249 CHPT 249: Blood in the Forest, Magic in her Veins….

As Arne stated before, occupying another's mind was an experience like no other.

Doing so when they've lost there own is downright horrifying.

You become more than a spectator. You become the only shred of sentience in a sea of psychosis. An untouchable force on a battle field, given front row seats to see blood spill and limbs fly. You become a man in the center of a storm.

You see everything. You see their eyes twitch as blood splashes their vision, see their sight shake with the incredible amount of rage that shakes their entire core. You can almost feel their bloodlust rising--- drowning them.

Arne felt and saw all these things as Claude disappeared and the primal Lupine Monster took his place. He knew it wasn't him. If he could look at his brain, he wouldn't be surprised if the parts associated with reason and problem solving were covered in darkness. While his hindbrain swelled with vibrant green Wild Magic.

He wasn't himself.

He hadn't moved like man ever since he first exploded past Ursula to reach the HellBreeder behind the protective wall of Ice.

What happened after was a bloodbath.

They were low to the ground most of the time. He was moving on all fours. Him and his Wolves, overloaded with Wild Magic and rage, causing them to move at near unseen speeds.

It started out violently. And only grew. More blood spilled, urging him to go harder. Use more Wild Magic, rip more flesh see more red.

As the violence climbed, the animals returned. All it took was a taste of the savage magic. And they too changed.

Wolves, Coyotes, Foxes, Snakes, Ravens, Hawks, Mountain Lions. The forest was littered with predators. All moving at incredible speeds, slowly blending the Demon into nothingness.

Whether Claude knew it or not, his Nature followed his movements. The forest shook and grew with a ferocious intensity. Locking the Demon in place and forcing it to sit and watch Frosty rip off its arm, or Ashe bite through it's ankle.

The battle ended in a flash of fur, tooth and claw. The further injured HellBreeder didn't stand much of a chance with his added numbers and loss of humanity. Yet, he wanted more.

The HellBreeder stood-- in the heart of a tree that had grown around it and run through by it's own frozen tail. It was long dead, he still wanted more.

He ripped and clawed at the tree, tearing off bark and branches to reach the HellBreeder inside, wetting his claws in it's cold blood and scarce amounts of flesh.

It stayed that way for a while. Him fighting against the growth of his own Nature to reach the dead HellBreeder that he didn't think felt nearly enough carnage yet.

The animals watched on as he dug his feet into the tree, ripping through it to throw out Demon guts and bone until slowly the blood changed from black to red.

Now, he was simply fighting against himself.

His stamina wavered as his knuckles split and fingers broke until he settled with headbutting and biting at the tree to reveal the HellBreeder's face beneath.

Him and Arne stared at it for a long time. The first stretch of silence in what felt like forever. It took him a moment to realize Claude was watching himself in the reflection of the Demon's eerie glowing orange eyes.

A pair of full green eyes beaming from a snarling snout drenched in blood and bits of flesh. His blood slicked hair dripped and cast shadows over his face but did nothing to hide the fur around his body that stood on end. Making him look large, imposing. Absolutely inhuman.

Arne felt him go still.

Then, he moved forward, forcing his head into the hole he'd beat into existence to find the HellBreeder's face.

He continued until his forehead connected with the dead Demon's. Small snarls escaped his black lips as he held himself there for a moment.

The silence built upon itself, stretching into seconds. Longer and longer until he roared. Right into the Demon's lifeless face. A sound so loud that the ground shook and the animals once surrounding him ran for the hills. An expulsion of unspent rage and growing sorrow.

When he dropped from the tree, he was alone. Save for the pack that only recently returned to battle. He thoughtlessly moved towards the wall of Ice, form slowly changing from something less animal to more human. Eyes changing from glowing balls of rage to his simple green irises.

By the time he reached her, he looked somewhat like he had before.

In front of him, Ursula sat against the tree he once occupied. Cuts lined her body like old armor. Dried blood covered her arms and hands before soaking into the grass below her. Her eyes closed in on him after hearing his breaths. Her eyelids fought to stay open-- she looked tired. But he knew better, the bloody hole in the far left side of her chest induced a sleep— just not one he wanted her to enter.

Yet here she sat, coming closer and closer to a horrifying end.

She took a deep breath, suddenly her body gave and she slipped from the tree she was leaning on.

In a flash, Claude caught her in his blood covered arms. He picked up his shirt he'd grabbed along the way and tied it across her chest in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

She watched him silently before coughing up blood and laughing breathlessly. "H-How's that....for a ssave...huh?"

Claude nodded in shock while his vision blurred, "You.....you fought amazingly. I couldn't ask for a better partner...." His voice came out cracked and monstrously deep.

"...Now we b-both....look like warriors....heh...you with your...scars and clipped ear.....and now me....with a hole innn...my chest." When she was finished speaking, her smile disappeared and glimmering tears ran down her freckled cheeks like diamonds in a desert. "I don't....I don't want to d-die..."

"Hey, hey. You don't have to.....y-you're gonna be fine al--"

"I think we both know.....i-It's too..llate..." She interrupted.

Claude stilled as she lay in his arms, breathing unevenly and covered in her own blood. The Wolves surrounded them, sitting as still as stone while they whined and wept silently.

Suddenly Ursula took in a deep breath and grabbed his arm, "H-Hey.....Maris, you have to stay with Maris....s-she needs you...and Isaac...a-and Warren. Don't l-leave her please..."

"I'm not. I'm not leaving anyone.....you aren't either..."

She smiled again-- it was a content smile, "I'm ssorry Claude.....I'm so s-sorry...I'm too....too tired...and cold..." Her eyes drifted.

"Hey, HEY!.....Ursula wake up!" Claude panicked, causing her to open her eyes.

"You....made a promise.....remember? You'd tell....me about y-you....after we killed the...h-h-HellBreeder. T-Talk to....me while i sleep...Claude. I...w-want to know....more about you.....and I'm sorry.....I couldn't be there....f-for whatever you've been...going through..."

He was so focused on her that when she finished speaking, he could hear her heartbeat. Steadily slowing, matching the descent of her eyelids and slowing of her breaths. She was dying.

The sight of her faded as his eyes welled up with tears that burned like fire.

"No, no, Ursula wake up!...WAKE UP!....come on dammit!...Y-you made a promise too, you said we'd save each-other...you said you'd g-get me back! We're NOT EVEN! Come on wake up!....Wake up!.."

Arne watched through Claude's tear filled eyes as he pleaded for Ursula to wake. He felt himself crying. He had no eyes, no tears, yet he felt the pain as he always did. Pain for Claude and what he'd ask of him. Something he never got to do due to laws and regulations. Laws and regulations that were long gone.

They continued that way for a short span of moments that felt eternal. Then, Claude snarled and got to work. He began moving to pick her up.

"[You won't make it....]" Arne cut in.

"You shut the fuck up or i'll rip you out of my brain with my bare hands!" Claude snarled.

"[...You're too far.]"

Claude wanted nothing more than to smash the ground he kneeled on, "The fuck do you want me to do?! Sit here and hold her while she dies?!"

Arne was silent for a moment, "[I want you to do something else. Something that could actually save her.]"

"SAY IT DAMMIT!" Claude snapped as the hairs on his back rose with agitation.

"[Bite her, Claude.]"

Claude assumed he wasn't hearing correctly, "What...did you just say?"

"[Change Ursula into a Lupine. Our Magic could save her, it'll work to preserve the newly changed, speed up her healing, put her into a long sleep and keep her alive.]"

Claude's mind swirled with the chaos of today and the complications such an action could bring in the future, "Wha-- no. No. There's too many complications.....h-her family...her father...Full Moons...the pain. Why would I force anyone to become this?...Live with these problems...she won't want this. I can't forcefully take her humanity. It's not in me. We have to do something else."

"[Is that right? It's not in you to save someone's life? It's not in you to save your friend who's dying in your arms. Of course it fucking is! It's in you because your a Hero. And if you don't take her humanity then you take her life! You'll save her-- despite the risks and dangers because she is your friend and you are a Hero. No matter how much you don't feel like one. You think she did all this poking, prying and saving for nothing?....Whether either of you know or not, she's been wanting to be apart of your pack since the beginning. You aren't ready to lose another so close, Claude...ARE YOU?]" Arne raged within his mind.

"Of course not!"

"[Then Bite her! Save her life with the Gift of Romulus!]" More than just their lives hung in the balance, the understanding of it all caused desperation to coat his voice like armor.

"What!....How will I explain that off? Just another person close to me given a single bite and waking up different than before?! Ronin will draw his own conclusions and kill me! We have to do something else!"

"[Dammit boy! We have no time! You will bite her if you want to see her again. Bite her now! And leave, leave SkyHaven! Leave the Angelos District! Protect her in the wilds. And when she awakens, train her...teach her everything. Train yourselves. Come back stronger and in control....and most importantly, alive. Your options are next to none Claude. Either you make her like you, or watch her die in your arms.]"

Claude felt his mouth go dry. The crushing realization of his circumstances sat on his mind as heavy as the world. "Fuck....Fuck!...FUCK...FUCK!" he thought.

Silence passed before he took a deep centering breath. Two options, both bad, one with a better future another with no future. Somehow he didn't know which was which. But, he did know which he planned to act on.

Reflexively, his head hung back. He snarled and roared with his snout to the sky as it stretched and wisping spirals of green energy leaked from his teeth and gums like the pit of a magical furnace.

Tears still fell from his eyes, only now for a much different reason as he pulled her closer to him, "I'm sorry...I can't let you die yet. With that in mind.....I'll be making your life worse. But you'll have life still. Fuck, i'll explain everything when you wake up. I know you won't like this world. But you're tough. You'll endure it...just as I have."

CRSHHHH!!!

His jaws clamped over her shoulder, allowing his Magic to pour into her infinitely while she let out little more than a grunt. When his teeth left her cold skin, he watched the green Magic dance under her skin like the Northern Lights, shimmering and shifting all over. It stayed that way for a while before sparks of blues lit the expanse and then disappeared.

Her breathing was the same, slow....weak. But it wasn't getting any worse. There was a chance she'd survive.

All that was left was the takeover of his Lupine instincts. His body grew and shifted into it's natural state before picking her up and standing. The Wolves stirred around him, already understanding what was to come.

His eyes glossed over as if he no longer occupied his brain and he began walking. A pace that steadily increased in speed.

He moved Eastward through the forest, flanked by animals as he exited the scene in the direction the HellBreeder once entered.

No exact destination in mind other than away from where man roamed, while he followed his most primal yet important Lupine instinct.

Protect the newly changed.

"[May luck be on both of your sides...]" Arne thought as Claude carried Ursula away from the Aslan Estate and SkyHaven as a whole.