C4: Central Yharnam Proper
----------------------------------------------
I finally step past the official gates exiting the graveyard and clinic, obviously not a pretty sight as it shows how well renowned the location truly is. But i can't do anything about that and am just happy that I even woke up from there.
I take in the dusk light but someone golden shines in the edge of my eyes, attracting my sight and it's another set of bloodvials in a cocaine bag, 4 of them this time around.
"Lovely" I comment and pocket the healing blood before turning around and spotting the dead and half rotten horse beside the carriage just outside the gates.
"That certainly explains half the smell, there must be sewers nearby for the rest" I let out a small cough as I blocked my nose with a handkerchief like a bandana I found in my luggage. I had originally planned to turn it into more rags for molotov's since it was big enough for at least 3 but found it has a better use now.
I walk past the carriage only to find a giant closed gate on the right side which my gamer knowledge has made me remember. It can only be opened from the other side after dropping down a ladder and getting access to the first lamp. I peek around the corner to find one of the Yharmanites has taken it upon himself to act as a hunter but his beastly demeanor shows the madness has already seeped through but hasnt transformed his body yet.
As such, I pick up a pebble and very badly throw it across the carriage that it just hits the edge of the top and falls behind me, alerting the Huntsman of my location.
I, as quickly as I could, dropped down and rolled under the carriage, collecting my pebble and this time properly throwing it at the opposite carriage with the dead horse. It strikes metal on the carriage creating a louder sound to attract the huntsman as I roll back out.
As the hunter already walked past where I was and investigated the other carriage. I lift my leg and directly kick him in the nuts from behind.
"RUUUUGH, HaAaaAaa" This particular huntsman who was wielding an axe in one hand and a torch in the other dropped both as he bent over to grab his crushed jewels. Shaky breathing coming from the man after a short squeal, as I kick him in the rear right after to make him fall over. I then pick up his axe and torch for myself before swiping the axe down on his neck.
He dies and another wisp enters my body. I collect his top hat for prosperities sake but still not sensing anything new with the wisps. I choose to proceed forward and very slowly pull the lever to have the ladder drop down but I don't go there yet as I go further down the pathway which has the same old damaged fence, a few stacks of boxes, one of those hand lifted carriages that feels ever so pompous and two more huntsman resting.
"Good evening gentlemen, don't mind me, just one of you" I 'casually' chat with them and the hat seems to mask my face a little as at first they don't realize that im not one of them.
My imposter plan momentarily works until I see their nose twitch and they both gradually rise, raising their weapons. I catch the right side one in the chest with a side swipe of my new axe before stabbing him in the face with the still burning torch.
My torch makes him groan in pain as he backsteps away which grants me the chance to turn the torch into a club and bash the other guy in the head, momentarily stunning him.
I then swipe with my axe but miss and get smacked in return with the rusty blade edge of his sickle.
"UGH" I feel it stab into my gut a bit which agitates my wound but I just club him in return again before properly slashing his neck and having him bleeding out from that. I give one more chop as this huntsman was falling over to break his spine with my axe.
The other huntsman finally gets to me again, he swipes with his cleaver and then axe but i backstep both but this puts me at the edge of the fence. With my back to the wall, i sidestep to the left side, around the hand drawn carriage, using the beasts instincts against him.
He is forced to go around the carriage, trudding slowly while I overextent a bit and cut his chest which stuns him for a bit as I finish him off with my axe as well.
Two more wisps flowed into me from these two, but I'm not utterly exhausted as taking down all three of these guys had taken a lot out of me physically.
Even though I can feel my injury had disappeared again, this faint sensation of impending doom is readily apparent, I take out one of the blood vials and after identifying the quick use needle at the bottom of it. I stab myself in the leg.
I feel the healing blood flow into me and the pressure is relieved but then I begin to shake. I drop my weapons as I grab my face, shaking up and down like im having a seizure.
"RAAAAAA" I yell out like a beast before it takes a whole minute for me to stop and finally calm down. Im drenched in sweat, my hair which was previously underneath the now dropped hat all bristled up like i had just had static flow through me.
I lean against the carriage and while it creeks, it remains fine.
"Got it, no healing for me. Sure, that works."
I keep leaning for another minute as my previous thrashing had agitated my wounds which themselves seem unaffected by the healing blood for some reason.
Shaking my head and using my handkerchief to wipe my sweat off, I pick up the set of 6 molotov cocktails before turning around and finding another glowing spot with 2 more bloodvials.
Before I properly leave, I examine the two hunters and collect the jacket and pick up my new hat again. Putting them on, I am now more convincingly a huntsman like the others.
'I smell like shit just like them' I think to myself as I take both a cleaver and the axe from the last huntsman I killed and slowly make my way up the ladder, being very careful as I have no way of actually storing my weapons away.
As such I was essentially grappling the ladder with my body every step to not fall as I didn't want to lose either of them.
Finally get up top, I rest for a second before sitting down beside the lamp and pulling the string, this lights it and 4 messengers pop up, attracted by the light. They are wearing cute little fedoras that block the top half of their heads.
When they spot him, they release their typical melted baby gurgle laugh that sounds like "hur gmr hur". I can slightly tell that they are happy to see me as I bent over a bit to pet each of them, rustling their fedoras a bit but definitely not knocking them off.
"Hey there cuties, have you all been watching over me these past however long I was in a coma" I greet them and even ask a question which their response is a single bob up and down from their little smokey graveyard spots.
"I appreciate it. Just so we are clear, touching the lamp will have me go to the hunter's dream right?" they bob up and down again, making their signature laugh again.
"Cool cool. Then just a quick question before I go with you or continue out here. Do you know where my personal hunter clothes are? I hand stitched a little stick figure with a circle head and arms and legs spread wide on each piece of clothing."
They are originally confused but then as I describe the stick figure design and the location of each one, they soon tell me by just turning around in one specific direction which is past the currently blocked gate. I can see the lever on the exact opposite side of it but have to go the long way around.
"So it's in that direction, right?" They turn back towards me and bob up and down again.
"Hmm, my memory is a bit foggy so just tell me yes or no if it's close to those areas." They bob up and down.
"Is it by the bridge" they spin in place which I accept as them telling me no.
"Is it by the chapel with all the graveyards?" They spin in place again.
"Sigh, is it in the sewers?" They bob up and down and I look up.
"Well, thanks dad, really shows you freaking cares" I control my language around the messengers but I mentally curse my adoptive father in the meantime.
I slowly get up, "I must bid you all adieu. If I die-die then I'm happy I was able to meet you all one last time. If that is not the case then I shall see you all later. Hopefully with my clothes still intact." They release their gurgle and seep back into the floor, the light dims a fair bit but not completely like before.
Taking my cleaver and axe, I pick up a sack of pebbles and throw one across the little bridge, the disturbance riles up hidden huntsman and I briefly charge, swiping both weapons across his chest and that gives me the opening for more hits as each one of them stuns it until it falls over.
From here I can see two options. One drop off the edge to where there is a stake with someone or something burning with another huntsman waiting.
Ooor I can go down the normal path which I remember has two more huntsmen there but they are sitting down like the two from before that were near the carriage.
Not wanting to suffer pain for no reason, I go down the normal path. Shifting my shoulders a bit to mimic the huntsman body movement, I begin to walk by them and they don't seem to notice me at all. Lucky for them.
Unfortunately for them, I'm also an asshole with a minor in game-completionism, meaning I like to fight all enemies to get an understanding of them before I continue, at that point I can choose to run past them if I wanted.
As such, I quickly begin to wail on the shield x torch guy standing with his back to me, making him useless while the other takes note of me but is too slow to actually get up before I take him down too.
"Well that certainly works. Hopefully I can just walk past these next few guys, that or I can torch them." I contemplate a plan as I look over the fence to find a group of huntsmen patrolling around. One shielder, one with a torch, another with a pitchfork and the last with another set of cleaver and axe like the other he faced.
There is also another smaller group of two facing each other near a marooned carriage.
"Hmm, i think I have a plan, now i just wait" I get to work with adjusting my newfound molotov cocktails as I have something special planned.
My plan involves me collecting the belts of the 3 huntsmen I took down before tying them around a few bottles to create 'sets' of bottles, primarily in twos or threes. Then with a small adjustment in the clothes, to better link the bottle sets.
I then patiently wait until the group makes their way back from the area further in and meets up with the other group of two that is still standing in place, just swaying about.
I am standing on the bridge near the lamp, overlooking the entire group. Drop two sets of cocktails, each set containing 2, meaning I dropped 4 molotovs on the group after lighting them. This causes a sizable explosion of burst shards of glass as well as fire from the alcohol.
From the group of 5, one of the huntsman dies but the remaining 6 which includes the group of 2 joining them are now coming after me.
I take up my axe again and prepare for the next step of my plan. Thankfully the bridge is fairly narrow and so only 2 at a time can come at me. I use my free hand which used to hold my cleaver to dig into my pocket before i bring it out and throw something at the leading huntsman.
"POCKET SAND" I yell as the sand I got from the many many sandbags scattered around to make unusable defenses is splashed into the beasts face.
"HAAOOOOOO" He lets out a howl as with his sight gone, he wails his torch around which hits his buddy next to it. Lightly burns him but this agitates him enough that he slashes the blinded man who can only wave his torch around even more and that gets the 2nd row of two as well but not much.
He finally gets the sand out of his eyes and growls from the pain, he turns towards me, only to get his head split in half by my axe as while they were wailing about, I took up my cleaver again and took care of his partner which was how both huntsman in the second row got hurt by the torch user.
Now with the first set down, there is only 3 left. This time, I toss my cleaver like a throwing knife and it cuts across the chest, that stuns him while I swipe across his partners neck with my axe.
It goes shallow which allows the partner to smack me in the face which makes me drop to my knees from the force of the strike but I quickly spot the still burning torch.
Grabbing that, I uppercut and slam the torch into the chin of the guy who just hit me. His head bursts into flames which shocks even me as it seems my plan did not fully work as one of the bottles did not properly ignite and instead just sprayed them with the booze.
This one must have one of the few lucky ones who got hurt the least, at most just marinated in alcohol a fair bit. At least until now when the torch came in contact with the alcohol and set him ablaze.
Having no time to think as the burning huntsman falls over, his face melting and his lungs filled with ash and his own melted skin. I slash at his partner which takes him down, leaving just one. A man with a pitchfork.
Now typically this woudn't be such a threat from a close distance but the fucker had the audacity to back step before charging in at me.
I am forced to throw the torch at him which luckily stuns him long enough for me to take him down. And with this, all 7 huntsmen have been taken down, wisps of blood echoes flow through me once more.
I take up my cleaver again and march back down the path until i enter the main street then backtrack to unlock the gate by the lever. It screeches open which i try to cover my ears until I find that I'm not as sensitive to these sounds as I used to be.
"Hot damn. Today's a good day" I give a mock cheer as I return back to the path. There is an executioner down the side path but there are no real rewards and im also not equipped to fight him so I just ignore him for now. He only drops some 'money' and 2 vials anyways. Since i cant use vials all that much, at least without possibly re-experiencing that crazed sensation again.
As I make my way forward, I find the next area. This time around, there is a clearing with a giant mound of burning bodies which multiple coachmen wielding guns scattered around.
I took down the coachman who was lying down in wait, and claimed his rifle. I then prepare for the next major challenge of my no hit run.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Word count is peak average, Whether you like the chapter or not, drop a comment. I can't be letting myself get complacent in my writing. I still have plenty of growth in all forms.
Usual reminder (take out hyphen): patr-eon.com/Xanok
discord channel still has the next chapter preview like usual: https://discord.gg/rE6gtg28XH