[h3]Hidden alcove, outside the walls south of Yahar'gul, northwest of Yharnam[/h3]
Torquil slowly and dazedly raised his head – the now-empty vial still sticking out of the visor of his helmet, the syringe embedded in his skull – and felt his injuries regenerate, along with the entirely unexpected and intense high of his first time getting blood treatment. The intense rush of energy spreading throughout every cell in his body, the feeling of strength returning to his limbs, the delightful [I]rightness[/I] he felt as the power of the Old Blood in his veins was replenished... he could understand how people might get addicted to it. Unfortunately it was hardly the time to stop and marvel at how amazing it felt, since they were still in the middle of a pitched battle.

Raising his left hand to shield his eyes from the bright flash of the darkbeast unleashing its huge burst of lightning, Torquil tried to track what everyone was doing at the moment.
He saw Ophelia retreat just in time to avoid the blast, only to jog on toward the piece of the chain she had damaged twice, clearly exhausted to the point where she would probably have to take a breath before she could continue fighting.
He saw Gerlinde hugging the lightbeast's face, standing immediately in front of and below the darkbeast, getting hit by the explosion point-blank for the third time... yet as the lightning receded, he was surprised to see her still standing, still alive. And not only that, her injuries – horrible though they were – were regenerating rapidly. The lightbeast was still giving off its soft aura of light, which was still enveloping the darkbeast as well, and though the lightbeast had obviously been caught in the explosion as well, it was also healing at an incredible rate.
He saw Farren draw a sword and run to the damaged part of the chain, take a knee and get hit yet again by the darkbeast's voltaic rage. Farren had seemed quite exhausted as well, and though it was hard to tell, Torquil could not imagine he had the regenerative potential to recover from [I]another[/I] blast of electricity.

Having unleashed all of its stored energy, the darkbeast seemed to momentarily slouch on its perk, the electric crackle across its body gone... but returning rapidly.

Though it was one of his least favorite things in the world to do, this was another instance where Torquil felt it necessary to actually stop and think for a moment. Their goal at the moment was to destroy the chain connecting the light- and darkbeast, according to Ophelia. He had no idea why it was so imperative that they break that chain [I]right now[/I], or at all for that matter, but he assumed that Ophelia knew what she was talking about. She was clever, unlike him, always thinking lots of thoughts. So the chain was the target.
Looking around, though, none of them were in any condition to do much of anything to help their odds during this fight. Gerlinde had been fried by lightning so many times that he could not imagine she had much regenerative potential left – quite frankly he was amazed she was still alive, let alone still healing – and did not look like she had the strength to break the chain. Ophelia had proven quite effective with her big glowy sword, but she looked like she was hanging on by a thread, constantly pushed to the absolute limits of her stamina. And Farren was probably worst off of all of them, having been hit even more times than Gerlinde [I]and[/I] running on fumes in terms of physical endurance.
And finally there was himself, of course. Having just taken a blood vial he was healing back to perfect health and felt like he probably had regenerative potential to spare, and he had had time to catch his breath a bit and could probably fight a bit again. If he went and retrieved the Loch Shield and could somehow make the monster focus its attention on him, he have been might be able to endure its attacks while the others caught their breath and broke the chain... if it had only used lightning, that was. With the shield he could weather the electric storm somewhat, but if he got hit by physical attacks he doubted he could withstand more than one or two hits.
He could run over and try to destroy the chain, but it looked like Ophelia and Farren were both already doing that, and if everyone did that the darkbeast would be free to brush aside Gerlinde and then wipe them all out.
[I]What do we do?[/I] he asked himself, because the inevitable conclusion he reached was that they were going to lose. The darkbeast looked like it was still at pretty much full strength, while all of them were barely able to keep going. Quite simply, even with the four of them together, it looked like they were just not strong enough to deal with something of this caliber. If this fight went on, he figured, they would keep spending their finite resources – particularly their blood vials – just to prolong their struggle, only to then be killed and have to make do without those resources after returning to the Hunter's Dream. And what would happen in the time it would take them to get back here, especially if they had to resupply first? Had the darkbeast not learned from this fight? Would Gerlinde's Followers not logically want to come and be here to sabotage them in an eventual rematch? It was going to be bad. Very bad.
Torquil swallowed, and stood from where he had fallen. He wished they had time for him to ask the others what he should do. But there was no time. He had to think, then act. So he did.

[I]Ding-ding[/I]

He shook the silver Moonborn Bell, and as they had for Ophelia earlier in the evening, the Shopkeeper emerged from the ground in front of Torquil, and immediately turned toward the two beasts.