章節 70: Trapped between two deadly beasts – Part 2

When she arrived to the lower level, Karla found herself in what used to be an old poor neighborhood. The shining streets were replaced with unpaved ones. Dust and ingrown grass were everywhere on the ground. Only few cobbles were to be seen here and there, reminiscent of an era where people used to care for that place.

The streets were dimly lit and silence enveloped the place. Karla moved carefully, pricking her ears for any upcoming enemy. "Cling!" she jumped back as she realized she had hit an empty bottle with her leg unintentionally. The silence in the place had instilled unrest in her and that bottle confirmed how tense she was. She tried to relax and move more carefully while keeping a cool head.

As she walked through the street, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. It must have been at least three people coming her way. She unsheathed her sword and hit behind an old cart that contained half a dozen sacks and waited. Three men-beasts accompanied with a dog soon emerged from a corner.

Their garb was different though as they looked like farmers. They wore straw hats and large blue trousers. Two of them were holding pitchforks while the other held a torch on one hand and an axe on the other. A dog was following them from behind, sniffing for any sign of danger. The dog caught her scent quickly and started barking. The other three ran towards her, as if they could communicate with the animal using telepathy.

They quickly encircled her but Karla was too quick for them and managed to slice one's stomach open and blocked a pitchfork stab with her sword. She then pulled the pitchfork towards her and snatched it from the man's hands in time to throw it at the lunging dog. The dog fell down on the ground wailing while Karla buried her sword deep in the unarmed man's skull. All of that happened before the axe wielding man-beast could attack.

As she faced him, he was aiming at her with his torch, trying to blind her before swinging at her with the axe. She jumped to his right and relieved him of one arm. While he was crying out in pain she kicked him in the back of his knee, bringing him down and beheaded him. It was a perfectly executed attack and Karla was satisfied at how fast she had become at dealing with those abominations.

The street was silent again. Karla could hear somewhere in the distance some heavy breathing. It was unlike the one she heard in the aqueducts of Central Yharnam. Something new was lurking around, and that gave Karla a bad feeling. She cleaned her blade on one of the men-beast's shirt and went on her way.

She soon reached a cross road where she could either go right or continue straight forward. The road on the right looked dark and long while the one in front of her seemed to lead into some dead end. She decided to keep going straight. After all, she could always come back and explore the previous street once she was done with the dead end in sight.

She reached an opening with a dead tree in the middle; behind the tree, Karla saw a strange cloaked being hunched down on a corpse. She readied her weapon and walked as silently as she could, trying to get a preemptive strike. As she got closer, the creature stood up and faced her.

It had gray skin which looked harder than steel. It took off its cloak revealing a strange head. It had big white eyes and only holes in its face instead of a nose. While instead of hair, the creature had a blobby forehead that extended to the back of its head. The end of the blobby feature on its head was pointy and it seemed that the creature could control it as it was moving it right and left, as if it were an antenna.

It walked slowly towards Karla and with every step, its feet made a squishy sound, as if it was walking on water. Its hands had five fingers that were attached to each other with patches of gray skin. Suddenly the creature let out a harrowing scream and started running towards her. It was faster than any other enemy she had encountered before and it caught her before she could move.

She watched with horror as the antennae in the monster's head became hard and aimed for her head. Karla had to act quickly so she kicked the creature as hard as she could; trying to stun it back. The beast staggered a bit but didn't let go of Karla. She still had time to hit it on the face with the pommel of her sword and the strange looking creature finally let go. If she took one hit from it, she was afraid that she would be a goner.

She knew that she couldn't risk being caught by the beast so she jumped back to keep her distance. Unfortunately, more footsteps were heard behind her. She turned around to see a freakishly tall man coming her way. Calling it a man isn't doing it justice as the one standing in front of her at that moment had only the physique of a man, everything else was different.

It had dark purple skin and six long fingers on its hands. It was wearing a long brown cloak and it held a gigantic sack on its back. Karla found herself trapped between two dangerous opponents. As she heard the squishy footsteps behind her, she jumped back as high as she could; performing a backflip, avoiding the grab attack and landing behind the creature.

The two enemies were now facing each other and the tall man attacked first. It used its sack to hit the pale monster and the latter didn't even flinch from it. Karla retreated back in order to watch the ensuing fight. The best case scenario would be if the two could kill each other. The tall man attacked again using its big hand. It had hard nails that resembled claws. They hit the pale cloaked creature and scratched it a bit.

The other let out a scream and held its hands up. A blue aura formed and soon after, they projected themselves towards the tall man. He was struck with it head on and Karla watched in amazement as the big guy was bound by the blue aureole like things. The pale creature then ran fast towards the big man and jumped on its torso, holding it with both hands. It hardened its antennae and buried it deep in the tall man's skull.

The antennae then appeared to suck on the beast's brain and the latter screamed in agony. No sooner had the pale creature let go of the tall man, than he screamed in rage and a red aura formed around his body. 'Is this some kind of magic?' Karla was amazed to see the fight happening in front of her. If it wasn't for the lucky encounter between those two, Karla was sure that she would've died. She had no idea that this kind of magic existed and if she got hit by one grab attack from that pale beast, she would have been a goner.

The big man's attack became faster and Karla could barely see its movements. The gray skinned beast was instantly pierced by the man's hands. She could see a big purple hand coming out the back of the poor pale monster. In no time, the fight had ended and the tall man had his eyes for Karla afterwards.

She felt her knees shaking as her opponent approached her. She had to find a way out of that situation and fast. The purple skinned man jumped at Karla and aimed at her head with his gigantic hand. Its nails were as hard as steel, and taking one hit from them could mean death, especially in that enraged state he was in.

She rolled forward and avoided the attack miraculously. As she tried to stand up and find a quick way out of the place, she felt a heavy hit on her back that flattened her to the ground. She knew that she had to run away from that encounter but that last slam was too strong. She tried to stand up and run but her knees failed her. Her arms were shaking and she could hear the man approaching her slowly. She rolled on her back and looked at the one who was about to finish her. Darkness enveloped her eyes and she lost consciousness.