The darkness of the forest remained, obscuring Surgit's path. He had fallen deep within the Forbidden Woods. The fall broke some bones, nothing a blood vial couldn't heal though. The blue creature emitted the only semblance of light in the dark confines of the woods. It looked at Surgit with black dots that were its eyes. The hunter couldn't explain why he felt the creature seemed to have not only intelligence, but also empathy.
The moment he fell next to it, he felt his leg break under his weight. He winced in pain, fumbling in his pocket for a blood vial. The creature only bobbed its head to the side, observing the suffering man.
Surgit looked back, fixing the creature with puzzled eyes. The creature, with its nearly translucent body and clear blue skin, looked alien, out of this world. Not that anything in Yharnam looked normal, but Surgit was too used to seeing gruesome beasts that it became his new normal.
This creature looked like a moonlit lake, filled with glowing fish that swum inside. The glowing fish were the tiny dots on the creature's body that shone once, only to be extinguished the next. It was like watching the reflection of a starry, moonlit night sky on the surface of a lake. The creature let out a hum, akin to the sound the bolts surrounding the Abhorrent Beast made.
Surgit immediately felt hostility coming from the creature in front of him. He instinctively thrust his sword towards the enemy. The sword made contact with flesh and easily cut through it. The small creature let out a faint moan as its lifeless body dropped to the ground. A white liquid came out of the spot Surgit had pulled his sword from.
Surgit observed the thing that lay beside his feet. Its body stopped glowing, the blue color faded from clear to dark. The light that illuminated Surgit's vicinity went off, replaced by complete darkness once again. Right in front, the hunter could see some more lights, like lampposts illuminating a dark street in a starless night.
The hunter slowly walked towards the lights ahead of him. The creatures emitted hums in the distance, confirming their identity to Surgit. He soon reached them, blue and fluorescent. One of them had some kind of antennae on top of its head. They looked like the creature's hair. They moved on their own, flowing upwards without wind.
The creature saw Surgit. It probably smelled the blood of its fallen comrade on the hunter's sword. Its hair literally stood on end. The pointy end of each hair strand emitted a blue light, illuminating a radius of at least a mile. Surgit could see through the forest that surrounded him as if daylight had miraculously penetrated it.
In front of him, half a dozen blue creatures were walking in his direction. They didn't look pleased with what he'd done to their comrade. Their heads wobbled as they moved, looking like jelly. Their hums increased, synchronizing as they made their approach. Surgit sensed danger, unlike any he'd ever faced before. The haired creature emitted a zapping sound. Alarmed, Surgit ran to whence he'd come from.
Blue lasers chased after the hunter. Surgit was pretty confident that one of those lasers could tear through flesh and bone. Those creatures kept getting stranger and stranger. The lasers seemed to have been tracking the hunter. They'd take curves and chase him around trees. Surgit cursed as he zigzagged around the trees. He used the light emitted from those lasers to find his way through the forest.
A series of explosions finally announced that all the lasers have met with an obstacle. Surgit looked back. The alien creatures were still walking towards him. Two of them had their "hair" wiggling above their heads now. The trees that previously protected Surgit from the lasers had new holes made into them. Surgit could even see the aliens approaching him through one of said holes.
Sensing doom approaching, Surgit chose to flee. He couldn't hope to defeat those monsters if they attacked in unison. He'd had a hard time evading the first flurry of lasers. If he allowed them time to attack again, he'd be dead. He rushed through the trees, using their large trunks as cover. There was only a large cliff behind him. He was lucky enough the first lasers were stopped by the trees before he reached that impasse.
"Shit!" he cursed out loud as he realized the difficulty of his situation. The crevice he'd fallen through allowed only one way, and that was through the alien creatures. Surgit slowly turned, facing the six aliens that were almost upon him. They looked innocent. He couldn't believe those cute looking beings could be so deadly.
"Bring it on bitches!" Surgit held a sword on one hand, a pistol on the other as he shouted. He had to get past those things, it was the only choice he had. He refused to die. 'Not anymore,' he thought to himself as he ran towards the blue aliens. The creatures emitted zapping sounds that echoed within their bodies. Everything about them was strange. They looked different, they sounded different. They even walked and attacked different.
The "hairy" creatures attacked first, sending their blue lasers in the hunter's direction. They launched themselves on the hunter from all directions. The projectiles formed a circle above and around the hunter, approaching rapidly. Surgit had to get past this attack. He wanted to prove that he could withstand anything that came his way. He was doing it more for himself than for anyone else. He needed that confidence boost.
He jumped forwards, like a four legged animal jumping on its prey. The jump was perfectly timed. As all the lasers converged in one place, trying to hit the hunter in unison, Surgit jumped forward to avoid them. The lasers converged together then formed a small ball of light that shot back at Surgit.
Things went outside Surgit's expectations. He expected the lasers to explode as they met with each other. However, the attack seemed to have evolved. Fortunately for the man, that jump brought him closer to the other beasts. "Let's see how you can withstand your own attack." He jumped among the creatures. He immediately grabbed one and threw it at the laser.
The creatures were surprisingly light. The poor creature was immediately obliterated by the laser. The projectile kept coming though. Surgit felt a hand trying to grab him. He held the creature by the arm and hurled it at the projectile that tried to harm him. The laser was only slowed down a bit.
Surgit grabbed the electrifying hair of the creature that initially shot the laser. He threw it at the laser while two more creatures threw themselves at him. The impact of the projectile on the hairy alien was greater than the others. The laser finally exploded, throwing everyone around it back. Surgit landed on one blue alien, crushing it under his weight. Another hairy creature stood, its hair straightening in a hostile fashion.
Surgit shot the creature, slowing its attack for a moment. He immediately jumped up then threw his hammer at it. The hammer propelled the beast backwards then slammed it against a tree trunk. Surgit proceeded to disposing of the remaining creatures, exterminating them all. He went back to collect his hammer, put it on his back then walked forward.
"Necessity is the mother of invention," Surgit said, panting. "In my case, necessity pushes me to surpass my limits." Surgit didn't expect to come out victorious. His resolve to not give in made him push on, fight against the odds he'd put for himself. People have their own beliefs concerning their own worth.
If one has high self-esteem, it would be harder to destroy them. That is the prime reason some people, deemed dumb or stupid, still managed to get leadership positions. It doesn't matter what others believe them to be. What matters is what they believe themselves to be. If they go in a fight with complete certitude about their winning odds, then they'd win.
Other people with great critical thinking abilities often doubt themselves. That doubt cripples them, rendering them unable to take action and fight for what they believe in. Those people are the ones that die first in a fight. They spend too much time ruminating about their odds.
There are times to think, and there are times to fight. The ones who shoot first then ask questions later are the ones who attract most attention. They build the image of a winner, then use said image to pump up their ego. They'd continuously win against the odds. Not because the odds were wrong, but because of their ability to change the odds.
We are what we believe we are.
Others opinion of you never matters. Odds are just number made up of someone's opinion. People make mistakes, often in calculations. People judge things subjectively. People can only understand what they have experienced. There will always be something outside of their expectations. At that moment, a true man's resolve is tested.
Would he fight, or choose flight? Would he challenge the odds and the heavens, or would he cave in and surrender? The ones who surrender are easily forgotten. There are too many of them. The ones that stand out are the ones who stand their ground and come out victorious. They'd rewrite history and their words become law. People will talk about them.
Victory is just the action of taking a fight and winning. The winning side could be just or evil. They'd still be called victorious. Victory attracts attention and makes people talk about the victorious. The victorious becomes famous, even idolized by some. The healing church won its battles in the tombs of the gods, unearthing something terrible about humanity.
People don't remember the healing church by the calamity it unleashed upon the world. There were other, forgotten lands that had done the same. The healing church was remembered for its ability to use blood to cure illnesses. It was remembered because other people talked about it, idolized it, and helped it get fame. The fame soon transformed into worship. Worship brought on pilgrims. Pilgrims brought money and left with stories. The whole world knew about Yharnam and sought it to soothe their pains.
Little did they know that the blood they sought, consumed them, not the other way around. The city soon fell to the beastly scourge, and its existence slowly faded from people's memories. It had become only a legend, a story to scare the kids from challenging the gods.
If it weren't for Laurence's resolve, the healing church would never have existed.
We are what believe we are.
Laurence believed in the healing powers of blood, in its ability to bring people together. He managed to do so, but the calamity he brought upon the world erased his name from the annals of history. Only Gehrman, the great hunter remained, his name untainted.
Resolve made those two men make decisions no other person could. Resolve made their legends live on forever, or become a forgotten memory. Resolve makes a person surpass their limits. It is this kind of person that marks their name in history.
Surgit was slowly transforming into this kind of person. He'd fight against the odds and become victorious. He no longer feared death, but he refused it nonetheless. Death was his failure, he wouldn't accept it. He'd gone through terrible ordeals but came out on top anyways. His inability to die allowed him to learn from his mistakes. His inability to die taught him to observe his enemies carefully. His inability to die made him the man he was today.
His honed skills in constant battles made him a force to be reckoned with. He had forgotten the gift of his undead status. He now thought of himself as a skilled hunter who won't back away from danger. That confidence boost will allow him to overcome many impossible obstacles that lay in his way. He was about to encounter one soon enough.
Surgit left the crevice in which he was ambushed by the alien creatures. He soon found himself near a large puddle. Fireflies surrounded the area. Moonlight miraculously penetrated the place, illuminating the water puddle in front of him. The small clearing created a gap wide enough for moonlight to reach the ground. That place looked peaceful, magical. Surgit's heart felt at peace, observing the natural scene that occurred before him.
A normal occurrence, fireflies illuminated a small body of water in the middle of the night. This normal occurrence was out of place in the land of beasts and hunt though. Surgit observed the glowing insects flying around. This scene brought him calmness he hadn't experienced in a very long time. It was something not even the hunters' dream could provide.
Since his arrival to Yharnam, he had been dealing with the extraordinary. Now that he had a chance to witness something normal, he felt human again. He smiled, feeling one with the nature that felt foreboding a minute ago. The feeling was interrupted by grunts and growls that echoed in the distance.
Surgit was back to Yharnam, its Forbidden Woods and the beasts that inhabit it once more. He cursed. 'One can't even have a moment to catch his breath, can he?' he thought as he inspected the source of the sound. Beyond the large puddle of water was a branching path. One led to the right where Surgit could smell the man-eating boar. Ahead of him, Surgit's ears could hear snakes hissing.
Surgit walked forward, dealing with the snakes was the priority. He didn't want to get ambushed again by a snake man. Fighting those along with boars would be dangerous. Surely enough, the snake man was hiding behind a large tree, waiting to ambush anybody who's passing by. Surgit turned around the tree, backstabbed the snake man and executed him. Up ahead, Surgit could see the windmill tower.
He walked forward towards the tower. He soon reached a platform that could be used as an elevator. Surgit used it and soon found himself inside the windmill in which he fought the Abhorrent Beast. 'Useful shortcut,' he thought as he used the platform to go back down. He had secured a quick way towards the dream lantern.