The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 146

It resembled a dog yet it had spikes coming out of its back. With rotten, and decaying body, she could see patches of skin hanging onto the decomposing flesh. With saliva dripping down its teeth, and dried blood all over it looked like the stuff out of nightmares.

Seeing it was strangely ... nostalgic. The familiar rot, the familiar smell of decay alongside the overwhelming stench of blood and death. They call these type of beasts an undead dog. What she was confused on was the fact that she could not detect any sign of death from it.

Instead, she could only sense an overwhelming sense of life. It was as if that was a higher form of a normal dog rather than a lower undead form. The next step in evolution, it was more perfect. Although she pondered on this fact, the dog was not standing still.

It came straight towards her without hiding. She took an axe stuck in a nearby barrel instead of bringing out her scythe. Her children were still here and she would prefer to explain them about herself later on.

Her boys stood right in front of her but she pushed them back. While she liked the fact that they were trying to protect her, it did not make the dogs any less dangerous. The dogs rushed straight towards her and she raised the axe to hack them apart.

But before they reached her, they were blown apart by what sounds like a gunshot. She turned her head to see the hunter right there. What he was doing here after getting the umbilical cord, she did not knew. What more does he want?

But he seemed a little different. First clear signs was his clothes. He no longer kept his face covered. His hat was also different with it now resembling a top hat. And he seems ....taller? She could clearly felt that this was the same guy that kicked her door open just a few hours earlier. What happened in the span of a few hours after he got the umbilical cord?

She saw his face for the first time. She didn't know what she was expecting to see but it was certainly not this. He had some bandages around his eyes like she did in the real world. The difference was that his bandages looked a bit weary.

He also smelt of blood. That was normal as she had smell blood from practically everyone in this dream. This includes her own children and herself. There was nothing that did not smelt of blood but the smell was overwhelming in him.

The strangest thing was his looks. He looked ... old? Old enough that he has white beard and shaggy white hair like someone's grandfather. Of course it was not as if he looked like he would fall if the wind blow him over. He was still a rather large man.

That was not very important either. The problem was that he did not look as good-natured as he had before. She could literally feel waves of madness coming off him. He kept walking towards the corpse of the beast like a drunk.

Ahh.. so despite trying to collect the umbilical cords, he wasn't a 'chosen'. This was not "the hunter" that she heard about. Not the 'good hunter'. He was just one of the many hunters that failed in the attempt.

She put that out of her mind. He was a pitiful one but that was of no concern to her. She bowed slightly as she ushered her children to continue walking. The hunter just passed by her and took his long axe and started hacking at the corpse.

When he left, she could see a dead body. Probably another person. Her children saw it too but did not have the reaction one would expect of children. They just looked used to it. She kept them going as she did not want to stay in this place for long.

It resembles a cemetery with uncanny architecture but she did not what it truly was. She left that out of her mind and prepared to move on but the hunter stopped what he was doing. He slowly rose up as he turned his head to her.

"Beasts all over the shop... You'll be one of them, sooner or later..."

His voice was deep still filled with power even when he looked old. She could discern a hint of madness creeping up to his voice despite his rather calm demeanour. She has heard enough to know his intentions. She wrapped her children in fire and teleported them back to the house.

She tried to teleport herself too but something stopped her. It was not as if her teleportation was blocked but an overwhelming sense of dread filled her heart as she attempted to escape without a fight. A sense that something far worse than death would befell upon her if she tried to escape.

She would have no problem facing this hunter in battle had she been alone but she would rather not fight while leaving her children to themselves.

The Ashen One has mentioned this to her before. About how fighting with some beings are inevitable and cannot be stopped. He called them ... bosses? It was certainly a strange name but since she triggered one, she could not escape.

She threw the axe at him in an attempt to end this quickly but that hunter just rolled forward to her and slashed with his axe. She slapped it away as she kicked him straight to the face. He rolled back away again.

It did not stop there as he raised his gun and shot it at her. She caught the bullets while staggering a bit as the force was a bit unexpected. Such primitive looking gun packed a much stronger power than the gun she was familiar with.

Her scythe was called forth as the hunter rolled forward and brought his axe over her. She took the opportunity to leave a huge slash at his chest. He fell over but got up immediately and opened up a bottle of blood and consumed it like a starving man.

So, this was the equivalent of an estus flask here in these lands. This man was incredibly hard to catch with all the rolling around. She stepped forward as she brought her scythe horizontally but he just rolled under it again.

She welcomed his rolling with her foot in his face but he deflected her kick by firing the gun at her foot. It caused little damage as she has wrapped her foot in arcane but the sheer force deflected it.

She chased after him again yet he kept rolling around like a cockroach that refuses to die. She smashed random graveyards in the process yet he kept rolling around and shooting. He kept going behind her to slash her.

Why does it seem like the process was reversed with the "boss" rolling around and her trying to catch the "boss"? However, even rolling eternally must come to an end. It was not in her hands, however even though she preferred it that way.

It was in the hands of another she fails to recognize. It was a person who looks like they were trying to cosplay or imitate the plague doctor. She could not tell the gender of the one but the voice that came out under the mask makes it clear that this was a woman.

"So, even the father succumbed to this madness. But who are you, I wonder?"

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This is Chapter 146.

I think I sort of have an idea of how to go forward. Sorry for the long wait.