Bloodborne - 145

“There have been multiple reports of beasts in the woods next to Hemwick. We’re sending you with a couple other hunters to help Curtis deal with the situation. This is also a test for you. We’re preparing for a dangerous expedition soon. We believe it will solve our fight against the beastly scourge.” Lady Maria’s melodious voice explained to Karla her assignment.

“This curse has plagued us for far too long,” Karla felt the melancholy in Lady Maria’s heart. Her melodious voice had a special way of reaching out to a person’s soul. “We believe we’re close to finding a way of dealing with this.” Karla listened carefully and nodded along the way. This was her chance of finding out why Yharnam had fallen.

“The night of the hunt is close.” Lady Maria spoke as if in trance. She looked at the window and her gaze seemed to drift away in the distance, towards her home. “Before we make our final move, we have to deal with important matters. We need you in Hemwick to deal with one them. As soon as you’re done, report back to me.” Lady Maria’s voice returned to her authoritative tone.

“You have one day. We’re calling back all our hunters to headquarters tomorrow. There are many matters to settle before the hunt. Now go, you will find the other hunters waiting outside.” Karla left the Grand Cathedral and found two people outside. Both wore straw hats and had their face hidden with a scarf which was tied around their necks.

Both hunters looked at Karla and nodded. None of them seemed to want to talk. A man wearing white clothes stood next to the two hunters. His attire meant that he was part of the Healing Church. He looked at the three of them then spoke. “Good, the three of you have been briefed on the mission. If you don’t come back tomorrow, you will not be permitted to take part in the next hunt.” The man smiled as he emphasized his last sentence.

Karla knew about this after spending enough time within the order. Every hunter is assigned a mission the moment he or she awakens from the blood ministration. If they do not succeed within the time limit, they won’t be allowed to participate in the monthly hunt.

“The beasts that appear during the hunt are much more powerful than the one we’re hunting now.” One of the two hunters spoke as they walked towards Hemwick. He sounded young. Karla looked at his direction and inspected him in details. The man was relatively skinny for a hunter. He wore a long dark brown leather coat that looked too large for his body. The young man held a weapon that looked like a pick.

“I hear the master is going to join the hunt this time. Rumors say that this upcoming hunt is special,” replied the other hunter. His voice was deep and he stood over Karla like a hundred feet giant. The man was very tall and toned like a god. Just standing next to him made Karla feel like an ant. He wore a black leather Jacket coupled with blue trousers.

He held an enormous curved chunk of metal on his shoulder. The weapon looked like a metallic jawbone on which sharp pointy teeth were aligned. When Karla looked at it, she had the feeling of watching a primal version of Surgit’s Saw Cleaver. The Beast Cutter wasn’t related to the cleaver though. It was Karla’s weapon that was the Cleaver’s spiritual predecessor.

While the Beast Cutter relied on brute strength, the Beasthunter Saif relied on elegance in its swift attacks. Originally, Karla wanted to use her trusty sword against the beasts. But when she tried it during her training, the sword broke due to her dramatic increase in strength. The Saif was the closest thing to a sword Karla found.

Initially, the curved blade could be used as a sword when held by its long wooden hilt. But when retracted, the blade becomes like a sharp razor which strikes swiftly and precisely at its opponents. Karla loved this feature the most. She relied on her speed and gracious dodges to counterattack and inflict great damage to her enemies.

The Saif was her best match. On one hand, she could use it as a long sword and put a good distance between her and the prey. On the other hand, by retracting the weapon, she can quickly reduce the distance and deliver the final blow. That weapon’s unpredictable pattern of attack was what fascinated Karla. After she trained with it for more than a few days, she became confident in using it almost perfectly.

The two hunters kept talking on the way about the latest rumors. The fact that Gehrman and Laurence were both joining the hunt created uproar around the Cathedral Ward. Most hunters lived in the Cathedral Ward. Most of them also went to the local pubs of the Cathedral Ward. Wherever hunters went, blood flowed. Either by killing beasts or by drinking blood to satiate their thirst, Hunters were always associated with blood.

The Cathedral Ward was usually swarmed with drunken hunters talking about the latest rumors in town. The two hunters spoke about the hottest topic in town. However, what got Karla’s attention was the story about the foreign hunter who devoured a beast. Very few people knew of what really happened to that foreign hunter. So the stories that traveled from ear to ear differed.

“I head someone tell that the man hunter the beast because it spread vermin. The only way for him to get rid of it was to swallow the beast whole then extract it from his body,” the skinny hunter was telling the story with a lot of enthusiasm. “Do you reckon he did it?” The deep voice asked.

“I don’t know. What I know for sure is that man told people that vermin was created and lived in blood. He said that by drinking blood, we nourish it and make it stronger. People obviously didn’t believe this part of the story. How could blood that heals, create and nourish the vermin in our blood?” The skinny man continued his tale as both Karla and the tall hunter listened carefully.

“What did he say then?” Karla asked. She was also interested in this story. A man swallowing a beast; that reminded her of the time she saw Surgit drinking the Cleric Beast’s blood. The skinny hunter looked at Karla and went on. “Nothing is given without a price. When we use blood, we agree for it to invade our bodies. We are healed but to what price? That vermin inside of you will soon be the death of you.”

The skinny hunter looked forward before finally saying. “That’s the story I head. And it’s the story most people in Yharnam use to discourage people from drinking too much blood. It became like a spooky story for drunken people. Most people consider it a myth. I choose to believe there is some truth in every myth.”

The brawny man stopped and looked towards the skinny hunter. “What’re you trying to say?” The skinny hunter stopped and looked back. “I believe the beasts are originally people. I believe the vermin in our blood turns us into monsters. This town was cursed the day it accepted the Healing Church. We carry the curse in our blood.

“We carry the vermin that will make us what we hunt today. Our curse isn’t intangible, think of it as the ultimate disease: one that even our so called miraculous blood can’t heal. The master joining the hunt is a sign. It means that he and Laurence have found a way to cure us all from this damned sickness.” The skinny hunter looked at both Karla and the other hunter and said nothing.

“You mean to tell me that even the powers we have are from some sort of sickness?” The tall hunter asked. “Yes, that foreigner spoke of other lands afflicted with the same sickness. They call it ashen blood in some lands. It has different names but the same symptoms. People get sickly and beasts appear out of nowhere the moment they started using some type of miraculous liquid: Blood. But of course all of these are rumors people spread around.” The skinny hunter paused for a moment before walking forward. “We have to hurry, or we’ll miss our deadline.”

‘A blood borne disease, what have you gotten yourself into Karla?’ Karla was terrified at the thoughts that flashed through her mind. She felt like she was doomed. ‘I only wanted to get as far away from my native place as possible. I guess this is the price I pay for causing a slaughter among my family…’