[h3]Pthumeru Yharnam layer, the Old Labyrinth[/h3]
[h3][color=darkred][B]Arrayah, the Black Blade[/B][/color][/h3]
Another small surprised giggle escaped Gerlinde when Ophelia took her second shot at Arrayah, as she now recognized the pattern between those two occurrences: she was trying to time her shots to hit their enemy just as she attacked. It was quite unexpected to her, truthfully; it had taken two days after her becoming a Hunter before anyone thought to explain the potentially disruptive effects of quicksilver when applied at the exact moment the target's Old Blood was being activated – “gun parrying,” as some Hunters had taken to call it – but apparently Ophelia knew about it now, mere hours after metamorphosis. The way she used her pistol suggested she did not have much practice, but from what she could see the timing seemed to match Arrayah's movements quite well... though obviously she did run into the issue of quicksilver bullets moving slower than lead ones, and with Ophelia standing back as she did there would be a small delay.
Watching with keen interest, Gerlinde saw Farren quickstep away pretty much just as the quicksilver bullet darted through the air right next to him, and though she could not see it from her current angle, Gerlinde could tell that the bullet would have hit just as the black spear was swung. Especially Farren would be close enough to tell that while Ophelia's bullet did not penetrate as deeply as the shots from his piercing rifle, they seemed to cause significantly more damage as the skin around the area of impact seemed to momentarily blacken, only for the necrotic flesh to be immediately rejected and healthy tissue grew to replace it. The head of his Beastflayer also hit its target, delivering a cut to Arrayah's shoulder, but it did not do much; in its whip-form, Beastflayer quite simply could not convey enough force to do more than barely pierce her skin. During a quickstep [I]away[/I] from his target the force was even less, and as a result Arrayah did not even appear to notice.
But despite the shot hitting its target this time, Arrayah did not appear to be stunned by it the way she would if it had been a successful parry. Gerlinde mentally shrugged; on one hand it might be that Ophelia's timing was just slightly off, but Gerlinde also knew from experience that especially large and powerful beasts were often resistant to gun parries. Interestingly it seemed to have worked earlier when Farren had done it... though to be fair, he had also done it point-blank with dual blunderbusses, and furthermore done so while Arrayah had still been off guard. She made a mental note of having a talk with the trio of fresh Hunters about quicksilver, then shrugged off the thought for now as events progressed and her focus was needed for other matters.

Now, once more, everything seemed to converge in one place and about at the same time. Immediately after Farren had retreated just out of melee range, Gerlinde reached Arrayah from the opposite direction and jumped at her, transforming her saw cleaver into its compact form and starting to assault the abomination's waist viciously. A short distance away Torquil seemed to finally recover from the sheer incredulity of what had just happened and transformed his weapon into its Dane axe version, gripped it with both hands and charged as well.
And over by Ophelia the summoning of the Moonborn Hunter finally completed, with them having fully emerged from the floor, and they promptly set into a mad dash directly at Arrayah. A bluish light flashed on their person announced them conjuring a [url=https://i0.wp.com/ahuntersguide.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/chikage.jpg?fit=1200%2C647&ssl=1]chikage[/url], onto to immediately sheathe and then unsheathe it, only for its blade to have become coated in what appeared to be unusually viscous blood.

Thoughout all of this, Arrayah looked from one to the next in a way that seemed frantic, almost panicked, as if suddenly realizing that she had allowed herself to be surrounded by enemies. Her clawed left hand swiped back toward Gerlinde, but the Huntress ducked the clumsy attack and kept up her assault. The hand on the thicker of her right arms let go of her weapon, clenched into a fist and swung at Torquil, making him halt his advance just outside her unarmed range to avoid getting hit.
And with a glance of her glowing azure eyes at Ophelia, her last, thinnest arm raised the Profane Abyssal Blade high over her head, as if trying to keep it out of reach of her attackers.