C48: Rematch of a lifetime
-------------------------------------------------------------
Upon my return to central Yharnam, I find that behind me are only the smoldering ruins of Iosefka's clinic. One of the great monuments to Yharnam's society had collapsed but its foundations remain as long as the actual person remains alive and sound of mind.
Smoke continues to plum out from the ladder exit I had used to arrive from Forbidden Woods. Even though the fire had long ended, the repercussions of my actions continue to show. So let's set a new trend, being invisible to my sight.
To showcase this new trend, I'm gonna head on over to the right side path and parry the charging huntsman before stabbing my fist into his chest and pulling out his soul. Forever damning him to nonexistence. And thus forever out of my sight and mind. Very peaceful interaction, the design is very human.
With the soul slayer title still active, I get quite a good bundle of echoes
{+7,207 echoes gained for permanently slaying a soul. +1 to soul slayer tittle: 1/25]
"Hmm, I expected only around something related to 48 but I guess that is just the difference with and without all of my current runes and harvest skill. Tho, il I should return to the Young Hunter title to keep raising my skills better" I mumble to myself as I continue introducing this trend to the residents here.
The second got a kick in the head since he was mopping about on the floor, he got up quickly in a huff and attacked right away. Shoot, plunge, delete
Shield guy, wait five hours for him to do something, shoot, plunge, delete.
Group of three, attract one with a pebble and then repeat the process. Shoot, plunge, delete. Repeat three times and you're solid.
Just reaching the central fire pit area, I find out that I am likely to reach the next level of my soul slayer skill just by doing this one early game area. [16/25]. Having cleared out the executioner hidden behind some boxes and the two huntsmen by the ladder as well as the final two around the fire pit area.
Due to how weak all the enemies here are, even if I do get hit and my rune damage multiplier kicks in and chunks my health, I won't actually die but that doesnt mean I can afford to take it easy even if a single one of my dash can spin three times around any of these pathetic huntsman.
I first take out the two gunmen by sneaking up to them with my dash while they were unaware. Plunge, delete. I then tried to take out the dog the same way but got the parry too early and it just died to my gun. Skill issue.
I finished off the remaining huntsmen here as well as another group of three that had been patrolling while I planned out my course of action.
[Soul Slayer title has leveled up: +5 greater sense, +4 harvest. Passive: +3 visceral.]
With a free level to my visceral, I have a slightly easier time at extracting the next few souls as I realize that to get the dogs, I have to either buy a lower grade pistol or find some weaker alternative. I chose the alternative, not sure how weak it is since all the data for the huntsmen's shitty rifles only says "undefined" in every section. This tells me that it does have scaling but not what type. So I will give it a try.
Finding the area past the fountain. I spot one of the three dogs in this area and throw a pebble at it to lure it to me. Having made myself tense, I prepare the dumbass musket and wait until the dog is nearly upon me with its mouth open wide that I finally shoot and to no surprise. Its head is blown straight off.
"I don't think I can parry the dogs at my level. Such a shame for the puppos." I remark to myself as I head back and take care of the brute banging on the door towards the fire pit area. I repeat with the brute down the ladder from Gascoigne's house where his daughter was. Going back up and up to the bridge. I clear the two scourge beasts before heading deeper and finding the house. I clear out the four here, one near the entrance and three inside. It was pretty tricky to get the wheelchair guy so I just backstabbed him.
Making my return to the lamp after taking out the one huntsman guarding the path. I take a few minutes break to digest my gains as I'm only at 12/50 for my new soul slayer target.
Honestly there is not much left of central Yharnam. Primarily the sewer area with the waterboarded corpses, birds and one pig. Some guys on the bridge to Gascoignes arena as well as the boat house having four more but that is only a small handful.
"I've pretty much cleared the whole usable resources of the people here in Central Yharnam. Probably the closest best place to actually progress further would be Old Yharnam but that requires me to share the details with my brother and let him finally retire. " I think to myself of all the remaining enemies I could potentially riposte which is not many. At most I would likely reach halfway to the next level.
I clear the two brutes off the side of the building before properly returning to the bridge, 'it's time to do this'.
I think as I begin to optimize my thinking, remembering all that had happened back then. Back when I entered that inescapable darkness which led to my death. Back then, when fear was my only prerogative to ensure my survival.
Back then, when I was weak and frail, incapable of doing anything.
A reckless fool.
Yet still a hunter.
Brain dead sure, but a hunter nontheless.
And as a friend once said.
A hunta must hunt.
So I will.
Slaying the last brute and the few crows before the fog gate. I don't pay anything any mind as I slam my head against the half solid wall as I begin to phase through it. Only to be met with murky eternal darkness.
The system gives its usual reminders.
[Level 25 Cleric Beast. Possessing skills Lightless Night/Free Roam and Tempered Beast, Ravager.]
I understand that somehow the beast had gotten stronger and thus got a new skill but it won't change anything at this point.
SWISH
I dodge out of the way of the incoming claws as my tracking skill detected the beast only once it got within a few feet of me. Which means I know where it is now, the outline of its death made manifest to me.
I swing my quasi +8 saw cleaver at the Cleric beast as I activate Overwhelming to increase my damage in exchange for a big chunk of stamina while activating the weapon echo but not the shatter echo as that would completely drain me.
I slam against the beasts leg before dodging away to a relatively safe distance but still within the range of tracking to make sure I don't lose 'sight' of it.
Cr-ack
I can briefly hear a miniscule crack from the leg as it seems the echo did well, it's not broken yet but it's progress. The darkness prevents me from seeing it's health so I cant tell how much of it's health it loses.
Nevertheless, I won't rush, I will remain calm and steady to ensure my victory.
WOOSH. Dashing in with SoP, I swing at it's arm with another series of echoes from my weapon which produce another crack and barely dodge a back hand from the beast.
Dashing backwards, I rest to regain my lost stamina when I notice the beast jumped up.
"It's gonna jump on me!" I say excitedly as if it was fact before I regain my calm as I close my eyes but tense my body. When the beast reenters the five foot range. I dash out of the way before dashing back in. I activate Overwhelming, chaos step and Shatter echo.
Firstly, dashing back in, I swing upwards at it's head with all my strength. I primarily clipped it's chin but that was enough and in fact the optimal situation as my swing lifted me up sideways where I kicked the beast in the head while activating shatter echoes and chaos step together. Since my foot is not a 'weapon', I could not pair it with the weapon echo too for greater result but since kicking doesnt take that much stamina. The result is instead far more egregious.
HUNDREDS OF KICKS connect with the head of the Cleric Beast. With over 500 stamina. 130 of which was used to activate overwhelming for the lift force of my own swing. Then another 50-80 for chaos step and the previous dashes. I had just a bit over 250 stamina to kick the beast. If a single kick only cost one or two points then that is easily 125-250 kicks to the head.[1]
For all intents and purposes, The shatter echo can only do the kick ten times, but chaos step was involved. Which means that chaos step was replicated each of the ten times. While my own body is not affected by the chaos, the echo is not part of my body. Thus it gained various mutations just as fire stomps, decaying feathers, various other elemental strikes but in the second to last echo. There was a multiplication effect which spread out that last echo for another few dozen times which produced more chaos steps kicks.
I actually had to pause in the middle of the fight as the beast kept shifting back and forth near the edge of my vision, only the repetitive sound of the stomp of my foot to it's head being heard along with the beasts cries and groans of pain as it finally ended and slumped down due to being stunned by the injuries it received.
The darkness melts away in my eyes as the beast is left completely defenseless. Likely some sort of light or anti darkness effect had randomly been 'kicked' into drive allowing me to see as I dash forward and with overwhelming once more and a Halo above my head. I take the plunge!
TSZZZZ
This is a burn unlike any soul has given me before spreads to my hands. I almost feel that the halo couldn't keep up but thankfully I had gotten the multiple lake runes on me as the frenzy resistance somehow reduces the damage to my soul. How that works is unknown to me at this moment but with adrenaline flowing through my veins, my [junkie] pain resistance provides an extra helping of hp regen alongside my weapons.
I face a resistance like never before, as if someone was grabbing the soul from the exact opposite direction, creating a tug of war with the Cleric Beasts soul. Even the newly gained Tremor effect only helps a bit as I just keep pulling.
My health drops below half with an entire third of my health sealed away due to soul injury, that pain, my resistance can't do anything again. It's akin to an electric bolt to the heart as a cold feeling spreads throughout my weapon, weakening me but not completely. I haven't even pulled out halfway of the soul.
Thankfully the other effect of tremor ensures the beast can't just tear me apart while I pull. To help me deal with the beast, I once again summon the shadow whips, but not only to weaken the beast but also to use an extra set of hands to consume vials and stab them into me.
I'm already around 20% corrupted by the curse so I expect this to hurt. I was so focused that I forgot to take a mutagen vial beforehand as one blood vial after another seeps into my body. All my blood effectively burned away by the burn on my hand as the blood from the vials replaced it.
"JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY" I curse the beast in rage as I momentarily increase the severity of the attacks from the shadow whips. My actions cause it to slip up a bit as I get a huge chunk of progress forward when I pause due to a sensation in my body.
A sensation that I can also feel from the soul of the cleric beast as well.
[COK: 40%]
Right, it's the curse. This poor bastard was cursed just like me but likely to a lesser degree. But the retard consumed my blood, thus corrupting his soul further. The burn is not damage to my soul but the feedback from his own as it burns in his cursed decrepit form of a monster.
"Poor pathetic church hunter. I don't give a shit. You fucking killed me you sack of horse shit. Chased me around like a fucking dog. Ill add more to your misery if given the chance but I rather not have to even think that you exist at all. SO JUST FUCKING DIE BITCH" I headbutt the beast and it recoils from the blow, allowing me to pull out more of it's soul until it's finally peeking out of it's body.
I see this works and combined with the loss of sensation and spiritual and physical pain im feeling, I choose to continue doing what I felt was working.
So I kept headbutting the beast. Time after time, most certainly increasing the amount of brain damage my little nugget had untouched.
BANG BANG kah
After delivering my nth headbutt, I suddenly feel queasy as my organs flip inside me. A harrowing sensation spreads throughout my body as it takes all my will to continue pulling while my body involuntarily throws up blood. It as if a constant stream as even the cleric beasts half melted face gets coated in this.
[COK: 80%]
I begin to see illusions as my mind falls heavy but my body continues doing what it was. I see my childhood, both of them, side by side like contrasting mirrors.
One shows me in the orphanage alongside my 'brothers and sisters' before we were adopted by Gehrman. The other shows me growing up with my family in rural locations, language issues, and constant harassment from other children my age. Primarily sticking to books and music throughout the years as a coping mechanism, escapism.
[COK: 84%]
Both have their own struggles, yet the end result was the same, the rage. One from the madness and injustice of beasts and blood while the other from his own mind as he internalized the hatred and frustration.
One wadded through mud, guts and blood to reach a fishing hamlet where he witnessed atrocities beyond human comprehension. The other is lost in his own mind and falling under the pressure of society, expectations and his own wishes struggling every day just to convince himself that he will be okay.
[COK: 88%]
Both soon fall, one to the claws of a mutated beast and the other to the scalpel of a doctor in a hospital.
[COK: 90%]
I realize both are me but yet neither is. I am pieces of both these lives brought together….in a new life. That is why I have no name. That is why I must wade through the mire to get a new life. One of my own choosing.
As the two mirrors fade, a new mirror appears. One that shows the life of a boy that I know nothing about.
Growing up in a low end family, he had taken it upon himself to enter the church to acquire food for him and his parents and siblings. His devotion proved strong but it lead to a life of recklessness.
This came about when volunteers were allowed to join the hunt, become hunters. He was amongst those who chose to join. Believing his actions to be righteous and loyal to the church. He had subject himself to various torturous experiments, going mad on blood before being set free like a dog to hunt.
Faces flash across the mirror one by one as the full list of atrocities is made clear. This was no foul dog but a true beast, made of men. Eventually he had been given some sedatives to help regain his mind but he was locked into a state of reliance.
Nevertheless, the churches expectations of him continued as he was placed in charge of an inquisition team that was then assigned as guards for a certain hamlet. He oversaw and guarded various experiments on the townsfolk as they melted, squid-ified or became blobs of fleshy gel.
[COK: 95%]
Then it was finally time for him to leave but he too now wore a curse for his atrocities. His crime was to continue growing mad. His body deteriorated over time until he turned into nothing more than a beast.
A cleric Beast.
"YOU MOTHER FUCKER. " As I regain my mind, return to the moment, my hand still gripping that infernal soul, having dragged the great majority of it with only a small piece left.
[COK: 96%]
"I don't care about any of that bullshit that you just showed me, I only know one thing. YOU KILLED MY FUCKING LITTLE SISTER. YOU ABSOLUTE SHIT STAIN OF A WASTE OF MORTAL SIN" I curse and curse the cleric beast over and over again as the memories show to me the end of one of my siblings, one who was imparted to the church on good faith by my pathetic father in hopes of curing her of her blood sickness or at least keeping her study.
[COK: 97%]
She was at the clocktower, another one of the self proclaimed saintesses who offered their blood under the pathetic mind control of the blood ministrations of the church.
"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO HER? SHE WAS INNOCENT" My rage allows me to regain feeling in my left hand as I begin to clobber the cleric beast over and over again.
[COK: 98%]
"I WALKED PAST HER, SO MANY TIMES. HOW COULD I NOT HAVE NOTICED HER?" Tears stream down my face as endless regret fills me, my fist still slamming time after time against the beasts cracking skull.
[COK: 99%]
My right hand has finally wrenched the soul out of the cleric beast. I see the face of that man again, the one who did unspeakable things in that tower and even outside of it. Nobody was safe from him except his clergy.
"no, no no no. You do not deserve to be erased. I want you to continue to exist. Continue to suffer for your actions." I say as I slam the soul back into the cleric beasts body. An aura of blue covers the beast as a hint of it's original mind surfaces yet the first thing it sees only brings a chill up it's spine.
[COK: 99.9%]
A man with a saw cleaver in the right hand and an axe in the left, poised to strike as the first thing that goes is his left arm. His teeth are clenched and fang like as his murderous gaze presses down on the kneeling beast.
"AGHHHHH"
The beast's cries spread throughout the city as the misery it had inflicted on others is not inflicted upon it. Time after time, strike after strike, meticulously planned as limbs are crippled, broken and bloodied until they were torn off and further mutilated before it's eyes.
Yet it soon stopped. The moon hung high in the sky as if a new sun. The bridge now coated in blood reflects my appearance. My darkness, my cruelty, my beasthood. Yet I cared not. Only that the beast before me survived with only a sliver of health. I had chosen to psychologically torture it whilst feeding it vials of blood to maintain it's health. That had ended up using up my entire supply of vials.
My eyes rarely move away from the beast before me as I vented the full extent of my rage yet more lingers behind as the scene replays in my head of this monsters cruelty. I was not done with it. I would have it suffer more. I will treat it as the beast it is and hunt it yet not for my duty, not for any justice, but for my own pleasure.
"Run and hide, I will find you. Your misery has only started." I hold a bold hunter's mark and crush it in my hand before consuming the token.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Word Count = 3614
Clearing out Central Yharnam properly before facing off an old Nemesis.
[1] Ain't that a kick in the head. By Dean Martin