Hunter's Mark

The beast was coiled up and seemed to be resting. Surgit didn't rush to meet it. He carefully observed from a safe distance. He didn't want to provoke the beast just yet. His insight informed him that he was facing a darkbeast. The first time he ever heard of this name was when he checked the Tonitrus.

Every once in a while Surgit could barely see a thin line of lightning spread along the bones of the beast. 'Either this beast's lightning energy isn't as strong as it used to be, or it's just sleeping and hiding it. Knowing my luck in this city, I'm betting on the latter.' After all the fights he had to go through unprepared, Surgit started being cautious when approaching big monsters.

It was his own recklessness that got him into helpless situations. Surgit didn't wish to go through that anymore. 'If I'm going into a fight like this, I need to rationally assess my chances of victory. This beast is large enough to cover the whole main street of Yahar'gul. If I had to fight it without its lightning, I might have a chance at winning. But this thing seems to be lightning incarnate. I don't see myself winning against it with my level of strength. What to do…'

Surgit didn't want to let go of the echoes he had just earned while cleaning the town of kidnappers. He took an item from his pocket and looked at it. 'I don't think I have a chance against this beast, but at least I won't lose anything thanks to this. I'll take this as a learning experience. This is my biggest chance to learn about Arcane.'

With careful strides Surgit walked towards the darkbeast. When he was a few paces closer, blue lightning emitted from all the bones. The lightning seemed to connect the bones together until the beast was completely reformed, standing on all fours. It let out a scream and lightning spread out from its body outwards.

The shockwave caused Surgit's clothes and hair to flap. He looked at the beast and cursed. He took both his axe and cleaver and held each of them with one hand. He didn't have a lot of time. If the beast was as strong as he suspected, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to withstand more than two attacks. He had to take the initiative and strike first.

He knew that the Tonitrus would be useless against the beast. He had thrown it aside and the messengers came and collected it. He knew that he'd find it back at their shop to be unlocked using echoes. If one finds a weapon in the streets of Yharnam, they can use it as much as they can. However, they can't repair or upgrade it unless they unlocked it at the messenger's shop. The only upside is that a weapon that has been found by a hunter will always be cheaper to unlock than buying a brand new one from the shop.

He jumped high enough to be at the same level as the beast's head. The beast's skull looked disturbingly human. It had two eye sockets filled with blue lightning and its hair flowed behind. It seemed like the aura emitted by the magical power the beast had, caused its hair and all the remaining fur on its skeleton to flap around, like it was hit by wind. Its mouth was inhumanly large though. Countless sharp teeth were aligned on the jaw. Lightning had even spread to the teeth, giving them a frightening look. Surgit observed all of this during the time it took him to throw his axe at the beast's head.

When the hit connected, Surgit had already landed and ran under the darkbeast. He didn't wait to see if his axe had done any damage. His goal was to find any weak spots. So far, the head seemed to be the go to place. However, the axe didn't even seem to bother the monster. Surgit swung down with his cleaver at the beast's legs. He hit the bones and blue sparkles jumped at him.

Surgit jumped back and felt electricity surging through his body. That small retaliation was enough to make his brain go numb. That made him pause for a few seconds. He couldn't move even when he ordered his body to. His breathing became rasped and unsteady. Terror engulfed him. 'This power is extremely frightening. The energy on the Tonitrus isn't as dense as in this beast. I wonder if-'

Surgit's back landed on a wall and all air exited his body. It took him a second to think of the power of lightning. During that second he was already hit by the beast and launched several feet away in the air. The wall halted his flight and broke his bones. Surgit immediately placed the item he had on his forehead and closed his eyes. By looking at the symbol using his insight, he was able to awaken back next to the dream lantern.

His body slowly dissipated like a mirage. He reappeared next to the dream lantern in Yahar'gul. All his injuries had been healed. Surgit was smiling. The power of Arcane was much more useful than he thought. 'If I could harvest this arcane power, would I be able to produce something like this?' He shook his head as if he was answering his own question.

'If it had been that easy, that Archibald would've been able to do it. I'm afraid it's more complicated than this. I can't beat that darkbeast just yet. One attack from that thing put me in a sorry state. I saw it jumping at me before I reawakened. If I gave it one more chance, I would be dead by now. I think it's high time I found a way into the Forbidden Woods. With my strength, I'm pretty confident in reaching Byrgenwerth.'

A low growl came into Surgit's ears. He turned around and found a kidnapper walking towards him. 'Eh?' Surgit moved quickly and pounded at the tall creature. By now, he was used to their attacks and no longer feared them. He just dodged and baited their transformation. Whenever a kidnapper transforms, a red aura would surround them and their attacks become deadlier.

It takes time for that red aura to materialize and envelop them though. That was their biggest weakness according to Surgit. All he needed to do was to go behind them and perform a visceral attack that would easily dispose of them.

On one hand, Surgit wouldn't need to use his transformed hand for too long. On the other, the beast will die on the spot. This removed the possibility of the beastly transformation to remain for long and affect his body. He didn't want to go through the same crisis as earlier. He needed many more echoes to reach one more rank in either skill or arcane. He simply didn't have the required echoes.

Surgit stood next to the kidnapper's body and smiled. 'I can use these things to revive the beasts and kill them again… I don't even need to die. This is like cheating death and getting a reward out of it.' Surgit's heart beat fast. He was excited to put his theory to the test. Yahar'gul wasn't big after all, he could clear the area in no time and earn a green echo cluster at that.

'I can easily upgrade my arcane and skill. All I need is some patience and a lot of tedious work. So far I have only two of these bold hunter's marks, but the little messengers sell them in their shop. I wonder how many I can get with the cluster I have.'