How Different Are Hunters From the Monsters They Kill?

There are moments when one needs to face their inner fears. There are moments when one has to stand their ground and fight. In those moments, one either fails miserably or finds strength they never believed they had, lurking inside. In moments of unexpected strength, one realizes they have incredible focus and extraordinary reflexes.

Surgit, in this moment of fight or flight, decided to stand his ground. No matter what the beast did, Surgit could somehow anticipate its next move and act accordingly. He let go of his pragmatic thinking process. He let go of his acute observation, trying to read through his enemy's moves. All that remained was pure, animal instinct.

These kinds of moments could not be reproduced at will. Surgit didn't even realize what had happened to him. He was only focused on destroying the abomination that threatened his life. The hunter shot himself with a blood vial then rushed towards the abhorrent beast that awaited him outside.

The beast no longer bothered with speech. It waited for Surgit, barring the door in front of him. The hunter slid down between the beast's legs, swinging his sword towards its legs. The sword cut through flesh and got stuck in bone. Surgit lost his grip on the sword. The momentum of his slide was too fast for him to control his grip. It didn't matter to the hunter though.

The beast jumped high, landing a few paces away from Surgit. Blood dripped down from its legs, bolts flashed around its body. The monster growled. Its voice echoed through the hums of the blue bolts. It thrust its sharp claws towards Surgit. The latter jumped back, barely enough for the attack to miss him with a hair's width.

The hunter mechanically grabbed his hammer, without the sword to act as a sheath, and slammed it on the beast's hand. Bones cracked and bolts of electricity went through Surgit's body. He was in a trance, not minding those bolts' stings. He stepped on the hammer, used it as a platform then jumped at the abhorrent beast's face.

He landed with both feet, planting them firmly on its grotesque muzzle. The beast staggered back a bit, trying to regain its composure. With a swing from its free arm, it managed to hit the annoying ant. Surgit's body was flung sideways, bound for the windmill tower's high wall. By a show of amazing skill, the hunter used the beast's swing to flip his body over. His legs were now facing the wall. The hunter landed horizontally on the wall, used his immense strength to plant his feet firmly on the wall then propelled himself at the monster.

Their bodies collided, the beast let out a screeching howl. Blood covered the hunter's face as he disentangled his hand from the beast's inner organs. Flesh was torn, intestines found their way out, succumbing to the law of gravity. In his latest leaping attack, Surgit had unknowingly transformed his arms into their beastly form. He used the velocity of his propulsion to tear through flesh and limb.

"Give flesh but break bones, right?" He shouted at the beast as he jumped back. Surgit picked up the hammer that lay on the ground, and flung it at the suffering monster. The hammer struck the beast's left leg, breaking its bones and sending him face first on the ground. The hunter slowly walked towards his sword, picked it up and went for the kill.

He stood over the monster, sword in both hands then held it over his head. "Beasts like you disgust me!" he said, ready to behead the injured monster. The beast looked up at the hunter that was about to execute him.

"Hunters are killers, nothing less! You call ME a beast? A beast? What would you know... I didn't ask for this!"

Surgit brought his sword down. The first hit only managed to open up the monster's neck. "Rancid beasts, every last one of us…" These were the last words uttered by the old man gone beast. Surgit brought his sword once more, finally cutting head from shoulders.

"You didn't ask for this?!" Surgit shouted at the dead monster. "When did anybody ask for anything in this life? I didn't ask to be born, my parents decided to have a human to play god with. I didn't ask for that damnable sickness. I didn't ask to get stuck in this unending nightmare of beasts and blood!

"Life always denies us what we ask for. This doesn't mean you should take it by force, to other people's detriment. You are a vile creature, the lowest scum to ever exist. We're all monsters here, but monsters with a conscience. You seem to have thrown it down a deep well. Death is all you deserve."

The hunter kept pounding at the dead beast as he spoke. By the time he was done, his anger quelled, the beast was but minced meat. Its majesty and magnificence reduced to torn flesh. Surgit was covered in blood and organic matter, from head to toe. His bloodied hands barely clutched the red marble slab that used to be the Kirkhammer. He didn't even realize he had grabbed the weapon until he was done.

Surgit's third eye activated, showing him a glowing object floating in the air. He picked it up and a message reached his subconscious. "Echoes of an Abhorrent Beast. Pop it to receive blood echoes." Surgit pocketed the glowing core, making a mental note to use it afterwards. His last bout left a sour taste in his mouth.

He left the windmill tower towards the deepest parts of the forbidden forest. He couldn't stop thinking about the beast's last words. Its eyes showed extreme hatred towards the hunter who executed it. 'Rancid beasts, every last one of us… even at death's door, the beast still thought we were all monsters. How different is a hunter from those monstrosities?'

The thought kept coming over and over in Surgit's mind. Even when he met those snake-men again, the thought still came to his mind like a faint whisper, coming from deep within his soul. Surgit didn't even realize he'd been walking in circles, mindlessly killing every monster that came his way.

The lower part of the Forbidden Woods was mainly populated with snakes. Even the snakes in this place were strange. For starters, they'd attack in groups. It was rather one unit of a group of snakes. They were strangely tangled with each other, forming a crawling union of snakes that came at the hunter. Their faces would face forward. Their tails, tied together, moved in unison.

The perfect name that could be given to those creatures was snake ball. Surgit mindlessly hacked at them, cutting them in half with ease. 'How different is a hunter from those monsters?' the thought kept coming back to him. That beast's last words made him think deeply about the question.

Monsters killed to feed. What did Surgit kill for? Blood echoes? Paleblood? What was the endgame here anyway? Keep killing until one loses their mind, finally turning into the things they used to hunt?

Those questions had been asked by our hunter before. But today was the day he'd finally come to his own conclusion, a hint towards salvation. 'The old man sits on his wheelchair, asking me to kill beasts. Because that's what hunters do he'd say. The doll tells me to hunt beasts, gather their echoes. She'd channel my echoes into strength she'd say. It all comes to those echoes. If I hadn't muted them, perhaps I would have lost sight of what's right or wrong. But what are echoes?

'I hunt beasts, and take their echoing dying will. I take part of those beasts inside of me. Just what is the nature of this blood that seeps in my veins? What use does the doll have for those echoes? Does she keep them to herself? Does that mean that she has the same blood in her system as I do?'

Surgit's mind was settled. He had a plan to find out what this world really hid from him. He knew he needed to keep absorbing echoes to survive. Echoes were like money, a means to an end. If one ran after them as their sole purpose in life, they'd go mad, forgetting about morality. Echoes made people strong, but made them lose their sanity. Killing beasts gave hunters a taste of blood, a taste they could never get enough of.

'Those echoes are what make us strong. They're also the source of our doom. Gehrman seems to be stuck in the dream. The doll is unable to tell me the slightest info to save my life. Who's behind all this manipulation? I must reach Byrgenwerth and bring some things to light.'

The hunter ran past the slow snake balls that barred his way. From atop the windmill tower, the way seemed clear to him. Keep heading down until you reach the foot of the hill. Surrounded by tall trees that obscured all light, things were different for the hunter. He no longer knew which way was up, and which was down. It all seemed the same. The trees towered above him, the snakes crawled towards him.

Sometimes snake balls as tall as the trees that surrounded him, showed up to bar his way. He'd fling his hammer their way then proceed to cutting the monsters after disorienting them. These were the only ones he killed. He no longer bothered with the small ones. In his mind, the only thing that mattered was to reach the bottom of the hill.

He soon heard some strange noises coming from a crevice in the dark forest. He looked down to inspect it. Surgit's eyes widened as he witnessed a strange creature, something he'd never seen in the city. The creature was had transparent blue skin. It seemed to glow, a light from inside the beast reached Surgit's eyes.

The creature had a blobby head, wiggling as it moved. It was like watching a walking blue pudding, glowing in the darkness of the forest. It had a humanoid body, black eyes that sparkled. Surgit couldn't take his eyes off the creature below him. Footsteps reached his ears a tad too late. The snake man kicked the hunter on the back, sending him down towards the strange blue creature.