He's the best man for the job. Now for the next step of the plan: what kind of trap can kill enough beasts?"
Djura smirked. "Hmph, easy." He pulled out a grenade. "An explosion. A Powder Keg explosion."
Chase, having experience with explosions of all kinds, immediately caught on. "Lead them into some kind of land mine?"
"Your grenades wouldn't last long enough to set a trap before the explosion, however." Eileen picked out a flaw.
A similar smug air had overcome Briner as well. "You would be right…if you didn't know about our cache of dynamite. We used it to demolish useless buildings in Old Yharnam that got in the way and we made sure there would always be enough."
Eileen rubbed her chin in thought. Dynamite could work. "Do you have enough?"
"We're the Powder Kegs!" the retired Hunters crowed as one.
"Ah, silly me." Eileen deadpanned.
"We're moving into the right direction," Chase began. "But what where would be a good place to set the trap?"
Alfred then put his fist into the palm of his hand. "I know the perfect place: the tomb that leads into Old Yharnam. I saw it first hand, the beasts escape ripped apart the main exit to Old Yharnam, and it's much larger than it was before. We can lead them into that oversized tunnel that they made and escape back into the Ward or the emptied Old Yharnam depending on how the Hunt goes, and the collapse of the tomb will surely kill some stragglers."
Briner and Djura looked at one another before agreeing. "It's true," Briner said. "The beasts ripped the tunnel to pieces so that they could escape as quickly as possible. It's only because the absolute best work was put into the tomb is why it hasn't collapsed."
Eileen gave Alfred an inquisitive look and said. "The beasts dying because of their own rampage…I like it. And if we can't clear the rubble after the kill and get stuck in Old Yharnam, we could just take one of the longer routes some of the beasts must have taken."
But Chase felt that there was more that needed to be said. "The plan is still very risky, dynamite runs on a timed fuse, right? That means that this will have to be perfectly timed. If we do anything wrong we could be trapped again."
Alfred put a hand on Chase's armored shoulder. "Chase, I can surmise that you're new and from your words that you're a man of principle. A person of principle makes a good, strong Hunter like the Executioners. We put ourselves on the line to purge the unclean and the beasts that fester in Yharnam like a cancer. Our back is against the wall, so we have to take the risks, give everything for the sake of our just cause to punish any abominations. We must never stop in the face of difficulties. Ever."
Then Chase understood, this was a man who sought justice. Meeting someone like this in this city was...refreshing.
"Then let's do it for justice and humanity." Chase held his hand out.
"For justice like Master Logarious would have. The filth shall be purged from the streets."
Neither noticed Eileen, Djura, and Briner look at Alfred with worried glances.
"While I wouldn't have worded it in the way Alfred would have, I agree with his point." Briner said. "I know the risks of the plan, but we don't have anything else or the time to find it.
Eileen nodded in agreement. "But now it's time for the real problem. Finding the Old Yharnam beasts before they find us. Wouldn't be much of an ambush otherwise."
"And we'll need to set the charges, so we'll have to split up." Djura added. "One group to get the dynamite ready and another to lure in the beasts."
"I don't think we'll need a signal, a noise or symbol could warn the beasts and the sound of their stampede would make a good sign to when to light the dynamite." Briner made his own contribution to the plan.
"I don't think we should split up until the charges are planted though, we shouldn't split up in the crisis until we need too." Chase finished.
"Agreed." All the Hunters said as one.
"Then the next order of business will be how we'll hunt the Old Yharnam horde." Chase said.
"Well, then. Let's Hunt like hawkers, then." Alfred suggested. "Stake out our prey from a distance like a noble bird of justice."
"Don't you mean a vulture?" Djura couldn't help but add a grouchy remark.
"I thought it was an excellent analogy," Chase defended.
"I don't need two justice obsessives," Eileen groaned.
"Still, everything's been ironed out as well as can be. Shall we begin?" Alfred said with a hint of giddiness.
"Yes, here's what we'll do," Eileen began to give out orders. "Briner and-"
"AWOOORRRRGGGGHHHH!" All of a sudden, the Bloody Beast's howl tore through the night.
"That direction!" Alfred shouted. "That's from the Grand Cathedral! Those filthy beasts must be sieging the chapel!"
"The humans inside are in danger!" Chase's said in horror.
"And I bet the Vicar let the refugees in to have insurance that we'd come back if something happened." Djura, as always, had a cynical remark.
"Even more importantly, it means we have less time than we thought." Eileen began to give orders. "Everyone, here's what we're going to do."
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Across the street, Maurice and Albert heard a howl and then saw the official Hunters exit the building saw them begin to split into two groups.
"Damnation!" Maurice growled as he realized what they were doing. "They're splitting up to help the refugees."
"Wow," Robert gasped in shock. "Even I know how dumb that is. And they even had a good plan."
"No time for any more japes, Robert. Looks like we'll be covering for those three idiots!"
"They're leaving the building for the roofs." Robert warned.
"Then we have to hurry!" Maurice said as he began his sprint to beat the Hunters to the Grand Cathedral.
"…Told you this was gambling." Robert had to have the last remark this time.
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Vicar Amelia once again put her hand on the shoulder of the refugees she had let in, an old women. "There is no need to fret, the Church has assembled the finest team of Hunters seen in a generation to deal with this outbreak. It's even made the Powder Kegs see the error of turning their backs on us."
"I know, Your Holiness, but I don't understand why you didn't send anyone but the blond man to aid them, I know that the other Hunters of the Church aren't as strong as those six, but against such numbers they'd surely be useful."
To protect myself as insurance. They'd be a good distraction, if the worst comes. She thought, looking at the dregs of the Church Hunters that now guarded the Grand Cathedral's door.
"To protect all of you," Amelia lied effortlessly, "The Hunters are strong but the beasts' numbers are great, even with their skills they can't slay all of them. Some could find their way here while the Hunters fight the greater threat."
Amelia knew that her platitudes were completely pointless, but it was best to take advantage of this gathering to re-endear the Church to the populace. They might be nothing more than sacrifices to her superiors, but better them willing to be used than be hateful to the Church.
The Scourge had made fear the only option of control for the Church up until this opportunity, and she didn't want it tip over to hate. She would surely become the sacrifice to placate the people by the Choir as had happened to other Vicars.
Years of politicking stopped Amelia from showing fear or rage at these thoughts. Her calm cool voice and talent at creating improvised answers and speeches that helped her spread the Old Blood letting the Choir to do their experiments without interruption in the Northern Ward. She was a successful Yharnanmite making herself too valuable to the city's true rulers to be just a mere scapegoat. She knew it.
As she walked away from the sheep she felt her fingers twitch, seeing the blood in her veins through the skin.
Yes, she had to be. She wouldn't die, become one of them, and if she had to be a puppet to this cult so be it. It was just politics at the end of the day.
The Choir hadn't met her in person in years, merely sending messages to tell her to run the Church as she had been doing and to always find a way to get more blood ministrations going with whatever new concoction they had devised and sent.
When the Church Hunters told her of the outbreak she was even more surprised that the Choir had responded, sending one of their own; Lavinia, to oversee the events and devise a solution.
The choice made sense, Lavinia was the most martial member of the Choir. Having learnt to fight like a Hunter before she rose through the ranks to the secrets of the Cosmos before Amelia joined the cult's front.
Amelia's only concern about Lavinia's aid was that strange ideology she had, she knew mankind was insignificant but Lavinia took it as gospel like a desperate man infected by the Scourge.
But it could still be an opportunity! Amelia knew that she was merely a bishop at best to her masters not knowing all of their secrets. If she was useful enough in this crisis perhaps the Choir would deem her a useful enough asset to help her with her recent…problem.
Her blood veins became visible again.
But before she could notice someone walked up to her, a young women in a Cainhurst dress. Utterly despicable. "Your Holiness." She said, her voice servile. "I took a walk to the front door and heard something."
Amelia immediately put on her mask of a trustworthy authority figure. "Tell me what you heard, child, a rouge beast? The wall will protect us."
"I think it was a beast, yes. I heard scratching on the door. Lots of it."
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The young women's statement was followed by the sound of trembling doors.
It took all of Amelia's self-control not to swear.
At that point, the refugees began to panic.
"The Hunters have failed!"
"The beasts are coming to kill us!"
"What about the incense?!"
"That breed ignores it, you fool!"
Amelia heard the doors buckle again and frowned as she felt her heartbeat accelerate, the chains on her emotion coming undone. Begging to lash out.
At that point, Amelia made her decision. If Lavinia and the Choir failed to keep their end of the deal. She would drag them all down with her.
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Chase had climbed to the top of the roofs for this Hunt, along with Djura and Alfred. Hearing the Bloody Beast's howl had forced the Hunters to split up. Eileen, the fastest of their numbers, along with Briner, their weakest and a trained Powder Keg, would go to Old Yharnam to get the dynamite and set the trap in the tomb, while the three of them would have to lead the beast and its army into the trap ahead of schedule.
They had only just started the plan and it was already falling to pieces!
So they decided to take some solace by taking the high ground, the most annoying advantage the Bloody Beast had used its numbers for.
The difference was quite noticeable. Despite the roofs of the Cathedral Ward's odd angles and uneven inclines it was easy for super humans to traverse them. Easily bypassing the maze like routes they were forced to employ to reach their destinations.
The Grand Cathedral was now much easier to reach now that they could just run and jump forward in a straight line to it.
That must be why the rogue Hunters used the roofs: all they cared about were their objectives and not hunting the beasts that preyed on the people.
As they hopped across the buildings Chase looked at his two partners. Alfred seemed to be a friendly and reliable fellow, he liked his simplicity, his quirks reminding him of the Special Division and he understood the merits of justice, a comfort of his home and normalcy. The only risk were his combat capabilities…
Chase then looked towards Djura, the retired hunter's face twisted into his grouchy scowl. He did not completely trust the Powder Keg leader. His stand against the Bloody Beast had been impressive, but Chase wasn't sure if that meant he could trust him. His line of thought was wrong, and now that he knew that Chase wasn't human he wasn't sure how he effected Djura's point of view. Was his cooperation just a lie and he would try to protect the beasts again now that he knew it was possible to fight alongside something not human?
"When we get there should we try to drag the fight out?" Djura suddenly asked. "We don't know how long it will take for the others to set the trap."
"We should wait until we can see what the beasts are doing in the Grand Cathedral before deciding on a course of action." Chase opinioned.
"I'm asking this now because I highly doubt that the beasts will let us strategize when we reach the plaza."
"I say we go all in," Alfred suggested. "We can't let the beasts tarnish the streets of the Grand Cathedral so we should slay as many as we can with an all out attack."
Then the three made another leap.
"The foolishness of youth," Djura chastised. "We'd be slaughtered…but an ambush has merit. We should stay to the rooftops as long as we can and snipe the beasts while our perch is defensible; they will knock the buildings down to get us."
"I didn't expect you to be so willing to kill so many beasts…" Chase's voice a mix of grudging respect and distaste.
"Still don't like me? That's fine, I stopped caring about what other people thought decades ago." Djura said as he made a leap.
"That's not all I'm worried about." Chase mumbled.
"Now you're probably making things up in your tin head to feel justified," Djura smirked. "You don't need to worry about me doing something stupid. I'm in to deep and I like myself too much to want death. I'll do my part of the plan."
"Said like a proper Hunter," Alfred praised. "But now we're here."
The three Hunters ducked down in case of the acid spitting beasts and saw nothing. Strange… Chase thought.
Then he looked down. He didn't like what he saw. The plaza was a bloody storm of crimson fur, the blood making Chase's cherished Slowdown useless. The beasts of Old Yharnam swarming towards the Grand Cathedral clawing, biting, and smashing the walls. The biggest beasts surrounded the Bloody Beast as living shields, and the alpha along with others were tackling the Grand Cathedral's door.
"That makes no sense, even without its numbers the Bloody Beast could blow up the doors with its blood. "Chase said.
"So this was all to lure us out. It's utterly despicable for such a monstrosity to be so cunning." Alfred said in disgust.
"And it's got bodyguards covering it too take the fall. How I'd love to snipe that that thing and end everything. Save the victims," Djura mused leaving who the 'victims' were ambiguous as he removed the Gatling gun from his back (Briner had traded it to him) and began to set it up and aim.
"Okay you misfits. If you see a Church Servant under all that fur, eviscerate it with your bullets. Now ready, aim, fire!" Djura ordered as the three Hunters raised their guns and did as they were told. A rain of bullets and plasma soared down from the rooftop, making the plaza even bloodier as the rounds burnt away and tore apart the beasts' bodies. The Gatling gun a herald of death, its incredible rate of fire seeping through the horde like a storm of metal rain. Beasts died in droves, caught by surprise thanks to their missing rooftop guards and the plaza began to flood with blood.
But it wasn't enough. Such firepower would never be enough.
The surviving female beasts on the ground howled, empowering the pack many times over and then began to spit acid at the houses, trying to make it collapse.
"We need to attack!" Alfred shouted.
"Keep firing!" Djura ordered. "We still have time!"
Then, the Bloody Beast turned away from the Cathedral's door, glaring at Djura as he sprayed death down onto its pack.
It inhaled its too large mouth showing its overly large teeth, and spat out a gout of blood as it ran forward on too legs towards the house the Hunters stood on, claws already clashing against one another to make sparks for the explosion.
While Chase and Djura prepared to jump into the wolves den Alfred had already made an Olympic worthy leap ahead of them screaming a battle cry.
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With the strength of a true believer Alfred righteously smashed his Kirkhammer into one of the female beasts. The unclean must be punished like Logarius did to the Vilebloods but one must be prudent in battle. Can't have the filth empower themselves with more filth.
As Alfred smashed away another beast he felt the joy, the euphoria flow through him. While he had dedicated everything to Master Logarius and cleansing Yharnam of their disgusting ways he knew the need to protect the clean from the normal filth, being a beast Hunter was how he got his start and Master Logarius said to never forget ones roots.
Alfred looked at the horde, still appearing as expansive as ever in the plaza in spite of his fellow's impressive barrage. Good Hunters, they were.
But he couldn't forget the prize. His act of initiative had landed him closer to the Bloody Beast than anyone else. If he was swift and true then his fellows wouldn't need to use such a risky trap. He would barrel through the horde and slay that beast!
Muscles bulging, Alfred charged forward deeper into the horde to reach the greatest quarry smashing the Old Yharnam beasts away with each mighty swing of his hammer. Heads flew off from the force of his blows, bodies broken into heaps, some even snapped in two as he meted out proper justice.
But the abominable creatures still had retained their despicable cunning. One had used the deaths of their comrades as a detraction, jumping onto Alfred back, trying to dig its toxic claws into his body.
"How despicable to use your comrades like that!" Alfred roared as he swung his rifle backwards but of the gun crushing its face and shattering its skull.
Then five beasts leapt at from all sides; a double trap.
Before Alfred could even roll out of the way to dodge five bullets soared through the sky, each scoring a perfect headshot killing them as Djura came into view holding his impressive new guns in each hand.
"Thank you, Powder Keg." Alfred said to his ally. "Do you know where Chase is?"
Djura opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped and frowned, shaking his end. Was he getting senile in his old age? He did live in Old Yharnam after all.
Finally, Djura answered his question. "Chase seems to be an explosives expert. He rode the shockwave to the Grand Cathedral and began slaughtering the beasts trying to tear down the door. From what I saw the beasts on door duty didn't rejoin the pack and began to put effort into tearing down the door. A tactic to divide us."
"While protecting the innocent is an important mission, I think punishing these abominations metes out justice better." Alfred said easily.
Djura seemed to resist rubbing his forehead with his hand. "Just remember the plan, we can't keep this up much longer with these numbers."
It was true, while the two Hunters talked they dodged acid and shot and crushed the beasts that swarmed them.
Alfred thought it over, and decided. "The Bloody Beast is cornered, we can't waste this chance, Powder Keg."
He then looked over to the Bloody Beast, it was once alone from its assault, but it was calling lesser beasts back to it. He would never have a better chance.
"Wait," Djura mumbled, "It's not focusing on me, and a horde that small makes no sense…" Djura's eyes widened under his bandages as he realized what was happening. "Wait! It's a trap!"
But Alfred wasn't listening, he had a beast to crush into a pulp.
Once again his Kirkhammer was swung with brutal skill, killing the rabid guard of the Bloody Beast.
With each swing he got closer and closer, but it took its toll.
The Old Yharnam beasts clawed at him, drawing blood and burning his skin with acid, but Alfred soldiered on; a protégé of Logarius couldn't falter. One beast tackled him starting a dogpile but powered on by his belief Alfred overpowered those mangy mutts and kept going, ignoring his injuries as he drew closer to the fiend who dared besmirch the Cathedral Ward glaring at its dead white eyes that seemed to mock him.
Because it was, blood dripped off a self-inflicted wound, the life-giving liquid slithering through the puddles of blood the three Hunters gunfire bathed the street in. And with a clang of its claws a spark was sent flying towards its explosive blood.
Bogged down by the beasts Alfred seemed to be doomed…until he activated the Kirkhammer's Trick Weapon ability causing the heavy hammer head to fall off revealing the staff to really be a sword. With his load lessened Alfred broke free of the beasts tackle and rolled away to dodge the explosion springing up to his feet and using the momentum to lunge at the Bloody Beast shouting. "Die, monster! You don't belong in this world!"
Only for the Bloody Beast to gore him through with its wicked claws mid-jump.
Alfred coughed blood. No! No! No! No! No! No! He was an Executioners, he was the one who punished the wicked.
His grip tightened on his sword.
"I can't fail now!" he roared like a wild beast and with the last of his strength swung his sword, impaling it through the Bloody Beast's chest with a sickening squelch.
Alfred smiled at his victory. A fatal death blow! Yes, he had did! He had purged Yharnam of another abomination and saved his comrades from performing a ris-
Then a paralyzed Church Servant was thrown into the air right into the Bloody Beast's mouth by one of its pack mates.
What?! Where did it hide them?
It then clamped down on the bio-weapon and chewed on it, swallowing the sentinel as quickly as it could. With a burst of renewed power as the bio-weapons mysterious biology renewed its strength, the Bloody Beast lifted the drained Alfred into the air removing the sword in its chest as it did so and then smashed Alfred into the ground head first. Human blood was spilt and the last Executioner could no longer stay conscious, his last sight being Djura desperately running towards him on all fours.
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It was strange how everything worked out so well but was also so horrible, Chase mused.
In his line of work everything exploded. Everything. Hell, he had exploded twice in the past. He had learned to see them coming. It was what helped him save Lavinia from the Bloody Beast's explosive trump card, and now his experience with explosions let him ride the shockwave, Break Gunner and axe in hand as the shockwave propelled him over the plaza to the beasts who sought to rip down the Cathedral's doors and butcher everyone inside.
He saw his targets as he fell and he fired the Break Gunner scoring multiple head shots at the beasts' door attack team.
But despite this impressive display, Chase couldn't help but think. Djura would have fired faster, in envy as gravity did its job and he landed on the ground, using the force to cut a beast in two vertically. Not wasting time Chase spun around using his mechanical and blood given strength to swing the axe in a circle, fully extended, to cut apart the beast that tried to surround him.
Then Chase heard multiple howls. He grimaced as the surviving beasts muscles bulged and similarly empowered males replaced the lost. Things were about to get harder.
Chase swung his axe but in contrast to every clash he had had with the beasts of Old Yharnam in the past, his target was able to parry it with its acidic claws.
But it wasn't ready for the snap kick. The beasts then tried to swarm Chase but he once again tried to take a page out of Eileen's book. His body slackened as the memories of the Hunter of Hunters agility flowed through his CPU.
Then, he sprinted, his footwork resembled that of a dancer instead of the steady charge he preferred. Trying to sneak through the openings to act as bait to lure the beasts away and have a better escape route for the trap.
But there was still too many. His good fortune at an end, Chase was blind-sided by a tackle , the Roidmude using all of his strength to not be knocked over, getting hazed by acidic claws lashed out, scarring his Violet Guard armor.
"That's it!" Chase redoubled his efforts, extended axe swinging wildly easily cutting through the overzealous beasts.
One swing. Two swings. Three swings. They were all dead.
But more still came. Chase mastered the art of grimacing in disdain as a bigger section of the horde ran up to him. He tightened his grasp on his axe, and readied himself for the worst as he pushed down that hateful feeling of irritation and rage!
…Then gunfire sounded out, shooting multiple distracted beasts in the back, followed by a mace sparking with electricity knocking a sizable portion of the horde into another portion of it, creating breathing room.
Chase didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and joined his new allies. Break Gunner firing at the stragglers helping them mop up this horde.
Then Chase saw his latest helpers. The Black tunics, black capes, their weapons, the helmets…they were the kidnappers Eileen had fought, Maurice and Robert she had called them, from the Unseen Village, Yahar'gul.
Chase immediately raised his axe towards Maurice. He couldn't kill the two of them, but he could in incapitate them.
But neither of them were afraid of Chase. "Such an ungrateful brute," the taller one, Robert, tsked.
The shorter one, Maurice, nodded in agreement while smacking a beast with his mace. "I was hoping that he would be smarter than that."
"What could scum like you offer? Fallen Hunters who target humans?" Chase hissed out, his baritone garbling into a guttural growl once again.
"Because you'd be dead without us." Maurice's smugness was palpable. "Don't you think it's strange that the rooftops weren't guarded by those acid-spitters?"
Chase felt his momentum falter. As much as it angered him, it was suspicious that the Bloody Beast hadn't employed one of its most tried and tried tactics. Looking back, there hadn't been any roof snipers since their retreat.
"Why help us?" Chase asked.
"Pragmatism is a virtue in Yharnam." Robert said sagely.
"And helping others can also mean helping yourself." Maurice finished vaguely.
At that point Chase knew Maurice had an insufferable smirk under his helm. "And you just don't have the time. You can't hold out on whatever you're doing. Especially since that Executioner signed his own death warrant."
"A true lunatic until the end." Robert backed his partner up.
Chase felt his grip on his axe tighten as his rage returned. They were right and he hated it.
As if to punctuate their point Djura ran by holding a bleeding mess in a fireman's carry. "Let's go, Chase! We've stalled as long as we can."
Chase saw then saw the Bloody Beast chowing down on another Church Servant, greedily slurping up the last morsels of the things blood as its horde surrounded it in defense.
The Roidmude sent one last glare at the Yahar'gul Hunters as he followed his reluctant ally.
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Meanwhile, Eileen and Briner were finishing up their part of the plan. As the fastest member of their group, the Hunter of Hunters had sped ahead of the Powder Keg following his instructions to where their dynamite was located.
While dashing through Old Yharnam Eileen couldn't help but note how quiet the old city was. For decades there was always noise in the streets of Yharnam, from the citizens going about their lives putting up their façade of normalcy, to the men becoming beasts, or the inevitable paranoia of a beast that slipped through the cracks putting people on edge, to the hopeless situation making people explode with rage, to Church propaganda filling the city with noise, to the rustling that cults made as they slinked about. There was always something happening in the City of Blood.
But here, it was completely quiet. Despite the city still showing all the scars of the burning it no longer had the despair that pervaded Yharnam enveloping it.
This place…is peaceful. Eileen realized. It was hard to remember, and even harder to accept. Eileen wanted to stop her sprint, actually enjoy a place that wasn't trying to kill her. To enjoy something about life.
But she couldn't. Her duty drove her on. Her mission had to be fulfilled. Her dignity would refuse such a temptation.
With that, Eileen acquired the dynamite and found Briner waiting for her in the tomb at she re-entered it. Eileen had entered the tomb before, and she originally feared that the hallways would be too small to hold the ambush despite what the Powder Kegs said, but the beasts themselves had fixed that.
As the main exit to Old Yharnam it had become the main entry point for a majority of the Beast's escape. Tunnels had been smash and expanded for quicker escape, widened in scope by pure numbers and brute force and the walls to the Church built above the pathways had been smashed apart.
"Good time," the more stable Powder Keg complimented her. "I didn't expect you to be so fast even after what you did in that fight."
"We can only hope those three don't try to stall for too long," Eileen was far more pessimistic. "I hate being underestimated, though this time the reasons are different."
"Master Djura's more stubborn that steel, and that Chase fellow you've got following you around seems to have more heart than sense despite the way his face is stuck."
"I'm more worried about Chase. He has strong ideals about justice." Eileen admitted.
"So did Master Djura." Briner said sadly. "The dynamite, please?" he immediately changed the subject.
Eileen complied handing him the explosives and some matches.
As Briner took hold of the dynamite, his melancholy disappeared as an ecstatic grin appeared on his face as he admired the payload.
I shouldn't have expected a Powder Keg to be completely sane. Eileen thought as she saw the childish glee Briner exhibited as he placed the explosives.
After the task was done and both knew where the dynamite was hidden both held up matches and looked at one another. "And now we play the waiting game." Briner said morosely.
"Feels wrong to be safe and cozy in here while those three hold the line." Eileen agreed. "Maybe I should try an-"
Then the ground began to tremble.
"Should we light them now?" Eileen asked, deciding to delegate to the expert.
"No, we need as much time to escape as possible. We need the Bloody Beast to be in here for the explosion, and I doubt it will be easy." Briner ordered.
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The two Hunters had taken advantage of the reprieve and the Yahar'gul Hunters had given them to find an alcove to hide Alfred.
Djura injected his last remaining blood vial into the Executioner as he said. "Good thing he had nothing in his head or he'd be dead right now. Stupid kid."
"He wasn't stupid," Chase interjected while pacing back and forth. "He just wanted to kill the beasts like a proper Hunter should."
Djura huffed. "Since you aren't going to listen about the infected, I'll spell things out in a way you'll understand. Something is very wrong with Alfred here. He cares more about killing beasts than protecting any people. He's blood drunk and unstable. This is one of the reasons I retired."
"I won't have you praise your own cowardice again!" Chase shouted, pointing a finger at the retired Hunter.
Djura returned Chase's glare with one of his own. "Now you're making things up again. You're gaining problems; everyone in Yharnam gets them. But I won't have you project whatever fantasy you have going on in your tin head onto me!"
"I don't need to listen to you! You're clearly mentally unwell! Alfred stood guard over the death trap you fostered! He killed beasts like any proper Hunter would, he never killed a human!" Chase shouted back.
And with that, Djura's eyes widened under his bandages as everything fell into place. "So that's why all of this is so deeply affecting you. Are all of these distinctions are because you're not human."
And with that, Chase stopped in his tracks. "Yes, I'm not human. I'm a Roidmude."
"Some kind of automaton, I take it?" Djura guessed. "But why would something not human treat our kinds life as so much more precious? There isn't much worth to our kind…"
"So you project non-existent value onto beasts? Are you really so misanthropic?" Chase's said, for the first time managing to inject venom into his tone.
Any sense of Chase's feeling of superiority ended the second Djura said his rebuttal. "What about you?"
Chase almost recoiled at those words. "I-I don't understand what you mean."
"You claim to see human life as precious but you reject and project upon a person that you should see as human because they don't agree with you. Does the need to be right mean so much to you?"
"I need to be right. I was programmed with a perfect sense of justice. What will they think of me if I didn't do right…?" Chase said, sadness creeping into his tone.
Djura looked at Chase's lost expression, it reminded him of himself after the Burning. Lost, bitter, traumatized, everything he wanted and believed in burnt away in the flames.
…Himself. Did he want anyone else to turn out like him?
Before the retired Hunter could continue the conversation a familiar tremble shook the ground. They had been found.
"Let's go! We have to lead them away from Alfred!"
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Djura and Chase sprinted as fast as they could, using every ounce of their stamina to outrun the bloody horde, the Bloody Beast taking the point of the charge, eyes fixed on Djura.
Djura tilted his head towards Chase, motioning to the church, standing out with its front wall being demolished by the beast's original escape that held the pathway to where the crypt used to be, now effectively a large hole in the ground. The metal man caught on and ran in the right direction. The two Hunters ran into the hole at full speed the once thin hallway having been forcefully smashed into a larger pathway soon hearing the mixed blessing of a burning fuse.
Old Yharnam would be their only hope of survival. Other people would have seen that as bitter irony, but for Djura it was perfect for his home.
To Djura's chagrin the Bloody Beast didn't follow the rest of its army down in to catacombs, choosing to stay in the back in the aboveground church. The horde swarming into the underground like an army of fire ants the noise of their entrance cloaking the sound of the fuses as they stumbled and overstepped one another.
But still, they were too many, they spilled through the freshly dug catacombs, some walking over the others to block the second hallway that led deeper into the crypt, blocking the path to Old Yharnam.
Eileen saw the way. "Plan B! Copy me!" she shouted while holding the slower Briner in a fireman's carry. Jumping above the cluttered horde of beasts running on top of the swarm, her boots thundering downwards with such speed and force that she crushed skulls and spines.
Djura and Chase immediately caught on and copied their de facto leader, the Roidmude's weight being especially effective in stunning the bloody sea while Djura had sprouted wolf limbs once again, using all four claws to dig into any beast he could reach as he sprinted forwards with all his strength.
The four Hunters neared the exit, and to Djura's satisfaction he saw the Bloody Beast yelp in shock. It had overestimated its army and the four Hunters were eager to repay it for all the trouble.
Despite his position, the gunmanship of the Powder Kegs shined through as Eileen hurled Briner at the Bloody Beast as he quick drawed his magnum and shot it in the eye as he rolled under the beast feet. It wasn't able to use its blood to spark an explosion as Eileen didn't let up the pressure as she unleashed one of her barrages of knives causing it to roar in pain. Chase was next, his axe hacking into its side sending it off balance letting Djura finish the job.
The old Hunter turned around his clawed hands curled up into a fist, ready to unleash a haymaker, and with all of his remaining strength punched the Bloody Beast's face sending it flying down into the crypt.
With that done with the four Hunters sprinted out of the ruined building as the dynamite's fuses finished burning, letting out the full force of the Powder Keg brand. The explosions flames and force flew out of the crypt leveling the building built above it as the four Hunters looked at their work.
Like any good Powder Keg Briner basked in the fruit of his labors, eyes alight at the explosion. Good man, maybe he should forgive him for pressuring him into working with the Healing Church.
Going by Eileen's body language she was surprised by how powerful the dynamite really was. They had told her that it was Powder Keg make.
To Djura's dissatisfaction Chase watched the explosion with casual nonchalance, but there was an undeniable air of smugness about him. The tin man could feel, he knew that from their spat.
Eileen then turned to Djura and Chase. "That was a bit too close back there, I won't accept personal grudges jeopardizing lives."
"There were problems, but things didn't get as bad as you assumed." Djura explained.
"So, fist fight?" Eileen said dismissively.
"No. Things didn't reach such an extreme," Chase said.
"So it was a fist fight." Eileen joked.
Then blood seeped its way out of the rumble. The Hunters cautiously walking closer to examine it.
"Did some get that close to the entrance before it collapsed?" Djura wondered.
"We should excavate the rubble," Eileen ordered. "Make sure that abomination is really dead…and I might have a plan for Old Yharnam."
Then the rubble exploded. An explosion far bigger than any that the Bloody Beast had made before and Djura's world became fire, rubble, and pain as he scrambled to escape the conflagration and failed.
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The explosion happened too fast for Chase to have a proper reaction. But the Roidmude knew his explosions having witnessed hundreds of them and having exploded twice himself and knew what to do to mitigate the damage even after being consumed by it. Working with the force instead of against it and trusting his Mashin Chaser armor and Roidmude body to protect him, rolled to safety.
Chase landed on all fours and examined his wounds. His armor was singed black by the explosion and his pain receptors were screaming at him.
Then he saw Briner, Djura, and Eileen laying on the ground, even more burnt then he was, their clothes charred black by the explosion, smoke rising from the leather. Given that their bodies were in one piece they must have tried to escape the blast. They just weren't as successful as him.
"Damn it!" Chase growled out. If he had reacted faster he could have used a Slow Down to stop the damage. How had he so quickly gotten used to his trump card being useless?
Getting his thoughts in order, Chase decided to check on Briner first, as he was their weakest member. He checked his allies' pulse, and to his happiness found out that he still drew breathe.
Chase felt his second true smile grace his lips. The Hunters of Yharnam wouldn't die so easily.
Chase then looked at the remains of his coat melted by the Old Yharnam beasts during the first battle…which meant that the blood vials must have fallen out. From how durable they were back during the Cleric Beast fight Chase wondered if they had survived the acid.
Still, there was now a solution. He knew that Eileen had some blood hidden away, he could heal everyone up with that before the Bloody Beast returned.
Too late.
A thing shambled out of the rubble, all of the Bloody Beast's power and strength was gone, burnt away by the explosion. It now resembled the emancipated form Chase had first seen. Its body was shredded and smashed too pieces, torn ligaments and muscles showing, half its face was gone and its jaw was barely attached.
Chase was unenthused by the sight and drew his Break Gunner. "The final act of spite of a mad beast? I won't forgive you using that to hurt my friends." Chase said as he prepared to pull the trigger.
Then, the Bloody Beast managed to jump away to a corner of the rubble, and began to slurp something up. Chase turned to see it. It was the burnt corpse of a Church Servant.
"No!" Chase shouted and pulled the trigger. The bolt of plasma soaring at the beast as the final blow. But the beast twitched, and stumbled as if it was having a seizure.
Then it became something more disgusting, more terrifying, and more impossible. A sight that was mind-scarring and utterly horrifying.
The eyes! The eyes had grown across its body. Exploding outwards like pus, gazing aimlessly and without focus like a seething gaze of idiocy. Its body had shot upwards and split in two. Bloody tentacles sprouting from the mangled hole and wrapping around the body to support itself, massed like a gnarled and ancient tree. The tentacles that weren't needed for support shot out like branches as blood dropped off them as they mindlessly wriggled. The only thing that had healed in any way was its head, but its neck had extended, being attached to the squirming mass by the largest tentacle but still a horrible sight as giant eyes now consumed the skull and the beginnings of tentacles were coughed out of its mouth.
Chase felt his eyes burn as his mind was inflamed. Burning as needles gored through his CPU at the sight.
ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERUKGVFJGUKFCDDUFYFDTYUCFUIYDTFUGIYSTZXDFUKJDGHGFXGH!
What he saw did not compute! What it was doing to him did not compute! It just didn't compute!
Chase dropped his weapons and clutched his head a futile effort to dull the pain as the thing that was once the Bloody Beast shambled forwards, its legs lumbering forth slowly, somehow supporting its impossible form and weight.
Shambling towards Djura. Even as that thing it wanted revenge.
Chase saw this but he couldn't move. What he was seeing just hurt too much. The eyeseyeseyeseyeseyes gaze hurt too much. It was beyond what his systems could handle.
…But Djura was going to die.
He didn't like Djura, but he didn't want him to die…And did Djura really dislike him. What did they say to each other when they hid away…Albert? WHAT DID THEY SAY?!
Protgghect TTe HYUmenns…
What was that? Chase thought. This time his thoughts took on a soft depth, like he could barely hear them.
P-p-p-p-rotect-t-t thhhhhheeeee hooomammmss…
His core programming sounded out, broken and glitching but it spurred him on. Chase rushed forward, his running form no longer composed and methodical, more resembling a bum's rush as his primary directive pushed him forward.
The things tentacles tried to stop him but Chase pressed onwards and with an awkward punch sent the abomination flying.
Chase looked away from the thing and his mind began to clear and some semblance of clarity was restored. Besides whatever it was doing to his mind the Bloody Beast's mutation hadn't made it stronger at all. Whatever cocktail the Church Servants were made out of had proved to be dangerous too overdose on.
Then the tentacles wrapped around Chase's body and his world became pain as his mind exploded once more, no longer to form coherent thoughts.
He was sent to the ground, the tentacles trying to crush him, squirming and wriggling wildly, the remains of the Bloody Beast's head letting blood and drool slide out of its mangled face as it tried to gain enough cognizance to bite him with what was left with its mouth.
Chase didn't think, his madness now aiding him, like the beasts he had slain, he frenzied. His arms ripping the tentacles off his body, and his feet flailed wildly kicking the monster away, luckily hitting one of its new eyes, making the organ explode in blood and pus. The eldritch beast did something that resembled a shriek as it recoiled and feel to the ground.
Chase welcomed the pain of the fall as he landed on his stomach…until he realized that he was staring right at the mind-scarring thing. It made his head hurt even more from looking at it, depriving him of the coherency to even stand up. His opposition struggled to stand, now too unintelligent to think of using its tentacles to help it stand.
Chase lied on the ground utterly defeated. It was a familiar event to the Roidmude. In spite of his ailing mind, Chase remembered; he always lost at important moments. Always lost when it mattered.
He remembered Heart crushing his face underfoot during the Roidmude's revolution. If he had succeeded the death count wouldn't have escalated and everything would have ended right there.
He remembered being frozen solid by Freeze and left to die.
He remembered being completely defeated by Brain's new psychic powers after he achieved Ultimate Evolution.
He remembered the fight against Banno…he had died there, and he didn't know if his sacrifice had amounted to anything. Did Banno emerge from his funeral pyre unharmed, and crush Gou underfoot and complete his goals of world domination?
He had always lost when it mattered and now winning mattered more than ever.
That made Chase feel angry.
He was angry that if he fell here that his comrades would all die, Eileen helped him at his lowest, Djura helped in spite of all his grievances, and Briner was a valued comrade.
He was angry that Alfred would no doubt die from his wounds if they didn't come back for him.
He was angry that the Old Yharnam beasts would no doubt continue their rampage through the Cathedral Ward, killing everyone inside and no doubt spreading out to the rest of Yharnam.
And with that Chase mind began to clear. The angrier he got, the easier it became to move. The red hot rage burning within him surpassing the shearing pain in his mind, hands pushed his body up to stand once more.
The thing that was once the Bloody Beast sent its tentacles flying at him wrapping around his limbs, Chase struggled against the tendrils, the rage letting him stand his ground.
More. He needed more. Rage was all he had left. Rage would let him enact justice. Rage would protect his friends. Rage would make the pain stop.
No. Rage alone wouldn't grant him victory. He was losing his mind. He needed it back.
And with that everything became clear. The inferno burning inside of him welded his tattered sanity as it changed from red hot rage to a white hot passion. A singular focus.
Not wasting any time Chase ripped the tentacles off the abominations body through his robotic strength. He sprinted at his target at full speed, but he still stumbled.
No, need more focus! Chase thought, but what? What would give him the drive to save them all?
Oh…Oh! It was so obvious.
Fist thrusted back for maximum force Chase shouted his prey's death knell.
"Rider Punch!"
And with that, his fist punched through the remains of the abominations head and entering its body the fist exiting through its back as its body went limp and all of its countless eyes stopped staring at him.
Chase then removed his fist and turned around as the abomination finally died, losing its precarious balance as it stumbled down onto the Cathedral Ward's street, blood pooling outwards from the wound.
Chase then walked around and went to tend to his friends, forcing himself to ignore the damage done to his mind by a glimpse at what should not be.
To Chase's surprise, Djura had gotten back up and had managed to walk up to Chase, staring at the corpse of the Bloody Beast in horror and revulsion.
"Do you know what that was?" Chase asked, finding his voice in a low rasp.
"No. But looking at it…" Djura then motioned to Briner and Eileen still forms. "Still, helping our allies are more important."
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Chase and Djura each carried their friend on their backs. Eileen on Chase's and Briner on Djura's. Each step was a great task as their bodies ached from their burns and it turned out that Eileen held no blood to offer them surcease. Luckily, the Old Yharnam Outbreak had completely overcome the regular Scourge. There were no more beasts to block their path.
Still, that meant that the two conscious Hunters only had silence to tide over the trip to Oedon Chapel. There was a Lantern there which meant that Chase could get everyone the medical aid that they so desperately needed after the fight.
And Chase had another problem to deal with.
All of a sudden, the Roidmude lurched back, and he struggled not to drop Eileen. The headaches weren't as bad when the Bloody Beast was alive, but they still hurt.
"What's the matter?" Djura asked, his now uncovered eyes were alight with concern.
"It's nothing. I'm just imagining something dead." Chase said as he took a step forward. "Don't ask me to stop, we need to get to Oedon Chapel to recover. I don't trust the Church. Not after what its creations did to the Bloody Beast."
Djura frowned at his mission statement. "You do realize that you sound just like me? Maybe you should consider a break as well?"
Chase almost tripped over himself at that remark. Distrusting the Church, barely surviving an endless tide of abominations, utterly exhausted mentally…and he had never been so tempted by the word 'break' in his life. Had that fight turned him into Djura?
What would constantly giving into rage end up doing to him in the end?
"There's no time," Chase pushed aside the temptation. "We still need to pick up Alfred."
"I can pick up Alfred," Djura said. "You can rest in that chapel. With the beasts gone and the incense burning there should be enough for a break."
"Not with those rogue Hunters. Not unless I stay in the Dream…" Chase mused. Gehrman had said that time passed more slowly there. A chance to sleep all the mental scars away…
"So you're a part of the Dream…" Djura's voice reminded Chase of a recording. Out of place and in the past. It reminded him of Eileen. "Take its benefits while you can. Pace yourself. You'll need it.
Chase felt his mind burn again from the apprehension and stress and began to become more partial to Djura's opinion. He let out a groan at that realization.
"You hurting too much?"
"No. Just realized that I was probably thinking like you."
"I don't think I'm that bad."
"No. Not like that, when I first saw you, I disliked you because I stopped Eileen from executing a Hunter with the Scourge and everything went wrong. I felt I had to take responsibility for what I did, so after his mutation I killed him."
"That sense of responsibility is dangerous. You are like me." Djura mused. "You feel like everything that goes wrong is all your fault. That you should have been better. You have to be smarter, faster, more efficient. But you can't. You get angrier and angrier and just keep piling up the bodies. I saw where that path lead."
"Then I got caught up in a big outbreak, became part of an elite team of Hunters sent out by the Church, Church influence escalates the threat, and I end things all so angry, crawling off to heal what's left. I'm like the man I hate, and I realize that being like you isn't so bad. What does that mean?" Chase finished Djura's monologue.
Djura's next words surprised Chase. "You're not like me, Chase."
"Because I'm not human?"
"No! You're clearly young for your species, you haven't reached your full potential yet, and you just need a break. You've got quite a ways to go before you become a person like me…" Djura's voice trailed off as he let out a low hum, his face in deep thought as he walked forward while carrying his apprentice. To Chase's surprise he then smiled and extended his fist outward.
"Peace?" the Powder Keg asked.
And for that moment, the pain in Chase's body and mind vanished and he had his fist bump against Djura's own. "Peace."
This just made Chase think even more. Him and Djura were alike. He didn't truly know the Powder Keg's past, but he had clearly had gone through what the Roidmude was going through now. His new found rage had carried him to victory twice now…but when would it turn against him? Where had it come from? What could it turn him into? His dislike of Djura was biased but the man was clearly scarred and Chase did not want to end up carrying the same wounds.
Then his headache came back.
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After entering Oedon Chapel and putting Eileen down, Chase walked up to the Lantern while returning to his human guise and entered the Hunter's Dream.
Chase opened his eyes and stared at the mysterious demesne's full moon. The only truly safe place in all of Yharnan, given to him through a Contract he could not remember signing.
Still, maybe Gehrman knew something about what he just saw.
Chase walked up the stairs to the Hunter's Workshop to meet his mentor. To his surprise he found that Gehrman was already waiting for him.
"The Messengers informed the Doll of the outbreak and your triumph. I must admit to being impressed. Persevering against that while so raw is a great feat." For the first time Gehrman wasn't so flippant. His eyes were focused on Chase, and the Roidmude couldn't help but note how he made Djura look so young in comparison.
Chase read through the lines. "You know what happened to the Bloody Beast." He then clutched his head from another headache.
"It appears that such a clash is a blessing in disguise. This will prepare you for what will come later. Now take advantage of your boons and rest. Sleep will help you acclimate to what you saw."
"But what about-?"
Gehrman wheeled himself closer to Chase and raised a hand to put it on his shoulder. "Rest. I will have spare gear and supplies ready for you when you awaken. You only have one life. Don't waste it when you can recover."
Chase's headache intensified and the Roidmude decided to listen to his mentor. He managed to shamble down the steps to a tree trunk and closed his eyes to sleep, going offline to allow his systems to process what he saw.
Sleep was empty but peaceful.
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Djura watched Chase exit the Dream now wearing a new trench coat lined with an impressive stash of blood vials as well as three sets of folded clothes under his arm. His stride was also much easier. He must have met the Doll.
"You're looking much better," Briner pointed out.
"Gehrman forced me to take a nap, take advantage of the Dream." Chase explained. "I wanted to rush, despite the time dilation, but he was very insistent."
Djura nodded, that was a big advantage of being a Hunter of the Dream: the ability to take a break with no consequence.
Too bad about all the downsides. He'd quit for a reason. He couldn't have handled dying again.
"Gehrman also had copies of your and Eileen's outfits for some reason," the Roidmude's voice had an air of suspicion around it as he prepared to inject a blood vial into Alfred. But he didn't press.
Kid's too nice for his own good, the Djura thought. …I used to be like that.
The Executors wounds were by far the most grievous of their rag-tag band and did not awaken even after more injections from Chase's resupply but he was stable and would awaken soon.
Chase then moved on to Briner next, and then to Eileen while handing some vials to Djura who quickly got up to examine the chapel backroom; an old looter standby, and finding some sturdy chairs.
Soon, Alfred was wrapped up in a blanket on a gurney while the four other Hunters were enjoying the simple pleasure of sitting down.
"You shouldn't spoil me like this, I won't want to get up if I sit here too long," Eileen said.
Djura merely smirked. "This is merely one of the befits of retirement,"
"I'm not quitting, Djura." Eileen said flatly.
"I don't want another fight," Chase cut in, causing Eileen to look at him strangely. "So I think we should move onto a more important topic. What did that thing turn into?"
Eileen immediately regained her composure. "What happened after everyone else got knocked out by that explosion?"
"The Bloody Beast ate one last Church Servant and it…mutated into something. It had tentacles…and eyes. So many eyes. It hurt to just look at it." Chase recalled the horror, his expression successfully emoting the horror at what he saw.
"I can vouch that he didn't imagine it. I looked at that thing's corpse and my head was set afire. There was nothing human in that thing by that time Chase killed it."
Briner almost fell out of his seat in shock at his master's words. "Master Djura, you didn't see that thing as human? What happened to it?"
Chase was the one who answered. "I think it was because of whatever was done to make those Church Servants. It ate too many of them and overdosed."
Eileen surveyed the group of Hunters that surrounded her. "We'll need to report to the Church then recover the corpse for study. But before that we should rest first," she decided. "Chase might have the benefit of the Dream but the rest of us are still fatigued even with blood healing. So I think all of us should enjoy this little moment of peace for as long as we can."
"Then either you are Chase will be the ones to do it. Briner and I have our own things to do." Djura said.
"Retreating back into retirement?" Chase asked, sounding almost sad.
"Not yet. We also have to track down the punk who started this whole mess and round up any of the stragglers now that they're lost their leader." Djura then narrowed his brow in thought, looking Chase in the eye, what he was going to say next was going to hurt his stubborn pride, but would be worth it. "But if you ever run into too much trouble, don't be afraid to come to Briner and I to ask for help."
Briner was now even more confused. "What happened while I was out? Did the Bloody Beast's corpse somehow make you madder, Master?"
Djura's face returned to being his grouchy frown as he was reminded of the other reason for the olive branch. He had thought things over and looking at the Bloody Beast's mutated corpse reminded him of the feeling he got on his Night of the Hunt when the moon turned blood red. Combined with Chase being the newest Hunter of the Dream, it meant something was coming, and he couldn't alienate potential allies.
"No, I'm just being considerate to a green Hunter. But I'm not going to go running off guns blazing to kill people wantonly. Now, for our next order of business.
Djura then turned back to Chase, his expression serious. "Chase, I also think you should know more about the man who caused the Bloody Beast to escape. I think he might be familiar to you."
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Maurice and Robert walked down the streets to where they heard the explosion, hoping that there would be something left to salvage.
"Ohhhhhh," Robert groaned, holding the line had been far too strenuous. "Talk about no good deed going unpunished; now I know why you shouldn't do them."
Maurice awkwardly walked side by side with his partner, nodding in agreement. "If I hadn't had that wire saved up we'd have died for nothing. This mess better not have been a waste of time."
"It's the risks of gambling, Maurice."
Maurice rubbed his forehead in exasperation; his partner wouldn't stop saying that. "Okay, fine. This wasn't some brilliant scheme. It was a big gamble. I admit it. Happy now?"
"Verily!" Robert said in a cheery manner.
"Now that you've proven yourself right help me see if there's any prize left for us."
Robert waved his hands. "Right, no need to think that I'll slack off…Oh."
"Hmmm…what is it?"
The two Yahar'gul Hunters had found the leveled building that held the main entrance to Old Yharnam…and what was in front of it.
"It has tentacles…just like what that Church Hunter used against us. What does this mean, Maurice?"
"It means that we've reached our quota! My plan worked!" Unlike Chase, the two Hunters looked on the Bloody Beast's mutated form without any effect on their mental health.
"And you just admitted that you were gambling!"
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Lavinia skulked through the Cathedral Ward's streets, trying their best to not be seen despite the Old Yharnam beasts' complete loss of coherency. That meant that the Hunters she had gathered had had a successful Hunt. Which in turn meant that some of them were alive, which in turn meant that she was in very deep water. There was no doubt in her mind that the Yahar' gul Hunters were still after her or that the pawns she had gathered would want answers she refused to give.
Lavinia nervously repositioned her sheathed sword. Tonight was going to be very difficult because of her episode.
As she walked forward she felt her boot step on something small, but hard. She looked down, it looked like some oddly shaped carriage. It had four wheels and was covered in bulky black steel. Some kind of toy.
Then to Lavinia's surprise, the small black thing moved on its own and drove off.
Then there was a sound that resembled a low roar, and a something riding a two-wheeled mechanical contraption covered in blood drove up to her before stopping.
The man got of the machine, and removed his helmet, revealing an ethnicity that looked very similar to that new Hunter's as well as a similar style of clothing.
"Finally. You must be the one my friends have been leading me too. Tell me…do you have a purpose…and do you know mine?"
The man reached into his metal steed, and pulled out a very large black gun. It was large enough to need two hands to hold, made of blocky black metal, with an indent on its back that Lavinia would think one would hold ammo. "My friends tell me to use force this time if you don't answer my questions, just to let you know."
He then cocked the weapon, and yellow bolts of super-heated electricity surged through the weapon.
Finally finished this chapter. Yeah, this took way too long and I have no excuse. Writing this chapter was a pain and I'm still not completely sure about it. More seriously, I've really pushed to finish this chapter so the first arc of Blood Hunt could be finished and I constantly felt my enthusiasm slip away each time I did it. In light of that I've decided that I'm going to be starting a new project while this one goes on hiatus.
