"Shit!"
All of Oskar's hair stood on end as that monstrous panther turned and looked him directly in the eyes.
He dismissed the clone and the [Gluttonous Reitersplach], already resummoning the Supreme Weapon. He thought that giving the clone a Memory would make it more legitimate, but that didn't appear to be the case.
As he turned and tore through the halls of the castle his mind rapidly worked to come up with plans.
She's a monster, so she'll choose the most optimal path every time. It's like fighting Gehrman if he wasn't using his Aspect. She lacks his unpredictability though, I mean, she should…Gah! I've never fought against a Song Saint damn it!
He activated several components, trying to slow down the merciless panther that was approaching quickly. Even Transformed she maintained the marking that Milo had put on her, but it didn't matter that much.
Saints were by nature absurdly fast, and Silent Stalker was physically boosted by the Divine Lineage of Beast, her Aspect, and her Transformation ability.
The only reason he could somewhat keep up with her was the damn ugly goggles he had on and the experience of sparring with Caster.
It was something that the bastard had started when he had first taken charge, and now he continued to do it when Oskar was the boss.
Since they were technically Government, they had exclusive access to the Dreamscape and thus could fight to the death easily. Still, they could only do it rarely as Caster would have all the Masters fight him at once. It was a great experience, as they died to him again and again, learning how to deal with an overwhelming opponent.
However, having that many powerful souls put a strain on the Dream Merchant, the Saint had to shut down all other operations on the public "servers" which cost him a lot of money. The Workshop could naturally pay him back to make up for the losses, but the eccentric Saint didn't like the public complaints, and could only be sated with even greater compensation.
Still, they had to do it. Partly because it gave unnaturally valuable experience, but mostly because they needed to prepare for what they were currently dealing with.
Multiple Components all went off in quick succession, casting a wide array of different debuffs and attacks.
Against a Princess of Song, it bought him about 5 seconds.
"Erin, send Malcom's Cohort after that damn Illusionist Saint. Each should have at least Transcendent mental protection Memories."
Oskar spoke in his mind to one of the three telepaths that they had at New Workshop. It was a rare ability, but with the vast majority of Awakened they trained gaining Ascended and Transcendent Aspects, they got lucky a few times.
"Already deployed, they should reach him in 60 seconds."
It was great news, but in a fight like this, every second mattered a ridiculous amount.
I can't fend off Silent Stalker on my own, and each Saint needs at least two Ascended Cohorts on them. The rest need to hold the front. I'm kinda limited on options.
There were, of course, thousands of younger Awakened, but he wasn't willing to let them loose yet. Even if they weren't less able than the average Awakened soldier for the Great Clans, pretty much all of them had the ability to become Masters, if not Saints. He didn't want to risk losing them.
Plus, against the puppets that were currently assailing the wall, they wouldn't even be much help. Unless of course, they were less of a mob. Hunters were used to hunting prey one-on-one or in small groups. Against an army, they were out of their depth.
"Erin, have the Masters on the front line fall back, let the beasts into the lower city and deploy the Awakened, they are not allowed to engage unless they have the numerical advantage. Have the Masters split up their numbers into more manageable groups, and if the pressure isn't too much, send them after the Saints. Milo's stunt should make it easy to make out their location.
The destruction of property would be immense, but this was the best way to go about it. His subordinates knew this too. Buildings could be rebuilt, people couldn't. Plus, these were survivors of the Outskirts, if the boss told them to do something, they knew better than to waste time questioning it. Those few seconds could be the difference between life and death, after all.
"Understood, sir."
The change would happen fast, but it should buy enough time for the others to hold out until Caster made it back.
Still, that didn't apply to him. It was supposed to be a ten-on-one for Masters against the Saints, and here he was goading a one-on-one with the strongest Saint they had! They had a few Stake Drivers left, but they weren't tailored to these newer Saints, and they didn't have any specifically made for the Princesses since there was no shot they'd ever get the chance to use.
That was dumb of him. He should have ignored that part of Gehrman's order and made one for each of them anyway.
Still, even if he had a slew of Stake Drivers, it wouldn't help him against Silent Stalker. He needed help badly. Who was left?
There was also the youngest of the Ascended Cohorts, Milo and Bitz's group. They were barely adults, but they were technically adults now…Milo had already expended a lot of Essence though and those kids…
He gritted his teeth.
Oskar knew he was being sentimental, keeping those kids out of the bad stuff. It was a policy he always tried to maintain, but even back when he was a District Boss, he knew that there was a point of no return in which the youths would have to be exposed to horrors in order to ensure their survival.
"Bitz's Cohort on me. I'm taking front. If any of you so much as get scratched you're gonna die."
Erin would forward that message to them as well as his location. However, she responded immediately instead of taking a beat.
"Uh, they're already there."
…
Bitz's Blades of Mercy sliced forward. They were Transcendent now, and though they weren't truly enchanted, Oskar had given a few Components to temporarily boost it a few days ago. He supposed the boss had seen this coming.
The flying abomination above him was not within the reach of the Trick Weapon's edge, but they were still within the range of fire. The blades flickered in and out of existence, and from that came a severing blade of force that screeched outward.
The creature had its wings not only severed, but utterly mangled.
The thing never had a chance.
At the moment, he was totally intangible, a ghost on the battlefield. His weapons were offered the same quality thanks to his [Awakened Ability].
Only the soles of his feet occasionally gained mass in order to keep him from falling into the floor.
With his Ascended Ability, he also maintained some physical properties within himself as well. Though he couldn't be hit like this, he could still benefit from the power of his muscles. Back when he was Awakened, he couldn't go very fast in his ghost-state. With this newer power though, he not only retained all his Ascended muscle, but he was also free from things like friction and drag, making him unnaturally quick even for a Master.
On top of that, his blood was racing like crazy. Partly because he was scared as all hell, but mostly because he was accelerating it with Vermin. They too were maintained during the ghost-state thanks to his Ascended Ability, but also because they were intangible themselves. They could only manipulate blood – as far as he knew – because their existence could echo into the physical plane of existence. It appeared that it could also echo into whatever plane of existence Bitz currently occupied.
Though he had been without Gehrman's tutelage for a while, the old lessons and words he gave still stuck with him, allowing him to be quite imaginative.
Due to the vague and confusing nature of his Ascended Ability, he had come up with several tricks exploiting it.
For example, the attack he just launched. Through flickering his blades between physical non-physical states, he could make their attack launch a blade of wind that was extremely powerful. The physics of it were dubious, but he found that science tended to get wonky when it came to his Aspect.
However, that was exactly what made him so deadly. The exploitation of the strange byproducts his powers caused were why he believed himself one of the strongest Masters in the New Workshop, if not the world…of course, that was ignoring the truly absurd people.
That lightning attack that Milo had just launched was new to him, and the destruction it caused was absolutely bat shit. Of course, Oskar could cause similar destruction.
There were some extraordinary people out there. Then there were also people who went beyond even those extraordinary ones.
Could such a gap possibly be closed?
Bitz didn't know, but he'd be a fool if he wasn't going to try.
Silent Stalker's form was clear against the newly painted backdrop of New Yharnam. She moved fast enough to seem like nothing but a blur to him, however, he could still follow that blur. From this distance, he was trying to build something of an index on the Saint's moves.
What he saw filled him with dread.
Gods, this is a true monster, isn't it?
Still, he kept his heart steady, cutting through any nearby monsters. He could not normally catch up to her, but Silent Stalker was being slightly stalled.
Bitz knew that the boss was paranoid, but he didn't think that New Yharnam had this many traps.
Ear shattering audio attacks, gravity altering zones, and simple explosions all impeded the Saint's deadly climb
Eventually Bitz got close enough.
"Is Milo still out?" a voice echoed in his mind.
"I guess we'll see. She's a beast-type so lets go with severing attacks, focus on the tendons in the hind legs. Milo, if you're up, see if you can provide cover fire."
Though Milo was by far the strongest among them, Bitz had become the nominal leader of the cohort due to mere convenience. It was a tough gig, mostly because the most versatile of his team couldn't communicate. However, he quickly realized that it wasn't especially pressing that he did.
Milo was smart, more than most people gave him credit for. So Bitz didn't need to ask, whatever the situation required, Milo would already be doing it.
This time was no different.
Blending in with the background, a series of what looked like spider webs descended from the sky, aimed at Silent Stalker.
The panther easily cut through them, it appeared that camouflaging attacks didn't matter, she retained total spatial awareness.
Bitz wasn't within "space" though. He launched his flicker attack, sending a rending force forward. With the inclusion of the webs, two gunshots, and a spear of rock, her options became limited.
Each attack coordinated with each other, cutting off escape routes and ensuring that at least one attack would reach her.
…only none of them did.
She kicked off the air itself, doing mid-air acrobatics and simply twisting between and over the projectiles.
In a single moment, she Transformed back into a human. Her bow was already in hand, and an arrow was knocked.
An explosion tore through the city as another shot streaked through it. This one was directed right at Bitz. He didn't falter though he was incorporeal so–
Pain flared in his stomach, as if he had just been punched by a brute. The wind was knocked out of him and he fell backward. In his shocked state, he phased through the floor. In that state all other stimuli vanished until he could glitch through the matter and back to the surface.
However, he didn't do so right away.
W-what the hell? What just happened?
Bitz ran the memory through his head again and again. The arrow shouldn't have affected him, the kinetic energy wouldn't do anything either. He didn't have mass, how could he have been hurt?
He couldn't come up with an answer, but there was an obvious logical conclusion. Silent Stalker had the ability to hurt him.
There were some Nightmare Creatures he encountered who could strike his incorporeal form, he was also still able to be affected by mental and soul attacks. Still, he had never dealt with anything so casual as that arrow.
Damn it, I don't want to go back up there.
All his instincts agreed that doing so would be a death wish. It was stupid. Still, he found himself hurtling upward and into the streets of New Yharnam.
Everyone else was fighting like that every single day. The risk of death and pain were guaranteed, just because he had been caught off guard didn't mean he had any right to flee.
Back on the surface, he felt the Vermin in him already repairing the damage done to him. Flickering back to his physical form for a moment, he saw a deep gash and disgusting bruise. It had missed his ribs though, and it was low enough that no vital organs were damaged.
Plus, the Vermin were already doing their thing, healing him at a rapid pace. The pounding of their presence at the wound reassured him a bit.
As he raced to catch up, another thought occurred.
How did she see me? She can't fully read my location, otherwise it would have been a headshot. I don't produce a scent so that can't be it…or could it? My blades were corporeal for a few milliseconds. Don't tell me that was enough?
If so, this creature was even more unreasonable than he thought. Still, he followed tracking her down like prey. It didn't matter how powerful the beast was. They were in New Yharnam and they were Hunters. They were at their strongest, and not a single one of them considered loss a possibility.