C70: Monsters all around me
Trying out a new writing style. I'll do it a bit this chapter and next chapter and hopefully some of y'all will drop a comment if you like it or not. A fresh twist, otherwise ill continue like I did before.
For more context, it's AI editing my work but not all the results they give are to my liking, while others are, mostly helping with adjectives to help better describe something.
Very useful but limited as only the first half of this chapter has this feature.
For some reason it 'violated' guidelines for the second half of the chapter . So I got what I could and then peaced out before writing it my way.
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I began by observing the state of the area before me as I pocketed the Old Hunter top hat.
The river of blood did not flow. It simply existed.
A swollen artery split open beneath a dead world, thick with stagnant blood so dark it reflected nothing. Corpses floated in it shoulder to shoulder, pale limbs tangled together beneath the sluggish crimson surface. Some still twitched. Others opened sightless eyes as if they dreamt beneath the rot.
All but surrounded by unfathomably molded stone that bent and stretched, only seemingly held at bay by the jutting tombstones as it did back in the normal world. And above it all hung the copper stench of old slaughter.
I landed hard after the fall, boots skidding across wet stone before I steadied myself. The hunter hat and mask lightly soaked from the mist drifting off the river. Around me came the clicking chatter of things feeding.
Bloodlickers. About a dozen of them
They crawled along the banks on elongated limbs, their swollen backsides quivering with dark blood sloshing beneath translucent flesh. Mosquito-like proboscises and tendril-like feeders lapped at the stagnant blood and corpses protruding from the ankle high river while they drank greedily, occasionally shuddering in delight.
Disgusting creatures. I smirked at the beasts before me, their mindlessness making them no different than any other prey I have taken down thus far.
The Saw Cleaver snapped open in my right hand with a metallic shriek. On my left, Null growled to life, the heavy chainsaw-broadsword coughing smoke into the cold air.
One bloodlicker raised its head.
Too slow, I dash in with Soliloquy of Power and lash out at the creatures before me. The air shimmered from the force of my speed and the overwhelming force that I brought with me.
The first bloodlicker barely had time to scream before the Saw Cleaver tore through its neck but not before I started dashing again for Null to split another from shoulder to hip.
Blood erupted everywhere as their sacks exploded into geysers of blood, coating me completely. I understand that this happens but not that I have to like being coated in so much blood. I won't be able to get it out of my nose ever again at this rate.
Shaking my head out of my thoughts as I stare down the path I'm taking, I supposedly have only two more bugs to take care of. As such, I get to zoom forward, my arms becoming streaks of murderous light as I cross the shore faster than their malformed minds could comprehend. Cleaver teeth bit into flesh while Null mulched limbs and ribcages apart in sprays of rotten blood.
One creature finally reacted as it had been roaming back and forth. Its bloated abdomen convulsed violently and even shrinks a bit, a tell-tale sign of a projectile coming my way, likely the previously swallowed blood.
My suspicion is confirmed as I twisted sideways just as a glob of thick blood launched toward me like artillery. The poisonous blood exploded against the stone where I had stood moments earlier, hissing violently as noxious fumes rose into the air.
The bloodlicker shrieked. I answered with a bullet to shut it up. Evelyn barked once. Its recoiled in pain. A natural response as even a different body with a similar mind would react to random loud noises as such.
I slowed my walk after having split the last bloodlickers head in half. I then spot a cave just past the carriage leading me to a winding path.
I continue forwards after a moment of rest, only to be shot multiple times as I round the corner in the cave. I met with a maddened hunter with a blade in one hand and a minigun in the other that had been the one who shot me.
I originally recoiled but my night vision allowed me to see a pillar near the entrance that I dash to as I gauge the patterns of my new prey, the hunter seems to desire a direct line of sight on me so that he could continue shooting. No interest in using his sword at all remains.
As such, I simply get behind him and snap his neck like a bobble-head. He collapses, his minigun is up for grabs by the legal reasoning of the world. I take it and then observe my current location. I have two ways forward, one on the left and the other forward. I check forward and it just leads me to a room with some loot that seems to loop back around to the left.
Turning the corner, I spot my first prey, a blood starved beast, it seems to bare no connection to mine or behave like the one from the dungeon as it charges at me. Not like the dungeon one was any threat to me but it's not that they just don't kill themselves from seeing me, even if I am utterly terrifying.
I collected a few blood gems from their bodies but mostly bloodvials for healing. I then took to the other path where I took out 2 more bloodlickers before being shot at by mad hunters on the overlooking bridge, they wield the same rifles or modified blunderbusses as the ones I saw before. I sprint to get under the bridge and clear out the two bloodlickers here too before finding stairs guarded by a crazed villager here. I take him out and then gradually clear out the remaining 4 enemies on the bridge, two of which were hunters and the other two being villagers.
Once that is done, I see that I have three options before me to go to: First is back down and to a cave that is guarded by a big hoard of bloodlickers while the second seems to be some sort of rooftop area, potentially for loot while the last leads downwards from the bridge and into the cathedral before me.
I choose the third path first where I go down a hall to encounter a man with a lamp on his waist. He wears what looks to be the most tattered hunter set ive ever seen as his cloak is torn to ribbons and waving behind him in the small breeze flowing through. He also has strips of cloth wrapped around his eyes.
The unknown man speaks up first, barely giving me a chance to even speak back. "You're a hunter with your sanity, aren't you? Must've taken a wrong turn then, eh? Well, we're more alike than you think. This is the Hunter's Nightmare, where hunters end up when drunk with blood. You've seen them before. Aimless, wandering hunters, slavering like beasts. This is what the poor fools have to look forward to."
"So, don't be brash, turn back before it's too late. Unless, you've something of an interest in nightmares?" He finishes his speech as I just shrug in response.
"I guess, something to do other than wander random catacombs. Though I'm not against putting this place out of business if possible." I respond and the unnamed hunter opposite of me is confused by my words.
"Seriously?" He asks with a baffled expression.
"Seriously" I say with confidence, a comical scene flowing through my head at the irony of the situation.
"You speak as if this could actually be ended by your hand."
The hunter's words carried no mockery behind them. If anything, there was exhaustion buried within the disbelief, the kind earned only through endless nights beneath a blood-red sky, yet also a resolution to see it finally end. The lamp hanging from his waist swayed softly as he shifted his footing, its weak glow barely piercing the suffocating gloom filling the cathedral hall.
"I can," I reaffirmed without the slightest hesitation.
There was no arrogance in the statement from my perspective. It was simply a fact. I had slaughtered things that should not have died long before reaching this nightmare. Beasts, hunters, malformed abominations and creatures pulled from realms far beyond human understanding.
This place bled like everything else. That meant it could be killed.The old hunter studied me silently for several moments before exhaling through his nose.
"Then I thank you ahead of time should that be the case. For now though, I must warn you that this place contains secrets, but beware, secrets remain secret for a reason." His tired eyes drifted toward the distant screams echoing from outside before settling back onto me. "Take care friend. You may call on me should such an occasion come."
"I shall mind my pace," I answered calmly before tilting my head slightly. "And what should I call you in the meantime?"
The hunter gave a small shrug before tapping the strange blade hanging at his side.
"I am Simon," he introduced simply. "And this is my partner."
My eyes immediately drifted toward the weapon. Through the lens of my craftsmanship skill, the design became far more apparent than it likely should have. Hidden hinges rested along the spine while segmented mechanisms sat layered beneath the frame itself
The two of us simply stare at each other for a second in silent respect before I just walked off and opened the door that led back to the initial chapel.
"So there was the shortcut gate itself and now this door. There better be some other lamp sometime soon. I better not beat some boss and then get access to some hidden vent that for some reason is under where the chapel dwellers mat was" I huff a bit in annoyance but shrug a moment later. Yet for the sake of prosperity of my mind, I lift the leftover mat, only to see that it is solid chapel ground and not some hidden hatch.
Sighing, I head back the way I came from, bypassing Simon once more and then checking out the second path that leads to a dead end. A pretty quick one at that as after a few steps to get higher up the path, I only rounded a corner and loot magnet automatically collected the Constables gloves which was stored away.
I take in the view at least…its not bad but feels weird, like something is calling to me in the distance. An ethereal feeling as I think back to the memory of that battle…why can't I remember anything from then.
Shaking my head of this repetitive thought, I once again get up to no good as a crazy thought pops into my head as I see a stack of bloodlickers in a corner together.
What would happen if I used cosmology on the shockwave created by mixing shatter echo with Overwhelming?
My assumption is that I could spread out the blast and damage multiple enemies at once. I wave my hand around a few times, testing out the skill combo and it makes audible blasts but without a proper 'living' target, I couldn't say for sure how well it works.
Thus, I dash forward while jumping to get above the mosquito before slamming down on it's back, breaking it and unleashing the shockwave.
Good new and bad news.
Good news is that it works.
Bad news is that it deals no damage which was the entire point of this exercise.
As such, it is purely a shockwave to knock enemies down, which is still useful mind you. But I already cause tons of enemies to recoil from basic attacks and only bosses resist even one hit from me at this point.
I rub the back of my head as I finish off the remaining three while loot magnet got the constables' pants here. 'Now where is the shirt or whatever is the last part…the garb? Whatever, where is it?' I barely have a chance to mentally ask that question before a line of blood comes at me which I neo duck underneath only to dash away and find that there was one more bug coming from the tunnel.
I choose to overkill him for catching me lacking and I can't have that memorialized for all time's sake. It would be my greatest sin since misbehaving in church as a child.
Continuing on, I move through the tunnel only to find a knocked down tower or something at an angle. There is also a gate from which blood flows, likely the source of the flow.
I move around the tower and find two skinned dogs coming at me, one after the other. Looking in the way they came from, I get a frenzied coldblood (9) that I pocket before turning around and finding a lone mad hunter surrounded by a murder of crows. Not pretty. Taking another sidepath, I find a lone villager who I take out in almost one hit before just spitting on him to death since I can do that with quite a bit of force.
Taking out water I got from the system, I rehydrate like a good boy and then spit on the nearby crows to death. I call that a Frozone as I use Cosmology to freeze my spit mid air and hit them in the eyes.
Of course my actions were in full view of the previously mentioned mad hunter who lifts his gun which is a proper blunderbuss as i take a single step back and see a blanket of pellets come at me, but with my recent superior vision, I can see the obvious plot hole in the spread which I slide into as I approach the man with ease, before slapping the gun out of his hand and slamming it back into his chin.
This sent him flying back and onto his back. I take this chance for a visceral attack and rend his soul like so many before. I primarily focus on the hunters thus far but maybe I should go back for the villagers too to see their reactions.
"Now what the fuck is this?" I can't help but curse as my own reaction kicks into overdrive as I now spot the blood dried husks sticking out from the continuous river of blood. The geography makes no sense because the blood is rising up without being too much actually higher than what it is a bit lower than me. Completely even like jam on bread, scattered sure but evenly scattered.
I for now pay it no mind as I take the ladder up and to the higher level where I spot two options for me. One is a half step down where I spot a mad hunter waiting for me. The other is over a hill to an arena where upon getting a bit closer to the ladder down, I see an executioner in the distance. For now I go to the half step down path. I noticed an old friend of mine, the winch. I adjusted it to allow the chain down a bit so that I could climb back up if for any reason I'm not able to jump back up myself.
I then fall down but don't take damage from the fall due to silver cat reflexes but it still seems a way off from getting more levels but for now i have bigger worries as some sort of smoke envelops the enemy hunter as he approaches me with a variant of the saw cleaver. It might have been a good trick but I already long tested out all my hunter tools and I know he is just using a hunters bone to make himself blurry when dashing or dodging.
As such, I just use the physical differences between us to grab him by the neck and slam him down into the ground for another visceral.
I then look around and get a vermin from this guy along with the beasthunter saif which as I just said, is a variation of the saw cleaver but with it being a bit more of a pure cleaver than a saw itself.
I could make a sickass beyblade with this though if I could ever figure out the other components of a beyblade. ' Let'er rip' I joke to myself of a murderous spinning roomba that hacks and slashes beasts away from me while I nap.
Finding nothing else here, I jump up but just barely get the ledge, so i grab the nearby chain I lowered and easily climb the rest of the way up. "Might have to start calling this 'the docking procedure' since this is the third time i've had to use the chains like this to climb back up. Oh those were the good old days"
I reminisce about the times when I had just woken up from my coma and was in pain at having to climb at all as I didn't know that improving my vitality stat at all would cure me.
As I chuckle to myself on my past actions, I climb the hill and then back down the hill to the ladder where the executioner awaits in the distance. Just standing there, menacingly!!
I drop down and approach but my senses quickly inform me that there is a second tentacled executioner to my left. I take him out first as I also realize that the first did not have his regular giant cleaver but a giant cannon. No thank you for getting shot today.
I take out the first but I get to really appreciate that these enemies are proper fucking beefcakes with a B. because even with my high stats and +8 weapons, I still needed at least 5 strikes with Overwhelming stacked on to take it down. It would have been a proper nightmare if I hadn't.
(A/N: they killed me 3 times whilst writing this. I remembered the gun one from my 2nd playthrough where I bought the dlc but not that there was a second guy. That took me completely off guard)
I included shattering echoes into my attacks this time and even then, I had to do it twice to take this guy down just before he nearly grabbed me after elongating his face tentacles to try grabbing me.
"Huh" I huff, "that was dumb as hell. How is anyone else but me supposed to get past them? Or is everyone else here just a victim?" I can`t help but ask as I eye the many husks reaching out but not really crawling away, it takes me a moment to realize that they don't have their eyes anymore.
"What the shit is going on here? Hemwick, is this your doing?" I can't help but voice out and I certainly am not expecting a reply from the titular witch.
"It is my coven but time is strange here in this place, it is of the past and thus rejects me yet enticingly lures you in." A voice speaks up behind me, "I say my dear, what did you do here that makes this place so hostile to you?"
I spot the witch behind me but not really there, more akin to a wavering echo as her body soon vanishes from place with the wind.
"I guess I should be happy that a beautiful woman is at my beck and call. But I'm really not, simply because it's her." I make my judgment and then take the right of the two paths before me which leads into a small cathedral which looks reminiscent of the chapel with the crypt door that initially leads me to old Yharnam, but here I find the lamp that I was seeking.
"All hail lAmP." I make a moth joke as I light it up and then head on to the left path. Where I do find the wiccen bitch herself, cutting her down in size further without a head. I collect the pebbles here and then find a summon sign for Valtr, the league master.
I dismiss the sign as I have so many other times except the one time in Old Yharnam. Until I realized that it used insight then I never really saw a point.
[Challenge mode active: ludwig, the accursed. Select difficulty]
"Ah, so this is where you had gone mad. I wondered where you disappeared to after....that battle, haaa" I sigh as I select +50 as my challenge.
[Challenge selected, adjusting world] The fog gate rises in front of me as I hear brief latin singing in the distance before me.
"Well thats fun." I say as I wander in.
[NG+50 has been selected. 5 modifiers have been bestowed upon the boss: Graceful Guidance, Sword master, Stabilized steps, Baneful Bones, Repellent Reprieve]
"What the fuck is any of that supposed to mean?" I question my sanity over the alliteration before me as an eyeless corpse wiggles some distance away calling for help.
"Ahh, ahh, please... help us... Ah...
An unsightly beast...
A great terror looms!
Ahh... Ludwig the Accursed is coming.
Have mercy... Have mercy upon us..."
Next thing I knew, the corpse was crushed as a set of horse like buck teeth were poised upon my own waist and
CRUNCH
[You Died]
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