[h3]Pthumeru Yharnam layer, the Old Labyrinth[/h3]
[h3][color=red]Arrayah, the Profane[/color][/h3]
[I]No,[/I] was the thought that immediately echoed through Torquil's mind, causing his mouth to go dry and his throat to constrict, though the discomfort of either was admittedly rather insignificant next to the pain of getting impaled and hurled through the air. He had used a blood vial just recently and had been at full regenerative potential, so he was fully healed when Ophelia got to him... though he could intuit that the damage he had just taken had probably pushed him nearly his limit. He probably needed blood to replenish his strength, or anything more severe than a superficial scrape would probably be enough to make his accelerated healing fail.
But that was not even the issue bothering him. “Fulmen hit the ground, so add one to the count,” Ophelia had said, which only stressed the fact he could plainly feel himself. He could easily tell from the way it vibrated now and how it was sparking more than ever that Fulmen had built more charge... but that also opened up a [I]lot[/I] of questions. If Fulmen built charge from hitting anything, even inanimate matter like the floor, did that mean it had built charge when he hit the wall back in the Hunter's Dream? How long did it take for that charge to dissipate? Did it ever? Could he be sure that the hammer had only impacted the floor once just now, or was it possible that it had hit multiple times?
His count of hits so far suddenly seemed worthless, as the number he arrived at was only the minimum. It was quite possible... no, it was downright [I]probable[/I] that he had already exceeded ten hits. There was no way to tell other than counting, after all; not unless you were familiar with the signs of different levels of charge. Did feeling the vibration start at the seventh hit? Eighth? Tenth? He had no idea.

A fair distance away – though considering the events transpiring it was far too close – Arrayah rushed straight at Farren, only to receive another dual blast from his blunderbusses. But unlike the first time when Farren had successfully disabled her for a moment, this time the monster did not even try to use her sword. Rather than empowering herself with the Old Blood in her veins to deliver a swift strike, this time her move was merely to try to trample him with her sheer mass and momentum. Without her accessing the power of the Old Blood the quicksilver had nothing to disrupt, and so she did not even flinch as she was hit by the barrage of projectiles.
Arrayah did not slow down even as Farren quickstepped aside in the last moment, but instead started making a wide turn to circle back and attempt to rush him a second time.

Off in the distance the Moonborn Hunter stood back up – their body and, remarkably, clothes fully healed despite the horrendous damage they had just received – and jogged over to retrieve Farren's Bulwark where it had slipped from their grip when they had been impaled and flattened, and then started closing the distance to where Farren was facing off with their adversary where they joined him in waiting for her.
About at the same time Gerlinde let out a gleeful giggle and bounced up from where she had been crouched, landing on her feet and turning her gaze toward Arrayah. Now that she had finished her business with the Messengers, Gerlinde had switched her threaded cane for a currently folded [url=https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/Bloodborne/saw_spear.jpg]saw spear[/url], and now carried a flamesprayer in her left hand. Armed thusly, she also moved to join the fray; once Arrayah got into range again she would start firing her flamesprayer continuously.

Licking his lips, Torquil spent a couple of seconds just staring indecisively at Arrayah rumbling her way across the cavern, her weird many-limbed hindbody curving sideways as it trailed behind her. He could feel the ground tremble under his feet, and he could feel Fulmen shaking in his hand... as if it was responding to the tremors, or was just eager to meet something as thunderous as itself.
What was he going to do? His first inclination was to stow away Fulmen and switch back to his Hunter's axe, since he could not be sure how many hits it had stored up now. But when he thought about how many times they had already hit Arrayah, how much damage they had done and how it barely seemed to faze her at all. And not only did she not seem weakened at all, he also recalled how Ophelia had mentioned Arrayah's Profane Abyssal Sword possibly transforming and manifesting new abilities, none of which they had seen yet. So far, aside from showing off just how overpoweringly superior she was to all of them by dominating them with blazing speed and monstrous strength... she had not done much. Ophelia's stated goal for them coming here was to push Arrayah to demonstrate her abilities so they could learn for next time they fought her. And evidently they were not pushing hard enough.
He looked down at the lever on the handle of Fulmen, and swallowed nervously. What would even happen when he pulled it? Would it just deplete all of its energy at once into something touching the head of the hammer? Would it discharge as a bolt of lightning that could hit a target from afar? Or maybe it would just unleash chaotic electricity everywhere, like an explosion. Yet another thing he did not know, and this he concluded that the only way to make sure he did not waste this charge was to trigger the discharge at point-blank range.

Torquil's left hand quickly retrieved a blood vial from his pouch and injected him with it, replenishing his spent regenerative potential; he had a feeling he was going to need it. His right hand gripped the handle of the hammer tightly.
And he ran forward, grasping the bizarre hammer sputtering and sparking with both hands as he moved toward where everyone else were about to clash with Arrayah.