[h3]Hidden alcove, outside the walls south of Yahar'gul, northwest of Yharnam[/h3]
As was typically the case with combat, everything suddenly started happening all at once, with Hunters and beast alike exploding into a flurry of motion. The darkbeast raised its left forelimb and angled its claws for a slash toward Farren, despite it being nowhere near in range... but Farren, having both fought Skinner when he inherited the power of a similar beast through the Hunger Rune and having witnessed Skinner's fight against the original darkbeast in the Memory of Irreverence, knew that this creature did not [I]need[/I] to be in range. Fingers of electricity crawled down its left arm and accumulated in its left claw, building a crackling, bluish glow; there could be little doubt that it intended to project lightning.
Farren first fired his blunderbuss, the efficiency of which was somewhat diminished by the distance, but due to the sheer size of the target most of the quicksilver pellets hit anyway. Had it been a lesser beast or even a Hunter something like this might have staggered them, but the darkbeast was not only immense in size, but also possessed remarkable vitality. The pellets impacted and pierced into its bone and flesh, but the creature barely even seemed to notice.
Then he moved, quickstepping forward twice to cover the distance between himself and the beast, intending to deliver a powerful blow with Fulmen to its forelimb while it was mid-swing. He quickstepped forward four meters, which took half a second, took an instant to recover from that, and quickstepped again to cover the rest of the distance. Not only did quickstepping in rapid succession like this take a considerable amount of stamina – which Farren luckily had even more of than normal after having it improved by the doll – but over a full second elapsed from the beginning of the maneuver to the end. Quickstepping, while indeed quick, was not instant, and the darkbeast was only swiping a claw at him; it had by no means locked itself into a maneuver of its own that would be difficult to stop or alter in reaction to changing circumstances. It was, after all, not obliged to complete an attack just because it had started it.
Thus rather than the horizontal swipe it had originally intended, it reevaluated upon seeing Farren's first quickstep toward it and raised its left claw higher into the air, angling it for a diagonal smash instead.

Back in her corner, Ophelia seized this moment of their enemy being distracted by Farren to instead target the chain connecting it to the lightbeast, which seemed to be in pain from the bluish current being channeled into it, but otherwise remarkably disinterested in what was happening around it. She rushed in and, feeding a quicksilver bullet to the Holy Moonlight Sword to unleash its true power, thrust the blade into a link of the chain before unleashing the same kind of arcane explosion that had obliterated the barricade to the clinic at Rebirth's Rise. A blast of light and force emerged, booming and echoing between the tall walls surrounding them... only for the her to realize that the chain, while looking slightly warped compared to before, was still mostly intact.

Gerlinde let out a loud, maniacal laugh as she popped a quicksilver bullet from her little tube of them and, with a practiced motion, deposited it directly into the base of the strange horn she was holding in her left hand. Instantly the arcane object seemed to begin emanating an ominous red glow from within itself, as if it had come to house a flame, only to be promptly extinguished as she – with an excessive flourish – struck the horn against the flat of the blade of her threaded cane. It produced a muffled crack that would be barely audible between the explosion of the Holy Moonlight Sword and the rampaging of the darkbeast, and intense, reddish flame abruptly blossomed to envelop the entire cane except the hilt.

Though Torquil was initially shocked and intimidated by the appearance of the darkbeast and considered running away, there were two thoughts that made him hold his ground. One was that familiar sense of thrill and hunger as the Old Blood in him smoldered eagerly at the prospect of fighting strong prey. He felt his muscles swell with inhuman power and the comforting heft of his Hunter's axe in his hand, but most of all he felt conscious of the Loch Shield he was cowering behind. He remembered quite well their fight against Skinner and how unexpectedly effective the shield had been at protecting him from his lightning. Seeing the darkbeast wreathed in voltaic sparks as well filled him with confidence; with this shield, a monster like this would barely be able to hurt him.
So after Farren's first quickstep Torquil followed suit, quickstepping five meters closer as well... only to be shocked at just how much fatigue that one move cost him, leading to him opting to cover the rest of the last few meters in a more measured pace, shield raised his axe at the ready.

The darkbeast's scintillating claw descended upon Farren, and he – having pulled the lever to expose the core of Fulmen – swung the experimental thunder hammer to intercept the blow. It struck the darkbeast's forearm as intended, and while he felt the subtle give of bone being damaged by blunt force, he could also quite clearly hear a metallic creak and rattle at the impact. [B]Being versed in maintenance of Hunter equipment, Farren would almost certainly realize that the core of the hammer was [I]not[/I] made to withstand direct blows, and that using it like that would cause substantial damage to the mechanism.[/B] And though he did not have time to make the observation at this time, he might later realize that Fulmen did not appear to have gained any charge [I]at all[/I]. Recalling the instructions for using it, he might also recall that exposing the core of the hammer was how he [i]released[/i] the charge, which probably meant that it was specifically made to [I]not[/I] hold a charge while in that form.
Regardless of the hammer striking it, though, the darkbeast's claw continued its journey down on Farren. He felt the impact on top of his right shoulder, forcing him face-down into the ground with tremendous force... only for him to hear the crackling of lightning in the claw rapidly growing in intensity for another half a second before culminating in a clap of thunder and a massive jolt of electricity that threw him backwards and away.

Simultaneously to this, Ophelia behind the darkbeast – the Holy Moonlight Sword still lodged in one of the links of the chain – would witness the same building of electric charge in the chain itself as Farren did in the darkbeast's claw. As the thunderous explosion sent Farren flying at the front of the beast, the entire chain glowed bright blue as a bolt of lightning sprang from it, into the adjacent blade of the Holy Moonlight Sword, and into Ophelia. It was not quite as intense as the blast that hit Farren, but she would find herself thoroughly shocked, burned and likely quite discombobulated.

The lightbeast wailed in agony, hit by the same force that had just struck Ophelia.