C69: Giving These Hunters a Fucking Pounding
5/13/26
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My leftover duties was only to finish up the quest to the vile blood queen by delivering the leftover corpse of the clearly 'adult' hydra as well as a few eggs I had collected from that area. They inform me that the eggs have a low chance of birthing a similar creature as they all turn into snakes instead but ce'la'vie as I don't really care.
I had offered to provide the leftover chunks that got blown off but after hearing that they soaked a bit into the swamp water there, they kindly refused. I got my payment and the final piece of the quest reward was given to me. They had no further offers for me and thus I took my leave. Returning to the dream one last time as I prepared for something special.
I spot the Doll kneeling before an unmarked gravestone. I approach her but not to speak to her and make use of the extreme amount of echoes I still have, no, I touch the tombstone and teleport myself to the hunters Nightmare.
I had not made much progress since I was last here, only violently killing that one hunter after nearly going mad that I was brought here against my will again. This time, I'm ready and I have a score to settle…. properly.
First order of business was to leave the half broken chapel that doesnt even have a way to central yharnam nor to Old Yharnam. Instead it has the shortcut staircase leading up yet that is fully blocked off by stone, as such the proper way forward is to walk up the side path that winds around.
But im not interested in that just yet. No, I have something else that I desire first. Something that I wasn't able to accomplish in my mad state even though I already had the skill back then.
I shall rend the soul of the foul mad hunter that tore my head off. I know I tortured the poor boy before in a mad rage but that was letting it off too softly in my opinion. I killed it too softly. I should have cut off it's limbs with my hunter axe when It was still alive. Though I do still believe the drop kick I gave it last time was well deserved.
I pause as I analyze myself with my cosmology skill and realize that the very air is having an effect on me as it tries to perpetrate the CoK further, driving my basic rage into full blown madness once again. It also doesnt help that my percentage cant fall below 40% in this location, so even if I get hit, I can't properly heal without risking myself to madness.
Im able to barely use cosmology to resist this effect but it does affect how well I hunt. Though I do find that Hunters Mind does help a lot, though it comes at a cost of making me more efficient and thus I cant properly enjoy myself as I kick the maddened hunter in the knee, dropping him down for a visceral and I immediately rip out and churn his soul apart.
Though as the hunter does, he seems to hold a peaceful expression, as if one of gratitude. I don't like that. Not at all, I wish he would suffer more but I can only dismiss it and begin my trek forward.
My next encounter is 2 beasts walking towards a mad hunter who clicks his weapon and slashes them in half in one blow before noticing me approach and tries to do the same but I just step back and avoid the giant whip blade entirely before he clicks it back to normal before clicking it again like an idiot.
In that whole time, I just bumrushed him, hitting his knee to the point it bent and he was knocked down before me. I just stomped his head in with ease, I then tore out his soul for the hell of it. He couldn't make any expression, not without a face to show anything with.
Got myself some vials and a frenzied coldblood (9) in an area that overlooked the circular zone which had led to the grand Cathedral, I was still on the elevated stone path at this moment. I originally take the path right from where I got the coldblood as it leads me past the circle zone and straight to the top of the staircase where typically a few church servants are with scythes and guns.
Along the way I encountered 2 rabid dogs that seemed to have been skinned, so I guess I'll call them skinned dogs now. All bloody and red as they charge me but I have no fear as I slap them around to the ground, only to alert another mad hunter at the top of this path that was overlooking the area of where the lever to the shortcut gate was. This one had the same weapon as before and thus I easily dispatched him, his soul torn apart. I could properly see now that he has a peaceful smile on his face, akin to giving thanks. This is quite unnerving for me as I'm very rarely thanked for my work, even before in my youth that was rare.
I see crows down below but I don't jump down as that would be reckless of me. Instead I turn around and take out the hunter standing near the top of these stairs. Who, upon noticing me, fires his modified gun which shoots twice in one go at me. I yoink it out of his hands as he looks shocked. I then grab him by the leg and lift him up over me before slamming him on the faceless lamp statue, breaking his spine along the way before tearing his soul out.
Taking the modified blunderbuss which is much heavier than normal, I store it away and then explore around, taking out another dog, getting alot of vials, bullets and even finding a big bitch with a boom hammer that I outright got vermin from after he smacked me once with it. It hurt like shit.
I learned something very strange along the way when I encountered that hammer hunter, the beasts here are more scared of me than I am of them. I'm not really scared of them in the first place, not like the labyrinth sage, but they literally huddle together with their arms in front of their faces.
…
"Are they the humans and we're the beasts in this situation? Is this some sort of euphemism for the hunters being the real villains?" I take out the blood drunk hunters eye which I believe was used to bring me here in the first place…yet I still have it.
"If my guess is true, what did we do?" I ask but then I'm assaulted by a ravenous headache, I see the visions of a dream where I fought on the beach, I see the hunters beside me but I don't remember what I fought.
"What did I fight?" I cant help but question myself as the headache finally fades after a few minutes. I leave the beasts alone as I collect the beast cutter on the floor near the hammer guy. I then drop down and fight the hunter in the circle area as a few beasts stay away from me like usual but I find three of them surround me and try to jump at me. I sidestep two from similar directions and block the last with my saw cleaver.
As they keep attacking me, I take one down after the other as it's just a tiny bit out of a single hit unless I use an extra hit or skill to boost my damage a bit. Of course I don't really mind as I take the three of them down. Yet from their corpses, a gray fog, unlike the echoes which is an alternating blue and red, flows into me.
Part of the fog breaks off and thus only a piece from all three that I killed flows into me.
[Curse of Kosm: 40->41%]
"Fuck" I curse as I realize that actually killing them would boost my curse score, I can already feel a hint of rage and madness flowing through me but it the current boost, it can only grind against the hunters mind skill.
I finish exploring and collecting a crap ton of vials before walking up the entirety of the stairs, killing birds which is not illegal here and opening the shortcut door. Since I already perma killed the hunter here, I have no actual obstacle to use this shortcut anymore. The birds themselves are too slow and worthless for me to actually kill and thus I just walk past them on my way to the top.
Yet Im stopped by a small horde of beasts who walk down the stairs, blocking my path. Of course it's for the best as I have to run away a moment later. Afterall, I don't know if i can take a rolling ball of burning yarn rolling down the stairs from the grand cathedral itself.
The beasts are killed by the ball and I'm certainly not targeted by the grey fog so that's nice. I got the echoes but none of the blame. I slowly walk up and see the two hunter at the top are opening the door to the cathedral, only to be blocked by a church giant…"thats not a church giant. What in the everloving tentacle fuck is that shit?"
I see the giant butcher the two hunters by slamming a giant axe on the ground as it constantly releases purple energy and emits a bell ringing sound that blasts the two away until it lifts it up and slams the butt of the handle to the ground to unleash a wave that kills them both.
I eye the creature to guage it's habits and I find that getting anywhere close to the top where the second stairs are is a no go in it's books as it would rush down towards me. Of course im only gauging it to understand what I should do if Im ever boxed in with one next time around.
For this time, I just go for the dash and slash technique, it is too slow to hit me but Im wary of how it's attacks deal splash damage. I try to control it with cosmology but nothing works until I think of air and at least learn i can contain the sound waves to it's own weapon, nullyfing the bell entirely as the beast-kin is too slow otherwise to hit me unless it just shoves it's weapon forward with the blade down, bunting me with the handle.
That was it's only way to hit me and it hurt quite a bit. As such, I gave it a great death by overkilling it and gaining my health back. With only a tiny bit lost.
From here I continue forward into the cathedral, only to find a burning cleric beast atop the altar itself. One of it's arms hands loosely. I collect it and get a system notice.
[Quest Key Item detected: eye pendant obtained]
"Okey dokey" I simply state as it vanishes from my hand by the system itself.
I walk my way back out and after getting some molotov cocktails from the right side, I then proceed left where I spotted a giant tunnel leading down. At the end is a path forward blocked by a distant mad hunter with turrets set up that shoot 3 bullets each. I am forced to bob and weave between the stones jutting, seemingly, out of the floor.
I do this about 4 to 5 times before getting close enough that the turrets can't be redirected towards me but a wrong misstep would have me full of bullet holes. As such the one who I thought was a hunter but instead was a hood covered man townsman approaches me with a cleaver in hand. I regular cleaver mind you. I simply grab his head and slam it into the stones I was hiding behind. I do this and crush his head, paying no mind to his soul or anything, he likely deserved it if the current set up was any indicator.
Moving down, I find a few more townsmen crowding around at the behest of a boom hammer hunter who I take care of with greater ease than before, only just a bit annoyed that these townsmen keep throwing bombs at me.
I made sure they drunk the entire molotov cocktail before I set them on fire once the boom hammer hunter was dead. Heck, I set them on fire with his boom hammer, I then chucked it aside as I would only settle for one I naturally picked up then these which had their cooties all over it.
Twin blood stone shards more and enter a building that looks completely similar to the shortcut area in Central Yharnam leading back to Gilbert's house. I took out a few townsman and even thought that there was an old man in the wheelchairs but quickly found out it was a trap as I heard the beeping.
I yeeted the wheelchair out of the way rather than running myself. It blew up and the walls took no damage at all. I instead got to lay claim to my own boom hammer as prophesized for myself a minute ago.
I then took the left exit where it is the shortcut back to central Yharnam. Yet passing the gates, I instead find a full beasted out guy with giant claws on his hands that i find out very quickly is ng+5 cleric beast level tanky as even with my absurd stats, I still couldn't do much damage to him.
Maybe I could have dealt more if took out the tontritus but I felt challenged (intellectually…and physically) to beat him down with my basic weapon for some reason. The fucker had the gall to dodge my followup attacks and all my gun shots but I was able to finally land shot on him as he attacked, that stun him and thus a quick riposte with a soul tear and the hair just poofs off of him.
Then I see why I did what I did, It's Gilbert himself. I wondered by I didn't see him at all with the still sane but half asleep Iosefka, he had turned into a beast or perhaps all the incense had an effect and only partially turned him before making him so much deadlier.
I should have known that he wasn't safe there as Iosefka was the only one with a different fate. For now though, I collect his body as well as the Firing hammer badge he somehow had before returning to the home.
[Piercing rifle, Delayed Molotov, Delayed Rope Molotov are now available in the shop]
"Naruhado Naruhado. I still don't get how he got this badge but im not complaining"I return to the other side of the house and find myself standing before a blood river, granted it's stagnant blood so is it closer to a blood pond filled with giant insects or a blood lake?
I see the path before me pretty barren so I take the secondary path leading to the same place but higher as I collect the old Hunter top hat, it's like a regular top hat but the brim is curved or maybe bent. I cant help but change to it momentarily as I say "yee haw, m'lady" with two different tones of speech before switching back. Having gotten my fun, I inspect the threat before me.
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Word Count = 2711